Michelle Obama Cookies Will Be In The Ritz Carltons' Inaugural Rooms (RECIPE)

The New York Times reports that visitors staying at either of Washington D.C.'s two Ritz Carltons for the inauguration will receive Michelle Obama's cookies in their room. The cookies won't be made by the first lady-elect herself, of course, but come from a recipe Mrs. Obama submitted to Family Circle magazine (as the Times story details). A modified version of the recipe appears below.

Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies, adapted

1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1-1/2 tablespoons Amaretto
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 cups flour
¾ cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Beat sugar and butter until mixture is smooth.
3. Slowly add egg yolk, Amaretto, salt, orange and lemon rind, mixing well.
4. Slowly mix in flour until mixture is well blended.
5. Pat the mixture into an even layer in an ungreased 10 by 15 inch jelly roll pan.
6. Whisk the egg white until foaming and brush on top of dough. Sprinkle with almonds.
7. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until lightly browned.
Cool slightly and cut into two inch squares while still warm.
Yield: 40 squares

RELATED: The Obamas Make Tuna Salad, Talk Favorite Foods (VIDEO)

Comments

[muvera]

For photo decoration you can try Gogo Cake. http://www.gogocake.com/store/circle-edible-images-p-222.html

[MikeDu]

Mrs. Obama is a successful /awyer and we STILL feel the need to get her cookie recipes? This is almost as culturally backward as when Repubs force candidates to state how many guns they own! Do you recall Mrs. McCain's recipe 'scandal' during the election ? Yeh right, an aging Paris Hiltonesque heiress is definitely going to have her own cookie recipe, right next to her well-used Betty Crocker cookbook.

[aliceinthewater]

I just made these and they turned out very well. However, I upped the amount of Amaretto to two tablespoons.

The trick with these is to use REALLY good butter. If at all possible attempt to find some from a local dairy.

[propitiousmoment]

Best shortbread ever is 2 cups butter, 1 cup sugar, 4 cups flour. Use real butter, not margarine. Mix it up and let it sit tightly covered in the refrigerator for about a week. Then roll it out and bake. After baking it will just melt in your mouth. Or you can bake and then store for a week. (Doesn't have to be a week, but at least several days.) It's simple and needs nothing else to make it perfectly addictive. The waiting time lets the butter and flour meld together or something, I don't know the chemistry of it but I always get raves when I bake it, usually for Christmas.

Michelle's looks good, tho, both in the original and this adapted version. I'll have to try it soon.

[stayinsouth1981]

FANTASTIC!!
NYTs had similar suggestions for their Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I think the time waiting in the fridge allowes the flour to truly be moistened. YUmmmmmmm thanks for the recipe.

[GinnyinWI]

I tried that choc. chip one but didn't like it as well. Aging it in the fridge gives it a definite caramel flavor--but you don't always want that.

[propitiousmoment]

almost forgot, you can also make it with brown sugar - equally wonderful.

[bo-stinks]

if you say anything anti obama is your post automatically removed? how opened mindedn of you.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Since this is an article about cookies and don't they sound yummy, why don't you just get into the yummy spirit and say something very nice about Obama or the cookies? Come on, you can do it.

[sjones66]

I love this family! Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are so welcome as fantastic role models of real women -- smart, loving, ambitious, kind, generous and thoughtful­....

YES WE DID:-)

[oaklynne]

Someone should send a few dozen to that skinny conservative crackpot, Ann Coulter!

[MIVOTE]

And Cindy McCain.

[payos]

don't know, the amaretto might push them over the top

[mommadona]

Short, simple, classic.

[benne]

I really wish that Michelle would (or was able to) emphasize her intelligence more. She doesn't strike me really as a cookie-baking gal. Why must first ladies still be put through these tests these days? I hope the next first lady says "Toll House" from the freezer section when asked what's her favorite recipe for cookies.

[peithecelt]

Why is it that a woman cannot be strong, and intelligent *and* bake?

It is just as wrong and single sided to say that women should just reach for junk food from the frozen food aisle for their children as it is to say that they should do nothing but bake.

Anyone who has listened to Michelle speak for more than a minute has no question of her strength and intelligen­ce.. It's why nitwits like Coulter are terrified of her.

[Mysticalsister]

woman can be smart AND bake -- and sew -- and knit, etc.
Those preprocessed Toll House cookie are gross!

[bwilder]

Michelle Obama's intelligence is obvious to anyone that has listened to her
or read about her personal history.

This idea that women can only be one or the other is outdated as much as
the idea that women cannot be CEO's or president and also have a fulfilling family life.

The argument that she can ONLY be 'intelligent' and must reject such things
as baking because it is somehow a passé or demeaning thing in relation to
gender is silly. We (women) may not have the time to do EVERYTHING but
we can do many things, and baking on a weekend or an evening is a wonderful
way to express oneself and to show love and care for our family....­.it's a creative
endeavor, relaxing and rewarding.

I have the highest respect for Michelle Obama and will most definitely be
trying her shortbread recipe soon! At the same time I also know that we will
see her intelligence and patriotism displayed in many ways over the next
four years. How nice to have a first lady that can do so many things and
do them well.

BTW I know a few men who also enjoy a good workout in the kitchen and no
one would tell them to buy pre-made tollhouse cookies when they would rather
make their own :-) and no one would 'demean' them for wanting to do some
baking along with whatever their job or career entails...­.

ease up! have a cookie!

[oaklynne]

Intelligent, successful women don't have to prove they are smart and accomplished and it is a measure of their self-assurance that they can enjoy simple pleasures like cooking and baking cookies without worrying about how they are perceived.

[kkg58]

aw geez ... I love this ... OMG ... imagine this. I can't remember ever having a cookie recipe or even WANTING to bake something that our first lady had ever made. I dunno ... it seems like this family is too good to be true. they are to0 human, and by that -- I mean, to down to earth.

[carlgt1]

They couldn't do Cindy McCain's recipes as they were stolen, copyrighted material!

[kloche]

LMAO!!!! True.

They would have had to replace her stolen cookies with Plastic ones, which is as real as Cindy.

[johnnygoodwud]

if it's modified how can it be the original receipe? what do i know. reading the inaugural fashion story, i didn't realize a 'fur muff' was something you put your hands in to stay warm,,,,,,­,,,,,,,,,,­,on second thought.

[corkonian]

Just can't let that one go, johnny, huh?

[luvangelHussein330]

got fur muff on the mind...

[Deni]

I was born in 1956 and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. I remember having a fur muff as a kid. That "Lake Effect" is darn COLD! It was only used to go to church or other "dress up" occasions. Believe it or not, fur was OK back in the dark ages. I wouldn't wear it now, but back then lots of little girls had them...esp­ecially after Jackie came on the scene.

[mairs]

I had a handwarmer muff for my hands when I was a kid too. Early 60's.

[mlaiuppa]

It looks like the original recipe uses pistachios instead of almonds and contains candied fruits like you'd find in Christmas fruitcake. That makes it seasonal as I'm not sure you can get candied fruit year round.

[Topfeeder]

It looks more like pistachios than almonds in the photo.

[corkonian]

Definitely - and what are the red things?

[terragazelle60]

Maybe its the orange rind? in the photo maybe they just look red?

[corkonian]

And why is the recipe 'modified'?

[WritingfromAlaska]

Because this is the recipe they are using at the hotel - they probably added their own touches to her original .

[Culturemaven]

That's so freaky, because, are you ready for this? I'm eating pistachios right now. I know!
So, yes, I agree the photo is not the correct one. The pictured cookie looks more like a holiday bar cookie with pistachios and craisins or dried cherries.

[mairs]

But it says shortbread cookies, and shortbread is something spread out and cut up like the photo. It's not a regular dropped cookie.

[nibblybits]

The original recipe doesn't specify which nuts, though the photo clearly shows pistachios.

http://www.parents.com/recipe/cookies/michelle-obamas-shortbread-cookies/

Just a warning though: They're not very good cookies, sad to say. I made these and Cindy McCain's Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies for a party I attended, and Cindy's cookies were tastier. I can't lie.

[mairs]

But they weren't Cindy's cookies. They were off the food channel I think.

[AngelaQuattrano]

It is pistachios, and there's something red in it, too. I think they just used a file photo of some cookie. It's clearly not the recipe in the story.

[PATina]

I'm allergic to nuts... so I may try these w/o the almonds.