Cardamom Butter Cookies

http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

The current Cookbook Challenge theme is Spice. I love sweet spiced food, with spices such as cinnamon, clove, allspice, and nutmeg. Cardamom is a spice that I only recently started using, so I was excited to try these cardamom butter cookies.

If you go to your average supermarket and grab a bottle of cardamom off the shelf, you may be shocked at the price. This recipe calls for a lot of cardamom (5 1/2 teaspoons total), so you will probably want to see if you can find it cheaper. I'm lucky enough to have a low-price supermarket that carries many items in bulk. They have ground cardamom for about 10 US dollars a pound. I got enough to fill a medium-sized bottle and it only cost me 50 cents! If you don't have any supermarkets nearby that have spices in bulk, try looking in specialty markets, such as ones that would carry Indian or European foods. They may have cardamom in bulk, sold in bags, or in regular bottles at a fraction of the average supermarket price.

This recipe is from The Complete Cookie Book by Elizabeth Wolf Cohen, published in 1994.

It makes about 2 dozen cookies.

2 cups cake flour or all-purpose flour

4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup sliced or flaked almonds

 To decorate:

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 tsp cardamom

sliced or flaked almonds (optional)

Notes: The recipe says to use cake flour, but I used all-purpose because I didn't feel like buying cake flour just for this recipe, and all-purpose flour is called "all-purpose" for a reason! Also, I thought sliced or flaked almonds would be too big for the cookies, so I bought slivered almonds and then put them in a storage bag and ground them up with a rolling pin.

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 2 large baking sheets. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, cardamom, and salt.

 In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy, 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. On low speed, gradually beat in flour mixture until well-blended; then stir in almonds.

 Into a small bowl, sift together confectioners' sugar and cardamom. Using a tablespoon, scoop out dough and roll into 1 1/2-inch balls. Drop balls one at a time into sugar-spice mixture, rolling to coat well.

 Place 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets. Dip bottom of a glass into sugar mixture, and flatten cookies to 1/2-inch thick rounds. Press 2 or 3 sliced or flaked almonds onto tops of cookies.

Vader enjoys helping out in the kitchen whenever he can.

 Bake cookies until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes (12 minutes ended up being a minute or two too long in my horrible electric oven), rotating baking sheets from top to bottom shelf and from front to back halfway through cooking time. Remove baking sheets to wire racks to cool, 2 to 3 minutes. Then, using a thin metal palette knife or spatula, remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

Panna Cotta

 http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

 This recipe is for the Cup theme for the Cookbook Challenge, which I'm actually a couple days late for, oops. "Panna cotta" is Italian for "cooked cream", which kind of sounds like it's served hot or warm, but it's actually served cold. You cook cream, milk, and sugar together and then add gelatin and let it set in the refrigerator. As my husband says, it's like cream Jell-O.

It fits into the "cup" theme because you mold it in custard cups or small ramekins, and then turn it out onto a plate and top it with fresh fruit or fruit sauce.

This is a simple vanilla-flavored panna cotta, but it can be really fun to experiment with different flavors.

The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking, the 1997 revised edition. Cookbook snobs tend to turn their nose up at this edition because it's quite different from the original, but it's actually a really amazing, comprehensive cookbook. Also, it's dear to my heart because it was my first cookbook. My mother bought it for me for Christmas in 2000. I do own the original version as well, but it's packed away in a box somewhere, so I'm not sure if panna cotta is in it or not.

2 1/4 tsp (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/2 sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

fruit sauce and/or sliced fresh fruit

Lightly oil six 4- to 6-ounce cups or molds.

Pour 3 tablespoons water into a small bowl. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin over the top. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften.

Combine heavy cream, milk, vanilla bean if using, and sugar in a saucepan.

Stirring, bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from the heat and extract the vanilla bean. Add the gelatin and stir for 1 minute until completely dissolved. Stir in vanilla if not using the vanilla bean and almond extract.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cups and refrigerate until firmly set, about 3 hours.

Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of each cream and refrigerate up to 3 days. Unmold onto plates and serve with fruit sauce and/or sliced fresh fruit.

To easily unmold from a custard cup, just stick a butter knife down one side and it will thwop out.

I topped these with the blueberry jam that I made for the last Cookbook Challenge, which for some reason didn't thicken very well and so it turned into more of a blueberry sauce.
I also topped some of them with diced, cooked peaches.