Outtakes 2015

This is the hardest part of food blogging, I think, right here, this first sentence of a post introducing a new recipe. The baking is hardly easy, but it looks after itself and is certainly the most immediately rewarding part of the process. However, quite a few recipes get lost somewhere on the way from finished bake to a post on this website; sometimes it's because the recipe needed more work or I didn't like the photos, but often I simply didn't have anything compelling enough say about it. 

So, instead of a best-of-2015 type of post, I wanted to share some of these recipes I cut along the way this year, for one reason or another. I did enjoy baking, eating, and shooting all of them, and though they didn't get their own posts, I do want to show them to the light of day. 

Courtesan au Chocolat: flavored with Earl Grey and Chocolate pastry cream, these little choux buns were inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel. The presentation wasn't as neat as I would have liked, and in the end I decided not to post these.

Grapefruit Tart: I was experimenting with a citrus tart that was lightened with whipped egg whites. 

Cappuccino Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling: Recipe from Sprinkle Bakes. I went through a phase when I really liked shooting pictures with chairs in them. Most of those got cut.

Fig and Honey Rolls: I held on to these photos for a long time, and always told myself I would post them. The recipe itself wasn't remarkable, and I honestly don't even really remember what they tasted like, but these are some of my favorite pictures that I've shot.

Corn Muffins: Photographed on the heels of my Fraisier Torte, with a very similar style (and the same batch of strawberries).

Jam Sandwich Cookies: A simple shortbread cookie that I've made, many, many times.

Baked Green Tea Mochi: Stay tuned, there will be a mochi recipe coming on the blog!

Ma'amoul: Middle Eastern date-stuffed cookies. I took a shortcut with a shortbread dough, but here is a more traditional recipe.

Lemon and Pecan Biscotti: This made an excellent breakfast for several days. The lemon/pecan flavor combination works surprisingly well.

Apple and Cinnamon Bread Pudding: I fully intended to post this one, and had even taken step-by-step pictures, but somehow it just never happened.

Enjoy, everyone! I'll see you in 2016.

Caroline

Shortbread, Three Ways

I actually made these cookies way back at the beginning of the semester, for a housewarming party my roommates and I had (we were super lucky with our senior year housing--and only had two cockroaches this year so far!)

My roommate Imani and I both have the same compulsive fear of underfeeding people and running out of food, so we made a huge batch of shortbread cookie dough (and then ran out last minute to buy chocolate and fruit, because we were convinced people would starve). One of the things I love most about shortbread (besides its wonderful buttery texture and flavor) is that it's so wonderfully adaptable. With minimal effort, you can transform a single batch of dough into a multitude of impressive cookie varieties. Which means, of course, that it's perfect for the holidays.  

 I used this dough to make some pretty classic jam sandwich cookies (which you've probably seen several. times. before), thumbprint cookies with a lemon twist, and traditional Scottish shortbread (well, not so traditional, because I added both egg and cornstarch).

This dough is delicious and so easy to put together. I rarely make a recipe multiple times, but this is one of my favorite go-to recipes. Unlike traditional shortbread or sable cookies, I added an egg yolk for extra softness and cornstarch to create a more tender dough. There are really just three tips for success:

1.  Be very thorough when beating together the butter and sugar. The sugar crystals aerate the butter, creating a more flaky and tender cookie.
2. However, once you add the flour, do not over-mix or over-knead. Add the dry ingredient, and mix until it barely comes together in a dough. Handling the dough to much will develop the gluten in the flour, which will create a very tough cookie. 
3. Make sure the dough is very cold when you put it in the oven. The temperature difference of the hot oven and the cold dough will help create a buttery shortbread.

These cookies make a perfect last-minute holiday dessert platter; you can make cookies that look dainty and unique and different from each other, all from one dough. In fact, looking at these pictures, I think I might whip up another batch tomorrow for Christmas...

Have a wonderful holiday season! 

With love,
Caroline and Monica

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Shortbread, Three Ways
Click here for the printer-friendly recipe

Basic Shortbread Dough

Yields: 1 batch, or about 18 cookies (Quadruple this to make all three cookie varieties)

Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon salt

Directions
Whisk together the butter and sugar until it is a very pale, light, and fluffy, about 5 minutes with an electric mixer, longer if you’re doing it by hand. Whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla. 

Fold in the cornstarch, flour, and salt until just combined. Do not over mix.

Chill the dough for at least one hour, or up to overnight.

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Scottish Shortbread

Yields: 24 large cookies, or 36 small cookies

Ingredients
2 batches of basic shortbread dough
2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Divide the cookie dough into 6 equal pieces. Press the dough into 6 mini 4 ½ -inch tart pans. If you don’t have tart pans, pat the dough into rounds about 4 ½ inches in diameter on a cookie sheet.

Prick the dough with a fork, and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cut each round into 4 equal pieces, or 6 pieces for smaller cookies. Chill for about 30 minutes.

Place the tart pans onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.

Let cool and serve.

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Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies

Yields: about 18 cookies

Ingredients
1 batch shortbread dough
½ cup sunflower seeds (can be substituted with finely chopped nuts)
⅓ cup lemon curd (can be substituted with jam)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour the sunflower seeds into a small bowl or plate.

Roll the dough into 1 ½ - inch balls. Roll the dough balls in the sunflower seeds and placed onto a greased cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet lined with foil. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart.

Use your thumb to indent  the center of the cookie, make a well for the curd filling later.

Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges. Let cool.

Place about 1 teaspoon of lemon curd into the center of each cookie.

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Jam Sandwich Cookies

Yields: about 12 cookies

Ingredients
1 batch shortbread dough
⅓ cup jam

Directions
Place the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, and pat into a flat disk. Cover with another piece of parchment paper, and roll the dough with a rolling pin until about ⅛ inch thick.

Place the dough onto a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 F

Using an (approximately) 3-inch heart cookie cutter, cut out 24 hearts from the dough. With half of the cookies, use a mini heart cookie cutter to punch out the centers. When you re-roll the scraps, follow the same process of rolling the dough between the parchment paper and refrigerate for about an hour.

Place the cookie on greased cookie sheets, or cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies, using separate cookie sheets for ones with the centers and ones without the centers. Bake the ones with centers for 15-18 minutes, and the ones without the centers for 12-15 minutes, or until they are slightly golden around the edges. 

Let cool completely. Turn the cookies with the centers upside down, and spread about 1 teaspoon jam on each of them. Top with one of the cookies without centers.

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The Ischler

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If there is one cookie that could be the emperor of all cookies, it would be the Ischler.

The Ischler is an elegant little Austrian cookie and there are a few variations on it, but in this version it is essentially a pairing of dark chocolate and apricot sandwiched between soft almond cookie layers. This is Rose's recipe which can be found in The Baking Bible. The thin layer of apricot lekvar accents the chocolate and almond, giving the cookie a "pop!". The cookie itself has a texture that is a cross between marzipan and shortbread. Using unblanched almonds gives the cookies a lovely flecked appearance, and helps to bring out the nutty almond flavor.

This cookie does require a bit of time and planning, but the results are totally worth it. These are especially great as birthday treats and, I would imagine, for other special occasions as well. Ischlers are traditionally a bit smaller than the ones I made, and would look adorable with scalloped edges (if you have the right cookie cutter). In my case, a glass cup worked just as well as a makeshift cookie cutter.

Love,
Monica

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The Ischler

Recipe from The Baking Bible

Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, cold
1 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 cups unblanched almonds
1/2 egg (1 tbsp + 1 tsp), lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

For the apricot lekvar filling:
2 2/3 cups (1 lb) dried apricots
2 cups water
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon zest

For the dark chocolate ganache filling:
8 oz (1 cup) bittersweets chocolate (60% cocoa)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions
For the cookie dough:
Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Butter should be cool but soft enough to press flat.

Process powdered sugar and almonds until almonds are very fine. Add butter, and process until smooth & creamy. Add egg and vanilla. Add flour. Mixture should be moist & crumbly particles and hold together if pinched. Divide into quarters (4 dough discs) and chill in plastic wrap for 2 hours.

Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper.

After chilling, set dough disc on lightly floured surface. Let dough soften for 10 minutes, or until malleable enough to roll. Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness.

Cut out twenty 2.25 inch cookies. Set each 1/2 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Set aside scraps covered in plastic wrap to knead together with scraps from next batches.

Bake at 350F for 6-10 minutes, or until just begin to brown at edges. While baking, remove next dough disc from refrigerator to soften. Repeat the process.

For the apricot lekvar filling:
In medium saucepan, combine dried apricots and water and let sit for 2 hours to soften.

Bring water to boil, cover pan tightly, and let simmer for 20 - 30 minutes on lowest heat until apricots are very soft when pierced with skewer. If water evaporates, add extra.

In food processor, process apricots, sugar, and lemon zest until smooth. Scrape mixture back into saucepan and simmer, stirring constantly (to prevent scorching) for 10 - 15 minutes, or until deep orange in color and very thick. when lifted, a tablespoon should take 3 seconds to fall from spoon.

Cool completely. You will need 2/3 cup for this recipe. The remaining can be refrigerated indefinitely.

For the dark chocolate ganache filling:
Heat/microwave chocolate & heavy cream and stir until smooth. Mixture should drop thickly from spatula.

Assembly:
Pipe/spread a 1/8 inch layer of chocolate ganache onto half of the cookies. Spread a thinner layer of apricot lekvar onto the other half of the cookies. Assemble the two halves together.

Storage:  airtight room temperature for 5 days or frozen 6 months.

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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dear Mrs. Wakefield,

I must admit that I feel a little sheepish adding another chocolate chip cookie recipe to the world's ever-growing collection, presuming to be the new "best" recipe. I wonder, do you think it's funny, how many people out there have tried to improve on your original Tollhouse recipe?  Are you rolling your eyes at all of us who can't seem to leave well enough alone? 

As a caveat, I must say that I haven't judiciously tested all the other "best" cookies on the Internet before carefully calculating and assembling my own. This recipe is just what I think is the best, made up of all the things I look for in the perfect chocolate chip cookie. 

I always go through a series of mental calculations as I decide if a chocolate chip cookie is worth going for. In no particular order, here are the things I look for in a perfect cookie:

The Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: Most of us agree that the primary purpose of a chocolate chip cookie is to serve as a vehicle for getting chocolate into our mouths. The saddest cookie-eating experience is one in which you bite into a chocolate chip cookie without tasting any chocolate. Any good chocolate chip cookie must have huge chunks of chocolate in every mouthful. 

The Type of Chocolate: Now, as much as I love your recipe with the Tollhouse chocolate chips, my favorite chocolate chip cookies don't actually have chocolate chips. I want them to have big-ass pools of chocolate that flood into your mouth as you bit into them. Chocolate chips are too waxy, too small, and just aren't melt-y and chocolate-y enough. And none of this milk chocolate nonsense; the chocolate should be dark and robust, flavoring each bite.

The Dough: I'm also quite picky about the actual cookie dough, which must be delicious in its own right and must balance the chocolate. I look for a darker color dough, flecked with stray chocolate shavings. It should have plenty of brown sugar and vanilla, which translates to a more complex, caramel-like flavor, as well as a little bit of salt to keep it from being sickly sweet. Pale, anemic dough is always a bit of a turn-off for me. 

Texture: And of course, the perennial chewy/crispy debate. Personally, I like my cookies to be crispy just along the outer edge, and very chewy and gooey in the middle. While I think the 6-inch bakery cookies are little over-the top, I do think they need to be on the larger size in order to achieve these two texture qualities.

So here's the resulting recipe, my personal "best" cookie. It's humble, no fuss, no fancy flours or imported chocolate chips (seriously, NY Times cookies, why would you call for low-gluten cake flour and high-gluten bread flour, only to mix them and create the equivalent of all-purpose flour?) While I do recommend giving the dough time in the fridge, they taste just fine if you pop them straight in the oven. Because, let's be honest, who plans a chocolate chip cookie craving 24 hours in advance?

Since you were a baker, Mrs. Wakefield, I'm sure you know that we all like to experiment, and change and perfect. My recipe is not drastically different from other recipes out there, but it tweaks them just so, to make my perfect cookie. 

Caroline

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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click here for the printable recipe
Heavily Adapted from The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields about 15 three-inch cookies

Ingredients
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
12 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions
Beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

Beat in the salt and baking soda. Fold in the flour, followed by the chopped chocolate.
Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour, or up to 24 hours While you can skip this step and bake the dough immediately, the dough will be easier to handle and the cookies will have an improved texture if you refrigerate it first. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drop scoops of about 2 tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about 4 inches apart. Sprinkle the cookies with sea salt, if desired.

Bake the cookies for about 12-13 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. 

Let cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack and cool for another 10 minutes or so. Serve and eat warm.

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