Cherry Macaroons

There is no reason to make these without the cherry, unless you hate cherries, or have an allergy, or run out of cherries, or like me forget when to add the cherry.

This is the final I’ll-be-killed-if-the-women-in-my-family-learn-to-use-the-internet cookie. I dare to post no more…

Cherry Macaroons, or Cherry Macs, are delicious and sometimes found in Chinese buffets.  This is also Manly Squeeze’s favorite cookie.

1 jar of marachino cherries (cut each cherry in half). Optional.

1 1/3 cup of sweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons of flour

1/8 teaspoon of salt

2 egg whites (triple the recipe and use the yolks from Aunt Anne’s.  If you like macaroons.)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1) Preheat oven to 375.

2) Mix 1 1/3 cup of coconut, 1/3 cup of sugar, 3 tbs flour, and 1/8 tsp of salt.

3) Stir in 2 egg whites and 1/2 tsp almond extract.

4) Drop by rounded teaspoon on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Decorate with cherry (as in before baking).

5) Bake 20 minutes

Tips and notes:

Good luck with the rounded teaspoon.  The dough is very sticky and this is another one where you get sticky. Keep the cookies smallish, just the same, because they get fatter when the cook and when you stick in the cherry.

I made these this afternoon and forgot to put the cherry in before baking (which means it doesn’t get in the cookie at all.  You can see the difference in size (but not in non-burnedness) in the picture above.  If making without the cherry, watch the cookie carefully to avoid burning.

Parchment paper, being too close too the bottom of the oven, and temp. variations in the oven can really mess with these cookies.  Coconut is easily burned, I think.  So watch them close.

Aunt Anne’s Stolen Cookies

Aunt Anne’s is the one of the left. Pecan Sandy is the on the right, which is stolen from Better Home and Gardens, Dec 12.

So this recipe is doubly-stolen.  You’re getting it because I broke into my Great Aunt’s house one day (okay I was cat-sitting).  I copied this recipe which she has refused to give out to anyone else in the family… ever.  Not even my grandmother (her sister) has it and so far noone has found out that I make it for friends in the safety of my own kitchen under the cover of night.

Aunt Anne stole it from a classy resturant by flirting with a waiter.  And no, she was not a young woman at the time.  She was an over-weight Italian woman in her mid-fifties, so we’re not sure if he gave it to her out of genuine attraction, or if the cook was flattered when the waiter uncomfortably regaled her with the story of the woman asking to sit in his lap while he whispered his culinary secrets, or if the waiter was just terrified that she’d come back and keep harassing him.

Either way, the cookies are great.

1 ib of sweet butter, chilled (that’s generally 4 sticks for the mathematically lazy and/or challenged)

6 egg yolks

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

5 cups of flour

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

 

1) Sift 5 cups of flour and 1/ cup of sugar in a large bowl.

2) Cube 1 ib of butter into small peices.  Mix with the sifted flour and sugar.

3) Work by hand into the mixture until evenly dispersed (crumb-like).

4) Make a well and add all the liquids (6 egg yolks and 1 tbs lemon juice).

5) Form into a ball (a sticky hot mess of a ball) and chill for an hour.

6)Preheat oven to 350.

7) Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch.  Cut out a circle for the bottom and top.  Seperate an equal number of tops from bottoms.  Then cut out the hearts (I’m trying really hard not to make any inappropriate sex jokes about this, which I guess is just proof that we all turn into our parents).

8) Mysteriously missing step?  Or nervous waiter numbering wrong?  The world may never know…

9) Bake for 12 minutes.

10) Cool cookies. Spread jam onto bottom.  Dip top into confectionary sugar and make into sandwich.

Aunt Annie has not revealed to us the type of jam in the sandwich.  I’m fairly sure, it’s raspberry, but I’ve used strawberry, rubarb, and blueberry.

Tips and Notes:

If you plan on making the cherry macaroons, save the egg whites from this recipe.

The first time I made this, I got holy-shit confused over the well thing.  You basically lump all the dry mix into a mountain, and dig a hole at the top.  Then pour the wet stuff into it.  You then fold the wet into the dry.  I have no idea why the well is important; one of the disadvantages to stealing recipes is that I have never been properly instructed on the nuances of dough-wells.  By the way, you’ll get very sticky while making these cookies; but I promise it’s worth it.

Cutting out the hearts… This requires a special kind of cookie cutter.  I still haven’t found a good one yet (the cookie pictured was made by the Aunt herself).  I have a star which I use with blueberry jelly for a Hannukah cookies and a shot glass which will do in a pinch.  The idea is to have enough dough around the edge of the cookie that it can be handled without falling apart.  I don’t care if the recipe says to make them equal, make more tops, especially on your first time.  They break too easily.  Also consider keeping the cut out hearts (if you have the cutter) and baking them.  They are delightful as well.

Lady Fingers (aka Mom’s Fat Fingers)

Possibly the most unflattering picture of cookie ever…

The next three cookies (Lady Fingers, Cherry Macaroons, and Aunt Anne’s) are feircely guarded secrets in my family.  My mother and aunt would probably gut me and use the vacated cavity as a mixing bowl if they found out I was sharing them and had the imagination.  However, all of my family is about as internet savvy as a killer whale, so I think I’m safe. The Lady Fingers are from Mom and she hates that we call them Mom’s Fat Fingers.

1 cup of soft butter

1 1/2 cup of confectionary (powdered) sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of chopped walnuts

2 cups flour

1) In a large bowl beat butter with a mixer until it’s fluffy.  Gradually add 1 1/2 cup of confectionary sugar until pale and even more fluffy. Beat in 1 tsp vanilla extract.

2) Hand stir in 1 cup of walnuts and flour.  Make sure it is well blended.

3) Chill overnight (or as I recently discovered, put in the freezer for three hours).

4) Pre-heat oven to 300.

5) Cut dough in half (and put the other in the fridge again).  Cut the half your working with into 8 peices (or 12 if you want thin lady fingers, which are very elegant but hard to dip in chocolate).  On a floured surface shape each into a 12″ log and cut each log into 3″ sections.  Cut on a slant.

6) Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Then roll in confectionary sugar (or dip in melted chocolate).

Tips and notes:

Make sure the walnuts are finely chopped (like tiny, tiny peices).  Mom takes the chopped walnuts in the store and puts them in a food processor.  If you have no choice, don’t worry.  Go for fat fingers, though.  Your dough will be extra crumbly, so you’ll need to squeeze the logs and press the dough tightly.  Mom likes to make very embarrassing dick jokes when we do this.

I have no idea where Mom gets this 12″ log into 3″ section business from.  We barely even cut the dough in half anymore when we make it together (Mom’s gotten sloppy with the baking since I stopped believing in Santa Clause).  The cookie will spread as it bakes so make it slightly thinner than you want the end cookie.  I like to make them about as thick as a lady’s finger (not a fat lady either); you get more cookies and they are dainty and you don’t feel as guilty.  Mom lieks then fat so that they don’t break and they dip better in chocolate, jelly, and whatever dessert sauce she’s made for fruit on that particular day.  I say, roll it like a kid with play-dough making worms and don’t let the media pressure to have the perfectly shaped cookie stop you from making your dessert as fat or thin as you damn well please.

When paired with a cherry macaroon and rolled in coarse green sugar (pre-baking), 3 fat fingers can sort of look like holly on a cookie plate.

Also, you can take the cookie dough and roll it into a ball and put a little chocolate chip (like in a chocolate chip cookie) in the center.  Press it down tip side first and roll the dough a little higher around it (basically make a bowl for when the chocolate melts while it’s baking).  When it hardens again after baking, you have a nifty cookie.  I also occassionally hide one cherry bit or chocolate chip inside of a ball of this cookie.  Not exactly a lady finger, but still fun.

Christmas Casserole (Ham and Cheese)

I have no idea where this recipe first came from or what country of origin it’s from, but it is a tradition in this generaton of Longo’s to make Christmas casserole on Christmas Eve and bake it Christmas morning.  It’s a very convenient breakfast that way (if you hate waking up and cooking or if you have children filled with avarice and wonder).  Also great for a brunch.

16 slices of white bread

2 cups of cubed ham

8 oz sharp cheese

1 small can of mushrooms (or fresh if your like that) optional

6 eggs

3 cups milk

1/2 tap salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

… about half a bag of cornflakes.  We’ve never done a real measurement on this.

1/2 cup of melted butter.

 

1) Remove the crusts of the bread.  Butter the bread and place it butter side down in a casserole dish.

2) Add 2 cups of cubed ham, 2 oz of cheese, and 1 can of mushrooms (if you insist).  Place the remaining bread on top.

3) Beat together the 3 cups of milk, 6 eggs, 1/2 tsp of mustard, and 1/2 tsp of salt.  Pour this over the top of the whole thing and cover it with either a lid (if you’re fancy) or alluminum foil.

4) Take out the casserole an hour before hand and let it get to room temperature.

5) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Crush a bunch of cornflakes, enough to cover the entire casserole evenly.  Pour 1/2 cup of melted butter over this, again as evenly as possible.  This stops the cornflakes from burning.

6) Bake for an hour.  Cool and try to figure out how to get out the first peice without destroying it.

Notes and tips:

The removed bread crusts make for a bread pudding that is apparently delicious (another family tradition).  I can’t stand the stuff; so I have no recipe for you.  Other wise, feed the birds?  Is that still legal?

When we were kids, my mom used to let my older sister butter the bread and let me grate the cheese (I’m smarter, see!) while she cubed the ham.  We childs would also crunch the cornflakes.  So it’s a nice recipe to do with kids or other helpers.

When you beat the wet ingredients, beat the crap out of them.  The eggs do not like to join the rest of the party and if it’s not evenly distributed you get random bits of baked egg in the middle of the casserole and not a nice blend.  Basically when you pour there shouldn’t be any overly yellow spots on the bread.  If there are… better luck next time?  It will still be pretty darn good, especially if you like baked egg.

It is very important to let the casserole sit out for an hour.  I don’t know why.  It affects the texture, baking time, and all sorts of things go wrong if you skip this.  The most epic was one time when it blew up in the oven… though the oven was broken and was about 400 degrees by the time we realized what was happening.

On crushing the cornflakes… it’s not a difficult task so don’t sweat it too much.  They don’t need to be a fine powder, but there shouldn’t be any flakes remaining.  I usually crush and grind them in my hands and sprinkle it over the top.  My mom uses a rolling pin and a plastic bag and then crunches them in her hands (still inside the bag).  My sister likes to smash them with the rolling pin and blame the noise on me.

The end texture of the casserole should not be runny (too little baking, too much liquids) or too fluffy (too little ham and cheese).