Sage Shortbread

Savory, sweet, and salty all at the same time, this is the perfect cookie to have with a crisp white wine sitting outdoors in the late afternoon. It takes no time at all to whip up a batch and if you keep a log or two in the freezer, you'll be able to pop cookies in the oven at a moment's notice!

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh sage leaves or 2 teaspoons dried sage
1 teaspoon course kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp cut into 1/2" pieces

Preheat oven to 350

Line cookie sheets with parchment

Blend first 4 ingredients in processor. Add butter pulsing until dough comes together. Divide in half, shape into 1" logs, wrap and chill (freeze 20 minutes).

Cut logs into 1/3" pieces and place on cookie sheet about 1/2" apart. Position oven racks in top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of oven. Bake 10 minutes and rotate sheets so bottom sheet is on top rack and top sheet is on bottom rack, then bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Remove and cool on racks.

Thanks to Greg Atkinson and Epicurious for the recipe.

Let the recipe sharing begin

I've been waiting to migrate MyCentralParkKitchen over to the Blogger Beta but I've run out of patience. I don't know enough HTML to create special sections in my old blog to add recipes but I've figured it out in the idiot-proof Blogger Beta so I'm going to say goodbye to MyCentralParkKitchen (I've migrated the old posts but can't migrate the comments - sorry!) and open things up in this new space - CentralParkKitchen. Why be possessive? When it comes to cookies - sharing is essential!

Pictured here (borrowed photo) are my latest creation. I call them Two-By- Fours. Two inches of cookie by 4 kinds of chocolate. These were inspired by my friend Paul Parton who can't have nuts. I started with Ina Garten's Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies and then began changing things around a bit.

Two-By-Fours
A super decadent chocolate cookie.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound unsalted butter (room temp)

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs (room temp)

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 pound white chocolate (chips or coarsely chopped)

1/2 pound semi-sweet chocolate (chips or coarsely chopped)

1/2 pound dark chocolate (chips or coarsely chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla then the eggs and mix well. Add the cocoa and mix again. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to chocolate mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold in the 3 kinds of chips.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop cookies using a #40 ice cream scoop (or rounded tablespoons). Flatten dough slightly with dampened hands (so dough doesn't stick).

Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven (even if they look undone). Let cool slightly on the pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If you can keep any around - store in an airtight container.