ZCLA is now on summer break, so there will be no cookies for Sept. 2. This gives me a chance to do a little catch-up, since I didn't post for last week. The cookies for Aug. 26 were:
Palm Beach Brownies, from Maida Heatter, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts
Chewy Orange-Almond Cookies, from Martha Stewart
This was week of opposites. The brownies are a legendary recipe from the great doyenne of desserts, Maida Heatter. Heatter was a giant of the dessert/baking world in the 1970s and 1980s, and fortunately some of her books are still available. I have three, including her Book of Great Chocolate Desserts, Book of Great Desserts, and Cookies. But I first found the recipe for these brownies on an electronic BBS system when I was a grad student in Boston in the early spring of 1988. I still have the dot-matrix printed recipe in my recipe folder. It didn't include the name of the chef, or the name of the brownies; it was called "obscenely good brownies" and that is how I have always referred to them. A long time later I traced it back to Maida Heatter. Anyway, this recipe makes an intense, flavor-bomb, fudgy brownie that is really different than any other I have experienced. It uses a lot of everything - chocolate, butter, espresso powder, sugar, etc etc. It is also a recipe that is best made by those with a stand mixer, because it calls for you to beat the butter/sugar etc. set of ingredients on high speed for 10 minutes. There were literally two decades where I did this, and almost willingly, so good are these brownies. But this recipe is one of the best reasons to own a stand mixer if you can - put the ingredients in, turn to high, set the timer, do other stuff. I love you, KitchenAid! Anyway, the only downside on this recipe is that, if you do it correctly, you end up with a burned crust - this is a sign you have done it correctly! Now, with brownies, as long as it is not too burned, you can get away with not cutting it off, but usually you have to take a bread knife and gently cut off the edges and shave a bit of the bottom. I don't know if we could get the same results in a way that would give us less burned outside, but it would be worth investigating. And these brownies are best if you can give them around 24 hours before you eat them. Good luck!
In contrast, the other cookie is almost ethereal. I stumbled across the Chewy Orange-Almond Cookies on the Martha Stewart web site (which has a cookie a day page, wow). These are almost meringues - they have no added fat and use lots and lots of egg whites. The flavor comes from the almonds (which are ground and comprise most of the dry ingredients) and the orange zest. I had to triple the recipe, which meant zesting 6 oranges - the best reason to own a microplane grater! They are awesome (as long as you give them the respect they deserve, otherwise they can really grate your fingers quite efficiently). Anyway, the resulting cookie is light, and intensely orangey. They are a stark contrast to the brownies.
As I said, no cookies this week, so back at ya' next week!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
For August 19
The blog is 2 years old this week. Happy Birthday!
So today we get the freshest cookies ever - because they were made THIS MORNING. And not as in after midnight, as in 8 a.m. today. Apparently some sort of oil/sludge had gotten on the bottom of our oven so when I went to preheat it last night, smoke started billowing out. And even after I cooled it down and cleaned it as much as I could, smoke still billowed out. So I used, for the first time, the self-clean function on the oven. The good news - it heats the oven to 800+ degrees and burns everything off, so no billowing smoke afterward. The bad news - it is a 4 hour process, heats the house up like crazy, and destroys any plans you have to use the oven. Sooooo it was up early to bake today.
And here is what I baked:
Chocolate Black Pepper Cookies, from Martha Stewart's Cookies
Vanilla Pecan Squares, from Chocolate & Zucchini
Andrew Bodhi-Heart pointed out that a few weeks ago, I made the world peace cookies, which are basically chocolate and salt cookies, and now I am making chocolate and black pepper cookies. Hmmm. I didn't really notice that. Anyway, I made these once years ago, and they are an interesting and nice cookie. There is a good amount of fresh-ground black pepper in these; they call for more to be sprinkled on top, but I think there is enough in the dough itself. They are a fun and different item.
As are the vanilla pecan squares. These are almost like a very thin cake. The batter is a thick cake batter, which is poured in the pan, then pecans are placed on top, one for each (eventual) square, then baked. Almost like a biscotti, after it comes out of the oven and cools, you cut the squares, place them on a baking pan, separated, and then place them back in the (turned off) oven for 30 minutes to dry and crisp. Very interesting!
(And, for the record, I omitted the rum that the recipe calls for, and added a few drops of almond extract instead.)
OK, gotta go. Stay cool!
So today we get the freshest cookies ever - because they were made THIS MORNING. And not as in after midnight, as in 8 a.m. today. Apparently some sort of oil/sludge had gotten on the bottom of our oven so when I went to preheat it last night, smoke started billowing out. And even after I cooled it down and cleaned it as much as I could, smoke still billowed out. So I used, for the first time, the self-clean function on the oven. The good news - it heats the oven to 800+ degrees and burns everything off, so no billowing smoke afterward. The bad news - it is a 4 hour process, heats the house up like crazy, and destroys any plans you have to use the oven. Sooooo it was up early to bake today.
And here is what I baked:
Chocolate Black Pepper Cookies, from Martha Stewart's Cookies
Vanilla Pecan Squares, from Chocolate & Zucchini
Andrew Bodhi-Heart pointed out that a few weeks ago, I made the world peace cookies, which are basically chocolate and salt cookies, and now I am making chocolate and black pepper cookies. Hmmm. I didn't really notice that. Anyway, I made these once years ago, and they are an interesting and nice cookie. There is a good amount of fresh-ground black pepper in these; they call for more to be sprinkled on top, but I think there is enough in the dough itself. They are a fun and different item.
As are the vanilla pecan squares. These are almost like a very thin cake. The batter is a thick cake batter, which is poured in the pan, then pecans are placed on top, one for each (eventual) square, then baked. Almost like a biscotti, after it comes out of the oven and cools, you cut the squares, place them on a baking pan, separated, and then place them back in the (turned off) oven for 30 minutes to dry and crisp. Very interesting!
(And, for the record, I omitted the rum that the recipe calls for, and added a few drops of almond extract instead.)
OK, gotta go. Stay cool!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
For August 12
Last week was all Martha, this week is all Sherry Yard, the pastry chef at Spago Beverly Hills:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Butterscotch Cookies
both from Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking
I am a big fan of this book, and I think both of these are repeats. I know that the chocolate chip cookies are, and although I thought the Butterscotch cookies were a newbie, seeing them cook they looked very familiar.
The chocolate chip cookies are good - crisp. (Apparently Wolfgang Puck likes his chocolate chip cookies crisp.) I like a little chewier than this, but these are still wonderful. These use hand-chopped chocolate instead of store-bought chips, and they end up looking beautiful as a result - almost marbled! No nuts, very simple ingredients. They are great dipped in milk!
The butterscotch cookies are very similar to the chocolate chip cookies in technique and ingredients, with a few key exceptions (like no chocolate). This uses dark brown sugar (and I use a great dark brown sugar, not the standard stuff) and butter to get the butterscotch flavor. There are not a lot of ingredients other than those - some flour, some eggs, a little vanilla, salt, and that's about it. After making the dough, you chill it, but this one never got firm - after 24 hours, it was still a mess to work with! It must be the amount of butter. Anyway, after "slicing" them (good luck), you sprinkle them with demerara sugar before baking. Very simple, very pure flavors.
Enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Butterscotch Cookies
both from Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking
I am a big fan of this book, and I think both of these are repeats. I know that the chocolate chip cookies are, and although I thought the Butterscotch cookies were a newbie, seeing them cook they looked very familiar.
The chocolate chip cookies are good - crisp. (Apparently Wolfgang Puck likes his chocolate chip cookies crisp.) I like a little chewier than this, but these are still wonderful. These use hand-chopped chocolate instead of store-bought chips, and they end up looking beautiful as a result - almost marbled! No nuts, very simple ingredients. They are great dipped in milk!
The butterscotch cookies are very similar to the chocolate chip cookies in technique and ingredients, with a few key exceptions (like no chocolate). This uses dark brown sugar (and I use a great dark brown sugar, not the standard stuff) and butter to get the butterscotch flavor. There are not a lot of ingredients other than those - some flour, some eggs, a little vanilla, salt, and that's about it. After making the dough, you chill it, but this one never got firm - after 24 hours, it was still a mess to work with! It must be the amount of butter. Anyway, after "slicing" them (good luck), you sprinkle them with demerara sugar before baking. Very simple, very pure flavors.
Enjoy!
For August 5
Another catch-up (not katsup) post. Last week was all about Martha:
Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread
Double Chocolate Brownies
both from Martha Stewart's Cookies
Both yummy - this week, in a first (or first in my limited memory), I came out liking the chocolate item less then the others. I really liked the shortbread cookies - they were buttery but also had a good dose of salt, so there was a sweet and salty aspect. The recipe called for including orange zest, but I ended up with a 2/3 orange zest-1/3 lemon zest combination to try to give it a little more character. The shortbread also includes a small amount of cornmeal (I used a very fine cornmeal, not the usual coarse, stone-ground variety) and then the dough logs are rolled in cornmeal to give an edging to each cookie. All in all, I liked them a lot, and since these are slice and bake cookies, as long as you prepare the dough ahead and refrigerate it, you have a really nice cookie available with very little immediate effort.
The brownies were, well brownies. These were "double chocolate" because they used both cocoa powder as well as bittersweet chocolate. These are apparently one of the most popular recipes from the Martha Stewart web site or whatever, and I can see why - they are most but not super dense, and not cakey (yuck). A very good, solid, respectable brownie.
Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread
Double Chocolate Brownies
both from Martha Stewart's Cookies
Both yummy - this week, in a first (or first in my limited memory), I came out liking the chocolate item less then the others. I really liked the shortbread cookies - they were buttery but also had a good dose of salt, so there was a sweet and salty aspect. The recipe called for including orange zest, but I ended up with a 2/3 orange zest-1/3 lemon zest combination to try to give it a little more character. The shortbread also includes a small amount of cornmeal (I used a very fine cornmeal, not the usual coarse, stone-ground variety) and then the dough logs are rolled in cornmeal to give an edging to each cookie. All in all, I liked them a lot, and since these are slice and bake cookies, as long as you prepare the dough ahead and refrigerate it, you have a really nice cookie available with very little immediate effort.
The brownies were, well brownies. These were "double chocolate" because they used both cocoa powder as well as bittersweet chocolate. These are apparently one of the most popular recipes from the Martha Stewart web site or whatever, and I can see why - they are most but not super dense, and not cakey (yuck). A very good, solid, respectable brownie.
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