a cookie for a long road home

I moved to New York almost six months ago and hadn’t made cookies in my apartment until today. Sure, I bake three days a week in class; am constantly testing and baking for PattyCake; and spend my free time devouring desserts and sweet treats around the city. But to bake at home - in that kitchen?

Let me back up…

When I lived in Wisconsin (my home state), I had a fabulous kitchen – open and spotless with hardwood floors, high ceilings, skylights and two-year-old appliances. My gorgeously worn-in Boos butcher block took center stage during weeknight meals, weekend dinner parties and spontaneous baking sprees. To that effect, there was a constant supply of cookies in the designated jar, dough resting in the fridge before its final baking and raw dough in the freezer for a quick and easy weeknight dessert (baked or unbaked).

However, when New York came a-calling, I traded in my clean, bright space for, well, a New York kitchen: small, dirty, ill-lit and old (except for the fridge which broke two months into my life here; that's new, and yes it makes me smile). Also, it doesn’t help that I live with three boys, who while relatively tidy, are still boys who enjoy copious amounts of burritos on a daily basis. A major deviation from my old (female) roommate whose boyfriend was a chef and thus knew the merits of a clean kitchen. Regardless to say, when I traded states and kitchens, I traded my kitchen habits. I opted for eating out, baking out and staying out - of that kitchen.

Consequently, I didn’t really start baking at home in New York until today, when the urge to eat my favorite chocolate-oatmeal cookies couldn’t be satiated by any one of the many fantastic bakeries New York City has to offer. Although my oven surrendered a shroud of smoke as it preheated, forcing me to force open windows and stifle coughs, the cookies turned out just as splendid as I remembered.

Throughout the years, I’ve perfected these little nuggets of joy – mildly sweet, slightly salty with fabulously large nuggets of chocolate mingled with the nutty flavor of rolled oats and toasted walnuts. Perhaps these cookies can persuade you to take your oven out of hibernation – or merely warm it up from the last use (if you’ve been doing any small bit more of baking at home than me in the last six months) – and enjoy a little taste of (my) home.

Chocolate-Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 50-60 small cookies

Unsalted butter 16 Tbsp/8 oz/225 g
Granulated sugar 1 cup/8 oz/228 g
Muscovado sugar 1 cup/8 oz/225 g
Eggs 2 large
Vanilla 1 tsp
All-purpose flour 2 cups/16 oz/450 g
Baking powder 1 tsp
Baking soda 1 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Old fashioned rolled oats 1½ cup/12 oz/340 g
Chopped 61% chocolate 1 cup/8 oz/226 g
Chopped 70 % chocolate ½ cup/4 oz/113 g
Chopped walnuts; toasted 1¼ cup/10 oz/288 g

Beat together butter, granulated sugar and Muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine eggs and vanilla and beat gently to combine. Add gradually to beating butter-sugar mixture in three additions, allowing each addition to be fully incorporated before adding the next.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add all at once to butter mixture and beat slowly till almost combined. Stir in chocolates and walnuts. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 12 – 36 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚F. Use a small ice cream scoop to measure out 1–inch balls. Place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheet, staggering to allow for proper air flow during baking. Bake cookies 12 -15 minutes, turning half-way through, until the cookies are medium brown and the edges have begun to set but the centers are still soft. Allow cookies to rest on baking sheet for a few minutes, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*Chef’s note: I love to “age” cookies, a process that has made me a bit weird in the eyes of the common man (aka: non-bakers) and a bit of a tease in the minds of my roommates (“What? We don’t get to eat them tonight?”) Nonetheless, I can promise you it makes a huge difference in the flavor and texture of the final product. Letting the cookies to sit in the fridge for 12-36 hours allows the eggs to slowly distribute themselves completely into the dough, producing a firmer, drier dough, which, in turn, bakes more evenly. Even more important, aging helps to create the trinity of texture that I find so irresistible in a good cookie: a crunchy outside, a chewy middle ring and a meltingly, soft center. Finally, the process develops the flavors of the cookies, allowing that delectable brown sugar, caramel-toned sweetness to become more pronounced.
*Chef’s note: I use chocolate discs or pistoles in addition to chocolate chips to vary the texture, size and flavor in my cookies.

edible flowers and a meyer lemon craving

Ah the beauty of being a food writer. The newsletter I work for when I'm not baking for PattyCake, Eat Life (http://eatlifefci.blogspot.com/), allows me the pleasure of delving into the foods I love; by this I mean any food at all. Comforting foods, quirky combinations of flavors and textures, tantalizing sweets…you get the idea. Today I spent the blustery, snow-laden day warm in the kitchen, testing a recipe I wrote for Eat Life titled Meyer Lemon Crème with Beurre Noisette Shortbread Crumble and Edible Flowers (can you tell I’m a student of the French pastry arts with a name like that?)

I’d had a craving to bake with Meyer lemons for the past few weeks, in fact I’m fairly certain that all those in a 20 mile radius of my life are grateful I finally did as I couldn’t stop jabbering about it, my eyes raised to the heavens as I imagined their glory. And glory they had.

I chose to make a traditional curd, adding just a bit of tangelo zest for good measure, allowing it to chill, then folding in softly whipped cream to create a light, airy and irresistibly tart crème. Instead of baking the curd atop its traditional shortbread accompaniment, I made a beautifully simple beurre noisette, or browned butter, shortbread. I started by melting unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the milk solids turned light brown and a nutty aroma hovered in the air. To this I added sifted confectioner’s sugar, all-purpose flour, finely ground toasted almonds and a pinch of salt. Baked in the oven till lightly browned, cooled and crumbled the shortbread created a fantastic not-too-sweet foil to the citrusy crème. To finish, I merely dusted the layers with a bit of confectioner’s sugar (an ode to one of my favorite parts of a lemon bar) and sprinkled a few edible flowers on top (because edible flowers were indeed the main focus of the article).

Perfection in an afternoon snack. Afterwards, I played with my camera for a bit, documenting the beauty of edible flowers, canary-yellow Meyer lemons and the fact that even as the snow falls outside, spring is just around the corner.

*Chef’s note: The recipe for Meyer Lemon Crème with Beurre Noisette Shortbread Crumble and Edible Flowers as well as another edible flower recipe for a fabulous caprese salad with rosemary reduced balsamic will be published in the March issue of Eat Life (out on March 15th) and I’ll be sure to post it, as well as photos, here after its debut.

behind the scenes - ice cream cake

100 cupcake order

Ice Cream Cake Demo

We made an ice cream cake for Jeff's birthday, and decided to record the process and create our first webisode! Enjoy.


Ice Cream Cake from Jade on Vimeo.

Danish

out of state order: vanilla with chocolate and red velvet with cream cheese