Coconut-Orange Snowballs

Last year a small group of bakers joined together to do a The 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza using recipes from a Gourmet magazine feature of their favorite cookies from 1941 to 2008. This year a few more people have joined us and today is the first day of 12 Days of Cookies 2009. Each baker chooses 12 cookies to make but doesn’t tell anyone else what they chose, so it’s a fun little surprise for us to see what everyone else made. Due to family obligations I cannot participate on all 12 days this year but I wanted to join in for at least one day and try some of the cookies, and if I can sneak it in I might be able to do one or two more hopefully.

This year the cookies all come from a Bon Appétit feature about holiday cookies that had us ooing and aahing. While several of the cookies caught my eye, these simple snowball butter cookies with toasted coconut and orange zest were my biggest temptation. They are very simple to make, just toast the coconut, mix the ingredients, chill the dough, roll into balls, and bake. I baked them after the boys had gone to bed so they were surprised to find them in the kitchen the next morning. Top Gun repeatedly asked me about those cookies; he just couldn’t stand to wait until after school.

The flavors seem to balance each other pretty well, though I don’t notice the orange as much as the coconut. These could easily become dry, so I stopped them one minute short of full baking time, and the texture was slightly crumbly, just right. Michael dove into them after dinner and kept eating them while saying, “Wow.” We would definitely make these again.

Be sure to visit all the members of the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Bon Appétit website to see all the cookie recipes.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Baker’s Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen (Thanks for making our logo!)

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook

Michelle of Big Black Dog

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Tiffany of The Nesting Project

COCONUT-ORANGE SNOWBALLS

Adapted from Bon Appétit, December 2003.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Equipment

2 large baking sheets
parchment paper
stand mixer with paddle attachment (or hand mixer and large bowl)
wire cooling rack

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups (111 g) sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup (2 sticks/226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2-1/4 cups (293 g) sifted powdered sugar, divided (sifted, then measured)
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
2-1/4 cups (270 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F/175° C. Toast the coconut on a rimmed baking sheet until light golden, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 12 minutes.

2. In the bowl of the stand mixer beat the butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and both extracts to blend well. Beat in flour, orange peel, and salt. Stir in toasted coconut. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Soften dough slightly before shaping.

3. Preheat oven to 350° F/175° C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Using 1 level tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into balls. Place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden on bottom but pale on top, about 16 to 18 minutes. The trick is to make sure they don’t dry out, so don’t let them overcook. Transfer cookies to racks and cool 5 minutes.

5. Place remaining 1-3/4 cups powdered sugar in a bowl. Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar, covering completely. Cool cookies on rack. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again, coating generously. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

More Christmas Cookies

See all the cookies from The 12 Days of Cookies.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie with Whole Wheat Crust

We did it. I can’t believe it’s true, but we planted two pecan trees in our yard. We spotted them at Lowe’s in late September and selected a Sumner Pecan and a Stuart Pecan. We are slightly north of the growing zone for the Sumner, but our area has mild winters so it should do well. Pecan trees need another variety nearby to produce, and we planted these within 30 feet of each other. They got a little dry at one point and we were worried we might lose them, but it looks like they have taken to their new home. They don’t look like much right now, just a couple sticks about five feet (152 cm) tall since they lost their leaves, but they are full of promise, I can feel it. We have hopeful visions of harvesting pounds and pounds of pecans in about eight years. Yes it will be a long wait, but if the trees produce then my dream to grow our own pecans will be fulfilled. Read more

Whole Wheat Pie Dough

Though we’ve had a few detours along the way, we remain committed to our resolution to use more whole grains in our baking, and pie dough was next on the list to change. I’ve tried a number of whole wheat pie dough recipes, and this is one of my favorites. The good folks at King Arthur Flour published Whole Grain Baking in 2006 and for their efforts they received a James Beard Foundation award nomination. I bought the book this year as we embarked on our quest to finally change to whole grain baking and it has been an invaluable reference.

As they tested pies and doughs, the authors decided that different pies call for different pie crusts, and they experimented with traditional whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, barley flour, and oats. Some of the doughs have a mixture of whole grains and a few have a small amount of white flour. This whole wheat pie dough has no white flour and no other grains; the whole wheat flour stands on its own. Read more

Spiced Persimmon Cake with Dates and Lemon Glaze

We discovered the persimmon tree in September when we noticed the golden orbs hanging from the branches. We hadn’t paid attention to the tree before because it was in a relatively inaccessible area behind our house and we had no idea what it was or what if anything it would produce, it had not set fruit until this year. When we found the fruit, we realized it was American persimmon (aka common persimmon and Eastern persimmon), which is a berry in botanic terms. The fruit is small, ranging 1 to 1-1/2 inches (2.5 to 4 cm) in diameter and very sweet when ripe.

Persimmons are autumn fruits that can hang on even after frost, and you can wait until after frost to gather them to ensure they are fully ripe. The leaves start to droop and fall off the tree as the fruit ripens. The persimmons should be very soft and even a little wrinkled before eating, otherwise they’ll have a chalky taste. If the fruit starts to drop when you shake the tree, they are pretty much ready. Read more

Percy Train Birthday Cake

My husband Michael, the engineer (aerospace, not trains), is the designer for all our sons’ birthday cakes. He’s a big fan of Duff Goldman and watches Ace of Cakes often trying to pick up any tips he can. We only tackle cakes like this three times a year and we are definitely not pros. I bake the cakes and whip up the frosting and he does all the assembly and decorative work. Here’s his story on how we made the Percy train birthday cake.

Monkey Boy’s favorite toy is trains so for about six months prior to his third birthday we heard all about how he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake, then just a couples months before his birthday he changed his mind and asked for Percy, the green number 6 train. Green is his favorite color, so it wasn’t a big surprise.

Read more

Malted Milk Gelato

With Labor Day weekend upon us, we’ve reached the unofficial end of summer. School starts next week and the pool closes, two signs that summer is over, but we’re stretching it out a bit with this gelato based on one of my favorite candies from childhood, Whoppers. The inspiration for this gelato came from two sources: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, and Making Artisan Gelato by Torrance Kopfer (both books in my personal collection). Lebovitz has a recipe for malted milk ice cream in his book, but I wanted to make it into a gelato, so I followed Kopfer’s methods to make the gelato base and used Lebovitz’s instructions for mixing the malted milk powder. If you enjoy gelato and want to learn how to make it at home, I highly recommend Kopfer’s book because it has so much helpful information on how to get that creamy gelato texture or at least approximate it with common home ice cream makers. Read more

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