Tuesday, October 1, 2013

X Cookies - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 42nd installment. The recipe is X Cookies.

This recipe was very easy, in the sense that it went exactly as described in the book. You blend the filling in the food processor: figs, apricot jam, almonds, raisins, orange peel, and a little bit of chocolate...yummy. What did the original Sicilian bakers do without a Cuisinart? Big knives and lots of chopping? Mortar and pestle?  I'm a big fan of dried fruit, so this was right up my alley.

Dough and filling pieces before rolling
The dough also came together easily and was easy to work with. I used a ration of 1/4 lard to 3/4 butter - I had enough lard for the whole thing, but thought the lard might overwhelm the flavor if I used only that.
I enjoyed the technique of rolling out flat strips of dough, and then wrapping them around the rolled out pieces of filling to get a long skinny roll of filled dough.  I applaud whoever wrote these instructions (Dorie?), because I was actually able to follow them without watching the video, even down to the reminder to run a flat knife or spatula under the rolled out dough strip to make sure it didn't stick.
Cookies before baking

The end result is delicious - I think the filling is inspired, because of the combination of flavors.  Maybe not the new favorite cookie for the kids in the household, due to the paltry amount of chocolate, but I definitely want to make these again.




7 comments:

  1. They were fun to make, though quite time consuming. The video I found of Nick and Julia did not show X cookies - good thing you did not take the time to watch it.

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  2. The cookies look great!

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  3. They were good cookies - if a little time consuming. Glad you enjoyed them!

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  4. We loved the fillings, but you're right, they are probably a treat for the adults rather than the kids. I iced mine, as we have seen iced ones in Italy, and that probably made them sweeter and more kids-friendly..

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  5. It would have been much more challenging to make these without a food processor! I really liked these. I also thought the instructions were easy to follow.

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  6. I liked these too and yes they were time consuming. I agree, the instructions were easy to follow. Normally I'm not comfortable with these recipes unless I watch the video first...but this one was fine. Will be making these again at Christmas.

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  7. yeah, I also thought the instructions were really clear...and I only made a 1/4 recipe, so they were fun and not tedious.

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