After-Work Gourmet by Lisa Messinger

Snacking at work taught me a quick trick for dressing up cookies, turning them into such a glam treat that they are part of perfect platters for New Year's Eve parties. As the holiday season was ringing in, I was busy at work and for sustenance digging into a box of Country Choice Organic Snacking Cookies (www.countrychoiceorganic.com), which I had bought at the local supermarket. After the first bite, my eyes zipped from my computer screen to the delicacies at hand: crunchy iced oatmeal cookies.

It had been a long time, perhaps since childhood, that I'd feasted on an iced cookie and had no memory of how much instant pizzazz the thin glaze — just simple vanilla — added to the overall effect. The pop in flavor was marvelously measurable.

I had been wracking my brain for an easy, yet dazzling, treat to serve on New Year's Eve party platters. This was it: A quick glaze I could whip up to top simple homemade cookies, or an undetectable cheat in the form of that same glaze instead spread on supermarket cookies like crispy gingersnaps. Plain crispy Nabisco Ginger Snaps are my favorites — a perfect palette on which to paint glaze and let it deliciously dry. Country Choice Organic Vanilla Wafer Snacking Cookies also make an excellent base.

Icing or glazing a cookie is my kind of baking technique: Virtually all you have to remember is to lightly drizzle it or gently and sparingly spoon it on completely cooled cookies. No dollops or putting it on thick as you might with frosting. Other than that, remember to pair flavors well — a fairly nondescript cookie (such as vanilla wafer or sugar cookie) with a spicier, splashier glaze or vice versa.

The following spunky pumpkin cookies, for instance, are paired with sweet drizzled icing that's nothing more than confectioners' sugar, vanilla and either whipping cream, rum or orange juice. The addictive icing also serves as a perfect topper to store-bought gingersnaps.

ICED PUMPKIN COOKIES

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup cooked, pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup raisins

Icing:

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons whipping cream, rum or fresh orange juice

Yields 6 dozen cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into butter mixture until well blended. Add nuts and raisins. Drop by teaspoonful onto parchment-covered baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden. Cool.

To prepare icing: Cream confectioners' sugar and butter.

Add vanilla and whipping cream, rum or fresh orange juice and beat until smooth. If icing is too thin, add more confectioners' sugar; if too thick, add more cream, rum or orange juice. Drizzle over cookies. Refrigerate to store.

— www.foodnetwork.com.

TURBINADOS WITH FRESH CITRUS GLAZE

1 cup turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw brand)

Grated zest from 1 large orange

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably organic

3/4 cup semolina

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 large egg

Glaze:

2 ounces full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Grated zest of 1 large orange

Yields about 5 dozen cookies.

Combine the sugar and orange zest in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade; pulse a few times. Add flour, semolina, baking powder and salt and pulse about 10 times to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs, about 15 pulses. Whisk together lemon juice and egg. With the machine running, take about 10 seconds to add juice mixture. Process, stopping to scrape down sides of the bowl if necessary, just until dough begins to form a ball, 10 to 15 seconds longer.

Turn out dough and any crumbs onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently knead until dough holds. Divide in half and shape each into 1 1/2-inch-diameter log about 10 inches long. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Position oven racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Slice chilled dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake — switching the positions of the sheets form top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking — until edges of cookies are golden brown, about 14 minutes. Cool on the sheets for a few minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire cake rack to cool completely.

To prepare glaze: Using an electric mixer at high speed, beat cream cheese in a medium-size bowl until smooth. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually beat in orange juice. Add enough confectioners' sugar to make the glaze with the consistency of heavy cream. Stir in the orange zest.

Spoon about 1 teaspoon of glaze on each cookie and spread with a small metal spatula. Let stand until the glaze is set and dry, about 1 hour. Refrigerate to store.

— "Sweet! From Agave to Turbinado, Home Baking with Every Kind of Natural Sugar and Sweetener" by Mani Niall (Da Capo, $18.95).

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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