Once again, I am pleased to bring you 12 Days of Cookies!! Over the next 12 days I (along with some very special guests) will be bringing you a collection of cookie recipes to share with your friends, family or self. I am super excited to be tackling this project, even if it means putting myself at risk for Cookie Exhaustion.
The cookie celebration unofficially kicked off yesterday at Dose Market, where my friend Sandra and I sold some delicious cookies to market-goers. Dose is a monthly market that brings together local food and fashion vendors to pedal their wares in a beautiful, light-filled space in downtown Chicago. I’m a huge fan of the market and was thrilled to participate this time. It was a bit of a preview of the fun that is about to come your way.
Sandra and I curated a collection of 7 cookies that were specially made for Dose-goers by the amazing bakers at Floriole. Sandra, Bryan, and I staffed the table (along with our friends Katie and Justin) and enjoyed a cookie or two between customers. It was a great event and I really enjoyed getting to meet some of you in person. I also enjoyed food from great Chicago food makers (fried chicken from Sunday Dinner, tamales from Las Manas, dumplings from Bill Kim and his crew, iced tea from Rare Tea Cellar, preserves from Rare Bird and Mess Hall and savory pies from Hoosier Mama—it was a Chicago all-star line up ).
I am going to share a couple of recipes from Dose over the next 12 days, starting with today’s Maple Pecan Cookies. This is one of Sandra’s recipes and a beautiful spin on the classic Mexican wedding cookie (or as some of us call them, balls). It is packed full of pecans and sweetened with maple syrup; a little orange zest pushes it over the top. It couldn’t be easier to make. We handed out recipe cards to everyone at Dose, but I wanted to hand one to you, too. Please accept this electronic version. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks! Happy baking, my little cookie monsters.
Kathryn says:
December 5th, 2011 at 9:07 am
What a wonderful series, I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!
Whitney says:
December 5th, 2011 at 9:19 am
So sad I missed the Dose market yesterday! I’m having a cookie party this weekend and I can’t wait to add a few of your recipes to my baking list.
Christina says:
December 5th, 2011 at 9:26 am
I’ve been reading your blog for over a year now, but am not usually one to comment. However I wanted to let you know I love it and sometimes reading it makes me want to move to Chicago. Like this one.
Merry Christmas!
betty says:
December 5th, 2011 at 10:59 am
I enjoy pecan cookies, they look like the ones we make in Mexico, it’s really interesting how you used maple syrup, I bet they were even more delicious
heather @ chiknpastry says:
December 5th, 2011 at 11:33 am
so excited! I’ll be making some cookies to take into work later this week, so now I’ll have a few great ones to choose from right here. and truthfully, you just can’t beat the balls ;)….
Caroline Shields says:
December 5th, 2011 at 11:54 am
Love your “Merry! Happy!” sign. Too cool. :)
linda says:
December 5th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
bringing a bit of chicago to all of us…brilliant (& delicious!)…thanks so much for what i know will be an amazing array of recipes…:)
Redd H from Salted Spoon says:
December 5th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
These sound just heavenly! Can’t wait to see what the next eleven are. It’s like a recipe advent calendar :-)
Dawn (KitchenTravels) says:
December 5th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
I’m so happy you write a food blog. Wouldn’t be the holidays w/o Tim’s 12 days of cookies! xo
Sarah says:
December 5th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Are you going to show the recipe for the eggnog meringues? Those were also incredible!
Bonnie says:
December 5th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Can’t wait to try these and all of your cookie recipes. Would you be able to give information on how to store these cookies. Just wondering if they should or could be frozen? thanks!
kari (tanglewood baked goods) says:
December 5th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Yay! My favorite time of the blog year. These sounds delish!
Savannah says:
December 5th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
It is almost (almost!) embarrassing how avidly I’ve been waiting for this! Thank you for braving Cookie Exhaustion for us :)
sarah @ two tarts says:
December 5th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Happy baking! How did you choose which cookies would be first?? I’m paralyzed. I love the addition of orange zest to these.
Tim says:
December 5th, 2011 at 8:13 pm
I’m glad you guys are excited for this! I am, too.
Bonnie- Food doesn’t stick around for long around here. These will keep for about 5 days stored at room temperature (maybe a little longer in the fridge). I wouldn’t freeze them because the confectioner’s sugar will get weird. You can either freeze the dough in balls and bake as needed or maybe try freezing the baked cookies before coating in confectioner’s sugar.
Caffettiera says:
December 6th, 2011 at 10:01 am
YAY! twelve days of cookies!
Pam says:
December 6th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Has anyone actually baked these yet? I know how good they look and how yum they sound, but, hey out there, how did they taste to you? and did you make any slight modifications?
Pam says:
December 7th, 2011 at 11:16 am
I am making these cookies right now; I usually convert measurements to grams, which I did, but…the dough is extremely sticky and it’s difficult to form the dough into rounds. Hmm, did I goof?
Tim says:
December 7th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Hey Pam! Maybe? The dough was quite easy to work with, so if you are having problems I would guess something went wrong. BUT! What I would do is put the dough in the fridge for a bit to firm it up and then proceed with your fingers crossed.
Linda S says:
December 7th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
I make a version of Mexican wedding cookies with coconut and chai spices. I love a combination of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and cardamom.
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says:
December 7th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Wow these are good. Love your 12 days of Christmas cookie recipes…..so much fun and inspiration for us :-)
Renee says:
December 7th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Just made these tonight – wasn’t expecting such incredible results from such an easy cookie. Divine. The orange zest is a must. They melt in your mouth. Thanks for these and the rest that are coming over the next few days, which I’m sure will be equally delicious!
Tim says:
December 7th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Yay! So glad you liked these, they’re one of my favorites, too.
H says:
December 9th, 2011 at 8:34 am
These sound great! I’m planning on making these today for the cookie packages I send out for Christmas. The packages don’t go out until Monday so would these freeze well? Maybe, make the dough, freeze that, then bake, closer to shipping date?
Smultron Soul says:
December 13th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Thank you for this recipe, they came out simply divine! !
You can see pics of it on my blog!
http://smultronsoul.blogspot.com/2011/12/butter-pecan-crescents.html
heather @ chiknpastry says:
December 14th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
update! made these cookies last week and as i expected – fantabulous. i added a little chipotle chile powder to “mexicanize” it a little more but otherwise i kept it the same and it was lovely. even made it to a blog post ;).
tonight, i’m making lemon-lime-basil shortbread cookies. sounds like something you might be into.
Paula M says:
December 15th, 2011 at 7:21 am
I made this last night for a cookie exchange and they super delicious… even considering that I left them a bit longer in the oven than I was supposed too. I added a bit more orange zest (almost a full medium orange). I also had dough left over so it’s now in the fridge and more cookies will be done during the weekend :)
Jennifer says:
May 11th, 2012 at 10:29 am
How adorable! What’s the texture like? I’m really into butter cookies that just melt in your mouth and it would be so divine to be left with pieces of buttery sweet pecans left in my mouth :)