Bird's Nest Cookies

Gotta give it to Ina.  In her book "Barefoot Contessa Family Style," she shares this wonderful recipe.  So, I'm not claiming as my own due to the fact that it's wonderful as-is.  Only thing I'm claiming is the name :)  Originally know as "jam thumbprints," but now known as the "birds nest cookie."

- 3 sticks butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 egg mixed with 1 tbs water for an egg wash
- 3 cups sweetened flaked coconut
- Any flavor jam you like - I used some left-over spiced cranberries I made for the holidays, but apricot jam also tastes wonderful

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixer, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.  Gradually add the flour and salt until dough comes together.  Dump onto a floured surface and form into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for only 30 minutes (or it will get too hard to work with).

Remove dough from the fridge and form 1 inch round balls.  Dip each ball of dough into the egg wash, the press into the coconut.  Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets 1 inch apart - they won't expand much.  Flatten slightly and use a finger to make a depression in the middle of each cookie.  Using a spoon, place enough of your desired jam in the center of each cookie to fill the indentation, but don't overfill because the jam will boil off the sides of the cookie and burn.

Bake for about 25 minutes until the coconut has browned nicely.  Keep an eye on them while they bake, turning the baking sheets as needed to bake the cookies evenly - the coconut is prone to burn!

 

The cookies taste best when cooled. Enjoy, and thank Ina!

Mexican Pecan Bars

Initially, I had little faith in a recipe that combined cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, and pecans, but who knew...it's pretty darn good after a couple of tweaks and about 6 go-arounds!  This is definitely a go-to recipe that is sure to please.  Because they are so sweet and rich, they are great cut into small squares for little "poppers."

Cookie Base

- 3/4 cup room temperature butter

- 2 cups flour

- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

- 1 cup chocolate chips (approximate)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cookie base, start by greasing a 9x13 inch baking pan.  Combine all ingredients (except chocolate chips).  The mixture will be very crumbly, which is ok, but make sure that the butter is pretty soft, or it will be hard to get everything to come together.  Press the dough into the greased baking pan.   Bake in the oven until firm and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.   When removed from oven, spread chocolate chips over the hot cookie base and let rest for a few minutes until melted.  When melted, carefully spread melted chocolate chips over the base.

Pecan Topping

- 3 cups roughly chopped pecans

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

- 1/3 cup honey

- 2 tbs milk

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Feel free to start preparing this mixture while the cookie base is baking.  In a medium sized saucepan placed over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add in the brown sugar, honey, milk and salt.  Gently cook for 1-2 minutes until all sugar is dissolved and mixture has bubbled throughout.  Turn off heat and stir in pecans. 

Spread pecan mixture over cookie/chocolate base and bake at the same temperature for around 20 minutes until the pecan filling is bubbling in middle as well as on the edges.   The color should not change dramatically. 



Remove the bars from oven and let them cool completely before cutting.  I wouldn't speed the cooling process up in this situation by putting the bars in the fridge or freezer, or the caramel becomes a rock.  Just be patient, and in about an hour, you can eat all the bars you want!

Don't expect them to stick around too long...enjoy!



Traditional Apple Pie

I just love it when I find that recipe that never seems to fail.  Now if the person using that recipe goofs, that's another story - believe me it happens all the time in my kitchen!  But nevertheless, there's nothing better than tweaking a recipe to just your liking.  After doing some research and experimenting myself with various recipes, I have finally come up with an almost fool-proof apple pie recipe that is sure to impress....while not being too too hard to whip together.

One tip that helps keep the crust flaky (even after reheating multiple times for leftovers) is to add a splash of vinegar to the ice water that goes in to the pie crust.  Weird, yes.  But it's incredible how it works!  And don't worry, no vinegar flavored crust :)

Perfect Pie Crust
- 12 tbs (1 1/2 sticks) very cold butter, cubed
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, also very cold in cubes
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbs granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (about) water mixed with 1 tsp white vinegar, with ice added to make it very cold


Take the cubed butter and shortening, put it in a bowl and place in the freezer to get very cold...this is the key to flaky (and not tough) crust.  The colder, the better.  Decide if you will make the dough by hand or in the food processor....

By hand:  Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a cold metal bowl (previously stored in the freezer).  Add the cubed butter and shortening, and "cut" into the dry ingredients using either a bread dough blender tool, or literally two sharp knives.  Tedious, yes, but results are good!  The goal is to not "mush" or melt the butter, so I would not use your hands.  Do this until the butter is the size of peas.  Add 6 or 8 tbs of the iced liquid, enough to make the mixture form into a ball when mixed (you can do this part with your hands, but don't overwork).  Follow further directions below.

In food processor:  Mix flour, salt and sugar with a few pulses.  Add the cubed butter and shortening, pulsing until they are the size of peas.  With machine running, pour iced liquid down the feed tube, pulsing until a crumbly dough forms...this will take about 6-8 tbs of the liquid...add less or more of the liquid as needed. The dough will be pretty crumbly, as you can see in the picture to the left.

Dump the dough onto floured board and form into two rough balls, wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  The goal is to actually be able to still see chunks/flecks of butter in the finished dough....it means super flaky crust!

Apple Filling
- 8 large apples (I used half granny smith and half braeburn)
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus some extra for the top
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon (or to taste)
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tbs water for the egg wash
- 1 or 2 tbs cubed butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Peel and core apples.  Cut each apple quarter into three or four slices depending on size of apple.  Combine the apples with the lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon.  If it's not sweet enough, you can add more sugar.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll one ball out on a floured surface (for me, this was my kitchen floor lined with plastic wrap...hey, you do what you have to do!), making the rolled out dough large enough to drape over the pie dish by about an inch around all sides.  I use the rolling pin to transfer the dough to the dish, as you can see below.

Fill the pie with the apple mixture.  Sprinkle 1-2 tbs sugar on the top, and tuck in small bits of cubed butter around the apples.  Brush the edge of the bottom pie crust with the egg wash to help it adhere to the top layer of pie dough.

Roll out the top pie dough in the same manner as the bottom, and place over the apple layer, making sure there is about 1 inch overlap of dough on the edges.  Roll up both layers of dough together along the edges to form the crust, and crimp/press with the handle of a fork as desired to create classic crust look. 

Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash, and sprinkle with around 1 tsp sugar.  Lastly, cut three slits on the top of the pie for vent holes.  Bake in the oven for 1 hour, to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until top is golden brown, juices are bubbling and apples are cooked (you can use a knife and slip it through one of the slits in the crust to check the apples).  There will be lots of juices if you cut into it immediately, but if you wait about 30 or 45 minutes, it will still be warm and most of the juices will have been reabsorbed.

Serve the pie warm with some vanilla ice cream. Yum!