Somerset Easter Biscuits (Raisin Spice Cookies)

I LOVE tea and cookies.  Wow, I feel like I sound about 95 years old when I say that.  Eh, who cares!

I wasn't always a tea and cookies kind of girl.  Over the last couple of years tea has become a morning (and afternoon) ritual that I look forward to and rarely miss.  No doubt I've always liked cookies, but I mostly leaned towards the very sweet ones...you know chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, ginger snaps.  I wasn't much into lightly sweetened or crunchy cookies like shortbread, biscotti or tea cookies.  Part of me thinks I didn't "like" them just because they weren't what I was used to.  I'm glad to say I broke out of my cookie comfort zone to now enjoy cookies of all kinds.  :)

I first had Somerset Easter Biscuits (raisin spice cookies) when my best friend made me a batch as part of a tea and cookies inspired birthday gift.  The cookies are lightly sweet and ever so slightly spiced with cinnamon, allspice, clove and ginger.  Studded with raisins, a crumbly texture and an extra crunch from the turbinado sugar on top...they make for a perfect tea (or coffee if that's your pleasure) cookie. 

It's impossible to eat just one.

Don't you just love the sugar sparkling on top?

I'm so glad I finally got a chance to make these special little cookies. I made a double batch and packed most of them up to send in my August Operation Baking GALS shipment to some of our hardworking troops in Afghanistan (along with these and these and a variation of these). 

But, I had to save 1 or 2 12 for myself.  I enjoyed a few afternoons of tea and cookies, a very nice break during the long midday stretch.  ;)

I'm pretty smitten with these babies.  Definitely a recipe I will make again and again. 

Enjoy!

Somerset Easter Biscuits
adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

125 grams unsalted butter at room temperature
75 grams sugar
1 egg, yolk and white separated
200 grams all purpose flour
A good pinch of salt
A good pinch of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon mixed ground spice (such as pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
50 grams raisins
1 teaspoon citrus zest (such as orange)
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter until creamy.  With mixer on add slowly add in the sugar and continue to meet for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.  Turn mixer to low and add the egg yolk until combined. 

In a medium bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder and spices.  Add flour mixture in 3 batches to the butter mixture with mixer on low.  Add zest and raisins and mix until just combined.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll about 1/4 inch thick.  Using a 2.5 inch fluted cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on baking sheet about an inch apart. 

Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden and firm.  Meanwhile whisk the egg white until slightly frothy.  Remove cookies from oven and lightly brush one cookie with egg white and then top generously with turbinado sugar.  Repeat with all cookies.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 3 to 5 minutes until tops are golden and crunchy.  Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.



Chewy Chocolate Cookies with M&M's

I have to start by saying I accidentally published this post before it was complete.  So if you received the one without photos and the recipe in your reader or email, please disregard it. 

I have a funny story about these cookies.  If you follow along here regularly you might remember back in December I had some family and friends over to bake for the Christmas edition of Operation Baking GALS.  Everyone brought baked goodies to send to the troops overseas.  My sister brought chewy chocolate cookies with chocolate and peanut butter chips that looked amazing.   Now the point of the day was to send as many goodies to the troops as possible, but, a few cookies, including 1, and only 1, chewy chocolate cookie, didn't fit nicely into the containers.  These leftover cookies, along with several broken cookies and the cut off edges of peppermint brownies and gingerbread blondies went on a piece of parchment paper on the kitchen counter that I fondly referred to as the "cookie graveyard."  It would be a major faux pas to let perfectly good tasting cookies and cookie pieces go to waste right? 

Fast forward to the end of the day and Hubby and were cleaning up.  Hubby was in the kitchen doing dishes and I was busy gathering empty appetizer dishes from the living room.  I came into the kitchen and immediately noticed my cookie graveyard was gone!  As in NOT THERE.  What!?  I had an instant reaction where I may have screamed/screeched, "What happened to my cookies????"  To which Hubby looked at me blankly.  To clarify, I pointed to the empty spot on the counter and said, "the cookie graveyard, it was sitting right over there."  He replied, "Oh.  I just threw those out a second ago.  It looked like trash."

Nooooo!!!!  Holy moly! Cookie scraps, and in this case, a few whole cookies, is so not trash.  I don't care what it looked like!  (Okay, it did look like a heap of cookie parts).  By the way, does my excessive punctuation adequately convey my astonishment and the fact that my ears turned red in these few moments where I realized my prized cookie was gone? 

I immediately flipped open the lid to the kitchen trash can and saw the parchment paper holding the cookie graveyard staring right at me. 

You know where this is going.

Without hesitating, I scooped up that bundle of parchment and opened it up to retrieve the one prized cookie I had been dying to try all day...Katie's chewy chocolate cookie.  I pulled out my little chocolate jewel....right out of the trash.  Yep. 

I know.  It's sketchy.  But rest assured the cookie was bundled inside parchment and I'm confident that it most definitely did NOT directly touch any other trash.  That makes it okay.  Right?  :)

Anyway, the dumpster diving was worth it.  The cookie was simply delicious.  Packed full of rich chocolate with both cocoa powder and chocolate chips/chopped chocolate.  I especially loved the chewy texture.  The coolest part is how the cookie can be tweaked to fit your tastes.  Katie added peanut butter chips, which were delish.  But you could easily add white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, milk, dark chocolate or any kind of chip/chopped chocolate that suits your fancy.  I know for the holidays this year I will be making these with Trader Joe's peppermint bark baking bits--yum.  But I'm getting a little ahead of myself since it's only February...

When contemplating what to make for Baking GALS this month I knew these cookies would be on the menu.  The chewy factor makes them a good item for shipping long distances.  I wanted to dress them up a bit for the troops so I added red, white and blue M&M's (which I got from picking out white M&M's from a valentines bag and the red and blue from the normal M&M's bag).  They added a perfect little crunch and amped up the chocolate even further.  Definitely a keeper. 

Enjoy!

P.S. If you have any recipes that would be good for long distance shipping and stays fresh for at least a week, please share your links in the comments. 

Chewy Chocolate Cookies with M&M's
adapted from Cook's Illustrated Cook Book

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa (I used regular cocoa powder because it's what I had on hand)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1-1 1/2 cups M&M's

In a medium bowl whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until well blended.  In a small bowl whisk corn syrup, egg white and vanilla together until fully combined.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter with the dark brown sugar and the 1/3 cup of granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the corn syrup mixture until fully combined, scraping the bowl as necessary.  With the mixer on low add in the flour mixture and chocolate slowly until just combined.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir by hand to ensure no flour remains.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes, allowing the dough to firm slightly.

While the dough is chilling, place the 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl.  Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 375, positioning racks in the upper and lower middle of the oven. 

Remove dough from refrigerator.  Please note the dough does not get fully firm.  Don't over chill the dough. Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and roll it in the sugar and place on the baking sheets 2 inches apart, fitting 8 cookies to a sheet.  Take M&M's and gently press them into the surface of the dough (do not flatten cookies) fairly close together, but evenly spaced around the top and sides.  The M&M's will spread out when the cookie bakes. I placed about 9-10 M&M's on each cookie.

Bake about 10 - 11 minutes or until the cookies are slightly puffed and starting to crack.  The cookie may look underdone in the cracks, which is fine.  Do not overbake.  Be sure to rotate cookies from top to bottom and front to back for even baking. 

Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool for 5-7 minutes on the baking sheet.  Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 24 cookies.

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies and an Operation Baking GALS Christmas

The countdown is on!  Christmas is exactly one week away.  And I am definitely not ready.  I've done about 70% of my shopping and hoping to finish the rest up during the week nights...cause I have a feeling the malls and stores are going to be insane next weekend for that final Christmas push.

Things have been a bit insane around here.  The last two weekends have been completely dedicated to non stop baking (more on the last weekend's baking extravaganza in a future post).  The baking marathon started on Friday, December 7th with dough preparation.  Followed by baking all day December 8th and half day December 9th.  On the 9th, fifteen family and friends came over to our house in the afternoon with their own baked goodies so we could pack up boxes for the two recipients I signed up to bake for for this month's Operation Baking GALS. 

If you haven't heard of the Baking GALS, it's a group of volunteer bakers who bake and ship goodies to military deployed overseas once a month.  I've been participating since May of this year and I absolutely love it.  I typically sign up to send to one recipient each month and usually send one large flat rate priority mail box from the post office... 

But since December is Christmastime I figured I would up my game and recruit my friends and family to help bake for the two troops I signed up for.  It must be especially hard to be away from home during the holidays so it was our goal to bring them some home baked goodness and holiday cheer. 

I have to say my friends and family rock!  They amazed me with everything they contributed.  I wasn't sure how many boxes we could fill, but I was hoping for 6 (3 for each recipient).  If you're wondering what one person would do with that many treats...don't worry, they don't have to eat them all by themselves.  Each recipient shares the goodies with all the troops in their units (our recipients have 50-100 people in each of their units). 

Apparently I completely under estimated my crew because we filled more than twice as many boxes as I hoped....we did a total of 14 boxes!  Wow!  It was beyond awesome!

Since I've never done this on a mass scale, I wasn't sure how it was all going to come together.  Especially since we have a fairly small home and not a lot of space.  There was a little chaos trying to get our assembly line organized, but we made it work and everything came together in just a couple of hours. 

Each person brought their goodies, already baked, along with some non baked items, like individual snack size bags of nuts to help fill spaces in the boxes.  The shipping is a flat rate, so we pack in as much as possible.

Here's a re-cap of the baked goodies everyone contributed:

Walnut Fudge

Peanut Butter Cookies (two kinds)

Raisin Walnut Spice Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

Peppermint Brownies

Molasses and Ginger Cookies (several types)

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

Nieman Marcus Cookies

Jalapeno Cheddar Crackers

Salted Candied Pecans

Pumpkin Bread

Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

Cookie Dough Fudge

Oatmeal Cookies

and

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies 

People also donated plenty of non baked items to help fill the boxes....such as pistachios, beef jerky, mixed nuts, pretzels, coffee, cup of noodles, card games, magazines, See's peanut brittle and 150 See's candy suckers.  My mom, niece and nephew and a few others, tied red, white and blue curling ribbon on each and every sucker.  We used them to fill up nooks and crannies and it really brought a festive touch to the boxes.

Here are pictures from Operation Baking GALS Christmas.
 

Friends and family packing up cookies



Mom and my niece and nephew tying red, white and blue ribbons on 150 See's suckers
(notice the guys supervising while watching football)

The goodies are stacking up!

My Grandma!  She made these adorable (and delicious) little strawberry santas for us to snack on.
 

Check out the goodies!  We included some cards and notes for the troops.

All the boxes around the Christmas tree ready to be taped up!

See.  My friends and family rock!  I've already gotten a few requests to make this an annual tradition.  I'm totally in!

Thank you to everyone who helped with the

Operation Baking GALS Christmas edition. 

Oh, and I suppose I should tell you a little about the blondies. 

I've sent these to the troops in the past and they maintain freshness for the week plus traveling time it takes for a box to arrive overseas.  The molasses is what keeps them so moist.  They remind me of a chewy ginger snap dotted with sweet white chocolate.  They bake in large sheet pan.  I turned the giant blondie out on to the bottom of another sheet placed on top and then inverted and inverted again onto a large cutting board.  Once it's out I cut individual squares using a square cookie cutter.  I find that my knife skills trying to maintain even straight lines are pretty horrible.  Luckily the cookie cutter ensures a perfect size every time.

These are easy to make and have that spiced flavor I'm looking for around the holidays.  Definitely a keeper.

Enjoy!


Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies
from Martha Stewart Cookies

2 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1 3/4 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate (10 ounces) - I used 12 ounces white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 12x17 rimmed baking sheet with non stick cooking spray.  Line bottom of the pan with parchment paper and spray the parchment with non stick cooking spray (to make a sling for easy removal, allow parchment to hang over the ends of the pan). 

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves together until evenly distributed. 

In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until creamy and pale (about 3 minutes).  Turn mixer to low and add eggs and yolk one at a time until fully combined, scraping down bowl as needed.  Add vanilla and molasses until combined.  With mixer on low add the flour mixture in 3 batches until combined.   Stir in white chocolate.

Pour batter into the baking sheet and spread evenly using an offset spatula.  Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Cool fully in the baking sheet. 

White Chocolate Blueberry Almond Cookies

I do a lot of stuff in my mind.  Like accomplishing way more tasks in a day than humanly possible.  In my mind, every night I plan to get up early the next day to start conquering the to do list.  The list is all checked off at the end of the day and I beam with satisfaction. 

I also exercise  a lot (still in my mind).  I envision myself running and sweating and feeling so accomplished by the fact I can actually run.  It's like I'm running a 5K everyday.  And I see my jeans slipping on and buttoning with ease because of all this running I'm doing. 

Since I'm exercising it's only natural that I'm also eating really really healthy (yet tasty) foods.  Again, we are still in my mind.  And I feel all energized and clean from eating such nutritionally rich super foods.   I'm practically glowing from all this healthiness. 

And of course I still have time to check a few more things off my to do list before I turn in for the night.  Then I get up and do it all over again.  

I'm sure you can guess where this is going.

Reality.  Why does reality always come along and ruin everything?

In real life I'm lucky if I get through 1/3 of my to do list on most days.  Even if I actually set my alarm to rise early and tackle a few more projects in my day...I pretty much always snooze.  At least 3 times, sometimes more.  And I rarely exercise.  If I do, it certainly doesn't involve running.  Best case scenario it involves a swift walk, occasionally up a hill if I'm feeling really adventurous.  It's so much more fun to run in my head I guess!  Food is the one area where sometimes I accomplish the lofty goals my mind has in store.  I try to eat healthy-ish.  But I also do more than my fair share of indulging in cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream....more cookies.   

Cookies live in my mind.  And thankfully they are a pretty regular reality around here.  They are my indulgence of choice.  I'm always looking to try new cookie flavor combos.  These cookies were completely experimental.  I was looking for something different to send for Operation Baking GALS this month.  I was very happy with the finished product and hope they made it through 7 days of travel overseas. 

I took a white chocolate chip macadamia nut recipe and pretty much went to town.  It started with plump dried blueberries (I'm pretty certain blueberries are a super food!  Right?  Right??) and almonds (good for you too!), along with butter and plenty of brown sugar.  Okay, those last two are questionable in the health department, but they make these oh so chewy and caramelly delicious.  Don't forget about the sweet, creamy, white chocolate chips.  All the flavors work really well together...blueberry pie, meets cheesecake, meets cookie.  Good stuff.

I better go back to exercising in my head. 

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Blueberry Almond Cookies
from The Ginger Snap Girl

Yields 36 cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups dried blueberries
1 3/4 cups chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 375 and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a medium whisk flour, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer) cream butter and sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Turn mixer to low and add eggs one at time, until incorporated.  Mix in vanilla.  Add in flour mixture in three batches and mix on low until just incorporated.  Add white chocolate chips, blueberries and almonds and mix on low until evenly distributed. 

Using a medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) scoop out 12 cookies per baking sheet.  Bake for 11-13 minutes until lightly golden brown, rotating sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through cooking.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Operation Baking GALS

If you're a regular reader here, you probably know I've joined a few online cooking and baking groups along the way.  It all started two years ago when I stumbled upon the Sweet Melissa Sundays  baking group.  I did a brief stint with French Fridays with Dorie.  I'm currently baking out of the Baked Explorations cookbook with Club: Baked once or twice a month and cooking/baking along monthly with Secret Recipe Club.  I love all these groups because a.) I learn things I didn't even know I wanted to learn, b.) I connect with fabulous food bloggers, many who are now friends, and c.) I get to eat some tasty stuff.

I'm pretty excited to tell you about a new baking group that is a little different than the rest.  This month I joined Operation Baking GALS.  Baking GALS (GALS stands for Give a Little Support) is a group of volunteers that bake and ship home baked treats to soldiers deployed in a war zone. "Our goal is to show our support and send a little bit of home to remind them that we appreciate all that they do for our freedom."  Pretty darn cool.

The GALS started back in 2008 and have been baking ever since.  You don't have know someone in the military to join.  Though if you do know someone, you can nominate that person to be a recipient of the Operation Baking GALS goodies.  Every month teams are formed, each representing a solider or soldiers to bake for.  Baking GALS read about each team and choose one or more teams to join. Up to 20 people can join each team.  All the teams bake and ship within the same 10 day period with the idea that the solider(s) get showered with all sorts of treats that they can share with the rest of the their unit.

I sent my first box out on Tuesday to a solider overseas in the Air Force.  The box included these homemade brownies and homemade ginger snaps.  With a little extra room in the box I filled in the gaps with gum, candy, cornnuts and cup of noodles.  It was a fun project to put everything together.  Hopefully it brings a little taste of home to some of the brave soldiers who make freedom possible for all of us. 

If you are interested in joining, head over to the Operations Baking GALS website and read through the FAQ's.  The next round of baking will take place in June.  Come and join the fun!

On completely unrelated note, you might have noticed that today I've posted my first photo collage! Woo hoo! I've always admired blogs with a snazzy collage. A quick web search led me to easy breezy instructions on how to do it with my Lightroom 3 software. I'm looking forward to playing around with it. Meaning you can totally expect to see more photo collages here.

P.S. Do something special for your the moms in your life on Sunday, May 13th, Mother's Day!