Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

These Oreo Cheesecake Cookies from Brown Eyed Baker are delicious! They melt in your mouth, and the original recipe is egg-free. A delicious recipe is even better when I don't have to make modifications on my own. I did double the recipe since it says it makes 1 dozen, only to end up with 3 dozen cookies, so I'd say the recipe makes about 18 cookies. The little boy enjoyed pretending to roll the dough in the cookie crumbs but mostly just ate the crumbs. We had fun making them and had a huge mess at the end. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Preview of Posts to Come

Cookie Marathon

The first baking day of the Christmas cookie season resulted in a table full of over 26 dozen cookies and four different recipes. My friend and I started this tradition last year when she drove up for the weekend from North Carolina. Now she lives in town, and we can spread the baking over a couple weekends. We've tried some of the recipes before, and others were completely new. Luckily, they were all wonderful. Over the next week or so, I'll share the recipes and pictures from our efforts.

To start out the day, we made Coconut Marmalade Crescents. As we were shaping them and putting them on the cookie sheets, we were reminded of mini shrimp, though these cookies taste nothing like shrimp. The cookies are nice and soft, and the topping adds even more fun to their flavor, with a little crunch from the toasted coconut.

Coconut Marmalade Crescents

(adapted from Land O Lakes's Coconut Marmalade Crescents by way of Culinary in the Desert)

INGREDIENTS
For the cookie:
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp rum extract
1 C sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

For the glaze:
1 1/2 C confectioners' sugar
1/3 C orange marmalade
1 to 2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
additional sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

METHOD
For the cookie:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Beat in rum extract.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in coconut. Cover dough and place into the refrigerator until firm, about 1 to 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Shape dough into 1 1/4 " balls. Roll each ball into 2" long logs. Shape logs into a crescent shape (or another shape of your choosing) on baking sheets lined with parchment.
6. Place into the oven and bake until set and the edges are lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar, marmalade and enough orange juice to make desired glaze consistency.
2. Frost cookies with glaze. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Yield: about 5 dozen

I discussed this recipe here.

Biscotti Trial

Cookie madness season officially began this Tuesday when I had Veteran's Day off from work. I tried out this Almond Ginger Biscotti recipe, and it was delicious. This was a trial for the coming Christmas baking season, and I learned a couple things for the next time around.

The dough was much stickier than I was expecting. As I was forming the logs and putting them on the baking sheet, I was worried I had messed up the ingredients and put in too much liquid. When I checked the recipe, I had only put in the 3 eggs and vanilla, so no error there. In the end, there was no reason to worry since the biscotti were great. But now I know to spend a bit more time making longer, narrower logs before sticking them in the oven. This will help the center of the loaves cook a bit more and get as golden as the edges. The slightly firmer loaf will then be easier to cut into without tearing out the almonds as much as I experienced in this trial run.

One helpful tip I read was to stand the biscotti up on the cookie sheet for the second round of baking. This allows both sides to crisp up at the same time, instead of requiring a flip halfway.

Overall, the trial was a success, only requiring a little tweaking for the next batch.

Almond Ginger Biscotti

(adapted from Martha Stewart by way of Culinary in the Desert)

INGREDIENTS
2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 Tbsp lemon zest
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 C whole almonds
1/3 C crystallized ginger, chopped
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
granulated sugar to sprinkle on top, if desired

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt. Stir in almonds and ginger.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir just until the liquid has been absorbed.
3. Scoop the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until smooth. Evenly divide the dough into two pieces and roll each into logs about 1" high by 3" wide. Transfer logs to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and slightly flatten the logs with your palm. If desired, sprinkle granulated sugar lightly on the top of each log.
4. Bake until the logs are golden and the tops are firm when lightly pressed, about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. After 15 minutes, lightly spritz the logs with water, then let sit for another 5 minutes.
5. Use a serrated knife to cut the logs into roughly 1/2" thick diagonal slices. Place slices upright on the baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 20 minutes. Remove from teh oven and transfer slices to a wire rack to cool completely.

I discussed this recipe here.