MARY'S BELL COOKIES

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Categories     Cookies     Coffee     Nut     Dessert     Bake     Kid-Friendly     Cherry     Pecan     Gourmet     Kidney Friendly     Vegetarian     Pescatarian     Peanut Free     Soy Free     Kosher     Small Plates

Yield Makes about 5 dozen cookies

Number Of Ingredients 18

For filling
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
15 to 18 maraschino cherries (from a 10-oz jar), including 3 tablespoons juice
1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (5 oz)
For cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant-coffee granules or instant-espresso powder
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening (preferably trans-fat free), at room temperature
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 large egg
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Special Equipment
a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter; a small offset spatula

Steps:

  • Make filling:
  • Stir together brown sugar, butter, and 3 tablespoons cherry juice until combined, then stir in pecans. Set cherries aside.
  • Make cookies:
  • Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Whisk together flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, and coffee.
  • Beat together brown sugar and shortening in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 6 to 8 minutes. Add corn syrup, egg, and cream and beat until combined well.
  • Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, then mix until combined.
  • Roll out one third of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper to 1/8-inch thick (about 15 by 11 inches). Chill dough on wax paper on a baking sheet until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Cut out as many cookies as possible with cutter and transfer with a metal spatula to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. Roll out, chill, and cut remaining dough in same manner. Reserve scraps.
  • Center 1/2 teaspoon nut filling on lower half of each cookie, then, using spatula, fold sides in toward center to form a cone. (Dough may crack along fold; part of filling will be exposed.)
  • Stem and quarter cherries. Place 1 cherry quarter over exposed filling on each cookie to make bell clapper.
  • Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, 12 to 16 minutes total. Transfer to racks to cool completely.
  • Reroll scraps, then make more cookies in same manner (reroll only twice), baking them on cooled sheets.

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