By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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Stone cookies
go down easy after
a dunking in hot coffee

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When it comes to cookies, some like 'em hard. Hard as rocks, which accounts for the popularity of Big Island Stone Cookies.

These cookies are made for dunking, or perhaps teething, and Lenette Tam holds them in highest regard.

"I am a fan of these break-the-teeth goodies that need to be dipped in coffee or tea to soften, as they travel well and are not too sweet," she writes.

Despite the universal popularity of biscotti, stone cookies seem a local treat. Gregg R. Gillespie, author of "1001 Cookie Recipes" (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1995), was kind enough to search his extensive recipe collection and couldn't come up with anything that sounded like a stone cookie. He also consulted 20 baker friends, to no avail.

The answer showed up closer to home. Susy Kawamoto, a frequent solver of mystery requests to this column, came up with a couple of recipes.

The trick here is in calculating exact baking time for your particular oven. The heat's relatively low, 325 degrees, so the cookies dry out over a fairly long period, but you have to watch them carefully or they could burn. If your oven runs hot, reduce the heat and bake longer, to prevent burning.

If they aren't quite hard enough after cooling, send 'em back into the oven.

"You want to get the moisture out of the cookie so that it will have that 'hard' feel," Kawamoto says, "but when you dunk them, they should have a nice crunch to them."

Gillespie, after testing Kawamoto's recipe, said the hardness is a function of the baking temperature. He said you could get similar results with most cookie recipes, basically by overbaking them.

Kawamoto also sent along a recipe for hard Italian cookies, Ossa da Mordere (Bones of the Dead), good for the coffee-break station on Halloween.

Stone Cookies

1 block softened butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream margarine or butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and milk; mix well.

Add baking soda and vanilla; mix well. Add flour and mix well. Dough will be very sticky. Drop by rounded tablespoon (or use ice cream scoop) onto parchment-lined cookie sheet or slightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten. Or form into rectangles that will fit into a coffee cup. Bake about 25, until very golden brown, watching carefully to make sure they don't burn.

If cookies are still a little soft in the center after they cool, return them to the oven and bake a few minutes more, making sure they don't burn. Cool and store in airtight container.

Ossa Da Mordere

3 egg whites
1-3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 cups very coarsely chopped blanched almonds
1-3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat egg whites and sugar with lemon peel and baking powder until smooth. With a heavy spoon, work the nuts in thoroughly, then the flour.

Lightly flour hands, then pinch off tablespoon-sized lumps of dough and shape into short, sturdy bones. Place on a slightly greased baking sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until pale brown.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.