Oatie Orange Cookies

I’m writing this as little snippets of snow try to find their way earthward. No serious falling, more meandering — distracted snowflakes.

It’s winter, and the holidays are gone, and we’re in for three months of cold. Time to turn to citrus.

Gram had several dessert recipes that featured oranges and lemons. Before the advent of any fruit at any time from anywhere in the world, citrus fruits were welcome bright spots in the winter grocery. I picture Grammy going to (I think) Gristede’s, right around the corner from her apartment in New York City. “I’m going to do the marketing.” She’d poke around the produce bins, seeing which lemons and oranges were heavy and shiny. She’d check out and go on her way, sure in the knowledge that her groceries — always delivered in old New York — would follow her home in due time.

These cookies are light, delicately flavored and semi-virtuous by way of a handful each of oats and nuts. If you have a strong honey, like chestnut or manuka, this is a great place to use it. Don’t sweat it if all you’ve got is the little bear-ful of clover honey.

The recipe’s quantity is a nice fit for a midwinter dinner: You’re making 30 cookies, not doing a massive 8-dozen holiday bake. I had an oatie orange with a big navel orange as an after-dinner sweet, having fun with the play of orange-on-orange. And I put the cookies on the good china, too, just for fun.

Oatie Orange Cookies

Makes 30 cookies

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons strong-flavored honey, or regular if that’s all you have
• 1 egg
• Grated rind of one large orange
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1/2 cup oats, either quick cooking or old fashioned
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped or broken walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together softened butter, sugar and honey. Beat in egg and orange rind. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder; add flour mixture and juice to the butter/orange mixture and mix well. Stir in oats and walnuts.

Drop cookies by large rounded teaspoonsful onto parchment, leaving about 2 inches between them (they’ll spread, but not much). Bake for 9-11 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Use a spatula to transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Recipe and photo copyright 2010 Garside Group LLC

Aunt Helen’s Christmas Cookies

For some reason, Grammy did not include her classic Christmas cookie recipe in the sheaf of recipes she gave to me. At the time, she was still baking, so I didn’t need the recipe. We got a tin-full instead. In 1994, however, after Grammy had stopped baking, no one but Grammy’s nephew Ted could put his hands on this recipe. I have Ted’s carefully typed-out copy of the classic recipe.

There were several types of cookies that showed up in December, but these bore the central title of Christmas cookies. Like the almond crescents, these rated a guilty grin from Dad as he popped one, whole, into his mouth. Oddly, the two cookies are very different. Almond crescents: Crunchy, delicate flavor. Christmas cookies: Soft, spicy, full-flavored. That contrast makes them a great pair on a cookie plate.

Now, I know I’m posting these after the fact, but these would also be a good January cookie. The recipe calls for a maraschino cherry right in the middle of the icing. I can’t stomach that. I made them with currants instead. You could use dried cranberries or cherries for a festive look, or for a January cookie, you could make them with a candied pecan or just a good walnut in the center of the icing. Muted, but delicious.

Aunt Helen’s Christmas Cookies

Makes 6-7 dozen cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
• 1 cup chopped dates (from about 8-10 big dates)
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:

• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, or a bit more
• Dried fruits, nuts or (shudder) maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs, molasses, soda mixed with hot water, nuts and dates. In a smaller bowl, mix flour, cinnamon and cloves. Add flour mixture to butter-and-sugar mixture; add vanilla. Mix well.

Butter cookie sheets, or cover with parchment paper. Drop batter by teaspoonsful at least two inches apart on the sheet. Bake 12 minutes. After removing pan from oven, allow cookies to cool on the sheets for a few minutes before removing to racks or a plate.

To ice the cookies: Heat milk in a small saucepan on the stove, until just under a boil. Stir in 2 cups confectioners sugar and cook for 2-3 minutes, until icing is smooth. Take off heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes; if needed, add a bit more sugar. Drop by scant half-teaspoons onto top of cooled cookies. Place dried fruit or nut in center of icing.

Recipe and photo copyright 2009 Garside Group LLC.

Almond Crescents

My grandmother used to send Christmas cookies in several tins, most of them large, round and gently dented. However, there was often a slightly smaller tin tagging along. Nestled in the waxed paper of this tin would be these powdered-sugar coated crescents, rich with nuts and butter.

Theoretically, these cookies were packed on their own because they were a bit fragile and because the powdered sugar would otherwise have had its messy way with the other types of cookies. But really, they were packed alone so Dad could abscond with the tin. The look he’d get as he popped a whole sugary cookie into his mouth was pure guilty bliss.

The recipe below is lightly adapted from Grammy’s, which came from a slender book, “Holiday Cookies,” from Peter Pauper Press. (I wish Peter Pauper Press still published cookbooks: I’d go straight to them to publish the Baking Family dessert book. Beautiful typesetting and design, all in a neat little old-fashioned package.)

For finishing, I just pour about a half-cup of confectioners’ sugar into a cereal bowl and gently roll the cookies one by one in the bowl.

Almond Crescents

Makes 5-6 dozen cookies

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup blanched slivered almonds, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• Confectioners’ sugar

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in chopped nuts and salt, then add flour gradually, mixing well after each addition. Refrigerate dough for at least one hour and as long as two days.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove dough from refrigerator. Pull off small pieces and work with hands until somewhat pliable. Roll into two-inch long pencil-thick strips and shape into small crescents.

Bake until set, not brown — about 14-15 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to cooling rack or plate. When fully cool, roll in confectioners sugar.