January 16, 2012 | Desserts
Last weekend a friend’s teen daughter spent some time with me cooking and photographing for my blog. She’s interested in the food photography aspect of blogging and has taken some cooking lessons with me in the past. I’m also taking her to Italy next summer on a family trip with her mom, aunts, cousin and grandmother. I love sharing my passions with kids – whether that’s food, photography, or Italy!
Since I needed to cook for my open house last weekend about my Italy trip, I figured we’d make something that seems Italian – pine nut cookies. I’m not sure these really are Italian, and I’m not at all sure where I got the recipe. Possibly from fellow blogger Elaine over at The Italian Dish? I just can’t seem to recall or find a path back to the original recipe.
I did do a couple of things wrong when making these cookies – I should have refrigerated the dough so that the butter didn’t melt so fast in the oven causing the cookies to spread so flat. And I should have spaced them further apart on the baking mats.
In the end, none of that mattered. I used a pizza cutter to cut them into individual cookies, and the thin texture was delicate and chewey – something both my teenage friend and I actually liked about them. If you like the creaminess of pine nuts, you’ll love these cookies. Let me know if you chill the dough how they turn out.
- ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted, coarsely ground
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts, for topping
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the ground pine nuts, 2 cups of the flour, soda, ginger and salt; set aside. In an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in oil, then reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients. Continue by adding the cream, then the egg and the final ¼ cup of flour. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
- Shape dough into one inch balls and space about 2 inches apart on a silicone baking mat on a baking sheet. Press slightly flat and top each with a single pine nut. Sprinkle with sugar and bake until edges are golden, about 10 minutes.
- Cook completely on racks before storing in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
I saw something very interesting the other day Michele with a comparison of cookies baked on silpat and parchment paper. The silpat cookies spread out MUCH further than the ones on parchment so now am wondering about yours; if that would have made a difference.
I haven’t made pine nut cookies in a very long time; not since pine nuts became as pricey as gold but now I would sure like to have some…and what fun for this young girl!