The holidays can be a time of tradition or even breaking tradition. This year, wow guests with a few gourmet recipes from Northern Kentucky chefs and a mixologist.
Evan Courtney, who’s head chef at Fort Thomas restaurant and wine shop Grassroots and Vine, offers a recipe for brown butter white chip cranberry cookies.
“I’ve always loved brown butter cookies,” he told LINK. “Barb Thomas, the owner of Grassroots and Vine, does not like dried cranberries. So I will always try to sneak them into things for her to try. We had a cookie competition for Christmas, and she was a judge. I made these cookies to see if I would get first place. Unfortunately, I did not place.”
The cookies aren’t on the menu – that might change – but he makes them at home.
“My mom loves them, so I have to make them every year now,” he said. “They’re great for after a Thanksgiving meal or Christmas morning, and Santa loves them, too.”
Brown Butter White Chip Cranberry Cookies
1 packed cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of butter
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of oats
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut butter into chunks and add them to a saucepan on medium heat.
Stir for 2 to 4 minutes until you see the solids in the butter start to turn brown.
Turn off the heat and stir for 2 minutes more, making sure that the solids do not burn.
In a mixing bowl, add both sugars and the brown butter and mix to a creamy consistency.
Add the flour, oats, salt and baking soda, and mix until everything is incorporated.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the bowl.
Next, add the dried cranberries and the chocolate chips.
Scoop out cookie dough 2 tbsp at a time on a sheet pan. Cook for 11 to 14 minutes, then cool.
The holidays don’t entail just stuffing faces with sweets and carbs – though, there’s a lot of that. They’re also a time for celebration. Kelsey St. Clair, a mixologist at Knowledge Bar and Social Room in Covington, whipped up a couple of cocktails (and one mocktail) to make the party season brighter.
“I eat dishes, and I think of cocktails,” St. Clair said about some of her food-based creations.
Arils of Thyme
“I really wanted to make a nonalcoholic ginger-pomegranate sour,” she said. “And then I started putting vodka and gin in it. I like it with vodka or the gin. I love thyme.”
Note: This could be made without the gin for a mocktail experience.
1 charred thyme sprig
1 oz. aquafaba [Note: Aquafaba is chickpea juice and is used as an egg-white substitute]
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. pomegranate juice
1 oz. ginger simple syrup
2 oz. gin
2 dashes rhubarb bitters
Note: Simple syrup is made by simmering one cup of water with one cup of sugar.
In a shaker tin, add 1 charred sprig of thyme,1 oz. aquafaba, 1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice, 1/2 oz. pomegranate juice, 1 oz. ginger simple syrup, 2 oz. gin (Sipsmith gin is my favorite) and 2 dashes rhubarb bitters. Reverse dry-shake – therefore, add ice into your tin. Hard-shake for 30 seconds. Strain back into one of your tins, discarding the ice for the liquid to now be reshaken without ice. “Mime” shake, or “dry” shake until the ice dissolves. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a powdered sugar-dusted piece of thyme.
Calabaza Cutie
St. Clair takes roasted butternut squash to a whole new level and infuses it with Pisco, a type of Peruvian liqueur. The inspiration for the three-ingredient cocktail came from Shuga’s in Colorado Springs.
“The drink was insane,” she said. “It was called the Sassquash, and it tasted like butternut squash. A couple of years ago, I asked, ‘What do you do?’ And they said they cubed up raw butternut squash and infused it for a whole month, which is a long time. I was like, one day I am going to make something that’s like it. It’s light. It doesn’t have a weird mouth feel, which is nice. It’s the best thing ever.”
Infusion:
Cube up a 3-pound butternut squash, season with nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, maple syrup and fresh sage leaves. Toss together really well and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Let squash cool. In a large, sealable container, add the roasted squash and top with 1000ml of BarSol Pisco. Let it sit for 24 hours in a refrigerator. Strain the infusion. Use cheese cloth if necessary.
1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz. simple syrup
2 oz. roasted butternut squash-infused BarSol Pisco
In a shaker tin, add 1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice, 1/4 oz. simple syrup, 2 oz. of the butternut squash Pisco. (She uses BarSol Pisco.) Add ice to your tin and give a hard-standard shake. Double-strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass (a 5-oz. glass). Garnish with a dehydrated lemon wheel and two sage leaves pinned to the glass to resemble a flower.
Maddy Bernard is the former executive chef and pastry chef at Coppin’s. For the holidays, she likes to make oatmeal cookies with special combinations.
“I love these cookies for holiday gatherings because they’re so simple and easily scaled up to feed a crowd,” she said. “They’ll make your house smell heavenly, and they freeze extremely well, so you can have homemade cookies whenever you want.”
Oatmeal Cookies
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
3 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
2 cups fillings (*see note)
In a stand mixer, cream together butter and both sugars with a paddle attachment until creamed, about five minutes. Scrape the bowl and add eggs one at a time, scraping between each addition and mixing until just uniform. Separately, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and spices and add to butter mixture all at once. Stir in on low speed until mostly combined, then add oats and fillings by hand. Portion into ~2-oz. balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving room for them to spread significantly. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and crispy around the edges but still soft in the center.
*Her favorite combinations include:
-chocolate chips, toasted pecans and the zest of half an orange
-dried tart cherries, toasted almonds and a drop of almond extract
-golden raisins, walnuts and double the cardamom
-butterscotch chips