Why does it seem that the gap between baking sessions is collapsing into no-time? Am I falling into a black hole and not noticing? Or if I was falling into a black hole, would time elongate, rather than collapse? Maybe I'm falling out of one, not into one? Or is it simply that, having added gym time 6-7 days a week to my schedule (on top of everything else), the rhythm of my life has increased - I've moved from a trot into something more like that rapidly thumping music that comes out of the spinning class. I dunno.
Anyway, this week, two more Alice Medrich cookies. I know, how boring, you say - unless you have tasted.
Coconut Sticks
Chocolate Espresso Cookies
both from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
Alice Medrich's new book begins with various recipes for "sticks", which are basically a dough that is formed into a rectangle, chilled then sliced into thin "sticks." This week, I am making the coconut sticks, which rely on a good amount of shredded unsweetened coconut as the main flavor element. According to Alice, this particular recipe is, in her opinion, one of the real treasures of this whole cookbook. Andy is not a huge fan of the "sticks" - he seems to think if you are going to make something with this technique, you should just go ahead and make biscotti. I am a big fan of biscotti, but I am also enjoying these cookies quite a bit on their own - they are not very visually attractive, but they have a nice flavor. But in making that comment last night, he did remind me that I haven't made any biscotti, one of my favorite things, in quite a while now, so I think that we will try to make some biscotti next week.
For the past few weeks, I have been trying to do one recipe that is a fairly subtle cookie, emphasizing limited ingredients and pure flavors, and then one that is just a flavor explosion. This week continues that trend, which is to say that the chocolate espresso cookie is largely everything the coconut stick is not. There is no delicacy going on here - it is just a chocolate-coffee bomb! Alice says in her comments that this cookie was inspired by Maida Heatter, the doyenne of American baking a generation ago. This cookie is not particularly sweet - it uses a large amount of unsweetened chocolate and not a huge amount of sugar, almost no flour (less than 1/2 cup), and then a very bittersweet (70%) chocolate for the chunks in it. It is a very dark, gooey, rich mess of a cookie. It also calls for adding some freshly and finely ground coffee. What is interesting is that I only used 2 1/4 teaspoons of coffee (Peets Major Dickason's Blend, in case you were wondering) in a recipe that made 65 cookies, but the coffee flavor is really big even though such a small amount is used. As I said, a chocolate coffee bomb!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
For March 3
Two new recipes this week, both from new Christmas/post-Christmas cookbooks:
Sweet and Salty Brownies, from Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito, Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
Almond Sables, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
A few weeks ago I made a recipe for brownies from the original Baked cookbook. Baked is a bakery in Brooklyn founded by two guys who had been in advertising and quit to open this bakery. I have not been there, but it is apparently very popular, and if their recipes are any indication, must be just a heavenly place. They now have two cookbooks, the original Baked and the newer Baked Explorations. In the original cookbook, they have a brownie recipe that is one of the very best brownies I have ever made, hands down - and I have made quite a few at this point! It is a great recipe and really very straightforward to make. One of the things I love about brownie recipes is that the techniques are very simple and the results you get are usually great. The work/reward ratio is very favorable!
Well, in Baked Explorations they take that recipe and tweak it by (1) adding a layer of homemade caramel and (2) adding salt to the caramel and to the brownies. I know that salty desserts are a big thing right now, and who knows how long this will last, but for some reason this week I was compelled to make this recipe. Well, this doesn't fall in the favorable work/reward ratio, because you have to make your own caramel as part of the deal on this recipe. I had never made caramel before, and having done so I expect that the next time it will be easy breezy, but the first time through, it was pretty terrifying! It involves cooking water, sugar and corn syrup to a precise temperature - 350 degrees - and then quickly removing from heat and adding other things. But wait too long, or let it get too hot, and it goes from "not yet" to "oh sh-t" really quickly - from dark amber to black and burned. So there is a lot of careful pot-watching involved, and a digitial instant-read thermometer is a recommended utensil for this one. Anyway, after you pull it off at just the right moment, you then stir in heavy cream. The recipe warns it will bubble up, but man, the pot looks like a witch's cauldron for a couple of minutes in that process. Assuming all goes well, you end up with a nice, salty caramel - and more than you need for the recipe, so you get some for your ice cream sundaes as a side benefit (assuming, again, that it is not black and ruined).
After making the caramel sauce, you make the brownie batter, spoon half of it in the prepared pan, carefully add caramel sauce, then add dollops of the remaining batter, and then carefully spread it to cover the caramel. I can't really say that this was as easy as it sounds here, but in the end it seems we got it mostly covered, and then into the oven it went. Now, I love these guys and I love the book, but when you have a recipe with a layer of caramel in the middle, an instruction that the brownies are done when a tester inserted in the center comes out with "a few crumbs" is not a very helpful guide - with the caramel, you will never get to the promised land. So it requires a good eye.
OK, now, having said all of the above - am I whining? - I will say this. These are amazing. Amazing! According to the cookbook, they were featured on the Food Network as one of the best salty foods in America, and I can understand the accolade. They have so much going on - the chocolate, the caramel, the salt - it is a flavor explosion. The effort is, in the end, definitely worth the result!
Playing yang to the brownies' yin, we had almond sables as the other baked good this week. I think that Alice Medrich's various sables recipes are just inspired, and are right now among my most favorite cookies. Sable is French for "sandy" and these are a form of shortbread/sugar cookie from France. In Alice's hands, they are characterized by limiting the number ingredients, to allow the purity of flavor shine through. Here, you grind almonds into a meal as part of the cookie - the additional ingredients are very few, and you are left with a very delicate cookie that is marked more by its texture than by any overwhelming flavor. This is a wonderful cookie. It is also the first of the sables that I am making from her new cookie cookbook, and one thing that is interesting is that this recipe was made entirely in a food processor - until now, her sables recipes have all relied on a stand mixer. It was interesting to see this new technique incorporated. Since it reduced the amount of bowls etc for cleanup, it was great!!!
Sweet and Salty Brownies, from Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito, Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
Almond Sables, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
A few weeks ago I made a recipe for brownies from the original Baked cookbook. Baked is a bakery in Brooklyn founded by two guys who had been in advertising and quit to open this bakery. I have not been there, but it is apparently very popular, and if their recipes are any indication, must be just a heavenly place. They now have two cookbooks, the original Baked and the newer Baked Explorations. In the original cookbook, they have a brownie recipe that is one of the very best brownies I have ever made, hands down - and I have made quite a few at this point! It is a great recipe and really very straightforward to make. One of the things I love about brownie recipes is that the techniques are very simple and the results you get are usually great. The work/reward ratio is very favorable!
Well, in Baked Explorations they take that recipe and tweak it by (1) adding a layer of homemade caramel and (2) adding salt to the caramel and to the brownies. I know that salty desserts are a big thing right now, and who knows how long this will last, but for some reason this week I was compelled to make this recipe. Well, this doesn't fall in the favorable work/reward ratio, because you have to make your own caramel as part of the deal on this recipe. I had never made caramel before, and having done so I expect that the next time it will be easy breezy, but the first time through, it was pretty terrifying! It involves cooking water, sugar and corn syrup to a precise temperature - 350 degrees - and then quickly removing from heat and adding other things. But wait too long, or let it get too hot, and it goes from "not yet" to "oh sh-t" really quickly - from dark amber to black and burned. So there is a lot of careful pot-watching involved, and a digitial instant-read thermometer is a recommended utensil for this one. Anyway, after you pull it off at just the right moment, you then stir in heavy cream. The recipe warns it will bubble up, but man, the pot looks like a witch's cauldron for a couple of minutes in that process. Assuming all goes well, you end up with a nice, salty caramel - and more than you need for the recipe, so you get some for your ice cream sundaes as a side benefit (assuming, again, that it is not black and ruined).
After making the caramel sauce, you make the brownie batter, spoon half of it in the prepared pan, carefully add caramel sauce, then add dollops of the remaining batter, and then carefully spread it to cover the caramel. I can't really say that this was as easy as it sounds here, but in the end it seems we got it mostly covered, and then into the oven it went. Now, I love these guys and I love the book, but when you have a recipe with a layer of caramel in the middle, an instruction that the brownies are done when a tester inserted in the center comes out with "a few crumbs" is not a very helpful guide - with the caramel, you will never get to the promised land. So it requires a good eye.
OK, now, having said all of the above - am I whining? - I will say this. These are amazing. Amazing! According to the cookbook, they were featured on the Food Network as one of the best salty foods in America, and I can understand the accolade. They have so much going on - the chocolate, the caramel, the salt - it is a flavor explosion. The effort is, in the end, definitely worth the result!
Playing yang to the brownies' yin, we had almond sables as the other baked good this week. I think that Alice Medrich's various sables recipes are just inspired, and are right now among my most favorite cookies. Sable is French for "sandy" and these are a form of shortbread/sugar cookie from France. In Alice's hands, they are characterized by limiting the number ingredients, to allow the purity of flavor shine through. Here, you grind almonds into a meal as part of the cookie - the additional ingredients are very few, and you are left with a very delicate cookie that is marked more by its texture than by any overwhelming flavor. This is a wonderful cookie. It is also the first of the sables that I am making from her new cookie cookbook, and one thing that is interesting is that this recipe was made entirely in a food processor - until now, her sables recipes have all relied on a stand mixer. It was interesting to see this new technique incorporated. Since it reduced the amount of bowls etc for cleanup, it was great!!!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
For February 24
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!
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!
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....
Thursday, December 16, 2010
For December 16
Hi everyone, it has been a long time since my last post - because it has been a long time since the last Thursday night cookies. Between that whole Thanksgiving thing, and then the Center had Rohatsu sesshin, which ran for 9 days and spanned 2 Thursdays, this is my first baking since mid-November. Well, my first cookie baking. I have been busy with a few other things around Thanksgiving and all, but I have not blogged about them yet.
And after this, the next cookies for a Thursday night are not, at least "officially," until February - next week there is no talk/tea/cookies, and the following week we are in sesshin. In January, the Center observes a bare-bones month, with no talk/tea/cookies, so we only resume again in February. Wow. And by then, there will be lots of change.
OK, well this week, we are turning to two repeats, for reasons explained below. The recipes:
Chocolate Mint Squares, from The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
Oatmeal-Currant Cookies, from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food
The chocolate mint squares have long been a staple. A number of people simply love them - as in LOVE them - Andrew Bodhi-Heart being one of those people. They are pretty easy to make - the base is a variant on a brownie, with walnuts and peppermint extract. A confectioners' sugar and peppermint icing goes on top, and then a drizzle of chocolate. Not subtle, not particularly sophisticated, but the chocolate-mint combination is a definite flavor of the season!
The oatmeal-currant cookies are for Roshi (I hope she attends). Oatmeal raisin cookies are her favorite. Since she is leaving on January 1 for a one-year sabbatical, this is the last cookie event before her departure, and I wanted to make one of her favorite cookies as a nice send-off. I made this recipe back in March, but she was not around at the time. This is a recipe from Alice Waters' most recent book. It is interesting because you grind the oats, almost to a flour, rather than using them whole. It leads to a more delicate cookie. I also use a really nice dark brown sugar, which gives a very deep flavor. The only issue with them is that they are a bit delicate and fall apart easily. Hopefully these will hold together better.
And after this, the next cookies for a Thursday night are not, at least "officially," until February - next week there is no talk/tea/cookies, and the following week we are in sesshin. In January, the Center observes a bare-bones month, with no talk/tea/cookies, so we only resume again in February. Wow. And by then, there will be lots of change.
OK, well this week, we are turning to two repeats, for reasons explained below. The recipes:
Chocolate Mint Squares, from The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
Oatmeal-Currant Cookies, from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food
The chocolate mint squares have long been a staple. A number of people simply love them - as in LOVE them - Andrew Bodhi-Heart being one of those people. They are pretty easy to make - the base is a variant on a brownie, with walnuts and peppermint extract. A confectioners' sugar and peppermint icing goes on top, and then a drizzle of chocolate. Not subtle, not particularly sophisticated, but the chocolate-mint combination is a definite flavor of the season!
The oatmeal-currant cookies are for Roshi (I hope she attends). Oatmeal raisin cookies are her favorite. Since she is leaving on January 1 for a one-year sabbatical, this is the last cookie event before her departure, and I wanted to make one of her favorite cookies as a nice send-off. I made this recipe back in March, but she was not around at the time. This is a recipe from Alice Waters' most recent book. It is interesting because you grind the oats, almost to a flour, rather than using them whole. It leads to a more delicate cookie. I also use a really nice dark brown sugar, which gives a very deep flavor. The only issue with them is that they are a bit delicate and fall apart easily. Hopefully these will hold together better.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
For November 18
Hermit Bars
Chocolate Gingerbread Squares
both from Martha Stewart
A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a new, seasonal magazine in the grocery store - a Holiday Cookies magazine from Martha Stewart. While there was an older magazine of the same type - which eventually was turned into the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook - this had lots of new recipes that I had not seen before. So I happily scooped it up, and this week we break it in with two recipes. (I now see that both are older recipes available on her Web site, but the magazine is very pretty and has all the great design elements that her print materials feature). There are a lot of other promising recipes in the magazine, so this is, I am sure, only the beginning....
Anyway, this also seems to be the week for molasses and ginger, since both recipes feature these ingredients. These ingredients are official harbingers of winter and holidays. Here, they are used in rather interesting ways.
The hermit bars are a variation on the usual hermits. Hermits are an old New England recipe that rely on a variety of spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves), molasses, brown sugar and raisins. They are often made in a pan and then sliced into squares. Here, the technique is closer to that of biscotti, except they are only baked once, not twice. After the dough is made, you cool it a little to make it easier to handle, then it is formed into logs and baked. Once it is cooked, the logs are sliced. The resulting "bar" looks just like a biscotti, but is quite a bit softer. There is nothing elegant about this cookie, but it is very flavorful.
The chocolate gingerbread is another variation on a familiar favorite. I love gingerbread (at least if it is made well). Here, the gingerbread had cocoa powder and chocolate chips added, and the pan is dusted with cocoa powder. The chocoate-ginger combination is not a usual pairing, so it pulls your attention. It screams for whipped cream (or to be dunked in milk). A fun variation.
Next week is Thanksgiving, an d then the Center begins Rohatsu sesshin, which will extend over two Thursdays, so there are no formal cookie obligations again until December 16, a month from now. Until then, take good care!
Chocolate Gingerbread Squares
both from Martha Stewart
A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a new, seasonal magazine in the grocery store - a Holiday Cookies magazine from Martha Stewart. While there was an older magazine of the same type - which eventually was turned into the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook - this had lots of new recipes that I had not seen before. So I happily scooped it up, and this week we break it in with two recipes. (I now see that both are older recipes available on her Web site, but the magazine is very pretty and has all the great design elements that her print materials feature). There are a lot of other promising recipes in the magazine, so this is, I am sure, only the beginning....
Anyway, this also seems to be the week for molasses and ginger, since both recipes feature these ingredients. These ingredients are official harbingers of winter and holidays. Here, they are used in rather interesting ways.
The hermit bars are a variation on the usual hermits. Hermits are an old New England recipe that rely on a variety of spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves), molasses, brown sugar and raisins. They are often made in a pan and then sliced into squares. Here, the technique is closer to that of biscotti, except they are only baked once, not twice. After the dough is made, you cool it a little to make it easier to handle, then it is formed into logs and baked. Once it is cooked, the logs are sliced. The resulting "bar" looks just like a biscotti, but is quite a bit softer. There is nothing elegant about this cookie, but it is very flavorful.
The chocolate gingerbread is another variation on a familiar favorite. I love gingerbread (at least if it is made well). Here, the gingerbread had cocoa powder and chocolate chips added, and the pan is dusted with cocoa powder. The chocoate-ginger combination is not a usual pairing, so it pulls your attention. It screams for whipped cream (or to be dunked in milk). A fun variation.
Next week is Thanksgiving, an d then the Center begins Rohatsu sesshin, which will extend over two Thursdays, so there are no formal cookie obligations again until December 16, a month from now. Until then, take good care!
For November 11
This week, my niece and her daughter were arriving on Thursday, and I was really busy at work, so it was time to fall back on old friends. Well, more or less.
Chocolate Chip Cookies, from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard
Honey Nut Brownies, from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
Sherry Yard's chocolate chip cookies are a welcome standby. One of the things I like about them is that you can make the dough and refrigerate it overnight, and then make the cookies. Actually, it seems that 24 hours of refrigeration is becoming the new favored technique for chocolate chip cookies, as it allows the fat in the butter to be absorbed better by the flour and leads to a better cookie. When you make the recipe in this way, you form it into logs and refrigerate it. But the dough never gets very solid, and you can't really just slice it and bake it; it is a bit of a messy process to form the cookies, but they are so good that it is worth the effort!
Although I made these brownies before, it was a long time ago. There is enough chocolate in them to justify the "brownie" in the name, but the overwhelming flavor comes from the honey - almost all of the sweetener is honey, and the recipe calls for using something more interesting than the normal clover honey. (I used sage.) The chocolate, honey, pecan combination (probably not in that order) is interesting. Honey is not my favorite flavor, so these are not my favorite brownies, but they are certainly an interesting and unusual variation on a favorite that can often become a bit too boring.
Chocolate Chip Cookies, from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard
Honey Nut Brownies, from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
Sherry Yard's chocolate chip cookies are a welcome standby. One of the things I like about them is that you can make the dough and refrigerate it overnight, and then make the cookies. Actually, it seems that 24 hours of refrigeration is becoming the new favored technique for chocolate chip cookies, as it allows the fat in the butter to be absorbed better by the flour and leads to a better cookie. When you make the recipe in this way, you form it into logs and refrigerate it. But the dough never gets very solid, and you can't really just slice it and bake it; it is a bit of a messy process to form the cookies, but they are so good that it is worth the effort!
Although I made these brownies before, it was a long time ago. There is enough chocolate in them to justify the "brownie" in the name, but the overwhelming flavor comes from the honey - almost all of the sweetener is honey, and the recipe calls for using something more interesting than the normal clover honey. (I used sage.) The chocolate, honey, pecan combination (probably not in that order) is interesting. Honey is not my favorite flavor, so these are not my favorite brownies, but they are certainly an interesting and unusual variation on a favorite that can often become a bit too boring.
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