Kids in the kitchen last night, and Grandma, travelled all day from Western, NY, with anise and a recipe card for her mother’s Christmas cookies. After the boy helped carry in her bags, the girl helped unload the packages, we all ate dinner of leftover chili with brown rice, we got busy in the kitchen. Boys have been wanting to make peppermint bark, I had learned to make chocolate bark from a friend who made some for her party earlier this fall, and I had experimented with cranberry walnut, walnut, and cherry almond bark, some given for holiday gifts for teachers yesterday, others shared with friends, and so we combined our fantasy and reality, made peppermint bark and cookie dough, happiness in the kitchen.
Here is how you do it, if you are interested in learning, too:
Chocolate bark -
Melt chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave. I bought good chocolate in bulk from Whole Foods on sale. You might also use chocolate chips. I started with a minute or two for half a pound to a pound of chocolate, stirred, added minutes until chocolate was smooth and lump free. Kids can and will love to do this, teens, too! Good practice experimenting and thinking for yourself to do this recipe, as it really is something you can figure out without messing up too much.
While the chocolate is melting, chop nuts and/or dried fruit. Any combination would work. I used unsalted walnuts and dried sweetened cranberries, dried cherries and slivered almonds, all from the Whole Foods bulk department. I wanted to try peanuts or whole almonds or cashews. My friend advised me on salted or not, saying Trader Joe’s carries nuts with half the salt and they are just right. Next time.
To make peppermint bark, crush peppermint candies. We used the discs. Unwrapping them was fun. Crushing was challenging. We tried putting them in a sturdy paper bag and whacking them with a rolling pin. They escaped. We put the paper bag inside a plastic bag, whacked some more. They bag leaked crushed peppermint dust all over the counter. We tried smashing them in a mortar and pestle, a tall one from the latino section of Market Basket. They flew all over the place. We covered them inside the mortar and pestle with sheets of plastic wrap, they escaped. We put them inside a plastic bag in the mortar and pestle. We finished the job, no clear answers for you. Let us know if you figure out the secret. Was fun to take pictures of Ben smashing things and laughing. Camera my secret ingredient, and a broom.
Also while the chocolate is melting, cover a cookie sheet or baking tray with wax paper.
To make fruit and nut bark, we mixed about a cup or less of chopped stuff into a pound or less of melted chocolate. Then we spread the mixture thinly over the wax paper.
To make the peppermint bark, we added one and a half teaspoons of peppermint extract to the melted chocolate, tasting it to make sure it was just right. Yum. Then we spread the chocolate over the tray and sprinkled the crushed (smashed) peppermint candy over the top, then pressed gently with a silicon spatula to make it stick.
Chill the tray in the fridge (atop all the bottles and jars of the top shelf if yours is as stuffed as mine). When the bark is crisp, break it into pieces, eat, gift, share. Yum.
I will add the cookie dough recipe later. It is old fashioned. Things like rounded teaspoons of baking soda and pinches of nutmeg will give it away. It is delicious. It is messy and difficult as all get out to roll. Anise is the secret, and nutmeg. Don’t leave those out if you want to taste my grandma’s cookies. Don’t skimp on the chilling, leave teh dough in the fridge at least over night, and take only a small amount from the fridge at a time to roll, so it stays as cold as possible. Use lots of flour, on your hands, on the rolling surface, on the rolling pin, on the cookie cutters, and use a light touch, don’t press down as you roll, roll lightly over the soft dough so it just spreads out, doesn’t stick to the counter or the rolling pin. I have done this for forty years, first watching, then helping, then on my own, then teaching. Teaching probably taught me the most about what is hard and what needs teaching. I am looking forward to rolling, cutting, and baking the cookies (maybe with the kids, maybe on my own, maybe with Mom’s help) this am so we can let them cool and decorate them with icing and sprinkles this afternoon (definitely with the kids), my girl having spent her evening in the kitchen sorting the decorations by color, rainbow for our holiday celebration defying Christmas, white frosting upholds Grandma Petrie’s tradition. Red hots, too, for spice of life. Cookie cutters from my grandma’s collection, some a wedding present to me, others my mom’s duplicates, others collected new myself or as gifts, more gingerbread people, too, hope there is time, best get moving!
