No other time of the year feels as right for cookie baking than the months that usher in the holidays (at least for me). The colder days of October and November cry out for the oven to be set at 350 degrees and the blending of flour, sugar, butter.

America's Test Kitchen's The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies, and Bars is indeed perfect. (ATK's The Perfect Cake will be released in March and I will bring you more information closer to release date on that title). Everything needed for creating and perfecting classic cookies, international favorites, bars, brownies, and candies are shared in this brilliant collection.

Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph, a section entitled "Why this recipe works", and detailed instructions with tips. Measurements are provided in both volume and weight. The novice and experienced baker alike will enjoy the selection of sweets, the range of recipes and the beautiful photography shared here. 

Ultranutty pecan bars, Mini pumpkin whoopie pies, Greek honey cakes, Orange-cardamom twists and Tahini cookies with sesame seeds are a few examples of the variety of cookies. Also included are classics from Chocolate chip cookies, Sugar cookies to caramel candies. As always, America's Test Kitchen's recipes are tested and re-tested to provide positive and yes, perfect, results. 

When I start my cookie baking marathon for the holidays, I pull out my best cookie sheets and my Silpat® liners. The first Silpat® liner was created in the late sixties by experienced baker, M. Guy Demarle, in Northern France. After having worked on and developing a non-stick form for his baguette baking, he moved on to developing a liner for baking cookies and the like. Since that time, the company has continued to improve its product and has expanded to include Silpats® for macaron, bread and other specialized baking (they even have a sushi mat!)  I love the Perfect Cookie Silpat to help space my cookies and keep them from sticking. I want to add the macaron kit and pretzel mat to my Silpat collection soon. Santa, if you are listening...

Special thanks to Demarle for providing a Silpat® Perfect Cookie mat for my review as well as an Entremet Silicone Baking Pan - I am looking forward to experimenting with this pan to make sticky baked goods such as pecan bars a less stressful task. Demarle is offering a Perfect Cookie Silpat® and America's Test Kitchen is offering a copy of The Perfect Cookie cookbook to three of our US members in our contest below. 

Try this recipe for Baci di dama now from The Perfect Cookie and add a new addition to your holiday trays this season. 

 

Baci di dama

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Why This Recipe Works

Hailing from Italy's Piedmont region, baci di dama have a darling name (they translate to "lady's kisses") and an even more darling appearance. The sandwiches consist of two diminutive hazelnut cookies surrounding a rich chocolate filling. Baci di dama are a textural marvel, at once crisp and meltingly tender. The hazelnut cookies get their texture from rice flour, which gives baked goods crispness-and since it doesn't contain the protein gluten like wheat flour does, doughs made with it don't run the risk of becoming tough if overworked. But we don't usually have rice flour on hand, so to replicate the crisp texture with staples, we used a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. We also found that cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients rather than creaming the butter and sugar resulted in a crispier cookie (and a dough that was easier to handle). We used chocolate chips for the filling rather than bar chocolate; chocolate chips contain emulsifiers so once they're melted, they have a thicker consistency-making them an ideal filling for holding the tiny, bulbous cookies together.

Makes 40 sandwich cookies

  • 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
  • ½ cup (2½ ounces) all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup (3 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips


1. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Process hazelnuts, flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add butter and vanilla and process until dough comes together, about 30 seconds.

3. Transfer dough to counter and divide into 4 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, press and roll into 10-inch-long by 1-inch-wide rope. Using bench scraper or sharp knife, cut rope into 20 lengths, then roll lengths into balls with your hands and space them 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake until edges are lightly browned, 16 to 18 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let cookies cool completely on sheets.

4. Microwave chocolate chips in small bowl at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Spread ¼ teaspoon chocolate over bottom of half of cookies, then top with remaining cookies, pressing lightly to adhere. Let chocolate set, about 15 minutes, before serving.

America's Test Kitchen is offering three copies of The Perfect Cookie and Demarle® is offering three Perfect Cookie Silpats to EYB Members in the US. Three members will win a copy of the book and a Silpat. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won't be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on December 13th, 2017.