For February 9

Light and dark, light and dark...

Blondies
Pecan and Cacao Nib Sables

both from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

After last week's re-debut, it is back to the regular schedule now.  I had to start cooking on Monday night this week, a day early, which meant planning on Sunday night.  When I am feeling a bit time-stressed, I just reach for the familiar and reliable, which for me means any cookbook by (a) Dorie Greenspan or (b) Alice Medrich.  In this case, Alice's book, which is just hundreds of pages of cookie recipes, won out, so I grabbed it on the way to the office and figured out what I needed during the day, did my workout at the gym after work, shopped for ingredients and started making cookie dough.  (And, of course, tried to catch up on Downton Abbey after falling 2 weeks behind, but I digress....)

The blondies were new - I had made brownies last week, and I needed a "tray" cookie (i.e., yummy but not too time demanding to make them), so I was happy to try a new blondie recipe.  Blondies can be a bit tricky, because they don't have the chocolate, and in many ways the chocolate will cover many sins.  Blondies, on the other hand, use few ingredients, and if they are just so-so, it is starkly obvious.  These turned out pretty well.  One batch I made was a little overcooked, but the larger pan, the 13 x 9 inch pan I made for Zen Center, was better - a bit cooked at the center but the inside was chewy without being underdone, and the brown sugar component - the key to blondies, so use good brown sugar - came through nicely.  This particular recipe calls for a good amount of walnuts, half of which are added to the recipe and the other half are sprinkled on top along with lots of chocolate chips.  Nothing sophisticated about this recipe, and it would be great with a glass of milk.

The second item was another, favorite variant on sables, the French version of a shortbread.  The basic recipe is like a shortbread or sugar cookie, and then we add cacao nibs and chopped roasted pecans, which together give a very earthy, nutty flavor to the cookie.  These are a slice and bake cookie and require refrigeration; in this case, I made the dough on Monday and baked it on Wednesday, and they ended up being really nicely.  With a stand mixer, this is an incredibly easy recipe, and since the dough will keep just about forever in the freezer, it would be a perfect thing to make, freeze and have on hand when you need to make a few cookies.  Highly recommended!

OK, next week I have a big filing on Friday, so someone else will be baking for Zen Center while I stress out about details involving PVC pipe manufacturing and standards for tensile strength testing.  Woohoo!  See you in two!

Dharma-Joy