Holiday baking

I wasn't planning on trying a new cookie recipe this week until I saw this one in the NYTimes for Chocolate, Orange and Pistachio Shortbread. What's not to like with that melange of flavors? Mine look just like the newspaper photo and taste lovely. 

The recipe suggests using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. I don't have either and so I used my hand mixer until the dough got too thick. Then I used my hands and mixed the rest of the flour and the chopped sweets into the dough as though I was kneading bread. 

Letting the dough chill overnight in the fridge made it easy to slice even with big chunks of chocolate. The directions were easy to understand and follow, making this a recipe that I will be making again — and again.

Comments

[Ceci]

I had a moment of bafflement about the association between Winston Churchill and shortbread (he does look like a guy who could eat a cookie or two?) and then realized he was on the top of the tin. Probably not a good day to operate heavy equipment with time delay like that!

ceci

[Linda Brazill]

CECI — Too funny. A friend whose mom was from the UK gave me that back in the late1960's. Then on a long-ago trip to Chicago I bought a beautiful tin decorated with a photo of the late Queen Elizabeth for her Silver Jubilee. I always use them to store cookies.

[Kris P]

Yum! I used to make a variety of cookies every year but somehow fell out of the practice (partly due to my husband's dietary restrictions I guess).

[Beth@PlantPostings]

Yum! Those cookies look delicious! I'm trying not to dip into mine too much, so there will be some left for Christmas. ;-)

[Christine]

I know this is a gardening focused blog, but I do love it when you occasionally do food/recipe posts because they’re always good ones. And it looks like you might need a few of those treats and maybe a glass of port to keep you warm in the next couple of days. Brrrrr. Even our little rainy corner of the PNW had 10” of snow and single digit temps. It’s been quite the week.

[Linda Brazill]

BETH — I put a bunch in the freezer to make sure we don't eat them all while we sit by the fire watching the snow!

[Linda Brazill]

CHRISTINE — I think that may be more snow than we're going to get. I am not going to complain since it's the best plant protection with all this cold.