Cookbook giveaway: “The Daily Cookie”
What if we baked and ate a different cookie every day for the entire year of 2013? Well, we’d probably all have to join a weight-loss program and spend the following two years getting back to our original size.
I don’t think that’s the point of Anna Ginsberg’s “The Daily Cookie,” a cookbook that includes 365 different cookie recipes “for the sweetest year of your life.” But this time of year, when a lot of us are going to cookie exchanges, baking with the kids or looking for something different to try out on the guinea pigs in the family, this cookbook could be a lot of fun.
Recipes include Key Lime Cheesecake Bars, One-Bowl German Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Raisin and Spice Bars, Chocolate Almond Oat Bars, Easy Baklava Cups and, well, 360 others!
I’m giving this book away to a lucky winner. To be entered to win, I’d like for you to leave a comment on this blog entry and tell me what cookies you and your family always make to have around during the winter holiday season. In our family, there are usually molasses cookies, lemon bars, and decorated sugar cookies. I also like to make tropical fruit cookies and stuffed date cookies.
Tell me about your cookie traditions anytime before 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. I’ll pick a random winner and send out the book as a Thanksgiving gift. Meanwhile, I’ll share a couple of recipes from the book that made my mouth water.
Creme Brulee Bars
Makes 36
Crust:
1 (17.5-oz.) pouch sugar cookie mix, such as Betty Crocker
1 (4-serving size) box French vanilla instant pudding mix
2 Tbsp. light or dark brown sugar
8 Tbsp. (4 oz.) unsalted butter, melted
Filling:
2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup toffee bits
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place rack in the center. Line a 9-by-13-inch metal pan with nonstick foil or spray it with flour-added baking spray.
2. Make crust: In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cookie mix, pudding mix, sugar and butter to form a soft dough. Press the dough in the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. Make the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar on medium speed until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with the toffee bits. Let cool for 30 minutes to an hour in the pan, then chill for about 3 hours, or until very cold. Cut into squares.
Easy Macaroons
Makes 48
Yes, it is correct that these cookies do not call for flour. According to the book, they turn out “a chewy, almost candylike cookie.”
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 large egg white
5 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
2 tsp. Mexican or regular vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place a rack in the center. Line two baking sheets with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
2. Mix the condensed milk, egg white, coconut, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl.
3. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of batter about 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Carefully transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Source: “The Daily Cookie” by Anna Ginsberg.
November 16, 2012 - 10:16 AM
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The cookies in my family usually have to consist of part of it having chocolate in it.
When we were growing up my siblings and I would come home from the late Christmas Eve mass and make a fresh batch of warm chocolate chip cookies especially for Santa.
I know that we have brought that tradition to our own families now.
Growing up my Nanny always made peanut blossoms, mexican wedding cakes, 7 layer bars and chocolate chip cookies. These were always a staple for the holidays and will continue as we develop our own traditions with our young daughter and baby #2 to arrive in the next few weeks!
Thanks for sharing these recipes, Lindsey! The Creme Brulee Bars sounds decadent and my coconut loving husband will go “coconuts” for the macaroons!
Lindsey, in your Berliner Kranser recipe, it says to wash the butter in cold water until it’s formed into a solid ball. Does that mean just form the butter into a ball in the cold water? Would it work just as well if the butter was extremely cold instead of being formed into a ball? I’m interested in making these, but since I’m not familiar with washing the butter, I would appreciate your help. Thanks!
Vickie, that is a family recipe of my friend’s. While washing butter seems to be a strange concept, it is described in one source this way: “To do so, knead the butter until all the liquid comes out, and then run it under a faucet while kneading it, and continue until all the liquid runs clear.”
My mom would make gingerbread cookies when we were growing up. It was always an adventure to have to clear off all the counters so we could roll, cut, bake and frost all the cookies. We go a bit simpler with ours (so far). We make “Cake Mix Cookies” for Santa each year. Simple enough for even the youngest Santa’s Helper.
We made a lot of cookies for the holidays, but our favorite growing up to make were the sugar cookies for Santa. We loved painting them. (Egg whites and food coloring). Santa would write us thank you notes for the cookies and milk. The creme brulee bars are making me hungry!
Growing up my mother always made Spritz cookies and they were my absolute favorite. After many unsuccessful
attempts over the years I bought a new cookie press a few weeks ago and they worked! I spread melted chocolate between them and they ended up similar to Milanos. Santa’s havin’ a new cookie on his plate this year!
My new favorite holiday cookie tradition might be those creme brulee bars — they sound amazing! I like having a pan of bars like that around the house, because you can sneak into the kitchen and slice off a little piece and pretend like you haven’t eaten any!
My mother makes something she calls “magic bars” with butterscotch chips and condensed milk and a bunch of other sweet stuff. My mother-in-law made a pan of lemon bars the last time I visited, and even though I don’t usually go for citrus, I probably consumed half that pan, one piece at a time!
for YEARS my mom and my grandfather (her Father in law) made cheese straws. After he got to the point that wasn’t easy for him Mom and I started making sugar cookies.
I have a recipe for macaroons, that I got from the Food Network web site, that are so good. You put dried cranberries and orange zest in the cookie mixture. Yummy!
When I was young my mom always made Christmas cutouts with us, I now love making them with my daughters. It’s so fun to watch the progression from cookies smothered in sprinkles when they were younger to more sophisticated designs as they’ve gotten older.
Thanks so much for the clarification on how to wash butter, Lindsey!
Our Christmas cookie traditions have always been centered around “setting the mood” for the season. We turn on Hallmark Christmas movies on a small TV on the kitchen counter and get engrossed in the movie while we mix, roll, decorate and create. Then we sit and sip on cider or hot chocolate while we sample the warm creations straight from the oven. Lazy cold Saturdays or Sunday afternoons are our usual days to get lost in our Christams baking. Peanut butter balls, church glass windows, and snickerdoodles have always been family favorites.
Vickie, you’re welcome. I hope those cookies work out well for you.
Dana, that sounds like so much fun. You really set a scene of contentment with that description.
What are readers’ favorite Christmas movies? I know it’s a bit off-topic, but my favorite by far is “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen.
The old stand by “Chocolate chips” with extra chips of course.
We always make sugar cookies (cut into Christmas shapes) and have bowls of different colors of royal icing to decorate them with. The boys, of course, always do something completely deranged like decapitate the “gingerbread” man or put x’s over their eyes to make it seem less “girly” for them. As far as Christmas movies go…I love “A Christmas Story” but I hate that they’ve only started making it a marathon in Christmas Eve. And I wish they would show the original “Miracle on 34th Street” more often during Christmas time instead of the remake…it’s just not the same :-/
Now THAT’s a yummy looking cookbook! I have an office full of ladies here that have volunteered to “test” any creations that come from it.
. My family always has a classic set of cookies my mom makes for Christmas: Cappuccino Cookies (chocolate/coffee cookie with one side dipped in chocolate), spice cookies, mocha cinnamon bars, lemon squares, snickerdoodles, and chocolate/vanilla shortbread pinwheels. Mmmm…I’m salivating already…
I probably could have used the Macaroons recipe before Nov 9. I took some to a home party (Origami Owl – go if you get an invite!) and they were less than pretty. One lady commented that she thought they were hashbrowns!
My favorite cookie of all time is still “Preacher Cookies” to which I add raisins and Oatmeal Raisin. I simply love them no matter the season, the reason or the chance to make them.
My favorite Christmas Movie is “Miracle on 34th Street” with little Natalie Wood. She was a screen presence even then.
Lindsey, I’m with you on the movie. White Christmas and Little Drummer Boy are my two favorite Christmas songs and Bing Crosby has to be singing them. The movie White Christmas just evokes earlier times when people wouldn’t hesitate to help others. I don’t know if that’s how things really were, but I love the thought that it was.
My mom is Italian. So we have traditional Italian cookies: pizzelles (a flat, anise-flavored cookie made in a press that looks like a waffle-iron), clothespin cookies (a light, cream-filled pastry/cookie), ewans (deep-fried strips of pastry dough sprinkled with powdered sugar), and nut kifles (a pastry/cookie with a nut-filling), along with cheesecake tarts, frosted chocolate brownies, and kolachi (Polish sweetbread with walnuts).
Favorite Christmas movie: Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds.
Favorite Christmas cookie is harder to say, but probably Mexican Wedding Cookies that my mother-in-law makes. I only get them at Christmas time! Favorite cookie of all time is definitely Preacher Cookies!
OMG! The receipe for the “Creme Brulee Bars” sounds so yummy.
Thanks for the share. I definitely need to make these!
LOL! I’m imagining myself eating almost the whole pan.