Popovers
A tasty breakfast treat
Growing up with five siblings, breakfast was—out of necessity—a pretty straightforward affair, so these were a once- or twice-a-year treat. Years later, while my oldest brother was home taking care of his kids, he perfected the recipe so he could throw a batch together on a weekly basis. Nowadays I like to make them for my wife and daughter, usually during the holidays or long weekends when I have time to cook.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Whip 4 eggs until the color is even and bubbles start to form. While still whipping, add milk, one cup at a time. Add in salt and oil, and whip a little more. Slowly add 2 cups of sifted flour (sift a little out, mix, sift more, continue mixing…)
Thoroughly grease a regular-size muffin pan (or popover pan, should you be so lucky). Pour the batter into the pan; each cup should fill nearly to the top. Bake for 17 minutes at 450°F, then lower the temperature to 350°F and cook another 8–10 minutes, until they’re just slightly browned. The first step will cause them to rise, the second step will firm them up a bit. Be careful not to open the oven door for too long to check on them—they’ll collapse early if the oven heat isn’t consistent.
Once cooled a little, they’ll be easier to remove from the pan. I like to use a rubber spatula around the sides to procure them without flattening too much. Serve with butter, jam, or any other sweet or savory topping that sounds appealing.
Miniature
Pecan Pies
A miniature crowd pleaser
My mother used to make this dessert for the holidays. I watched her teach my young daughter how to make them, patiently walking step by step through the process in my kitchen. After they finished, I saw my daughter shyly, but proudly, serve them to a ravenous crowd of cousins who were more interested in consuming them than hearing about the process of making them. When I eat these little guys, they remind me of family holiday parties, singing carols by the piano with my grandparents, multi-colored lights on the tree, and candles on the side tables.
Ingredients
Pastry Crust
Filling
Directions
Blend butter and soft cream cheese until creamy. Add 1 cup sifted flour. Divide mixture into 16 balls and press into tiny muffin tins. Mix filling ingredients together.
Fill cups with the filling mixture. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 250°F and bake for 10 minutes or until done. Let stand a few minutes before removing from tins.
Frosted Sugar Cookies
Mark’s colorful cutout sugar cookies
It started out as a simple division of labor: my mom would bake the cutout cookies and prepare the frosting, and it was up to the rest of us to get the frosting on the cookies. It didn’t take long before we were trying to one up each other with the decorating. Some of us would come up with clever decorations or interpret the cutout shape in non-obvious ways; some of us painted elaborate pictures with the frosting. We would add water or wait for the frosting to dry to get different effects on the cookie, and carefully apply sprinkles as finishing touches.
The prize cookie to paint is the blob: the last bit of dough that didn’t fit into a cutout was a freestyle sugar canvas. The blob was only to be trusted to someone that demonstrated enough focus and inspiration to deserve it. Past blobs featured nativity scenes, a Rembrandt style Santa Claus, and aliens celebrating the holidays. Of course, every year the division of labor reasserts itself, because while some of us spend our time on just a few cookie masterpieces, the rest of us make sure every cookie gets some frosting.
Ingredients
Directions
Cream shortening and sugar; add extracts. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add milk. Sift together dry ingredients and mix in. Roll out to about ¼".
Bake at 375°F for about 10 minutes; be careful not to brown. Makes about 12 dozen cookies. For the frosting, melt a half stick of butter and a couple cups of powdered sugar, beat together, and add boiling water until you get the desired consistency.
Biscotti
Ethel’s famous Biscotti
My grandmother’s signature biscotti was always available in her house, but especially during the holidays. In an attempt to make her signature treat famous, she sent this recipe to Oprah in the hopes that Oprah could submit it to Pillsbury’s annual bake-off. Unfortunately the letter was sent to wrong address and it never made it to Oprah’s studio (or Pillsbury), but we still make it every year in honor of my grandmother and her almost big break.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar and oil, add eggs and almond extract. Add flour and almond slices, mixing well. Dust cookie sheet with flour, and with floured hands, form two logs about 1" high.
Bake 20-25 minutes, then remove from oven and slice each log on the diagonal into ½" slices. Place slices on their sides and bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven, turn slices on to their other side and bake an additional 10 minutes.
Chocolate
Cream Pie
James’s holiday staple
I’m not big on desserts in general, but I always like to have chocolate cream pie around the holidays. This is the type of treat that makes me very nostalgic and reminds me of my childhood. Now that I have my own children and host our family for the holidays, I’m really glad to keep these simple traditions alive.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat milk, marshmallows and chocolate in a 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate and marshmallows are melted and blended. Refrigerate about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon.
Beat whipping cream in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Fold chocolate mixture into whipped cream. Pour into pie shell. Refrigerate uncovered about 8 hours or until set.
Garnish with milk chocolate curls and whipped cream if desired. Immediately refrigerate any remaining pie after serving.
Molasses Cookies
A snappy spin on a molasses classic
These cookies are an adaptation from my Aunt Alice, who is constantly making cookies for everyone in her extended circle. My aunt worked as a pharmacist at the Cleveland Clinic for 30 years, and when I was away at college, cookies would arrive in recycled pharmacy supply boxes labeled “Human Immunoglobulin Solution.” This made it easy to camoflauge the gingersnaps if I didn’t feel like sharing with roommates.
Ingredients
Directions
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together. Heat butter in 10" skillet over low until melted. Whisk in spices, and let cool for about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, molasses, and fresh ginger to butter mixture, then egg and yolk, whisking to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Cover the dough and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 300°F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place granulated sugar in shallow dish. Divide dough into heaping teaspoon portions and roll into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sugar to coat, and evenly space dough balls on baking sheets.
Bake for 10-14 minutes (depending on your preference between chewy and crispy cookies). Since cookies are already a golden-brown, it can be difficult to tell when they are done. These have been adapted from Alice’s original recipe; I use butter (she uses the equivalent amount of shortening to keep hers dairy-free) and also prefer a snappier cookie; some of the small children in my family find them a little overly assertive. For the classic snap, omit fresh ginger and pepper, and reduce the ground ginger to 1 tablespoon.
Rugelach
A treat well-suited to winter months
My mom and I teamed up to make rugelach last year and we baked a batch of apricot and raspberry. The best part of baking them is rolling up and slicing the dough for each pastry (very satisfying) and eating the leftover glazed apricot shards when you’re done baking (very delicious). Rugelach are surprisingly filling—a fun treat to offer friends and family not yet acquainted with this cookie, who are intrigued by the shape and may even try to pronounce the word ‘rugelach.’ Pretty much an all purpose treat, but well-suited to winter months.
Ingredients
Directions
Let butter and cream cheese soften, beat until light and fluffy, add in salt. Add flour, beating until it disappears. Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a flattish disc, and chill for at least 8 hours. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line bottom of a large shallow baking pan with parchment paper. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Chill 3 pieces, wrapped in plastic wrap, and roll remaining piece into a 12 x 8" rectangle on a well-floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Transfer dough to a sheet of parchment, then transfer to a tray and chill while rolling out remaining dough in same manner, transferring each to another sheet of parchment and stacking on tray.
Whisk ½ cup sugar with cinnamon. Arrange 1 dough rectangle on work surface with a long side nearest you. Spread ¼ cup preserves evenly over dough with spatula. Sprinkle ¼ of the chopped nuts and dried fruit, and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon sugar. Using parchment as an aid, roll up dough tightly into a log.
Place seam side down on lined baking pan, pinch ends closed and tuck underneath. Make 3 more logs in same manner and arrange 1 inch apart in pan. Brush logs with egg wash and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of remaining granulated sugar. With a sharp large knife, cut logs into 10-12 individual pieces (If dough is too soft to cut, chill until firmer, 20 to 30 minutes.) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Icebox Cookies
Grandma Phippie’s icebox cookies
My grandmother Phippie and I have baked Christmas cookies together every year for as long as I can remember. I have fond childhood memories of being in her kitchen, decorating dozens of sugar cookies to look like Santas or Christmas trees. These icebox cookies are an old family recipe that she remembers from her childhood and has been making for the holidays pretty much her whole life. I don’t help her make them, but I eat way more than my fair share every year–my uncle and I usually compete over who can eat more. Icebox cookies are special to me because they’re a part of my family’s Christmas tradition that really highlights my Southern roots.
Ingredients
Filling
Topping
Directions
Line a 13 x 9" pan with whole graham crackers. Melt the butter in saucepan and add sugar. Beat the egg and milk together; add to butter mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the nuts, coconut, and 1 cup graham cracker crumbs. Pour over the crackers in the pan. Cover with another layer of whole graham crackers.
For the topping, beat all the ingredients together and spread over the top layer of crackers. Chill until firm, and cut into squares.
Lemon Squares
A dessert for the most discerning of tastes
My family makes a lot of Italian cookies for dessert around Christmas—basically everything is covered in anise frosting. For someone that is not a huge fan of licorice, this makes it a struggle to satisfy my never-ending hunger for cookies. But thankfully, there are always my Grandma’s lemon squares. Pretty much just a stick of butter covered in sugar and some lemon juice, these little bad boys will seduce even the stingiest of dessert eaters. No one is safe.
Ingredients
Cookie bottom
Lemon top
Directions
Sift together 2 cups flour and confectioners sugar, cut melted butter into flour and sugar mix until mixture holds together. Press mixture evenly into a 13 x 9 x 2" pan, and bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool, and leave the oven on.
Meanwhile, to make the lemon filling, beat together eggs, granulated sugar, and lemon juice. Sift together ½ cup flour and baking powder. Stir baking powder and flour mix into the egg mixture.
After the bottom is baked, pour lemon mix over the baked crust, and set the bars into the oven for another 25 minutes at 350°F, or about five minutes beyond the point where the filling is set. Let cool, and sift lemon bars with confectioners sugar.
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies
Santa’s favorite cookie
When I was young, my mom would insist that these were Santa’s favorite cookies. He wouldn’t go for sugar cookies or gingerbread–he really wanted these ones. They’re easy to make and delicious so I didn’t mind. Plus, getting to roll the dough in sugar before baking it was just the right kind of messy fun for a toddler. These are still always a hit when I make them today, and the hint of espresso offers something different from the typical holiday cookie fare. So if you want to make Santa (and the rest of your family) happy this season, give these a try!
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a cooling rack with paper towels. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and coffee until well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar and brown sugar and beat until combined. Stir in the flour mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips. Put the granulated sugar in a small, shallow bowl. Scoop out about 1 tbsp. dough and flatten it slightly into a disk.
Dip one side into the granulated sugar and then set the disk, sugar side up, on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the disks about 2 inches apart. Bake until the edges start to darken, 12 to 14 minutes (Begin checking after 12 minutes, but don’t be tempted to remove them too soon.)
Let the cookies cool for 1 to 2 minutes on the baking sheets. Transfer them to the paper-towel-lined racks to cool completely. Bake the rest of the dough the same way.