Whether you’re speaking about what to feed Santa or the abundance of gingerbread males, possibly no pastry is tied as deeply to the vacations as are cookies.
Our Food Team requested readers to submit their traditional recipes into the revival of the L.A. Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off.
More than 150 recipes from all through Southern California have been obtained.
Of these, recipes from 25 finalists have been ready in November by college students and college from Los Angeles Trade-Technical College’s culinary arts program.
Then the true heavy lifting (wink, wink) was left to a panel of judges, together with some L.A. Times journalists.
Yes, many cookies have been eaten in your behalf, however a prime 10 was introduced.
Here’s a sampling from that choice.
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Roxanne Lecrivain’s Clementine Stollen Cookies
Every yr the highschool French trainer creates a brand new vacation cookie and throws an alternate celebration with mates.
Last yr’s vacation cookie was a mini model of stollen, the normal German Christmas bread studded with dried and candied fruit, crammed with marzipan and coated in melted butter and powdered sugar.
Originally from Toulouse, Lecrivain says she wished to copy it as a cookie.
“I’ve by no means had any points with making stollen,” she says. “It’s not arduous for those who observe the steps.”
Her stollen cookies have a California contact: She makes candied citrus with clementines from a neighbor’s tree. You may buy candied orange or lemon peel on the retailer, she says, which works nice too, however “the candied clementine segments are so good and really straightforward to make!”
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Jake Hagen’s Winter Cookie with Cardamom, Citrus and Almond
Born and raised in Granada Hills, Hagen grew up baking cookies together with his grandmother for the vacations, together with traditional snowballs and sugar cookies with sprinkles and icing.
“My grandma at all times had the 4 grandkids over to bake,” Hagen says. “She and I have been at all times searching for recipes.”
Now knowledgeable baker, Hagen creates a vacation cookie board yearly: “I at all times had a creativity that burned inside me to develop the traditional 5 or so cookies, and that grew to eight, then 9 and that acquired to 25.
“This cookie is what made me fall in love with cardamom to start with. It’s an outdated recipe we now have been making for years for Christmas, and I by no means rejoice a Christmas with out this cookie. It seems to be so stunning and snowy with the icing, and somewhat orange zest actually provides a pop.”
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Vanessa Galindo’s Sweet Potato Whoopie Pie with Maple-Orange Cream Cheese Filling
This is a giant, enjoyable bun of a cookie — smooth and cakey and aromatic with heat vacation spices.
Put two collectively, crammed with an orange-and-maple tackle cream cheese frosting, and you’ve got whoopie pie. Traditionally made with moist chocolate cookies, Galindo’s model leans into the season with freshly roasted candy potatoes, baked till they launch their caramel-y juices.
“I like cakey cookies,” Galindo says. “I like a very good, crisp biscuit cookie too. But what I actually like is a cakey cookie that’s heat and spicy.”
A month in the past, Galindo launched her personal micro-bakery, Tender Batch, creating weekly drops of desserts, pies, cookies and different baked items for pickup. “I’ve at all times liked meals,” she says. “I’m initially from Guadalajara, and I keep in mind waking as much as the odor of my mother’s pound desserts, easy issues. In the summers she would take us to the Mercado de Abastos. She had connections out there for the very best stuff.
“What I’ve discovered by way of her was how organized she was within the kitchen. Also high quality. She believed for those who had actually contemporary high quality merchandise, you don’t must create difficult recipes. That’s why I roast my candy potatoes. That actually does make a distinction.”
For all of the entries, take a look at the complete checklist.
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