This is the lesson of one holiday cookie recipe that involved spam — as in email, not the canned meat.
High school best friends Serena Daley and Maggie Dring, both 16, submitted their recipe for peppermint hot chocolate cookies to our Holiday Cookie Contest this year, and it earned enough votes to qualify them as finalists. The next step: Bring a batch of their cookies to the Tribune test kitchen for judging. But the congratulatory email from our food editor went to a spam folder, so the girls missed the deadline.
“While most kids were asking for new phones and clothing for Christmas, we were begging for KitchenAid stand mixers (Maggie’s is red and Serena’s is seafoam),” they wrote with their entry.
But the story has a happy ending: Eventually, Maggie and Serena found the email. It was too late to enter the finals — judging was already over, and we had crowned our winners — but we invited the teens and their parents to meet the Tribune’s food team, tour our test kitchen and teach us how to make their cookies.
The chocolate sandwiches cookies, dipped in peppermint icing and coated in crushed candy canes, were truly delicious. Chicago’s next star pastry chefs? Watch out for these two in a few years.
And the lesson we all learned? When you enter a contest, check your spam folder. But who knows — maybe we’ve inspired a savory holiday cookie for next year’s contest.
You can find Maggie and Serena’s original entry in our Holiday Cookie Contest here, and their cookie recipe is also printed below.
[email protected]
Twitter @louisachu
Peppermint hot chocolate cookies
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
More Top Picks Best Monitor Light Bars For Dual Monitors
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 packet hot cocoa mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Candy canes, crushed
Chocolate frosting, see recipe
Peppermint icing, see recipe
1. Whisk together dry ingredients.
2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles wet sand.
3. Add water until dough stays together.
4. Roll dough in ball, wrap in plastic, and rest in fridge for 30 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Using circle cookie cutter, cut out cookies then place on lined baking sheets.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are golden brown, then cool on baking sheets completely.
8. Frost the back of every other cookie, then sandwich. Freeze for 10 minutes to set.
9. Dip cookie sandwiches in icing, so that half the cookie is covered, then sprinkle on crushed candy canes.
Chocolate frosting
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
Cream butter, confectioners’ sugar, and cocoa powder using electric mixer. Add vanilla and milk, and mix until frosting has a spreadable consistency.
Peppermint icing
1 bag (8 ounces) white chocolate chips
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
3 to 6 teaspoons milk
Melt white chocolate chips, then mix in rest of ingredients.
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #144A7C;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Food & Dining Photos and Video”;
display: block;
font: 700 23px/25px Georgia,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
var playlist = ‘chi_dining’,
layout = ‘autoblurb5plus1’,
iu = ‘%2F4011%2Ftrb.chicagotribune%2Fent%2Fdining’;
More Top Picks Best Wheelbarrows For Heavy Loads