Everyday Food - Flourless Chocolate Almond Coconut Cookies

I should really call these Almond Joy cookies!

Here was another contender for Christmas Cookie 2012!
This is from the last issue (#98) of Everyday Food, December 2012 - page 101

Flourless Chocolate-Coconut Drops

(I'm still going to call these Almond Joy cookies!)

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (spooned and leveled) -- I used the regular Hershey's Cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (5 ounces)
• 1 cup roughly chopped toasted almonds
• 3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in middle and lower thirds. In a large bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, cocoa, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips, almonds, and coconut. Add egg whites and stir until combined (do not overmix).
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto parchment-lined baking sheets.  (sprinkle with holiday jimmies for a festive look)
   
   Bake until tops are dry and cracked, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Store in airtight containers, up to 3 days.
If everyone doesn't eat them all first.

Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

Pistachio Shortbread Cookie all decked out!

From the last issue (December 2012) of Everyday Food, page 102.

The original recipe (Pistachio-Shortbread Sandwich Cookies) was a sandwich cookie with strawberry jam filling.  

For starters, I'm allergic to strawberries and secondly, it is much more fun and diet-friendly to eat these one at a time. and thirdly, the thinnest I could slice these were 3/8" instead of 1/4".  Yeah, diet-friendly indeed.  So I sprinkled some pretty sparkly sanding sugar on top and then baked.  (Did she say diet friendly?)  Oh well, I thought the pistachio green gave it all a Christmas holiday look -- and it made for a nice complement to all those other overly-sweet treats!   Bonus this makes a great shortbread cookie even by itself.  (and sugar sprinkles for any color, any holiday, any occasion)

INGREDIENTS:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine salt*
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 cup coarsely chopped pistachios*
1/3 cup strawberry jam*

DIRECTIONS:
In a food processor, process butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until smooth. Add flour and pulse until a dough forms. Stir in pistachios. Shape dough into two 8-inch long logs*, tightly wrap in plastic, and freeze until firm, 30 minutes (or up to 1 month).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Cut dough* into 1/4-inch slices and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set and barely golden at edges, 10 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Spread 1/2 teaspoon jam on bottoms of half the cookies, then sandwich with remaining cookies.

Store in airtight containers, up to 1 week.
_________
*I used the already-shelled pistachios from Costco.  They were a little bit salty.  You may want to skip the 1/2 teaspoon of salt or reduce to 1/4 teaspoon.
*I omitted the strawberry jam.  Next time if I can get the cookies thinner I may try raspberry or another jam.
*I actually divided the dough into four 5" logs, to help them freeze faster and to bake/make smaller portions.
*Let the dough soften a little or nuke in the microwave for 8-10 seconds.  It can be a little difficult to try and slice when frozen completely, especially when you encounter a whole pistachio.  I pieced a few back together.

Last issue of Everyday Food : (

No More Day Food

My and everyone else's last issue of Everyday Food.  It was one of my, if not THE favorite recipe magazine ever.  I was a subscriber from the very beginning in 2003. I thought the recipes were innovative, tasty and most importantly - easy to create in my own kitchen. "Martha Light", if you would.

Per the "Dear Everyday Food Subscriber" insert, Martha Stewart Living magazine plans instead to incorporate it in their subscriber issue copies (apparently not the newsstand ones?!) five times a year, beginning with the March 2013 issue.  And content will also be available on YouTube and as a video newsletter "Everyday Food with Sarah Carey".

But it just won't be the same without that cute little magazine I would either stuff in my purse or have on my coffee table, waiting to be flipped through for inspiration and feeding my family.

Oh, Lighten Up!

Whee! The 2012 Cooking Light AND Everyday Food Light books are now at Costco!

The Cooking Light 2012 publisher's price is $34.95 (ouch!); Costco is $21.99 (whew!)

Everyday Food is a paperback, $24.99 (really, for a paperback?!); Costco - $13.59

I'm not too thrilled that once again Everyday Food is organized by the season. I think it makes it harder to find the recipes you want to try. I also noticed it is available as an ebook.

Plum-Blueberry Upside-Down Cake

The Plum Blueberry Upside Down Cake from Everyday Food #85 September 2011 - Pretty and yummy, too!

***I made a few changes -- I used a glass pie plate and followed the directions. I was happy to discover it popped right out/upside down perfectly! *I also cut back the butter in the batter by 1 1/2 tablespoons. Every little bit helps! And it did not have a big impact on the flavor and result.

Since I was using glass, I reduced the oven from 375 to 350. I started checking at 41 minutes and added five minutes more. Then used the high speed/fan/convection setting for 3 minutes. Perfect!

Ingredients
*10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large firm but ripe black plum, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 1/2 cups blueberries (7 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions

Preheat oven to *375 degrees. Lightly butter an *8-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep); line bottom with parchment paper. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and pour into pan; swirl to coat paper. Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange plum evenly in pan, then add blueberries, filling in any gaps.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 8 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg, egg white, and orange zest until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into butter mixture until combined. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla until smooth.
Transfer batter to pan. Tap pan firmly on counter several times to remove air bubbles; smooth top.
Bake until cake is deep golden brown, juices are bubbling around edge, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about *45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack, 1 hour. Run a knife around edge of pan and invert cake onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Store, covered, at room temperature, up to 2 days.)
Note --
Flavorful fresh fruit will give you a sweet, jamlike layer on top of this cake. Make sure the fruit is packed snugly in the pan; it will shrink and lose volume as it bakes.

Cardamom Cookies

These are from the September 2011 Issue #85 of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine, page 99. Cardamom Cookies with Frozen Yogurt and Mango

I added some Penzeys Baking Spice to give it a more spicy-sweet taste. I give them a solid "B" - they were good, but thought they were a bit salty for some reason. Next time I will decrease the cardamom to 1/4 teaspoon and add a little bit more of Baking Spice (which has two kinds of cinnamon - Ceylon and Cassia, anise seed, allspice, mace and yes, cardamom). And by making smaller, marble-sized balls, I was able to get 23 2" cookies instead of 10. I also subtracted 2 tablespoons of butter from the called-for stick. I find that I can easily do that with most of their recipes, thereby reducing the fat and the calories while increasing the enjoyment knowing they are missing! Click the link in the first paragraph for the original recipe.

CARDAMOM COOKIES

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter -- minus 2 tablespoons, room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon Baking Spice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all purpose flour

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add cardamom, and salt; beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour and mix until combined.
Form dough into 1" balls and place, 2 inches apart, on a parchment-lined baking sheet. With the bottom of a glass or measuring cup dipped in flour, gently flatten each ball. Bake until cookies are golden around edge, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely, then dust with confectioners' sugar.

Fun with Target's Liberty of London

...the Media Box is also the perfect size to store your issues of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine! Click on the Liberty of London tag for more of my Liberty of London fun and finds.

Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast

Finally, a follow-up book to Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.
Just-released Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast has 250 recipes, divided into --

Breakfast
Sandwiches, Burgers and Pizzas
Appetizers
Salads
Soups and Stews
Main Courses (including vegetarian)
Side Dishes
Desserts

I can't wait to try some of them. Right now I seem to be on a Cooking Light bender. I like the format of this book better than the first, which was organized by seasons.

If you subscribe or buy the Everyday Food magazine, you may recognize some of the recipes. This is a good way to "catch up" on what you've been missing, or be able to grab and thumb through at a moment's notice. I don't know about you, but my attention span is easily diverted when I start delving into past issues looking for recipes. At least I can hope to resurface relatively faster with this book handy.

With these two books and the new iTunes Martha Stewart Everyday Food app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it's a triple crown Everyday Food recipe win!

Paperback, ISBN: 978-0-307-40510-4
$14.99 at Costco, $24.99 publisher's price

H(app)y Days - Everyday Food App!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Boy, was I happy to find out there's an iPod Touch/iPhone app for MarthaStewart's Everyday Food! Definitely well worth the 99 cents. It will even "push" the recipe of the day to your home screen. You do need to be connected to the Internet to enable the recipe search function.

Here's a link so you can grab yours, too!

Everyday Food - Crispy Garlic Potatoes + Salad Dressing

Skirt Steak with Crispy Garlic Potatoes. This is from the September 2008 issue of Everyday Food. Originally accompaniments to the Skirt Steak, we loved the Crispy Garlic Potatoes and the Salad Dressing even better than the steak!

The potatoes -- slice 1 1/2 pounds of red new potatoes 1" thick. Mince two cloves of garlic and press flat to make a paste. Transfer to a bowl and add 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, mix together. Add and toss potatoes (much easier to toss in the bowl instead of per the directions on the baking sheet), put on large rimmed baking sheet and bake in 475 oven for 20-25 minutes until browned on underside.

The salad dressing -- combine 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Everyday Food #65 - Three-Cheese Skillet Lasagna

Three Cheese Skillet Lasagna From Everyday Food issue #65, September 2009, page 97

Another instance "sort-of" following the directions. In the freezer I had 1/2 jar of leftover pasta sauce with mushrooms and an opened 1/2 mozzarella "ball" from a Costco two-pack. With a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes + the pasta sauce, it was the perfect consistency. I used my Cuisinart Little Chopper to chop up the mozzarella instead of trying to shred - it was too soft. I also used the entire 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese (low fat). As far as the skillet, which seemed like a good idea, I didn't have an all-metal one shown in the magazine photo and didn't trust my skillet's composite handle at 400, so I used my Chantal "Party Pan" - basically a round casserole. Worked just fine.

With the no-bake noodles, this was a pretty fast and easy lasagna in less than 1 hour. Not bad! I will add it to my recipe notebook.

Everyday Food #65 - Maple-Pecan Bread Pudding

Maple-Pecan Bread Pudding

From Everyday Food issue #65 - September 2009, page 126

A perfect marriage of Vermont Maple Syrup and Texas Pecans!

The only change I made was to use Land O'Lakes Fat Free Half and Half and bumped up the pecans to almost 1 cup. Two of Target's Archer Farms French Demi Baguettes - 3 ounce size, had just the right amount of airy-ness/holes and volume to fill a 9 x 9" square baking dish.

If you plan to visit Vermont or have friends there and can get the "good stuff", this recipe will do it deserved justice!

Everyday Food #58 - Provencal Chicken with Vegetables

The recipe is from the December 2008 Everyday Food #58, page 16. Despite this issue's success of the Chocolate Gingerbread and Seared Steak, this one failed to impress the clan. It looked and smelled good when I first put it in the oven - but the onions burned along the edges, surprisingly the chicken was blah even with the Dijon mustard and Herbes de Provence, and we skipped the green olives (?!). The carrots were fine and I added quartered baby potatoes, but that does not a meal make. Pass.

Everyday Food #58 - Seared Steak With Roasted Mushrooms and Spinach Salad

Seared Steak with Roasted Mushrooms and Spinach Salad -- From Everyday Food #58, December 2008, page 110 - "2 for 1 Suppers" section. YUMMY! Well worth the trips to three grocery stores trying to find flank steak that didn't cost more than sirloin steak. (Finally, Kroger $6.99 -I actually went to the "Butcher" section). I loved the seasoning rub. Though I will cut back a little on the 2 teaspoons of salt, if using regular salt instead of coarse salt. The mushrooms came out good, I also tossed in a few quartered small potatoes to roast along with them. Because the flank steak was still a little pricey, I only got a little over a pound and did not double the amount (3 pounds) needed for the do-over into the Steak Tostadas with Cilantro Sour Cream on the next page for the next day. I'll definitely make these again and be watching the ads for the next time flank steak goes on sale.

Everyday Food #58 - Chocolate Gingerbread Bars

From the Everyday Food #58 December 2008 issue, page 142 --

CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD BARS

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Line bottom with strip of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides, butter paper. Dust paper and sides of pan with additional cocoa powder; set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk together butter, brown sugar, molasses, egg and sour cream until smooth. Add flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top.
Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean (about 30 to 35 minutes). Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely. Using paper overhang, lift gingerbread from pan. Transfer to cutting board and cut into 16 squares. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

Our rating: 2/3 forks up A little too spicy for L, but T and I liked them. They reminded me of a cakey brownie. I may try baking them again in mini loaf pans for potential gift-giving. The molasses intensified the chocolatey-ness. I may cut back a little on the pumpkin pie spice, or be more careful measuring - I think a little extra spilled over into the bowl. Love the fact that these, like many other Everyday Food recipes, use a whisk instead of a mixer. I used a tea ball to help sprinkle the confectioner's sugar on top of the bars.

Grit (in) your teeth and bear it - Everyday Food #57 - Cornmeal Cookies

Looked pretty on the photo on the last page of the the November 2008 issue #57, albeit that 1 1/2 sticks of butter gave pause with the fat gram count (Maybe if I make them smaller?! Which I did.). Even the ladies on the Everyday Food show were talking about them on the Martha channel last week - "Delicious!" "Add chocolate chips!" "Try Craisins next time!" "Yummy!" I made a batch this afternoon, deciding to make some plain and adding chocolate chips to most of the others. The chocolate chip version just tasted and felt odd combined with the cornmeal grit. I should have kept them as is, they weren't that bad - different and interesting. Give them a try!

Cornmeal Cookies - Everyday Food #57 November 2008

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks room temperature butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients with a whisk in a medium bowl. Using a mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients, mixing just until ingredients are combined. Drop dough about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden, 14-16 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies immediately to a wire rack, let cool completely.

Everyday Food #57 - Cranberry Bread

This turned out great! The Cranberry Bread recipe on page 21 of Issue #57 - November 2008 - calls for a 12 ounce bag of cranberries, but I had the Costco 3-pounder bag in the freezer. Twelve ounces is about a generous 2-cup. Don't they look pretty? The recipe went together easily - the brown sugar gave it a pretty ginger color and the Turbinado (Sugar in the Raw) sugar is an option really worth adding. I also used three 2 1/2 cup loaf pans (the 5 3/4" x 3 1/2" size). Not only did it shorten the baking time (40 minutes), but enabled me to eat one, freeze one, gift one tomorrow. T is no big fan of the cranberry, but he liked this. Surprisingly it doesn't taste that cranberry-ish. It looks and tastes more like slightly-sour cherries. So holiday-festive looking, too -- it would make a great gift.

Everyday Food #51 - Coconut-Apricot Macaroons

Behold Coconut-Apricot Macaroons, from the April 2008 issue #51 of Everyday Food, page 144. At first I passed this over, but then when I read about Mad About Martha's good luck with it, I thought I would try it, too. They were right, this is a yummy cookie! Though the recipe fibbed about them not spreading on the cookie sheet, mine did, so you may want to leave a little more than 1/2" between. I thought the dough was a little gooey, maybe that was it.

Everyday Food #44 - Coconut-Pecan Cereal Bars

Coconut-Pecan Cereal Bars (Minus the coconut) From the Everyday Food Issue #44, July/August 2007 - Page 170. Just like a Rice Krispy bar only with cornflakes. And pecans. And a handful of chocolate chips. These are really rich and gooey! No chance of overeating these. I think next time I'll either cut back the marshmallows or add more cornflakes and put them in a larger 9 x 12 pan. I don't think the missing coconut would have made any difference. Our rating: B-/Would make again with modifications or just stick with the classic Rice Krispy bars instead. Though the pecans and cornflakes were a nice change of pace and taste.

Everyday Food #50 - Fast Chicken Fajitas (sorta)

Inspired is the best word, Fast Chicken Fajitas from page 20 of the March 2008 Everyday Food issue #50. I had a package of Costco's boneless chicken breasts, but I also had Penzeys Fajita Seasoning in the pantry. It seemed easier to me to just sprinkle the fajita seasoning on the chicken and broil away. As I read the recipe again, apparently I even skipped the step of rubbing oil into the chicken first. No harm done. In the meantime I stir-fried the peppers and onions in the skillet, and added the broiled chicken towards the very end for seasoning and flavoring.

We all gave it an A, for a quick and easy lunch/dinner --without having to buy the preseasoned/precooked chicken fajitas in the $$ package. As L said, "no funny, chewy pieces!" It was all tender, all good, and fast to the table.