Lemony Almond Bars, from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
Chocolate Spice Quickies, from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home To Yours
This is the second week in a row I am doing a chocolate cookie recipe from Dorie Greenspan. In terms of technique, these are rather similar to the World Peace Cookies that I did last week, but they are also quite different in result. Here, the cookies are a bit softer, and have a slightly elusive quality. They have both allspice and ground almonds in them, which is probably why. Dorie calls them quickies, and they are and aren't - they are because this is a fairly quick dough to make, and they aren't because the dough then needs to be refrigerated for at least 4 hours before slicing and baking. I like these a lot, and I think they are a bit more complex than the World Peace Cookies (I just asked Andrew, who says it is a close call but thinks the World Peace Cookies edge these out; so much for world peace).
The lemony almond bars are unusual. They won't win any awards for looks, but they are really good. Lemon and almond are not a natural flavor combination, but here it works nicely. These bars involve three steps. First, you make a crust layer, which you bake. While it is baking, you make a topping layer, which is basically eggs, brown sugar and almonds. Put the topping on, bake for 20 minutes. While that is baking, you make a glaze, which involves fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and powdered sugar; when the bars come out of the oven, while still hot you pour the glaze over them, and the glaze is absorbed into the bars. As I said, these are very plain bars, but that makes the big lemon flavor a real surprise. These are a really nice, interesting bar. As far as I know, I haven't made either of these recipes before, and both are good, solid recipes.
Andrew and I leave on vacation on Saturday, so no cookies from us next week - we will be playing in Hawaii for 10 days. But we'll be back for the 27th!
Dharma-Joy
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