Demeter Made

Snowball Cookies

A cookie by any other name is still. . .delicious.  These simple little, sugar covered gems are commonly called Mexican Wedding Cookies, but in my family we know them as Snowballs.  The cookies are crisp and light and just sweet enough.  Although often overused, the phrase "melt-in-your-mouth" describes the texture of these cookies perfectly. 

The ingredient list is very simple; butter, powdered sugar, flour, good-quality vanilla and pecans are all that go into these cookies.  I was excited to finally get to use my homemade vanilla extract that I started a few months back, as it had aged long enough to develop a nice, smooth vanilla flavor.  Using good quality butter and vanilla is especially important due to the simplicity of the flavors that make these cookies so unique.  I like using pecans, but they are equally good with chopped almonds or walnuts.  

German Gingersnap Cookies

Happy Holidays everyone!  I'm sure most of you probably have  your Christmas cookie baking finished.   But for those of you that might still need some ideas for the cookies you'll be leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve, I'd like to share a few of my favorite holiday cookie recipes over the next few days.  Today it's German Gingersnaps.  A wonderful, spicy cookie sweetened with brown sugar and dark blackstrap molasses.  This is a great recipe for the holidays as it fills the kitchen with the traditional holiday aroma of ginger and cinnamon.

What is your favorite holiday cookie recipe?  

"The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever"

So, I'm a little slow to get on the New York Times "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever" bandwagon.  The recipe, originally adapted from Jacques Torres, was published in the Times on July 9, 2008.  Since I don't subscribe to the NY Times, I first heard about the recipe that was shaking up kitchens everywhere on a Slate Gabfest podcast.  Yes, chocolate chip cookies made the topic cut for a political radio show in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign—these had to be some seriously good cookies and according to David Plotz and Emily Bazelon somewhat subversive.  Apparently, some people think that the time spent coming up with the perfect cookie recipe could be better spent solving the problems of war and political strife.  They felt that the special ingredients and extra steps are representative of the hedonistic society that we live in today.  Maybe they are right. . .or maybe the perfect chocolate chip cookie is just what the world needs to achieve a little balance.   A little sweetness, a little extra care and love, and things seem just a little more bearable.

Olympian Cookies

At our house, dessert is not a treat or special occasion type of thing.  Dessert is an essential part of the meal, every meal, except maybe breakfast--but, then again, sometimes breakfast can look a lot like dessert, too.  I have always been a fan of the sweet stuff, but then a married a man with a serious sweet tooth, so you can expect to see a whole lot of dessert ideas on this blog.  Recently, I've been trying to add in more nutritious ingredients to all of my recipes, but especially my baked goods.