Recipe for Pomegranate Ice Cream in Pistachio-Cardamom Cookie Sandwiches, with Bonus Recipe for Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies

Christmas is coming faster than you’d think, which means Christmas baking season is nearly upon us.

For the last few days, I’ve been working on a fun, new, seasonally appropriate, and colorful Christmas dessert. After several attempts, I’ve finally perfected my recipe for Pomegranate Ice Cream in Pistachio-Cardamom Cookie Sandwiches.

The recipe is amazing. Tart pomegranate, rich pistachio, and aromatic cardamom come together harmoniously in every bite of the ice cream sandwich.

I originally made mini-sandwiches because I was testing successive versions of the recipe in small batches. I soon realized the small sandwiches were ideal for serving after a holiday meal. They provide just enough sweetness to finish the meal with a flourish, yet are light enough to prevent that overstuffed feeling.

One version of my cookie recipe was light and crisp; too crisp for ice cream sandwiches, but perfect for serving on its own as a cookie. This cookie is so delicious, I’ve included the recipe below. I’m also adding Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies to the mixed plates of Christmas cookies I make every year for friends.

Pomegranate Ice Cream is also terrific on its own, and extremely easy to make. It takes less than 5 minutes to mix the ingredients, and the ice cream maker does the rest of the work. Serve scoops of the ice cream plain, with a few pomegranate seeds (arils) sprinkled over the top, or even with Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies on the side. This is another tart-yet-light dessert for serving after holiday meals.

Besides their deliciously tart flavor, pomegranates are good for your health. They contain large amounts of Vitamin C and B5, as well as many other phytochemicals. Tests show pomegranates may reduce heart disease risk factors and reduce blood pressure.

Here's my theory: So long as you eat it during the holiday season, the heart healthy benefits of pomegranate counteract the negative effects of eating cream, making Pomegranate Ice Cream a guilt-free treat.

Pomegranate Ice Cream in Pistachio-Cardamom Cookie Sandwiches
Makes 20 1 1/2” sandwiches or 10 3” sandwiches

1 recipe Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies for Ice Cream Sandwiches (see recipe below)
1 recipe Pomegranate Ice Cream (see recipe below)

Make the Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies for Ice Cream Sandwiches and let them cool completely.

Make the Pomegranate Ice Cream. When it's done, put it in the freezer for 1/2 hour to firm up.

Lay out the plain cookies, underside up, on a cookie sheet. Using a 1 Tbsp. scoop for 1 1/2” sandwiches or a 2 Tbsp. scoop for 3” sandwiches, place a scoop of ice cream on each plain cookie. Top the ice cream with cookies that have pistachios in the center, pushing down carefully to flatten out the ice cream without breaking the soft top cookie.

Freeze. Serve straight from the freezer. If you are storing the ice cream sandwiches for any length of time, wrap them individually in plastic wrap.

Pomegranate Ice Cream
Makes about 3 cups of ice cream (enough for 20 small, or 10 large, ice cream sandwiches)
Alcohol lowers the freezing point of ice cream, which makes it slightly softer and easier to serve than ice cream that doesn’t include alcohol. Even without the alcohol, Pomegranate Ice Cream is delicious, although it may form noticeable ice crystals. Pomegranate liquor enhances the pomegranate flavor, but raspberry-flavored vodka and plain vodka also work well and both have the benefit of being sold in miniature bottles. If you are making this to serve on its own, and your ice cream maker is large enough, double the recipe.

1 cup pomegranate juice from fresh pomegranates OR 1 cup 100% Pomegranate Juice (see Note below)
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup cream
1 Tbsp. pomegranate liqueur or vodka
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt

Thoroughly whisk all the ingredients together. Put the mix in an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Note on pomegranate juice: Here’s how to juice pomegranates: Cut the pomegranates in half, and juice with a citrus juicer. If you don't have a citus juicer, remove the pomegranate seeds (more accurately, arils) from the skins, discarding the white fibrous matter separating the seeds. (You’ll make less of a mess if you do this underwater.) Whir batches of the seeds in a food processor and then put through a strainer to remove the pits (a Foley food mill works well for this task). If you don't have access to fresh pomegranates, 100% pomegranate juice works just fine in this recipe.

Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies (for use in ice cream sandwiches)
Makes 40 1 1/2” cookies (20 sandwiches) or 20 3” cookies (10 sandwiches)
With added cornstarch to reduce the protein content of the flour, egg yolk instead of whole egg, and slightly underdone cookies, this version is tenderer than cookies intended to be served on their own. The tenderness makes the cookies softer and easier to bite through, an important consideration for ice cream sandwiches. These cookies are more highly seasoned than cookies that aren’t served frozen. If you want Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies for eating on their own as cookies, see the recipe below for Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies. In a pinch, if you can’t find raw pistachio nuts, buy roasted, salted nuts (Costco often carries these), rinse off the salt, and dry them very well before using in the recipe. If you have a convection oven, you can bake multiple sheets of cookies at one time; if not, bake the cookies one sheet at a time.

1/2 cup shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 – 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. freshly ground cardamom (1 tsp. if using pre-ground cardamom)
Coarse sugar crystals for topping the cookies
Extra pistachio nuts for topping the cookies

Preheat the oven to 325°F (or 300°F convection).

Add the pistachios and sugar to a food processor or blender, and process just until the pistachios are finely ground.

Using the mixer’s whisk attachment, cream the butter and half the pistachio sugar until they are light and creamy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as needed. Mix in the remaining pistachio sugar.

Sift together 1/2 cup flour, cornstarch, salt, and ground cardamom. Using the mixer’s paddle attachment, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the remaining flour, as needed; the dough should be pliable, but not at all sticky.

Roll out the dough on a floured cloth until it is 3/16” thick (gather up the trimmings and reroll them). Cut out the dough with a cookie cutter (I like 1 1/2” circles for mini ice cream sandwiches), and place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats. Sprinkle each cookie with coarse sugar crystals. Push one pistachio nut into the center of half the cookies.

Bake for 7 - 8 minutes, or until the cookies have firmed up, but are still underdone. Remove from the oven and place the cookie sheets on wire racks to cool (don’t remove the cookies from the cookie sheets until they are completely cool).

Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies (for serving as cookies)
Makes 80 1 1/2” cookies or 40 3” cookies
This recipe produces crispy cookies that are perfect for serving on their own, with a cup of tea, or as part of a mixed plate of Christmas cookies. (Crisp cookies aren’t suitable for ice cream sandwiches because they’re too hard to bite through when frozen.) In a pinch, if you can’t find raw pistachio nuts, buy roasted, salted nuts (Costco often carries these), rinse off the salt, and dry them very well before using in the recipe. If you have a convection oven, you can bake multiple sheets of cookies at one time; if not, bake the cookies one sheet at a time.

1 cup shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 – 2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground cardamom (1 1/2 tsp. if using pre-ground cardamom)
Coarse sugar crystals for topping the cookies
Extra pistachio nuts for topping the cookies

Preheat the oven to 325°F (or 300°F convection).

Add the pistachios and sugar to a food processor or blender, and process just until the pistachios are finely ground.

Using the mixer’s whisk attachment, cream the butter and half the pistachio sugar until they are light and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as needed. Mix in the remaining pistachio sugar.

Sift together 1 3/4 cup flour, cornstarch, salt, and ground cardamom. Using the mixer’s paddle attachment, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the remaining flour, as needed; the dough should be pliable, but not at all sticky.

Divide the dough in half. Roll the halves out on a floured cloth until they are 3/16” thick (gather up the trimmings and reroll them). Cut out the dough with cookie cutters (I like 1 1/2” circles), and place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats. Sprinkle each cookie with coarse sugar crystals and push one pistachio nut into the center of each cookie.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until the cookies just barely start to brown. Remove from the oven, and use a spatula to place the cookies on wire cooling racks. Store in an airtight container.
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Pomegranate Ice Cream in Pistachio-Cardamom Cookie Sandwiches is my contribution to Sugar High Friday: All That Glitters hosted this month by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook

Crispy Pistachio-Cardamom Cookies is my contribution to Eat Christmas Cookies: Season 2, which is created and hosted by Susan of Food Blogga. Check out Susan’s round-up page to see all the cookie recipes submitted this year (Susan will continuously update the page as new cookie recipes are submitted).

How to Harvest Spruce Tips with Recipes for Using Spruce Tips (or Pine Tips or Fir Tips)

Spruce tips are one of the more unusual, least used, and tastiest wild edibles in Alaska. Over the last few weeks, I picked a bucketful and had a great time playing and experimenting with them.

(I used spruce tips because they grow in my yard. Pine tips and fir tips are also edible; my spruce tip recipes could just as easily be recipes for pine tips or recipes for fir tips.)

The key to cooking with the tips of evergreen trees is to harvest them when they first begin to emerge from their brown papery casings. At this stage, spruce tips are very tender and have a fresh flavor that tastes lightly of resin with hints of citrus.

As spruce tips mature, the resinous aspect of their flavor intensifies. When the spruce tips begin to harden, form actual needles, and lose their bright spring green color, I no longer use them for cooking.

Spruce tips are rich in Vitamin C. Spruce tip tea (just dry the spruce tips) has long been used by indigenous peoples to soothe coughs and sore throats, and to alleviate lung congestion.

To harvest spruce tips, pop the tips off the end of the bough as if you’re picking berries. When you’re done picking, remove and discard the papery casings, and discard any hard stem that may have broken off with the tip. The spruce tips are now ready to use.

As with all plants, the tips of spruce trees develop more quickly in warmer areas, locations with good sun exposures, and at lower elevations. The tips of spruce trees on the south side of my yard are past harvest time, while those on the north side are still harvestable. Further up the Anchorage hillside (where temperatures are cooler than at my house), there may be spruce trees still ready to harvest.

The first time you try spruce tips, pick only a few to make sure you enjoy their taste. (This is good advice to follow the first time you try any new-to-you wild edible.) For cookie-eaters, a good recipe to start with is Spruce Shortbread – it’s quick, easy to make, and addictively good. When baked in shortbread, spruce tips have an almost fruity flavor, reminiscent of raspberries.

As with many seasonal foods, I try to extend the spruce tip season by preserving them in various forms for later use. Spruce Tip Vinegar, Spruce Tip Salt, Spruce Tip Sugar, Spruce Tip Syrup, and Candied Spruce Tips are all now happily residing in my pantry.

NOTE: If this post is too late in the season to harvest spruce tips in your location, or to harvest pine tips, or to harvest fir tips, bookmark it for next spring and discover the wonderful flavor of evergreen trees.

Spruce Shortbread
Makes 16 1”x 3” cookies
The trick to making shortbread is processing the dough just long enough so that it can be rolled out but still appears a little crumbly in the bowl. If you process the dough until it forms a ball or sticks together in the processor, the cookies will spread out on the baking sheet and their texture will suffer.

1/4 cup fresh spruce tips
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Process the spruce tips and sugar until the spruce tips are finely chopped. Add the flour and process in bursts to mix well, being sure to scrape out any sugar or spruce tips trapped in the corners of the food processor bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2” chunks, add to the processor bowl, and process until the butter is evenly distributed and the dough holds together when pinched.

Dump the dough onto parchment paper and form into an evenly thick rectangle. Roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin until the rectangle is 6”x 8”. Using a straight edge as a guide, cut the rectangle into 1” crosswise strips and then in half lengthwise to form 16 1”x 3” cookies. Prick each cookie 5 times with the tines of a fork. Carefully place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 23 – 26 minutes, or until the cookies are set and just starting to turn golden (not browned). Let cookies cool before serving. Store in an airtight container.

Spruce Tip Mayonnaise
Makes 1 cup mayonnaise
Spruce Tip Mayonnaise is a wonderful spread for Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato (BLT) Sandwiches, as a dip for Grilled (or Steamed) Artichokes or Shrimp, in Potato Salad, or in any recipe where an extra boost of flavored mayonnaise would be welcome.

1 cup mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)
1/4 cup minced spruce tips
2 tsp. lemon juice

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients. Let flavors blend for at least 1 hour before serving.

Grilled Artichokes with Spruce Mayonnaise: Parboil artichokes in salted water, cut in halves or quarters, clean out the choke, toss with salt and olive oil, and grill over a medium-hot fire. Serve with Spruce Mayonnaise on the side.

Shrimp with Spruce Mayonnaise: I prefer using side-stripe shrimp or spot shrimp, two kinds of cold water shrimp that remain moist and tender after cooking. Boil a large pot of salted water, dump in the shrimp, turn off the heat, and let shrimp remain in the water until cooked through, about 2 - 3 minutes. Serve with Spruce Mayonnaise on the side.

BLT with Spruce Mayonnaise: Cut bacon slices in half and cook until crispy but not over-browned. Spread Spruce Mayonnaise on toasted bread, top with slices of tomato, cooked bacon, and crispy lettuce. Top with another slice of tasted bread spread with spruce mayonnaise.


Spruce Tip Gravlax
Make Gravlax substituting 1 cup of roughly chopped spruce tips for the dill. Although I scrape off the dill and peppercorns before serving my regular gravlax, I leave on the aromatics with Spruce Tip Gravlax. The peppercorns and cured spruce tips add wonderful flavor to the salmon. (The recipe makes 2 sides of salmon gravlax. I quarter the salmon sides and freeze all but one of the quarters for later use.)

Spruce Tip Vinegar
Makes 2 cups vinegar
Use Spruce Tip Vinegar to add an interesting twist to mixed greens salads, raw or cooked.

2 cups red wine vinegar
1 cup roughly chopped spruce tips
1 tsp. black peppercorns

Mix all the ingredients, put in a jar, and cover. Let the vinegar sit at room temperature for 10 days, shaking the jar from time to time. Strain into a sterilized bottle.

Spruce Tip Salt
Spruce tip salt is particularly good on potatoes and other root vegetables.

1/2 cup coarse salt
1/2 cup roughly chopped spruce tips

Process in bursts until the spruce tips are finely ground. Let dry at room temperature in an uncovered pie pan, stirring a couple times a day, until the flavored salt is completely dry. The salt will initially be very moist; break up any lumps as you see them forming. When the salt is dry, give it a whir in the food processor to break up any remaining lumps. Store in an airtight container.

Spruce Tip Sugar
The sugar can be used to add extra flavor to baked goods, to flavor tea, or to make winter batches of Spruce Shortbread.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup roughly chopped spruce tips.

Process in bursts until the spruce tips are finely ground. Let dry at room temperature in an uncovered pie pan, stirring a couple times a day, until the flavored sugar is completely dry. The sugar will initially be very moist; break up any lumps as you see them forming. When the sugar is dry, give it a whir in the food processor to break up any remaining lumps. Store in an airtight container.

Spruce Tip Syrup
Use spruce tip syrup on pancakes, waffles, or French toast, to sweeten beverages, or to make ice cream.

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 cups roughly chopped spruce tips.

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the syrup cool completely. Strain, put in a sterilized container, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Candied Spruce Tips
As my final step in making Spruce Syrup, I use it to candy some spruce tips. This enhances the syrup’s flavor while making a tasty garnish.

Spruce Syrup (see above)
1 cup whole spruce tips
1/2 cup sugar

After straining the Spruce Syrup, and before refrigerating it, add 1 cup whole spruce tips and slowly bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the spruce tips cool in the syrup. Strain the syrup, put in a sterilized container, and refrigerate until ready to use. Thoroughly drain the syrup off the spruce tips. In small batches, toss the damp spruce tips in granulated sugar to coat and spread the candied spruce tips out on waxed paper to dry. When the candied spruce tips are dry (this may take several days), put them in an airtight container, and refrigerate until ready to use.
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This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by its creator, Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

From my front window: Moose at Rest

Recipe: Pistachio Biscotti (Παξιμαδάκια με Φιστίκια)

Pistachio Biscotti are light, crunchy, and nutty. They’re simple to make and taste wonderful. They’re a great way to use extra egg whites and are low fat. What more can you ask of a cookie?

Last night I brought Pistachio Biscotti to Antonia’s birthday party. More than one person took seconds; the ultimate complement. I wish I had one right now. It’d be the perfect breakfast.

I ferried raw pistachios back to Alaska after my recent trip to Seattle, but in the absence of pistachios, almonds are a fine substitute. The egg whites were left from making a Piemontese homemade pasta specialty called tajarin.

This recipe is so good I might start making tajarin just so I’ll have enough leftover egg whites to make Pistachio Biscotti.

Pistachio Biscotti (Παξιμαδάκια με Φιστίκια)
Makes about 36 cookies.
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, April 1998
The slices are easier to cut when the meringue is fully cool after its first baking.

6 egg whites
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup shelled raw (not roasted) pistachio nuts or blanched, slivered almonds
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F convection). Line the bottom and sides of a 9” x 9” baking pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue to beat until the meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks. Quickly beat in the vanilla. Sift the flour over the meringue and evenly distribute the pistachios over the flour. Fold in the flour and pistachios gently but thoroughly.

Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth out the top. Bake until the meringue is set and golden on top, about 25 - 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, place it on a rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. Turn the baked meringue out onto the rack, carefully peel off parchment paper, and let cool completely.

Turn the oven down to 300°F (275°F convection).

Using a serrated knife, cut the baked meringue in half. Cut each half crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the slices about 1/2 inch apart on 2 baking sheets and bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, about 20 minutes total, or until the biscotti are pale golden and crisp. Turn off the oven, leave the cookies on the baking sheets and the oven door open, and let cool. Serve or store in an airtight container.

Recipe: Pine Nut Cookies (Biscotti con Pignoli)

One of our most memorable Christmases was spent in Italy. We traveled there, as did the rest of my husband’s family, and met up at a hotel in Rome. A week later, we all moved to a rented house called Tinaione in Borgo Stomennano, just outside the village of Monteriggioni (Siena).

I usually go to Italy and gawk at the vegetable and meat markets, but walk away unfulfilled because I don’t have a kitchen to make use of the lovely ingredients. Renting a house with a kitchen made all the difference in the world. For our Christmas dinner, I shopped with abandon at outdoor village markets and at the giant Coop supermarket in nearby Poggibonsi. It was exhilarating.

In Siena, we bought a box of fresh Riccarelli, diamond-shaped traditional Sienese cookies made with ground almonds. We found a bakery selling Biscotti con Pignoli, round cookies with almond paste centers and coated with pine nuts, and also bought them. Both kinds of cookies were addictively delicious.

The next year we were back in Alaska for Christmas. When baking time came around, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Italian pine nut cookies. I found three recipes for them on the Uncle Phaedrus website, and made all three versions.

Of the three recipes, the one that tasted most like the cookies we bought in Siena was made with almond paste, sugar, egg whites, and pine nuts. The cookies were delicious, but a little too sweet. The next year, I reduced the amount of sugar and increased the amount of pine nuts until I was satisfied with the cookies’ taste and texture.

The dough is very sticky. I had a hard time handling it until I began using a scoop to help shape the cookies. With the scoop, you dig up some dough, scrape the scoop flat on the side of the bowl, and release the dough over a shallow bowl of pine nuts. I do this four times, so there are four small wads of dough on the pine nuts (with more than four at a time, the dough pieces roll into each other and stick together). I then roll the dough balls in pine nuts to completely coat them. I prefer wearing disposable food safety gloves for this task because it keeps my hands from getting sticky.

I’ve made my version of Biscotti con Pignoli (Pine Nut Cookies) every Christmas since I worked out the recipe, and they are one of my very favorite cookies. I love their crunchy crust with lightly toasted pine nuts and soft interior rich with the flavor of almonds. I have to give them away quickly so I won't eat too many.

Pine Nut Cookies (Biscotti con Pignoli)
Makes 60 cookies, 2 1/2 inches in diameter
There are four kinds of prepared almond products in Alaska supermarkets: almond paste in cans, almond paste in tubes, marzipan in tubes, and almond filling in cans. I prefer using canned almond paste; almond paste in tubes will work in a pinch, but the cookies aren't as good. Marzipan and canned almond filling will not work for this recipe. If you want to make more than 60 cookies, make the dough in two batches; a double recipe will not fit in an average-sized food processor. I use a 2 tsp. (size 100) scoop to shape the cookies. If you use a 1 Tbsp. scoop (size 60) bake the cookies for 25 – 30 minutes; with the larger scoop, the recipe makes 35 cookies.

1 pound almond paste
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 egg whites
1 1/2 pounds pine nuts (4 3/4 cups)

Preheat the oven to 325°F (300°F in a convection oven).

Put the almond paste and sugar in a food processor and pulse until the almond paste is broken up into small pieces. Add the egg whites and process until the dough is smooth and all the almond paste is fully incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time. The dough will be soft and sticky. (You can make the dough ahead and refrigerate it. Remove the dough from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you are ready to shape and bake the cookies.)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Put one third of the pine nuts in a shallow bowl. Scoop out the batter (scraping the scoop flat on the side of the bowl) using a 2 tsp. (size 100) scoop. Drop scoopfuls of dough onto the pine nuts, and roll them around until the dough is covered in pine nuts. Add more pine nuts to the bowl, as needed. Place on the lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies until pale brown, but still soft, about 20 – 25 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container. If you need the cookies to last more than a few days, store them in the freezer.

Recipe: Christmas Nougat Cookies

I met Kate in college. She was my first friend who liked to cook as much as I did, a rarity in the days before celebrity chefs, non-stop televised cooking shows, and internet recipe exchanges.

I haven’t seen Kate in ages, but I fondly think of her every year when I make Christmas cookies. Since the years Kate and I joined together for holiday baking binges, I’ve made Christmas Nougat Cookies (aka Angel Cookies), a recipe her mom sweet-talked out of a commercial baker in Seattle and scaled down for home use.

Christmas Nougat Cookies are sweet and crisp, nutty and almost like candy. Their flavor is similar to Torrone, the white Italian nougat that is my favorite candy. They're also a dead ringer for Archway holiday nougat cookies, a Christmas treat that, sadly, has disappeared from the grocery store.

Over the years, I’ve made Christmas Nougat Cookies with every kind of nut – cashews are my current favorites, but the cookies are also delicious with pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamias, and peanuts. I make at least 15 dozen every year; Christmas Nougat Cookies are one of the most requested items on my annual holiday cookie tray.

Before I tasted Christmas Nougat Cookies, I questioned making them with pure vegetable shortening rather than butter. Even in those days, I was a believer in baking only with butter; shortening in cookies seemed just plain wrong. Tasting made a believer out of me; these cookies are amazingly good.

Christmas Nougat Cookies (Angel Cookies)
Makes 5 1/2 dozen cookies
The soft dough doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and rolls out easily. The cookies do not spread when they are baked, so can be placed closely together on the baking sheet. As a result, they are quick and easy to make.

1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups roasted nuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 325°F (300°F for convection ovens).

In an electric mixer, cream the shortening and powdered sugar, scraping down the sides from time to time. Add the salt and vanilla, and mix thoroughly. Using the mixer’s paddle attachment, mix in the chopped nuts. Add the flour, and mix just until it is thoroughly combined with the other ingredients.

On a well-floured surface, with a well-floured rolling pin, roll out the dough 1/4” thick. Using a 1 1/2” round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place 1/2” apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake 8 minutes, being careful not to let the cookies brown (they should still be white when you remove them from the oven). Transfer to racks and let the cookies cool completely. Store Christmas Nougat Cookies in an airtight container.

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This is my entry for Eat Christmas Cookies, sponsored by Food Blogga. Susan's round-up of all the cookie recipes is here.

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Don't forget to buy your Menu for Hope raffle tickets no later than December 21-- all proceeds go to the UN World Food Program. The Menu for Hope prize I am offering is described here (wild oregano, handmade sheep cheese, handmade egg noodles, and autographed copy of Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska), the list of all West Coast Menu for Hope prizes is here, and the list of all worldwide Menu for Hope prizes is here. For more information about Menu for Hope, go here.

Recipe: Fig, Lemon, Olive, and Rosemary Cookies

When I have insomnia, a not infrequent occurrence, I lie in bed cataloging the contents of my refrigerator. I plan and replan how I can use the available food. As a result, I am the queen of leftovers; my midnight musings often result in new creations, with the leftovers being just one among many flavorful ingredients.

Last week, my CSA box from Full Circle Farm contained lovely, organic, black Mission figs from California. I ate some fresh, and used others in an excellent grilled cheddar cheese sandwich. When insomnia next struck, my mind turned to the figs left in the refrigerator.

Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska has moved as of March 2011. To read this post please go to


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