So Andy was out of town from Wed. through today, and I had a big brief due on Friday, so it has been a bit hectic. So I did do the baking, but the blogging has been delayed. But here it is, Saturday night, and I am lying in bed typing on a computer. Something is very, very wrong.
OK, anyway, on to this week's recipes:
Salt and Black Pepper Cocoa Shortbread Cookies
Bi-rownies (aka Chipster Topped Brownies)
Both from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home To Yours
Who knew there were still a few cookie recipes that I hadn't made out of this cookbook of Dorie's, but here are two of them. These are very different recipes - the shortbread cookies are very delicate, and the salt and pepper cut the sugar quite effectively. The bi-rownies are just a bomb of chocolate and sugar.
Speaking of bombs - I had a bit of a problem making the shortbread cookies, and the next morning Andrew said it looked like a chocolate bomb had gone off in our kitchen. (Sheepish grin.) These were a bit more of a challenge than I was expecting. This is a recipe where you make your dough, then you collect it into a cylinder, and then refrigerate it for a few hours or more before slicing and baking. Well, I don't know if it was because of the heat spell we've been having or what, but when this dough was made, it was waaaaay too soft to form into a cylinder to refrigerate. I tried. (Chocolate bomb.) Anyway, so I just threw the bowl into the refrigerator, and went to bed. The next morning, I had a meeting downtown, so I got up extra early and marched into the kitchen for round 2 with this dough. I took it out of the refrigerator and eventually managed to form the cylinders from the now very hard dough. But this dough has a very high amount of butter in it, so that when you handle it, the outer parts soften up very quickly. So here I was, breaking portions of the hard dough off and then trying to form it into cylinders, but while the interior is this hard lump, the exterior was quickly softening up to goop. (Chocolate bomb #2.) Anyway, with a lot of chocolate on my hands (and other places), I finally managed to make my cylinders and shove it back into the refrigerator to firm up again. It ends up being a wonderful cookie - very delicate, and very sophisticated. Was it worth it? I'll try it again in the dead of winter and we'll see how that turns out....
The other recipe was one that I had seen and thought about a lot, because it is so decadent. Dorie's name for it is "chipster topped brownies" but I am not in love with the name. So I have rechristened them bi-rownies. Here's the deal. First, you make a brownie batter with walnuts, and spread it in a 9x13 pan. Then, you make a chocolate chip cookie (i.e., blondie) dough, and you cover the brownie matter with it and then bake it. So it is both a blondie and a brownie in one - hence my bi-rownie. Nothing particularly subtle about this recipe, just pure deliciousness.
OK, enough about last week. Now, on to next week....
Actually, next week I will be baking, but I won't be at the Center on Thursday. Andrew and I are going instead to a benefit screening of the new movie "Where The Wild Things Are" and then a party afterwards. I am excited to see the movie, and really looking forward to this event. But somehow we'll still figure out a way to get the cookies to those in need...
Take good care.
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