by Joanne Fluke
If you have any coconut mixture left over, form coconut balls, 12 to a baking sheet, put a milk chocolate chip on top of each ball and press it down slightly, and bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.
Norman wants me to make these cookies even chewier – he says it’ll provide more revenue for his dental clinic. (He’s kidding. . . I think.)
GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE COOKIES
DO NOT preheat oven yet – make the cookie dough first.
COOKIE DOUGH:
1 cup salted butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound)
1 cup milk chocolate chips (6 ounce package)
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
2 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour (no need to sift – pack it down in the cup when
you measure it)
FROSTING:
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup tightly packed coconut
½ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup chilled salted butter (½ stick, 2 ounces, pound)
2 egg yolks, beaten
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate chips on HIGH for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth.
In another mixing bowl, mix the sugar and the eggs. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract.
Stir the melted chocolate mixture until it’s fairly warm to the touch, but not so hot it’ll cook the eggs. Add it to the mixing bowl and mix it in thoroughly.
Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition. (Dough will be stiff and a bit crumbly.)
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set it aside while you make the frosting.
Combine the sugar and coconut in a food processor. Mix with the steel blade until the coconut is in small pieces.
Add the chopped pecans. Cut the butter into four chunks and add them. Process with the steel blade until the butter is in small bits.
Separate the yolks, place them in a glass, and whip them up with a fork. Add them to your bowl and process until they are thoroughly incorporated.
Hannah’s Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can make the frosting by hand using softened butter.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Chill the frosting in your refrigerator while the oven’s preheating. It’ll make it easier to work with. This will be especially true if you’ve made the frosting by hand and haven’t chopped the coconut into shorter shreds.
Pat the cookie dough into one-inch balls with your fingers. Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet (or sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray), 12 to a standard sheet. Press down in the center of each ball with your thumb to make a deep indentation. (If the health board’s around, use the bowl of a small spoon.)
Pat the frosting into half-inch balls with your fingers. Place them in each indentation.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Yield: 5 to 6 dozen, depending on cookie size.
HANNAH’S BANANAS
DO NOT preheat oven – this dough must chill before baking.
1 and ½ cups melted, salted butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces,
¾ pound)
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
¾ cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium or 3 small)
1 and ½ teaspoons baking soda45
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour (no need to sift – pack it down in the cup when
you measure it)
2 cups finely chopped walnuts or pecans (measure AFTER
chopping)
½ cup white (granulated) sugar for later
Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Stir in the sugar, beaten eggs, baking soda, and salt. Choose bananas that have black freckles on the skin so that they’re almost overripe. Mash them until they’re smooth (you can do this in a food processor or by hand). Add the banana puree to the mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.
Mix in the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Then cover your bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 4 hours (overnight is fine, too).
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Roll the chilled dough into walnut-sized balls with your hands. (This dough is quite sticky – you can wear plastic gloves if you like, or wet your hands slightly so the dough won’t stick to them.)
Put ½ cup white sugar in a small bowl and roll the balls in it. Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a sheet. Press them down just a little so they won’t roll off on the floor when you put them in the oven. Then return your bowl to the refrigerator and let it chill until it’s time to roll more.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees F., or until they’re lightly golden in color. They’ll flatten out, all by themselves. Let them cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
These cookies freeze well. Roll them up in foil, place the rolls in a freezer bag, and they’ll be fine for 3 months or so, if they last that long.
Yield: Approximately 10 dozen, depending on cookie size.
Lisa’s cousin Beth says these are great when they’re dunked in hot chocolate.
Carrie Rhodes also loves these cookies. She says that middle-aged women should eat bananas every day because they need extra potassium. (I bit my tongue when she said “middle-aged” — Carrie’s at least fifty-five and people don’t usually live to be a hundred and ten!)
*HEAVENLY EGGNOG COOKIES
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
(Not a misprint – that’s two hundred seventy-five degrees F.)
Hannah’s 1st Note: Don’t even THINK about making these if it’s raining or humid. Meringue does best on very dry days. (Winter in Minnesota is usually dry, so they’re perfect for the holiday season.)
3 egg whites (save the yolks to add to scrambled eggs the
next morning)
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon rum extract (you can also use real rum)
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (if you use jarred
ground nutmeg make sure it’s fresh)
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
2 Tablespoons flour (that’s cup)
½ cup finely chopped pecans (chopped almonds or walnuts
are also good)
Separate the egg whites and let them come up to room temperature. This will give you more volume when you beat them.
Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper (works best) or brand new brown parcel-wrapping paper. Spray the paper with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray and dust it lightly with flour. You can also use baking spray (the kind with flour in it) and eliminate the dustingwith-flour step.
Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, rum extract, nutmeg, and salt until they are stiff enough to hold a soft peak.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: To test for soft peaks, just shut off your mixer and tap the egg white mixture with the flat side of your rubber spatula. If the mixture forms a little peak when you remove the spatula and the tip of the peak bends over like a blade of grass in the wind, it’s ready and you can go on to the next step.
Add the cup of sugar gradually, sprinkling it in by quarter cupfuls and then turning the mixer on HIGH speed. Beat hard for ten seconds or so after each sprinkling.
Shut off the mixer and sprinkle in the flour. Turn on the mixer at LOW speed and mix it in. You can also remove the bowl from the mixer at this point and fold in the flour with a mixing spoon or rubber spatula.
By hand, with a mixing
spoon or a rubber spatula, gently fold in the chopped pecans. The object here is not to lose the air you’ve beaten into the egg whites.
Drop little spoonfuls of dough on your paper-lined cookie sheet with a teaspoon. (Lisa and I use a melon scooper at The Cookie Jar.) If you place four mounds in a row and you have five rows, you’ll end up with 20 cookies per sheet.
Bake at 275 degrees F. for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the meringue part of the cookie is firm to the touch and the cookies turn a nice golden color.
Cool the Heavenly Eggnog Cookies on the paper-lined cookie sheet by setting it on a wire rack. When the cookies are completely cool, peel them carefully from the paper and store them in an airtight container in a dry place.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: Your refrigerator is NOT a dry place!
Yield: 3 to 4 dozen delicious cookies that have the eggnog taste even though they don’t have any egg yolks inside.
*KISS MY GRITS COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound) salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon (3 teaspoons) vanilla extract
¾ cup instant grits (I used Quaker Instant Grits Original)
2 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you
measure it)
¾ cup shredded coconut
approximately 60 Hershey’s Kisses chocolate candy
Hannah’s 1st Note: These are simple to make if you use an electric mixer.
Measure out one cup of white, granulated sugar and place it in the bottom of a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of your electric mixer.
Soften 1 cup of salted butter and add it to your mixing bowl.
Beat the sugar and the butter until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Add the salt and the Tablespoon of vanilla extract. Mix them in thoroughly.
Mix in ¾ cup dry, instant grits.
Add 2 cups of all-purpose flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition.
Chop the coconut a little finer with the steel blade in your food processor or with a sharp knife on a cutting board. (I’ve heard some people say that they like the taste of coconut, but don’t like the way it sticks between their teeth. Chopping it finer solves that problem.)
Prepare your cookie sheets by greasing them, spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper. All three methods will work. (I lined mine with parchment paper.)
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-size sheet.
Press a Hershey’s Kiss chocolate candy into the top of each cookie, the point up. If there are any left over, the baker probably needs a dose of chocolate about now.
Bake your Kiss My Grits Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they begin to turn slightly golden around the edges. (Mine took 13 minutes.)
Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely. (If you used parchment paper, just pull the paper over to the rack and leave the cookies on the paper until they’re cool.)
Yield: Makes 4 to 5 dozen scrumptious cookies everyone will like.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: You might want to hold off telling the kids that they’re eating grits until they take their third or fourth cookie.
*LEIGH’S LIME BALLS
DO NOT preheat your oven — these cookies require NO BAKING!
½ cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, ¼ pound) salted butter, softened
1-pound box (approximately 3 and ¾ cups) powdered
(confectioner’s) sugar
6-ounce tube frozen limeade concentrate (You’ll find this in
the frozen juice section at your market – I used Minute
Maid Limeade)
1 Tablespoon key lime juice46
2 drops green food coloring (optional)
1 box (14 ounces net weight) vanilla wafers (I used Nabisco
Nilla Wafers)
1 cup shredded coconut (I used Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut)
Prepare a cake pan by lining it with wax paper. You’re going to use it to hold and refrigerate your lime balls once you’ve made them.
Hannah’s 1st Note: You can use an electric mixer to make these little treats, or you can do it by hand.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: Let the tube of frozen limeade concentrate thaw on the counter while you start mixing the first few ingredients.
If you don’t want to wait for your cold butter to warm to room temperature, you can soften it in the microwave. Here’s how you do it:
Unwrap a stick of refrigerated butter. Put it on a paper plate. Heat it for 5 seconds on HIGH in your microwave. Roll it forward so the topside is now on the side. Heat it for another 5 seconds on HIGH. Roll it forward again and heat it for another 5 seconds on HIGH. Roll it forward for the 3rd time and heat for another 5 seconds. Take the plate out of the microwave and transfer the softened butter to your mixing bowl.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: Check the powdered sugar to make sure it doesn’t have lumps. If it does, you’ll have to sift out the lumps by using a flour sifter or putting it through a fine wire-mesh strainer.
Sprinkle the powdered sugar on top of the softened butter in your bowl and mix it all up.
If the frozen limeade has thawed, add it to your mixing bowl. If it hasn’t, spoon it out of the container, put it into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat it on HIGH for 20 seconds. Stir to see if it’s melted. If it’s not, heat it in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment, until it’s melted. Add the melted limeade concentrate to your bowl and mix it in thoroughly.
Add the Tablespoon of lime juice and mix it in.
Add the green food coloring (if you decided to use it) and mix that in thoroughly.
Crush the vanilla wafers. You can do this easily with a food processor and the steel blade, or in a blender. You can also do it by putting the wafers in a two-gallon-size freezer bag, placing it on the counter, and crushing the wafers with a rolling pin. If you use the rolling pin method, crush half of the box of wafers at a time.
Add the crushed wafers to your bowl and mix them in.
Place the coconut in a medium-size bowl. You’ll be coating your lime balls with it. (I like to put my coconut in the food processor and use the steel blade to chop it even finer. I’ve found that most people who say they don’t like coconut are really not objecting to the way it tastes, but the tendency it has to stick between their teeth.)
Use your impeccably clean hands to form little balls from the mixture. (Lisa and I use a 2-teaspoon scooper at The Cookie Jar.) The balls should be about 1 inch in diameter, approximately the size of bonbons.
When you finish forming each ball, roll it in the bowl of coconut to coat it, and then place it in the cake pan.
When you’ve finished forming and coating all your lime balls and placing them in the cake pan, cover them with another sheet of wax paper and refrigerate them for 2 to 3 hours before serving. If you’re not serving them for several days, place a sheet of foil over the cake pan and secure it tightly. Keep the cake pan in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.
If you’re giving these as gifts, you can place them in pretty cookie tins. You can also put them in little paper mini muffin cups and place them in a candy box. Remember to tell your lucky recipients to keep them refrigerated.
*LEMON SOFTIES
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
1 and ¼ cups white (granulated) sugar
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound) salted butter, softened
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 and ½ cups lemon pie filling (I used Comstock – my can
was 15.5 ounces net weight, and it was exactly 1 and
½ cups)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
the zest of one lemon (that’s only the yellow part of the
lemon rind, finely grated)
3 and ¼ cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup
when you measure it)
1 cup crushed corn flakes (it takes about 2 cups corn flakes
to make 1 cup of crushed corn flakes)
30 red maraschino cherries OR 30 pecan or walnut halves
to garnish your cookies
Hannah’s 1st Note: Unless you have a very strong stirring arm, use an electric mixer to make this cookie dough.
Place the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Place the butter, which must be softened to room temperature, on top of the sugar.
Turn the mixer to LOW and mix for one minute. Gradually increase the speed of the mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently and beating for one minute at each level, until you arrive at the highest speed.
Beat at the highest speed for at least 2 minutes or until the resulting mixture is very light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer down to LOW and add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Continue to mix on LOW speed while you add the salt and the baking soda. Mix until they are thoroughly incorporated.
Measure out a cup and a half of lemon pie filling. With the mixer on LOW speed, add the pie filling to your bowl and mix it in. Then add the lemon juice and lemon zest and mix that in.
Mix in the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. (You don’t have to be exact — just add the flour in 4 increments.)