After a luxuriously long holiday break with the fam, I'm back to blogging! I didn't do as much baking this year, opting instead for rest (after a long virus--yuck!) and spending time with my in-laws and kiddos.
One recipe my daughter and I did try this year was Cinnamon Buddha Cookies (seen here at Spoon and Chair) using the mooncake molds my husband brought back from China earlier this year.
Spoon and Chair's recipe (which is based on Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Dough Recipe) calls for Mooncake cookie molds, not mooncake molds--which I think are deeper--but we improvised and used the smaller of my mooncake molds (approx. 3 in. in height). They worked out just fine.
The dough is a breeze to make. The recipe calls for mixing flour, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and then butter and 1 egg yolk in a food processor (see recipe for exact measurements).
This is then chilled in the fridge for two or more hours. We'll probably reduce the chill time next time we make these; two hours of chilling made for a pretty tough dough. We really had to work it into the mold with our fingers. We then used a knife to scrape off the extra dough in the mold (to make cookie prettier!).
Making these cookies is a great way to relieve holiday stress. The recipe notes that you have to "whack" the molds against the counter to pop the cookies out. With our molds, "whack" was an understatement. We had to "ka-whack" the dang things for the cookies to pop out. We followed Carolyn Phillips' suggestion at Out to Lunch with @MadameHuang to flour the molds each time before adding new dough. Without the flour, we would have had to literally dig the dough out with our fingers.
Mooncake cookies are a great all-around cookie for holidays---Christmas, New Years, and Chinese New Year (which is next on our family holiday countdown. Put it on your calendar: February 10!). They taste wonderful--like slightly sweet, cinnamon-y shortbread. Plus, when they're baking, the cookies make your house smell like Christmas, due to their 3 tsp of cinnamon. And did I mention how pretty these cookies are?
Bakers note: We followed the recipe's instructions and baked for 20 min. Our oven might be too hot, but this left the cookies a little overdone. We'll reduce baking time next go around. Also, with our molds, the recipe only made eleven cookies--which means that they disappeared in a matter of hours. They are that good.
One recipe my daughter and I did try this year was Cinnamon Buddha Cookies (seen here at Spoon and Chair) using the mooncake molds my husband brought back from China earlier this year.
Spoon and Chair's recipe (which is based on Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Dough Recipe) calls for Mooncake cookie molds, not mooncake molds--which I think are deeper--but we improvised and used the smaller of my mooncake molds (approx. 3 in. in height). They worked out just fine.
The dough is a breeze to make. The recipe calls for mixing flour, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and then butter and 1 egg yolk in a food processor (see recipe for exact measurements).
This is then chilled in the fridge for two or more hours. We'll probably reduce the chill time next time we make these; two hours of chilling made for a pretty tough dough. We really had to work it into the mold with our fingers. We then used a knife to scrape off the extra dough in the mold (to make cookie prettier!).
Making these cookies is a great way to relieve holiday stress. The recipe notes that you have to "whack" the molds against the counter to pop the cookies out. With our molds, "whack" was an understatement. We had to "ka-whack" the dang things for the cookies to pop out. We followed Carolyn Phillips' suggestion at Out to Lunch with @MadameHuang to flour the molds each time before adding new dough. Without the flour, we would have had to literally dig the dough out with our fingers. 
Mooncake cookies are a great all-around cookie for holidays---Christmas, New Years, and Chinese New Year (which is next on our family holiday countdown. Put it on your calendar: February 10!). They taste wonderful--like slightly sweet, cinnamon-y shortbread. Plus, when they're baking, the cookies make your house smell like Christmas, due to their 3 tsp of cinnamon. And did I mention how pretty these cookies are? 
Bakers note: We followed the recipe's instructions and baked for 20 min. Our oven might be too hot, but this left the cookies a little overdone. We'll reduce baking time next go around. Also, with our molds, the recipe only made eleven cookies--which means that they disappeared in a matter of hours. They are that good. 
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