Makes about 12 large cookies
- Active time:40 min
- Start to finish:10 hr (includes soaking raisins)
December 2000
“Crusty on the outside, with a rich, gooey center,” wrote Heatter about her cookies in our December 2000 issue; “They…pack a punch…you won’t taste the gin, but you’ll feel its effects.” Indeed, these are for grown-ups only. Start macerating the fruit a day ahead.This is just one of Gourmet’s Favorite Cookies: 1941-2008. Although we’ve retested the recipes, in the interest of authenticity we’ve left them unchanged: The instructions below are still exactly as they were originally printed.
-
1/2
cup
golden raisins
-
1/3
cup
gin
-
3
cups
sifted confectioners sugar (sift before measuring)
-
2/3
cup
sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process (sift before measuring)
-
1
teaspoon
instant espresso powder
-
2
tablespoons
all-purpose flour (unsifted)
-
1/8
teaspoon
salt
-
3
large egg whites
-
1/2
teaspoon
vanilla
-
8
oz
pecans (2 1/4 cups), toasted, cooled, and coarsely chopped
-
Combine raisins and gin in a cup and let stand at least 8 hours to macerate.
-
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour 2 large baking sheets, shaking off excess flour.
-
Mix confectioners sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, flour, and salt with an electric mixer at low speed. Add egg whites and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth.
-
Drain raisins in a sieve, without pressing, then add raisins to dough with pecans. Stir until thoroughly mixed. (Dough will be thick and sticky.)
-
Working quickly, drop 1/4 cup dough for each cookie onto a baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 3 inches apart, and gently pat down each mound to about 1/2 inch thick.
-
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, in middle of oven, rotating sheet halfway through baking, 15 to 17 minutes total, or until cookies appear cracked and centers are just set. Cool cookies on sheet 1 minute, then transfer carefully to a rack to cool completely.
Cooks’ notes: - You can soak raisins in gin up to 1 week.
- Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.
