Chocolate Hazelnut Spice Cookies

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I  hope you did not run around like a chicken with your head cut off this morning like I did - it seems like everything piles up in those last few minutes before the holidays. 

The past few days, I haven't been getting much sleep. Not by regular standards, but my own normal 9.5 hours a night normal.  Most people do not abhor the mornings like I do.  Instead of just lying there like I usually would, I got up and began to bake.  I am not hosting tomorrow's festivities, which means I must come bearing baked goods. But 7am is early for me… painfully early. I only get up before 9 if I have a good reason.  In general, baking is not a good reason. In general, sleep comes before baking. And before All Other Things, Too.  But baking for Christmas? Well, it will slide this year.

The recipe I’m sharing today is my, well, Gourmet’s CLASSIC.  I follow it verbatim. It works so perfectly there is no need to tweak. I can’t imagine what I would change anyway, everything is in perfect harmony here. The best thing about these cookies besides their very adult flavors of chocolate, hazelnut, cloves, and orange? It is that they improve with age.  Go ahead and bake them up to four days ahead of time and let the flavors mingle.  If you can have cookies sitting in your house that long, I mean.

Third best thing about these little gems: they freeze fantastically well. I like to bake them when I just “feel like baking” and then I always have something in my freezer for the events that cut really close to a work day or a day when I would rather paint my nails than get butter underneath them. Not that butter doesn’t do great things for your cuticles. Sometimes I put butter on them at night before I go to bed to help with the dry winter air.  Not really. But today I got a little butter on my fingertips and used it as chap stick. Cocoa butter, butter butter, whats the diff?

Ahem. Back to the cookies. So. Get out the foody. Get those hazelnuts toasted. Get started.

yield: Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

active time: 45 min

total time: 2 1/2 hr

ingredients

For cookies:

1 1/2 cups hazelnuts (9 ounces), toasted, loose skins rubbed off in a kitchen towel while still warm, and nuts cooled completely (this is my least favorite part of the whole thing because I am a total perfectionist. If you’re like me and you wont stop until all the skin is rubbed off… Just buy them without the hull. Your thumbs will thank you)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon hazelnut-flavored liqueur (Gourmet prefers Frangelico, I got the cheaper one and it has served me well)

For icing:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon hazelnut-flavored liqueur

preparation

Make cookies:
 Preheat oven to 325°F with rack in middle. Butter a large baking sheet.

Pulse hazelnuts, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves in a food processor until nuts are finely chopped, then add butter and zest and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add juice and liqueur and pulse until dough comes together into a ball but is still crumbly. Form level tablespoons of dough into balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, arranging 1 inch apart on baking sheet.

Bake cookies until puffed and slightly cracked, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Make icing while cookies cool:
 Whisk together all icing ingredients until smooth.

Dip tops of cooled cookies into icing and transfer to a wax-paper-lined baking sheet. Let stand until icing is set.

Wherein C Fierce is Shamed Into A Non-Photo Post.

Ladies and germs, I hope you've been enjoying the bloggy stylings of J Fierce as we figure out "how this blogging thing works."  As with much of our projects, we tend to dive in head-first and then realize we forgot our noseplugs.  (KIDDING we were never that lame to use NOSEPLUGS, are you serious?  Only weirdos used noseplugs at the pool, and the Sisters Fierce were waaaay too cool for that during our heady youthful days at the Olympic Swim & Racquet Club.  Yes, they spelled racket like that.  What can I say, we led a charmed childhood.  BUT!  I digest!  Back to the blog!)
J Fierce, due to her non-nine-to-five schedule, has been shaming me to no end that I have yet to post a "baking post."  I know, I know, you have been waiting, breathlessly, for your Google reader to alert you to a new C Fierce posting.  I am eagerly anticipating regaling you, dear Internets, with tales of my baking glories.  However, what is a food blog without food porn photos?  I broke my camera over a year ago, and have decided that it is HIGH TIME to get a new one.  I know, a year without a camera?  Oops.  The new camera arrives today (thank you, UPS tracking, I love you so much) and I cannot wait to take photos of food and then put them on the internet for you to see.  Until then, I leave you with a list.  I love lists.  Making lists is one of my hobbies and skills.  There is nothing better than crossing something off a list.  What a sense of accomplishment, of purpose.  To list is divine.  Without further ado!
12 Foods to Tackle in 2010 
1. Carrot juice.  I don't own a juicer nor do I have plans to purchase one as those badboys are not cheap, but I have recently become obsessed with carrot juice.  So why not try to make my own?
2. A whole fish all by myself, with the bones and everything, terrifies me to no end.  I don't think I really have to explain how scary this is.
3. Croissants.
4. Bagels.
5. Challah.  CHALLAH BACK Y'ALL.  What, I listen to Matisyahu.  Mazel tov!
6. Handground hamburgers ...
7 & 8. ... with homemade ketchup, mayo, and mustard (this only counts for two items as I have already made mustard before, it just wasn't very good).
9. ... and homemade french fries.  Again ... these have been attempted.  Note to readers: don't use olive oil when frying potatoes, it's just dumb, not that I would know anything about that.
10. ... and brioche buns to accompany numbers six through nine.
11. Swedish kanellbullar, which are a lot like cinnamon rolls but with cardamom, which is something like $13 a jar and the first time I tried to make these ... let's just say I had to get J Fierce on the line for an hour before we realized the reason that they did.not.rise. was due to the fact that C Fierce is an idiot and bought the wrong yeast.  This all occurred during the excruciating timeframe of December 2007 to January 2009, in which every attempt to make a baked good involving yeast was met with certain disaster.  It's still a little rough for me to talk about.  I am in therapy, yes, thanks for asking, it is free and called This Blog.
12. Real gingerbread cake.  Not that nasty gingerbread house stuff, I'm talking about needing to purchase liters of unsulphured molasses.  I always see this in recipes from "healthy" or "natural" websites and it kind of scares me, but more than that, it excites me.  It sounds like something from a Saudi Arabian oilfield, and I am looking forward to cooking with it.
13. BONUS ITEM!!!  Homemade pasta.  J Fierce has done this before (I am beginning to think she doesn't even HAVE a job, she just goes to grocery stores and wanders around looking for ways to shame me), and I may need to break down a wall or two in my apartment to make my kitchen big enough to make pasta, but goshdarnit I am going to try.  Even if it's just gnocchi. 
So, dear readers, that is my list for the year.  What terrifies you in the kitchen?  What are you tackling in 2010?  Leave us a note in the comments, please!  It will make us feel like we're a Real Blog!
Be on the lookout for details of Christmas feasting yet to come.  Let's just say that the menu is ... rather eclectic this year.  What, you don't have chicken wings on Christmas?  What are you, UNAMERICAN???
Happy eating and I will see you SOON with FOOD PHOTOS GALORE. 
Love,
C Fierce

Lemon Bar Fail

I have to start out by thanking C Fierce for that wonderful introduction. I can’t remember beating her up because I wore her shirt, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It sure sounds like me.

So the goal here over at The Sisters Fierce is to write about cooking and baking adventures. I hate to do this, but I have no choice: I’m going to begin with a failure.

Here’s the thing. I can tell you why this happened. I was on a roll. I mean, a real roll. I was turning out perfectly moist pumpkin cake, ginger sandwich cookies with a lemon cream cheese filling, those flavors sang together. I made pizza dough that cooked up crisp like a cracker. I was on FIRE. This is why it happened: it was my turn to fail.

I should have known with the way my day began: I bid on a piece of art online and I lost, bummer. Once I got to work I realized I left my cell phone at home-that always makes me feel a little bit anxious, a little bit stranded. My growling stomach reminded me that I also left my English muffin in the toaster. The day dragged on.

What tricked me into thinking I was together enough to bake that evening? What led me to think that after 8 hours of My Job that I would have energy left for Ye Olde Kitchen Aide and oven?

It was the lemons that called to me, “J Fierce, we’re on sale, a whole bag of us for $1.99. We’re not regular lemons, we’re meyer lemons… don’t leave us here all alone …” and then my mind starts reeling. What should I make with those gorgeous things, the color of a baby chick, bright and cheery? The fragrance is nothing like your typical lemon, they’re almost floraly. Already made a pie, made some ice cream, made scones… It was their request, really. How could I resist?

“We’d be so good in a classic lemon bars recipe, just try it.” The little golden eggs kept stepping up their game, reminding me of their status as the love child of a lemon and a mandarin orange, sweeter and so fragrant. “You probably won’t have this chance next week,” they told me, playing on their notoriously short season. As if they had to do all that work -I would have taken them home with me anyway.

There was a recipe online I had been eying - an update on Ina Garten’s classic lemon bars. It was beautiful. But of course what isn’t beautiful from the Smitten Kitchen? In between commercials (because it was a good tv night) I beat the butter, then I separate the eggs, I make and bake the shortcake crust.

But I should know better. I do know better. I just didn’t listen to myself. The part of me that said, man, this bowl is really full. The filling is too runny. And there is too much of it. Just take some out. I can’t take some out. I followed the recipe to a T. See how it overflows in the pan? You should take some out. No, there’s no leavening, it’ll be fine. I even measured the pan.

It was already late when I realized there was no way I would get my (please don’t hate me) normal 9 1/2 hours of sleep (C Fierce is convinced I’ve had mono since age 13). I figured, eh, what’s wrong with an 11pm bedtime… I can hack it.

I didn’t do myself any favors by painting my left hand’s nails (OPI’s Miami Beet) in between those commercial breaks, either. It turned me into a one-armed baker trying to make a masterpiece on my first showing. After 35 minutes in the oven, I put tinfoil on top to stop the scabby mess from getting any darker. But the curd was still jiggly. I’m not talking “mildly set,” I’m talking “this is questionable for those who have compromised immune systems as I’m sure they shouldn’t be eating raw egg.” That sucker sat in the oven for over two hours before I finally gave up and went to bed.

Of course I sampled the outer edge before I turned in. And once you got underneath the scab top and past the burnt shortbread crust… my god that thing was gorgeous. Canary yellow. Flavor like magic.

And you know what I did when I got off work the next day? Bought another bag of those beauts. I’m going to try this with a different pan this time and see how far it will take me.

Original recipe here (and I won’t even make notes because mine was such a disaster): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-bars-recipe/index.html