Weekend Cooking: Fine Cooking Cookies

Title: Fine Cooking Cookies
Author: Fine Cooking Magazine
Publisher: Tauton Press
Release date: October, 2011
Length: 256 pages
I got this book: from the publisher for review through NetGalley.

Summary:
From Goodreads:
"Name your cookie! Shaped, drop, bar, roll and bake, or slice and bake, they all get professional treatment and triple testing from Fine Cooking magazine, the most trusted name in cooking. This fresh batch of more than 200 amazing recipes will inspire great baking. From classic favorites like snickerdoodles and chocolate chunk to more sophisticated treats like biscotti and fruit bars, there’s something for every occasion. Bakers will roll out these sweets for the holidays, for dessert, or just to fill up the cookie jar. Also includes Fine Cooking’s signature style of tips and secrets from the pros, step-by-step photos to help master techniques, ingredient profiles, and shortcuts. For anyone who wants to bake like the best, Fine Cooking Cookies has all the right ingredients."

Personal opinion:
I really like this cookie book because not only it has a good variety of recipes, it also has clear instructions on shaping techniques. They use step by step pictures in this book to illustrate the process and this makes it a lot easier to understand how to shape certain cookies for me. Things that were out of reach for a long time, are now worth giving a shot. That being said, it is still not as easy as it looks, but at least I now know where to start and how to go from there. The only downside of this book I found the huge amount of cookies that each recipe wields, some up to 8 dozen or so. I mean, I get that you can gift cookies or freeze a part of the cookie dough for later, but still 8 dozen cookies are way to much for this household of two, even if I would give most away. But because this is the only downside that I could find, I would buy this book, if only for the clear instructions, even if it means I would have to downscale the recipes.

Purchase links: Amazon
Other reviews: None yet
If you have reviewed this book and want your link here, please leave a comment with the link, and I will add it :)

From this book I made the black and white crescents, which are moon shaped chocolate cookies with a white chocolate decoration. 

Black and White Crescents (Makes about 42 cookies)
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 60gr white chocolate

Several hours before baking:
In a bowl combine flour and salt and sift in cocoa and soda, stir well to mix. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, scraping the bowl until smooth and blended. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until will combined. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

Bake the Cookies:
Heat the oven on 350F, mine was on 200C (it doesn't go higher). I placed baking sheets on my oven trays. Scoop a heaping tsp of dough and roll a ball. Roll each ball into a cylinder, tapering the ends slightly. Place the cookies on the tray and curve the ends to get the crescent shape. When one sheet is filled, bake for 8 minutes while you fill another sheet (there was NO way I can fill a whole sheet in 8 minutes, it took me about 30 minutes a sheet). Let the cookies cool and bake the other sheet(s).

Decorating:
When the cookies are completely cooled, melt the white chocolate and place in a zip-top bag, cutting a tip. Pipe the chocolate over the cookies in zig-zag stripes. Let the chocolate harden before storing the cookies away.  (I used a handy technique, not from the book. I grate the white chocolate in a small plastic sandwich bag and place that in the microwave on a low voltage for 30 seconds. Then kneed the chocolate in the bag and repeat until completely melted. No more burning the chocolate! I also used it for the piping but my hole was slightly too big.)

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Don't forget to check out what other participants have been up to, food wise :)

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