Coconut Macadamia Biscotti | Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014

It’s cookie swap time! This is my 3rd year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. The first year I made my ma’s recipe for the most amazing maple waffle cookies, and last year I made insanely good peppermint mocha icebox cookies. And this year? 

This has been a really tough year for me, with lots of tears and heartache. I almost wasn’t able to participate in the swap this year due to my recent posting hiatus, but luckily the head gals in charge have super big, warm, fuzzy hearts! Participating in this event seriously gave me the motivation I needed to get in the holiday spirit and start recipe planning and blogging again! So, I wanted my cookie to be all about the big, warm, fuzzy, heart-shaped part of my life, which is… 

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013: Peppermint Mocha Icebox Cookies

For the second year in a row, I participated in THE BEST COOKIE SWAP EVER: The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! Last year I made Maple Waffle Cookies for the swap. This year, I decided to go minty and chocolaty.

I’m pretty much obsessed with peppermint. When peppermint ice cream starts popping up in stores I go crazy. It’s so good! And I’ll even bend my no-sugar, no-flavorings-in-coffee rule for peppermint mochas. Chocolate, coffee, peppermint...seriously, put that in my stocking this year!

I had seen peppermint mocha cookies before, but usually in drop-cookie form, with pieces of crushed candy cane mixed in the dough. I wanted to make something new, so I decided to do slice and bake cookies (icebox cookies), and then dip them in chocolate and coat that in crushed candy canes.

Sidenote #1: crushed candy canes are the most beautiful thing ever. It’s like sparkly white and pink glitter snow.

Sidenote #2: crushing candy canes kind of sucks. I put them in a big freezer sized ziplock, then wrapped that in a hand towel, then beat it with a hammer. Then, because I’m crazy and wanted perfect tiny little speckles, I sifted out the big chunks. #imcrazy

I love icebox cookies because they’re so easy. You can make the dough, then roll it in logs (which, unfortunately, resemble a friendly little Christmas cartoon named Hanky), and then freeze. Then you can fully clean your kitchen, listen to some holiday tunes, watch Home Alone, drink some hot buttered rum, get a good night’s sleep, and wake up the next day, bright eyed and ready to slice and bake!

Sidenote #3: I love the word icebox. Oooh, how retro. How very Madmen of you, Amber!

Also, thanks to the espresso powder, these cookies are super chocolaty. Like, majorly so. Like tiny little cookie shaped brownies. You’ll die ten times. Then you’ll add that cool pepperminty crunch of the crushed candy canes, and you’ll die a few more times. Probably 15 times in all.

Guys. Seriously.

Peppermint Mocha Icebox Cookies

Very loosely adapted from this recipe 

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup quality unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup dark or semi sweet chocolate chips

8-10 candy canes, crushed

Whisk flour, cocoa, espresso powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

In bowl of stand mixer, beat sugar, vanilla, and egg on high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add butter and continue to beat on high speed until smooth, about 3 more minutes. Using your fingers, work flour mixture into butter mixture until dough is just combined. It will be sticky and a little difficult to work with, but it's all worth it!

Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 9" log. Wrap each log in parchment paper, twisting ends tightly to make a uniform longs. Freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dough and slice each log into rounds about 1/3 inch thick. Place rounds 1/2 inch apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake until cookies are slightly puffy, about 8-9 minutes. Let sit on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to a rack to cool. Be careful, they're really soft at first. 

Let cookies cool completely. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl or over a double boiler, stirring until smooth. Dip each cookie half-way in the chocolate (I tried to dip only on the top), and then dip in crushed candy canes. Set on wax paper to harden. Let cool completely. 

Enjoy!

Wait, there's more!

Looking for more recipes from the cookie swap? Check out the blogs of my random matches: the bloggers I sent these bad boys to, as well as the bloggers who sent cookies to me!

Strudel and Streusel

Thirty Five Ninety Five
Pudgie Pies

A Family Feast

DESIGN + LIFE + KIDS

It's Good to be the Cook

Fresh Take on Fruitcake

You voted, and because of you (or, more appropriately, thanks to you) fruitcake is gettin' a makeover. I don't mean thanks to you because fruitcake needs a makeover, I actually kinda like the stuff. I don't understand why it gets a bad rap. Maybe it's because of the bright neon candied fruits, or the fact that it weighs more than a bowling ball. But I mean, it's not all bad. It's boozy, fruity, spicy…hello, holiday classic! 

Some classics shouldn't be effed with. It's a Wonderful Life, candy canes, and the holly-jolly fat man himself…those are classics that should remain the same. Some classics, however, deserve a makeover. And what better way to freshen up fruitcake, than by turning it into…cookies? COOKIES! FRUITCAKE COOKIES! YES! 

Swap out those tooth-achingly sweet candied cherries with brandy soaked dried fruit, and then wrap it all up in a spicy shortbread-esque dough. Roll it, slice it, bake it, eat it… and then wonder why the hell you've never made fruitcake cookies before!

Fruitcake Cookies

Adapted from Ina Garten

• 1/2 cup of each of the following, coarsely chopped:
• dried cherries
• dried apricots
• dates
• dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• zest from one lemon and one orange
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 tablespoons brandy
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 large egg
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• raw sugar

Combine dried fruits, nuts, zest, brandy, honey, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Let sit overnight at room temperature.

Cream butter, cloves, superfine sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth. With the mixer on low, add the egg and mix until incorporated, then slowly add the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt just until combined. Add the fruits and nuts, and stir to combine. Divide the dough in half and place each half on the long edge of a 12 by 18-inch piece of parchment paper. Roll each half into a log, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4-inch thick, making an 18-inch-long roll. Refrigerate the dough for several hours, until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Before slicing, roll each log in raw sugar. Cut the logs into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place the slices 1/2-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

'Tis the Season

My first round of holiday baking this Christmas season was not full of snowflakes, jingle bells, and angels getting their wings. It was a little more “Bad Santa” than “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Well, maybe not fully Bad Santa, but it left me wanting a drink.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a baking failure. I mean, sure, sometimes I bake stuff that isn’t ahhhmazing, but generally it’s pretty good, or at the very least, edible. My first batch of holiday cookies this year, however, was a different story. And my second batch.

I whipped up my chocolate chai biscotti—generally a no brainer. That is, until my flour canister came up empty, and I used the end of the flour bag that had been in my cupboard. My spice cupboard. I didn’t even think twice about it, until I tasted the biscotti...chocolate with a faint undertone of onion, garlic, and curry does NOT scream Christmas. But, not to be deterred, I opened a new bag of four, and started over. I mixed my butter and eggs, measured out my fresh flour, cocoa powder, and…sugar? I was out of sugar! I decided to move forward anyway, with only half the amount of sugar. I figured the chai mix, cocoa, and vanilla would make up for it. I even added a little extra cinnamon, sure that it would help.

Can you imagine what a mouth full of cardboard with a heaping spoonful of cinnamon would be like? Well, I think it would be pretty similar to my second batch of biscotti. It was dry and hard to swallow, it tasted bitter… it was almost worse than the first! For some reason, at that point, I thought that making the icing extra cinnamonie would add something to the biscotti. It did…it added more moisture-sucking cinnamon. Another batch of biscotti… in the trash. A couple of hours, 2 sticks of butter, a bag of chocolate chips, 6 eggs, a destroyed kitchen, and a frazzled Amber later…and I had no baked goods to show for it.

I’m not a Grinch, or a Scrooge, or even that magician that constantly tries to foil ol’ Frosty the Snowman, so I stared over the next day…without biscotti. This time I made Dori Greenspan’s insanely chocolaty World Peace Cookies with crushed candy cane bits, buttery Almond Brown Sugar Cookies from Gourmet, and soft, slightly chewy spice cookies.

It was a holiday baking miracle on 24th street, after all.

Better Than Biscotti Spice Cookies

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons molasses
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 large baking sheets, or use parchment.

Whisk together flour, spices, and salt- set aside. Stir baking soda into warm water in a cup until dissolved, then stir in molasses. In stand mixer (or with handheld) beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in baking soda/molasses mixture until combined well, then beat in flour mixture until just combined.

 Roll teaspoon size balls of dough and arrange them about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Flatten balls into 1 1/4-inch rounds with tines of a fork. Bake cookies until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Enjoy while watching White Christmas and NOT making Biscotti.