- This topic has 18 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by Robin Donohue.
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I love your attitude and determination! The recipe looked delicious but complicated to me and, when I read comments about difficulties in finding ingredients, I knew it was for bakers with far more time and patience than I have!
I think a simpler, nut-less option next year might appeal to a segment of our bakers and still be really special for our recipients.This isn’t a question, just hoping it provides a chuckle, don’t take me too seriously.
Holiday Baking enjoyment.
So, I’ve been asked to bake Weezie’s Maple Pecan Christmas cookies to donate to the food bank we bake bread and donate to. I thought, sure why not, how hard could it be?
So,I take a look at the recipe and looked pretty straight forward. I thought cookies were stir up the ingredients, plop about a spoonful on a sheet pan, bake. Little did I know!First I needed ingredients. So I go to the store, got everything but the nuts, so I go and immediately try to find them. Baking aisle? I find these things that looked like they were purchased overseas a couple years ago. Then I thought bulk aisle, and nuts were there. Anybody realize how many types of nuts there are? Of course again I got confused. Was it walnuts,almonds,ooh there’s hazel nuts maybe I should get those? Oh yeah, it was pecans.
Whole,halfs,or pieces? I got pieces. Had all my stuff.So I go home, follow the recipe, get the dough mixed, ready to rock and roll on assembly. I looked at the nuts and figured too big, so I gave them a rough chop with a knife. Then I rolled the balls, put them down on the cookie sheet. Hmm, supposed to make 60, I got 25. Whatever,any smaller my man thumb would flatten them.
I then rolled in the nuts and put them back on the sheet and baked. They came out a lot larger than I remembered, and I thought there’s no way I can get 10 in these boxes, but decided to finish them.
I looked for piping bags, but couldn’t find them, supply issues and all, so I had a plastic bag I used. I thought piping tips were metal but all I found were plastic at the store. So I cut a small corner off and placed the tip. I made the icing, put it in the bag and started piping. Went well for like 3 cookies, decent enough I thought. Then, all hell broke loose, the tip exploded onto the next cookie, icing all over the place! I was like screw it, I’m going to keep going. Needless to say, they were a disaster visually, but I ate them and they tasted great. Looked horrible, not giving those things to anyone!
At that point, I went back to my safe place, making loaves of bread for this wonderful organization I ran into. I’m out of the cookie business, just fyi. 😂
I hope that provides a bit of levity for you all in this busy season. And I truly wish you all happy holidays, however you celebrate them. And I’m sure there will be lots of beautiful cookies for the food banks.
Kim Jamison
Anacortes hub.Katherine – I have a follow up queasiton on the floor. I have some Sequoia and Trailblazer. If I am going to buy a flour at PCC which one do you recommend for the pecan thumb print recipe?
Same. I had great results when I creamed the butter and sugar together until pale and very fluffy. I also held out about 1/4 cup of the flour when I mixed it in, just in case it started to get too dry. I ended up using all the flour, but I think it would be fine with a tablespoon or 2 less, if needed.
Thanks, to both you and Helen! Good tips. Especially interesting what you said about the sugar. The thing is, I am going to try using my flour on hand, which is bread flour. The bread lab says sub whole wheat in any recipe calling for AP, no adjustment needed. But I am anticipating dryness. There’s time so maybe a half batch tomorrow…
Hi all,
I made a triple batch of the cookie recipe and the dough came out soft and workable. A key to making a tender shortbread style cookie (no egg) is to cream your butter and sugars until they are almost at the “whipped” stage, like whipped cream, and having lightened a couple of shades from were you started. You want the sugar to dissolve as much as possible. Sugar is hydroscopic so creates your “wet” component. Then, when adding your flour, incorporate gently and thoroughly, but just to the point it is incorporated. If you beat it too much, you will develop gluten and toughen the resulting cookie. Another tip for the buttercream: sift your confectioners sugar and use your whisk attachment if using a Kitchenaid. You will get a wonderful, smooth icing for piping. I only needed a double batch of icing for a triple batch of cookies. Good luck and happy baking!
Hi Claire,
I’m anticipating having this same situation so hope someone in the know will reply soon!
Deborah
On my test batch of the cookies the dough was pretty dry, forming the balls tricky. How do I get the dough to a better consistency? Beat it a bit more or add a touch of milk?
In the video Barbara commented that her dough was too dry, but we didn’t see how she fixed this. ThxThe embedded video for the cookies that came in the email was great! Can that please be loaded to the video/how to section of website for everyone convenience?
Thank you all for the tips finding maple extract. I did find some at Walmart and later at Safeway.
Anne Wangeman
I found it on Amazon
I ended up finding it on Amazon last year but I also saw McCormicks brand at Safeway recently. Hope that helps.
I am having just a little trouble finding Maple Extract (not at PCC, although they had Maple Flavor and not at Whole Foods – no maple)…so wondering if we can substitute pure maple syrup for the maple extract? and, if so, is it a 1:1 ratio?
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