Cafe Volcano Cookies

Like so many of the other bakers, I am just astounded at the ease of making these cookies. I thought I made them just as cited in the recipe, but it turns out I accidentally doubled the espresso powder. Even at that, I thought the taste of coffee was on the backburner. That was no doubt because the taste of sugar was on all of the other burners!

I used walnuts and sliced blanched almonds for my nut mixture. When I make these in the future I use a different nut combination. Walnuts have such an overpowering flavor - a good one when they are roasted - but no way could I taste the almonds in these. I do love a roasted nut though. In addition, I would highly recommend using either whole almonds or almond slivers to make these and when you - don't bother chopping them. I never should have chopped the sliced almonds - they just about melted into the background. That fits with a meringue cookie though as they pretty much just melt when you eat them, anyway.

Super easy and they pack a wallop of flavor. Great choice, MacDuff.

Sablés

Another easy recipe - just the way I like it. Well, easy to put together, anyway. I did find it just a tad difficult to keep my logs round while cutting the cookies. I just can't seem to master that knack!

My brother, Dennis, celebrated his 60th birthday this past Sunday (his actual birthday was yesterday). He and his wife (Marilyn) hosted a brunch at Deerfield Gold & Tennis Club - formerly DuPont's Louviers Country Club. It was really a lovely event.

Dennis likes a patriotic theme so we decorated the room with those festive trappings. If I do say so myself, it looked quite nice. My sister and I baked the cake and made bags of cookies for everyone take home as a favor.

The sablés were the first cookies we made. Apparently I cut them too thick as I did not get the yield Dorrie suggested. Nevertheless, I found them quite tasty. I rolled them in red & green sugar or red, white, and green nonpareils. I liked the look of the nonpareils best.

Unfortunately I made a packing mistake with these cookies as well. I packed them in a container with some carrot/spice bars. I divided the cookies with parchment paper. Sadly the bars still exuded too much moisture and it caused one entire layer of the cookies to become soggy. So, we had enough for the treat bags but no extras for our own personal munching. We did try one the night we baked them and I can attest to their great taste.

I love shortbread in general so will definitely be adding this cookie to my list of keepers. I do need to fine tune my sugar rolling and my cutting, but other than that, total keeper/success. These delightful morsels were selected by Barbara and the recipe is posted at her site, Bungalow Barbara. Of course, you could also always find it in the book! Enjoy.