TWD: Gingersnaps

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: David Blom

I was excited these cookies were picked for our second recipe for December for a few reasons:

1. I love gingersnaps.
2. They are cut-out cookies - who doesn't like making cut-out cookies?!
3. Uber easy!
4. A new cookie for the Christmas cookie tin. :)

 Before baking, you brush the cookies with a molasses glaze (equal parts of molasses and water).

 If only I had these cute cookie stencils.

The description for these cookies say they are mildly spiced - this is an understatement. I wish I had gone with my instinct to add more ginger and cinnamon to these. The only discernible flavor was the molasses. I like molasses - if they were called molasses cookies, the flavor would have been spot on.

These were not anything like I was expecting them to be. They were thin, tough, and chewy. I was hoping they would be similar to the Sweetzels brand that I buy - full of ginger flavor, with a hard, yet crunchy texture, perfect for dipping in a cup of coffee or tea.

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I did have high hopes for these cookies. The dough was deliciously fragrant. And it took all but maybe 5 minutes to make the dough. I'm glad I refrained from making a double batch, for the end result was a disappointment.

If you want to give this recipe a try (maybe you'll have better luck than I did), you will find the recipe by clicking here, or it can be found on page 324 of Baking with Julia.

To see how my fellow bakers fared (I know a couple of them enjoyed this recipe), visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and look for the LYL: Gingersnaps link.

TWD: Double Chocolate Cookies

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Rick Katz

This weeks recipe is an intense chocolate cookie; on the outside it has a paper-thin, crispy topping much like homemade brownies, their insides, truffle like. Pure chocolate goodness.

These tasted as good three days later, as they did the first day. Everyone enjoyed these. They may even make it into the Christmas cookie tin this year.

These cookies have a mixture of bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate - a whole pounds worth. Half of the bittersweet chocolate and the unsweetened chocolate gets melted down with butter for the batter, and the rest of the bittersweet is chopped in larger-than-chip-size chunks, and added to the chocolate mixture along with the dry ingredients.

As you can see, the cookie "dough" is not dough-like at all. It is more like a cake batter - so you have no choice but to chill the dough; no skimping out on this step.

Even after chilling, the dough is still not like your typical cookie dough - it is very soft and sticky; if you have ever made truffles, that is the texture this dough has. It took a little prodding to get the dough out of the scoop.

The instructions state that these are "spreaders" - to leave at least two inches of space between each mound. As you can see, I had very little spreading; I was expecting to pull out a pan of very flat cookies.

These cookies are fairly quick to make - aside from the chilling time. You know the saying.. good things come to those who wait. And these were good..

This post participates in Tuesdays with Dorie. Click here for links of all the talented bakers of our group, to see how they fared with this recipe.

Book 100: Bittersweet

by Alice Medrich

I found it fitting that my one-hundredth book be by Alice Medrich. It was Alice's book, Cocolat, a gift from my husband many moons ago that go me started on a baking adventure of a lifetime. I love Cocolat - the recipes are easy enough for the average home baker to make, yet they will impress your family and friends, as I'm sure the recipes in this book will too.

It was hard to pick a recipe from this book. There are so many beautiful and delicious sounding cakes, breads, cookies, (and even a couple savory dishes!) to choose from. Originally I was going to go with Alice's Tribute Cake, a beautiful chocolate cake filled with ganache, frosted with a chocolate glaze and decorated with ruffled chocolate fans. This, has my name written all over it.

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However, I opted for the Coconut Saras. These are a different take on her Sarah Bernhardt cookies from Cocolat. In this recipe she uses a coconut macaroon rather than an almond macaroon (not to be confused with macaron. Though macaron is French for macaroon, they are a different cookie). I must say I do prefer the coconut over the almond (I have made both).

The base of this petit dessert is the coconut macaroon, this is topped with a chocolate ganache, and dipped in, and drizzled with, a chocolate glaze. Yep. Sounds good doesn't it?

As I was finishing these up, our daughter stopped by and she did a taste test for me. Her reaction was "Mmm, I can eat these all day" and frankly, so could I.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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To make the ganache, finely chop your chocolate.

Bring some cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate and mix until smooth.

Let cool before refrigerating overnight.

Oops. I thought I forgot to add all of the chocolate. I reheated the cooled chocolate mixture over a water bath and stirred in the extra chocolate. Only later did I realize this was not the case.

The macaroons are made from sweetened coconut, sugar, egg white, vanilla, and salt. (The leftover egg yolks I will be using to make Alice's recipe for Chocolate Mint Ice Cream!)

Mix macaroon ingredients together in a stainless steel bowl and place in a waterbath, and cook until the egg whites are no longer runny, and have turned from translucent to opaque.

The recipe calls for you to drop by the tablespoons full (I used a scoop approx. 2.5" in diameter - holds about 1 tablespoon). I thought they looked a bit large, so for my second batch I went with a smaller scoop. (Approx. 1 1/8" in diameter.)

I found the tip of a candy thermometer dipped in water worked well to create a hole in the center of the cookie to form the nest shape.

Wouldn't these be cute at Easter filled with mini chocolate eggs? In that case, use the larger scoop.

The chilled ganache. This you whip until it is spreadable, yet firm enough to hold a shape.

This is how it is NOT supposed to look like after whipping! Spreadable? No. I realized later that when the recipe called for half of the chocolate ganache recipe, I used half of the cream, but ALL of the chocolate called for, in a full recipe. Oops. No worries though. It still tasted great, I just was not able to pipe the ganache onto the cookies. Instead, I had to spoon the mixture on.

They would have been cutter if I were able to pipe the ganache onto the cookie rather than having to spoon it on.

You may be thinking that is a lot of chocolate. Not really. In no way is it heavy. The chocolate melts the moment it hits your mouth, and you have this deliciously smooth, satiny, chocolatey goodness that compliments the coconut cookie. It's a bit reminiscent of an almond joy - sans the almond. Light bulb moment!! Add an almond to the center of the ganache!!! Oh yeah.

I can't very well say that I am at the halfway point of cooking through my two-hundred plus books. I have come to the realization that this is going to be a never-ending project, for I keep adding to my collection; this is not a bad thing, not in my book at least.