Swedish Drommar Cookies
Several years ago, I bumped into a recipe in Gourmet magazine that called for baker’s ammonia. I was very curious about the use of this old-fashioned leavener in cookies. It seems that ammonium carbonate burns off during baking, making cookies super-crispy. And yes, while the cookies are baking, you have the lovely odor of ammonia in your kitchen. (This could explain why you don’t see this ingredient in most cookies.)
For years, I’ve kept an eye out for baker’s ammonia. I spotted it in the King Arthur Flour catalog. You guessed it. I bought some and am now on the hunt for ammonia cookie recipes.
Here is the recipe from Gourmet. When I serve these, I think I will skip the part about the ammonia in them.
Swedish Drommar Cookies
(Swedish Dream Cookies, Gourmet, December, 2000)
Makes about 5-6 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon crushed ammonium carbonate (also called baker’s ammonium)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Sift together flour and salt.
Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in ammonium carbonate and almond extract until combined well. Mix in flour mixture at low speed just until blended, then stir in coconut. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and arrange 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets.
Bake cookies in batches in upper third of oven until pale golden around edges, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.
Researching Head Notes
An important component of any recipe is the “head note.” The head note is the paragraph that comes before the recipe. Its intent is to draw you in to try the recipe. Usually it talks about ingredients or occasions to make or serving ideas.
My cookbook proposal has about 15 recipes and thus, about 15 head notes that need to be written. One of my cookbook author friends told me you can’t write head notes months after making something. You have to write it in the moment. Maybe that is why my head notes all need help.
My research on head notes has revealed a lot. First, some head notes are very short (2 sentences) that concisely and directly describe the final product. Some are very long and romance the reader. Usually they tell a multi-paragraph story about developing the recipe, or the nuances of one ingredient (like salt) when sourced from different places.
I have also found examples of bad head notes. Ones that are inconsistent with the recipe below. A recipe that I was considering mentioned “crisp rice” in the head note and “puffed rice” in the recipe. Well, what is it? Those are two different ingredients. I have also found head notes that contain an important recipe step, such as a decorating tip, which should be in the recipe.
My head notes definitely need a style and a point-of-view to draw readers into my recipes. …back to my proposal…
Read MorePumpkin Spice Cookies
I spent this weekend at my house in Upstate New York. Unlike NYC, the leaves are mostly on the ground and Fall is well underway. At all of the farmer’s stands were pumpkins–including sugar pumpkins for baking. So, I dusted off this pumpkin spice cookie recipe to share. Fresh pumpkin puree is the best, of course….
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
In a bowl, with an electric mixer at medium speed, cream together butter with brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in pumpkin purée.
In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. Add to butter mixture and beat well to combine. Add raisins and nuts in 2 batches, mixing between additions.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets. Bake about 18 minutes, until set, not browned. Transfer to racks to cool.
Peanut Butter Ganache Sandwich Cookies
The ultimate comfort cookie for me is peanut butter. So peanut butter + chocolate can only be better.
Here is a recipe that I found from Marian Burros book Comfort Cooking for peanut butter sandwich cookies filled with ganache. Ahhh…..the need to work out aggressively afterward…. Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Ganache Sandwich Cookies
Makes 24 cookies; 12 cookie sandwiches
For the cookies
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons smooth natural peanut butter
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups minus 1 tablespoon sugar, plus additional sugar for sprinkling
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
For the ganache
1 pound bittersweet chocolate
1 pint heavy cream
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the peanut butter and butter. Add the 1 1/2 cups minus 1 tablespoon sugar and cream for 20 seconds on medium speed. Scrape the bowl and mix 30 seconds more. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add the flour mixture all at once. Mix until the flour is incorporated and stir in the peanuts.
Scoop the dough, about 1/4 cup for each, onto ungreased baking sheets; there should be no more than nine cookies per sheet. You will need three sheets. Press down lightly with a large fork in two directions to make a cross, flattening the dough slightly. Sprinkle each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheets. The cookies will be very soft, but as they cool they will firm up somewhat, though they will still be soft. Remove the cookies and let cool.
Make the ganache
Break up the chocolate into small pieces and process in a food processor until it is very fine. Heat the cream to the boiling point. With the food processor on, pour the hot cream through the feed tube and process only until well blended. Remove to another bowl and cool. Refrigerate only long enough so that the ganache can be spread thickly between two cookies. Spread equally on 12 cookies; top with the remaining cookies.
Put in a cool place, covered, for several hours or overnight. The ganache will seep into the cookies and keep them soft.
NOTE: The ganache can also be made ahead and refrigerated, tightly covered. It will keep several days. To use, heat the container of ganache in a bowl of warm water.
Hazelnut Butter Cookies
I really love nut butters. This weekend I was working with almond butter, almond flour and almond meal. Today I found organic hazelnut butter and was looking around for recipes to try. This one sounds tasty–Hazelnut Butter with Mini Chocolate Chips.
Hazelnut Butter Cookies
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy unsalted hazelnut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 12-ounce package semisweet mini chocolate chips (2 cups)
Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, hazelnut butter, and both sugars in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before shaping.)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using 1 level tablespoon for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into 1-inch balls. Arrange 1 inch apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)
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