Meringue Stars

Sylvia Lav’s Perfect Hamantaschen

Time 2 to 3 days

Deborah Gardner (for the New York Times)

This recipe makes enough to send out to relatives or feed a large party. You can reduce the recipe. The prune butter also stores well, and the dough works nicely for other pastries.
Ingredients

* For the prune butter:
* 3 pounds pitted prunes, ideally tart ones
* Juice of 1 large lemon (or more if your prunes aren’t tart)
* 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
* Water
* For the dough:
* 4 cups flour
* 4 eggs
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* A pinch of salt
* 1 cup of oil
* 3 tablespoons of warm water
* Zest of 2 lemons
* 1 cup sugar
* For assembly:
* Melted butter, about one stick
* Extra flour

Method

* For the prune butter:
* 1. Put prunes in large pot. Add lemon juice and sugar.
* 2. In a separate pot, boil water. Pour boiling water over the prunes.
* 3. Cook the prunes on medium heat for 20 minutes. Turn heat off, cover, and let them sit overnight in the pot on the stove.
* 4. The next morning, beat the prunes in a mixer on low until they form a smooth mixture, with no pieces of skin visible. The consistency should be a smooth enough purée that it can drop off a spoon.
* --
* For the dough:
* 5. Make a pile of flour, baking powder and salt. Dig a well into the middle.
* 6. Put two eggs in the middle with half the oil and water, half the sugar, and half the lemon rind. Do not break the flour walls.
* 7. With a fork, use gentle circular motions to mix flour into the middle from the walls while keeping the walls solid.
* 8. Gradually, very slowly, add the rest of the eggs, oil, water, sugar and lemon rind until everything is mixed in. Finally, mix in the rest of the walls. Your dough will be very sticky. Use a dough scraper to scrape it up. Knead it with small dustings of flour (not too much extra!) until you get a nice, silky dough. Wrap it up in waxed paper and put it in the fridge overnight.
* --
* Assembly:
* 9. Cut the dough into three segments. On a floured surface, roll out one segment evenly to about 1/8" thick.
* 10. Melt some butter in a dish and set aside with a pastry brush.
* 11. Dip an inverted glass or 2- or 3-inch-diameter glass or cookie cutter into flour and use it to cut as many circular pieces of dough as possible, re-dipping into flour as needed. Paint an X of melted butter onto the center of each circle with the brush.
* 12. Using two teaspoons, place a small amount of prune butter in the center of each circle, on top of the butter. If you use too much they will fall apart.
* 13. Lift up the edges of the circle so they form a triangle. Gently pinch each corner closed.
* 14. Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. The corners should be just slightly golden-brown. Watch them near the end because they go from golden to burnt very easily.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

These cookies, which were baked in honor of Marianne's birthday, led to a moment of extreme pride for Bill as I handed him a hot cookie while he was sitting on the couch, watching the football game with his feet up last Sunday. He said he felt like calling up all his friends to brag about how good he's got it. Uninterrupted football plus hot cookies equal one happy Toles.
Marianne liked them too, and she's a much tougher critic.
Before I started meddling, this was an Alice Medrich recipe.
Alice writes:
"These cookies are especially delicious if you chill the dough overnight before baking. And for the best cookies of all - that is, the ones that are brown and crunchy at the edges and chewy in the centers - eschew parchment paper, silicone-coated pan liners, and/or cushioned pans, and simply bake on unlined, ungreased baking sheets."

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 t. salt
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
2/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, chunks or morsels
1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped pecans
1 cup raisins

Mix the flour and baking soda together thoroughly. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, sugars and salt. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened, then stir in the chocolate, nuts and raisins. If possible, cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator to soften.

Scoop up level tablespoonfuls of dough and place them 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake, rotating the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to bak about halfway through the baking time, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and no longer look wet on top. Use a metal pancake turner to transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely. (The cookies keep, in a tightly sealed container, for several days.)
Makes about 60 cookies

The Best Oatmeal Cookies

I read somewhere that using melted butter results in a soft and chewy cookie, and I can now confirm that important fact at the god's honest truth.

1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 large egg
1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips or raisins
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a food processor, process the brown sugar, 1/2 a cup of the oatmeal and the granulated sugar until it’s very fine; set aside.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, the salt and the baking soda. Add in the remaining oats and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and the corn syrup. Mix with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

With the mixture on low speed, add the processed oatmeal mixture and mix until combined.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until just combined.

With the mixture on low speed, add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined (don’t overmix).

With a wooden spoon, mix in the chips and cranberries.

Roll dollops of the cookie dough into balls and place them onto the cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. You can make these as large or small as you like.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes (keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn if you’ve made small cookies). When they’re done they should be slightly golden around the edges.

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let rest on a rack for 10 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Let your cookie sheets cool and then repeat with the remaining batter.