How To Do It All

Hi TGBK friends, don't you just love the holiday season? There are so many wonderful things to celebrate (including good food!) and gatherings with friends and family. Though we enjoy the festivities, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with the visiting, shopping, and gourmet cooking/baking. That's why we're here with tips and tricks straight from our kitchen to yours. Take the cookies pictured above for example - looks like these took an afternoon of baking right? Well, not exactly....

Though we love making most things homemade as much as possible, there are some pre-made food products that are just too good to pass up. This week we are featuring pre-made puff pastry. And if you know anything about pastry making you'll know that it can be time consuming for a beginner and requires much attention to detail. Not things that we have time for during the holiday season! Puff pastry is essentially alternating layers of butter and flour based dough that will puff up (hence the name) when cooked and is frequently used for tarts and croissants. Luckily, it is readily available to purchase pre-made in frozen sheets. Just be sure to check your ingredients labels as some brands will use unfavorable ingredients including vegetable oil instead of butter. The ingredients list should contain flour, butter, water, salt, and possibly vinegar - simple. So grab some quick and let's hit this kitchen for this impressive (how does she/he do it) recipe!

Pinwheel Pistachio Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Elephant Ear Cookies recipe
PREP TIME: 30 mins
TOTAL TIME: 45-50 mins
Servings: ~16 cookies

Ingredients
2 sheets (~17 oz) of puff pastry, thawed (remember to look for puff pastry made with real butter not oil)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp cane sugar (reserved for rolling cookies in)
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degress. In a food processor or a blender grind walnuts, pistachios, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and salt until a coarse sand like texture is created.

Remove thawed puff pastry from container, lightly dust parchement paper with flour, then place dough side by side to create a long rectangle. Using a rolling pin, seal two pastry edges together and gently roll out into 11" x 20" rectangle.

Evenly drizzle 1 Tbsp honey over the pastry then evenly spread the nut and sugar mixture over the dough making sure to gently press mixture into the dough. Starting with the short end, roll dough into a tight cylinder then place in the fridge to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Once chilled, remove dough from the fridge. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut dough roll into 1" rounds. Generously dust a piece of parahcment paper with cane sugar then individually coat both sides of each cookie with sugar and use a rolling pin to roll cookies out into 6"-7" rounds. Carefully place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet with no more than 4 cookies per sheet (pictured above). Continue process until all cookies have been coated in sugar and rolled out. Bake in 400 degree preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are slightly golden brown with visable caramelization on  the bottom. Allow to cool, then store in an air tight container for 5-7 days.

Ta da! Delicious, stunning, and impressive holiday cookies done in less than an hour. You truly can do it all this holiday season. Just a warning, these cookies are very easy to eat with the lightness from the puff pastry and depth of flavor from the carmalized honey and won't stay around your kitchen for long. Maybe a few batches are in order?

You CAN do it all,
Jess and Cecelia