Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich

454 Pages·2010·6.42 MB·English

by  Alice Medrich

CHEWY GOOEY CRISPY CRUNCHY MELT-IN-
YOUR-MOUTH COOKIES BY ALICE MEDRICH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEBORAH JONES
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
USER’S GUIDE
QUICK START
FAQs
CRISPY
CRUNCHY
CHUNKY
CHEWY
GOOEY
FLAKY
MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH
COMPONENTS
INGREDIENTS
EQUIPMENT
RESOURCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SMART SEARCH
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
Cookies are easy, enticing, and fun. They invite creativity and reward
experimentation—no rocket science required. Yet, even in this era of culinary
obsession, chefs ignore cookies, and home cooks cling to the recipe on the bag
of chocolate chips. So I asked myself: What if cookies reflected our modern
culinary sensibility—our spirit of adventure and passion for flavors and even our
dietary concerns—without losing their universal friendly appeal? What if
cookies were hip (but not too hip)? And why not celebrate the physical and
sensual appeal of cookies by grouping them by texture? Chewy Gooey Crispy
Crunchy … is my response to these, life’s larger cookie questions.
I began by revisiting my own repertoire, always asking, “Do I still like these?
Do they appeal to modern tastes?” I changed leavenings, baking temperatures,
and pan liners to improve textures. I sometimes cut sugar or butter (for more
flavor!), or added more spice, or new spices. I tried olive oil, herbs, and pepper. I
adjusted salt to offset sweetness and heighten flavors. I tuned up cookie classics
like snicker doodles, sugar cookies, coconut macaroons, even brownies, with a
shower of grated cinnamon stick or nutmeg, or with fragrant sugars spiked with
cardamom, garam masala, chili powder, or star anise. How many times did I say,
“These are good, but let’s do it again with a little more of this, or add some
pepper, or what about whole wheat or oat flour”? Indeed, “What about this?
What about that?” was my constant mantra.
Even plain flour gave me pause. I’ve always insisted that bleached flour
makes more tender cookies. But now, after a career-long, oft-stated commitment
to simple ingredients and pure flavors, I confronted my bleached-flour habit.
Tinkering and tasting, I found that I could get tender, even melt-in-your-mouth
cookies with unbleached flour, and that the plainest cookies not only tasted but
also smelled better when I used it! I revised my recipes (as necessary) for
unbleached flour.
What else is new? Classic crispy wafers called tuiles come in flavors from
vanilla bean to saffron, lavender, tarragon, and thyme. Nutty Cocoa Cookie Bark
flaunts Parmesan and pine nuts. Or forget the cheese and make it kitschy and
kid-friendly for the holidays with crushed peppermint sticks and drizzled white
chocolate!
My collection of bittersweet brownies remains priceless, including Less-Is-
More Overnight Brownies. Look for Buckwheat Linzer Cookies with cacao nibs
as well as Spicy Linzer Bars. You’ll also find an inspired handful of gooey
caramel-filled Latin American cookies called Alfajores.
My classic chocolate chip cookies with melted butter are here, but so are
shatteringly crisp, ultrathin chocolate chip cookies that redefine the genre. Look
for cookies with whole grains such as Great Grahams (addictive!) and Whole
Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies—right next to superb Wheat-Free Chocolate
Chip and Wheat-Free Double-Oatmeal Cookies—and more. Indeed, I adored the
creative challenge of making delicious cookies without wheat and I used a
variety of strategies to that end. Sometimes I used a single non-wheat flour;
other times I blended flours and starches. Rather than seek or rely on a one-size-
fits-all blend of flours, I wanted the best taste and texture for the particular
cookie at hand.
Meanwhile, if you think you know meringues, try Banana Pecan Meringues,
Peanut Butter Clouds, or meringues loaded with salted nuts and milk chocolate
chunks, then think again. You’ll also find ethereal French Macarons—and
everything you need to know to make them successfully.
My recipes are organized by texture. If you love crispy cookies, go directly to
the “Crispy” chapter, then check out “Crunchy,” just in case. Browse the
“Chunky” chapter for cookies or bars chock-full of nuggets and bumps. If what
you are looking for has nothing to do with texture, go to “Smart Search” (pages
365–67) to find quick-and-easy cookies, wheat-free cookies, cookies with whole
grains, or cookies for Weight Watchers, for example.
I aimed for the highest standard: if a cookie that was lower in fat, wheat-free,
or whole grain was just “pretty good,” then it wasn’t good enough! Thus cookies
that meet these criteria are not segregated, and omnivorous cookie lovers should
not ignore them.
Most of my recipes are short and simple, but each includes the essential
details to ensure great cookies. Throughout the book you will find loads of
information and help if you need to brush up on beating or folding egg whites,
piping meringue, handling phyllo dough, and other common cookie tasks.
A personal collection such as this is not meant to be encyclopedic. I hope you
find this one whimsical yet practical, quirky but comforting, eccentric but
engaging. I hope that Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy will pull new bakers into
the kitchen for the first time and inspire seasoned hands to ever greater heights
of cookie creativity.

USER’S GUIDE
No matter what kind of cookie you choose, you will get the most from this book
if you read the information in this chapter before you start with any of the
recipes. If you simply can’t wait that long, read “Quick Start” while you are
preheating the oven.
Cookie recipes are the simplest in the baker’s repertoire: ingredient lists are
brief and familiar, and instructions are few and uncomplicated. But simplicity
does not mean a recipe can be executed casually, that the details are whimsical,
or that the measurements are flexible. In reality, cookies are tiny pastries. As
such, they are subject to all the rules of baking: mundane acts of measuring and
mixing, cookie sheet preparation, oven temperature, and timing make the
difference between tough and tender cookies and between ordinary and
extraordinary cookies. If you’ve ever eaten ten chocolate chip cookies made by
ten different bakers all using the same recipe, you know what I mean.
Experienced cooks have their own measuring, mixing, and baking habits.
Cooks (even those of us who are professional bakers or cookbook authors) do
not measure and mix the same way. And each of us has our special tricks. The
information that follows will get you into my kitchen and my head by explaining
why I do what I do and why some of my methods may be different from what
you are accustomed to or what you find in other books.
DECODING RECIPE LANGUAGE
A good recipe uses specific descriptive language to tell you what to do, when
and for how long to do it, and with what utensil. It includes visual cues to look
for so you know you are on the right track. All of this is designed to help you
achieve results that resemble those that we got in my kitchen. If you change the
details, you will change the results—for better or for worse!
The order of the recipe is designed so that the most important steps of the
recipe can proceed without interruption. This explains why the flour and dry
ingredients are often blended first, even if they are used later. Blending them
first means that you can keep the flow of a recipe moving (and you don’t end up
with a dough or batter that has pockets of unmixed salt or baking powder).
Phrases like just until are important. When the recipe asks you to mix just
until the dry ingredients are blended, or warm the chocolate just until it is
melted, or bake just until the edges are brown, you know that more mixing,
warming, or baking is not better and your cookies could suffer.
The texture of your cookie is also affected by how you mix: terms like stir,
fold, beat, and whip are used to guide you. When a recipe calls for mixing,
stirring, or folding, you are meant to act gently (but decisively) to incorporate
ingredients without destroying or changing the texture of the batter. For beaten
egg whites or any type of meringue, the goal is to preserve as much of the air in
the batter as possible—excessive or vigorous mixing or the wrong stroke will
deflate these batters. For denser, richer batters (like those for chocolate chip
cookies or butter cookies), excess or vigorous mixing may add too much air or
activate too much gluten.
When a recipe calls for beating, whipping, or mixing vigorously, you are
meant to aerate the mixture and/or make sure that the ingredients are emulsified.
This is done with an electric mixer or by hand, depending on the recipe. Egg
whites are whipped at medium to high speed with an electric mixer with the
whisk attachment. Heavier, richer batters and doughs are mixed with the flat
beater or paddle attachment, or by hand with a spatula at a brisk pace. Aeration
and emulsification caused by mixing briskly with a paddle or spatula are less
obvious than the effect of whipping egg whites, but they do occur.
When a recipe calls for “1 cup nuts, chopped,” measure the whole nuts and
then chop them. If the recipe calls for “1 cup chopped nuts,” it is the chopped
nuts that should be measured. The difference between the weight of 1 cup of
whole almonds and that of 1 cup of chopped almonds is not a make-it-or-break-it
detail for most cookies, but doing what the recipe is actually asking you to do
can make the process easier for you—it is more efficient, for example, to
measure and then chop!
Finally, note that all measures given in ounces always refer to weights rather
than volume (see page 15 for a fuller explanation).
Certain recipes in each chapter are accompanied by additional information
that pertains to all of the similar recipes in the chapter. “Stick Chat” (page 33)
gives techniques and tips that apply to all of the “stick cookies” in the “Crispy”
chapter, for example. Similarly, tuiles are featured, with lots of extra information
about tuiles and similar wafers.
QUICK START
Here are the five most important things to know about making the cookies in this
book successfully. More details about methods and techniques can be found in
“FAQs”.
1. Too much flour is the biggest problem in homemade cookies. Use an
electronic scale or measure with measuring cups as follows: Spoon the flour
lightly into the cup until it is heaped above the rim. Sweep the flour level with
a finger or spatula without tapping or shaking the cup. Dipping the measuring
cup directly into the flour container will give you too much flour, resulting in
heavy, doughy cookies.
2. Use a national brand of unbleached all-purpose flour, unless another type of
flour is called for.
3. Check your oven temperature with a thermometer and correct for
discrepancies when you preheat the oven (or have your oven recalibrated).
4. Always preheat the oven before putting cookies in.
5. Use medium to heavy baking sheets that don’t warp. Avoid those with dark
surfaces, including those that are nonstick.