chanukah cookie gifts

This has been such a dud of a year, I wanted to bring myself some cheer by making lots of holiday cookies. As a nice bonus, this effort left me with many dozens of cookies to share with our friends and family. I made up little boxes of cookies for each family, and then H and I drove them around and delivered them to everyone's porch. I challenged myself to make only new recipes, and I tried to balance the flavors and textures. In an ordinary year, I would have looked for cute containers, but I'm trying to limit how many stores I go to, so I went with the take-away containers that came in a pack of 10 at Pavilions, made prettier with some cute gold and silver ribbon. 

Here's what we've got from top left, going clockwise:

1. Fudge (I made 3 recipes, and I really didn't like any of them, and one had to flat out get thrown away)
2. Brown sugar cookies
3. Chubby Rocco cookies
4. Salted chocolate sables with caramelized white chocolate
5. Cranberry lemon bars
6. Royal family cinnamon meringue cookies

I actually liked quite a few of the cookies, but the cranberry lemon bars were my favorite! They were based on a NY Times Cooking recipe. The crust and lemon part were quite similar to my own recipe, and several commenters said there wasn't enough lemon filling, so I decided to just use my own recipe and add the cranberry layer. It's basically a very simple, sort of jammy, cooked cranberry filling flavored just with sugar and lemon and lime zest. I already had some mixed lemon and lime zest, which I didn't exactly measure; I just hucked it in there. I also didn't read the directions super well, and I inadvertently omitted the three tablespoons of water, which probably made it a little thicker than it might have otherwise been, but it was delicious as it was. Feel free to use anything from 0 to 3 tablespoons of water, as you prefer. (<rant> For the record, the recipe didn't list water in the ingredient list. While I certainly have water available and don't have to go out and buy it, I think as a matter of good recipe writing practice, all the ingredients should be listed in the ingredient list so the cook makes sure to account for all of them! <end rant>)

Here's the recipe. I'll talk about the other recipes in a future post.

Cranberry Lemon Bars

Crust Ingredients

2 cups (8 ½ ounces) flour

1/2 cup (2 ounces) powdered sugar

1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter

Filling Ingredients

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2 cups (14 ounces) sugar

1/4 cup (1 ounce) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup (2 ounces) lemon juice

 

(Optional) Cranberry Filling Ingredients

12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries

2/3 cup (4.65 ounces) sugar

3 tablespoons water

Zest of 2-3 lemons and/or limes

Glaze

1 cup (4 ounces) powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Prep the cranberries first so they will be relatively cool when you go to spread them over the crust.

Combine cranberries, sugar, and 3 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan. Zest lemons or limes into the saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Continue boiling, stirring occasionally, and continue to cook until the berries burst and the mixture is jammy, 7-9 minutes. Turn off heat, set aside, and let cool. (Note: I didn’t notice you were supposed to use water, and I didn’t, so clearly you can skip it or reduce it.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together the crust ingredients with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until crust is light golden brown.

While crust is baking, prepare lemon filling.

Mix together eggs, sugar, flour, and baking powder thoroughly. You can just stir it all together with a whisk. Add lemon juice and beat well. (I usually wait until the crust is nearly done baking before I add the lemon juice, mainly so the filling will be well-incorporated when I pour it over the crust.) 

Spread the cranberries evenly over the crust using an offset spatula to get it everywhere. Pour lemon filling carefully over cranberry layer and return to oven. Bake 25-30 minutes. Don't let it get too dark brown; I sometimes bake it as little as 22-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to make a relatively thin glaze. Drizzle over lemon bars. I usually use an offset spatula to smooth the glaze over the whole pan of lemon bars evenly.

Allow glaze to dry, then cut into small squares. I usually cut 40-48 small lemon bars.