What's Baking? July: Bake Your Favorite Cocktail

This month's theme was chosen by Angela of The Tiny Tyrant's Kitchen, and she suggested baking something inspired by a favorite cocktail. This is perfect for me! It's obvious I haven't been cooking much, and the reason will be clear soon, but to go along with that, I haven't been drinking much, either. Having an excuse to revive a favorite cocktail by baking it is absolutely perfect timing!

Of course, I have many favorite cocktails. I work at a winery, so obviously I love wine, and I would love a glass of wine right now (but alas). I have a small number of favorite cocktails, simply because I prefer wine. But my favorites list include Dark n' Stormies, St Germaine cocktails (champagne and St Germaine, the simple version) and Vermontucky Lemonade. But what to bake? Fortunately, M posted a recipe on facebook for absinthe cookies- essentially those delicious Italian anise biscuit-cookies with anise glaze, only using an absinthe glaze. Ooh! I could work with that!

Surprisingly, I'm not a huge absinthe fan. I love licorice, but I like it sweetened, and the only time I've ever had absinthe, the cocktail was definitely NOT sweetened whatsoever. I also don't think absinthe is the right alcohol for me to have right now, even in a miniscule amount.

So I took this recipe and modified it to use St Germaine. And I love. My husband says he's pretty "meh" about St Germaine, but I did notice all but one of the 8 cookies we had left after taking some to my parents were gone by the time I got home from work yesterday. "Meh" indeed. I need to bake another batch asap!

St Germaine Cookies
inspired by Absinthe Cookies from A Fine Kettle of Fish

Cookie dough
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted, softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1T St Germaine (or vanilla, or anise, or another tasty alcohol)
3T milk
1/4t vinegar
2 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1T baking powder
pinch of salt

Glaze (note: I didn't have quite enough glaze for each cookie- this is fine if you can't wait long enough to sample before the cookies cool enough to glaze)
1-1.5cup powdered sugar
1T butter
1.5T St Germaine (or other tasty alcohol, or 1t vanilla, anise, almond, etc)
1T milk (possibly up to 2T)

To make the dough:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each. Whisk the flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl, and the St Germaine, vinegar and milk together in yet another separate bowl (and let that sit for a few minutes). Alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat til just barely combined. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake in the 350F oven for 12-14 minutes (original recipe said 10-12), til the edges are just barely starting to brown. Let cool.

To make the glaze:
Melt the butter and whisk in the St Germaine and 1T. Whisk in the powdered sugar (start with 1 cup) and add either more sugar or more milk to get the desired consistency- somewhat thick, like honey consistency. Thinner is fine, but it'll run off the cookies more. Drizzle the glaze over the cookies, however much or little you like (I did not have quite enough glaze for the entire batch) Let the glaze harden overnight or for a few hours, either uncovered or very loosely covered.

(I found these got a little sticky in tupperware on a humid July day, and the glaze never really hardened. This leads to sticky fingers, but that's the only bad thing)

YUM. The cookies have a very slight St Germaine taste to them (I wish I could have tried the dough)
but after frosting it's a serious St Germaine flavor. If you want to avoid alcohol, include the St Germaine in the cookies (it's a small amount anyway, and much would bake off) and use lemon juice or vanilla to flavor the glaze.

They're also quick and easy. I can't comment on how long they'll keep, since we ate them all in less than 3 days. ;)

Branching out: cocktails

I recently returned from a trip to Kentucky. I went with my parents, who've been begging me to take this trip with them for a few years now. Since I'm unemployed, I certainly have time on my hands... so I happily agreed.

It was an awesome trip.

I don't talk all that much about alcohol on this blog, because I'm a wine drinker. What can you say about wine, aside from recommending wineries or specific kinds? I drink a lot of local wine, so my recs won't go very far for most of my readers. And I don't really cook with wine, I like drinking it too much.

Hard alcohol lends itself better to recipes. Yes, there are a number of delicious cocktails using wine, but I don't get too creative- again, I focus on the wine, not the mixer (with the exception of sangria). I'm pleased to say after my Kentucky trip, not only do I think Kentucky is lovely and want to go back, but....

I like bourbon.

I can't wait to tell my grandma, she'll be ecstatic. She's a serious Maker's Mark drinker.

We visited Lexington and Loretto, KY, for the annual Redheads and Thoroughbreds weekend with the folks from Maker's Mark. These people know how to organize an event! We had special seats at the Keeneland Racetrack on Friday to watch 10 horse races, including the 23d annual Maker's Mark Mile (I bet on horse #4, Workin With Hops, and won almost $5, woohoo!!!). In the evening was a huge (albeit terribly wet, the weather didn't cooperate) party in downtown Lexington, and Saturday was a huge, fun- and bourbon-filled day at the distillery in Loretto. Unfortunately, this is the last year for the annual party, but I still hope to go back and visit the distillery again- I think I might enjoy it more with fewer people around.

Well anyway, so the point is: I finally started to like bourbon. I've been surrounded by bourbon all my life, but everyone in my family drinks it straight- with something expensive like MM, you probably should. But I can't, it's just too alcoholy. While visiting a friend in Nashville, I was introduced to the oh-so-delicious Jack and Ginger (Jack Daniels in ginger ale), and after purchasing a fairly cheap bottle of whisky to have on hand for a friend, I made a similar drink at home once in a while. While in KY this past week, I had 2 delicious cocktails. (I'd planned to drink mint juleps all weekend long, but alas, some sort of localized mint shortage destroyed those plans!) At Keeneland, the special cocktail of the day was Maker's Mark, citrus liqueur and ginger ale. Very tasty! I have no idea about the ratios, though. At the distillery in Loretto, we were offered Spiced Apple Collinses, which were lovely. And oh look, they shared the recipe:

Spiced Apple Collins
recipe from Maker's Mark

2 parts Maker's Mark
1 1/2 parts Thatcher's spiced apple liqueur
1/2 part sour mix
splash of club soda

Mix and serve over ice.

The only problem was, I'd never heard of Thatcher's. The people mixing and serving the drinks were all "oh you know, Thatcher's!" Well, no, I don't really know. I've never seen this stuff- not that I've ever looked, but still. If you've heard of it, do you think it's a regional delicacy?

So when I got home, I of course had a great stash of Marker's Mark- because I dipped my own bottles. How awesome was that? Borderline legen-wait for it-dary. Ha. It was a lot of fun, and not hard at all.

Once back in MA, I wanted this spiced apple collins. But.... no Thatcher's. So I made up my own thing.

I don't know what to call it.

2T Maker's Mark
2T ginger brandy (I used Arrow, the cheap stuff ;) )
4T seltzer/club soda
1/2T lemon juice

Mix it all, serve over ice. Yum!

It's not exactly the same, but it's good.

After perusing our new "Kentucky Bourbon" cookbook, I decided I'd also like to try a Presbyterian. Apparently this was my paternal grandmother's drink, so I was a little pleased it caught my eye. Grandma B drank it with gin, though, and I'm pretty sure I'll never, ever be a gin drinker.

Presbyterian (from Kentucky Bourbon, linked above)
3T Maker's Mark
4T club soda
4T ginger ale
lemon peel

Place ice in a highball glass, pour the bourbon over the ice. Add the club soda and ginger ale, then twist the lemon peel and rub it around the rim of the glass and put the lemon peel in the drink.

This is also good- although to be honest, I just added a squirt of lemon juice and skipped all the stuff about the peel.

I also tried kind of a makeshift old-fashioned, which is kind of my maternal grandmother's sacred drink. But the bitters make it, well, a little bitter.

Old Fashioned
(from Kentucky Bourbon, linked above)

1/2t sugar
2-3 dashes bitters
splash water
orange slice
maraschino cherry
5T Maker's Mark

Add the sugar and bitters to an old fashioned glass. Add the water, orange and cherry and muddle. Fill with ice, and pour the MM in, in 3 equal parts, and stir after each addition (I don't know why you don't just dump it all in- maybe that's why I wasn't in love with this drink, I dumped it all at once).

Now I should end with saying that I only have one cocktail photo to share because 1. I didn't think to photograph our cocktails at the distillery, and 2. bourbon in an old fashioned glass with other stuff... pretty much all looks the same. Maraschino cherry here, slice of lemon peel there.... not much difference.

I made these drinks carefully. Please enjoy them that way.