Butter Pecan Maple Cookies

It's hard to choose what my favorite nut is, but if I had to pick just one, it would be pecans. These butter pecan maple cookies, a recipe from Inspired by Charm, showcase the nut perfectly, which goes so well with maple.

Butter Pecan Maple Cookies
Adapted from a recipe by Inspired by Charm

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp. almond extract
½ cup toasted coarsely chopped pecans (see note)
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling on top
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on low to combine, scrap down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on high for 5 minutes until the mixture is thoroughly combined and pale in color. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat until smooth. Add the pecans and beat on low until blended in.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ½ tsp. salt, baking powder and ground nutmeg. Add the combined dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and beat on low until just combined. Stir with a spoon to make sure the dry ingredients are incorporated.

4. Form the dough into 1-inch balls and place 2-3 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat (about 12 cookies per standard half-sheet). Bake until lightly browned around the edges, about 22-27 minutes. Remove from the oven and, while still hot, brush each cookie with maple syrup, then sprinkle with a little kosher salt. After 5 minutes, transfer cookie to a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: To toast the pecans, heat an oven to 350 F. Spread the coarsely chopped pecans on a baking sheet and roast until fragrant, about 7-8 minutes.

The Feed: December 17, 2014

Starting next year, James Bond will make his vodka martinis, like The Vesper (pictured) with Belvedere Vodka.

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites. 

Washington Post: "Washington Post Food Section’s Best Cookbooks of 2014," by Bonnie S. Benwick.
Still looking for that perfect cookbook to get the cook in your life? You're in luck: Benwick rounds up a baker's dozen (that's 13, FYI) plus 13 runners-up of the year's best cookbooks, including the cookbook for James Beard Award-winning The Slanted Door, Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi and local author Cathy Barrow's Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry.

Washington Post: "Holiday Almond Cake from Lisa Yockelson: Intensified Flavor in a Simple Single Layer," by Lisa Yockelson.
The combination of almond paste, almond extract and ground almonds (plus a few slivers for sprinkling) give this single-layer Holiday Almond Cake its intense almond flavor. I bet this would be really good with some fresh raspberries.

Washington Post: "A Tart Made Just for Garlic Lovers," by Joe Yonan.
I'm with Joe: I love garlic. And this Caramelized Garlic and Butternut Squash Tart With Almond Crust sounds like a wonderful holiday dish.

New York Times: "Schmaltz Finds a New, Younger Audience," by Melissa Clark.
To many, "schmaltz" is a pejorative term for sentimental art, but for many Jewish cooks, and an increasing number of other cooks, it's a laudatory term for rendered chicken fat. Some people may turn their nose up at it, but think of how good those little bits of skin are that get left in the pan after you sauté skin-on chicken. There's a reason for that. Clark provides an in-depth look at its history and why cooks are embracing it again.

New York Times: "Challah You Bake Yourself Is Worth It," by Joan Nathan.
My experience with challah is mostly as a base for fabulous French toast, but the Jewish bread is, naturally, welcome at Hanukkah, which began last night. What I didn't realize until now is that it's not that hard to make yourself. I'd definitely like to try doing so.

New York Times: "Bond’s Martini Will Be Shaken With a Different Vodka," by Stuart Elliott
Long a Smirnoff man, Bond will be having his "vodka martini, shaken not stirred" made with Polish Belvedere vodka in Spectre, the upcoming 24th official film in the series.

Cafe Meeting Place: "Guest Speaker: Apple Baking Advice," by Wendy Brannen.
My friend Wendy knows her apples. After all, she works for the U.S. Apple Association. For this guest post on Cafe Meeting Place, she turned to a few friends (including me) for advice on baking with apples, turning up quite a few helpful tips.

Real The Kitchen & Beyond: "Holiday Party Recipes: Chipotle Turkey Cranberry Sandwiches," by Heather McCurdy.
I'm all about the sweet-and-spicy these days, and these little holiday sandwiches sound absolutely addictive. I'm sure I couldn't eat just one.

Nevin Martell: "10 Perfect Gifts for Foodies."
If the cookbooks story above didn't satisfy your need to find a gift for a food-lover, Martell's got another 10 great suggestions, including sriracha for your key chain.

Wall Street Journal: "McDonald’s to Pare Menu, Review Ingredients," by Julie Jargon.
The economy is up and gas prices are down. This should be good news for the world's largest restaurant chain, but sales at McDonald's continue to decline, thanks to changing tastes. The Golden Arches appears ready to tackle the problem, which will include paring down its menu, which has apparently bloated to over 100 items (when I first started eating at McDonald's in the early '80s, I think there were fewer than 10: hamburger, cheeseburger, Quarter Pounder, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Big Mac, Filet-o-fish, Happy Meal and fries--plus drinks).

Butterscotch-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt

I've been really into smoked sea salt ever since I picked some up at the Spice and Tea Exchange in Rehoboth Beach. I've used int to make bruschetta, crostini, a margarita and today a cookie.

Smoke isn't a flavor you often associated with cookies, but burnt flavors certainly are, like caramel, for example. I thought the smoky flavor of the sea salt would go nicely with the butterscotch chips, making for an interesting variation of an oatmeal cookie. The base recipe comes from A Girl, Market, a Meal.

Butterscotch-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt
Adapted from a recipe for Salted Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies by A Girl, a Market, a Meal

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
Smoked sea salt (may substitute regular flaky sea salt)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on low to combine, scrap down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on high for 5 minutes until the mixture is thoroughly combined and pale in color. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda to combine. Add the combined dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat on low until smooth. With a large spoon, stir in the oats, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips until evenly combined.

4. Measure out rounded tablespoonfuls of dough and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment or silicon baking mats. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of smoked sea salt.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

S'mores Pie

In theory, s'mores are a wonderful thing, the merger of toasted marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker enjoyed near the crackle of a warm campfire. In practice, they are a disaster. The unmelted chocolate is odd against the melty marshmallow and how exactly would you melt the chocolate with a campfire? And if you're making them on the beach, which is where I usually toast marshmallows, sand is sure to be a fourth ingredient in your sandwich. The finished product is a sticky mess.

This s'mores pie, however, is fabulous. The marshmallows are browned and easier to deal with. The chocolate is melted. You can eat it with a fork! And it tastes great. It's also perfect for enjoying s'mores--typically a summer treat--during the cold season. Just think of how delicious this would be with a piping hot mug of cocoa.

I found this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen site and made a few changes. First, I added salt to the filling. Combining salt with sugar helps bring out the latter's sweetness. You don't need a lot, but a little salt is a welcome player in almost any dessert. I used a little less chocolate bar than in the original recipe because I only needed 8 ounces instead of 12 to cover the bottom of the pie crust with chocolate squares, although I did fill in some cracks with chocolate chips.

The crust is wonderfully easy: just combine graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. You can buy crumbs in a box or make your own by grinding up graham crackers in a food processor. If you do the latter, be sure to get a small, even crumb.

This was my first time working with marshmallow creme, sometimes called marshmallow "fluff." Interesting stuff. The container is so light, much more than I expected. The creme is quite thick however and very, very sticky. I used an offset spatula to spread it along the bottom of my formed graham cracker crust.

If the pie looks a little sunken before you pop it in the oven, don't worry about it. Unlike a fruit pie, this pie expands as it bakes, instead of contracts. Compare my photos of before the pie goes into the oven with after it comes out and you can see that it turned out just fine.

S'mores Pie
Adapted from a recipe by Tasty Kitchen

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the pie plate
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. baking powder
7 oz. container of marshmallow creme
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate bars (this is two of the large, flat Ghirardelli chocolate bars for cooking)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/4 cup (or more as desired) bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-inch round pie plate with butter.

2. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-high until creamy (or use a large bowl and a hand mixer). Add egg and vanilla and beat on low until combined, then add the flour, graham cracker crumbs and baking powder, and continue beating on low until mixed. Divide the dough in half.

3. Using your fingers, press half the dough evenly on the bottom and sides of the greased pie plate. Spread the marshmallow creme evenly on the bottom of the pie crust (I recommend using an offset spatula for this). Break the chocolate bars into squares and line them up flush in a single layer on top of the marshmallow creme (break them in smaller pieces or use a few chocolate chips to fill any gaps). Sprinkle the chocolate layer with salt, then spread the mini marshmallows on top. Break up the other reserved half of the dough into little pieces, spread them evenly around the marshmallows and pat them into place so that they mostly (but not completely) cover the layer of mini marshmallows. Lastly, sprinkle the top with chocolate chips.

4. Bake the pie until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven set on a wire rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before cutting (refrigerate if not serving immediately).

My Poor Liver Podcast's Family Therapy cocktail

Some people love spending holidays with their families. For others, there's Family Therapy.

This cocktail is wickedly strong--it contains nothing other than liquor. It's also really good, so be careful with it, since you might be tempted to down it pretty quickly. Or maybe that's the point.

The drink originated on My Poor Liver Podcast's Thanksgiving episode as their Cocktail of the Week. Neil and Eddie remarked that Family Therapy is basically an Old Fashioned that tastes like Thanksgiving given its mix of ginger, orange and cranberry. Sounds divine, doesn't it? I knew I had to try it.

The recipe below is a slight modification of Neil's original. He mixed 2 oz. of bourbon modified with 1/4 oz. each of ginger liqueur, orange liqueur and Cherry Heering, a distinctive Danish cherry liqueur. I thought I had Cherry Heering in my liquor cabinet, but I was wrong, so I needed to make a substitution. I considered Cherry Kijafa, a Danish fruit wine fortified with brandy, but I didn't like the flavor. I also had Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy best known as a fondue ingredient, but as a brandy, it wasn't sweet enough. I settled on maraschino liqueur, which has a wonderful cherry flavor and sweetness. Because it's a pretty strong flavor, I cut the amount in half to 3/4 tsp. (about 1/8 oz.) to avoid overpowering the other ingredients.

For the ginger liqueur, they used a local (to Portland, Ore.) ginger liqueur from New Deal Distillery, although they stated that the nationally distributed Domain de Canton ginger liqueur would work, I also wanted to use something local, so I turned to Bloomery Sweetshine ginger liqueur, which is made in West Virginia. This has a more intense ginger flavor than the Domaine de Canton, although this didn't stop me from doubling the amount of ginger liqueur, a personal preference. While this drink lack's Neil's nice simplicity of the 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 ounce measurements, it's still quite tasty.

All this month, the My Poor Liver guys are talking about the holidays, and I love how they really get into the holiday spirit on their show. They've already shared some wonderful seasonal drinks. Last week's show included a discussion on good hot buttered rum, and this week they got pretty merry with some awesome sounding champagne cocktails, a classic I've yet to try making. Check out their podcast here.

Family Therapy
Adapted from a recipe by My Poor Liver Podcast

2 oz. Buffalo Trace bourbon
1/2 oz. Bloomery Sweetshine ginger liqueur (may substitute Domain de Canton or other ginger liqueur)
1/4 oz. Cambier orange liqueur
3/4 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur (the original recipe called for 1/4 oz. Cherry Heering)
3 dashes Fee Brothers cranberry bitters
Orange peel garnish

Combine bourbon, liqueurs and bitters in a rocks glass with ice. Stir until very cold and garnish with the orange peel.

Cocktail: Paper Plane

Go ahead M.I.A., take a sip of the Paper Plane.

Tuesday when I wrote about the Death & Co cocktail book, I included a recipe for the Naked and Famous, which the book describes as a cross between a Last Word and a Paper Plane. Curious about the Paper Plane, I looked it up.

As a refresher, the Last Word is a classic cocktail I wrote about a year ago. One of its great features is its equal proportions of four ingredients: 3/4 ounces each of gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lemon, which makes for a wonderfully tart and sweet drink. The Naked and Famous is similarly structured with 3/4 ounces each of Yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, lime and mezcal--so it's also got that tart/sweet thing but a bit savory too from the smoky mezcal.

So it's appropriate that the Paper Plane skews even darker with bourbon and Italian bitter-sweet amaro. The drink was created by Sam Ross for West Village bar Little Branch and is named after the 2007 hit song by M.I.A. If the name sounds familiar, you might have read my post about his Penicillin cocktail during my summer drinks week. Again, it's got that 3/4 ounces of four ingredients thing going on, in this case bourbon, Aperol, lemon and amaro. The recipe I found on Food & Wine calls for Nonino Quintessentia amaro. I used Amaro Montenegro instead, since that's what I had on hand. 

Paper Plane

Adapted from a recipe by Sam Ross

3/4 oz. bourbon

3/4 oz. Italian amaro (such as Nonino Quintessentia or Amaro Montenegro)

3/4 oz. Aperol

3/4 oz. lemon juice

Combine bourbon, amaro, Aperol and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake until very cold. Strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Cocktail: Vanilla Margarita

One last drink this week. Here's a summer favorite with a winter twist: aged añejo tequila, dry curaçao (like triple sec but less sweet) and vanilla.

Vanilla Margarita

1 oz. Sauza Añejo Tequila
1 oz. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1/2 oz. Del Maguey Vida Mezcal
1 oz. Fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. vanilla syrup (see note below)

Combine tequila, curaçao, mezcal, lime juice and vanilla syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until cold. Strain into a rocks glass with ice. No garnish.

Note: to make vanilla syrup, bring 1 cup of water, 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 vanilla bean split down the middle (with seeds scraped into the pan) to boil in a medium saucepan. Turn off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for 2 weeks (or longer if you add 1/2 oz. vodka to it. Leave the vanilla bean in the syrup for more vanilla flavor).