Traverse City Record-Eagle

Sally Ketchum: In The Kitchen

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December 7, 2008

In the Kitchen: Suspect cookie exchanges

By SALLY KETCHUM

Cookie exchanges might bring people together, but I've got to say I'm suspicious, if not cynical, about these gatherings now.

Some years back the ladies of our subdivision in Williamsburg, mostly working women, attended an evening cookie exchange. First, it was disastrous because each woman was really too busy with her own family to give up an evening during the holiday season. Second, each guest tried valiantly -- using frosting, cute cutters, curious slicing and something called edible cookie paint -- to disguise the fact that everyone's cookies obviously came from Pillsbury cookie dough. Third, the nibbles offered to eat that night consisted of celery, radishes and coffee. The young hostess had probably aimed for Christmas colors.

Last week, I succumbed to curiosity about the very latest in easy cookie making -- Pillsbury sugar dough sheets, three to a box. Supposedly, the baker uses them to make cutout cookies, but not me. When I walked into the kitchen, He-Who-Must-Be-Fed was at his computer searching seriously through a basket of stale Halloween candy. "Oh, hello," he said as if I had arrived from a land more distant than the living room. "Candy corn nearly gone," he said by way of explanation, pulling out a small package of it.

I started on the cookies. He tossed some candy in his mouth.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Figure out how to run the cars on water."

"How does that work?"

"Hydrogen," he said, emptying half a cup of kernels onto his desk.

I continued on task. I got out my miniscule cookie cutters, smaller than those I use for hors d'oeuvres. I cut the dough into triangles and cut a teensy heart out of half of them. Now I had hearts. Waste not! So I put the tiny things on the other half and baked them. Results: unappetizing pieces -- half had no hearts, but bellybuttons, and the rest were plain with warts on top.

Moving the candies around on his desk with his finger, HWMBF asked. "How are the cookies?"

"They have warts," I said.

"Oh," he said and made a row of small, neat piles of stale candy corn, then returned to some diagrams on his computer.

Next batch. I couldn't find my cutting wheel gadget that made scalloped edges. But I found a round tin candleholder with a scalloped edge. I took another sheet of dough. As the edge of the candleholder went round, it swerved into a curve, making odd scalloped pieces. I called them "Angel Wings," but they looked like Pillsbury dough rejects. I brushed them with an egg wash, threw some sugar on them and baked them. Result: They looked like baked and sugared Pillsbury dough rejects.

Chewing candy corn, HWMBF advised over his shoulder: "Needs chocolate."

Third batch: Determined not to be doughed under, I decided to make Beggar Purses. These, invented in a New York restaurant called The Quilted Giraffe, are mini-crepes filled with caviar to serve as appetizers. I already had a sheet of dough out on the board, so I spread apricot jam on it and cut it into eight squares. I gathered the corners up to make a pouch and pinched the tops -- a procedure I employ before taking the trash out. The cookies were OK (about 10 minutes at 350 degrees), but I only had eight of them after using a full sheet. (Tip: For these, take the dough sheets out of fridge, and rest them 5-7 minutes on breadboard before you start. Very carefully stretch the middle of the square a tiny bit for the filling -- about a quarter of a teaspoon. Otherwise the dough may crack as you gather the edges.)

I offered an apricot cookie (now called Santa's Bags) to HWMBF. "Fruit?" he sniffed. "Try chocolate."

I did. On the next sheet, I repeated the process adding (only) one piece of Hershey's Premiere Baking Pieces: Chocolate Raspberry to each cookie. These are tiny raspberry-chocolate boxes, about a half-inch square, and they are to beg for. They will fly off the shelves. Look for them. They are delicious and are pretty enough to enhance a candy dish.

I opened another box of dough sheets, inspired by the camaraderie of cooking by the side of HWMBF, a walking sweet tooth and inventor of new fuels. I decided, that I, too, would triumph by inventing Impossible Cookies from a dough sheet.

I turned to my beloved. "I think these still might be improved upon if I roll the cookie in nuts. How are you coming with hydrogen?"

"It's complicated," he said, putting the last few candy corn kernels in a straight row. "I'm thinking I'll try chocolate."

Have merry hearts in your kitchens this season.

Impossible Cookies

3 sheets of Pillsbury dough sheets (1 box) or your own sugar cookie dough

1 egg

Apricot or favorite jelly on hand

1/2 c. (or more as desired, see note below) toffee bits

1/2 c. ground nuts (optional)

In a small dish, add 1/4 c. water to egg and lightly beat with fork to make an egg wash. Place cookie dough sheet on wax paper, leaving 2 inches of paper all around. Brush egg wash over entire cookie dough sheet. Spread thinly with jam, leaving the top inch without jam. Sprinkle a third of the toffee bits over the egg-washed cookie dough sheet.

Using wax paper to help and starting with longest edge, carefully roll up the dough sheet, jellyroll fashion. If desired, brush entire roll with egg wash and roll in ground nuts. Adjust roll in paper to enclose it completely and freeze, at least two hours.

Remove from fridge 8-10 minutes before you slice into 1/3-inch slices. Carefully place slices on parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until edges very slightly browned. Do not overbake. These are very pretty cookies. Repeat with remaining dough sheets.

Note: If spirals seem to separate during baking, immediately sprinkle a few toffee bits into open spaces while the cookies are still hot. HWMBF says to use chocolate chips. They work, too.

Also, try other holiday ingredients to replace brickle if you'd like -- chopped nuts, fancy sugars or candies might work well.

Sally Ketchum is a northern Michigan food writer.

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