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Looking for something to spice up your holiday cookie swap? Or just want to try something new for your family? We've rounded up favorite cookies from female pastry chefs around the world, from the Seychelles and Doha to Beverly Hills, and London. Ready, set, baaaaake!
Executive Pastry Chef Tiffany Pascua, Hotel Bel-Air Growing up in a close-knit family, eating was a form of family bonding and an opportunity to create great memories for executive pastry chef Tiffany Pascua. Sharing dishes she had cooked for family parties always put a smile on everyone’s face, so she decided to turn her hobby into a career. Now in her fourth year as Executive Pastry Chef at Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, Tiffany works to create edible art, making eye-catching dishes that taste delicious and have just the right texture. She shares her favorite holiday cookie recipes.
White Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies
Ingredients:
½ cup Butter
1/3 cup Light Brown Sugar
½ cup Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
1 each Whole Large Egg
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Dried Cherries
½ cup White Chocolate Chips
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 325 F / 162 C
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, light brown sugar, and sugar for 5 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Add vanilla extract and egg. Mix to combine.
Sift flour, baking, soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix until flour is just combined.
Add cherries and white chocolate, mix until evenly distributed.
Scoop dough onto a baking sheet, using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop.
Bake for 7 minutes rotate pan after 3 minutes
Cool and enjoy!
Verónica Garrido Martínez, Head Pastry Chef, Great Scotland Yard Hotel is one of our favorite pastry chefs in London! Veronica is currently responsible for all the baked goods in the 152-room Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of the Hyatt Unbound Collection, a conversion of the historic former home of the Metropolitan Police. Prior, Chef Veronica worked in Michelin star restaurants in her native Spain and London, read more about her fascinating career.
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients:
350 grams pastry flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp group cinnamon
1 tsp ground green cardamom
125 grams soft butter
175 grams dark brown soft sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 egg
Method:
Mix the sugars and the soft butter in the mixing bowl with the paddle attachment and mix until light and fluffy.
Add then the egg and mix until is well integrated.
Add then the dry ingredients and mix just until the dough comes fully together.
Rest in the fridge for a couple of hours, then roll into the desired thickness and cut with the chosen cutters.
Bake at 335 F /170 C for around 8 minutes or till they have a nice golden color.
Allow to completely cool before applying the icing.
For the royal icing, use 300 grams and 40 grams of pasteurized egg whites and a splash of water depending on how fluid you want your icing. Alter the thickness by adding more icing sugar or more water egg whites if wanting to make it more liquid. Add any color you like to it, you can find a big range of different gel colors in all supermarkets.
Chef Mimin's culinary journey began in hot kitchens at the age of 20 where she discovered her love and passion for pastry. Many years later, she's worked around the globe from luxury cruise lines to Hilton's around the Middle East and Asia, and now she is back in Doha doing what she loves, fueling her creativity. Chef Mimin shares her favorite hazelnut cookie recipe.
Hazelnut Cookies
Ingredients:
350 grams Hazelnut powder (can buy on Amazon or in baking shops)
10 grams Cinnamon
300 grams Sugar
100 grams of Egg whites (best bought in a carton or use about 3 - 4 egg whites)
Method
Beat egg whites and slowly pour sugar until becomes a merengue.
Combine all dry ingredients into a dough.
Roll out the dough around 0.5 - 1 cm thickness then cut with any cookie cutter.
Bake at 160 - 170 degrees C for around 10 - 15 minutes, until golden brown.
If you like, ice with royal icing (see recipe from Chef Veronica above)
Chef Merla is one of the few Seychellois who dared to train and grow abroad. She spent 12 years with the Jumeirah Group, working her way up to Pastry Sous Chef. She's now happy to be back in her native Seychelles, working at the stunning Mango House Seychelles by LXR Hotels & Resorts, and she takes special care to share her experiences working abroad to mentor younger Seychellois chefs. Here's her holiday favorite:
Cinnamon Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
175 grams flour
150 grams butter
120 grams brown sugar
50 grams white sugar
5 grams salt
150 grams milk chocolate chips
30 grams cinnamon
5 grams baking powder
Method:
Mix all the ingredients either by hand or with a mixer.
Wrap in plastic or Tupperware and put in the fridge for two hours.
After two hours, preheat oven to 375 F/ 190 C.
Scoop out golf ball size cookies and flatten slightly.
Bake for 8 minutes.
Be sure to post on social media and tag @hertelier if you give them a try! Happy holidays!