Taste Thursday :: Desert Sand Cookies

The last two weeks I haven't found much in the Star Tribune's Taste section that inspired me.  The recipes were either too complicated, took too long, or involved a lot of bacon.  Yesterday though I decided to try out the Desert Sand Cookies from the back page of the section.  It seemed appropriate to get my Scandinavian heritage on for Cinco de Mayo.  Plus it was one of the only recipes in the section that seemed relatively quick and easy. 

I have to admit though, when I got the dough together I was really nervous!  It didn't seem so much like dough as it did, well, a big pile of sand.  (I should have guessed considering the name of the cookie....) But I was sure that I'd made a mistake and that these cookies would not form.  Not to be discouraged I made a test batch.  Those turned out pretty good, so I made the rest of them.  The cookies are actually pretty delicious!  The browned butter added a complex flavor to these cookies that otherwise would have been kind of like shortbread.  They crumble in your mouth much like a cookie made out of sand would, so they are very light and delicate.  Perfect with a cup of tea.  This recipe makes 3 dozen small cookies or 2 dozen medium cookies. 

Ingredients
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar

Directions
Put the butter in a sauce pan and melt over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Once the butter starts to foam, begin to stir constantly.  The butter will start to brown up pretty quickly so don't go anywhere.  Once the butter is a deep brown color, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature for about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combing the flour and baking powder.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla extract, and the cooled butter.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms.  (Again, it's going to be more like sand than a dough.) 

The recipe says to use teaspoons but I work better with my hands.  So I grabbed about a tablespoon size of the dough and kind of squished it together to form a oval-shaped mound.  Smooth the dough gently so that it doesn't have your palm prints on it!  Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes.  They do not brown much, so do not be worried about that.  Remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.  They are very delicate out of the oven and until they are cooled so be careful. 

After they've cooled, have a taste!  Isn't it like eating a sand cookie (but way better)?  Yum.

Taste Thursdays!

I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, so even though I'm now a St. Paul resident, I'm still partial to the Star Tribune newspaper.  When I decided to do something grown up, which apparently meant signing up for daily paper delivery, I was super psyched to start getting the Strib's Thursday paper because of the Taste section.  An entire section of the newspaper dedicated to food?  Done and done.  Plus Thursday's sudoku is sometimes just too hard for me......

Since I'm doing this blog thing now, I thought it would be good for me and good for you (whoever you are) to try out some of the recipes from the Taste section.  So as often as I can, I'm going to read the Thursday Taste section, find a fabulous recipe to try, make it that night, and post it for you all to read.  As if I didn't already have enough to do!

Today's section had a highlight on mango, but what caught my attention was the big, front-page picture of scones.  I love scones.  They are delicious, ridiculously easy to make, and incredibly versatile.  You can make them sweet for dessert or breakfast, or you can make them savory for a side or, well, breakfast.  Plus it got a little chilly tonight, so I figured a warm pastry would be a great addition to my Thursday night TV.  The recipe was for a cream scone with raisins or currants, but I thought I could top that standard recipe and make some cranberry orange scones.  This recipe will make 8 scones.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbls sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Zest from one orange
1 1/3 cup heavy cream (I used one cup cream and 1/3 cup milk)
Sugar for dusting

Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and make sure one of the racks is in the center. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add in the dried cranberries and stir to combine.  Add in your orange zest. 

Make a well in the bottom of the bowl and pour in your cream/milk.  Stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated and a dough starts to form.  Pull out the dough and place on a lightly floured surface.  Knead the dough a few times just to make sure everything is incorporated and you have a workable dough.

Separate the dough into two equal pieces and form each of those into a disc about 1 inch thick.  Cut each round into four pieces.

mmmm love those flecks of orange zest!

Place the pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet, with a little space between each one.  They will grow!  Brush the pieces with milk or orange juice and sprinkle sugar on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 7 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes.  Let cool for a bit, then dive right in.  YUM.  Serve with some tea, or in my case, a Surly CynicAle.  Not bad for the Star Tribune!

But now for the truly intriguing question of the day.  How the heck do you pronounce "scone"?  I've always said it as rhyming with "bone" or something like that.  But according to the Strib, it's actually pronounced as rhyming with "gone".  What?!?!  Is that for real??  It was hilarious to talk to my co-worker about making scones tonight using that pronunciation, but my go-to source for all things pronunciation related (dictionary.com) confirmed that MY way of saying "scone" is correct.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  I need an additional source besides my local paper.  (Sorry, Strib.)