2½ cups all-purpose flour (sifted)
4 teaspoons baking powder
With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together with vanilla and lemon extracts, lemon zest, and salt. Add eggs and milk and beat for a minute or two until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder, blending well with mixer until you have a dough (be careful not to overmix the dough or cookies will be tough). Dough should be soft and sticky. Chill for at least one hour; cold dough is easier to work with.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon sheets, or spray surface with cooking spray. With well-greased hands (I rub butter over my fingers and palms), shape bits of dough into small ropes (about the thickness of a woman’s wedding ring finger), make a ring with the rope of dough about 2 inches in diameter, and press the ends together on the baking sheet. Or for lemon drops simply roll pieces of dough into balls about 1 inch in size and place on baking sheets. (If you want to go really rustic, then don’t even bother chilling the dough. Simply drop teaspoonfuls of the sticky dough onto the baking sheet.) Bake about 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t overcook. Baking time may vary, depending on your oven! Let cookies cool before glazing and decorating.
Lemon glaze
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons lemon extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
In a nonstick saucepan, place the butter, water, and lemon extract over low heat, stir slowly until butter melts (do not let butter brown or burn). Add confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time, stirring constantly. Wait until sugar dissolves before adding more. Continue until all sugar has been added. Stir or whisk if needed until your glaze is smooth. Use a pastry brush to glaze your cooled cookies. (Optionaclass="underline" If you wish to add decorations to your cookies, such as nonpareils or colored sugar, be sure to sprinkle while glaze is still warm. I actually prefer the cookies without any decorations, just the lemon glaze.)
Tips: Lemon glaze must be kept warm to stay a liquid. If it hardens up on you, simply warm up the glaze again, stirring or whisking to regain the smooth, liquid consistency. If you like a thicker glaze on your cookie (like I do), try “painting” a second or even a third layer of glaze on the cookie after the first layer hardens. Enjoy!
Rich chocolate ganache seals the kiss of two delicious, almond-flavor cookies.
Makes about 21⁄2 dozen sandwiches
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup ground, toasted almonds[1]
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, almond extract, egg, milk, and salt; mix until light and fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, and ground almonds. Mix just until blended (don’t overmix at this stage). Chill dough for 30 minutes (makes it easier to handle). Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough into 1-inch balls. Roll them in sugar, place on lined or greased baking sheet, and flatten balls with bottom of a glass. Bake 10-12 minutes (watch your oven!). If cookies overbake, they will be dry.
Chocolate Ganache “Kiss”
½ cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
or chopped bittersweet chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Heat the cream, sugar, and butter in saucepan. Stir until butter melts and liquid simmers, but do not let mixture boil! Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate (in a glass or metal bowl). Waiting two minutes, whisk well until smooth, and whisk in vanilla. Let ganache cool for a half hour in fridge, no more! Next drop (or pipe with pastry bag) about a teaspoonful on the flat side of one cookie and gently sandwich together with a second cookie’s flat side. Press lightly to seal the kiss! Repeat until all cookies are kissing. (Optional use: while still warm, ganache can be used as a glaze for a cake.) If ganache harden too much, reheat. Makes about 2 cups.
Like Nunzio’s Lover’s Spring, this classic cocktail was created in Italy. It was invented in 1943, at Harry’s Bar in Venice, during an exhibition of art by the fifteenth-century Venetian painter, Giovanni Bellini.
According to the man who created the drink, Giuseppe Cipriani, the cocktail’s color matched the hue of a toga in one of Bellini’s masterpieces, so he named the drink after the artist.
The Bellini is traditionally made with pureed white peaches, but in America (due to the limited availability of the white variety) yellow peaches are often substituted. Sometimes a touch of cherry or raspberry juice is added to blush the drink into an especially vibrant color.
Prosecco is the sparkling wine of choice when making this cocktail. Other sparkling wines can certainly be substituted, but the heavier flavor of French champagne doesn’t pair as well with the light, fruity taste of the peach.
1 part well-pureed peaches (remove skins)[2]
2 parts chilled sparkling wine or champagne (Prosecco is best)
Peel the peach and puree it in a blender. Pour the puree into a pitcher (or a single glass), add the well-chilled Prosecco (or champagne), and stir well. Serve in chilled champagne flute.
This hearty and tasty dish is brimming with Spanish flavors. To give it the Peruvian flair, follow the example of Machu Picchu’s chef and exchange the rice in this recipe for quinoa. The paella name, by the way, comes from the paella pan in which it is prepared and served (large, flat, and shallow like a frying pan). It’s traditionally cooked with a variety of meats and shellfish, but this is a versatile enough recipe for you to experiment. You can add fresh seared chorizo instead of dry, or try substituting different types of seafoods and meats to make it your own!
Serves 8
1 large Spanish onion
1 large yellow onion
1 large green pepper
1 large red pepper
6 ounces hot, dry chorizo (Spanish sausage)
5-7 cloves fresh garlic
½ cup scallions
1 large red tomato
12-15 clams
1 pound mussels
8 ounces green peas
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 1 pound chicken tenders
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1
TIP: Be sure to start with blanched almonds. (To save time, look for slivered almonds in the store, which are already blanched). Toast the almonds by spreading them on a cookie sheet and baking them in the oven for about ten minutes (350°F.). Then you can grind the almonds in a food processor, or just put the nuts in a plastic bag and bang away at them with a cleaver until you have a powder. (I use a small coffee mill to grind my nuts and spices, but I only use it for that purpose. The mill you use to grind your whole bean coffee should