Apple Butter Cookies

I wanted a different kind of "cut out" cookie for the holidays...something not gingerbread-like...but more than vanilla sugar cookie dough.  I found a huge selection of roll-out-and-cut dough recipes at Ann Clark Ltd.  I made the dough a couple of weeks ago and froze it.  Day before yesterday I took out all of the Apple Butter Cookie dough and 1/2 of the Cardamom Cookie dough and 1/3 of the regular sugar cookie dough I usually bake with, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight.  This week, I'm baking.

I rolled and cut 110 cookies...half of which were minis.  I have apple shapes, pumpkins, turkeys, acorns, and a few leaves.  That should do it for the Thanksgiving cookie baking!  My house smelled outstanding throughout the morning....like I'd already been baking pumpkin pies!  When I left for a while and then returned - the house smelled even better!  All those cookies sitting on cooling racks just infused the house with the smells of Autumn!

The Cardomom minis have a subtle spice taste

I went strictly by the recipe for the Cardamom Cookie dough as well as my usual Laurie Mather's World's Best Sugar Cookie dough.  You can check those links for the recipe.  What I'm sharing here is my favorite of the bunch - my new favorite cookie dough for Fall cookies.  It's mostly Ann Clark's recipe...with a few tweaks from me.  Here it is:

Apple Butter Cookie Dough
Adapted from Ann Clark, Ltd.
PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup apple butter (I used Musselman's)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
1/2 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Bean Paste
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
1 cup white whole wheat flour (I used Gold Medal)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.

Beat in apple butter, egg yolk, and vanilla bean paste.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  Add to wet mixture just until all ingredients are well blended.  Take care not to over mix.

Wrap in plastic wrap (I divided mine in quarters and formed into small rectangles for easier handling).

Chill for 4 hours or overnight before rolling out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll dough out on a lightly floured counter to 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness.  Keep the dough moving, lift to ensure it is not sticking to the counter.  Sprinkle more flour if needed.  Make sure your rolling pin stays floured as well.  This was a sticky dough when it got warm - hence the easier handling with small portions.

Cut the rolled dough with well-floured cookie cutters.  Metal works best!  Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (I use the Silpat mats).  If my cookies were difficult to move, I floured my thinnest metal spatula and lifted gently to help transfer them.  I refrigerated each tray while another was baking so they wouldn't spread.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and rest in pan on cooling rack.  As soon as they are there, get out your trusty fondant smoother and gently glide it over every cookie.  This will remove any bubbles or plumped up areas - resulting in a nicely flat cookie.  Don't press, sort of like you are ironing something delicate.  Remove to rack to cool once cookies are cool enough to handle.  Allow to cool completely before decorating.

For the apple cookies I used my regular royal icing recipe but when I was mixing colors and bringing the uber stiff frosting to pipe and flood consistency, I used some apple cider instead of water to thin...and I added some cinnamon extract to complement the vanilla extract already in the icing.  It's barely a hint of difference, but I think it complements the cookies.

The decorating was a two day endeavor.  I made all the icing (3 batches) and colored them and let them rest (covered in plastic wrap - touching the icing).  When I returned from helping a neighbor with a computer task, I found the bubbles had all risen and were easily popped.  Filled all the bottles and a couple of piping bags and got to work.  Started about 6:00 p.m. and stopped at 11:00...in bed with cramping hands by midnight and up at 7:00 ready to start again.  Love Ibuprofen :-)

We are humid - we're always humid on the coast - but I used the fans and lowered the air conditioning to help with a good drying environment.  They did great.  The only thing that didn't do great was I tried to use a flood icing to pipe some detail on pumpkins and it ran together.  It was the last thing I did before going to bed last night so this morning - I had rather unattractive green blobs on my pumpkins - nicely hardened.  Drat.  Oh well.  I knew it was too loose and I didn't stop and fix it.  My bad!  Still, I think the cookies turned out well.

The apples, acorns, and large pumpkins were all made from the Apple Butter Sugar Cookie recipe.  All of the minis except for the orange pumpkins were made from the Cardamom recipe.  The large turkeys and the mini orange pumpkins were all vanilla sugar cookies.

Keep an eye out for a tutorial on putting together the turkey cookies.  Hope to have it up by Monday at the latest.

Turkey tutorial coming soon!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

SHARED WITH:

Sweet Treats & Swanky Stuff

Ali Bee's Bake Shop Pumpkin Linky Party

Pumpkin Spice Madeleines

Pumpkin Spice Madeleines

As I have written before, I do have an addiction to those luscious shell-shaped sponge tea cakes known as Madeleines.  I have never strayed far from the David Lebovitz recipe that has always worked so well for me.  However, sometimes you just have to take a walk on the wild side and hope it works!  Here are links for the Lemon-Glazed Madeleines and the Vanilla Bean Madeleines I have made in the past....just in case you want to check them out.

I looked at a lot of blog posts and online recipes, trying to find a recipe very close to Chef Lebovitz's, with the addition of some Autumnal spices...and I was focused on adding pumpkin.  Not much luck.  There were several out there...some with pumpkin, some with just the spices.  None of the recipes were very close though.  So, I got brave and just decided to experiment.  Flop or fabulous?  It's never really wise to mess with a classic recipe...especially when you are hoping to take the goodies to a special occasion (going to take some to author William J. Cobb's The Bird Saviors book signing at Paragraph's on Padre Blvd).  Mehh, I'm doing it anyway....and here's how I did it.

Pumpkin Spice Madeleines
Based on Recipe from David Lebovitz
Makes 24 Madeleines

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, at room temperature (important to be at room temp)
2/3 cup (130g) granulated sugar
rounded 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup (175g) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
9 tablespoons (120g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature, plus additional melted butter for preparing the molds
1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned pumpkin)

Glaze:
(this is double the original recipe)
1 1/2 cup (300g) powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
4-5 tablespoons water (you judge the thickness you like)

Method:

1. Brush the indentations of a Madeleine mold with melted butter. Dust with flour, tap off any excess, and place in the fridge or freezer. (I use a non-stick pan, so I wipe with softened butter instead, using a paper towel...I have found the melted butter pools in the bottom of the non-stick pan causing flour to clump and uneven browning...lesson learned)

2. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, whip the eggs, granulated sugar, and salt for 5 minutes until frothy and thickened. (it routinely takes me 7 minutes to get to a ribbon stage)

3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and dry spices.  Spoon the flour mixture into a sifter or mesh strainer and use a spatula to fold in the flour as you sift it over the batter. (Rest the bowl on a damp towel to help steady it for you.)  Remember to fold gently - you want to keep the air incorporated into the mixture for a light sponge.

4. Add the vanilla bean paste and pumpkin puree to the almost cooled butter and whisk until completely smoothed out (and allow it to cool all the way).  Dribble the butter mixture into the batter, a few spoonfuls at a time, while simultaneously folding to incorporate the butter. Fold just until all the butter is incorporated.  Again, being cautious to fold gently to maintain incorporated air.

I prefer making the pumpkin butter before you need it

Gentle folding is integral

5. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Batter can be chilled for up to 12 hours)

6. To bake the Madeleines, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

7. Plop enough batter in the center of each indentation sufficient to fill it by 3/4's (you'll have to eyeball it, but it's not exact science, don't worry if it's not perfect - mine are never all the same size) Do not spread the batter - let it stay the way it lands.**(See note below)

This is the second batch

8. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the cakes just feel set when pressed gently with your finger. (These took exactly 8 minutes in my oven)

9. While the cakes are baking, make a glaze in a small mixing bowl by stirring together the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste, and water until smooth.  Use a bowl suitable for dipping the Madeleines.

I like a thicker glaze so I doubled the original recipe amount.
I ended up with leftovers this time...oh well, rather too
much than not enough!

10. Remove from the oven and tilt the Madeleines out onto a cooling rack.

The moment they're cool enough to handle, dip each cake in the glaze, turning them over to make sure both sides are coated and scrape off any excess with a dull knife (or the side of the bowl)  After dipping, rest each one back on a cooling rack, scalloped side up, until the cakes are cool and the glaze has firmed up. (Put a baking sheet under your cooling rack to catch any stray drips). 

Storage: glazed Madeleines are best left uncovered, or not tightly-wrapped; they're best eaten the day they're made. They can be kept in a container for up to three days after baking, if necessary. Freezing a glazed Madeleine doesn't really work - the glaze melts.

Have I mentioned how much I adore Madeleines?  To me, they are the ultimate bite-sized treat (okay, 3 bites).  A happy middle ground between a cookie and a cupcake; glazed not frosted.  They are, in my humble opinion, one of the absolute best treats you can have with a cup of good coffee or hot tea.  I will admit, also, that I love the traditional lemon-glazed the best.  I'm a lemon lover.  The rest of my household, not so much.  Thus, the "always thinking about it" search for different ways to make a favorite treat and make it family-friendly.  I think they are going to love the Pumpkin Spice Madeleines.  They are really tasty and the recipe tweaking worked out mostly okay.

What's different?  Well, they are much more dense, although still spongy.  They only vaguely taste of pumpkin because there was not much in it.  The spices are just right in my opinion, but it could handle a touch more to enhance the pumpkin pie flavor I was going for.  The mixing of the pumpkin and butter is, I believe, the reason they did not spread as much as usual.  **They didn't make it to the top or bottom of the mold shape.  They puffed up more than usual...they are supposed to have a "bump" - but these were completely round on the bottom.  Probably the mixing of the pumpkin butter instead of straight up melted butter is again the blame...I believe anyway.  The batter was "tighter" than usual - again the density result of adding pumpkin?  More "air holes" in the Madeleines as well.  I even tried give the pan a good bang after filling the second pan - but that did nothing - in fact there were more air holes in the second batch than the first.  I tried to fill the holes with glaze with my fingers...that didn't particularly work.  If I make them again, I am going to try skipping the pumpkin to keep the texture more true to traditional...and maybe bump up the spices a tad.  I like the little bump on traditional Madeleines and that was totally missing on these...a fully rounded bottom instead.

Still, the shape looks okay because it had all the mandatory scallops.  They taste delicious and pretty much how I imagined.  I give them a thumbs up for a nice Fall version of a traditional French cakelet.  I suspect purists would NOT agree.  I've never claimed to be pure, now have I? (batting my eyes)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Shared With:

Ali Bee's Bake Shop Pumpkin Linky Party

Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff Linky Party