"cookies" news and stories

The Best Peppermint Treats

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Dec 17th 2010 @ 5:00PM

Photo: Elizabeth Hait, AOL

Along with mistletoe, strings of colorful lights and crazy holiday shoppers, the Christmas season is when peppermint bark starts appearing everywhere -- from drugstores to high end stores. In an effort to save you time and money, we did our own taste-off and rounded up our favorites.

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Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Dove and Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark

The one dangerous thing about bark is you can break off a very large piece for yourself. However, with individually packaged squares like Dove and Ghiradelli's, your diet is safe. Each has their own high points: If you enjoy white chocolate more than peppermint, stick with Ghiradelli's version; if you want a real peppermint burst, Dove delivers.

Where to buy: Supermarkets and drug stores

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses

This candy can't technically be called "bark," but it had us searching drug stores everywhere for additional bags. With pieces of candy cane crushed up in the white chocolate, it was the perfect bite-size peppermint treat.

Where to buy: Supermarkets, drug stores, Amazon and Hershey's Chocolate World

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Jo's Peppermint Bark

This bark is more about the chocolate than the peppermint. The white chocolate was smooth and creamy with just a hint of mint, and will become a favorite among the white-chocolate lovers in your life.

Where to buy: Whole Foods or Jo's Candies

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

The Original Peppermint Bark

Yes, this is probably the most expensive bark you can purchase, but the price reflects the quality. Thick layers of both dark and white chocolate are topped with big chunks of peppermint. This is our #1 choice for gift-giving, entertaining or just hogging for yourself!

Where to buy: Williams-Sonoma

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Late July Dark Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

Imagine an Oreo on steroids. Now imagine an Oreo on steroids topped with peppermint. These chocolate sandwich cookies are dipped in chocolate than lightly sprinkled with peppermint candy crumbs. We're still dreaming of them...

Where to buy: Whole Foods

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Peppermint Bark Cookies

Chocolate wafer cookies become an extra sweet treat when dipped in white chocolate than topped with pieces of peppermint candies. You'll be ordering seconds quickly to satisfy the crunch craving these will leave you with.

Where to buy: Williams-Sonoma

Our Favorite Peppermint Bark and Cookies

Filed under: Taste Test

Snickerdoodles: Recipe of the Day

COMMENTS 1

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Dec 9th 2010 @ 10:00AM

Snickerdoodles recipe Photo: New Media Publishing / Flat Art Studios.com

It's true that we're on a cookie jag; we can't help it. We love to bake them, eat them, and give them away in pretty boxes all tied up in bows. Well, ok, we try; no one will ever confuse us with Martha Stewart. December is the month to lay in the flour, sugar, and butter because we've got a lot of recipes for you to try, beginning with yesterday's Stained-Glass Sugar Cookie and today's Snickerdoodle.

Frankly, we just like saying "Snickerdoodle." But this buttery sugar cookie with the trademark cracked surface is more than just a nonsense name. It's fragrant with cinnamon. When you bake a batch of Snickerdoodles, your house becomes a comfort zone.

Filed under: Recipes

Stained-Glass Sugar Cookies: Recipe of the Day

COMMENTS 1

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Dec 8th 2010 @ 10:00AM

Stained glass sugar cookies Photo: New Media Publishing / Flat Art Studios.com

Sugar cookies get the decorative treatment in this recipe, which is a favorite with kids. Why? It has a melted hard candy in the middle, and we have yet to meet a kid who would turn down a candy in a cookie of their own free will. And for adults, the stained-glass effect of the melted candy is a visual treat (you can even hang them on your holiday tree as an ornament). KitchenDaily contributor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez (who created this beautiful and delicious sweet) hasn't been dubbed the Cookie Queen for nothing.

More Christmas cookie recipes, and decorating tips

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One-Pot Wonders and Smart Cookies: The Houston Chronicle in 60 Seconds

COMMENTS 0

by Naomi Shulman, Posted Nov 15th 2010 @ 11:00AM

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies Photo: erincooks, Flickr

T-minus ten days! (T as in Thanksgiving, of course.)
One-pot recipes are the soul of simplicity, but they don't have to be boring. What's for dinner tonight: pork ragout or bacalao?
As for dessert, think a whole world of cheesecake.
Think you're a smart cookie? Do you really know your pecan sandies from your chocolate-chip treats? Take the pop quiz.

Filed under: Newspapers, In Sixty Seconds

Cookie Recipes With a Rich History

COMMENTS 0

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Nov 8th 2010 @ 11:00AM

Before you pull out the same old snowman cookie cutter and butter-cookie recipe this holiday season, give a thought to the cookie as a sign of the times. The food editors at the late great Gourmet magazine did. They baked a lot of cookies in the 68 years the magazine was published (1941-2009). So some tough choices had to be made when former Executive Food Editor Kemp Minifie and her team pored over all those recipes to choose the finest cookie from each year (except maybe for 1962, when only one cookie appeared). What began as a "best of" feature for the Gourmet website has now become The Gourmet Cookie Book, published November 2 (from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). From the rich almond-flavored Cajun Macaroon (1941) that tasted of New Orleans to the very French Christmas bread, Grand Marnier Glazed Pain d'Épices cookies, of December 2009, this is a collection that says as much about what makes a great cookie as it does about cooking that's inspired us for almost seven decades.

Slashfood talked to Kemp Minifie, who created recipes for Gourmet for more than thirty years, about some of her favorite cookies from the magazine's early years.

Slashfood: How did you ever pick just one cookie for each year?

Kemp Minifie: We went through all the issues, and tried to choose the one cookie that would say a lot about the time in which it was made. Take the Honey Refrigerator cookies from 1942. There was a war on, and there was rationing. Sugar was scarce. So we cooked with honey, which also helped the cookies keep well. These cookies go great with a tangy cheese, like goat's-milk or gorgonzola. In 1943, the Scotch Oat Crunchies also worked with our need to stretch ingredients by using oatmeal, which was inexpensive. This English and Irish take on the biscuit is thin and crisp, not too sweet, and it's filled with jam.

Filed under: Recipes, Cookbook Spotlight