» Meet 
I'm so happy to have Adrienne Odom back in the kitchen at Aquavit. I first worked with Adrienne years ago when she was the pastry chef at our Minneapolis outpost, and I was struck by her immense talent and creative approach from the start. Since baking is such an important part of holiday cooking, I thought it would be fun to have Adrienne share some of her ideas for baking up great holiday cookies:
- If you want to make big batches in a hurry, try bar cookies. I grew up in New York, but lived in the Midwest for years. One of the things I loved about the Midwest -- and really miss -- is the love of simple things, like bar cookies. They are one of the easiest things to bake. You just spread the batter into a pan, bake it, then cut it into bars. They're fuss-free and look great, and there are lots of good recipes out there, like linzer bars, seven-layer bars, and more. Best thing is, you can easily bake up a slew of cookies in one afternoon.
- Assemble cookie platters to vary and highlight the textures and flavors. For example, I'll feature something hard, like biscotti, and something soft, like coconut macaroons. I also try to present a mix of different flavors, like gingersnaps, which have great holiday flavors like cloves and cinnamon, and citrusy lemon shortbread. And I always include something chocolatey.
- Choose what kind of cookies you give as a gift carefully. Many cookies are at their best fresh from the oven and don't take well to sitting in tins for a few days. I think biscotti makes a great gift. It's hard and dry already, so there's no stale factor, and they're really nice for people to have on hand for drop-in visitors. The best thing about biscotti is that you can make one basic dough and add different flavorings, so you end up with three distinct varieties. I'd recommend adding the following to your basic biscotti dough for a great trio of cookies that any friend would love to get:
- Orange and Chocolate: Add orange zest and chopped-up chocolate to your basic dough.
- Fennel and Citrus: Add toasted fennel seeds and lemon zest to your basic dough.
- Hazelnut: Add Frangelico and chopped hazelnuts to your basic dough.
