a Classic, cookies, and milk on George Hirsch Lifestyle

Chocolate treat, under 30 minutes - mixing and baking. But can you wait 24 hours? Probably not, but just save a few because these cookies actually taste even better a few days after baking. Eyes go wide open on the first bite. Try my recipe for yourself, and you'll agree. For best results, use a good-quality cocoa powder.

Classic Brownie Cookies

Makes 3 dozen large or 6 dozen small

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

1 1/3 cups butter

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 each eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

2/3 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons milk

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

1 cup mini chocolate chips, semi sweet, or chopped chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar one minute, or until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating lightly after each.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk beating at low speed about 1 minute, or just until blended.

Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

Drop dough with cookie scoop (heaping 2 Tablespoons) on parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies will still appear soft and moist when baked, but firm up on cooling.

Cool slightly, then remove to cooling rack. About 3 dozen cookies.

Tip: Smaller cookies can be made using 1 Tablespoon dough for each cookie, baking for 8 to 10 minutes.

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Guest post + recipe today by Marie Bianco, my dear friend, food writer, and author. This is one of her favorite holiday cookie recipes.

Edible holiday gifts always make a hit, and this one is about as easy as it can get. Even school-age children can get into the act.

Pignoli cookies can cost up to $16 to $20 a pound if you buy them at an Italian bakery, but these Southern Italian holiday favorites are so easy to make you’ll want to make plenty and give them as gifts.

Pignoli Cookies

8 ounces pignoli (pine nuts)

½ cup granulated sugar

½ confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

Dash salt

1 (8 ounces) almond paste

2 egg whites, slightly beaten

½ teaspoon almond extract

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees—line 2 cookie sheets with Teflon or Silpat liners or lightly butter them. Place pignoli in a shallow dish.

2. Combine granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl and lightly whisk.

3. Break up the almond paste with your fingers and place it in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Add the egg whites and beat on low speed until smooth. You can use a hand mixer, but you’ll need a strong arm if you do it by hand.

4. Add the almond extract and the flour mixture and beat until flour is blended in about 30 seconds. Do not overbeat.

5. Using a teaspoon, scoop up a rounded spoon of dough and cover it with pignoli. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Wash sticky dough off your hands and keep them clean.

6. Bake the cookies for 18 to 25 minutes, depending on if you like them soft or chewy. Cool 1 minute before removing them from the rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Makes about 30 cookies.

Hints for making pignoli.

Always use almond paste, not marzipan, which is a combination of almond paste and sugar.

Break up the almond paste into small pieces with your fingers. If the almond paste has hardened, grate it using the large hole on a four-sided grater.

A small amount of flour will keep the cookies from spreading too much.

The size of the dough ball determines the size of the cookie. Make them smaller if you want more cookies.

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13 EPISODES on 4 HD-DVD Disk Set, season one