Recipes, Cooking & Art Direction: Mariana Nuño Ruiz McEnroe | Photography: Ian McEnroe |
Published: October 27, 2015
This year to celebrate Day of the Dead, I decided to make some cookies utilizing ingredients that were more commonly used in more traditional Mexican cooking. I used Amaranth and an assortment of seeds and dried fruits to decorate the cookies. Amaranth has being cultivated in Mexico by the Aztecs 8,000 years ago. It was a great source of nutrition for them. The real value on amaranth was and is its seeds. These tiny little seeds are loaded with 12 to 17% protein and are high in lysine and essential amino acids. Amaranth seeds are also high in Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and many more minerals and vitamins. I think we should start looking at this plant and its nutritional value with wider eyes. Puffed amaranth seeds taste like a nutty popcorn. They are soft, tender and hold a great natural flavor.
Recipes, Cooking & Art Direction: Mariana Nuño Ruiz McEnroe | Photography: Ian McEnroe |
Published: January 16, 2015
Cookies for breakfast? Hell yes! That is the concept behind these cookies, because… YES.
This oatmeal cookie its a little break after all that holiday cooking, prepping, and wrapping. These Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies are just for you to indulge a morning craving, to power up your day.
Why?, because these good-hearted creatures are made with whole grain flour, oats flakes, wheat of germ, fresh blueberries, and a good punch of lemon zest…Something to lift up your morning. Lots of energy, antioxidants, fiber, and all those things that are as important as having a big smile on your face!…right?…
Can you eat this cookie instead of breakfast? Perhaps, but I recommend some protein to go along with them, like a cup of yogurt, nuts, and a cup of coffee or tea. Bake them regular size for breakfast or in a smaller bites for an afternoon snack.
Bake a batch over the weekend and power up your breakfast, whether you are preparing to take a hike, go to the park, or take down the holiday decorations…Please save some time to snuggle under a blanket, or sit on your porch with a good friend and enjoy a cookie and great cup ot tea.
Recipes, Cooking & Art Direction: Mariana Nuño Ruiz McEnroe | Photography: Ian McEnroe |
Published: December 16, 2014
At less than 10 days until Christmas there are too many cookies and so little time! This year I decided to go with just ONE cookie, yes believe it or not just one… Ahem.. let me re phrase that…because there is no way I can eat just one of these buttery and nutty lil cookie sandwiches. I mean one type of cookie, and I chose my favorite ones Garabatos, which translates to: scribbles. The name of these Scribbles Garabatos Cookies comes from the freedom and delightful abandon in which the chocolate is drizzled all over these buttery cookies. This cookies are very popular and loved in Mexico.
These crisp cookies with a soft crumb like a shortbread are filled with raspberry jam, chocolate ganache or hazelnut spread. A fine scribbling drizzle of dark chocolate, makes these little cookies not only delicious, and appealing, but equally easy to make. Dough is made in a flash in the food processor, chilled for 30 minutes, then rolled, cut, and baked 8-10 minutes. When you bake these cookies a butter cloud hugs you with love and Christmas feelings.
If you want to enjoy and make a simple and delicious effortless buttery cookie, start scribbling, this is the perfect last-minute letter to Santa! Ho, ho, ho!
Recipes, Cooking & Art Direction: Mariana Nuño Ruiz McEnroe | Photography: Ian McEnroe |
Published: December 22, 2013
Here comes Santa! When you bake cookies expect anyone to come around them: kids, gnomes, reindeer, elves, gremlins, dogs, cats, ants, aunts grandpa’s, grandmas, fuzzy teenagers, obnoxious neighbors, you name it! Everybody loves cookies…And since its Christmas lets share some cookie love!
Here is my recipe for Ginger Men. Why whole wheat? I love the nutty flavor that this flour gives to the ginger cookie. Not a fan of whole wheat?… You can substitute white flour but you might have to adjust and add ½ to 1 cup more flour.
I love to make these cookies because the house smells so good and kicks up your Christmas Spirit.
I owe you the photo steps, Ian has had an overload of work and for me, it its a bit hard to shoot with floury hands, so I made some drawings to illustrate a couple of steps. If you have any questions please send me a comment I will guide you.
I’m certain that these cookies are so easy to prepare you’ll have no trouble at all!
Enjoy!
Whole Wheat Ginger Men Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen depending on the size of your cookie cutter.
4 cups whole wheat flour ( I used King Arthur 100% organic whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup Butter
¾ cup organic blackstrap molasses
¾ cup brown sugar
1. In a medium size bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. 2. In a medium-sized pot, over medium heat, melt butter, molasses, brown sugar and all the spices until well combined. Set aside and let the mixture cool down. 3. Once this mixture has cooled down whisk in the eggs one at a time. 4. Add the flour mixture one cup at a time and incorporate with a spatula in folding movements until well combined do not over mix. 5. Divide the dough in two and place each half of the dough into a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten as much as you can and shape into a rectangle, and then place a second piece of parchment paper on top. Follow the next steps before chilling.
Now, in my opinion, the best technique to use is from Martha Stewart. No doubt, she is the queen of cookies right? What is this technique about?,basically you roll the dough before chilling, about 1/4”inch between two pieces of parchment paper. It helps using two wood dowels along the sides to ensure an even thickness of the dough slab.
This technique is great, because not only will speed up the process of chilling the dough to about 1 hour, it also leaves you with 2 or 3 cookie dough slabs ready to cut. I love this simple trick, because it saves you the step of having to deal with rolling a cold hard dough. Once you roll the dough in between the parchment papers, just transfer this sandwich into a cookie sheet.These simple step make it so much easy to transport back and forth from the refrigerator or the freezer to chill the dough.
After 1 hour, Remove from fridge and peel the top parchment paper and start pressing your cookie shapes. Remove the negative dough space. This will leave you with a tray ready to bake, no need to deal with misshaped cookies or trying to transfer them as you cut. Its so easy! check this lil drawings it might help…
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Bake for 7-10 minutes. Bigger cookies might need 10-12.
Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
Something to consider: When choosing a cookie cutter try to avoid intricate shapes or in the case of this Ginger man use a Ginger man with an evenly shaped figure so the cookies bake more evenly.
Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoon meringue powder or dry egg whites.
Mix the powdered sugar and meringue powder together.Add the lemon juice to this mixture and whisk well until slightly pasty. At this point you can divide the icing and add a little food coloring. I like to use natural colorings like this kind.
If the icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if it’s too thick add a drop of lemon juice.
Use a piping Bag, or squeeze bottles to decorate.
~ Have fun! ~
Music pairing: Santa Claus is coming to town-Ella Fitzgerald
