Family recipes are a funny thing. They straddle a fine line between fond memory, mystery, comfort, and tradition. You grow up enjoying them as a kid but usually not actually preparing them. And then you get to a certain point in adulthood and you yearn to duplicate those family recipes on your own. In my experience, that's when relative disaster strikes. Take, for example, my mom's Million Dollar Spaghetti. Growing up, we had this probably once a week and as a teenager I requested it more frequently. I remember when I got my first apartment in my senior year of college and I asked my mom for the recipe. I was shocked to learn that it was basically an excuse to eat one pound of cream cheese, a cup of heavy cream and a bunch of pasta all in one sitting. Then there was my mom's Raspberry Fool which I have fond memories of in the late spring and early summer. We'd have late dinners outdoors and she would make individual glass cups of these and stick them in the fridge so you could sneak into the kitchen and grab yours whenever the time felt right. About five years ago, I learned it was essentially all heavy cream. Utter deliciousness, but not the light summery creation I'd always thought it was.

Laying out Ingredients

But health concerns aside, family recipes can be questionable in other ways, too. Take Chocolate Jumbles. When I was growing up, around Christmas we'd receive a care package from Hilda--my grandmother's across-the-street neighbor in the tiny town of Ames, NY. I didn't care for the Chocolate Jumbles at first: they're a little on the warmly-spiced side for most kids, I think. But then I came to appreciate their subtle hint of cocoa and cloves, their holey center, and their super soft crumb. They're good with tea, perfect with coffee, kind of nice late at night when you can't sleep. I made them for the first time this past weekend and made them again and again. Because sometimes family recipes just befuddle you. You stare at the old index card and think, why? The instructions seem far too complex, a few of the ingredients seem unnecessary, or you simply can't make out the handwriting that's been smudged and stained after years and years of use. In the case that you bake for a living, you really stare at this particular recipe and think, why?!

As I made them the first time, I tried to think about Hilda at her kitchen table pouring hot water into a shortening-based cookie dough and mixing. Out of all of the ways you could infuse a dough with liquid, this wouldn't be my first choice. So I decreased the amount of water, raised the quantity of spice and used part bread flour in lieu of solely all-purpose flour (this makes for a sturdier dough). The result reminds me of Hilda's jumbles although I'm still confused how she could possibly get from point A to point B using the recipe she gave us. Maybe there's something in that country air or maybe Hilda just has a much softer touch than I do. Regardless, you'll enjoy this adapted version. I'm sure of it. And at the end of the day after swimming in Chocolate Jumble dough, it doesn't really matter that you've become a little frustrated and disillusioned with yet another family recipe, does it? It's fleeting. You keep making those Chocolate Jumbles and reworking them until you get them just right because maybe -- just maybe-- you want to bathe in the memory, mystery, comfort, and tradition once more. If only for an afternoon, anyway.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of sweets, and macarons are at the top of that list. I've written about macarons extensively on my blog, and made hundreds of them while testing recipes for a macaron cookbook. I've eaten them at every location in San Francisco that I learned made them, and it's not uncommon for me to BART over to SF just to visit Paulette.

I was in Paris this week, and the very first adventure I went on was to go find the two most famous pastry shops in town and try their macarons. That's right -- I went on a macaron pilgrimage, visiting both Pierre Hermé and Ladurée in the same day. I bought a couple in each location and put them to the test to see who had the better pastry.

Ed note: You'll notice I used the term "pastry" instead of "cookie." That's because every time I called macarons "cookies" in Paris, I was corrected. According to the Parisians I talked to, macarons are most definitely not cookies. Lesson learned!

After a little digging, I learned that both Ladurée and Hermé had locations on Rue Bonaparte, not far from the Seine River. Headed to a perfectly central location on the left bank, I planned my day: I would buy a handful of macarons at each bakery, then enjoy them in the sunshine while sitting along the river. The weather was topping out at 72 degrees that day, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my afternoon than nibbling gourmet goodies in the Parisian sun.

My first stop was Ladurée, where the scent of pure sugar wafted out the door and down the street to greet me at the corner, beckoning me to the shopfront. I was immediately swept away by an incredible assortment of pastries in all sizes and colors, including a selection of ten or so flavors of macarons and a handful of larger macarons that were three times the normal size. The decor was delightfully, classically "French," or at least what this American girl thinks of when she dreams of French pastry from thousands of miles away in California. Think rich greens, blues and browns, pinstripes, and matching seafoam-green ribbons on every box. I felt like I was walking into a Parisian pastry fairy tale.

The line was out the door, but no worry; that gave me plenty of time to gawk without looking like a loafer. After staring in awe at their selection of sweets, I chose two flavors of macarons -- salted caramel and chocolate orange -- and headed out the door to visit Pierre Hermé's shop down the street.

Pierre Hermé was less classically decorated than Ladurée, and was instead very sleek and stylish. The place was decked out in glass and dark teak-looking wood, rounded out with black accents. Here, the desserts provided all the color to the joint, and I suspect that was the whole point. In the dark environment, each little treat glowed like it was Louis XV's crown jewels.

Here I selected two more macarons -- passion fruit and vanilla olive oil (!!) -- and made my way to the Seine River to put these little jewels of egg white and sugar to the test.

The Test
Visually, both shop's macarons were gorgeous. Their colors were bright and they flaunted themselves, unashamed, in the Parisian spring sunshine. The first thing I noticed, though, was that Ladurée's macarons were a little lacking in the filling department, and their shells were a little cracked, while Hermé's macarons were literally bubbling over with filling and the shells were perfectly in-tact, with not a crack to be seen. Upon the first bite, though, it turned out that one of Hermé's macarons -- the passionfruit -- had soaked up the moisture in the filling, making the shell soggy. Also, the passionfruit was really, really tart, and almost made me turn my face inside out. While I did like the flavor, it was a little shocking considering the fluffy texture of the buttercream filling.

Here it's important to note that both bakeries use the Italian meringue method for making macarons, since it yields a more stable batter (anyone who's made macarons knows how volatile the process can be) and a somewhat denser finished product. While Ladurée's macarons had less filling to boast and the shells were a little worse for wear, they both displayed consistency in quality -- the shells were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and had a lovely little crunch when bitten into. Hermé's on the other hand, were softer and lighter, floating on your tongue like little sugary clouds, like the very first bite of cotton candy you tried when you were four years old.

Flavor-wise, both were lovely, but I felt that while Ladurée's macarons were more consistently better, Hermé's flavors were more creative. The vanilla olive oil variety was particular unique, and incredibly satisfying, but the passion fruit was a little too much of a sock in the face for me to enjoy it. Ladurée's chocolate orange was smooth and creamy, and the salted caramel divine, but they were flavors I'd expect to see in a macaron, and therefore didn't stand out beyond their high quality of overall flavor.

The Verdict
If I had to pick a winner (and I guess I do, given the title of this post), I'd say that the Macaron Oscar goes to Pierre Hermé, with his vanilla olive oil variety. Hermé also packed in the filling, which made for a better visual experience and a more satisfying first bite, making the overall package a sheer dream. That said, Ladurée certainly held their own in the battle; their macarons were more consistently good, but the shortage of filling and the cracked shells were kind of a bummer.

My final word? Visit both. If you're in the left bank area, the two shops are only like three blocks apart, so stage your own battle!

Pierre Hermé
72, rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (1) 43 54 47 77
Near the Saint-Germain des Prés Paris Metro station

Ladurée
21, Rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (1) 44 07 64 87 ‎
Near the Saint Sulpice Metro station

Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. I haven't made Christmas cookies since discovering I had a gluten sensitivity, a sad, sad situation that many gluten-free folks experience. Learning a new kind of baking is scary, and all it takes is one flop to make sure you never make another attempt.

For me, I just never tried. I figured I could never compete with my grandma's gingerbread recipe that I grew up with, and the idea of duplicating her perfectly tender recipe without using wheat flour threw me for a loop. This year, I got over myself. And guess what? The gingerbread cookies I made were nothing short of incredible.

There's a trick to working with gluten-free dough, since it's much stickier than doughs made with wheat flour. It needs to be kept chilled, and once it's been cut with cookie cutters, moving it from one place to another is nearly impossible because it likes to hang onto to everything it touches. The best way to work with gluten-free cookie doughs is to roll it out between two pieces of parchment and then stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once it's chilled, you can cut out your shapes with cookie cutters.

At this point I recommend removing the excess dough to be re-rolled, and then cutting the parchment around the cookies with a pair of scissors. The cookies can then be moved without contorting into ridiculous shapes, and since they're on parchment, they won't stick to the cookie sheet after they're done baking. Once they're done, I move the baked cookies while they're still secured to the parchment, leaving them on the paper until they're completely cooled and not likely to break into pieces.

Also, I found the funniest cookie cutters I've seen in a long time: Fred & Friends Ninjabread Men Cookie Cutters. While you can buy them online, I got my ninjabread men at a local East Bay gift shop called Nathan & Co. This little shop carries a huge array of culinary gifts, and if you're looking for some last minute presents for the foodie in your life, I can't recommend this place enough. Another place to shop for gifts for the chef in your family is Urban Indigo, in Oakland.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies

Makes: About 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/8 teaspoon guar gum
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sweet rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Icing and sprinkles for decorating

Recipe method:

1. With a stand mixer or electric hand beater, beat shortening, sugar, xanthan gum, and guar gum until well mixed. Add in egg yolks and beat for 1 minute, then add vanilla and molasses and mix until well incorporated.

2. Add gluten-free flour mix, sweet rice flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and salt. Beat until you've got a smooth dough. Roll dough out between two pieces of parchment until it is 1/2-inch thick and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Remove dough from fridge and cut with cookie cutters. Remove the excess dough from between the shapes and cut the parchment around the cookies with a pair of scissors. Gently move the cookies with their attached parchment to a cookie sheet and place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to keep the cookies chilled. Repeat until you've used up all the dough.

4. Once all the dough has been cut with cookie cutters and the shapes are arranged on a baking sheet, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350° while they are chilling.

5. Bake cookies for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving the cookies, with their attached piece of parchment, to a cooling rack. Allow to cool fully before decorating.

6. Decorate cookies by piping with your favorite decorating icing and then sprinkling with colorful sprinkles. The sky's the limit!

Looking for more gluten-free holiday cookies?
Gluten-Free Linzer Cookies
Gluten Free Gingerbread House
Gluten-Free Christmas Stars
Last-Minute Christmas Treats – Toffee and Ginger Chip Teff Cookies

Beautifully decorated cookies are a high-point of the holiday season for me. This year, I wanted to do a post on tips and strategies for creating gift-worthy sugar cookies at home, and I thought to myself, who better to turn to than the experts at Miette? Lucky for me (and you), Miette holds monthly classes on decorating sugar cookies. In class, you'll learn about necessary equipment, how to make and color royal icing like a pro, how to make parchment icing cones, and techniques for flooding and embellishing cookies. Owner Meg Ray and instructor Jeff Gosche were kind enough to let me sit in on the most recent cookie decorating class, snap some photos, and learn how the Miette elves create their stunning holiday cookies. Today, I'll share those tips with you.

Jeff was our trusty instructor and the man behind the sugar cookie magic at Miette. Jeff doesn't have any formal training or culinary instruction, but he's always been passionate about baking and decorating. He started helping Miette with cookie production solely around the holiday season and then about one year ago, Jeff was asked to stick around more frequently as a regular staple. After spending the afternoon with him, I can see why.

Jeff began class with a discussion on planning out your project and equipment. In terms of planning, it's important to be aware of baking times, cooling times, and setting times for frosting. Jeff recommends taking the entire project into account when thinking about how much time it'll take from Point A to Point B, especially if you'll be gifting or delivering the cookies. The last thing you want to do is rush the process! As far as equipment, a stand mixer, rolling pin, Silpat mat, and cooling racks are important for actually baking the cookies. For decorating, small metal bowls are handy for mixing up numerous different colors of frosting, good quality food coloring, parchment triangles to make your piping cones, and a spoon-spatula to spoon your icing into the bag. If you'd rather not deal with raw egg whites in your royal icing, Jeff recommended meringue powder as an easy and just-as-good substitute.

After we talked equipment, we set about making our own royal icing. Jeff did a demo using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, turning it up to high (an 8 on a Kitchen Aid) and allowing it to mix for 3-4 minutes. The important thing to know here is that the icing should be quite thick--thicker than you think it should be on an actual cookie. You'll spend time later thinning it after you add the color, not now.

Jeff Gosche talking royal icing & our attentive class

After the demo, students all went back to their stations to add the egg whites and powdered sugar together and begin mixing away.

Learning how to mix up the perfect royal icing

Once everyone had royal icing down, we discussed the art of coloring the icing. Now anyone can throw green food coloring into a bowl of royal icing and call it a day, but it's often very difficult to get more subtle, interesting tones. This is where Jeff's icing tips come in handy:

• It almost always takes more than one color to get the shade you're going for, and Jeff gives an example of the infamous "Miette pink" used on so many of the in-house cookies. How to achieve that perfect pink? Add a little brown to the icing! Jeff explains how adding just a little brown to most colors of royal icing will just tone it way down and add more depth to the color.
• To achieve more warmth in any one color (Christmas red, for example), add orange. Orange is a miracle worker.
• When adding color to your icing, you may want to put the drop of color onto your spatula and work it in slowly. That way, if you add a little too much, it's easier to swipe off with a finger rather than having to scoop out color from the icing itself.
• When you're mixing up bowls of different colors of icing, you also want to cover each bowl with a slightly damp dish towel so the icing doesn't dry out.
• Don't thin out the icing until you're completely done with the color.
• To thin, just add a tiny amount (1/2 teaspoon or so) of water at a time. Ultimately, you want the icing to flow right off your spatula back into the bowl but leave a noticeable ribbon inside your bowl. So it shouldn't be liquidy, but it shouldn't be too thick either.

The Art of Royal Icing

After the icing was made and colored, it was time to get piping! Jeff showed the class how to form parchment piping bags and discussed how nice they are because you can just throw them away. With nicer piping bags, the royal icing can stain and they can be tough to clean.

Learning How to Make Parchment Piping Bags

Parchment cones are tough to describe in print but it turns out Wilton has a handy video so you can learn at home! With piping bags in hand, it was time to decorate the cookies.

Students decorating their Christmas cookies

Jeff's tips for decorating cookies were relatively straightforward and really involved a little planning and practice. He had templates on hand so students could practice their lines and shapes before really committing to a cookie. The gist of it? Outline the cookie first with the royal icing and then you flood (or fill) the cookie in a back-and-forth motion with the tip of the bag slightly immersed in the icing itself (this helps it flood more evenly).

Flooding Cookies

Then you can add sprinkles, add another color to do some blending, or wait around 15 minutes for the icing to dry so you can layer in another color. It does help to do a little planning and thinking about what you're going for with your design to ensure you have enough of each color and don't sit there stumped (as I did) seeking out inspiration while your icing is slowly drying out.

I can't recommend Miette's classes enough and thank Jeff and Meg for letting me tag along. The classes are sold out through February (so get on the March bandwagon!), but they're thinking about possibly adding additional cookie classes and, of course, there are other classes as well if you're ready to dive right in to the pastry/confection world. Happy baking and royal icing making!

I'm biased. I'll come right out and say it. Even if this was the worst cookbook known to man (which it's so, so not), I probably wouldn't say so. You see, I have a long relationship with Flour Bakery. When you're a graduate student in English literature who sits inside and reads all day in a city that suffers an impossibly long winter, bakeries are your second home. And for me, Flour was it. If you ask me the top three things I miss about Boston, Joanne Chang's lovely bakery would be in there somewhere. And that's why I was thrilled to receive a review copy of her brand new cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Bakery and Cafe.

Treats at Flour Bakery on a cold February day

In addition to the recipes which I'll discuss in a moment, the cookbook is a keeper for many other reasons. In the introduction, Chang describes how she went from Harvard student to consultant to small-time local cookie purveyor to doing stints at local and international restaurants and eventually opening the bakery. It's a story of both luck and passion and a healthy dose of hard work--the story of someone who took a circuitous route and eventually came around to doing what they love. And that love shines through from the moment you step into the bakery and from the moment you turn to page 1 of the book. First, the photographs by Keller + Keller truly capture the classic, nostalgic, and equally playful nature of many of Chang's desserts. The organization of the book is logical which is not always the case with cookbooks. She begins with "Joanne's Top 12 Baking Tips" which are helpful but, truthfully, don't contain any groundbreaking information if you bake much at home (she covers temperature of ingredients, freezing dough, and over whipping). However, the "Techniques" chapter is absolutely fabulous. In your day-to-day baking cookbook, these tips are rarely covered: it's here that Chang talks about blind baking, how to do a crumb coat on a cake, cooking perfect sugar, and filling a pastry bag. For some, these may be simple, but for others, Chang's precise explanation will make you feel as though she's standing right beside you in the kitchen.

Now, the recipes: Chang keeps it simple with Chapter titles such as "Breakfast Treats," "Cookies," and "Cakes." And for anyone who has been to Flour Bakery, the book is especially exciting because the pages contain all the typical customer favorites such as Pop-Tarts, Double Chocolate Cookies, Sticky Buns, that incredible Banana Bread, and those devilishly chocolaty Chocolate Cupcakes. I'm in pastry cookbook heaven. I don't really know where to start, so I begin where any self-respecting baker would: Homemade Oreos.

Homemade Oreos!

Now I've made a few different Oreos in my day, so I ended up tweaking Joanne's recipe a bit to suit my own tastes. I changed the chocolate profile slightly, preferring a bit more cocoa powder than chocolate chips. I also found Joanne's 'log and cut' method difficult with this particular dough so I use a 'roll and cut' method here, and a different filling. I know lard and vegetable shortening are a tad bit controversial in some circles, but I find that the filling is much better with it. My coworkers will tell you--they're the best thing they've had in a long time. And we eat a lot of pastries. So next time you're in Boston you know where to go. And until then, you've got a few "Oreos" to tide you over.

Homemade Oreos
Adapted from: Flour
For this recipe, the type of chocolate you're buying really matters. I only use Valrhona chocolate. It's certainly more expensive, but if you just visually compare it to other cocoa powders on the market, it's so much darker and the flavor is unbeatable. A good rule of thumb for any recipe where chocolate is really the star: use the best chocolate you can afford. Do so here.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly
1 egg, room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Filling: (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup lard or vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and granulated sugar until well combined. You may also use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix in the vanilla and chocolate until just combined, and add the egg, continuing to mix until thoroughly incorporated.
2. In another medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda until well mixed. Using a spatula, stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. The dough will start to seem pretty floury, so you can just mix with your hands if that's easier. It should have the consistency of Play-Doh.
3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
5. Remove the disks from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5-8 minutes to make them easier to work with. Using a rolling pin roll out each disk to about 1/4-inch thickness.
6. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can out of the dough. Quickly bring it back together and re-roll the scraps, repeating the process of cutting out the circles. If it become tacky or difficult to work with, place back in refrigerator for ten minutes to firm back up. Repeat with second disk.
7. Transfer the dough to parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Check them frequently after 18 minutes. Unfortunately, you can't judge by color because they're already black. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet before you fill.
8. To make the filling: place the butter and shortening in a medium bowl and mix at low speed until combined. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla and beat on high for 2-3 minutes until nice and fluffy.
9. Assemble the cookies: use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip or simply use a teaspoon to scoop out about 1 rounded tablespoon of filling onto one cookie. Place another cookie right on top to spread the filling towards the edges. Repeat until all cookies are filled.

Makes: 16-18 sandwich cookies

The Exploring Ingredients Class at San Francisco Baking Institute

Last week was big for me. I took a week off from work, returned very few emails, and my dogs suffered a severe lack of exercise. Why? I spent all week baking eight hours a day at the San Francisco Baking Institute, brushing up on my skills and learning the "how's" and "why's" behind much of the baking I do at home (How exactly can I make this cookie chewier? Why add potato starch here? What effect does pastry flour have on this recipe?). Each day I came home with boxes of treats to share with family, friends, and coworkers along with copious notes and a head spinning with information on technique and method. After spending the weekend debriefing, I thought I'd share the top ten things I learned from my one week in pastry school. Some of the tips here are relatively basic and fundamental, others are a bit more advanced. Each could certainly use its very own post. But sometimes broad coverage is nice--it's just enough to get you inspired to break out a muffin or cake recipe for the coming week. I'd love to hear any of your own baking tips/revelations, too!

Making Breakfast Pasties: Day 2

1. Mixing Methods: It's important to understand the different mixing methods when baking. And then to follow them. For example, when using the "Creaming Method" for cookies, you're really just creaming together the sugar and butter until combined. However, when making brownies, you need to integrate a lot of air into your batter when mixing your sugar and butter. This acts as your leavening agent (look at most brownie recipes and you'll notice a lack of chemical leaveners like baking soda or powder). So you'll need to mix on a higher speed for a longer period of time. If you're interested in reading more on mixing methods, The Reluctant Gourmet has done a nice post covering them in more detail.

2. Pay Attention to Your Flours: People use all different kinds of flour in pastry production for a variety of reasons. Cake flour and pastry flour have the lowest amount of protein whereas bread flour and all-purpose flour have the highest. As a general rule, the higher the amount of protein, the more structure the dough will have (think of how many cakes are so light and fluffy while traditional breads are heartier). Once you become familiar with how the various flours change the outcome of your pastries and baked goods, you can begin adapting recipes to create different textures simply by swapping the flours.

3. All About Super-Fine Sugar: I generally use granulated sugar at home. However, this past week we worked solely with superfine sugar (unless the recipe called for powdered or liquid sugar) and I learned why: superfine sugar melts in moisture more quickly than regular granulated sugar, and is really preferable for fine textured baked goods. Try it--you may just notice a difference.

From Angel Food Cake to Madelines: A Few of the Desserts

4. Temperature Matters: Much of what you're doing when mixing various batters is creating a smooth emulsion. We've all made a recipe where the batter turned out a little too chunky or broken looking, haven't we? There are many reasons why this might happen, but the main one is that the ingredients aren't the proper temperature. If you don't have time to bring your eggs up to room temperature, mix them together in a small bowl and microwave them for 20-30 seconds until warm. And for many recipes (not including pie dough, obviously) you want your butter softened but not oily or completely melted. Pay attention to the temperature of your ingredients and you'll have smooth, silky dough more often than not.

5. Take it Slow: Ah, cakes...a relative cousin to the cookie but with much more moisture. Because of this increased moisture, you'll notice most recipes ask that you alternate between dry and wet ingredients when combining the two together. You don't want to break the emulsion (or bind) between the butter and the eggs or your batter will start to look broken or separated. Slow down. Take your time. If a recipe asks that you alternate between the wet and the dry, there's a reason for that: don't dump your ingredients in all at once.

6. All About Pie Dough: I love making pies and quietly judge people who don't make their own crust. It's just so basic and tastes so much better than boxed pie crust. I was humbled this week though when I learned about the different kinds of pie crusts and why you'd want to choose one over the other depending on your fillings. It would take a few additional posts to cover the different kinds of pie doughs available to you. If you're interested in reading more, I'd check out: The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum or Joy of Cooking: All About Pies and Tarts by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. But for now, know that there are flaky and mealy crusts. The basic recipe is the same (a nice butter crust or a butter and lard crust), but a mealy dough is good for cream pies and wet fillings because you're incorporating the butter into the dough more (smaller chunks) thereby creating a coarse almost cornmeal like crust and a tighter dough. A flaky butter crust with large chunks of butter will always absorb more moisture making it much less ideal for cream pies and other wet fillings.

Meringues and Diamond Cookies

7. How Do I Make My Cookie ____ ? So you like your chocolate chip cookie crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside? Or maybe you like a tender, cakey cookie? How do you look at a recipe and alter it to fit your needs? A few good pointers: if you like a crispy cookie, you're looking for a recipe with low moisture and high fat and sugar. If you're looking for more of a soft cookie, the recipe will be lower in sugar and fat with a high moisture content. And if you're a chewy cookie fan, your recipe will call for more moisture and sugar and less fat. It'll also call for a stronger flour with more protein (like bread flour). What does this mean for the home baker? Experiment. If you want a chewy cookie and you're using the typical Toll House Recipe, try bread flour instead and use a bit more sugar. Take notes and compare. With the right information, you can have more control over your recipes.

8. Freezing and Storing: A good rule of thumb on this is to think about the moisture in your product. If there's a lot of moisture in something you've made (custards, lemon bars etc.), you generally want to avoid freezing after baking. Something with low moisture and high fat like a cookie is o.k. to freeze whereas a product with high moisture and lower fat like a soft, crumbly muffin really isn't great to freeze once baked.

9. All About Chilling: Have you noticed lately that many cookie recipes ask you to chill your dough in the freezer before baking? What's going on here? The most likely answer is that chilling decreases the probability that your cookies will spread when baked. Another possbility is one the New York Times stands behind with their infamous Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe: that dough tends to develop flavors when allowed to overnight, resulting in a richer, more buttery/toffee-like dough. Try it. You decide.

10. A Few Tips for Working with Chocolate: People spend years studying chocolate and confections, but for the purposes of home baking and simple pastry production, there are a few good things to know. First, when you're melting chocolate in a double boiler, you always want to cover the bowl that the chocolate's in. The second moisture hits the chocolate mixture, you're going to run the risk of grainy chocolate. Second, don't overheat your mixture. This, too, will create lumps. Last, don't let your bowl actually touch the water. You want space in between the bowl and the water below--this is where steam is trapped and this is what's going to melt your chocolate.

I have a confession to make.

I used to eat dog cookies. Milk-Bones, to be exact.

And, with the exception of possible remorse for stealing bits of crunchy pleasure away from my dogs, I am totally unashamed.

Why no shame?

Because they were delicious, that's why.

And they were handy. The Milk-Bone dog biscuits were the only read-to-eat snack food within my reach when I was too small to reach the higher shelves. They were right there under the sink with the dishwasher detergent, ant poison, and the Drano. Given my choices, I think I made the right decision, snackwise. Don't you?

Please don't answer that last question.

I don't think I ever ate them in front of my mother, since I'm sure she would have disapproved. My father, on the other hand, would have probably been pleased by my eating sugar-free cookies that promised cleaner teeth and fresher breath. He's a dentist. And he loves dogs.

It would have been win-win with him.

I pretty much abandoned eating my pets' snack food when I was old enough and tall enough to reach the potato chips and Space Food Sticks. It's been a long, long time since I've eaten a dog cookie. Think Carter administration.

I recently asked all of my Twitter pals if I was the only one out there who ate dog cookies. I quickly found that I wasn't. One friend even went as far as to say she loved eating tuna-flavored cat food as a child.

Atta girl.

I have no idea why I have a sudden craving for dog biscuits again. Maybe I just miss having dogs around. Maybe my teeth need whitening. Maybe I'm not getting enough fibre. I don't really care. I just need to exorcise this pet food demon.

Besides, it counts as baking, so that's good.

Peanut Butter Boners

This recipe is an adaptation of one I found labeled "Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers." The original recipe is sound, but finding freshly ground puppies in San Francisco on short notice is a real pain in the ass.*

I added a wee bit of sweetness so that these treats can be enjoyed by man as well as man's best friend.

Just imagine the shared bond of eating the same food at the same time. And with cleaner teeth and fresher breath, when your dog licks you in the face to say "Thank you," you can lick him right back to say "You're welcome," with the confidence that only sparkly teeth and peanut buttery breath can give.

Makes about 36 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup peanut butter (chunk-style or smooth)

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons honey

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, put peanut butter, milk, and honey. Mix at a very low speed with the paddle attachment. Very low. Otherwise you will have a big, splattering mess on your hands.

4. When the peanut butter mixture is well mixed, gradually add the dry ingredients and paddle until a dough forms and behaves nicely by cleaning up after itself by wiping the sides of the bowl clean with its own mass.

5. Place dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll to ¼-inch thickness.

6. Cut out cookies with a small dog bone-shaped cutter (thanks for the loan, Mark Reilly) and place on a greased (or silpat-covered) cookie sheet and bake for about 25 minutes (or until lightly browned.

7. Remove from oven, cool on rack, make your dog or your boyfriend beg for a treat, serve.

These cookies will keep for several days in an airtight container.

* I hate having to tell people I am joking, but I would rather not be sued.

Leslie Sbrocco is back with Bay Area Bites blogger, Stephanie Rosenbaum and Jeannie Choe, creator of the San Francisco Food Wars -- a local competition where seasoned chefs and home cooks alike compete for prizes and the title of SF Food Wars champion. In the latest round...Who can make the ultimate chocolate chip cookie?

Related Recaps, Photos and Video:

• Bay Area Bites SF Food Wars: The Chocolate Cookie Situation
• Food and Wine This Week SF Food Wars on Food & Wine This Week
• SF Food Wars: The Chocolate Cookie Situation Video by VidSF
• Recap at SF Food Wars with photos by Bryan Haggerty
• Fist-Pumping Goodness and Nightclub Flashbacks at SF Food Wars' Chocolate Cookie Situation -- Tamara Palmer at SFWeekly
• CHOW's Chocolate-Cookie Tribute to the Jersey Shore slideshow

Related Twitter feeds:

• @sffoodwars

Happy Purim! Yes, today is the Jewish celebration of Purim, a happy little holiday where costumes and drunken revelry are mandated, and rolling from house to house bringing gifts of food and drink is exactly what you're supposed to do. The party is mostly a secular one, a celebration of the bravery and resourcefulness of Queen Esther, favorite of Persia's King Ahasuerus. When Haman, one of the king's advisors, plotted to rid the kingdom of Jews, Esther went to the king, revealed her previously hidden Jewish identity and pleaded for her people to be spared. As a result, Haman got it in the neck instead of the Jews, and persecution was set aside for another day.

So, a fine reason to celebrate. At the synagogue, the story is read from the Book of Esther, and every time Haman is mentioned, noisemakers are cranked to drown out his name. Sometimes the story is acted out, in a goofy pageant called the Purimspiel. Many synagogues or community centers hold a Purim Carnival for kids. Who could resist games like "Throw the Beanbag through Haman's Mouth"? Best of all, of course, are the hamantaschen, cookies made in the shape of Haman's (supposedly) three-cornered hat and filled with a thick, sweet paste of apricots, prunes, or poppy seeds.

Clearly, this is a cookie born in Central Europe, brought over by immigrants raised on the buttery cookies, the poppy seeds, honey, spices and dried fruits found in baking traditions from Vienna to Budapest. What sets hamantaschen apart from, say, thumbprint cookies are their fillings: dense and sticky, full flavored and rich. Called lekvar, these are pastes, not jams, made from dried fruits plumped in juice and water, flavored with citrus and spices. Where jam would boil and run, lekvar stays put.

It's not impossible to find hamantaschen at bakeries around the Bay Area, especially at this time of year. But they're never anywhere near as good as homemade. Too often, the dough is sugar-cookie bland, the filling a thin scrape of rubbery goo. What you want is a fat, buttery-lemony cookie folded around a plump spoonful of rich fruitiness, something almost more mince pie than mere cookie.

Now, it's easy to find canned lekvars in the kosher section of any supermarket. Like so many prepared foods, though, they're often filled with unnecessary junk: high-fructose corn syrup, weird preservatives. Happily, though, making your own is easy, and the taste is well worth the tiny bit of effort put in at the blender.

You will, however, need to make a special trip for the apricot paste. Any shop specializing in Middle Eastern groceries will carry this, essentially a flat brick of lightly sweetened fruit leather. I've only ever seen one brand, made in Syria and wrapped in golden cellophane, with a beautiful blue label painted with bright orange apricots.

While you're there, of course, you can browse for all kinds of other delicious things, like olives, thick yogurt, pink pickled turnips, mint tea, pomegranate molasses, rose-petal jam, baba ghanoush, chunks of halvah ribboned with chocolate, fresh pita bread, crunchy melon seeds, belly-dancing videos, copper pots for making Turkish coffee, sesame candy, and more. I found mine (and all of the above) at Samiramis Imports in the Mission.

Apricot paste in hand, you can divide up the process over a few hours. Make the cookie dough and stash it in the fridge. Make the fillings, apricot first so you can reuse the pot and the blender without needing to wash them, since the darkness of the prune will absorb any remaining apricot stickiness. Roll out the dough, cut the rounds, move them onto cookie sheets and let little hands plop on the filling and pinch the three-cornered triangles. Bake, make tea or pour milk, and celebrate. And then bring a plateful to your neighbors.

Hamantaschen
Both dough and fillings keep well in the refrigerator, so you can roll out and fill just a few cookies at a time. Then again, these are really delicious and fun to eat even for breakfast, since they're not overly rich or sweet. In my experience, even a whole batch doesn't last very long out of the oven.

Makes: about 20 cookies

Ingredients:
8 tbsp (1 stick, 4 oz) butter or margarine
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Apricot and/or Prune Lekvar, recipe below

Preparation:
1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, orange juice, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour into butter mixture, mixing gently until just combined. Add lemon zest and stir until dough is smooth.

2. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap or pop into a resealable plastic bag.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. (Otherwise dough will be too sticky to roll out.) While dough is chilling, making filling(s).

3. Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly flour a large wooden cutting board or countertop. Because this dough tends to be sticky, it's easiest to roll it out with a sheet of waxed paper between the dough and the rolling pin. This will prevent the dough from sticking and tearing as you roll.

4. Roll out dough into a broad round, as if you're making a thickish sheet of pie dough. It's better to have it on the thicker side, maybe a quarter-inch or so, as the cookies are nicer when they're a little puffy, and also will be easier to fill and pinch if they're not super-skinny.

5. Using a cookie cutter or a drinking glass, stamp out circles of dough. Move the circles onto a cookie sheet, leaving an inch or so between each one. It's important to fill the rounds on the cookie sheet (rather than on the counter top) as they are hard to move without tearing once they're filled. The size is up to you; I usually use a cutter that's about 4 inches across, making a round the size of a smallish hamburger patty.

6. Place a generous tablespoon of filling in the center of each round. Fold the top sides of the circle into the middle and pinch the top into a point. Fold the bottom half up to meet the folded-in sides. Pinch each side to seal, forming a triangle with a patch of filling peeking out from the middle.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or so, until cookies are pale golden brown around the edges. Let cool on a rack. Note that the filling will be super-bubbling hot right out of the oven, so try to give them at least a few minutes' cooling time before you bite into your first one.

Apricot Lekvar

Ingredients:
7 oz apricot paste
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 tbsp sugar or honey, or to taste

Preparation:
Tear apricot paste into bite-sized pieces. Place in a small, heavy saucepan with the rest of the ingredients. Warm over low heat, stirring frequently, until paste is soft and melting and raisins have plumped up, about 10-12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. Taste and add more sugar or orange juice, as needed. Store in the refrigerator until needed. (If you have extra, it keeps for a very long time and is excellent on toast.)

Prune Lekvar

Ingredients:
1/2 cup water or orange juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp sugar or honey
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:
Mix all ingredients together. Put them into the same pot you used for the apricot filling (no need to wash it out), and warm over low heat until prunes and raisins are soft and mushy, about 8-10 minutes. Let cool slightly, then puree. Store in the fridge until needed. Like the apricot filling, it keeps a very long time and tastes divine.

Samiramis Imports, 2990 Mission St at 26th St., San Francisco. (415) 824-6556.

Homemade Food Gift: Christmas Cookie Jars

Now, I realize that my timing may be off on this. Christmas has come and gone, and if you're like me, you are in detox mode from indulging over the holidays. But, if I may…I'd like to offer up some residual Christmas cheer.

I made these festive cookie jars this holiday season after seeing them on Brown Eyed Baker's list of homemade food gift ideas. Number 2 on her list is Bakerella's Homemade Cookie Mix (Be forewarned, if you have a sweet tooth, enter this site at your own risk. You will be dazzled by the goodies she whips up!).

At the Brown Eyed Baker's wise counsel, I turned Bakerella's Cowgirl Cookie Jars into the most adorable Christmas Cookie Jars. I lucked out and found 2 cases of canning jars on Craigslist, hit up Walgreens for some glitzy tinsel, and got my arts-and-crafts on.

Homemade Cookie Mix

I wasn't going to blog about this, since it seemed as if I had missed the sleigh on timeliness, but the feedback I got after giving these has been amazing! Everyone is clamoring for the recipe. Not only are these pretty, thoughtful, and homemade gifts…they are really delicious. Don't take it from me though.

Real live testimonials:

"These are SO good. I can't stop eating them, and I've been eating cookies all day." - Carly

"Holy gods of cookie heavens have shined down upon me! Best f-in baked dessert product of this Xmas season!" - My Brother

People loved these cookies. They made them with their kids. They horded them from visitors. They ate them all in one day. Warm, gooey cookies on a cold winter's day? Now that is Peace and Joy.

Now that the holidays are over, the last thing you may want to see is another cookie. Don't fret. Give it a day or two. It will pass.

Joy to the World

Christmas Cookie Jars
Adapted from Bakerella's "Cowgirl Cookies"

Makes: 27 cookies

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup M&Ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Wet Ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Stir all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add 1 slightly beaten egg, 1/2 cup melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients thoroughly.
5. Roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
6. Enjoy while warm and gooey!

To assemble the Cookie Jars:
Start with a 1 quart smooth, glass, canning jar. Layer the ingredients in this order:

1. Flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (stir these all up before pouring in the jar so they are well distributed)
2. Oats
3. M&Ms
4. Chocolate chips
5. Brown sugar
6. White sugar
7. Chopped pecans

Pack each level down *really* tightly or else it won't all fit. You can get the most packing power after the oats layer and the brown sugar layer. I used that top piece from the lid of my food processor (the thing you use to push veggies in through the hole in the lid) to really jam it all down.

Add the chopped pecans last, because depending on how well you pack the layers, you can add more or less pecans to adjust. As Bakerella notes, better to sacrifice nuts than chocolate. But also, for practical reasons, it helps keep the white sugar from spilling out all over the place when the recipient opens the jar.

The ingredients will be flush to the top of the lid when you seal it up. To decorate the top of the jars, wrap 16 inches of decorative wire tinsel around the top. Print the Preparation instructions on little cards made from wrapping paper, and punch a hole in the corner so you can attach it to the tinsel. Voila! Instant Christmas Cheer.

Bakerella's non-secular version involves decorating with suede cord and some fabric. She cuts the fabric into 6 inch squares and the suede into 25 inch pieces. Place the fabric on top and tie ribbons around the lid to hold it in place.