For September 16

Two very different cookies this week:

Cinnamon sugar cookies, from Mary Bergin, Spago Desserts
Melting chocolate meringues, from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

I think this is the first time I have made each of these cookies. The cinnamon sugar cookies seem pretty much to be snickerdoodles in all but name, but maybe at a restaurant like Spago they can't call them by their true name. Well, anyway, this is a wonderful recipe - they are basically cinnamon-vanilla sugar cookies (and these suckers use a LOT of vanilla) that have a very delicate texture, and are coated with cinnamon sugar. Like snickerdoodles, they use cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is an ancient leavening agent that was used before we invented baking soda and baking powder (both of which are quite recent additions to the baking scene). In my experience, if a recipe calls for cream of tartar, it is usually a sign that it is a recipe with some history behind it, since nowadays people mostly use baking powder or baking soda.

This is my second week making a cookie from Mary Bergin's Spago Desserts. Her cookie recipes are pretty uniformly great, and all rely on the same basic technique, which involves making the dough, letting it chill, then forming individual cookies. It is a long process, but yields good cookies.

Interestingly, Alice Medrich's Melting Chocolate Meringues also use baking powder, but I doubt they have the same provenance as the sugar cookies. These are another gluten free cookie. Here, the cream of tartar is added as you beat the egg whites to help provide some stabilizing to them. It is an interesting technique to this recipe - melt the chocolate; chop lots of walnuts; whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar and sugar; put in nuts; pour melted chocolate over; fold until uniform in color; scoop and bake.

These are not my favorite cookie, and not my favorite gluten free or meringue-style cookie. I think the recipe from Tartine that I made a few months ago wins that award, and I think I'll make it again soon using a different nut (hazelnut?) this time. We'll see. Which is not to say that these are bad cookies - I am sure they will be gobbled up and everyone will like them. But for me, eh. Of course, snickerdoodles are one of my most favorite cookie, so it may be that, with a different companion cookie, I would feel differently about them. Hmmm....