Written by Dede Wilson

Baked goods fresh from your kitchen are a heartfelt way to wish teachers, co-workers, friends and family a happy holiday season. They are also great for last minute invites to use as host and hostess gifts. For me, a great edible gift will be easy to make in quantity, keep well, package well and of course, be delicious.

Shortbread is a classic cookie for good reason. It is buttery, rich, easy to make and its simplicity is a boon as it can be offered alone or with other desserts such as ice cream, sorbet or fresh fruit. In this recipe I have added matcha (powdered green tea) to a shortbread cookie dough and used a leaf shaped cookie cutter to echo the tea leaves.  It is easy to produce many cookies at once, you can vary the look by topping some with sparkly sugar and leaving others plain, and the small cookie size allows for a variety of packaging ideas. Tins are easy to find at dollar stores and work wonderfully, but for this cookie the green color is so beautiful I like to use clear glass mason jars and tie up the top with a decorative ribbon.

Matcha can be found at specialty stores as well as online, such as through Ito En.

I also love florentine cookies. Their crunchy texture and combination of caramel, chocolate, nut and fruit flavors is irresistible. They are usually made as lacy individual rounds. Here I have turned them into a bar cookie - quick to make a larger quantity, they keep well and they are easy to package.

Dede Wilson is a popular food writer and television personality with her own public television show, Seasonings with Dede Wilson. She is the author of Unforgettable Desserts (Wiley, 2009), among others.  Dede is a contributing editor for Bon Appétit magazine and hosts a monthly Bon Appetit segment on the CBS's Early Show. Visit her blog, For the Love of Food,  or follow her on twitter at twitter.com/dedewilsoncooks.

Matcha Tea Leaf Shortbreads

From Unforgettable Desserts by Dede Wilson, Wiley 2009.

Classic shortbread cookies will never go out of style. The rich buttery flavor and irresistible crumbly texture are incomparable. They are also very simple to make and lend themselves easily to variations. Matcha is Japanese green tea that is finely ground into a powder and is used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. It is very concentrated in flavor and color and you will probably have to mail-order it unless you have a well-stocked tea purveyor near you. The optional sanding sugar can be sprinkled on half of the cookies; after baking, when both the sugared and plain cookies are arranged on a platter, it creates a nice contrast between sparkly and matte. The sugar can be ordered from Beryl's.  The leaf shaped cookie cutter is a playful nod to that fact that these contain leaves - tea leaves.  

Makes 80 two-inch cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons matcha (powdered green tea)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon sanding sugar (optional)

Line 2 jellyroll pans with parchment paper; set aside.

Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

Beat butter on medium-high speed with flat paddle until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add matcha and beat until butter/tea mixture is a uniform green color and very creamy. Add sugar gradually and continue beating on high speed until very light and fluffy. Turn machine off, add about one-third of the flour, then turn machine onto low-speed. Gradually add remaining flour, mixing just until blended, scraping down bowl once or twice. The mixture will look crumbly; if you squeeze it between your fingers, it will come together. Gather it together into a ball with your hands while it is still in the bowl.

Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness between two pieces of lightly floured parchment. Peel off top parchment and cut dough in half. Sprinkle sanding sugar evenly over one half of the cookie dough and gently, with hardly any pressure, roll over it with rolling pin to help it adhere. Using a 2-inch x 1-inch leaf shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible from both doughs and place on cookie sheets 1-inch apart. Use the back of a sharp paring knife to make vein patterns on each cookie (see photo). Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight, if desired.

Position racks in upper and lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake for about 17 to 22 minutes or until the cookies are dry and firm to the touch; their color will not change. They should retain their shape if you try to pick one up and there should also be a fragrant butter and matcha scent emanating from the oven. Cool pans on racks for a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks in airtight container.

Tip: I used a cookie cutter that is just shy of 2-inches long and 1-inch wide. You can certainly use a larger cookie cutter, or even a different shape, but the yield and baking times might change.

Florentine Bars with Candied Orange and Cherries

From Unforgettable Desserts by Dede Wilson, Wiley 2009.

Florentine cookies are my very favorite owing to the combination of caramelized sugar, chocolate, nuts and sweet/tart fruit. However, their classic round shape is often hard to accomplish, due to their lacy, free-form nature. Here, the traditional cookie is a topping for a thin shortbread, all of which is formed in a pan - easier to make and to serve but with all of the classic ingredients and flavors.
Makes 40 squares

Shortbread:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Florentine filling:

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup sliced blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 1/2 cup diced candied orange peel
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Topping:

•  2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted, such as Scharffen Berger (62%)

For the Shortbread: Position rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 13 x 9-inch pan with non-stick spray, line bottom with parchment cut to fit, then spray parchment.

Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

Beat butter until creamy with flat paddle on medium-high speed, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and continue to beat, about 3 minutes at medium-high speed, until very light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add flour, mixing just until blended, scraping down bowl once or twice. Pat crust into an even layer in prepared pan.

Bake crust about 20 to 25 minutes or until just beginning to turn very light golden brown along the edges; it should be dry to the touch. Prepare filling while crust is baking.

For the Filling: Place butter, sugar cream and honey in a medium sized saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Turn heat to medium-high, bring to a boil and cook to 235 degrees F. Remove from heat and stir in nuts, fruit and flour until well combined.

Pour filling over partially baked crust and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until filling is bubbling all over and has turned light golden brown all over. Color might be darker around edges. Cool pan completely on rack.

For the Topping: Place melted chocolate in a parchment cone and make a free-form zigzag pattern all over the bars. Chill to set chocolate; cut into 40 bars (5x8). Refrigerate for up to 1 week in airtight container in single layers separated by parchment paper.  Bring to room temperature before serving

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Freshly picked corn has a sweetness that I crave.  I can eat it raw, cut right off the cob ,it is so delicious.  Mix that corn with other summer bounties like just-off-the-vine tomatoes and you have a quick bruschetta or sauté it with some prosciutto and toss tomatoes and some hot tortellini and you have a meal.  It’s that sweetness and versatility of fresh corn that lured me to my latest creation from Michel Richard’s cookbook “Happy in the Kitchen” – Corn Nugget Crab Cakes.

As with any Michele Richards recipe this is unlike any other form of crab cakes you’ve likely seen before.  The crab mixture is encased in an outer layer of fresh corn mixed with a shrimp paste to make it adhere and seal in the crab.  The assembled cakes are wrapped in plastic wrap, steamed and sit overnight to allow the flavors to meld.  The next day the cakes are cooked in the oven to brown and warm up.  Accompanying the crab cakes is Michele Richards take on tartar sauce. 

Plastic wrap enclosed corn cakes

The result

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Husband and I finally got a chance to cook our next Happy in the Kitchen meal last weekend.  This was our first non-meat centric Happy meal.  As summer approaches we’ll have bunches of these since Michel Richards has some amazing uses for summer vegetables in the book.  I’m not one to buy out of season veggies and since we wanted to try something other than meat we opted for Happy Mushrooms – ‘Shroomwich sandwiches and Mushroom Cigars to be exact.  Both recipes used what Michel Richards calls Mushroom Water and Mushroom Jus, so while the recipes weren’t really intended to be served within one meal we made them together.  Even together, these recipes only took us about 4 hours spread across two days.

As with our previous Happy in the Kitchen meals, we began with shopping.  The ingredients for this meal were pretty straightforward; no special cuts of meat or highly unusual ingredients.  We needed four pounds of Cremini mushrooms which was almost the entire supply at our small local grocery.  We also needed springroll wrappers; these required a bit of searching but otherwise shopping was painless.  The first day we made the mushroom puree and mushroom jus.  Compared to our other Happy meals this was really simple.  Food process the mushrooms, boil (yes boil them) and strain.  Michel Richards says this is the only time he ever boils mushrooms.  What it gets you is a very flavorful mushroom jus. The remaining mushroom pieces form the mushroom puree.  They definitely still tasted like mushrooms but on their own are a bit plain.  After we finished the Happy Mushroom meal we had some of the mushroom puree left which we used to make into calzones.  Combined with some ricotta, spinach and a light sauce, the calzones were a great way to use up the leftover puree. After the minimal work the first day Husband and I were bracing for unexpected difficulties that would ruin the meal on the second day.   Happily that didn’t happen.  These dishes were very straightforward to prepare even though we were making two of them at once.  That’s not to say everything went flawlessly.  We had one rather large problem: our attempt at making homemade mayonnaise.  Neither of us had ever done this and boy did it show!  Things were looking good until almost the end at which point the oil separated from the egg and we could not get it to re-emulsify. We did a mad hunt in our cookbooks for clues of what we did wrong and then gave up.  We’ll try again another day.  Truthfully, we’ve been expecting much bigger problems in making these sometimes elaborate Michel Richards dishes and using purchased mayonnaise wasn’t a show stopper.  On the second day we cooked for about 2.5 hours.  The results tasted great and fit the effort level to prepare them.  The ‘Shroomwiches had the feel of very elegant grilled cheese sandwiches with a pleasant mushroom surprise within.  The Mushroom Cigars had an interesting Indian accent from the curry added to the filling and the Ginger Remoulade we dipped them in.   Overall, my favorite Happy in the Kitchen meal is still the Silky Syrah Short Ribs but the mushrooms were good.  What’s next?  I’m leaning towards a Happy Seafood meal unless the garden produces before we get to it… Oh and we’re taking the brave step of making the Silky Syrah Short Ribs when family visits next week.  Will happy food make for a happy family visit?

The mushrooms - 4 pounds of them! First step - food process. Boiled mushrooms   The cigars The 'Shroomwiches

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I know that corned beef and cabbage is an American invention rather than an actual Irish tradition, but each year Husband and I make it on or around St. Patrick’s Day simply because we like it.  (This year we were a bit late!) We started this tradition years ago based on the yearly ritual my mother practiced of buying a prepared, plastic enclosed ‘corned beef’ and cooking it in a pot with cabbage, carrots and potatoes.  The cabbage never appealed to me but the corned beef flavor infused in the carrots and potatoes, and of course the corned beef itself certainly did.  It seems no matter how large the cut of meat the corned beef and various accompaniments always disappear very quickly. 

In recent years, we found a few local shops that prepare their own corned beef and began buying locally prepared corned beef rather than mass produced.  But this year we ventured one step further and made our own corned beef.  We were inspired by the recipe in the March issue of Bon Appétit by Bruce Aidells.  In theory, making your own corned beef simply requires brining beef brisket with special spices for about a week, occasional stirring, and then cooking it as you would purchased corned beef.  Of course things don’t always go so smoothly.  In this case, once I got all of the ingredients the actual making of the corned beef really wasn’t much effort but getting those ingredients was a bit of an adventure.  Getting the ingredients Corned beef has a distinct color that is a result of a special addition to the brine:  Insta Cure No. 1.  This is optional but the thought of eating grey corned beef didn’t sound too appealing so I decided to use it.  The recipe provided a web source but to make the corned beef I only needed a fraction of the amount they sold.  Since I knew a local butcher that made their own corned beef (and sausages) I decided to get it locally.  At the butcher shop, I innocently asked for “Insta Cure Number 1”.  The owner of the butcher shop immediately came over and started asking me why I wanted it.  At first I thought he just wanted to make sure I got the right stuff but then he kept asking questions such as “how much do you need?”,  “how much beef are you using?”, “what other ingredients go in the recipe?” and on and on.  He was very serious when asking these questions and I was a bit intimidated!  But all I wanted to do was make corned beef and apparently that came through because at some point he said “Sure I can sell you an ounce of that” and he had one of his assistants get it for me.  I had passed his test.  But what was the test for?  Smiling and friendly now, he explained that Insta Cure Number 1 is made form Sodium Nitrate which can be used for other sinister purposes not related to cooking….  With that explained the butcher was friendly to me and started giving me tips on making the corned beef.  In addition to suggesting a couple of different beef cuts, he advised that I poke the meat with a skewer so that the brine penetrates the meat better.  While I decided to use brisket as the recipe suggested I did follow his suggestion and had some fun poking holes in the meat before brining it. Once I had the Insta Cure, the next item I needed was “pickling spices”.  These are simple enough to buy at the store so I didn’t have problems, but it seems really odd to me that the recipe simply called for generic pickling spices.  The spices are an integral part of corned beef and it would seem that a specific, finely tuned, blend of spices would be listed rather than generic pickling spices.   Since this was our first time making corned beef I decided to stick with the recipe and bought generic pickling spices, but if we make this again I’d like to blend our own. Armed with our Insta Cure, pickling spices, a whopping 7 pounds of brisket and other assorted ingredients, including beer, we finally got down to creating the brine.  This really was very easy to do and only took a short while including the additional step of poking holes in the meat.  Once placed in the brine, the brisket simply sat in the fridge for 8 days. The recipe says to stir it after 4 days but we also rotated the brisket every other day because we had two pieces rather than just one. Let the cooking begin My expectations were that the actual cooking would be very similar to our traditional process for corned beef.  This recipe had some differences from our traditional recipe though so the prep work was a bit different.  In addition to the traditional carrots and potatoes the recipe included turnips and parsnips.  These are vegetables we’ve been trying to use more in our cooking so this seemed a great addition.  Also, the recipe makes a lot of food and since we had two pieces of brisket I split the cooking into two nights.  This meant that I could fit everything in one pan while cooking and the added bonus was that we had fresh corned beef two nights… Feasting As much as we enjoy corned beef, seven pounds is a lot so we bravely invited friends over to enjoy the meal with us.  For the full feast we also made homemade corn muffins which are another part of our corned beef tradition.  And since we had guests I got to make dessert – a delicious carrot cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours.  Inviting guests over for a previously untried recipe can be dangerous.  Especially when making something like your own brined corned beef.  Nevertheless, the result was great from sight to flavor.  The Insta Cure did its job well and the corned beef was the perfect color of pinkish red.  As for flavor, yup it definitely tasted like corned beef.  Did it taste better than the butcher prepared corned beef?  Honestly, I’m not sure.  Husband thought it was a bit salty but overall I think it was very similar.  Still, we’re looking forward to brining our own again next year.  Why?  It was fun and even if it didn’t taste recognizably better than purchased just the knowing that we made it ourselves made the effort (which really was pretty minimal) well worth it! And if anyone has a special pickling spice blend let me know for next year….

The brisket is weighted down in the brine.   After a couple of days brining...   Looks just like corned beef!     and don't forget the veggies.   Corned beef on Rye with Fontina an excellent leftover!

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