If I had time, I could happily bake cookies every day in December
I have a lot of baking to talk about, but first, a non-cookie recommendation. A little over a month ago, after I got home from a trip New York where I walked a ton and one that was just long enough to get me switched over to East Coast time, I woke up early one morning inspired to get some exercise. So I opened my laptop to look through YouTube for a good, energetic, but not too long, yoga video. I'd done a few videos from Yoga with Adriene before, so I looked on her YouTube feed, and one of the videos that I saw was called Day 1 of 30 Day of Yoga. And I made the impulse decision to say "Yes! I'm going to do 30 straights days of yoga!" and pressed play.
Well guys, two days ago was day 30, and I did it! (And yesterday was day 31, and I did it then too). Some caveats -- I did not stick to Adriene's program, partly out of laziness, partly out of necessity. I think now I'm on Day 11 of those 30 days, but around and in between them I've done other of her videos that were either shorter than what that days was, or something less energetic, and one day when I was traveling I did a bunch of self directed yoga. But I decided at some point that I was going to release myself from guilt from not exactly doing the path I'd intended to do, and instead just (as Adriene says at some point in one of the videos) be grateful to myself for making the time for myself to do any kind of yoga at all. I (also, out of sheer impulse) declared in an Instagram story that I was going to do this, and having that kind of even semi public accountability really helped keep me doing, as did the cheers from people on Instagram who saw me post terrible selfies day by day about doing it. (The ephemeral nature of Instagram stories was key for this). A few days I even did yoga in the morning AND before bed (I should have put stars on my calendar on those days). One night, I got home after about two too many glasses of wine, and I still did yoga before bed! (It did not prevent my hangover, I'm sorry to say). But here is the wild thing: I started to actively look forward do doing yoga! Which doesn't seem too wild in itself, I've gone to yoga classes regularly before and actively looked forward to it then, but every time I fall out of the habit of any exercise, it is such a struggle to get myself doing it again, and then I'm shocked when I enjoy it. And doing this also gave me more confidence in myself to get back to doing yoga in a class with other people instead of by myself in my living room. I also started sleeping far better than I had been, which in 2017 is a damn miracle. So that's my recommendation for the week: Yoga with Adriene. She manages to be helpful and encouraging in video form without getting on my nerves, and has a real range of videos in different lengths and ability levels and for different moods. Let me know if you want any specific video recs, or you could just start with Day 1 and see where it takes you.
So I LOVE baking Christmas cookies. I wish I had both far more time to bake in December, and far more people to bake for, so I could just bake cookies and give them away constantly. And if you want some cookbooks with great and reliable and detailed cookie recipes, Dorie Greenspan has you covered. I've used Baking From My Home To Yours so often that many of the pages are stained with chocolate or jam, and I've made a number of recipes from Dorie's Cookies, all of which have turned out great (and I have bookmarks stuck in at least a dozen more pages). She even has recipes for those of us who are more savory than sweet people -- I've made her cheese cracker that's basically a gourmet Cheez-It so many times, and it's always a hit at parties (pro tip: you can just roll the dough in a log and slice, just like the sable cookies). Buy either of those cookbooks for family or friends who love baking, or buy them for yourselves and bake to your heart's content.
Okay, here's what I mean about how much I love to bake cookies at this time of year. A few years ago, I made two separate batches of homemade Oreos from two different recipes, and then brought them over to a friend's dad's house on Christmas Eve and forced their whole family to try them and tell me which one was better (they've known me for 30 years at this point, they're used to me). Almost uniformly, from the grandparents down to the toddlers, we all liked the Flour Cookbook homemade Oreos better. That was NOT the decision I wanted, because that recipe took way longer than the other one (the Smitten Kitchen recipe, which is also very good! Just...not as good) but the cookies had a better texture and were more chocolate-y. Flour is also a great cookbook, and whenever I'm in Boston I go there for their baked goods. The Oreo recipe is here, and below; it takes a while, but I promise, it's worth it (and don't skip the resting steps, I know, they're a pain, but they make everything easier and better in the end).
Flour Bakery Homemade Oreos
Makes 16-18 sandwich cookies
For the cookies
1 cup (or 2 sticks, or 228 grams) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (200 grams) semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 egg
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) flour
3/4 cup (90 grams) Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
For the filling
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
pinch of kosher salt
To make the cookies:
Whisk together the butter and the sugar until well combined. Whisk in the vanilla and the melted chocolate chips, and then the egg until it's all incorporated.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir the flour mixture into the butter/chocolate mixture; mix together with a spoon or your hands until it comes together. Let the dough sit at room temperature for about an hour to firm up.
Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment (here is where I will again recommend parchment paper sheets, these things are life changing for bakers, especially around the holidays!). Using your hands, shape the dough into a log about 10 inches long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Then roll the dough up in parchment and even and smooth the log out, keeping it about the same thickness. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and (look, I know this is a pain, but it does help the shape, if not the flavor) try to reroll or turn the log every 15 or so minutes, because otherwise it'll flatten out and your cookies will be oval and also harder to sandwich together evenly. Once the dough is all settled, you can wrap it in plastic and freeze until you need it -- she says to thaw the dough overnight in the fridge before baking, but I've sliced and baked these right from the freezer and it's fine, they just take an extra minute or two (and a sharp knife).
To bake: preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Cut the dough into 1/4 inch thick slices, and put them about an inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until mostly firm. Cool on a wire rack, and while you're cooling, make the filling.
To make the filling:
In a mixer, beat the butter on low speed for about 30 seconds, or until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth, and then add the milk and salt and beat again.
To fill the cookies:
Scoop about a tablespoon of filling onto half of the cookies, and top with another cookie, and press gently together. (Because I get obsessive about cookies, I try to match up the top cookie and the bottom cookie before filling, because they invariably are slightly different shapes and sizes after baking, and I want them to match up well).
Enjoy!
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
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