It’s nice to know, in an age when baking cookies can be as simple as sliding a commercially pre-formed nugget of dough onto a baking sheet, that there are so many contented bakers out there.
The Tribune’s Good Eating staff heard from 143 of them when they submitted recipes for this year’s Holiday Cookie Contest. The entries ranged from simple but exquisite butter cookies to bolder cookies with a wild assortment of ingredients: coconut and pineapple preserves; chocolate chips and corn flakes; peanut butter and jelly; and crystallized ginger, orange peel and dried cranberries. One cookie was made with shredded American cheese; another was a vegan cookie made without dairy products.
The submissions, judged for a combination of good story and great-sounding recipe, were narrowed to 15 finalists, who dropped the cookies off for a blind tasting by the Good Eating staff and guest judge Pamela Fitzpatrick, executive baker for Fox & Obel Food Market.
Tasters had their particular favorites, but the highest-scoring cookie of all was baked by first-place winner Janet Protas of Chicago.
Protas’ laced cookies, thin, delicate rounds sandwiching a semisweet chocolate filling, delighted the judges, who wrote such comments as: “Light, crumbly and buttery; a nice chewiness–from oatmeal?” “Lacy indeed. Very attractive.” Fitzpatrick stated, “Nicely done.”
Protas said her recipe is a variation of lace cookies, a family favorite that fondly reminds her of her sister, who typed the recipe three decades ago on a manual typewriter on a sheet of “pastel stationary from the drugstore” (see photo at left) that was “all the rage.”
Second-place winner Gail E. Aranoff of Naperville decided to enter her cookies in the annual contest “after getting more and more requests to make them” from her husband, her 16- and 7-year-old sons and her daughter, a college freshman.
Aranoff said her recipe, toffee “mandelscotti,” is a hybrid of the Jewish mandelbrot she grew up eating and the Italian biscotti of her next-door neighbor.
“I saw her recipe and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, these are so similar,’ ” Aranoff said.
In third place was a recipe from aspiring pastry chef Elizabeth Holmes of Chicago, who sent along cranberry-swirled white chocolate cheesecake bars. Holmes said she has long been the family member in charge of making desserts for holidays and parties; now the goal is to turn her favorite hobby into a living.
Honorable mention went to Cynthia Craven Beberman of Orland Park for orange macadamia cookies in chocolate and to Nora Grindheim of Chicago for her polvorones, a Mexican cinnamon cookie.
The remaining finalists included Catherine Walsh Crawford, Lindenhurst; Janis Egan, Buffalo Grove; Sharon Heil, Chicago; Ginny Koch-Horan and Barb Koch, Elgin; Diane Brooke Letson, Chicago; Amy Picchiotti, Rolling Meadows; Eleanor Pierce, Park Ridge; Holly Sheridan, Lake Forest; Susan Stone, Evanston; and Lisa Taccola, Oak Forest.
Though Protas, Aranoff and Holmes walked away with the top honors, the tasters were impressed by the variety and care that went into so many different cookies.
“The entries were really cute,” Fitzpatrick said. “The ideas were great and you could see the effort to make the cookies pretty and to do things that gave them layers of flavor.”
Heartfelt hobby
The letters we received showed how personal this cookiemaking business can be, with recipes inspired by, handed down from or created for mothers and fathers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins and neighbors.
Lori Schaibly of Grayslake included in her entry a photo of her grandmother Eleanor Hoh, who taught Schaibly to make jelly squares. Polly Happach of Winnebago attached a picture of her three children, the “cookie experts” of the family.
Mary Ann Bachman of Granger, Ind., sent in the crunch cookie recipe she has been making since getting the recipe from a Brownie troop leader in the late 1950s at St. Ignatius School in Rogers Park. Teacher Mariallyn Oczak of Westmont High School sent in the recipe for magic stocking stuffers, banana chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, on behalf of her entire class of physically disabled teens.
Some entries came from old cookbooks, newsletters or magazines. Two even were from the Chicago Tribune, as with the fruitcake cookies Ann Roudis of Morris found in the newspaper 55 years ago, or the butterhorns Fran Vukovich of Chesterton, Ind., clipped around 1956.
And we enjoyed reading the quirkier stories, such as the fact that Clarice Filardi of Des Plaines makes her almond crescents while wearing the award pin she won in 1955 after entering the cookies in a “homemaking” contest.
So, to all those who sent treasured recipes and memories, the Good Eating staff thanks you. To everyone else, enjoy these winning seasonal sweets. We hope they will become holiday traditions of your own.
FIRST PLACE
Laced cookies
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 12 minutes per batch
Yield: 3 dozen sandwich cookies
Janet Protas uses Valrhona chocolate for the filling of these elegant cookies, but any high-quality baking chocolate will do. Just be sure not to use chocolate chips for this recipe. No flour is used in these cookies.
Cookies:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup each: granulated sugar, light brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups regular or quick cooking oats
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
Filling:
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons orange liqueur
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter and sugars in the bowl of electric mixer; beat until light and soft, about 4 minutes. Add eggs and almond extract; mix until just combined. Mix in oats, walnuts and baking powder on low speed until combined.
2. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls onto parchment or foil-lined cookie sheets, spaced 3 inches apart. Bake until cookies are brown around edges and lighter toward center, about 12 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet set on cooling rack.
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water, stirring frequently, until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Remove from heat; stir in orange liqueur.
4. Choose two cooled cookies of the same size. Spread about 3 /4 teaspoon melted chocolate on bottom side of one cookie, to about 1 /4 inch from edge. Place bottom of other cookie on top to form a sandwich, pressing lightly to spread filling to edge.
Nutrition information per cookie:
195 calories, 52% calories from fat, 12 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 2.6 g protein, 1.3 g fiber
SECOND PLACE
Toffee mandelscotti
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Chilling time: 3 hours
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Yield: About 3 dozen
You can serve these cookies plain, with a cup of good coffee, but Gail E. Aranoff also suggests sprinkling the warm cookies with raw sugar or dipping the ends of the cookies in chocolate, then rolling them in chopped hazelnuts for an extra-festive touch.
3 eggs
1 cup each: vegetable oil, sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each: baking powder, salt
1 bag (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 ounces almond toffee bits
1. Place eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until light in color, 5 minutes. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into eggs just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 3 hours.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into 4 pieces; shape each piece into 8-by-3-inch logs on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until lightly browned, 25 minutes.
3. Reduce oven to 300 degrees. Remove cookie logs from baking sheet; cut diagonally into 3 /4-inch slices. Place sliced cookies back on baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 20 minutes.
Nutrition information per cookie:
385 calories, 48% calories from fat, 12 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 120 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrate, 2.2 g protein, 0.9 g fiber
THIRD PLACE
Cranberry-swirled white chocolate cheesecake bars
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Setting time: 1 hour
Chilling time: 2 hours
Yield: 32 bars
The red-and-white swirls in these creamy bars from Elizabeth Holmes make them especially festive.
Crust:
2 1/2 cups gingersnap crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
Cranberry swirl:
2 cups fresh or frozen, thawed cranberries
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
Filling:
1/2 cup whipping cream
12 ounces white chocolate, chopped
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons each: cornstarch, vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. For crust, combine gingersnap crumbs, sugar, orange zest and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Pour melted butter over; mix well. Pat mixture into the bottom of a 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Bake crust 10 minutes. Remove from oven; set aside to cool.
2. For cranberry swirl, combine the cranberries, orange juice, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, until cranberries pop and mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Transfer mixture to a food processor or blender; puree until smooth. Strain into a mixing bowl. Cool to room temperature.
3. For the filling, place the cream in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; heat to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in white chocolate. Stir until melted. Let cool. Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until smooth. Add cornstarch, vanilla and salt; beat until well combined. Mix in sour cream. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in chocolate mixture.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Pour filling over crust; spread evenly. Drop cranberry mixture in dollops over filling. Draw swirls of cranberry mixture through filling with a knife.
5. Place a pan filled with water on the lower rack of the oven. Place cheesecake on middle rack. Bake until center of cheesecake is set, about 45 minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake sit 1 hour. Remove from oven. Let cool. Chill at least 2 hours before cutting into bars.
Nutrition information per bar:
255 calories, 54% calories from fat, 15 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 55 mg cholesterol, 140 mg sodium, 3.2 g protein, 26 g carbohydrate, 0.6 g fiber
Honorable mentions
Orange macadamia cookies in chocolate
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Cooking time: 7 minutes per batch
Freezing time: 10 minutes
Yield: 5 dozen
These cookies from Cynthia Craven Beberman of Orland Park look like those classic New York black-and-whites. Tasters will find they have a nice, nutty cookie and a hint of tart orange flavor. Paraffin, available at some supermarkets and hardware stores, is an edible wax that gives chocolate a bright sheen.
1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar, or sugar processed in the food processor
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest from 2 oranges
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup each: semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips
1-inch square paraffin, optional
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place macadamia nuts on a baking sheet; place coconut in shallow baking pan. Toast, stirring often, until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool. Grind nuts. You should have 1 cup. Set nuts and coconut aside.
2. Place butter, sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in nuts and orange zest. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla until well blended. Beat in flour on low speed just until mixed. Stir in coconut. Cover dough with plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut dough in half; keep one half refrigerated. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten to 1/4-inch thickness with the bottom of a flour-coated glass.
4. Bake cookies until edges are lightly brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat process with remaining dough. When completely cooled, place in freezer; chill 15 minutes.
5. Melt chocolates together. Dip half of each cookie in chocolate; shake off excess. Place on cookie sheets lined with wax paper. Place in freezer 10 minutes to set chocolate.
Nutrition information per cookie:
90 calories, 54% calories from fat, 6 g fat, 2.9 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 23 mg sodium, 10 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 0.5 g fiber
Polvorones
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yield: 40 cookies
You’ll be licking your fingers after eating one of these sugar-dusted spice cookies from Nora Grindheim of Chicago.
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Sugar coating:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 square (1/2 ounce) finely grated semi-sweet chocolate
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down side of bowl once, 3 minutes. Sift together flour and baking powder; add gradually to the butter mixture.
2. Roll dough into 1/2-inch balls. Place 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Flatten into 2-inch rounds with bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet, 3-4 minutes.
3. For sugar coating, combine sugar, cinnamon and chocolate in a low flat container. Coat cookies on both sides with sugar mixture. Place on cooling racks. Cool completely.
Nutrition information per cookie:
85 calories, 50% calories from fat, 4.9 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 12 mg cholesterol, 7 mg sodium, 10 g carbohydrate, 0.6 g protein, 0.2 g fiber
Tips for success
Homemade cookies often may look simple, but the good ones take know-how culled from long experience in baking.
A real cookie maven is Nancy Baggett, who tested almost 30,000 to come up with the recipes for her new “The All-American Cookie Book” (Houghton Mifflin, $35).
Here, adapted from the chapter on “How to Make Great Cookies Every Single Time,” are some tips for doing your best work yet in the kitchen:
Measure, don’t guess
In baking, accuracy really counts. For measuring liquids, use transparent or 1- or 2-cup marked measuring cups. Set the cup on a flat surface. For measuring dry ingredients, graduated cups make it easy to obtain the exact amount needed by leveling off with the sweep of a long-bladed spatula or knife, rather than just judging by sight.
Read (and follow!) directions
Prepare the recipe exactly as it is written at least once before making any changes. Pay particular attention to what temperature ingredients should be, because this can have a major effect on baking success. Follow the instructions on mixing procedures and the order for adding ingredients.
Beware of substitutions
Semisweet chocolate blocks and semisweet chocolate morsels are often not interchangeable. Blocks and morsels were designed for different purposes; manufacturers intend for semisweet chocolate blocks to be used melted, so these generally melt smoothly and are fairly fluid. Chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape when heated, so are usually stiff when melted.
Butter and regular stick margarine are sometimes interchangeable; butter and tub-style, light or diet margarine are never interchangeable.
Granulated sugar and brown sugar are rarely interchangeable. Brown sugar is moister, heavier and coarser than granulated sugar, so it will also change the cookie texture.
