Horseless Friday: Have a cookie

I do a horseless post every Friday. This Friday won't you have a cookie?


I baked this cookie platter for our company's holiday party. I would send you one. But I regret that I cannot seem to fit a cookie through my phone line and it got my DVD drive all crumby when I tried.

The Chocolate-Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies recipe came my favorite cooking show, "Good Eats" on Food Network. You can view the transcript and recipe here on the Good Eats Fan Pages. The other two recipes I copied from a cookie cookbook that I borrowed years ago. I've since forgotten the name of the book. The recipes, rewritten in my own words, are below.

Happy Baking!

Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks

Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 TBs poppy seed
1/2 cup cherry preserves

Time
15 min prep + 20 min cook


Directions

Preheat oven to 300F. Combine sugar, butter and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat well. Add flour, poppy seed, salt, baking soda and blend through.

Drop 1 tsp balls on lightly greased cookie sheet. Make thumb-size dents in the center of each and fill with preserves.


Cookies will flatten out as they cook. Bake 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.

Chocolate Shortbreads

Ingredients

Shortbreads
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter softened
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
Decoration
3/4 cup dark chocolate (for melting)
1 tsp shortening
1 TB or more topping such as crushed walnuts

Time
15 min prep + 30 min cook


Directions

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine powdered sugar and butter and beat until fluffy. Add flour and cornstarch and mix evenly.

Divide into 4 even balls. On a lightly greased cookie sheet, roll each ball into a patty 1/4 inch thick and about 6 inches across. With butter knife, score each patty completely through into 8 even pie slices. Prick each slice 3 times with a fork.

Bake for 15 - 25 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove and allow cookies to cool completely.

Gently cut wedges apart and remove from sheet with a spatula.

Prepare a cool place with wax paper. Bring to simmer a double boiler (or a small, empty pot inside a larger pot with enough water to cover most of the way up the sides of the small one).
Add the chocolate and shortening and stir constantly until melted. Remove from heat. Drizzle or dip shortbread wedges in chocolate and dip in crushed walnuts or other toping.

Place on wax paper to cool.