Dear Stone-ground cornmeal,
We need to talk. I've tried really hard to make it work with you, but you just won't soften up, even when I slather you with jam. I'm afraid I can't take it any more. Last time we met, I thought you cracked a filling. You didn't, quite, but I'm afraid it's over between us in the sweet kitchen. I'll be turning to your slick and smooth younger brother, finely ground cornmeal, for my future baking needs. So, I know this is awkward, Stone-ground, but it's not me, it's you. Sorry. I'll still be calling you when polenta is on the menu, if that's okay?
Regards,
Mary
As you might have gathered, these weren't very successful cookies. They looked cute and the flavour and shortbread texture were amazing, but the cornmeal was too coarsely ground to soften up, even after being sandwiched with raspberry jam and left overnight. It's my own fault, as I keep going back to the fancy cornmeal I bought. Luckily it's all gone now, so I can try these again another time with finer cornmeal. The sunshiny colour was perfect for a spring day.
This recipe was selected by Valerie of
Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. She was one of the first bloggers to visit me after I started this blog, and she still comes back sometimes! There was no way I would miss her recipe. Her site is beautiful, and she uses a point and shoot camera, like me, but her photos are amazing. Go and check it out.
I decided to use my cookie press to make spritz cookies because chilling the dough in a zipper bag and then cutting the bag off and throwing it out just seemed wasteful. I also wanted to make small cookies, and I got an awful lot of tiny cookies from a half batch. I sandwiched most of them together with homemade raspberry jam. The ones I didn't sandwich got dunked in tea and coffee. See what the other TWD bakers came up with
here.
25 comments:
It took me quite a long time to get used to cornmeal in general...it's a sketchy ingredient.
Mary, I love what you did with these cookies!! They're adorable. I'm sorry the jam didn't help much, but it was a brilliant idea. Thanks for baking with me this week, and for the lovely compliments! :D
Your cookies look so cute Mary - you would never guess that you had a disagreement with them. Gorgeous!
Your cookies are so adorable! It's a refreshing change from the usual square shape.
It helps that they are beautiful??
They look so beautiful it is hard to believe they were not what you wanted! Loved them.
Mary, I love your letter breaking up with Mr. Stone-Ground Cornmeal. :o))
The cookies look amazing though. Back in Brazil I have a cookie press like this one, and you have inspired me to dust it off my cupboard next time I visit home.
HAAA! Very funny Mary!! They look beautiful none the less!!
I so agree about the cornmeal! Ever since the lenox biscotti. I subbed corn flour this go around. The spritz was a great idea!
Ciao Mary ! I'm sorry you didn't enjoy them but they look great !
I used polenta, instead, but I cooked it almost to the ready-to-eat-point, so I had a smooth liquid polenta-batter instead of the cornmeal. This worked perfectly!
i would never have thought to use a cookie press for this. they look great even if they weren't a hit.
Buttercreambarbie
too bad they didn't taste good - they look soooooo soooo cute!
Your cookies are so cute! I used regular cornmeal and it was noticeable, so I can see that stone ground would be a bit much.
I think they are so adorable, but sorry they are not good. I bought super fine cornmeal recently and I am not fond of it.
Love the spritz cookies. For some reason I love all the things we've baked with cornmeal, but I never bother using stone ground.
my goodness aren't those adorable?!?!
Wow, they really do look great! I bought some finer ground cornmeal after reading the warnings about it being too coarse. I'm glad I switched bacause these were excellent.
I know what you mean about stone-ground being too coarse and grainy! In spite of that your cookies are adorable, so sunny and cheerful. :-)
Love these cookies look so cute, gloria
What beautiful cookies (and a great post to go along with them!) I let my dough rest in the fridge for a couple of days and that helped hydrate the cornmeal. They were a big hit at work. No emergency dental work that I'm aware of. :-)
I came looking for your DB challenge and I like these cookies much better. :)
I've never baked with cornmeal and you've given me a good place to start my experiments.
Your cookies look lovely, too bad you didn't like the taste. Thanks for the heads-up on stone-ground cornmeal.
Mary, if these cookies didn't turn out as you wanted them, can you send me all of your 'not how you wanted' treats? lol They look adorable and delicious. I've never had much luck with cornmeal bakings for some reason..just polenta. Cornmeal could lead to yet another one of my kitchen disasters lol
LOVE LOVE LOVE your cookies. I never though of using the cookie press. But next time I know that option works.
Sorry about the cornmeal problem, but your post is too cute.
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