The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Fancy Cookie Platter!

sadkitchenkid's picture
sadkitchenkid

Fancy Cookie Platter!

I made these cookies using my great aunt's famous secret recipe. It feels like a betrayal to post it here but it also feels like a betrayal to post this picture without adding a recipe so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post in the comments. These are so good and highly requested that my aunt, no matter how old and tired she gets, makes over twenty batches during the holidays and gifts them to friends, family, and neighbor. Growing up I'd sit on the kitchen floor with her for hours and decorate and snack on hundreds of these. 

Anyway this is one of the platters I made for my friend's wedding tomorrow! Instead of a cake, they wanted tiers of cookie. Long night ahead!  Happy baking everyone! 

 

Comments

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Much better than wedding cake! Are they pistachio?

 

sadkitchenkid's picture
sadkitchenkid

all the cookies are filled with apricot jam, and the ones with the green tips were then dipped in more apricot jam then rolled in finely ground pistachios!

cgmeyer2's picture
cgmeyer2

yummee - please post the recipe. i'm not as talented as you are but i would love to try to make them.

thanks, claudia

 

sadkitchenkid's picture
sadkitchenkid

hi Claudia!

Thank you! these are easy to bake and very easy to decorate beautifully! I'm sure yours can be even more pretty.

The measurements are in cups because my aunt really eyeballs all the ingredients I had to watch her many times and really get a feel for the dough before I figured out the basic quantities. 

ingredients:

3 cups well sifted all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups butter or ghee (ghee makes richer more buttery tasting cookie, butter makes a lighter cookie. If using ghee, place in a bowl and stick in the freezer for about twenty minutes. If using butter, keep at firm room temp.)

1 cup powdered sugar sifted 

2 eggs

2 tbsp vanilla extract or 1/8tsp vanillin powder (we use vanillin)

pinch of salt

---

Whip the butter/ghee while adding sugar slowly until fluffy and almost doubled in volume. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and salt. Stop mixing and gently fold in the flour sifted with the baking powder. The dough will be a little crumbly then come together. Try to work in a cool environment to prevent the fat in the dough from melting and falling apart. Our way of decorating these is placing half the dough in a piping bag fitted with a star tip and piping 3inch long sticks onto a baking sheet (you don't gotta grease it, these don't stick, but I put down parchment to make cleaning easier). The rest of the dough is chilled then rolled out to 1/4in thickness (or your preferred thickness these don't expand to much so what you shape is more or less what you get)  and cut into circles. Use a smaller cookie cutter or piping tip to make smaller holes in the center of half the original circles. Distribute across baking sheets as needed, then bake in a 365F oven for about 12 minutes or until the edges begin to look golden and crisp. My aunt liked to keep them just barely browned, which is what I do also. My dad likes them a bit darker so it comes down to preference. Let the cookies cool down on the cookie sheet before handing. To decorate the star shaped sticks, I place a teaspoon of apricot jam on the bottom flat side of one cookie, then stick another one on top, gently pressing them together. Then dip half of that into a bowl of warmed jam, and roll in ground pistachio. When these sit for a day or so, the pistachio melts into the jam and creates an amazing texture. For the other cookies, take one circle and place a dollop of jam in the center and press another cookie with the holed out center on top.

good luck!

cgmeyer2's picture
cgmeyer2

thank you for the excellent instructions. I hope to make these soon.

claudia