Hungarian Isler cookies
Many hands help make holiday cookies. That’s true when you’re gathered with family and friends and vats of colored icing. It’s true when you’re running a contest for cookie recipes, when it takes thousands of readers, dozens of cooking school students and five hungry judges to choose the best. And, it turns out, that’s even true if you’re one of the winners.
This year’s Holiday Cookie Bake-Off attracted nearly 200 recipe entries. More than 7,000 votes were cast by readers on our Facebook page. We took the top 50 vote-getters to the folks at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, and students and faculty there baked them all off.
L.A. Times Food Editor Russ Parsons, Deputy Food Editor Betty Hallock and Times Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter spent one Saturday morning tasting every single one along with Lachlan Sands, dean of Le Cordon Bleu, and one of his students, Katherine Berg.
Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen was jammed with happy bakers and their helpers for the photo shoot for today’s cover story. But none of them was happier than Nicole Cleghorn, who flew in for the event from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
Her husband is a staff sergeant stationed there, and she follows the Times Food section online. So when she learned that her white chocolate turtle cookies were chosen among our 10 favorites in this year’s contest, she planned to email us a photograph.
But then her friends came through. One, whose husband travels a lot on business, donated enough airline miles to get her a free ticket. Five others chipped in enough cash for a couple of nights in a hotel. And so Cleghorn was able to join the nine local winners in the Test Kitchen.
She brought a box of intricately decorated cookies she’d made at home and marveled at the turn of events. “That hotel!” she said. “My goodness, it has glass elevators and robes in every room.”
Amazing what great cookies -- and the hands of many friends -- can do.
In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar. Slowly beat in the walnuts, rum and salt. Slowly beat in the flour. Cover and refrigerate the dough until well-chilled, at least 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and break off one-fourth of the dough; return the rest of the dough to the refrigerator so it stays chilled until rolling. Roll each portion of the dough to a thickness of 3 millimeters (a scant one-eighth of an inch); if the dough is a bit sticky, roll it under a layer of plastic wrap or dust the dough lightly with flour. Cut out rounds using a 2-inch cookie cutter. Place the rounds on a baking sheet and bake just until the edges start to turn brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the cookies and cool on a rack.
To assemble the cookie sandwiches, spoon about 1 teaspoon raspberry jam in the center of half of one cookie and top with a second. Repeat with all of the cookies.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave using a glass microwave-safe container; stir the chips every 10 seconds until melted. The chocolate can also be melted in a metal bowl set over simmering water, stirring until all of the chips are melted. Place the melted chocolate into a piping bag or into a heavy, sealable plastic bag with one of the corners cut off, and glaze the cookies. Garnish with dark and white chocolate curls for an extra special treat.
Store the cookies in a tin container and place in a cool place at least overnight, to give the flavors time to develop.
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