TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

This week's recipe was chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch.

Coconut Butter Thins

The ingredients for these cookies intrigued me from the start. Coconut, macademia nuts, lime zest. Then you have the usual flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, salt. The batter was easy to make.



Dorie suggested rolling the dough inside a gallon size plastic bag in order to end up with a 1/4 inch thickness. I've heard of this trick before from some of the bakers who had either made this recipe already or read it, but I've never tried it. It worked like a charm. No fuss, no muss.




After chilling the dough for at least 2 hours, I measured and cut out 1 1/2 inch square cookies.







I baked two sheets at a time, switching them around halfway through the baking process. One of my cookie sheets got way too done. Oops! These cookies are not supposed to color at all. The other started to brown around the edges but they look much better. So I baked the remainder of the cookies one sheet at a time and checked them earler.




These cookies are delicious! Even the burnt ones. They're the flakiest cookies I've ever made and they'll be perfect with a cup of tea. The flavors compliment each other perfectly. Dorie, these are fabulous! Thanks Jayne for picking a great recipe!



Head on over to Jayne's blog and see how she liked them. You can view the recipe there too. Better yet, you can have all of these delectible recipes for yourself if you buy Dorie's book. Then come back and we'll have some cookies and tea.

TWD: World Peace Cookies

Chocolate anyone?

This week's TWD selection is World Peace Cookies chosen by Jessica of cookbookhabit. And let me just say, if you like chocolate, you're going to love this cookie!



It's a chocolate sable cookie that you slice and bake after refridgerating the dough for three or more hours. What makes this little gem unique is the addition of fleur de sel, hand-harvested salt from France's Brittany coast. Unfortunately, I couldn't find mine. I could have sworn that I bought some a couple of months ago. Oh well. I'm sure it will turn up now that the cookies are made and I'm no longer looking for it. So instead, I used regular sea salt. These cookies are great. I'm sure they will be even better with the fleur de sel.


Aside from the great flavor, my favorite thing about this cookie is its sandy texture. It's very subtle when you first bite into it and then it melts in your mouth. It's delicate, yet packs a punch of chocolate flavor at the same time.

Thanks Jessica for a great pick! If you want to make some for yourself (and I know you do!), you can get the recipe over at her blog and from Dorie's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Next week: Floating Islands!

TWD: Linzer Sables

This week's recipe is Linzer Sables chosen by Dennis of Living the Life.

I have to say, these are my favorite cookies that we've made so far. I'm surprised because they're so simple to make. The flavors compliment each other perfectly.




The recipe gives you the option of using finely chopped almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts. I wanted to try hazelnuts, but Trader Joes didn't have them, so I used almonds.



Of course, I had to try the batter as a preview of how the cookie will taste. It was good. It has ground cloves and cinnamon which adds a hint of spice. Very mellow, but it gives it a nice flavor.



I used a two inch cookie cutter as Dorie suggested and made 27 sandwich cookies. Added some raspberry jam and a sprinkle of powdered sugar and, voila...



They taste as good as they look. Jeff gave them a thumbs up too. I want to make these again using hazelnuts with a chocolate filling. Yum.

For the recipe, you can check out Dennis' blog with the link above or buy the book if you don't already have it. It's totally worth having. See what other TWD members are doing here. Thanks Dennis! You picked a winner. :)

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

OMG! That was my first reaction after biting into this cookie. And my second, and third, and....

This week, Claudia from Fool for Food chose Chocolate Chunkers (p. 70 in Baking: From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan).

These cookies are decadent! Chunky, chocolatey, chewy, melt in your mouth good. They definitely fulfill any chocolate fix you might need. I was a little concerned about adding raisins to such a chocolatey cookie. I used pecans and golden raisins in mine. After seeing how chunky the batter was, I was more concerned that the cookies weren't going to hold together. No need to worry. That Dorie knows what she's doing. Probably the best cookie I've ever made.

Now I must leave the house and run some errands before that plate of cookies looks like this:


Being alone in the house with these as company is a dangerous situation!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

Last week I joined the baking club called Tuesdays with Dorie. Each week the club is going to bake our way through the cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This week's recipe (my first) was the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution.

This was a super fast and easy dough to put together. I had all of the ingredients in my pantry, which was even better. I did make one modification though. Since I only had creamy peanut butter on hand and the recipe called for chunky, I added a half cup chopped roasted peanuts to the mix. The cookies came out great and are delicious. The oatmeal and the peanuts give them a great crunch, and yet they're chewy at the same time. They would be great with a glass of milk. Sadly, I have no milk in the house. note to self: buy milk tomorrow

I chilled the dough for about three hours before baking as recommended. Some bakers didn't chill their dough and their cookies came out flat. Others who didn't chill the dough said theirs came out fine. I wanted to make sure I didn't end up with flat cookies, so into the chiller it went.

I will definitely be making these cookies again!