Monthly Archives: November 2011

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Recipe: Pear Cranberry Muffins

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These muffins are perfect for snowy mornings. They were originally a bread, that I made last week after seeing it on Shutterbean. Tracy knows where it’s at when it come to delicious things. It was so dang good, I had to have it again this week, only in muffin form. These muffins have crunch from the nuts, tang from the cranberries, heartiness from wheat germ, tender moisture from juicy pears, and little hints of spice. The first time around I made the recipe as is, this time I added a few things like fresh ginger, a bit of allspice, swapped the walnuts for pecans, and snuck in that wheat germ–for science and health.

Like I said, these are perfect for snowy mornings. The kind where you wake up to heavy tree limbs all over your yard, and a massive driveway + walkway to shovel. Maybe you weren’t even prepared for the snow and forgot that you needed a snow shovel, so you had to drive to the hardware store before the sun was even up to procure one…but, thank goodness your car is a boss in the snow. After you’re done heaving around that heavy & wet snow and chucking those tree limbs back into the forest, you can come inside to a hot cup of coffee and a tasty muffin treat. You deserve it for being so physical first thing in the AM.

For those of you that may be wondering, this isn’t my first snow-rodeo. Despite being from Nevada, I’ve had my fair share of snow…contrary to popular belief, the desert has more to do with precipitation (or lack thereof) than heat. I lived in the northern part of the state, just east of the Sierra Nevadas where it’s usually cold, hot, or windy, and always arid.  

Pear Cranberry Muffins

adapted from Shutterbean

makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons wheat germ

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 large egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 1/2 cups grated, peeled, ripe pear + any juices (about 2 pears)

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 cup fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray a muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together egg, oil, ginger, vanilla, lemon zest and juice, and grated pear + juices. Fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Fold in nuts and cranberries. Evenly divide batter between muffin cups and bake fro 14-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Store in an airtight container after completely cooled.

 

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Citrus Gingerbread Trees

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I am so not a “Black Friday” shopper. I don’t fare well in crowds of bargain insanity. Gifts at majorly discounted prices, while enticing, simply aren’t worth my mental well being and I’m not sure that I could recover from that sort of retail hell. I commend those of you that can handle all that spirited heat, but I’ll stick to weekday and internet shopping.

I’ll just be one less person in the holiday horde.

Truth is, I’ve been in the mood for Christmas since the beginning of November, but I held back my holiday-spirit-crazy and waited for the day after Thanksgiving. Instead of shopping it up on “Black Friday”, I like to bust out all of my Christmas decor, our well loved fake tree (don’t hate, it’s pre-lit and not a fire hazard), light some pine-y candles, drink some coffee with Bailey’s, and deck those halls. I love trimming the tree and I have quite the ornament collection. Most are from a childhood tradition of picking an ornament out every year–one each for my mom, brother, and myself. I carry on this tradition with Sean. It’s pretty much my favorite and makes for an eclectic tree covered in Barbies and robots, sweet treats and dinosaurs, dragons and glittered baubles. This year I discovered that I have nearly 20 heart ornaments as well…apparently I love heart shaped things.

Another thing I love about the holidays are the cookies. If there were a season for cookie-baking and eating, this would be it. To commemorate this season of sugar and spice, I baked up a batch of citrus-y gingerbread tree cut-outs. When I worked in a bakery before we moved, I cut-out, literally, thousands of sugar, chocolate, and gingerbread cookies, then decorated them and it really wore me out on cut-out cookies for a while. I enjoy decorating cookies for fun these days but, nothing too fancy. They are spicy from ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little black pepper, and zesty from lemon and mandarin. They aren’t too sweet, but a little vanilla scented royal icing makes them just sweet enough and pretty too.

Citrus Gingerbread Trees

adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies Magazine 2010

Makes about 24 trees

2 sticks (8oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed, dark brown sugar

zest of 3 mandarins and 1 meyer lemon, about 2 tablespoons of zest, loosely packed (can use any citrus zest you like)

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger root

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the rolling surface

royal icing , sanding sugar, disco dust, and sugar pearls for decorating

Beat the butter, brown sugar, zests, and fresh ginger together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the egg and mix well. Beat in the molasses. In a separate bowl whisk together cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg, black pepper, baking soda, salt and flour. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Divide dough into quarters, shape into disks and wrap well with plastic. Chill for 3-24 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out shapes using desired cookie cutters and place on parchment or silicone lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling scraps as needed. Chill cut-outs on baking sheets for 20 minutes, until firm.

Bake 2 sheets at a time, rotating pans halfway through, for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 week.

Royal Icing

adapted from Joy of Baking

4 cups sifted confectioners sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons warm water (more or less for desired consistency)

Using an electric mixer, combine sugar and meringue powder, add vanilla and water and beat until glossy and stiff peaks form. Dilute with water as needed for desired consistency. Spoon icing into bowls and stir in food coloring to combine. Either use immediately or store in an airtight container. Fit icing bags with tips and fill with desired colors. Ice cookies as desired, sprinkle with sanding sugar while icing is wet, and allow to dry uncovered, at room temperature overnight to harden.

 

 

 

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Holiday in Pictures: Thanksgiving 2011

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I have a whole lot to be thankful for…far more than I’d like to lay out here. Instead, I’ll share some Instagram  pics from last weeks festivities (follow me on Instagram @ cindychae).

Sewing napkins

Thanksgiving Eve Pizza
Lemon Coffeecake Breakfast
Banana Cream Pie Prep
Cheesecake to be baked
Green Bean trimmings
Just a couple of Carrots
Brussels Sprouts
Setting the Table
Gin + Cranberry-Gingerale
Gingerbread Place Cards
Cranberry + Hard Cider Jelly
The Feast
Browned Butter Banana Cream Pie + Cheesecake with Sour Cherry-Orange Sauce
Cheesecake!
Trimming the tree with two of my favorite childhood ornaments–glass + glitter ice cream cone and elf cookie bake-shop.

We ate, drank, gave thanks, and were joyful. Afterwards there was napping/lounging, and on Friday we decked the halls. How was your Thanksgiving?

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Chocolate Chip Pecan Sandies

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It’s T-minus one day to Thanksgiving. I’m sitting in a coffee shop with my brother-in-law, Dylan. He’s writing some sort of biology grant and thinking about nematodes…I’m writing about these cookies and thinking about pie crust and turkey….

We all have our interests. Those interests are important to share and try to understand. Sometimes those interestes intersect and the conversation turns to biology meeting food…like, last night over beers and burgers, we discussed cheese making. Microbiology meets dairy and makes deliciousness. Being able to talk, share, and have relationships–these are things to be thankful for.

I’ve been prepping for this visit with my brothers-in-law for weeks now. They are a rambunctious bunch and knowing that there would be 5, grown-ish men in my house meant I should be prepared with all varieties of treats. I stocked up on fruit, made this awesome-sauce bread that Tracy posted, and these chocolate chip pecan sandies. Dudes get hungry between meals (as do I, let’s be real…), and I like to be prepared.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll see you on the other side if turkey and fixin’s!

Chocolate Chip Pecan Sandies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

I scooped them tiny, sprinkled a bit of sea salt on top, baked them up, and put them in a container in plain view. They are a perfect bite–buttery, sandy, nutty, and chocolatey. 

4 ounces unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I chopped mine coarsely)

sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two pans with parchment or silicone liners.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and salt. With mixer on low, gradually add flour until just combined. Fold in pecans and chips.

Roll dough into balls (1 to 1 1/2 inch), place on cookies sheets 2 inches apart and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Bake until cookies are lightly browned on the bottom, about 15 minutes.

Dylan, coffee shop-ing

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Recipe: Graham Crackers

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It’s a week from Thanksgiving and I am super excited! I love, love, LOVE the holiday season.  All of it. I love the decorations, the camaraderie and spirit, the cozy evenings, and, of course, the food and drink! For me, Thanksgiving is all about food and family, whereas Christmas is all about the gift giving…I’m one of those people that relishes in finding the perfect gift. I L-O-V-E it…but we’ll talk about that later. Let’s talk Thanksgiving now.

This Thanksgiving is a totally different scenario for Sean and I. It’s the first year that we aren’t going to be with our families back in Nevada. We’re feeling lucky and excited though, because my brothers-in-law and father-in-law are all traveling out to Michigan to spend the holiday with us! I usually don’t do a lot of cooking during the major holidays, especially with my family, since there are always plenty of people to take over those duties and there are a lot of favorites dishes that are the territories of moms/aunts/grandmas. This year, though, I’m doing all of the menu planning and cooking! Yee! I’m going to employ Sean to be my kitchen helper and I’m sure at least one of his three brothers will help too.

There’s turkey and hard cider gravy, mushroom stuffed pork loin, dried cherry and sausage dressing, shaved brussel sprouts with walnuts, caramelized green beans, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, scalloped corn, and homemade cranberry jelly, on the menu. Also, lots of bread-y things like pumpkin-cheddar muffins and copious amounts of dinner rolls, as well as a coconut-banana cream pie AND a cheesecake. The menu is way more than enough to feed 6 people with huge appetites, but I don’t think Thanksgiving is even worth the effort unless there are piles of leftovers…I’m all about crazy, Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches!

I made these graham crackers in anticipation of next week, because I need crumbs for cheesecake crust. Duh. I certainly could have purchased graham crackers, like I usually do, but I’m excited for this crazy, homemade Thanksgiving, so I made my own. I get a little overzealous that way. These grahams are great. Like, really, really, really great. They don’t contain graham flour, which is odd, but they taste like the real deal. Only better. They have undertones of honey and dark brown sugar, a snappy crunch, and wholesome nuttiness from a little whole wheat. I left them unadorned of a cinnamon-sugar topping, since I just plan on grinding them up for crust anyway, but if I were making them to snack on and spread with pb or frosting, I would definitely sprinkle away.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? I’m curious to know, are you cooking or contributing a dish? And, what is it?! Are you leaving the cooking to someone else and just eating? If so, what’s your favorite dish?

Homemade Graham Crackers

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

So, I totally didn’t have the 1/3 cup of honey for these grahams, I only had about 3 tablespoons. To make up for it, I used a combination of maple syrup and honey. These things happen, it all worked out. 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, whole wheat flour

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed lightly

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons butter, cubed and frozen

1/3 cup mild honey (or a combination of honey and maple syrup)

5 tablespoons whole milk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

In either a food processor fitted with a steel blade or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attatchement, combine flours, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, pulse or mix to combine. Add cubed butter and pulse or mix on low until you get a coarse meal.

In a measuring cup stir together honey, whole milk, and vanilla. Add the milk mixture to the dry mixture and pulse or mix until just combined. The dough will be quite sticky. Wrap the dough loosely in plastic and pat into a 1 inch rectangle. Wrap well and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.

Working with half of the dough at a time (keep the other half refrigerated), roll out dough, using flour as needed, into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into crackers, either with a knife, pastry wheel, or cookie cutters. Re-roll scraps once for more crackers. Place grahams on parchment lined baking sheets, about 1 inch apart, and chill until firm. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15-20 minutes until crackers just barely yield to the touch and are dark brown, but not burnt, in color. Remove from the oven, cool slightly on the cookie sheet, and remove to cool completely on a cooling rack. The crackers will crisp as they cool. Store in an airtight container.

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Butterscotch Pudding

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Let’s talk pudding.

Pudding, in the all-American sense, is that soft, spoonable, comfort dessert that we all know and love. The homemade stuff, not to be mistaken with dry-packet you stir with some milk or those little plastic cups with the foil on top. Not those guys, not ever. Let’s talk about the stuff made on the stovetop with things from your pantry and fridge. The kind that stirs up faux-nostalgia, ’cause my mom never made pudding and definitely never made it from scratch, or the real kind of nostalgia if your mom/grandma rolled that way. Let’s talk about the kind that has egg yolks, lots of dairy, and begins or ends with butter. That’s the kind of pudding I have come to love, being the kid that was deprived of the good stuff until I had my own kitchen and will to whip it up myself. Usually, I stir some butter into the pudding at the end, it makes it silky, lately that butter has been browned for the sake of flavor and science. Not really for science, I just like to say that I’m doing stuff for science. It seems more official that way.

Anyway…this pudding begins with butter–and duh, I browned it–also, lots of brown sugar. Those two things are what butterscotch is made of, not those orange-colored hard candies you find all stuck together in a dish at grandma’s.

Butter + brown sugar=butterscotch and love. A pinch of salt makes the sweet, sweet sugar sing. There’s also whole milk, egg yolks, and a little bit of cream. All of those guys add richness and goodness. You can add bourbon, or whiskey, or scotch if you want. That’s not necessary, but it is delicious and slightly boozy tasting. You can decide whether or not  you want to go that route and get the bonus points.

Butterscotch Pudding

Adapted from David Lebovitz 

So, if you find you are out of brown sugar, like I totally did, you can make it your self by mixing together plain-old-granulated sugar with molasses. My ratio is 1 cup of sugar to 1 tablespoon of molasses, mix, mix, mix, and done.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 1/4 cups whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon whiskey

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium sauce pot, brown butter over medium low heat. The milk solids will become brown and smell nutty like toffee, watch it closely  so it doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and immediately stir in brown sugar and salt. Once the sugar is completely moistened with the butter, whisk in the milk.

In a small bowl whisk together the cream and the cornstarch until smooth. Whisk in the eggs. Whisk the egg mixture into the milk and butterscotch mixture and heat over medium, whisking constantly, until the pudding thickens to coat a spoon and is the consistency of hot fudge sauce. Remove from heat and stir in whiskey and vanilla. Using an immersion blender or regular blender, pulse a few times to aerate. Pour into individual cups (4-6) or into a large bowl and cover well with plastic touching the surface (to prevent a skin from forming), allow to cool and chill until ready to serve. If you place all of the pudding in a single bowl, whisk vigorously to smooth before serving. Serve with softly whipped , unsweetened cream.

 

 

 

 

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Herbed Turkey Burgers with Goat Cheese and Cranberry Sauce

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Guess what?

I pretty much make dinner 7 nights a week. For real. It’s not always fancy, or meaty, or exciting in the least. Sometimes it’s just whatever is wasting away in the crisper drawer combined with rice, sweet or regular potatoes, pasta, or tortillas. I just love a carb-y vehicle to drive the food home (in this case, home is my mouth).

I take the weekends as a cue to make something fun and exciting. I test out recipes I’ve had pinned, bookmarked, or have schemed up. A couple of weekends ago, it was rich and delicious chicken pot pie. The next weekend, fried chicken sandwiches with extra pickles. This past weekend, it was these amazeballs turkey burgers.

Yeah, man…they were amazeballs.  That wasn’t even a typo.

I mean, it’s a burger. We’re burger fanatics in this house. It doesn’t really matter what kind of patty it is…we’re totally into bean burgers, as well as the classic beef, and we’ve even been known to love a pork or chicken burger. Ground turkey is always a lean and easy to find option, but it can be dry and bland.

I try to jazz  up  turkey burgers with lots of herbs (sage & rosemary) and aromatics (onions & garlic), and ensure juiciness with a little greek yogurt. Then, there’s the bun and the toppings, which cannot be ignored. In this case it was my favorite Light Brioche bun, some soft goat cheese, lemony cranberry sauce, spinach (for some green), and some grainy mustard. It was pretty much Thanksgiving on a burger and it was love.

What kind of burger are you in love with?

Herbed Turkey Burgers with Goat Cheese and Cranberry Sauce

This burger is a meal in and of itself, but it’s totally appropriate to serve with a side of sweet potato fries.

Cranberry Sauce

12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries

1/2-3/4 cup sugar (to taste)

zest of 1 lemon

juice of one lemon

3/4 cup water

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients and cook until cranberries burst, give off their juice, and thicken (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve if desired. Pour into a heatproof jar and allow to cool. Refrigerate. Will thicken as it cools.

Turkey Burger

1/2 medium onion, diced fine

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chopped, fresh sage

2 teaspoons minced, fresh rosemary

1 pound lean, ground turkey

1 egg

2 tablespoons greek yogurt

3 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs

salt and pepper to taste

goat cheese, grainy mustard, and spinach leaves to serve

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, sweat onions and garlic. Once onions become translucent, add sage and rosemary and saute another minute. Do not brown or the garlic may burn. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl combine ground turkey, egg, yogurt, breadcrumbs, and cooled onion/herb mixture. Mix gently to combine. Divide meat into 4 sections and shape into patties (about 1/4-1/2 inch thick), making a shallow well in the center. Refrigerate patties for 20 minutes to firm up.

Heat a heavy skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle patties liberally with salt and pepper, cook, flipping only once, for about 4 minutes on each side. Top with goat cheese, add a splash of water to the pan (1 tablespoon is good) and cover until liquid evaporates. This will soften the cheese, but not melt it since goat cheese doesn’t really melt. Place burgers on toasted buns with mustard and spinach, top with cranberry sauce.

Light Wheat Brioche Buns

I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat and regular whole wheat flour. You can use whatever you like or just use bread flour.

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

 

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons warm milk

2 teaspoons dry yeast

2 tablespoons honey

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

poppy seeds or sesame seeds for sprinkling

1 egg + i tablespoon cream for egg wash

Measure out warm water and milk into a glass measuring cup. Stir in honey and then yeast. Allow to rest 5 minutes until foamy.

Lightly beat the egg in a small dish and set aside.

In a stand mixer, whisk together flours and salt. Rub butter into flour mixture with your fingertips. Mix in the yeast and water mixture, as well as the egg. Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes. The dough will pull from the sides of the bowl and form a ball, the dough ball should be tacky to the touch. Rise, covered with plastic for 1-2 hours until doubled in bulk.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place the dough portions on a parchemnet lined baking sheet and cover loosely, allow to rise another hour.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Whisk together egg and cream, brush the tops of the dough with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds. Bake buns in the center of the oven for 15 minutes. The buns should be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Buns can be baked and frozen in a resealable plastic bag for use later.  Just defrost for 1-2 hours on the counter, or overnight in the refrigerator.

 

 

 

 

 

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Crafty: Christmas Wreath

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This weekend was totally what I needed after being a major cranky-pants last week. There were mimosas at breakfast and chatting with Nicole and Megan, as well as this craft project, with a side of lounging. Weekend perfection.

Getting my craft on always puts me in a mood for the holidays…my favorite time of the year! I know it may be a little early to be busting out the Christmas decor, but when it comes to crafting, I like to be a little ahead of the game. Let’s be real, I think we all know that once Thanksgiving rolls by, December becomes one hectic month of holiday cheer.

Saturday afternoon Megan and I crafted some yarn wreaths. I decided to wrap my entire wreath form in a warm, grey yarn (which took me forever, like 2 hours!), then I glued some pom-poms on there all haphazardly and hated it. I loved the pom-poms, but they just weren’t coming together on the wreath. So, I cut off the poms and the glued yarn, re-wrapped the bald spots, and made these amazing fringe flowers (as seen on Studio Calico via Pinterest). For the flowers I used some of my scrapbook paper stockpile and hot glue instead of a tape-style adhesive. I only did this, because I didn’t want to go to the craft store just for fancy adhesive and, I always have hot glue. I wouldn’t suggest using the hot glue unless you have asbestos-coated-finger-tips like I do, or if you treasure your one-of-a-kind fingerprints…there will be some burn-age and maybe a little cursing. I also don’t have fancy fringe scissors, so I just used the regular kind and snip-snipped the paper strips. After the paper flowers were made, I played around with the placement of some small doilies with the paper flowers clustered on top before hot glueing everything on. I’m actually really pleased with how it came out and kind of want to hang it up right now!

Supplies:

wreath form (I purchased an 18in form made of particle board from Michael’s. These are way cheaper than the styrofoam ones and also more sturdy.)

yarn, in a color of your choice

scrapbook paper, cut into strips in varying widths

adhesive (or hot glue if you’re brave!)

small paper doilies

scissors (plain or fringe-cutting)

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Recipe: Sugar and Spice Wafers

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Oh, man, it’s been a week.

You know the type where nothing seems to go your way and every little thing becomes a frustration? There’s been a lot of muttering and cursing and stomping around. There has also been a lot of pondering whilst drinking tea and staring off into space.

Then, there were these cookies. Just a little wafer to nibble during said pondering/spacing-out/tea-drinking. The dough didn’t give me any trouble, unlike some of my other kitchen ventures this week, and it was totally down for chilling in the freezer for days before I sliced the wafers off and baked them up.

How kind, right? They were just the spice and nice I needed.

Sugar and Spice Wafers

adapted from Martha Stewart

These spice wafers are crunchy, yet dissolve quickly on the tongue. They are full of spice and while the actual dough isn’t very sweet, a sprinkling of coarse sanding sugar bumps it up and gives the wafer a lovely crust. Perfect for the season, nestled next to a cup of something hot.

3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

coarse sanding sugar for sprinkling

Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spice. Set aside.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, scraping well after each addition. Mix in flour in 3 additions to combine. Press the cookie dough into the prepared loaf pan with fingertips, cover with plastic. Flatten the top by pressing the plastic covered dough down with another loaf pan. Wrap well in plastic wrap and freeze for 1 1/2 hours up to 1 month.

Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

Remove loaf pan from the freezer and allow to defrost slightly, 5-10 minutes. Remove dough from pan and plastic and slice off wafer thinly, about 1/8 inch. Arrange slices on sheet pans about 1 inch apart and sprinkle with sanding sugar, pressing lightly into the dough. Freeze wafers on pan for about 5 minutes and bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until dark brown and crisp. Cool completely on wire cooling racks. Repeat with remaining dough, freezing between batches.