Umpleby's Bakery & Café

Day 14 The Hazelnut Linzer  The Return of the King.  This cookie is so good that is has its own entry on our Holiday Menu.  It’s a shortbread drop cookie that contains ground hazelnuts and then rolled in a ball and covered in more hazelnuts and then for good measure baked with raspberry preserves in the center.  And don’t forget the 10x snow on top!  This cookie has it all – the great hazelnut flavor, the great cookie crunch from the nuts, plus the color element from the preserves.

Day 12 The Chocolate Crinkle  As you probably expected, there are going to be a fair number of chocolate based cookies in the 24 day count.    Today’s Holiday classic is no exception.   They are made with the basic baking building blocks plus the chocolate element of Valrhona cocoa powder.  It is now worth mentioning one ingredient you’ll see a lot of during the Christmas baking season is 10x sugar.  It can act as “snow” if you dust it on top of a cookie.  You can coat a cookie completely like the Tea Cakes or in the case of the crinkle you roll the cookie in the 10x and then bake it in the oven.  As the cookie expands it creates the crinkle effect which looks pretty cool.  The best way to achieve this is to get them in the oven as soon as you get them covered.  If you wait too long the sugar will start dissolving into the cookie and the effect won’t be as striking.    Because of the high quality cocoa powder we use, this cookie has chocolate flavor coming out of its ears.  One final note on this cookie – you can under-bake it a little to get a chewy cookie or a bit longer for a crunchy one.

Day 11 The Plum Almond Drop  Unlike a plum pudding this almond drop cookie actually contains plum in the form of  preserves spooned in the middle.  When I baked them they flattened out a bit more than I would have preferred.  I think the reason is I got impatient and added a bit more butter than the recipe called in order for the dough to come together more quickly.  So what this  prototype cookie lacks for in aesthetics it makes up for in richness of flavor.