2024 Holiday Cookie Box

  

I know I've done a crap job of updating my blog in the past several months but I would be remiss if I ended the year without posting my 2024 Holiday Cookie Box.  I think it's a nice variety that caters to many different tastes.  Hopefully the people who receive it will agree.

Stella Parks Gingerbread Cookies

Pierre Hermé Viennois (Raspberry Jam Filled or Chocolate Dipped Fingers)

Ginger Molasses

Walnut Snowballs

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies

Clotted Cream Shortbread 

 

Bakery Boxes

 

 

Lemon Curd Gooey Butter Cookies

 

Pardon the extended hiatus from my blog but I was enjoying a long overdue sabbatical for most of the summer.  I missed my kitchen and baking to be sure, but I kept myself busy with traveling and relaxing...a perfect way to recharge. Now that I'm home I'm easing back into the swing of things.

First up are these Lemon Curd Gooey Butter Cookies, which I'd seen pop up on my Instagram feed from Butternut Bakery.  I've made gooey butter cookies before on this blog, but I loved the idea of combining lemon curd with the chewy, citrus cookie.  Propitiously I had all the ingredients I needed, including homemade meyer lemon curd, and the cookies came together easily.  My only other enhancement was to add a few tablespoons of poppy seeds to the cookie dough.  

One bite of the finished cookie and I was a goner; the perfect marriage of tart, sweet and chewy.

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies

San Francisco has no shortage of excellent bakeries and I love sampling as many of them as possible.  Recently Jane The Bakery was awarded the 2018 winner of best croissant and pain au chocolat in the city by French Morning website.  This accolade pretty much guaranteed a visit to the bakery from the likes of me.  While Jane's viennoiserie were delicious and deserving of the title what actually caught my attention were the Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies.  I'm a sucker for citrus flavored desserts so I put my detective hat on to see if I could replicate these cookies myself

I was first introduced to these cake-like cookies many years ago by my friend Jill's family friend Patti.  Patti was known for her Patti Cakes which were cookies made using boxed cake mix.  It was love at first sight when I tried them back then, but the thought never crossed my mind to make them from scratch.  Tasting Jane The Bakery's cookies motivated me to give it a try.  

A Google search resulted in quite a few recipes and I ended up trying this one from West via Midwest.   The results turned out fantastic and tasted just like the ones from Jane's.  Score!