Avocado Lime Tea Cookies

The Boston PPK Potluck is in less than a week, so I’m playing around with our theme ingredient: avocados. I was laying in bed last night, trying to fall asleep, when this idea hit me over the head. This recipe is your basic cream cheese drop cookie with avocado replacing some of the “butter.” The lime makes them absolutely delightful, but unfortunately the pale green color of the dough disappeared after baking.

You can’t really taste the avocado, but it’s certainly a neat use for them. The recipe is below, but just like last time, I’m going to stress that this is a test recipe. I need to think of some ways to dress these babies up, but it might be as simple as adding a little decorating sugar to them before baking.

Happy Experimenting!

Avocado Lime Tea Cookies
Makes 2 1/2 to 3 Dozen Cookies

1 Avocado
1/2 Cup Earth Balance
4 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1 Cup Sugar
1 3/4 Tbs Lime Juice
Zest of 1 Lime, finely chopped
2 Cups All Purpose Flour

Preheat oven to 375º.

Cream earth balance, cream cheese, avocado, and sugar together. Add zest and lime juice, and beat until light and fluffy (I used an electric mixer). Gently fold in flour, 1/2 cup at a time.

Measure out 1 Tbs balls of dough. Roll between your palms to form a sphere, then flatten into discs. Arrange on a lightly greased cookie sheet. The dough will not spread when baked. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

5 comments January 28th, 2007

How to Chiffonade Basil

Chiffonading, besides sounding strange in verb form, is a simple technique you may halready know. I find it a very handy for basil, but it can be used for any leafy thing large enough to roll. Kale leaves, collards, lime leaves, whatever floats your boat. Leaves can be difficult to cut on their own, but when you stack them your knife actually has something to sink its teeth into. The end result proves that your hands are cooler than any food processor around.

Start with your basil leaves stacked. I got a little over zealous here, you can stack half this many leaves. Larger leaves like kale might not need stacking, use your judgement. You want the leaves to all go in the same direction, all neat like.

Roll up your leaves. It is easiest to roll basil lengthwise, so that the stems are parallel to the roll. With lime leaves, however, roll the leaves from tip to stem; that way you can cut out the woody center when you get there.

With a sharp knife, begin slicing the roll perpendicularly, creating fine, thin strips. The tighter the roll, the easier it is to make your slices thin. My fat roll was a little difficult to maneuver.

My finished chiffonade isn’t that fine, but you can get really crazy and make the most impossibly thin whips of basil if you prefer.

I’m trying to build up a little reference library of easy techniques that not only make cooking easier, but also make you feel fancier. So far we have:

How to Chop and Onion

How to Supreme an Orange

8 comments January 28th, 2007