I tried a new Christmas "cookie" this afternoon. I wanted to see if a short-cut cookie might be something to add to our list of favorites.
The recipe used ready-made peanut butter cookie dough. You divide an 18 ounce tube of dough into 24 pieces and bake them in tart-sized muffin tins. During the last two minutes of cooking you press a rounded measuring spoon into the dough to create a well, then continue baking until the dough is golden.
The peanut butter dough makes a tart base that holds a fudge filling.
It seems to me that the tart is a bit thick. It makes quite a substantial cookie, perhaps one that men would like more than women. I know....that's sexist. Don't bother to point it out.
I'm going to freeze the tarts and then add the fudge the day before the cookies are given as gifts. I'll have to see if the combination of the peanut butter base and the fudgy center will draw anyone back for seconds.
Comments (25)
Fudge Tarts...sounds like something I'd be back for seconds on. Yum! You always seem to be in some kind of baking or cooking mode Buffy. Your house sounds like the place to be during any special occasion. I loved to bake when my kids were small. Now...it seems to have fallen on my daughter's plate. She'll be a busy beaver this week. She loves it...and we love eating her goodies. Happy baking....
Posted by Joy | December 18, 2006 11:17 PM
Posted on December 18, 2006 23:17
Thank you, Joy. I was up at O-Dark:30 this morning making the shortbread for a Turtle cookie. Later this week I'll dip two edges of the short bread wedges into melted caramel, then chopped pecans, and then I'll drizzle chocolate over them.
The baking this week is for gift tins for the salon, and for two cookie trays for Christmas. I'm beginning to think it's time for me to be teaching my nieces how to do these cookies. I've spread the baking out over five days, where I might have done it in two in earlier years. It's about time to pass the torch!
Posted by buffy | December 19, 2006 11:36 AM
Posted on December 19, 2006 11:36
Foul! Foul! If I didn't get to pass the torch at such a young age, I must protest your doing so. *grin* You've done much more baking/cooking in your fewer years than I have in my more numerous years, so, perhaps you have earned the privilege. Go for it!
Posted by Cop Car | December 19, 2006 4:40 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 16:40
I still think I need a care package of all these wonderful cookies you are baking. You know it is really unfair that you share two years and then puff you cut me off!!! It is one of those things at Christmas I look forward to finally making the "Buffy cookie care package cut" :)
Posted by Jamie | December 19, 2006 4:45 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 16:45
You mean your girls didn't take over the Christmas cookie making in self defense??!! oh...sorry....my bad..... *G*
Okay, tell me when you gave it up, so I can figure out how many years I have left to go.
I didn't tell you, but there is a movement afoot to have "Cookie Day" in January. One of my nieces is just starting to organize us. I think I'm going to have a LOT of family contact in Dec. and January! YEA!!
Posted by Buffy | December 19, 2006 4:46 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 16:46
But Jamie....you're not even going to be home for Christmas. I'd NEVER think of sending Christmas cookies to your Mother's house! NO Sir-ree! I don't want to be on that woman's bad side! And don't tell me that your mother doesn't make Christmas cookies!
Posted by buffy | December 19, 2006 4:48 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 16:48
PB and choc my favorite.
I baked banana bread day before yesterday and no problem with altitude or attitude isn't it weird that my snickerdoodles were a flop?
Posted by janet | December 19, 2006 5:11 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 17:11
I was thinking about you yesterday, Janet, when I made the shortbread cookies. I noticed that the recipe said there were no changes needed for high altitude! I can't account for the problem with the snickerdoodles. Could you have left an ingredient out?
Posted by buffy | December 19, 2006 9:49 PM
Posted on December 19, 2006 21:49
Buffy--Had to call me on it, didn't you. I never took up the torch; so, I never got to pass it on. *sigh*
Posted by Cop Car | December 20, 2006 11:24 AM
Posted on December 20, 2006 11:24
Hey, in Cop Car's defense, she "made" cookies in a round-about way. Well, she made the money to buy the Oreos anyway.
Posted by bogie | December 21, 2006 4:06 AM
Posted on December 21, 2006 04:06
Bogie, your mother is a class act! You know I'm teasing her. Actually, right now, I'd be happy to trade with her. SHE can make the cookies, and I'll just sit here quietly working in my office.
Maybe we can leave the cookie making to Dudette, and you and your mother and I can check the radar to make sure that Santa will be able to get through on Sunday. *G*
Posted by buffy | December 21, 2006 8:42 AM
Posted on December 21, 2006 08:42
Oh...now I am really wounded. Bogie--See if I ever make another almond horshoe, another sugar cookie, another mushkatzoni, another meringue cooky, another...whew!...gotta stop and draw breath. Well, so, a lot of those were made when you were too young to remember and the rest were made (mostly) after you moved to NH. (Yeah...I remember...you like Double Stuffs!)
Posted by Cop Car | December 21, 2006 10:05 PM
Posted on December 21, 2006 22:05
Buffy--I like the way you split the chores. I'm good with radar. (Just ask me!)
Posted by Cop Car | December 21, 2006 10:12 PM
Posted on December 21, 2006 22:12
See how she makes cookies when I'm not around? I always knew she loved my sister better than me - LOL!
Posted by bogie | December 22, 2006 3:58 AM
Posted on December 22, 2006 03:58
Oh Buffy I could have left out two the way my nind has been working.
I made a loaf of banana bread a couple days ago that turned out perfect.
Go figure.
Posted by janet | December 22, 2006 10:16 AM
Posted on December 22, 2006 10:16
Oh Lord.....Bogie, we use that phrase, except we generally use it to refer to my ONLY brother. The poor man is really a nice guy, but you'd never know it from the way we speak about him. Think about the situation this way....are your mother's cookies enough to entice you to return home?? Maybe it's okay that Dudette is getting more of them than you are! *G*
Mushkatzoni..... I wonder if John, (Heartlandbaker) is familiar with that cookie. Come on, Cop Car....what is it??
Janet...if I remember correctly, your results are two good ones, one flop. That's not too bad. Keep cooking, and those odds could get even better! Give Mushkatzoni a try. (giggling)
Posted by buffy | December 22, 2006 3:46 PM
Posted on December 22, 2006 15:46
Buffy--Go to http://copcar.typepad.com/cop_cars_chow/cakes_cookies/index.html
for the recipe.
Posted by Cop Car | December 22, 2006 9:27 PM
Posted on December 22, 2006 21:27
Um, you may have a really good point there Buffy. Maybe she really loves me more than my sister ;)
Posted by bogie | December 23, 2006 6:55 AM
Posted on December 23, 2006 06:55
*sniff* *sob* You both are SO cruel!!
Posted by Cop Car | December 23, 2006 9:08 AM
Posted on December 23, 2006 09:08
Thank you, Cop Car. I should have known you'd have it in your files. I'll go browse right away. *S*
And that, Bogie...is my Christmas gift to you! *G*
Hey, CC....you need to practice that perfomance to make it a bit more convincing! lol
Posted by buffy | December 23, 2006 6:11 PM
Posted on December 23, 2006 18:11
Cop Car....on the mushkatzoni....could you give us a rough idea about the width and length of the logs before they are baked? I would be able to figure out how much dough to use, given the number of cookies, but I need a little more guidance on the size of log.
Posted by buffy | December 23, 2006 6:19 PM
Posted on December 23, 2006 18:19
The size of the logs isn't critical--say, about thumb size. In later years, I've gotten smarter and use a scoop (similar to an old-fashioned scoop-it-up-and-push-it-out ice-cream scoop, only smaller). It is messy work, be worewarned. The stuff sticks to my hands--a little water on the hands helps. Just looked at my 5 scoops (two of which ARE ice-cream scoops that came from my late, beloved m-i-l from their drug store soda fountain of 50 years ago). They all look too big or too little. The one that I thought I used measured out at 1 tbsp. I'm thinking 1.5-2 tbsps makes a good-sized log.
Why don't I send you a sample--when I make my next batch? I've not made any this year, so it's about time that I did. Give me a couple of weeks. They are best when aged (and it'll take me a few days to get around to making them.)
I like them because, they are one of the cookies that has "good fat" rather than butter or egg yolks in them. I also like meringue cookies--for that reason and because they are easier to make than the divinity that they resemble in taste.
Posted by Cop Car | December 24, 2006 11:41 AM
Posted on December 24, 2006 11:41
P.S. Mushkatzoni cookies don't change size much, if at all, during baking; so they may be spaced closely in the pan.
Posted by Cop Car | December 24, 2006 11:45 AM
Posted on December 24, 2006 11:45
I'd LOVE a taste! Save the box from the "coal" and pad them well! Thanks, Cop Car!
Posted by buffy | December 25, 2006 10:00 PM
Posted on December 25, 2006 22:00
Buffy--Yes, I went right after that box the minute I got off of the computer. These cookies don't require a lot of padding, though. Not at all fragile. BTW: When I made the almond horseshoes, Sunday, I did use the measuring scoop that I also use for the mushkatzoni. It is the 1 tbsp scoop. The horseshoes are formed by rolling them into a log--longer/thinner than the mushkatzoni--and then formed into horshoe shape, of course, so the amount of dough required is the same.
Posted by Cop Car | December 26, 2006 9:59 AM
Posted on December 26, 2006 09:59