White Chocolate LingonberryOrange cookies ready for gifting

The busiest time of year is upon us, though I don’t know how it can possibly be busier than the last month has been for me.  Typically by now I have jars and containers in the freezer and on the countertops full of candies, cookies, crackers that I bake up for Christmas every year.  I love relaxing in the kitchen while baking up an old recipe, or tweaking an old one to make a new version of something well-loved.  I love sampling all of them, and then giving them away for other people to enjoy as well. 

The red & white colors look like Christmas, and the orange scent is mouth-watering

But not this year.  This year I’ve let myself off the hook.  I’ve taken the pressure off to make big piles of great-tasting bakery (maybe my waistline will thank me in January!).  And though more inspiration may come before Christmas day arrives, this year, I’ve had one go-to cookie that can be whipped up really quickly, piled into festive containers and brought along to parties, and which everyone seems to like.  Here it is!  Enjoy.

One note:  in the recipe below, I’ve given the weight for many of the ingredients in grams.  You’ll get the best (read: consistent) results if you actually weigh the ingredients, as 4 different people scooping up e.g. a cup of flour will find that a cup weighs in a range from 115 g – 140 g depending on how they scoop it.  You can also see that while the volume of both white and brown sugars is 1/2 cup, the weights are quite different.  But it’s not essential if you aren’t too particular – the taste will still be good; but the cookies may be more or less crispy/chewy than mine.  


White Chocolate Lingonberry Orange Cookies

Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C

In medium bowl, combine
1 1/3 cup / 2.75 dl / 160 g all-purpose flour (add an extra 1/4 cup if you like a thicker, crunchier cookie)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat until well combined:
1 stick/ 4 oz / 8 tablespoons / 115g soft butter
1/2 cup / 1 dl/ 115 g white sugar
1/2 cup / 1 dl / 100 g brown sugar (not packed)
zest of one organic orange (zested over the bowl to catch all the orange oils)

Beat well until the mixture is thoroughly combined so that the sugar and butter are completely incorporated (I suggest scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during this step).  Then add:
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat again to combine.  With a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the sugar-butter mixture and stir until the mixture is smooth.  Stir in:
1 cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips/ 6oz / 150g
1/2 cup dried lingonberries (or dried cranberries, preferably unsweetened)

Drop teaspoonfuls of the cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, spaced 1.5″/3 cm apart to allow the cookies to spread.  Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are a dark golden brown and the centers still look soft.  Remove from oven.  Cool on the pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely, 

If you don’t plan to enjoy these all at once, they store best frozen in an airtight container or thick plastic freezer bag.

Makes 60 – 70 small cookies.

Happy Holidays!

Pumpkin Scones.

I have two very large pumpkins sitting on the counter in my kitchen – a welcome product from my garden.  A third pumpkin resides in my freezer in various forms:  puree, cubes, and pumpkin scones.  The two remaining are both musquée de provence, grown from seeds I saved when I bought a large chunk of pumpkin last fall.  The flavor and texture of this pumpkin are both fantastic.

Musquée de provence casting shadows and Pumpkin Scones waiting to be baked

I can’t help it – I have pumpkin recipes on my mind.  Maybe I should blame it on the fact that every English-language food magazine I pass by from Fine Cooking to Martha Stewart Living has recipes including pumpkin.  And nearly every food blog I read is sharing tips about how to add a little of that luscious orange puree into your favorite muffins, buttermilk biscuits, bread pudding, cheesecake, soup and ah yes, pie. 

Pumpkin Scone & Coffee.  That’s a big cup of coffee.  It appears that I may need to eat two scones…

I started here, with pumpkin scones.  Because you can’t get them here in Finland, yet, unless you make your own.  Because Fall should include a cup of good coffee and a fresh pumpkin scone. 

The good news is:  I have two large pumpkins to go.  Plenty of raw material to work with, here!
For those of you who love pumpkin as much as I do, you are 30 minutes away from another happy moment.  Have them for breakfast, then coffee, then evening snack.  Share them, or stash them.  Freeze them raw, or baked, or consume immediately and make another batch tomorrow. 

And if you have apple butter or apple jelly or even sweetened apple sauce, you can’t go wrong adding a dollop to the top of these scones.  Enjoy!

Check that out.  Mmmmm, yes.  Now go make some for yourself!

Pumpkin Scones

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together:
2 1/2 cups or 360g flour
1/4 c or 60 g sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Using a pastry blender or a fork, blend in until the mixture forms coarse crumbs:
7 tablespoons or 100g cold butter, cut into pieces

In a small bowl combine:
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup or 1 dl pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  

Using your hands, divide the dough into two parts and knead each ball lightly so it come together and forms a ball.  Be careful not to over mix – the less you handle the dough, the better the texture of the scones.  Place each dough half onto the pan and flatten it into a disk about 1 inch/2.5 cm thick.  Cut each disk in half and then in half again to form four triangles.  Separate the scone triangles so they are not touching and they have space to grow in the oven. 

Bake the scones for 15-17 minutes until the are golden brown and fragrant.  Serve with your choice of coffee or tea.

Makes 8 scones.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies

Happy Sunny Friday!  Happy Fall.

Fall is in in full swing and today, with the crisp air and cloudless blue sky, the gold, orange, red, and the few remaining green leaves on the deciduous trees are more vibrant than ever. I love this time of year.  It always seems a little bit magical to me, particularly early in the morning when the fog has settled itself in between the glorious hues of the fall leaves and the stubborn green of the evergreens, and is just beginning to rise and dissipate, creating a light, misty veil across the waking world.

I was up in Tampere for a few days this week, where I enjoyed a work event and an unexpectedly inspiring and passionate speech from a young rapper and hip hop artist.  Previously unknown to me, but famous in Finland for among other things, his work on a show called Voice of Finland (which I’ve never seen), 32-year old Elastinen, as he is called (his real name is Kimmo) told us his story about how he got to where he is today: from a kid who wasn’t good at playing the guitar or sports, but found his life’s joy through hip hop dance and Finnish rap and a lot of determination.

But his story, as unique to him as the stories of each of us are to ourselves, was more a story about how to live a good life than how to become a rap artist.  He talked about living a positive life (he was voted the “most positive person in Finland 2012”).  He said his glass is always half full.  That there is no situation that is ever made better by negative thinking.  That to be positive or negative is a choice, and he chooses to be positive.  All of the time if he can.

Elastinen.  Not your average speaker at a business seminar.

And there was more.  When a person becomes famous, there are plenty of others who will line up to point out how lucky he/she is.  Says Elastinen:  “I tell people: you may get lucky once.  You might get a lucky break.  You’ll be famous and loved for a second.  And that’s when the hard work begins.  You have to always be working and always be improving if you want to be successful.  That’s what I always do:  I move forward aggressively.”  It reminded me of the quote I’d seen recently on the Forbes.com website from U.S. President Gerald Ford, (one of the least memorable presidents, but nevertheless…): “There is an old saying, the harder you try, the luckier you get.  I kind of like that definition of luck”  Ford’s “old saying” is a paraphrase of a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but old enough, I guess, to drive the point home that luck is nothing more than a lot of hard work in disguise.

And Elastinen wasn’t done.  He had a point he really wanted to drive home: he talked about finding what you love and going after it.  Aggressively.  Moving forward.  Getting up when you stumble.  Dusting yourself off.  Not taking “no” for an answer. Finding your own way.  Being determined.  Being creative.  Not giving up.  “Tahto, Taito, Tieto are what you need in order to be successful”, he said, “Willpower, Skill and Knowledge.  You need all three, but willpower needs to come first.  The order of the next two doesn’t really matter, but without willpower, you don’t really get anywhere.  You have to have the willpower to work for what you want.”

Strong words for a roomful of 200+ business men and women at various stages of their careers and lives – some doing what they love and some, I bet, just surviving day-to-day, wishing they were elsewhere, doing something different.  Apt words for any one of us at any moment.  Energizing and inspiring words no matter where you want to go or what you want to be.

At the event there were speakers from world-famous companies:  Google. Nokia. LinkedIn.  Great presentations – they really were.  The speakers shared ideas and opinions on how to succeed in business and what you need to do to move your career and your company to the next level.

Who do you think everyone talked about and quoted for the rest of the day?  A young, enthusiastic musical artist from Helsinki.  I loved it.  And so did everyone else.

I can’t pretend to bring you that kind of inspiration today, so instead I bring you Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies to munch on while you contemplate the words of Elastinen.  Enjoy, my friends, and have a great weekend.

More of the same, minus the one I used for quality control

Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies
adapted from Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies in Joy of Cooking

Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C

In medium bowl, combine
1 1/4 cup / 2.5 dl all-purpose flour (add an extra 1/4 cup if you like a thicker, crunchier cookie)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat until well combined:
1 stick/ 4 oz / 8 tablespoons / 115g soft butter
1/2 cup / 1 dl white sugar
1/2 cup / 1 dl brown sugar
zest of one organic orange (zested over the bowl to catch all the orange oils)

Beat well until the mixture is thoroughly combined so that the sugar and butter are completely incorporated (I suggest scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during this step).  Then add:
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt

Beat again to combine.  With a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the sugar-butter mixture and stir until the mixture is smooth.  Stir in:
1 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips/ 6oz / 150g chopped semi-sweet chocolate.

Drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, spaced 1.5″/3 cm apart to allow the cookies to spread.  Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are a dark golden brown and the centers still look soft.  Remove from oven.  Cool on the pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely, or, alternatively, transfer a few to a small plate, pour yourself a glass of cold milk, and enjoy.

Makes 24 cookies.