Serving up treats for a no-cake wedding
By JIM WEBSTER St. Petersburg Times
The bride said she wanted cookies, not a cake.
From photography to flower arranging, friends pitched in to make this wedding special, and I volunteered to bake. When she asked for cookies, I was sure she was just trying to take it easy on me. So I talked her up to cupcake-sized mini layer cakes. There would be two flavors, and they would look like tiny wedding cakes.
Whatever I made, I was making it for 150 people and was going to have to transport it almost 1,000 miles, to just outside Washington, D.C.
While exploring options for making and transporting the cakes, friends thought I was insane to try to move that many cakes that far. But I was sure I could do it. I even got about half of the cakes baked, cut, iced and stacked before I realized two things:
Fondant is not my friend.
It was going to take A LOT of room to move that many cakes, even as mini as they might be. Probably more than I had. And it wasn't a matter of if there would be damage, just how much.
Ten days before the wedding, I sent the bride a text: "So, how do you feel about cookies?"
It became clear that was what she really wanted all along. I was more disappointed at my cake failure than she was.
The bride requested two flavors for the cookies, chocolate-hazelnut and lemon. About 100 of each. That should be plenty.
But after talking it over with mutual friends, we decided that if we were going to go with cookies, we were going to have to go big. If there were cupcakes on the table, people would probably limit themselves to one. Maybe two. But cookies? We imagined people starting out with three or four -- and coming back for more.
What we needed was a cookie explosion.
We decided that there would be cookies in the two requested flavors. And we needed a cookie based on a favorite snack of the couple: Chocolate-covered pretzels. I enlisted two friends who contributed favorites of theirs, and next thing you know, I was packing a cooler full of 600 cookies into a minivan and making my way to I-95.
With the help of a friend, we set up a tiered table, with a different kind of cookie at every level. The table looked for all the world like a wedding cake, and as I looked at the final product, I couldn't believe I had lobbied for anything else. It was perfect.
NUTELLA EMPANADAS
Originally I shaped this dough into traditional cookie shapes, but started making them into empanadas as a means to save time. I thought they looked sloppy, but people seemed to love that. You never know.
3/4 cup unsalted butter
4 cups dark chocolate chips
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread, refrigerated
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
Melt butter in a saucepan. Over very low heat, add chocolate chips, stirring constantly until melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
In electric mixer, cream together eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Add chocolate. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add that to the mix. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
To form the empanadas, line a tortilla press with plastic wrap. Take a tablespoon full of the dough and flatten in the press. Using two teaspoons, take a little of the chilled Nutella and transfer on to the flattened dough. Fold over and crimp closed. They may break at the fold, and they will be rough around the edges. You can clean that up with a knife or cookie cutter, if you choose. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Top with the chopped hazelnuts.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Makes about 3 dozen.
-- Adapted by Jim Webster, St. Petersburg Times, from cookiemadness.net
LEMON BLUEBERRY COOKIES
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1-1/2 cups dried blueberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup demerara sugar, for dusting (optional)
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In an electric mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese and white and light brown sugars. When those are well combined, add eggs, one at a time, until each is incorporated, then add lemon juice, until it is incorporated. Slowly add flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time. Add blueberries and white chocolate chips.
Let dough sit in refrigerator for at least an hour, up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Scoop dough into balls about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of demerara sugar. Bake until cookies start to turn golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 4 dozen.
-- Adapted by Jim Webster from a blueberry muffin cookie recipe by Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, New York
CHOCOLATE-PRETZEL COOKIES
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups dark chocolate chips
3 cups pretzel sticks, slightly crushed, divided
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside. In electric mixer, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture. Add chocolate chips. Add 2 cups of the slightly crushed pretzels. Cover dough and refrigerate at least one hour, up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Scoop dough into balls about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for about 7 minutes, then sprinkle each cookie with more of the crushed pretzels. Bake for an additional 3 to 7 minutes, depending on how done you like them.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 4 dozen.
-- Jim Webster
KEY LIME COOLERS
3/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons key lime juice
3 teaspoon key lime zest
1 large egg
2-1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped (optional)
Confectioners' sugar to dust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set oven rack in top third of oven.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, salt and baking powder. Beat in the lime juice, zest and egg. Blend in the flour thoroughly. Dough will be rather stiff. Fold in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until the cookies are browned on the bottom and still white on top. Remove and allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes. While still warm, roll in confectioners' sugar or shake gently in a bag of the sugar. Allow cookies to cool completely on wire rack, then coat with sugar again.
Makes about 3 dozen
Source: B Buckberry Joyce, St. Petersburg Times
OATMEAL CHERRY TOFFEE
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup toffee pieces (5-1/2 ounces)
Sift together flour and baking soda and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add egg, and mix on high speed to combine. Add vanilla extract; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour a bit at a time on a low speed until well combined. Add oatmeal, cherries, chocolate and toffee pieces; mix to combine. Cover dough and refrigerate at least one hour, up to overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Using ice-cream scoop, make balls of dough and place on cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven, and transfer to a baking rack to cool.
Makes about 2 dozen
-- Adapted by Kristen Walbolt, St. Petersburg Times, from a Martha Stewart recipe.
(In addition to his duties as a St. Petersburg Times copy editor, Jim Webster is a culinary tourist and amateur caterer. He can be reached at jwebster(at)sptimes.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
