Recipe: Melting Moments

Marianne, I hope your still reading!! Here's the recipe you (and about 20 other people) have been waiting for.

First, let me tell you that the pictures are in reverse order-but i can't figure out how to change them so you'll just have to figure out which one I am talking about.

I tried to document all the "gotcha" steps. the only one I couldn't photograph was the one of me rolling a ball of dough. I can't snap the picture and roll the dough and no one was around to take the picture. so I Will try to describe in detail.

Melting Moments:

Dough:
Ingredients:
1 lb very cold butter cut into tablespoon pieces
11 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 ½ cups cornstarch
2 cups flour

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter-melted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange juice


Make the Icing first:
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Make sure the icing stays soft. If it starts to harden just put it in the microwave for a couple of seconds. It should be smooth and stir able. I make 1 1/2 icing recipes. you will have some leftover-but you will not run out. people like lots of icing on the cookies. don't be stingy with it.

For the cookie:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Put Butter first then rest of ingredients in food processor with the metal blade. Process for about 1 minute till it forms a ball. The dough must form a ball or your cookie will be a crumbly mess. (see picture of food processor bowl with MM dough that has formed a ball-this is what form a ball means-there is no loose dough or crumbly parts. the dough is all a solid mass). IF you have to open the food processor and push the crumbly parts back in to the bowl that's OK-just do this and then continue to process. Don't just let the blade spin and spin. this will cause the butter to melt and make a mess of your cookie.

If dough is firm enough-roll the dough into ½” balls and place on cookie sheet
1 ½“ apart (see picture of balls and spacing on cookie sheet). When rolling the balls, try to get a feel for how much dough you need to pinch off to get the ball size you want. try to make all balls the same size (both for cooking evenness and for best presentation). You want to handle the dough minimally so if you get the amount right that you are rolling then you won't need to add dough or pinch some off to get the ball size right. this will eliminate some excess handling of the ball. the reason you can't handle it too much is because it is made of mostly butter and the heat of your hands melts the butter creating a cookie that will bleed out on the edges when cooking. SO take a small amount of dough in your hand and roll it with very little pressure in between the palms of your hands. Don't mush the dough-just a gentle roll-pass it on the palm of your hands a couple of times. it should be pretty close to round and the dough should hang together.

I would highly suggest putting the dough in the refrigerator before you roll it because the harder it is when you start-the less likely it will be to get soft in your hands when you are rolling-so until you get to be an expert at rolling-make sure the dough is hard when you start to roll.

After you have rolled a full cookie sheet, take a flat bottomed glass and lightly dip it in a bowl of cool water. Take the glass and press it lightly on the rolled cookie ball to flatten it into a disk that is about 1/8” thick. (see photo of technique and other photo or thickness desired).

Continue with all dough. If the dough becomes too soft, place it in the refrigerator. It may get very hard in there and you may have to leave it out to soften back up till it is roll able. DO not place it in the microwave to get it soft. Just let it sit at room temp for ten minutes or so.

Watch these cookies as they overcook very quickly. They will be ready in about 12 minutes but they won’t look done. The only way to tell is to lightly use a spatula to lift one of them to see if they are just beginning to brown on the bottom. (see photo of finished MM) As soon as they do this they are ready. What you don't want is browning on the edges. this may happen VERY slightly with a couple of the cookies-and that is OK. but really try to look at them very closely and get them before they start to have any hint of tan at the edges. the cookie will have a done look to the top-white -but the texture will look done. watch them as they cook-you will see what I mean.

Take them out of the oven and remove them to a cookie rack for about three minutes. Start icing while they are still warm. Place a small dollop of icing on each cookie and spread it around. After icing, immediately place them on a cookie rack to cool. Be very careful with them-they are very delicate cookies until they cool.

Make sure they are fully cooled before you stack them. they will stick together if they are not totally cooled. I put them in the fridge or garage to set. But don't leave them in there because they are mostly butter and will harden too much and taste lardy. keep them at room temperature.

SO that is it-the famous Melting Moment cookie. Get Baking! and tell me how they turn out! if you can't post on the blog-send me an email at

innerdd@hotmail.com

ciao!