Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Connecting with cookies
Bake up a holiday tradition with peppermint mocha brownies and cherry bars
Our family bakes cookies. A lot of cookies. Not so much in number as in variety. Most years we craft more than two dozen varieties. We broke a record in 2018 with 35 different types of cookies on display Christmas morning.
We do a lot of this baking together in my kitchen. For about eight hours every year, the house is filled with my siblings and their millennial offspring mixing, rolling, manning the oven, decorating and cleaning up the sugar. My sisters haul baking sheets, bags of flour, cookie cutters and tins from their house to mine. We were blessed to have our father photographing (and taste testing) all the activity for many years.
Natasha keeps count and frequently bakes a batch or two just to break records. Joseph, a talented baker, outshines us all in making the most intricate cookies. Glen and Marty read, then reread their recipes dozens of times. For Henry, it’s all about the decorating — his sugar cookies look like edible art. Claire delicately sandwiches her pecan lace cookies with orange cream. We count Erika’s buttery caramels as a cookie. Everyone bakes their favorites.
Each year we add new cookies to the repertoire. Ten years ago, my dad painstakingly gathered many of the recipes, typed them into uniformity and put them into binders. He gave us each a copy. The “Kaiser Kristmas Kookie Kookbook” definitely contains a sweet chunk of our family history.
Dozens of the 50-plus recipes are made every year for as long as the oldest of us can remember. Christmas would not be Christmas without kolacky, oatmeal thins, blond brownies, shortbread logs and molasses cookies.
We argue about favorites. Dad’s was never in doubt: Cherry cookie bars. I cannot remember a holiday without this bright red cherry, oat and coconut bar cookie. Mom thinks the recipe originally came from a package of coconut — no one knows for sure. Last year was the first year I made the cookie instead of mom. I was tempted to swap out the maraschino cherries for something fancier. Nope. I’ll always make the recipe the way Dad enjoyed them.
Peppermint says holidays better than any other flavor. No longer content to hang candy canes on the tree, we crush them and add the shards to everything from coffee drinks to cocktails and desserts. The Doyles bake chocolate peppermint stars, the Hansens make peppermint bark.
This year, I’m transforming the family’s favorite chocolate brownie into a holiday delight.
Reminiscent of coffeehouse peppermint mocha drinks and candy shop peppermint bark, these are the brownies to make for
this season. Rich and chocolatey, with a touch of coffee flavor, the brownies get topped with red and white bits of peppermint candy and a swirl of creamy white glaze.
Crushed peppermint candy is sold already crushed in small bags in the baking aisle (near the chocolate chips) in large supermarkets during the holiday season.
Otherwise, put unwrapped candy canes or round peppermint candies into a small bag. Close the bag, and then tap the candy with a rolling pin or mallet to crush it to small attractive bits.
The Spice House sells a delicious, very fine, espresso powder that simply melts into your baked treats. Instant espresso coffee or Starbucks Via packets work nicely too.
These brownies are best served the day they are made, but they can be frozen.
I remove them from the pan and discard the foil used for baking. Then, before cutting into squares, wrap the brownies in plastic wrap and foil. Freeze solid, thaw at room temperature and cut into serving pieces.
Families grow. Some move away to follow their dreams. Fathers leave us legacies. The cookie tradition keeps us all connected. Forever.