I was deep in the details of my pho manuscript last Sunday when my phone flashed an email of cookie panic from Wesley. He had gathered all the ingredients for Belinda’s amazing almond cookies and was ready to go when he noticed that I had some incorrect metric measurements. He was about to proceed until I clarified and confirmed the ingredient list.
Ai-ya, some big goofs were made when I published the recipe and tried to be helpful with metric measurements but was working too fast. I took a break from my work and checked the recipe, making edits where appropriate. Wesley went forward to make his cookies.
That got me thinking about a lovely holiday cookie platter with just 3 delicious, easy items of varied sizes, shapes and textures. Odd numbers are a good for display. That’s what my design friends and stylist Karen Shinto tell me. They’re right. There is a certain planned randomness to an odd number of items.
So here are 3 cookies from the Viet World Kitchen archive for you to slip into your schedule this week.
Belinda’s amazing almond cookies are incredible tasting. They’re a high-class version of the Chinese almond cookie and the raw dough freezes beautifully. I’ve made a double batch and divided them up into smaller portions and frozen them for future entertaining or indulging.
Adorable Chinese peanut cookies (hua sheng bing) came to me via Karen Shinto. She baked the cookies based on ones she had when she was growing up. They’re fun to make because you get to make little marks in the short cookie dough before they bake. The delicate Chinese peanut cookies store rather well in an airtight container. The cutie plump mounds taste better the day after they’re baked so it’s a nice bonus.
The last is an enduring winner from the 1970s: 7-layer magic cookie bar. I updated the recipe this year and baked some for my mom, who had a recipe in her orange notebook. I froze the cookie in large slabs and transported it to my mom, who lives 7 hours by car away from me.
I told Mom to reheat it in the oven or toaster oven in moderately low heat (e.g., 300F) to refresh the cookie to practically fresh baked. If you open a can of sweetened condense milk for Vietnamese coffee, you could use the balance for the magic bar. Just an idea...
Have a wonderful Christmas full of good food and cheer!
