MARY'S BELL COOKIES

Mary's Bell Cookies image

Categories Cookies Coffee Nut Dessert Bake Kid-Friendly Cherry Pecan Gourmet Kidney Friendly Vegetarian Pescatarian Peanut Free Soy Free Kosher Small Plates

Yield Makes about 5 dozen cookies

Number Of Ingredients 18

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Ingredients

For filling
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
15 to 18 maraschino cherries (from a 10-oz jar), including 3 tablespoons juice
1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (5 oz)
For cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant-coffee granules or instant-espresso powder
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening (preferably trans-fat free), at room temperature
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 large egg
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Special Equipment
a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter; a small offset spatula

Steps:

Make filling:
Stir together brown sugar, butter, and 3 tablespoons cherry juice until combined, then stir in pecans. Set cherries aside.
Make cookies:
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, and coffee.
Beat together brown sugar and shortening in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 6 to 8 minutes. Add corn syrup, egg, and cream and beat until combined well.
Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, then mix until combined.
Roll out one third of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper to 1/8-inch thick (about 15 by 11 inches). Chill dough on wax paper on a baking sheet until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Cut out as many cookies as possible with cutter and transfer with a metal spatula to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. Roll out, chill, and cut remaining dough in same manner. Reserve scraps.
Center 1/2 teaspoon nut filling on lower half of each cookie, then, using spatula, fold sides in toward center to form a cone. (Dough may crack along fold; part of filling will be exposed.)
Stem and quarter cherries. Place 1 cherry quarter over exposed filling on each cookie to make bell clapper.
Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, 12 to 16 minutes total. Transfer to racks to cool completely.
Reroll scraps, then make more cookies in same manner (reroll only twice), baking them on cooled sheets.