Month: April 2015

Milk and Cookies Cookies

Why yes, I have been playing with Christina Tosi’s recipes.  How did you know?  This is the first week of two  with riffs on my favorite blueberries and cream cookies.

This idea started with a “what if” while I was standing in the kitchen at about 5:00 AM one morning.  It’s amazing the number of ideas that have taken seed standing in my kitchen at 5:00 in the morning.

What if, I wondered, I replaced some of the dry milk powder in the cookie streusel with malted milk?  Then, what if I switched out the white chocolate for semi-sweet.

And used chocolate chunks in place of dried blueberries.

Sometimes it’s good to get caught up in the what-ifs.

What happened was some very tasty milk and cookies cookies.

As I’ve shared before, Christina’s Tosi’s cookies are as much about technique as they are ingredients.  If this is a turn-off for you, there is another way.  Target now carries packaged Milk Bar mixes.  Though I have mixed feelings about this, the packaging is cute and its hard to not like anything that comes from Target (as a West coaster the Lily Pulitzer debacle went right over my head).

Milk and Cookies Cookies

adapted from Christina Tosi’s Blueberries and Cream Cookie recipe

for streusel

Ingredients

  • 1/4 C nonfat dry milk powder
  • 1/2 C malted milk powder
  • 1/2 C all purpose flour
  • 3 TBS sugar
  • 2 TBS cornstarch
  • 3/4 TBS coarse kosher salt
  • 6 TBS (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 4 ounces chopped semi-sweet or dark chocolate

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 275°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
  2. Combine milk powder, malted milk powder, flour, sugar, cornstarch, and coarse salt in medium bowl; toss to mix evenly.
  3. Add butter; stir with fork until clusters form (you may have to break up the dough–it will be wet and sticky).
  4. Spread mixture evenly on prepared sheet. Bake until crumbs are dry and crumbly but still pale.  Start checking at 10 minutes–will probably need 20 minutes. Cool milk crumbs completely on sheet.
  5. Using a double boiler or microwave, melt chopped semi-sweet chocolate.
  6. Pour over browned crumbles and toss with a fork until crumbs are coated (this is easiest if you do it on the same cookie sheet used to bake them).
  7. Toss every few minutes until streusel is completely cooled.
  8. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

for cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 C (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 C sugar
  • 1 1/2 C plus 2 TBS (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1/2 C plus 2 TBS glucose (corn syrup can be substituted)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 5 1/4 C all purpose flour
  • 2 TSP baking powder
  • 1 TSP baking soda
  • 1 TSP coarse kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 C Milk Crumbs (click for recipe)
  • 12 ounces chopped semi-sweet or dark chocolate

Directions

  1. Combine butter, both sugars, and glucose/corn syrup in large bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy and pale, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add eggs; beat on medium-high speed until mixture is very pale and sugar is completely dissolved, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; beat on low speed just until blended, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.
  4. Add Milk Crumbs; mix on low speed just until incorporated. Remove bowl from mixer.
  5. Stir in chopped chocolate just until evenly distributed (dough will be very sticky).
  6. Using 1/4-cup ice cream scoop for each cookie, drop dough onto 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 24 hours.
  7. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled until baking time.
  8. Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large (18×12-inch) rimmed baking sheets with parchment.
  9. Transfer 6 chilled dough scoops to each sheet, spacing at least 4 inches apart (cookies will spread). Bake cookies, 2 sheets at a time, until golden, reversing sheets halfway through baking, 20 to 22 minutes total.
  10. Repeat with remaining chilled dough, cooling and relining sheets between batches. Transfer cookies to racks; cool completely.
  11. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Store in airtight containers at room temperature.

Make these. Now.

A work friend of mine brought in the most ridiculous…ridiculousest? little cookies from a recent trip to Paso Robles.  Rich and carmely with a sandy texture they came from the descriptively named Brown Butter Cookie Company.  Don’t let their humble looks fool you–these are gift worthy little bites.

As she handed me one, my friend threw down the gauntlet: “figure out how to make these.”

Once upon a time this would have been a challenge.  Luckily, and a little to my disappointment, the internet has made things much easier.  A handful of recipes popped up on my first Google search.  The fact that multiple refer to these cookies as copycats to the Brown Butter Cookie Company’s recipe is testament to how delicious they are.

They’re also fun to make.  There is no fancy equipment involved and the brown butter is stirred in while still hot making the dough a lot like wet sand.  Once it cools down, into the oven it goes and in a few minutes you’ve got heaven.  I made one single batch and then the next day got down to business with two more double batches.

Spoiler alert:  I found the first new recipe to add to my holiday baking for 2015.

Brown Butter Sables

adapted from Yummy Mummy Kitchen

note: a single batch yields about 18 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • sea salt for sprinkling (preferably fleur de sel)

Directions

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and allow it to caramelize.  You know it’s getting close when it begging to smell nutty.  Watch the butter closely until it turns a medium to light golden brown.  Do not let it burn.
  2. In a small bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.
  3. Pour butter through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  4. Whisk-in brown butter and sugar.
  5. Fold-in flour mixture until just combined.
  6. Allow dough to cool to room temp.
  7. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  8. Using a small scoop (I use 1/2 ounce), scoop cookies into half-domes and place on cookie sheets about 2-inches apart.
  9. If desired, gently flatten-out dough domes using the bottom of a glass.  Dough will be fragile.
  10. Sprinkle each with a few grains of fleur de sel.
  11. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
  12. Allow to cool completely.
  13. Try not to eat all of them at once.