Hi everyone,
mostly well again - I guess this is what a chest cold is like - I don't like it. I am mostly better, although particularly at the gym (while gasping for air) I am finding I still have gunk in my lungs. Poco a poco.
Anyway, this week, we are in a back to basics week: fairly simple round(ish) cookies, one chocolate, one sugar. Both are Alice Medrich cookies:
Spicy Chocolate Wafers 3.0
Sugar Crunch Cookies
From Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
The "3.0" reference in the chocolate wafer's title refers to the fact that Alice is constantly reinventing her recipes. A year or two ago I made the "2.0" version (it was probably closer to "2.5" given the recipe similarities) of the chocolate wafer, which was in an earlier cookbook. The cookie is very basic - a chocolate wafer, with lots of flavor and good crispy texture. Good for munching on with a glass of milk, or to crush and turn into a pie crust. This is a very unpretentious cookie - a round, dark wafer of a cookie, no decoration, no filling. I have, however, used a variation from the book to add cinnamon, cayenne and black peppers to the dough, and so it does have quite a bit more of a flavor complexion than it appears to on first glance. It reminds me of some other spicy chocolate cookies I have made in flavor, but the texture of this one is quite different. You do have to like crispy to like this cookie.
If you don't like crispy/crunchy cookies, then this is not your week, because the other cookie, as its name - Sugar Crunch Cookies - suggests, is, well, crunchy! This one is a definite highlight cookie - very simple, and soooooo good. It is basically just a simple sugar cookie, but one that is crunchy, not soft and chewy. Like the chocolate wafer, it is the product of a lot of work and reinvention - neither of these two recipes has any eggs in them - and uses just the simplest ingredients to make a spectacular cookie. It is quite simple to make, and I highly recommend it. While a sugar cookie does not sound like a very exciting item, this week it is the star!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
For February 17
OK, well, I am sick. And not in the "mental' way, just the physical way. Which I hate. I get sick so rarely, I think I am out of practice or something, so it just makes me more grumpy. Today, I had to cancel a training at Zen Center, a workout with my personal trainer, and a dinner with some of the partners from my law firm. Just so I could sit at home and drink liquids, then more liquids, then more liquids.....well, you get the picture.
Nevertheless, the cookies must go on.
More from the new cookbooks, including one that just arrived two days ago.
Lemon Goldies, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
The Baked Brownie, from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, Baked: New Frontiers In Baking
Well, I am still working my way, almost a page at a time, through Alice Medrich's new cookbook of just cookie recipes. I am still in the first chapter - "Crispy" - which is what these little cookies are. The basic recipe is for "Goldies", but it has a variation for Lemon Goldies, which is what I made this week (basically the Goldies recipe with the zest of two Meyer lemons added). The picture of these cookies was so inviting - a full page photo of a stack of golden sugar cookies - it was a complete marketing success! The cookies are a nice, simple crispy lemon cookie, with a pale center and a deep golden edge. There is nothing fancy or sublime about them, just good simplicity.
And then there's The Baked Brownie. It is called that in the cookbook, because the authors own and run a bakery in Brooklyn called "Baked." And now they have two cookbooks (this was their first). Besides being totally adorable, they have made a huge name for themselves and if this brownie recipe - my first experience with them - is any guide, it is very well deserved! Apparently this brownie was named best brownie on America's Test Kitchen, and it is really good. Very simple - not too many ingredients, no nuts, just intense flavor and a dedication to a non-cakey brownie - and very good. It is giving some of my Alice Medrich brownies a run for their money. While the lemon goldies are like the angel on your left shoulder, these brownies are the itsy-bitsy devil whispering in your right ear that you should forgo those "healthy" pale things and just pig out on this chocolate intensity. Of course, if you don't like chocolate...more for the rest of us.
Happy eating!
Nevertheless, the cookies must go on.
More from the new cookbooks, including one that just arrived two days ago.
Lemon Goldies, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
The Baked Brownie, from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, Baked: New Frontiers In Baking
Well, I am still working my way, almost a page at a time, through Alice Medrich's new cookbook of just cookie recipes. I am still in the first chapter - "Crispy" - which is what these little cookies are. The basic recipe is for "Goldies", but it has a variation for Lemon Goldies, which is what I made this week (basically the Goldies recipe with the zest of two Meyer lemons added). The picture of these cookies was so inviting - a full page photo of a stack of golden sugar cookies - it was a complete marketing success! The cookies are a nice, simple crispy lemon cookie, with a pale center and a deep golden edge. There is nothing fancy or sublime about them, just good simplicity.
And then there's The Baked Brownie. It is called that in the cookbook, because the authors own and run a bakery in Brooklyn called "Baked." And now they have two cookbooks (this was their first). Besides being totally adorable, they have made a huge name for themselves and if this brownie recipe - my first experience with them - is any guide, it is very well deserved! Apparently this brownie was named best brownie on America's Test Kitchen, and it is really good. Very simple - not too many ingredients, no nuts, just intense flavor and a dedication to a non-cakey brownie - and very good. It is giving some of my Alice Medrich brownies a run for their money. While the lemon goldies are like the angel on your left shoulder, these brownies are the itsy-bitsy devil whispering in your right ear that you should forgo those "healthy" pale things and just pig out on this chocolate intensity. Of course, if you don't like chocolate...more for the rest of us.
Happy eating!
For February 10
One week in, and already behind. Sigh. Oh, well.
Last week was another week of cooking out of my new cookbooks. I was not there for the talk (we went to see Kodo, the Japanese taiko group instead), but I saw the next day the paltry remains, so I guess people liked the cookies! Here is what they were:
Hazelnut Sticks, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies, from David Lebovitz, Ready for Dessert
Alice Medrich kicks off her new book of cookie recipes with a series of "stick" recipes - basically you make a very simple dough, form it into a rectangle, refrigerate it, then slice it very thinly (around 1/6" thick, if you can do it - I got to 1/5", but the 1/6" was beyond me) into sticks which you then bake. She has a series of these recipes and they have the advantage of being easy AND look delicious! Certainly the hazelnut recipe was; she says that the tropical version (using coconut) is one of the highlights of the book, so I will circle back this way quickly.
I have mentioned David Lebovitz before, because I am a huge fan of his blog. David was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse, then he left and moved to Paris, where he now lives, writing cookbooks, leading culinary tours, and just being fabulous. Wow, how jealous am I! Anyway, his blog is a treat - beautiful photos, and wonderfully written - and I have made a number of his recipes before, and all were quite good. He just published his newest cookbook, Ready for Dessert, subtitled "My Best Recipes," and I am looking forward to cooking quite a bit out of it - although there are a lot of non-cookie recipes, so I will have to figure that part out. Anyway, I was browsing through it last week, saw his recipe for chocolate chip cookies and decided to add it to my repertoire. It is a good cookie, and has the advantage (like Sherry Yard's) of requiring you to form a log and refrigerate it before slicing it. This is helpful because it allows me to make the dough in advance, and then just slice and bake the cookies when needed. Since I have started going to the gym quite regularly and this has kinda messed up my schedule, it is very helpful to be able to break up the cookie enterprise into a multi-day affair with smaller bites each day.
Anyway, the chocolate chip cookies were good - not my favorite recipe, but a good variation on a traditional favorite. And, as I said, although I sent around 50 of them to the Center, only 2 made it to the next morning - so the audience approved!
Last week was another week of cooking out of my new cookbooks. I was not there for the talk (we went to see Kodo, the Japanese taiko group instead), but I saw the next day the paltry remains, so I guess people liked the cookies! Here is what they were:
Hazelnut Sticks, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies, from David Lebovitz, Ready for Dessert
Alice Medrich kicks off her new book of cookie recipes with a series of "stick" recipes - basically you make a very simple dough, form it into a rectangle, refrigerate it, then slice it very thinly (around 1/6" thick, if you can do it - I got to 1/5", but the 1/6" was beyond me) into sticks which you then bake. She has a series of these recipes and they have the advantage of being easy AND look delicious! Certainly the hazelnut recipe was; she says that the tropical version (using coconut) is one of the highlights of the book, so I will circle back this way quickly.
I have mentioned David Lebovitz before, because I am a huge fan of his blog. David was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse, then he left and moved to Paris, where he now lives, writing cookbooks, leading culinary tours, and just being fabulous. Wow, how jealous am I! Anyway, his blog is a treat - beautiful photos, and wonderfully written - and I have made a number of his recipes before, and all were quite good. He just published his newest cookbook, Ready for Dessert, subtitled "My Best Recipes," and I am looking forward to cooking quite a bit out of it - although there are a lot of non-cookie recipes, so I will have to figure that part out. Anyway, I was browsing through it last week, saw his recipe for chocolate chip cookies and decided to add it to my repertoire. It is a good cookie, and has the advantage (like Sherry Yard's) of requiring you to form a log and refrigerate it before slicing it. This is helpful because it allows me to make the dough in advance, and then just slice and bake the cookies when needed. Since I have started going to the gym quite regularly and this has kinda messed up my schedule, it is very helpful to be able to break up the cookie enterprise into a multi-day affair with smaller bites each day.
Anyway, the chocolate chip cookies were good - not my favorite recipe, but a good variation on a traditional favorite. And, as I said, although I sent around 50 of them to the Center, only 2 made it to the next morning - so the audience approved!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
For February 3, 2011
OK, back in the saddle again...
I am trying to juggle a new (and LASTING) commitment to exercise and being more healthy with the job thing, the Zen thing, the baking thing...oof. I think most of the weight I put on in the last 5 years can be attributed to (1) slowing metabolism once I hit 40 and (2) baking cookies and not giving all of them away. It is basic Zen training that you have to give everything away, and now I am going to be giving away all my cookies and all my extra pounds. Yay! On my personal workout page through my gym, it asks me to put down a mantra - I want to XXXX. Suggestions welcome - be a buff baker? I welcome input!
OK, enough rambling. On to this week's recipes from one of my new cookbooks, from my wonderful sister, Phyllis, who is experiencing a lot of snow right now.
Less-Is-More Overnight Brownies
Hazelnut Molasses Cookies
both from Alice Medrich's newest book, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies
The brownie recipe is an experiment. It is a reduced fat (not low fat) brownie. It uses around half the butter of a "normal" brownie recipe, and also uses 1 egg and 2 egg whites, whereas many recipes would use 3 or 4 regular eggs. There are a couple of techniques to compensate - first, you really heat the butter in a pan to sizzling and then dump in the cocoa powder, which helps to bring out an intense chocolate flavor. Second, you let it sit overnight (or, in my case, 24 hours), which allows the cocoa powder and flour to really absorb the butterfat fully. (This is a new hot technique, particularly with chocolate chip cookies - flour does not hydrolyze very easily, so the thing now is to let the batter sit at least 24 hours (in the refrigerator) to let the flour absorb the butterfat. It gives a richer flavor when it has hydrolyzed properly.) Anyway, we tested them last night - Andrew was not in love with them, and they are definitely not the best brownies I have ever had, but I thought that by reducing the butter it let the flavor of the cocoa come through more - I definitely got a more fruity, interesting flavor profile than I do with some of the brownies I have made that look like they are sweating butter while they are baking.
The second recipe was also interesting. I am always interested in recipes where one of the key ingredients doesn't even show up in the title of the recipe. My almond pine nut tart is one of them - it fails to even mention the raspberry layer, which is a key element. This is another. The hazelnuts are interesting, yes, but the key to this recipe is that it includes orange zest. Now, I am not a creative baker, I just take directions pretty well, so until I read and then tasted this cookie dough, I would not have told you that molasses and orange zest are a natural flavor combination, but wow is it true. In this recipe, it is almost impossible to see where the molasses flavor ends and the orange zest takes over - it is like a seamless transition. These are a simple cookie (I like simple cookies), and there are a few elements I would do differently in the preparation, but the key ingredients here are finely chopped hazelnuts, molasses and orange zest. The hazelnuts are a fairly subtle flavor element, but give the cookie an interesting visual appeal, since the cookies darken quite a bit while cooking, but the chopped hazelnuts do not, leaving a flecked appearance to the cookie. These are not your grandmother's molasses cookie at all - indeed, they are in a different category altogether, not better or worse, but the fact that they share a core ingredient does not mean they end up in the same place (well, except in your belly).
There are a lot of fun recipes in this book, and then in the others that I got from Phyl or that I broke down and got for myself. This morning I was at the gym at 8 a.m. for 50 minutes of cardio, and so I think I will be OK eating one - well, ONE of each - cookie tonight.
I am trying to juggle a new (and LASTING) commitment to exercise and being more healthy with the job thing, the Zen thing, the baking thing...oof. I think most of the weight I put on in the last 5 years can be attributed to (1) slowing metabolism once I hit 40 and (2) baking cookies and not giving all of them away. It is basic Zen training that you have to give everything away, and now I am going to be giving away all my cookies and all my extra pounds. Yay! On my personal workout page through my gym, it asks me to put down a mantra - I want to XXXX. Suggestions welcome - be a buff baker? I welcome input!
OK, enough rambling. On to this week's recipes from one of my new cookbooks, from my wonderful sister, Phyllis, who is experiencing a lot of snow right now.
Less-Is-More Overnight Brownies
Hazelnut Molasses Cookies
both from Alice Medrich's newest book, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies
The brownie recipe is an experiment. It is a reduced fat (not low fat) brownie. It uses around half the butter of a "normal" brownie recipe, and also uses 1 egg and 2 egg whites, whereas many recipes would use 3 or 4 regular eggs. There are a couple of techniques to compensate - first, you really heat the butter in a pan to sizzling and then dump in the cocoa powder, which helps to bring out an intense chocolate flavor. Second, you let it sit overnight (or, in my case, 24 hours), which allows the cocoa powder and flour to really absorb the butterfat fully. (This is a new hot technique, particularly with chocolate chip cookies - flour does not hydrolyze very easily, so the thing now is to let the batter sit at least 24 hours (in the refrigerator) to let the flour absorb the butterfat. It gives a richer flavor when it has hydrolyzed properly.) Anyway, we tested them last night - Andrew was not in love with them, and they are definitely not the best brownies I have ever had, but I thought that by reducing the butter it let the flavor of the cocoa come through more - I definitely got a more fruity, interesting flavor profile than I do with some of the brownies I have made that look like they are sweating butter while they are baking.
The second recipe was also interesting. I am always interested in recipes where one of the key ingredients doesn't even show up in the title of the recipe. My almond pine nut tart is one of them - it fails to even mention the raspberry layer, which is a key element. This is another. The hazelnuts are interesting, yes, but the key to this recipe is that it includes orange zest. Now, I am not a creative baker, I just take directions pretty well, so until I read and then tasted this cookie dough, I would not have told you that molasses and orange zest are a natural flavor combination, but wow is it true. In this recipe, it is almost impossible to see where the molasses flavor ends and the orange zest takes over - it is like a seamless transition. These are a simple cookie (I like simple cookies), and there are a few elements I would do differently in the preparation, but the key ingredients here are finely chopped hazelnuts, molasses and orange zest. The hazelnuts are a fairly subtle flavor element, but give the cookie an interesting visual appeal, since the cookies darken quite a bit while cooking, but the chopped hazelnuts do not, leaving a flecked appearance to the cookie. These are not your grandmother's molasses cookie at all - indeed, they are in a different category altogether, not better or worse, but the fact that they share a core ingredient does not mean they end up in the same place (well, except in your belly).
There are a lot of fun recipes in this book, and then in the others that I got from Phyl or that I broke down and got for myself. This morning I was at the gym at 8 a.m. for 50 minutes of cardio, and so I think I will be OK eating one - well, ONE of each - cookie tonight.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Welcome February!
January is gone, and with it the bare-bones practice month at ZCLA, which was marked by no talks and no cookies on Thursday nights. It has been more than 6 weeks since I pulled out the cookie sheets and baked. (Well, there was a little baking here and there, but not for a crowd.)
Although certain people (ahem) did not help out by buying me ANYTHING from my Amazon wish list - which was basically 90% filled with cookbooks - my wonderful sister bought me two that I was looking forward to, and I decided to take matters into my own hands (there being 9 months until my birthday, so little chance that anything other than self-help would result in the landing of any smiling amazon.com boxes on my desk from other forces) and add a few more cookbooks to our already groaning shelves. One of those new cookbooks is the newest cookbook from Alice Medrich, whose books I adore (as a quick perusal of the blog will reveal). Her new cookbook is nothing but cookies - be still my heart!!! The new book is called Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. It looks very promising, and the first cookies of the year will be coming from it this week. It is brimming with good-looking ideas, and between that and the other cookbooks I got, we can look forward to some new and fun recipes in 2011!
Of course, Andrew and I also joined a gym in January, and so I will be doing less eating (of cookies, at least) and more exercising, so now I have to make sure the cookies are amazingly good since I can only have one (0r two). Can I both bake cookies weekly AND get healthy? I hope so!
A report on this week's cookies tomorrow....
Although certain people (ahem) did not help out by buying me ANYTHING from my Amazon wish list - which was basically 90% filled with cookbooks - my wonderful sister bought me two that I was looking forward to, and I decided to take matters into my own hands (there being 9 months until my birthday, so little chance that anything other than self-help would result in the landing of any smiling amazon.com boxes on my desk from other forces) and add a few more cookbooks to our already groaning shelves. One of those new cookbooks is the newest cookbook from Alice Medrich, whose books I adore (as a quick perusal of the blog will reveal). Her new cookbook is nothing but cookies - be still my heart!!! The new book is called Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. It looks very promising, and the first cookies of the year will be coming from it this week. It is brimming with good-looking ideas, and between that and the other cookbooks I got, we can look forward to some new and fun recipes in 2011!
Of course, Andrew and I also joined a gym in January, and so I will be doing less eating (of cookies, at least) and more exercising, so now I have to make sure the cookies are amazingly good since I can only have one (0r two). Can I both bake cookies weekly AND get healthy? I hope so!
A report on this week's cookies tomorrow....
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