Peppermint-Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Christmastime ... hmm, 'tis the season! When I was younger, now was the time I'd raid the family freezer plundering it of my mother's homemade Christmas cookies. I could not be stopped. To this very day I remain prideful of my erstwhile cookie thieving ability. Stealth was only a part of my game. Locks could not impede me and were soon broken. The methods and manner of resealing packages became an art. Despicably, so that the finger of blame would point elsewhere, I'd leave false clues. The lower I dove into my bag of nefarious tricks the higher I soared. I have no regrets. Hey! Mom's Christmas cookies were that good! Well, all that was back in the day. Now, I'm making my own cookies. This recipe will get you some pretty good cookies and they're not overly difficult to make. I got the recipe from bon appetit.


Peppermint-Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups - semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups - all purpose flour
1/4 cup - unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp - baking powder
1 tsp - instant coffee
1/2 tsp - salt
1/2 cup - unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
1 cup - sugar
1 tsp - vanilla extract
1 tsp - peppermint extract
2 - large eggs
16 - red-and-white striped peppermint candies, crushed coarsely

Preparations:

Stir 2 cups chocolate chips in metal bowl (breakfast bowl size), set over saucepan of simmering water until melted, stir occasionally. Measure out 2/3 cup melted chocolate transfer to another metal bowl. Reserve for drizzling.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, instant coffee, and salt in medium bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add sugar and both extracts (vanilla, peppermint). Beat until smooth. Add eggs an beat to blend. Beat in melted chocolate (excepting the 2/3 cup which has been reserved). Add the dry ingredients and beat just to blend. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Measure 1 level tablespoonful dough, roll dough between palms to form ball. (Note, if the dough mixture is too gooey to work at this point, you'll need to refrigerate it for at least an hour. The refrigeration, if needed, will firm up the dough making it easier to work with.) Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet (rimmed bake sheet covered with parchment paper). Space the dough balls 1-1/2 inches apart.

Cooking:

Bake cookies in a 375 degree oven for 9 minutes. The cookie tops should be cracked all over, some will be dramatically cracked though most will be subtly cracked. My experience called for 12 minutes.

Remove cookies from oven, cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies and parchment paper to counter top to cool completely.

Rewarm reserved 2/3 cup chocolate over saucepan of simmering water. Using a fork, drizzle chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over, arrange some of the pieces to show their red parts. Chill until chocolate sets, about 20 minutes.

Comments:

Crush the peppermint more finely than that shown in the above photo. Nice cookie to serve cool or frozen.

Grilled Corn

This recipe also includes a spicy butter spread for the grilled corn.

Grilled Corn with Honey-Arbol Chile Butter

Ingredients:

8 - tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room termperature, divided
1 - tablespoon arbol chile powder
1 - teaspoon ground cumin
1 - tablespoon honey
1/2 - teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 - teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 - teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 - teaspoon onion powder
8 - ears of corn, husked

Honey-Arbol Chile Butter spread preparation: Melt two tablespoons butter in small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile powder and cumin, stir for 10 seconds. Remove from heat and transfer to small bowl. Stir in honey and cool. Add oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and 6 tablespoons butter to butter mixture. Mix until smooth. This can be made two days ahead, cover and chill. To serve, bring it back to room termperature.

Grilled Corn: Prepare the grill to medium high heat. Grill the corn for about 13 minutes turning often. You want the corn to be charred in infrequent spots, too much charring will dry out the corn. The charring will carmelize some of the corn's natural sugar and that is the purpose of grilling it unhusked. Some charring is good, just remember, less is more here! Think highly infrequent flecks of charring and you'll be happier with the results.

Final Preparation: Transfer corn to platter. Serve with honey-arbol chile butter.

Comments: I wanted to keep the recipes from my Brrr BQ'd Thanksgiving Day Vegetables separate. Be sure to reference that blog post for a fuller story.

Brrrr BQ'd Thanksgiving Vegetables

First, why would anyone BBQ vegetables on Thankgiving? As this year's Thanksgiving was going to be a shared responsibility, I anticipated a crowded kitchen. I figured there might be too many cooks banging into each other and such things seldom work out very well. Stories anyone? Anyways, for added challenge, this year's Thanksgiving preparations were done on the road. I wasn't the only one facing this challenge as Tim and Lisa (my brother and sister-in-law) also came in from out of town and were charged with the more involved preparations of the turkey and dressing, gravy and other more traditional Thanksgiving type fare.

Thanksgiving Day morning everyone participated in a fun 5 km run/walk. This is an enjoyable tradition which my Dad loves to do every year. It's called the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot and it allows its participants to meet up with friends and family while working up an appetite for the day's big meal! The weather was quite nice for this year's run as we only needed light jackets and many people opted to do without those. The nice weather did not hold though as that afternoon brought in a blustery cold front just in time for the vegetable BBQ! What started out as a BBQ turned into a BRRR-BQ! The food turned out nicely done despite the weather. And, my teeth stopped chattering before the meal's prayer was given so all was good.

For grilling I chose four vegetables, ears of corn, quartered zucchini, a red bell pepper and sliced egg plant. Corn ears are available all year round and are perfect for grilling, easy choice. Eggplants? Well, Dad's garden had just received a hard freeze and that meant a total harvest of all produce, so there were plenty of eggplants too (an earlier eggplant recipe: Dave's Blog: Eggplant Gazpacho). The July 2010 issue of "bon appetit" provided helpful guidance for this recipe. The eggplant recipe is better served at room temperature and that proves advantageous. First you grill the eggplant which can be done up to two hours before serving. This allows you to easily time grilling the corn. You'll need about 15 minutes in order to serve the corn hot along side the other meal preparations.

In order to keep the recipes separate, I have blogged the eggplant lettuce wraps and the grilled corn as separate blog posts. This post will be for the eggplant. Here's the link for the grilled corn: Dave's Blog: Grilled Corn with Honey-Arbol Chile Butter).

Eggplant Lettuce Wraps
Grilling Ingredients:

3 - tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 - red bell pepper, quartered, seeded
1 - 1-1/2 pound eggplant, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick rounds
4 - medium zucchini, halved lengthwise then crosswise

Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 - cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 - teaspoons ground coriander
1-1/2 - teaspoons arbol chile powder
1 - teaspoon garlic powder
1 - teaspoon paprika
1 - teaspoon cumin
1 - teaspoon onion powder
1/2 - teaspoon salt
1/4 - teaspoon cayenne pepper

Alternativly, purchase harissa powder at a middle-eastern grocery.

Additional Ingredients Wraps:

1 - package, large romaine lettuce leaves (about 20 leaves)
10 - lemon wedges for garnish
3 - tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat parsley

Grilling Vegetables:

We want to grill the red bell peppers first and then skin them. Place the quartered bell peppers skin side down on a high heat grill. Cook until the skin is blackened all over, do not turn over. Once cooked, place them into a paper bag for 10 minutes letting them "steam" themselves with their residual heat. Remove from bag and peel the skin off.

After the peppers have come off of the grill turn the grill down to medium. Spread 3 tablespoons of oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place the eggplant rounds and zucchini onto the prepared baking sheet turning to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill for about 10 minutes cooking through. Turn occasionally, they should be charred in spots and show grill marks. Once cooked, return to the same rimmed baking sheet.

Sauce:

Wisk all of the sauce ingredients together.

Final Preparation:

Line platter with lettuce. Cut eggplant rounds crosswise in half, arrange these over the lettuce along the outside edge of the platter working inwards in over-lapping layers. Leave the center empty. Cut bell pepper and zucchini into 1-inch pieces, mound in center. Drizzle some of the sauce over. Sprinkle with chopped flat Italian parsley. Serve with lemon wedges with additional sauce on the side.

To Eat:

Have the diners use a lettuce leaf to wrap some of the vegetables. Their choice for more sauce or a sprinkle of lemon juice.

Comments:

This is a nice showy salad. It has a great convenience in that it is better served at room termperature.