For September 17

Back from Tassajara! Sigh. We had some good food, and good desserts and cookies (and one that falls in the "really?" category, but never mind about that...) Anyway, this Thursday, David Green will be receiving jukai on Thursday night, so our usual schedule is set aside - except for the tea and cookies (uh, sweets) part. And tonight one of our members is giving a recital at USC, so I had to do all my baking last night, which explains why this is being written at 11:50 a.m. rather than 11:50 p.m. Anyway, enough chatter, here is this week's lineup:

Sugar Cookies, from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My House to Yours
Almond Cake, from Alice Medrich, Pure Dessert

I am not sure I have, from the beginning, made a cookie that was simply called a sugar cookie. And I have been feeling recently like I have neglected them and wanted to make some. So here is a simple sugar cookie. Well, since I had a lemon on hand, I did grate the zest and add it to the sugar to give it a subtle lemon flavor, but it was 1 lemon for around 85 cookies, so it is just there in the background. These are a simple cookie - a bit on the crunch side, not soft and chewy (I'll have to do those next, since that is my preference). For those who like simple sugar cookies, this one is a nice recipe.

The cake is a change of pace. This cake has been whispering to me since I bought this cookbook last year. There is a photo of it that is so beautiful....it just says "make me!" Since we are celebrating a jukai this week, I decided to take the plunge and make it. This is an intense cake, not a light and fluffy cake like the birthday cake of our childhood. This is like a torte - rather flat and just packed with almond flavor. This variation on the recipe involves a crunchy almond crust - this is spread on the bottom of the pan and, after the cake is baked, the pan is inverted and removed - leading to a moment of terror as it is inverted and the question of whether the cake is going to come out cleanly hangs there. This time, the cakes came out fairly cleanly. Phew!