Quick end of year note

Good wishes to each of you during this cold and dark season. I’ve had enough warm days to do some work in my unheated shop, allowing me to break down the rest of my Appleply into usable sized pieces. I have enough for now but contacted Mark Cappitella’s supplier and decided to switch to Italian Poplar for my next order. It’s a little easier to cut and meets California formaldehyde standards.

Subscription Boxes

I appreciate everyone who ordered a subscription box this quarter. I enjoyed picking the themes, specific images and treats. The theme for October was fall leaves- paintings of women (and one man) in autumn, cut into leaf shapes and the treat was a tin of Harney and Son’s cinnamon tea with some shortbread cookies. The theme for November was home, specifically Carl Larsson’s home. The treats were handmade soap and beeswax candle made by a local beekeeper. I have December’s puzzles ready to ship before the end of the year but don’t want to ruin the surprise. Please sign up ASAP if you are interested in the Winter Quarter’s boxes. Note that this is NOT a recurring payment, so if you signed up for Fall, you’ll have to sign up for Winter if you want it to continue.

Holiday Cookies

I managed to use 2.5 lbs of butter in 2 days making cookies. First were, as Janell has named them, Grookies. If a cookie and a granola bar had a baby, it would be these cookies. The next 3 were all new recipes: lemon shortbread, chocolate espresso and cranberry layer cookies. The last two we liked so much that I made another batch of each the next day. (Yes, we are traveling and will be sharing these with friends and family. Maybe. If they’re fast enough.) Since we like them so much, here’s the cranberry layer cookie recipe. I used homemade whole berry cranberry sauce, which is pretty thick, but any thick jam will work. I specify thick jam because some of my homemade jam is more syrup-like than jam-like. Store bought jam is plenty thick.

Cranberry Layer Cookies

1 cup butter, softened (I use salted. If you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt.)

1 cup sugar

1 egg (or ¼ cup warm water mixed with 1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

9 - 12 ounce jar of jam

Mix the first 4 ingredients. Add the flour and mix until combined. Press all but 1 ½ cups of dough into a 9× 13” pan (can line with parchment paper). It will feel like there is absolutely not enough dough, but it is fine. Spread jam onto the dough. Crumble the remainder of the dough over the top of the jam. It won’t cover it completely and tears more than crumbles. You just want the top layer of dough to be evenly patchy. Lightly press that layer of dough into jam.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until the edges begin to lightly brown. My oven took closer to 40 minutes, even in a preheated oven.

Once cooled, cut into bars.

Notes: lemon or orange zest could be a nice addition to the dough depending on the jam used. I often omit vanilla, but could really taste it in this recipe.

If you make these, or want to see more recipes here, please let me know.

Thank you for all of your support this year. I hope you all have a restorative holiday season.