cookies

Susannah helped me mix and cut white chocolate pistachio cranberry bark (mouthful!). It's not too sweet and looks great with the green and red and white touches.

I had a blast last week braving downtown historic Richmond to attend a cooking class at the sweet little Mise En Place in Shockoe Bottom. I was a bit nervous about being quizzed about my skills or tested on my techniques and I didn't know how many or who would be there.
But it was a blast.
Nearly four hours of glorious, interruption free baking with fancy tools, ovens, recipes and someone else doing the dishes! The chef (Christine) even treated us to a cup of butternut bisque and a fennel salad and plenty of wine and cider.
PLUS we got to divvy up all the stash at the end to bring home and share with loved ones. Needless to say, our stash is almost gone- happily.
I'd highly recommend hanging out there any time of the year and learning more about her tricks of the trade and recommendations.
Here is one of the two recipes that my "team" was responsible for that night.
It's lovely, but takes a bit longer to cook than the recipe says (we added an extra five minutes.)

White Chocolate coconut cookies
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup shredded coconut flakes
For garnish:
8 ounces white chocolate, melted
3/4 cup toasted, shredded coconut flakes
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, flour and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy with a hand held electric mixer. Beat in the egg. Add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Fold in the oats, vanilla extract and shredded coconut flakes.
Form walnut-sized balls of the mixture and drop 2 inches apart onto parchment paper-lined sheet pans. Bake in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely.
When the cookies are cool, dip them halfway into the melted white chocolate and then into the toasted shredded coconut flakes. Set them down onto parchment paper-lined sheet pans to dry completely.

this made about two dozen for us, but you could shape them a bit smaller and get more out of them. so yummy and buttery!