I reserved some of the Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie dough to bake knowing I would be going to Monday morning coffee with the moms. Who can resist freshly baked cookies? Having scooped out all my dough on the first day, I had cookies ready to bake in the fridge. I came home from the gym (New Year’s Resolution number 1), turned on the oven, plopped the little doughboys on a sheet and popped them in the oven. Easy peasy-freshly baked cookies in a jiffy. I had lined the cookie sheet with a Silpat and whoa, what a difference. This latest batch was much more reminiscent of a Mrs. Field’s cholate chip cookie (who remembers those, lol), a bit denser, definitely softer and lacking that lightness and crispy edge from the first day.
The moral of the story: If you like crisp and light, bake on parchment and after 12 hours of chilling. If you like a classic chewy cookie, bake on Silpat and chill the dough for longer. The next time I bake these I will test my theory again.
Cookie on the left baked after 12 hours of chilling time and on parchment. The cookie on the right after 48 hours in the fridge and baked on a Silpat mat.
But do bake these cookies, they are absolutely scrumptious!
Holiday Cookie List: Number EIGHT. Very LATE. But worth the WAIT!
My friend Mel mentioned a recipe she had tried recently from the NYTimes for Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies. She could not stop raving about them, light, crispy, buttery, hint of sesame, they sounded scrumptious. Always on the lookout for riffs on classic cookies, I immediately made a mental note to put the recipe on my Cookie Bucket List.
I checked outNYTcooking and noticed the recipe contained only granulated sugar which may account for its crisp texture. I like a crispy and chewy chocolate chip cookie so I googled chocolate chip tahini cookies. Judging by the number of recipes that popped up in my search, this cookie is a winner. The grand dame for this cookie recipe appears to be from Danielle Oron’s Modern Israeli Cooking: 100 New Recipes for Traditional Classics. I settled on Davie Lebovitz’s version which calls for both granulated and brown sugars. Perhaps the moisture in the brown sugar would add a bit of chewiness to the cookie.
Sherlock Wanna Be
My aspiration to be an ATK food investigator. I baked the first sheet of cookies on parchment paper and the second on Silpat.
The difference was small but noticeable. The cookies baked on parchment were just a bit thinner and had a crackly top. The Silpat cookies did not spread as much and the top did not have the crackly appearance. Both were delicious and texturally quite similar. Of note about a minute before the cookies were done I rapped the pan on the rack which causes the cookies to deflate giving them the signature crackly top. The parchment-baked ones appeared to have more cracks. A trick I learned from SaraBeth’s Kitchen baking book.
Cookies on the left were baked on parchment, the cookies on the right on Silpat
It is super important to chill the dough. The dough is very soft and light and benefits from the time in the fridge. I used a 2 tablespoon scoop for a bit smaller cookie and baked the cookies for approximately 12 minutes. As soon as the cookies are removed from the oven, sprinkle them with a mix of fleur de sel or flaky salt and black and white sesame seeds. Cool on a rack.
BAKE THESE COOKIES NOW
They are delicious. Crispy edges, a little bit of chewiness in the center, buttery, chocolatey (there’s my fake word again) with a subtle hint of sesame. So, so, good. The Tahini seems to lighten the cookie. If you want a crisper cookie I would use granulated sugar only. A definite keeper.
A delicious twist to chocolate chip cookies by adding tahini
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie, cookies
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
The Stuff to be Creamed First
8tablespoons115g, 4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2cup120ml tahini, well stirred
1/2cup100g granulated sugar
1/2cup90g packed light brown sugar (For a crisper cookie omit brown sugar and use 200gm granulated sugar or 1 cup)
The Wet Stuff
1large eggat room temperature
1large egg yolk
1teaspoonvanilla extract
The Dry Stuff
1cupplus 2 tablespoons AP FlourThe150g
3/4teaspoonbaking soda
1teaspoonkosherDiamond Crystal or sea salt (DL uses a french sea salt which is similar to a kosher salt, it is not like our sea salt, if using table salt use 1/2 teaspoon, if using Morton's kosher salt use 3/4 teaspoon)
The Bling
2cups280g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks (I used TJ's chocolate chunks)
flaky sea saltsuch as Maldon or fleur de sel
black and white sesame seeds
Instructions
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and kosher or sea salt, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, tahini, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy.
3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the egg, the yolk, and vanilla, and continue to mix for another minute, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl during mixing
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients until just combined, then add the chocolate chips. Do not overmix.
5. Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 325ºF (160ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
7. Form the cookies into rounds using an ice cream scoop. For small cookies make each 1 1/2-inch (3.5cm), for larger cookies, 2-inches (5cm) diameter. Place them evenly spaced on the baking sheets, 3-inches (8cm) apart.
8. Bake one sheet at a time, so you can keep an eye on them, use themiddle rack of the oven.
9. Bake the cookies, turning the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still pale in the center. For small cookies, about 12 minutes, for larger cookies, about 14 to 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven, sprinkle cookies with a bit of flaky sea salt and sesame seeds.
11. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.
Storage: These cookies will keep for two or three days at room temperature, but are definitely better the same day they're baked. The unbaked dough can be refrigerated for up to one week, and frozen for up to two months.
Salted Butter & Chocolate Chunk Shortbread (New Year’s Resolution #2: Finish 12 Days of Cookies)
Let’s get the apology over with first. Yikes, I wasn’t able to complete my 12 days of cookies. I started early, had help from Jamie and still came up short. Shouldn’t make excuses BUT, I am going to. A family trip to Vegas is the clear winner of excuses and reasons why I stumbled. Of course, if I included cookies sampled at Bouchon in Vegas, I would have easily made 12, but not quite within the rules. Second, a faulty oven. When the oven takes over 45 minutes just to reach 325 degrees, Houston, we have a problem. The last time my oven went on the fritz (a few years ago), I was baking Thanksgiving pies. Now that was a disaster.
BUT, I am determined to complete the list, after all, cookies can be made and enjoyed year around. So, without further ado… #7 of the 12 Days of Cookies: Salted Butter & Chocolate Chunk Shortbread
After seeing this cookie pop up on various sites and blogs I knew it was destined for the 12 Days of Cookies list. The recipe comes from the book Dining In by Alison Roman (what do you know, I am not buying this book-have I turned a new leaf? Nope, it is currently out of stock). This was a no-brainer. Butter. Chocolate. Shortbread. Like I was going to be able to ignore this recipe.
This is a slice and bake cookie, my favorite kind of cookie. You can make the dough in advance and bake off as few or as many cookies as you like. You can freeze some of the dough for a rainy day, which in California, might not happen for awhile.
The dough was a bit crumbly straight out of the mixer so I kneaded it a couple of times until it came together. Shape the dough into logs using parchment paper. Form the dough roughly into a log on the parchment, fold parchment over the log, and with a straight edge (ruler) placed up against the log on top of the parchment, gently pull the bottom piece of parchment while pushing the straight edge into the dough. This creates a round log. Wrap each log in the parchment and slide into a round tube (I use 3-inch diameter PVC pipe) and chill in the fridge.
You can use raw turbinado sugar for the Demerara Sugar. Don’t skip this step as it adds a nice crunch to the cookie. I would use semi-sweet chocolate which results in a sweeter cookie. There is quite a bit of chocolate in this cookie which can make slicing the dough a bit tricky. It’s okay if it crumbles when cut, just smoosh the dough back together, it will bake up fine.
An utterly delicious cookie, buttery, sandy, chocolatety (my new word), and sweet with a surprise pop of salt. It hits every taste sensation, and if that wasn’t enough, a crispy edge from the demerara sugar. Cookie Heaven. The keys to this cookie are salted butter, a sprinkling of Fleur de Sel, an edge of Demerara Sugar and of course CHOCOLATE chunks. Hmmmmmm.
I made a batch for a friend’s New Year’s Eve Party, but unfortunately, I was too tired to attend. I ended up in my jammies, on the couch, ringing in the New Year with a glass of milk in one hand and a cookie in the other and then promptly fell asleep. Oh well, there is always next year.
6ouncessemi- or bittersweet dark chocolatechopped (but not too fine, you want chunks)
1large eggbeaten
Demerara sugarfor rolling
Flaky sea saltfor sprinkling
Instructions
The cookie dough can be made ahead and stored, tightly wrapped in plastic, up to 1 week in the refrigerator, or 1 month in the freezer. Cookies can be baked and stored in plastic wrap or an airtight container for 5 days.
1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Using an electric mixer and a medium bowl or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, both sugars, and vanilla on medium-high till it’s super light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and, with the mixer on low, slowly add the flour, followed by the chocolate chunks, and beat just to blend.
3. Divide the dough in half, placing each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. Fold the plastic over so that it covers the dough to protect your hands from getting all sticky. Using your hands (just like you’re playing with clay), form the dough into a log shape; rolling it on the counter will help you smooth it out, but don’t worry about getting it totally perfect. You can also do this using parchment paper, if you prefer, but I find using plastic wrap easier when it comes to shaping the log. Each half should form two logs 2 to 2 1/4 inches in diameter. Chill until totally firm, about 2 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Brush the outside of the logs with the beaten egg and roll them in the Demerara sugar (this is for those really delicious crispy edges).
6. Slice each log into 1/2-inch-thick rounds, place them on the prepared baking sheet(s) about 1 inch apart (they won’t spread much), and sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake until the edges are just beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating them all.
Soft Gingerbread Tiles with Rum Butter Glaze: Day 6, 12 Days of Cookies!
My kitchen gadget addiction got the best of me yet again. The culprit? A beautiful holiday cookie from Ottolenghi’s latest book, Sweet, Soft Gingerbread Tiles with Rum Butter Glaze. The cookies are made with either an embossed rolling pin (which I purchased to make graham crackers not so long ago) or cookie stamps holiday or all season, which I had to have. After my cookie stamps arrived I immediately set out to make these.
The dough is a snap to make. The aroma that filled my kitchen while they baked made me smile. The cookies are soft, cakey and spicy. Just like a classic gingerbread cookie.
The recipe calls for blackstrap molasses which is the last extraction of sugar from sugarcane. It’s pretty bitter. The first extraction produces cane syrup (like Golden Syrup), the next produces molasses and the final extraction, with even less sugar left, produces blackstrap molasses. I wanted to be faithful to the recipe so I used blackstrap molasses. The cookies are not very sweet at all. I learned that regular molasses is about 70% sugar whereas blackstrap is about 40%, BIG difference. I plan on trying this recipe with both cane syrup and regular molasses just for the added sweetness.
The most difficult part of the recipe is stamping the cookies. During baking, the cookies will rise and the pattern blurs a bit so be sure to press the cookies well so the imprint is really bold and defined in the dough.
I tried two methods for stamping the cookies. For the first method, the dough is rolled into a sheet about 1/4 inch thick, stamped and cut out with a round cookie cutter. For the second method, the do/ugh is rolled into a ball (about 1.5-2 tablespoons of dough) which is then pressed with the stamp to create a cookie. Both methods worked well.
I love the rum butter glaze. It was really easy to put together and added a sheen and sweetness/flavor to the cookie. Though I brushed the glaze on, I think dipping the cookie or spreading the glaze with a spatula would make a nicer finish. The cookie does need to be warm when glazing.
These cookies are a showstopper. I can’t wait to bake another batch.
Gingerbread Tiles with Butter Rum Icing: Day 6, 12 Days of Cookies!
A delicious and festive gingerbread with rum glaze from Ottolenghi
Course cookies, sweets
Cuisine American, British
Keyword gingerbread, holidays, ottolenghi, Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Dough: Da Wet Mix
6tbsp85 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3packed cup plus 2 tbsp90 g dark brown sugar
1/4cup100 g blackstrap molasses (can substitute golden syrup or reg molasses 1:1 for sweeter cookie)
1large egg yolk*
Da Dry MIx
1 3/4cupsplus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour (235 gms) plus extra for pressing
1tbspDutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2tspbaking soda
1tspground ginger
1/2tspground cinnamon
1/8tspground cloves
1/4tspsalt
1/4tspfreshly ground black pepper
Rum-Butter Glaze:
2/3cup80 g confectioners' sugar
1/8tspground cinnamon
1tbsp15 g unsalted butter, melted and warm
1tbspdark rumor lemon juice
1tspwarm water
*On Food52 it was suggested to use extra-large egg yolk or add 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon of water to dough if it doesn't come together. I added about 1 teaspoon water. It won't come together until you knead it). Makes 12–14 depending on the size of stamp and cutter
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
Place the butter, sugar and molasses in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place.
Beat on medium speed until smooth and incorporated. Add the egg yolk and continue to beat until fully combined.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper into a bowl. Turn the speed of the mixer to low, and add the dry ingredients to the butter and molasses. Once the mix comes together, tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Forming Cookies: Rolling dough
Roll out the dough so that it is about 1/4 inch/ 0.5 cm thick. If the dough is very soft, you will need to chill it.*
Dip cookie stamp in a small bowl of flour, shake off any excess, then press them firmly into the dough, one at a time to create a deep imprint. How far you need to press to get an imprint will depend on your stamp; the patterns on some are more deeply cut than others. Bear in mind that the cookies rise a little when cooked, so any soft imprints will disappear.
Using a round cookie cutter that is slightly larger than the pattern, cut out the pieces of imprinted gingerbread. Transfer the cookies to the lined baking sheets, spaced about 3/4 inch/2 cm apart. Reroll the dough and continue to stamp and cut cookies until all the dough is used up.
Stamping Cookies: No Rolling
I also tried instructions from the cookie stamps, roll 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball and flatten with cookie stamp. With both methods, make sure you press firmly enough to create a bold definite pattern in dough!
Bake for 9–10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until firm to the touch. They will continue to firm up as they cool, so don’t be tempted to bake them for any longer.
Rum Glaze
Make the rum butter glaze while the gingerbreads are in the oven, as the glaze needs to be brushed onto the cookies while they are still warm.
Sift the confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl. Add the melted butter, rum (or lemon juice) and water and mix with a spoon until smooth. The glaze will thicken slightly if it sits around, if so stir a little more warm water in if you need—it should be the consistency of runny honey.
Remove the cookies from the oven, leave them to cool for 5 minutes, then brush or dab the glaze all over with a pastry brush. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
If you want to keep the glaze booze-free, the rum in the icing can be replaced with lemon juice.Make-Ahead: Once the dough is made, it can be covered in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking.Storage: These will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container. The glaze will discolor and crack a little, but this will not affect how they taste.
Swedish Visiting Cake Bars Day 3 of 12 Days of Cookies
If you like almonds you are going to LOVE this cookie. A crispy almond topping layered on a chewy slightly dense cake. Perfect with a cup of tea. A nice addition to any cookie tray. Find the thinnest sliced almonds possible, they seem to work better to ensure your meringue has a nice crunch but is still light.
Swedish Visiting Cake Bars Day 3 of 12 Days of Cookies
Ingredients
For the Topping
1cupconfectioners' sugar
3large egg whites
1 1/2cupssliced almondsblanched or unblanched
For the Bars
3/4cupsugar
2large eggsat room temperature
1/4teaspoonfine sea salt
1 1/2teaspoonspure vanilla extract
1/4teaspoonpure almond extract
1cupall-purpose flour
1stick unsalted buttermelted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar for dustingoptional
Instructions
Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9-inch square baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
To make the topping:
Put the sugar in a medium bowl and pour over the egg whites. Using your fingers or a form, mix until the sugar is moistened. If there are lumps, ignore them. Toss in the almonds and stir them around until they're coated with the sugared whites. Set aside while you make the batter.
To make the bars:
Working in a large bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, and salt together until the mixture lightens in color and thickens a little, about 2 minutes.
Whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts. Switch to a flexible spatula and gently stir in the flour. When the flour is fully incorporated, gradually fold in the melted butter. You'll have a thick batter with a lovely sheen.
Scrape it into the pan and use the spatula to work the batter into the corners. The layer will be very thin.
Give the topping another stir, or a run-through with your fingers, and turn it out onto the batter. Use a spatula or your fingers to spread the almonds evenly over the mixture, making sure to get nuts into the corners too.
Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with only a few crumbs stuck to it. The meringue topping will be pale golden brown. If you'd like a deeper color on the topping, run it under the broiler until you get the shade of gold you like best.
Transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the cake and unmold it onto the rack. Very gently peel away the parchment and invert the cake onto another rack to cool to room temperature.
Transfer the cake to a cutting board and, using a long, thin knife, slice it into nine 3-inch squares. For smaller portions, cut each square into two triangles. If you'd like, you can dust the bars with confectioners' sugar just before you serve them.
Mighty Mouse? No, Mighty Jamie To Save the Day (12 Days of Cookies)
My Christmas present arrived early this year. The twins are home! Lucky for me Jamie is in a baking mood and immediately tackled one of our favorite cookie books, Dorie’s Cookies. So, without further ado…
Heeeeeere’s Jamie with Day 3, 4, and 5 of our 12 Days of Cookies
Hey everyone! Jamie here. Home for the holidays! I got home Thursday night, so naturally, I have already baked three different kinds of cookies. I decided that mom needed some help with completing her “12 Days of Cookies” blog posts. Between you and me, she gets MAJORLY stressed when she bakes during the holidays, so knocking out three different cookies for her is really just me trying to make my holidays a lot more pleasant. But don’t tell her I said that.
To be honest, I’m really not a cookie person. I’d much rather eat a slice of super dense chocolate cake than a gooey chocolate chip cookie. Call me crazy, I know. I will say that baking cookies is a little more enjoyable than baking cakes. It’s SO easy! They take a 3rd of the time to bake, and once you bake them you don’t have to spend extra time making more frosting or fillings which really means I only have to do dishes once. (HUGE).
I picked these three cookies because they looked pretty easy to me, and their pictures in the cookbook looked pretty good. The Swedish Visiting Cake Bars are better cold and almost have a custard-like taste to them. My dad wasn’t super thrilled about all the almonds on top, but I think they add a nice crunch. They are more cake-like than you would expect, but they have an awesome almond flavor that I am a huge sucker for. These cookie-cake bars definitely grew on me. The Snowy Topped Brownie Drops are basically small lumps of brownies with a ton of powdered sugar on them–what’s not to like??? Unless you don’t like chocolate. My least favorite part of these cookies is that the dough must be chilled for at least 3 hours. I tend to get impatient and want to finish baking all in one fell swoop. But my dad did say that they are his favorite of the three, so maybe it’s worth it. Last but not least, the Coffee Malteds cookies. I made a tiny mistake (or a huge mistake if you talk to my mom) when I didn’t sift the malted milk powder before mixing it into the wet ingredients, so my cookies have some weird lumps of malted milk powder in them. But other than that, they taste pretty good (ps. you can’t even taste the weird lumps so w/e). I dipped them in chocolate, which in my opinion makes them 10000000 times better. We are taking the cookies to our annual pre-school cookie exchange tomorrow, so we’ll see which one is everyone’s favorite!
HI CLAIRE
Attention Java Junkies! Coffee Malteds: Day 5 of 12 Days of Cookies
Coffee Malteds from Dorie’s Cookies a great cookie for all Java Junkies and even those that aren’t coffee lovers. The addition of malted milk powder adds a nutty, vanilla, earthy flavor-a touch of Ovaltine in your cookie. To take them over the top, Jamie dipped them in chocolate, genius!
8tablespoonsunsalted buttercut into chunks, at room temperature
1/2cup100gms sugar
1/4cup50gms packed light brown sugar
1tablespoonground coffeepreferably from espresso beans (or use instant or powdered coffee or espresso)
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
1large eggat room temperature
1large egg yolkat room temperature
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat it to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Whisk the flour, malt powder, and baking powder together.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, both sugars, espresso, and salt together on medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, return to medium speed and, one by one, beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla, beating for 1 minute after each goes in.
Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse, just to begin incorporating the flour and malt powder. When the risk of flying flour is passed, mix on low speed only until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough. You'll have a rather crumbly dough, but that's fine. Give the dough a few last turns with a sturdy flexible spatula and then reach in, knead if necessary and gather the dough into a ball.
Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough, or use a teaspoon to get rounded spoonfuls. Roll the dough into balls and place them an inch apart on the lined baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back after 8 minutes. The cookies will be soft and golden only around the edges; they won't look done, and they're not—they'll firm as they cool. Transfer the sheets to racks and then, after about 10 minutes, carefully lift the cookies onto the racks to cool completely.
Do Ahead
Packed in a tightly covered container, the cookies will keep for up to 3 days (after that, they get firmer and are perfect for dunking...in coffee, of course). Wrapped airtight, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Day 2 of 12 days of Cookies. I am off to a slow start having posted the first cookie days ago. But I promise, this cookie will make up for the wait. Once again I found a delicious treat in Ottolenghi’s dessert book, Sweet. Yep, my new fav. I am a sucker for shortbread and their Yo-Yos are just that, buttery, melt in your mouth shortbread cookies. They didn’t stop there, the cookies are then paired with a luscious buttercream to make an absolutely delicious sandwich cookie. Perfect for a holiday cookie platter.
The cookies are made with custard powder, an English invention. A thickening agent like cornstarch, the custard powder gives the cookies their sandy texture. The addition of annatto to the powder creates that lovely yellow-orange hue. I found Bird’s Custard Powder at a local Indian supermarket, cornstarch can be used instead but I love the color from the Bird’s Custard.
The dough comes together quickly. Dry ingredients are sifted into a bowl and butter cut into it. The mixture starts out very dry and crumbly but after adding the vanilla and increasing the speed of the mixer the dough comes together nicely.
Use a tablespoon ice cream scoop to measure out portions of dough. Roll each scoop into a smooth round ball and then smoosh each with a fork.
I have a confession to make. I couldn’t find rhubarb so I substituted strawberries instead to make the buttercream. The berries give the buttercream both flavor and color and make very striking sandwich cookies. No wonder they call these cookies Yo-Yos. Can’t wait until rhubarb is in season.
and to get you into the holiday baking mood….Mariah
This holiday season I am determined to post a Twelve Days of Cookies list and I will only stand a chance if I start now. This month Food 52 Baking Club is featuring Ottolenghi’s book Sweet authored with Helen Goh, his dessert partner in crime. As with all Ottolenghi books, this one is beautiful, worthy of your coffee table, but more importantly, worthy of use in your kitchen.
A long long time ago in a kitchen somewhere far away, I tried to make madeleines. I flopped, and since then my madeleines pans have been relegated to the back of a kitchen cabinet. Looking for a recipe to try for National Cookie Day (yesterday, hope you made a batch) I came across Ottolenghi’s Saffron, Orange and Honey Madeleines. They looked and sounded so delicious I decided to pull out my forgotten pans and give it the old college try.
I’m glad I did. The madeleines are buttery, cakey, tender, everything a madeleine should be and more.
The batter is made in a food processor (oh snap). Eggs and sugar are whirled in the processor, flour and leavening added, pulse a couple more times and then add the saffron infused melted butter. The batter is poured into a WELL BUTTERED AND FLOURED pan (trust me on this) and baked for 7-9 minutes. In those short minutes, your entire kitchen will be blanketed by the aroma of vanilla, butter, and orange, heavenly.
The cooled madeleines are popped out of their shells (haha, get it?) painted with heated honey (watch your fingers, the honey is hot) and one end rolled in ground pistachios.
So good. If you don’t have a madeleine pan you could probably use a mini-muffin tin…they’ll still be delicious but they just won’t be the same (sigh).
You can find the recipe on Bon Apetit but without weight measurements (boohoo). If I were you I’d splurge and get the book, totally worth it!
