Grand Marnier Orange-Pecan Short Bread Cookies

So I messed up the sponsor presenters at the Mun CS Winter 2011 Team Games last Friday, having the second place sponsor give out the third place prize, and third place sponsor give out the second - my goof :( So to help make up for my mistake I made the original second place sponsor a batch of Grand Marnier Orange-Pecan Short Bread cookies.

Ingredients:

3 cups Pecans (crushed)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup plus 4 tbsp sugar
1 1/3 cups butter
3 tsp grated Orange zest
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp sanding sugar
Grand Marnier to taste.

This is a pretty simple recipe, just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, and combine thoroughly. The only pre-steps you may need to take are crushing the pecans, and melting the butter.

Once the batter is mixed, you may add Grand Marnier to taste.... I decided a lot of taste was required.

Mixing in the liquor, you may then portion out dough, and roll them into 3 to 4 inch diameter balls.

We then flatten these out into 8 to 9 " diameter discs, and score the dough for easy consumption (like a pizza pie). Bake the cookies at 325F for 15 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Next time we do the Mun CS Games we'll be sure to label the sponsor on each prize placement.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

This week I tried to make Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies following the recipe from a nice looking book I received over the holiday. The pictures looked so good, and the recipe so easy... unfortunately the it turned out horrible, so I fixed cookie.

Original Ingredients:
1 cup butter
6 tbsp icing sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (for the dip)

The collection of ingredients when combined turned out to make something akin to cement. It couldn't be made extrude through a pipet, it could barely be rolled out into sheets :S Something needed to be corrected so that it would be more viscous.

Corrected Ingredients:

1 cup butter

6 tbsp icing sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp maple syrup

6 oz Vodka

For the Dip:

1 cup butter

6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate

8 oz of dark chocolate

6 oz Vodka

With the cookie dough recipe corrected I could now extrude the dough through a star shaped pipet. This still required a fare amount of effort, so I rolled the dough out and cut the shortbread into domino shaped bars. These were baked for 12 minutes at 350F.

Once the cookies were golden brown I let them cool, then started preparing the doctored dip. First I melted the butter, then added the various chocolates and let it slowly melt. Once melted to a velvety consistency I poured in the Vodka. Why did I do this? Because the recipe had vexed me and needed to be taught a lesson... a tasty lesson.

After taking their improved chocolate bath I tossed sweet toppings on to the cookies so they'd have some nice color to show off. Now the cookies were finally fit to be presented to my cookie club.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, my alterations seemed to make them passible as decent members of my cookie collection.