Pecan Cinnamon Cookies

Naming this blog took me a long time to do. I had been throwing the idea around for months, had teamed up with someone else, then decided to do this on my own, and all the while I changed the name of this blog almost weekly. I wanted something that explained my favorite things about cooking, and maybe a bit more about myself. That's when I came up with "Cinnamon Daydream."


The "daydream" part of the title is easy- I am a big daydreamer and I love reading. Also, the word daydream symbolizes creations and possibilities, which hopefully will manifest themselves here in food creations!


As for the cinnamon... Well, you see, so far I have been holding out on you. I have yet to share my absolute obsession with cinnamon. It is a deep, rich, spicy, sweet and mysterious spice. It makes everything taste better (doubly so for breakfast foods). I understand why the Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrew used it for religious purposes and why the Europeans sailed around the world looking for the most direct route to its source. If I was only allowed once spice for the rest of my life, this would be it. I would give up basil, rosemary, garlic, salt, dill, and even black pepper.


With that in mind, it was only a matter of time before I had to share baked cinnamon goodies...

Pecan Cinnamon Cookies
(from The Golden Book of Cookies)

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg


3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C) and grease two cookie sheets.


Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg, beating until just blended. Slowly mix in the flour, baking powder and salt until you have a smooth, even dough.


In a separate bowl, combine chopped pecans and cinnamon. Roll the prepared dough into small balls and roll them in the cinnamon-pecan mixture until completely coated. Place on greased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the cookies have flattened and are golden brown.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Here is the recipe for home-made pitas I made with my hummus. These taste so much better than store-bought that it is unfair to even compare the two!


A word of advice: If you find yourself thinking, "I should clean my oven today.... Nah, I want to make pita bread."


Retract that. Clean your oven. Make pita bread another day. Because when you heat your oven to 500 F, it tends to burn the things on the bottom of your oven and you set off your smoke detectors. Multiple times. And your apartment neighbors get annoyed. Just sayin'.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread
(inspired by Kitchen Meditation and Epicurious)


1 1/8 cup warm water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 packet active dry yeast


Proof the yeast in the warm water and honey for 10 minutes, until it is foamy. If the yeast doesn't froth, throw out and start over. Add the oil and both types of flour, and knead on low or by hand for 10 minutes (if kneading by hand, add a little flour as you are working the dough to keep it from becoming sticky). Stop kneading when the dough is elastic and smooth.


Put the dough in a large oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel (not terry cloth). Let stand in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 90 minutes.


Prepare baking sheets with a light dusting of cornmeal. Punch dough down, and divide into 8 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, work the first piece with your hands so that it forms something resembling a circle. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the piece of dough until it is approximately 6 inches in diameter and of equal thickness. Place onto a prepared baking sheet. Continue with the remaining 7 pieces of dough.


Cover with clean towels and let stand for 30 minutes.


Preheat oven to 500 F (260 C). Put one oven rack in the lower third of the oven, and remove all other racks. Working in batches (I did two batches of 3, and one of 2), transfer pitas into the oven. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, flip with a pair of tongs, and cook for 1 minute on the other side. Immediately put into a brown paper bag until cooled.





(I was not making these for pita pockets, but for those of you who are interested... Some of my pitas formed pockets and some did not. I would say that I had a 50% success rate. It seemed that the ones I left in a minute longer puffed up better.)


Serve with home-made hummus (I posted recipes here)! Or fold up and enjoy with gyro-style sandwich toppings.

Apple Pancake Cookies

One of my goals this year is to eat local, seasonal produce as often as possible. I have been doing my research and have found only two farmer's markets nearby that are open in winter. (The rest of the markets open in May and June.) One is about 20 miles away, and the other is about 30. Though in the grand scheme of things, 20 miles is better than 200,000 miles!


I think why I am stalling on going to the closer one is that I have never been to a farmer's market before, and I am not familiar with the U-District in Seattle. I will have to see if I can find someone to tag along with me, and make a day of it!





Now, on to more serious matters: these cookies are truly amazing. They are light and moist, with a wonderful strong walnut flavor and big apple chunks. To me, they taste like eating little apple cinnamon pancakes (hence the name).





Apple Pancake Cookies
(adapted from The Golden Book of Cookies)

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup applesauce
1 Granny Smith (or other tart) apple
1 cup finely chopped walnuts




Preheat your oven to 375°F (170°C) and grease two cookie sheets.


Cream the butter and the sugars in a large bowl. Beat in the applesauce and egg until just mixed, being sure not to over mix. Slowly mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until well smooth.


Finely chop up the walnuts. I usually do this with a hand chopper - I do not use it often, but with nuts it is a real time saver. Peel and core the apple, chopping it up into small chunks. The size of the apple pieces is really up to you.


Add the apple and walnut pieces to the cookie mix.





Using two spoons, drop small balls (2-3 tablespoons) of dough onto the pre-greased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Cook for 15-20 minutes. Check on the cookies at 15 minutes to make sure that the bottoms aren't getting too dark.



Serve with milk! Keith also suggested that a drizzle of caramel would taste great on top of these.

Sweethearts

Normally I would not make heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day.


I have never been a big Valentine's Day person. I have a lot of reasons for this, and I could rant about consumerism, media overload, and the American Dream for ages - but I won't. I think you should express love every day, not just on one day in February.


But these cookies caused me to have a moment of Valentine's Day joy.


For Christmas I got "The Golden Book of Cookies" from Keith. He joked it was actually a Christmas present for himself, that would pay him back all year long, because of my weakness for baked goods.


He knows me too well.


I have been waiting to make these since I saw the recipe on Christmas Day, and they were well worth the wait. Even if they are Valentine's themed!





Sweethearts
(adapted from The Golden Book of Cookies)

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of one lemon*
(*I did not add this, and they still tasted great!)


Topping

1 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup strawberry preserves
1 cup powdered sugar, for dusting






Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, and lemon zest. Blend until smooth.


In the same bowl, mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Your dough may be crumbly - this is okay. Press the dough together with your hands into a disc shape. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.





Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease two cookie sheets. Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes. Roll out 1/3rd of the dough onto a lightly floured surface. (I found the dough difficult to work with at first. If you have this problem, work the dough with your hands until it is easier to roll out.)


Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Transfer to the cookie sheets with a spatula, placing them 1/2 inch apart. Re-roll the scraps and continue until you run out of dough.


Bake cookies until golden brown (8-10 minutes). Let them cool on the baking sheets for about 3 minutes (they will break if you move them too soon - trust me), then transfer to cooling racks.





While the cookies are cooling, process the raspberries, sugar, and strawberry preserves in a blender (or food processor) until smooth. If you do not want the raspberry seeds in your topping, pour the mixture through a mesh strainer. Put the mix into a pot and simmer over medium heat for about ten minutes, until you have approximately 1 cup of topping.


Remove the pot from heat and let the mix cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. With a small metal spatula or butter knife, spread the topping on the cookies. Let the cookies sit until the topping solidifies - I let mine sit out overnight. Dust with powdered sugar.





Share the love: give these to your special someones for Valentine's Day! (Or else you'll probably end up eating them all by yourself.)