Somewhere Between Cookie and Candy

Today I made two cookies, each had a moist brownie-like base, and were cooked in the same way, but then the recipes diverged and one became a Rum Ball and another became a Grasshopper. Yes, it was a boozy day in the kitchen. I love these two cookies - they present beautifully in a cookie box.

I've learned over time that people are divided on cookies with booze. You're either a fan or you're not. No shillyshallying. The way I see it, an espresso and a liquor-laced cookie in the late afternoon, as the sun is setting, is a great way to cope with the dark days of December.

The Grasshopper cookie is from Gourmet, 2005, and it's very fancy and rich (also very expensive, using 20 oz of bittersweet chocolate and another 10 oz of white chocolate.) They remind me of the ice cream sundae my Grandmother Bea would make for me - vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and a healthy shot of creme de menthe. Yes, for an 8 year old.

The recipe yields a ton of cookies - about 80 pcs if they are cut into small bonbons. Making them is a commitment - it takes hours, interrupted by cooling time. I made them in between making a few other things. I don't mean to be discouraging, but be ready to commit.


On the other hand, the Rum Balls are incredibly easy and take very little time to make. Feel free to switch up the booze. They are wonderful with Grand Marnier, Frangelica, Bourbon, Cognac, even the new artisanal gins. This year, I substituted a rum liqueur called Velvet Falernum that makes a mojito extra wonderful. It's sweeter than rum and has an herbal tone that's amazing.


Rum Balls
recipe from Martha Stewart
Makes about 75 one bite cookies

3 oz unsalted butter, cubed
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
3 eggs
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c flour
1/3 c rum, bourbon or other liquor
5 oz sanding sugar - I am partial to bright white.

Preheat the oven to 350.
Line a sheet pan with parchment and then spray with non-stick spray.
Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until blended.
Stir in the chocolate/butter. Fold in the flour.
Spread the batter evenly across the parchment. Bang the pan on the counter to knock out the air bubbles.
Bake for 10 minutes. It might bubble way up, don't worry, it will come down again.


Let the cookie cool for 15-20 minutes, then break it up into the bowl of your mixer.
Pour in the booze and buzz the mixture until it comes together as a dough.
Line another sheet pan with parchment.
Using a small scoop or two teaspoons, portion out 80 mounds of dough.

Roll the mounds gently in your hand until nice and round. Don't compress the dough. Be gentle.
Roll the balls in sanding sugar until well coated.
Store in layers in an airtight container. Will keep for three weeks.

Little Apricot Confections

Here is a really easy, really tasty, perfect little holiday sweet. Old fashioned and dear, tart and sweet. I made them today in less than an hour.


Little Apricot Confections
adapted from David Walton's mother's recipe
Makes about 60

1 c dried apricots
3 c shredded coconut
1 c (scant) sweetened, condensed milk
1 tsp Pear liqueur (or other fruit liqueur)
1 c or more powdered sugar

Grind the apricots in the food processor. Add the coconut and milk and spin the processor a few times to combine everything well. It should be damp but not wet. Add the liqueur and pulse a few more times, then mound the dough on a plate.

Using a small scoop or two teaspoons, place small mounds on a parchment lined sheet pan.

Coat your hands in powdered sugar. Roll the mounds into balls and drop into the powdered sugar, rolling it around in your sugar covered hands until well coated. Continue to coat your hands in sugar and rolling the cookies around in your hands.

Make these treats small. You want it to be one bite. Store in layers, separated by wax paper, in an airtight container.

Ho Ho Ho

Tart Gumdrops, Spicy Brittle - Day 2 Holiday Baking

When I was a little girl, maybe 6 or 7, (before The Divorce) we had a babysitter named Cathy Carter. It was the first time I met someone with my name. She was very glamorous in my mind - she was a cheerleader. And she had a boyfriend. And she looked a little like Barbie's friend Skipper, pigtails and all. Cathy would arrive for babysitting with projects in mind - something the sleepy maids who looked after us in the afternoons never did. (They introduced me to General Hospital.)

Cathy taught me to make candy. To drop little drops of sugar syrup into cold water to test for soft ball stage or hard crack stage. We made taffy, pulling it until it changed color and got silky and tender to the tooth. We made holiday fudge, cracking walnuts, picking out the meats with toothpicks, toasting and then stirring the fragrant bits into creamy chocolate. Waiting impatiently for it to chill so we could cut it into bits. I haven't thought about Cathy for years, but last night she was in my dreams. Must be the candy making that is conjuring her.

I woke up extra early this morning. It was really quiet and so so dark. It seems to be dark almost all day long. Early December. It was a nice time to be awake, a hot cup of coffee, the computer full of Wednesday food sections from newspapers across the country, Dr. House on the DVR, and a little candymaking.

It's a good time to make candy. I really don't want to eat it that early in the morning. I cut and wrapped all the caramels from yesterday. A great thing to do at 5am when you're barely awake. Then I gathered everything for gumdrops and brittle.

I made these gumdrops when the recipe first appeared in 2005, and have done so every year since. They are amazingly easy, they taste great, and they're a very cute and surprising addition to the cookie box.

The flavor can easily be altered by swapping out the lemon for lime, blood orange, grapefruit, pomegranate or grape. They make pretty jellies, cut a little larger, for a cheese course, with port, let's say. I've also thought about herb infusions. Just haven't gotten there yet.

Lemon Gumdrops
adapted, slightly, from the New York Times Magazine

4 sheets, or 4 packages, of plain gelatin. If using packaged, bloom in 1/2 c cool water for five minutes.
2 c sugar
1/2 c water
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of one bright orange (this provides primarily color and some visual texture, so get a nice orangey orange)
3 drops yellow food coloring
1/2-3/4 c sugar for dusting

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment and spray with non-stick spray, brush with canola/unflavored oil, or butter
Heat sugar and water in a good sized saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil. Add the gelatin and boil, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes, or until it's really thick.

Add lemon juice & orange zest and bring back to a boil and boil well for 3-5 minutes. The bubbles will start to break up, and you will see the gelee under the foamy surface.
Remove from the heat and stir in the food coloring. Resist the urge to add more than three drops. Stir well and pour into the prepared pan. Bang the pan on the counter a few times to get rid of the bubbles. There are always a few straggling little bubbles but the sugar coating will cover all kinds of imperfections. (There we are again - worried about perfection...)

Do not cover (it makes an ugly slime across the surface.) Just set aside and allow it to set up for at least an hour.
Put the 1/2 c sugar into a shallow bowl.
Remove the paper from the pan and lightly loosen the candy here and there. I use a big oiled knife to make 12 cuts in each direction - 144 pieces. The knife will basically score the gelee, and then I use a kitchen scissors to cut out the individual pieces. Drop the pieces into the sugar and roll them around to coat well.


These candies will keep in a container, with wax paper separating the layers, covered, for about a month. They harden a little, but it doesn't affect their deliciousness.

Fragrant, Spicy Brittle
slightly adapted from Gourmet, 2006

Equipment: Candy thermometer, sheet pan, two pieces of parchment to fit the pan, rolling pin, preferably with handles

Canola oil
2 tsp green cardamom pods
2 c sugar
1/4 c dark honey (I'm using my friend Lucia's family honey here.)
1/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 c water
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 c salted blister peanuts
1/2 c pistachios
1/2 c sliced almonds, skin on

Put one sheet of parchment in the sheet pan and oil well. Put the other sheet next to the pan and oil one side.
Crush the cardamom pods and extract a teaspoon of seeds. Lightly crush the seeds with your knife blade and put them in a 3 qt deep, wide saucepan.
Add the sugar, honey, corn syrup, water and cayenne and bring to a boil slowly. I keep the flame at medium low. Sugar heats very slowly and it will burn if you rush it. The corn syrup helps manage the sugars in a brittle. I'm not a fan, as I've said, but for certain candies everything just works out better.


Heat the syrup to a toasty color and 300• on the thermometer. This is what's called the hard crack stage. If you don't let it come to this temperature, your brittle will be sticky and will pull out fillings, so make sure you get all the way up there. This whole process takes about 20 minutes and cannot be rushed.
Stir the syrup occasionally by dragging a silicone spatula or wooden spoon from the edges to the center of the pot slowly and deliberately. Be patient.
When the syrup has attained the heat, quickly stir in the nuts, allow the candy to come back to a boil for two minutes, then pour it out quickly on the oiled parchment.


Work quickly here.


Place the other sheet on top of the candy, oiled side down. Using the rolling pin, press the candy out to about 1/2" thick. Handles on the rolling pin are good because this stuff is really really really hot. And you do not want to touch the rolling pin after it has touched the candy. If you don't have handles, use a folded towel to propel the rolling pin.
(The recipe offers if the candy cools too much to be malleable, you can pop it in a 300• oven to melt a bit, then continue to roll and press it out. I've never had to do this. The recipe also says it should be 1/4" thick. Hard to do when the nuts are thicker than 1/4"!)
Let the candy cool for a couple of hours.

Keeping the top sheet on so you don't dent the candy, crack the surface with a hammer, gently.
Stored in a cool spot, in a tightly closed container, layered on wax paper, the candy keeps for about a month.

Keeping count:
72 peppermint patties
70 caramels
144 lemon drops
50 1x1 pieces spicy brittle

Ho Ho Ho

Holiday Baking Day: Peppermint Patties & Salted Caramels

Today is the day I started holiday baking and candy making. I love delivering homemade gifts for the holidays. I've already made preserves, salsa, walnut wine and fruit liqueurs. By the time Christmas comes, I'll have candies and cookies to create the ultimate gift basket.

I have about two dozen different confections I've made for the last few years. I know it takes about ten days to get everything made, so I make all the candies first, as they have a longer shelf life, and require wrapping individually – an activity I am willing to do now, but hate doing later on in the holiday-baking-palooza.

I started by making peppermint patties, using a wonderful recipe from Gourmet, December, 2007. I’ll be sending this post on to Gourmet, Unbound – a project put together by some of my favorite food bloggers - to honor, recollect, and mourn the passing of our beloved Gourmet magazine.

I made these little candies last year and they were a huge hit. However, I made the mistake of wrapping them in red and green foil wrappers and everyone thought they were York peppermint patties. This year, I found pale blue foil wrappers and I think they look very festive. And homemade.

I’ve worked with this recipe before. I’ve made some changes - exchanging butter for shortening. I've tried honey in place of corn syrup, and even tried to make a simple syrup to see if that would work, but the texture was wrong in both cases, so in this case, there is some corn syrup.

These are great candies - very easy, and very tasty - with great potential for adaptation. If you don’t like peppermint, for instance, just use raspberry or coffee or lemon or vanilla extract. Even liqueurs would make a tasty filling (but cut back the water if using booze.)

Peppermint Patties
adapted from Gourmet, December 2007

2.5 c confectioners sugar
1.5 Tbls light corn syrup
1.5 Tbls water
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 T butter, cut in small pieces
6-8 oz bittersweet chocolate, over 70% cacao

First, mix the powdered sugar, butter, water, extract and corn syrup in the mixer until combined.


Finish the mixing by kneading the filling until it's smooth. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar on both sides and place between two pieces of parchment paper.


I like to use my very fun marble rolling pin because it fits perfectly across the sheet pan. When the filling is evenly rolled out to about 1/4" thick, put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Once the filling is very, very cold, cut out the rounds. I use the large end of a pastry bag tip - it's the right size! You want the fillings to be about 1" across. I've also made heart shapes for Valentines Day. And I tried a square cutter once, but the edges blurred when dipped in chocolate. Sometimes the cut-outs split or chip - just smoosh 'em back together. No one will know when it's covered in chocolate!

They really do have to be sort of thick. Or else they melt in the chocolate. You might wonder how I know that.

Now, pop those circles in the freezer for 30 minutes. Knead the trimmings and re-roll and re-freeze.

While the fillings are freezing, melt the chocolate and then temper it.

Here's how I temper chocolate. I start with 6 oz. of chocolate in the double boiler. Melt thoroughly. Take the chocolate off the heat and stir in 2 oz of chopped up chocolate. Keep stirring to mix in the new chocolate, which will reduce the temperature of the melted chocolate. Keep stirring and you'll notice the chocolate starting to firm up again. About halfway between totally melted and all firmed up is tempered. I test it by speading a small amount on some parchment paper. If it hardens up quickly, and snaps when broken, it's ready. When it comes to tempering, practice really does make perfect.

I use a very handy chocolate fork, but you can also use a regular fork. The most important thing - the fillings must be Ice Cold. If they start to warm up, pop them back in the freezer.

The ones on the left look pretty good. Then the chocolate got too cool, and the ones in the middle got a little goopy on top. Once wrapped, it won't really matter. I would like them to all be perfect, but I am working on my need for perfection. Really. (Hey, I photographed the imperfect ones, didn't I?)

Once I finished the peppermint patties, I made some fleur de sel caramels. Here they are in the pan. I'm letting them set up overnight before cutting and wrapping them.

I'll check in again tomorrow with more recipes and fun on the way to Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho