Sorry, just realized I forgot to post last Christmas cookie recipe! I was putting away all the Christmas things and found this last recipe hanging out-meaning it had never gotten in to the blog.
It is a bit of a pain but worth the effort. The rosemary flavor is such a subtle surprise that the look on your friends' and familys' faces will be worth the effort. They will not be able to identify the flavor-but it is very appealing!
This makes a jelly roll pan of cookies that you can cut to whatever size you want-I recommend 1" cubes.
Base Crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter-cold cut in to small pieces
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Topping:
1 cup walnuts (4 oz)
1 cup raw shelled pistachios (4 oz)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup roasted/skinned hazelnuts (4 oz)
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
Preheat oven to 350
Cornmeal Crust:
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt. with a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter till mixture resembles cornmeal (I use the food processor-make sure you don't over process!!).
In a small bowl, mix beaten egg yolks with cream. mix into cornmeal mixture until a dough forms. Use your hands to do final kneading and blending.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to your pan size (jelly roll-about 15x10). Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and transfer to the ungreased pan. (I use parchment paper on the bottom so that I can remove the whole sheet of cookies and cut on a cutting board).
Press the dough firmly into the bottom of the pan and up the sides. Freeze for 30 minutes. Bake for 12 minutes.
Topping:
Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet (will have to do multiple times for all the nuts) and bake till fragrant-about 8 minutes.
In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and water. swirling the pan once or twice till the sugar is dissolved. Simmer over moderate heat, brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush from time to time until a deep golden brown caramel forms-about 18 minutes.
NOTE: this is where the recipe can go wrong. The above sounds simple enough-but never seems to happen that simply. First, if you don't have the right pan the process will never happen. I discovered that this year with a pan that looks like a good pan-but is not a good conductor of heat and therefore never allowed a caramel to form. I have also tried my copper pans and they are TOO good a conductor of heat and the caramel burns. SO I have found the best way to do this is with a regular saucepan. If it takes a lot longer or a lot less than 18 minutes something went wrong. Good luck!
If you were successful with the caramel, while it is cooking, heat the cream and rosemary in another pan. add salt and remove from heat. once caramel is formed in above instructions,
SLOWLY add the hot cream to the caramel. It will sputter and spit and bubble-that's ok, just continue to stir and it will settle down to a nice caramel (hopefully :)> ).
Now add the roasted nuts to the caramel mixture and toss well.
Spread the nut mixture over the cooled crust. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes. the topping will be golden and bubbling. Let it cool a little (about 15 minutes).
In the meantime, break up the chocolate into a bowl and place it in the microwave for about 1 minute. Check it-if not completely melted put back in for 30 seconds at a time till mostly melted. stir it to finish the melting process.
TIP! NEVER NEVER NEVER touch melted chocolate with water. even a drop of water or a not totally dry wooden spoon will make the chocolate seize immediately. Make sure EVERYTHING is totally dry!
Brush the chocolate over the semi cooled nut mixture. Let cool till set. Cut into desired size bars.
These can be made up to a week in advance and left whole (not cut into bars).
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