Blueberry, Lemon and White Chocolate Shortbread

For reasons unbeknownst to me, blueberries are not something widely available in Israel. Or at all. For about the cost of an arm and a leg (or, you know, rent) you can buy some frozen, but I don't think in the year that I've lived here I've ever seen fresh for sale. But when I stumbled across some dried blueberries in the open-air market next to my house (that only cost a leg), and found this recipe at the same time, I knew it was meant to be.

Chocolate Swirl Cookies

Any of you who are frequent readers of Cake Wrecks, might recall a frequent feature where she shows a picture of the cake requested, and then a picture of what was ultimately delivered, often with disastrous results. (Good example here). I felt a little bit like that with this recipe for Chocolate Swirl Cookies.
The cookies came out tasting better than I expected, but they just didn't have the look I was going for. Instead they looked amateurish and messy. See, on the food network site where this recipe originated, the cookies looked like this:
Perfect lines, perfect circles, equal doughs - just right. Mine, however, were a little sloppier looking.

This cookie is made by creating the two different doughs - vanilla and chocolate - and then rolling each out into a rectangle. After chilling them both, you lay one on top of the other, like so:
Then you roll the dough up into a tight cylinder creating the spiral look inside. This is returned to the fridge for a few hours, or until you're ready to slice and bake.
Since I didn't have a great knife to cut this, I put it in the freezer for about half an hour before slicing.
The cookies actually came out pretty nicely - in 1/4 inch slices. Half way through the slicing I stuck it back in for a few minutes since it has softened up a little while out of the fridge. Some of them got a little squished while I sliced, but they were easy to morph back into a circular shape.
At this stage, I knew the cookies didn't look quite like the picture, since the spiral was crooked and uneven in places, and even broken in a few spots. Somehow though I imagined that during the baking process that would even out and "melt" into a perfect spiral.
Didn't happen. Oh well, they were all eaten - and were a great tasting cookie - not too sweet like a sugar cookie, so you could really taste the chocolate and the vanilla - not just sugar.

Tip of the Day: When making a chocolate and vanilla dough/batter, like these or these, always make the vanilla first so you dont' have to clean out the bowl before starting on the next dough.

Recipe: (via Food Network)

Vanilla Dough:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups flour

Chocolate Dough:
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour

For the vanilla dough: Beat the butter until smooth. Add the two sugars and salt. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the flour, mixing slowly until blended.

Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide in half. Place between 2 pieces of parchment or waxed paper. Roll into a 10 by 12 by 1/4 inch rectangle. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.

For the chocolate dough: Beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, cocoa and salt and mix well. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Gradually add the flour, mixing slowly until blended.

Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide in half. Place between 2 pieces of parchment or waxed paper. Roll into a 10 by 12 by 1/4 inch rectangle. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.

Take out one of the chocolate doughs and brush the top lightly with cold water. Place the vanilla dough carefully on top and lightly press to smooth and seal the doughs together. Trim the edges if needed. Brush the surface of the dough lightly with cold water. With the long edge facing you, roll into a tight cylinder. Position the sandwiched doughs with the long edge facing you. Using the edge of the paper as a guide, roll the doughs into a tight cylinder.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Repeat with remaining 2 sheets of dough.

Slice the dough into 1/4-inch thick cookies. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets at 325 F until just golden - about 14 to 16 minutes.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies

I rarely make icebox cookies (which require chilling) since I don't have the patience to wait for it - but I was home for spring break last week so I thought I'd give these cinnamon swirl cookies a shot.Pretty, aren't they. The recipe for these came TheBakingPan.com, a site I've never tried before but they looked pretty good, and not too difficult.
And they weren't. Overall they were ok, perhaps a little on the dry side, but the filling was fun and they looked really pretty. The recipe called for a vanilla icing to be drizzled on top to complete the faux cinnamon bun look, but I opted out, assuming quite correctly that they would be sweet enough without.
So anyway, the recipe was a basic cookie dough that I refrigerated for a couple hours.
Then I rolled it out and sprinkled the dough with a brown sugar and cinnamon mix, and pressed it into the dough.
Then the dough gets rolled up in wax paper and refrigerated in a log for a couple more hours. I stuck it in the freezer for those, and I put it in for even longer than called for because it really needs to firm up here. After a while I removed the log and sliced up the cookies, maintaining as much of the filling as I could.
I also lost both ends of the log, but don't worry, it didn't quite go to waste! I laid out the cookies on a prepared baking sheet, stuck em in the oven, and voila! Cinnamon Swirl Cookies.
Luckily only a few of them fell apart - you can see the top left one here didn't quite stick together.

Tip of the Day: When working with icebox or rolled out cookies, always stick whatever dough you're not currently using back in the fridge or freezer for later use.

Recipe: (from thebakingpan.com)
Dough:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Filling:
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs and vanilla, and beat until combined.
Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.
Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
Roll the dough into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle, and sprinkle with the filling.
Tightly roll up the dough and wrap in wax paper, refrigerate at least four hours, or overnight.
Slice the cookies 1/4 inch thick and bake at 350 F for 9 minutes.

Checkmate!

I think this is the first cookie that I decided was more trouble than it was worth.
These are checkerboard cookies, and this recipe comes from DyannBakes.com, a site which is sadly no longer in operation. Anyway I made these in a spurt of adventure and inspiration, wanting to try something really outside my comfort zone. I don't generally make icebox cookies (where the dough is formed into a roll or log and chilled before slicing), but these looked oh so pretty, and I decided to give them a shot.
This recipe involves making the two different doughs (chocolate and vanilla), and layering them into the pattern you see above. Ooh boy, this is where it gets complicated. Plus, Dyann's instructions come exclusively in a video form, where you watch her do it. Yeah, I watched that video about 472 times. Basically, you keep layering (and sticking together with egg white) and slicing the dough until you form the adorable little checkerboard pattern. Layering and slicing, layering and slicing. I was sweating by the end of this one. Panicking as layers slid out of place and edges were sticking out, and the doughs weren't sticking together.
After a lot of praying and just a few mild obscenities, the logs came together and after I chilled them, sliced out into cute little slices.
Well, they did come out nice, although even in the picture you can tell alot of them are uneven, or have jagged edges. I'm just not sure I'd go through this again for this cookie.
Plus, if you promise not to tell anyone, I'll share a secret.
They just didn't taste that great.

Tip of the Day: If a recipe calls for two different doughs, make the vanilla one first, that way you don't need to clean the bowl in between batches.