I had some candied orange peel left over after making Sarah Kieffer's Chocolate Orange Sablés, and it was just enough to make a double batch of Cranberry, Orange, and Almond Caramel Cookies from Honey & Co. The Baking Book. I've had this recipe on my to-bake list since the first time I flipped through the cookbook. The method was entirely new to me, but helpfully illustrated with some photos that drew my initial interest. The cookies have a pastry base that is shaped into a freeform rectangle before being partially baked. Then you add a topping full of nuts and fruit that turns into a bubbling caramel when you bake the cookies a second time. While the slab is still warm from the oven, you cut it into individual slices.
I made the base in my stand mixer by combining room temperature butter, powdered sugar, egg, lemon zest, bread flour, and fine salt. I chilled the dough for a few hours before rolling it out into two long rectangles; each rectangle was about 16-inches long by 6-inches wide because my plan was to bake both on a single half-pan baking sheet. Then I folded up the edges of each piece of dough and crimped them as you would with a pie crust; the recipe explains that you need to create raised edges on the dough to contain the runny filling, although the decorative crimping is optional. I docked the dough, chilled it for about another hour, and then baked the bases until they were lightly golden.
After folding up the edges and crimping, each piece of dough was about 15-inches long by 5-inches wide, and there was a gap between the two pieces of pastry on my baking sheet. But the dough expanded while it baked and the two pieces ended up meeting each other in the middle of the pan. Also, the neatly crimped edges lost their height and became something more like fluted edges, but I didn't mind because the exact same thing happened to the pastry in the cookbook photo.
You make the topping for the cookies on the stove, by bringing butter, glucose, sugar, and cream to a boil; cooking the mixture for two minutes; and stirring in sliced almonds, candied orange peel, and dried cranberries. Then you pour the topping on top of the par-baked base, spread it out as evenly as possible, and put the cookies back in the oven until the topping is golden. I let the cookies cool for a few minutes before slicing them into fingers. This was surprisingly easy the cookies didn't crumble or break. I was also able to cleanly cut apart the two pieces of dough where they had grown together.
The recipe headnote says that the topping ends up as a "crunchy caramel" but that's not what happened to me. My topping was firmly set but definitely not crunchy. It was soft, with no stretch whatsoever, and offered no resistance to the bite. But I'm not complaining, because these cookies were so delicious. The base was buttery and crisp with a bright touch of lemon, and the very thin layer of sweet caramel adhering the nuts and sweet-tart fruits was just lovely. The flavor of the orange peel and cranberries really popped. The long, slender shape of each cookie seemed particularly elegant.
I wanted to make these cookies again for Christmas, but when I went back to the King Arthur Baking website to buy more candied orange peel, the site said that the "item is sold out for the season." I've used candied peel from other places, but I happened to like this particular variety quite a bit. I'm going to keep checking back and buy some more candied peel when it becomes available, because I would love to make these cookies again!
Recipe: "Caramel, Orange & Almond Caramel Cookies" from Honey & Co. The Baking Book by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich.
Comments