Pignoli Cookies

In a small bowl, using an electric mixer break up almond paste. On low to medium speed, beat in egg whites until mostly smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together confectioner’s sugar and granulated sugar. Beat into almond mixture. Then add flour and salt and mix until well combined.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place pine nuts in a shallow bowl.

Using parchment paper, cover a cookie sheet. With wet fingers (this prevents the dough from sticking to your hands), roll dough into small balls, about 3/4 inch in diameter. Then roll the top and sides of the balls in the pine nuts. Place balls on a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.

Bake for 17-19 minutes. Do not brown. Cookies should be pale on top and barely brown on the bottom. The centers should be soft.

Cherry and Pistachio Biscotti with White Chocolate

make the biscotti

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Place cherries in a small bowl and add hot water until covered. Let stand until plump, about 10-15 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the 3 eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until combined. If desired, coarsely chop cherries. This step simply makes it easier to cut and eat the biscotti. Mix in cherries and pistachios.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each piece into a 16-by-2-inch log, and transfer to prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. With the palm of your hand, flatten logs slightly. You can also use a spatula to smooth tops out slightly. Brush beaten egg over surface of the dough logs, and sprinkle with sugar. If you use a coarser sugar, the granules will be more distinct.

Bake about 25 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through, until logs are slightly firm to touch. Transfer logs on parchment paper to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Place logs on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices or 3/4-inch-thick slices (I went with 3/4-inch for a thicker slice). Place a wire rack in a large rimmed baking sheet. Arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. Bake until firm to touch and pale golden brown, about 15-20 minutes on each side. Remove pan from oven and let biscotti cool completely on rack.

make the white chocolate

In a double boiler, melt white chocolate. If white chocolate is too thick for dipping, add shortening or butter until chocolate becomes a dipping consistency. Dip bottom cut side of biscotti in white chocolate and place chocolate side up on the cooling rack until chocolate hardens.

Store in an airtight container. Or, wrap in cellophane and tie with a ribbon for homemade holiday gifts.

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

Toast pecans in oven at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Or, if lazy (like me) or always in a hurry (like me), take the easy route and toast them in the toaster oven for 2-3 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon and salt. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture, beating until well blended. Mix in pecans with a wooden spoon.

Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Working with half of chilled dough, roll dough with palms into 1-inch balls. Arrange balls on large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until light golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 16-18 minutes. Check cookies throughout baking to be sure not to over bake. If baked too long, bottoms will burn and cookies will be very dry.

Pour 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar in pie dish. Cool cookies 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in powdered sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again once cooled. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough, or reserve remaining powdered sugar and freeze dough for later use. Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature. For extra powdered sugar on your cookies, save leftover powdered sugar and sift over cookies just before serving.

Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. The parchment paper is essential in order for the cookies to come off the baking sheet in one piece.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Mix to combine.

With the mixer running, in three stages add the egg whites. Then add the vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture becomes slightly thick (batter should not run; don’t under mix). I tend to mix on the longer side because I like my cookies a bit fluffier. Stir in the toasted and chopped walnuts and mix thoroughly by hand.

Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop 2-inch dollops of the batter onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Place nine dollops per sheet, about 2 inches apart. Place baking sheet in oven and lower the temperature to 320 degrees. Bake for 14-16 minutes. The cookies are done when small cracks appear on the surface. Remove baking sheet from the oven. When cookies are still slightly warm, remove from parchment paper and cool cookies on wire rack. Store cookies in an airtight container for a few days.

icebox towers

makes 6 towers or 12 “shanties”

make the chocolate cookies

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar at low speed until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then beat in the cocoa powder and salt. Add the flour and beat until just combined. Form the cookie dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about 1 hour, or until firm. This step is very important, don’t skip it.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. On a lightly floured board, roll out each disk of chilled cookie dough to a 10-1/2-inch round, 1/4 inch thick. This is pretty thin; don’t stop before you get there. Using a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter (I used a glass), cut out as many rounds as you can; transfer the rounds to a large rimmed baking sheet. Gather the dough scraps, chill briefly, reroll and cut more rounds. You should have 32 to 34 rounds. You only need 30 rounds for the towers, but a few extras are good to have on hand.

make the chocolate pastry cream

Set a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl. In a medium saucepan, bring the half-and-half to a simmer and keep warm. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, flour and salt until the mixture is pale, about 1 minute. Whisk half of the warm half-and-half into the egg yolk mixture, the pour that mixture into the remaining half-and-half in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate and vanilla. Strain the pastry cream through the sieve and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Put in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, or until chilled.

make the whipped cream filling

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Transfer 3/4 cup of the whipped cream to a small bowl. Beat in 3 tablespoons of the chocolate pastry cream to make a light-colored cream.

assemble the Icebox Towers

Arrange 30 cookies on a work surface. Fill 3 pastry bags filled with large plain tips with the chocolate pastry cream, the light-chocolate cream and the whipped cream.

the Baked way

Pipe the chocolate pastry cream onto 12 cookies. Pipe the light-chocolate cream onto 6 cookies. Pipe the whipped cream onto the remaining 12 cookies. Stack the towers: start with a chocolate pastry cream-topped cookie, then a light-chocolate cream-topped cookie, followed by a whipped cream-topped cookie, another chocolate pastry cream-topped cookie and finally a whipped cream-topped cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Pipe a small dollop of any remaining chocolate pastry cream onto the top of each whipped cream-topped tower. Transfer the cookie towers to a serving platter and refrigerate for at least 6 hour, preferably overnight, before serving. The towers can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

kesha’s way

The Baked recipe yields 6 towers. My guest list equated to a greater number than this, plus it included a few hearty men, so I modified the assembly a bit to ensure I had enough treats for everyone. My towers ended up being more like small shanties. Instead of 6 layers, I chose to do one layer of each cream, using 3 cookies for each “shanty”. I prepared my 3 pastry bags using tip 16. I piped 12 cookies each with the various pastry creams. Then I layered the cookies starting with the chocolate pastry cream cookie, topped by the cookie with light-chocolate cream, followed by the cookie with the whipped cream. I did this for each set. Then I finished my shanties off with a dollop of chocolate-pastry cream. These desserts were rich and filling. Although I am sure the towers are beautiful, this was the perfect size dessert for after dinner.