Cookieology

Cookies have been flowing from my kitchen for the past week. My co-workers and the boyfriend's co-workers are beginning to be dependent upon this bounty. I have been fiddling and adjusting, and just trying to make a damn good cookie. The experiments have not been extremely different, but merely variations on a theme. The Tollhouse theme. It is a time-honored recipe for me having been the only cookie recipe I have ever used since I was tiny.

The first of the experiments was the classic chocolate chip. Following the directions exactly, they produced quite tasty cookies. A bit chewy, full of butter and chocolate. The next batch I added a bit of baking powder. Much the same I have to say. The next was white chocolate chip and macadamia nut. The original recipe is 3/4 c. brown sugar and 3/4 c. white sugar. Since white chocolate is such a delicate flavor, I was concerned about the brown sugar overwhelming the cookie. So I used 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1 c. white sugar. Turned out pretty well. They are really not one of my favorite cookies, and I thought they were way too sweet. Despite this, they were very well received by the co-workers. May not be my favorite kind of cookie, but people seem to love them.

The final batch was a nod to my mother's baking habits. She would always insist on decreasing the butter to cut back on the fat in the cookies, and doing so leads to my favorite cookie. The butter was decreased by 25% and made for a much lighter cake-like cookie. I chilled the dough well before portioning, so they stayed tall and fluffy. Into these I dumped the remaining bits of the white chocolate, macadamia nuts, and semi-sweet chips I had left. A co-worker dubbed them Hodge Podge Cookies. I like it. It works well for me.

Next I will be branching out into the world of Alton Brown and the chewy cookies. I believe he melts the butter first, and has a slightly different recipe. We shall see.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Recipe from Epicurious.com, originally from The Well-Decorated Cake by Toba Garrett

12 oz. (336 g) egg whites (10 large eggs or about 1 1/2 c.)
3 c. (680 g) granulated sugar
3 lbs (1.36 kg) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tbs. lemon extract, almond extract, orange extract, or vanilla extract, or up to 3 fl oz. (90 ml) light rum, framboise, pear William, or kirsch

Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until mixture reaches 140 degrees Fahrenheit or is hot to touch.

Pour hot whites into a room-temperature bowl and whip with a wire whip until double in volume on medium-high speed. When the mixer stops, the meringue should not move around in the bowl. Meanwhile cut up the butter into 2-inch pieces (the butter should be slightly moist on the outside but cold inside).

On your mixer, remove the whip and attach the paddle. Add half the butter into the bowl immediately and pulsate the mixer several times until the meringue has covered the butter completely. To pulsate the mixer, turn it on and off in a jerky motion. This forces the butter on the top to the bottom of the bowl. Add the balance of the butter and pulsate mixer several times. Slowly increase the mixer's speed, starting with the lowest speed and increase the speed every 10 seconds until you reach medium-high speed.

Continue beating until the mixture begins to look light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl. Reduce speed to low. Add flavoring and continue to beat on low speed for 45 seconds. Then beat on medium-high speed for an additional 45 to 60 seconds.

Leftover buttercream can be placed in plastic containers with lids and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost completely (several hours) and rewhip before using.

Yield: 2 1/2 quarts (2.37 L)

God Bless the Swiss

Not only do they give unto the world excellent chocolate, cheese, and watches, they give us a bang-up meringue. My favorite buttercream is the classic House Buttercream gleaned from that precious tome The Whimsical Bakehouse. But if I need a super silky, prettily soft buttercream, I am going with this new one.

The reason this is not my favorite buttercream is because it tastes too much like sweet butter. No really, imagine a stick of butter, but much sweeter. Et voila! Meringue buttercreams! Suffice to say that when this buttercream is refrigerated it turn back into its natural stick of butter texture, and desperately needs to be brought to room temperature before consumption. I like the grit and sickly sweetness of the House Buttercream; it is nostalgic and precious to me. I have heard tell that some people find that to be a less than stellar quality, and though it boggles the mind, the meringue buttercream should be their buttercream of choice.

The two kinds of meringue buttercreams, that I have found, are Italian and Swiss. I have made the Italian a few times and I have to say that my main protest with it is dealing with a fussy sugar syrup. I am not a confectioner. I do not own a candy thermometer (though I do lust for a nice one). I am not one with the gazillions of candy stages. Soft ball stage, my ass. So when I am confronted with a recipe that demands I pull out equipment I do not have and deal with fussy melted sugar, I run. After scalding myself attempting to pour molten sugar from a blazing saucier into a stand mixer, which is running, I decided Italian was not my way.

Since I was not terribly fond of the results, read: sweetened stick of butter, it was a while before I attempted another recipe. This time, Swiss. The Swiss need none of that candy stages crap, though you will need a thermometer, only a double boiler, or a heatproof bowl over simmering water as I do, and a nice, safe, non-scalding mixer. No burning syrup. No evil sugar crystals. Just sweet, beautiful meringue.

I have yet to work with the meringue on its own, though I did discover it is tasty. I am toying with the idea of attempting to pipe it. If Martha can do it, than so can I! (after a few tries) I am also wondering if I can ice a cake with it, and then torch the outside to brown it. I have no torch, alas, and it may not work, but I think it sounds promising and unique.

I halved the recipe for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and it still made a hell of a lot. I am not sure if a full batch would even fit in my stand mixer, so I would keep that in mind.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe take from The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen.

Grease the top of a 12-cup cupcake pan and line it with cupcake liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Sift into a mixing bowl:

1 3/4 c. plus 2 Tbs. cake flour
3/4 tsp. salt

Add and mix to combine:

1 c. sugar

Add:

1/2 c. plus 2 1/2 tsp. warmed milk (110 degrees Fahrenheit)
2 large eggs
4 oz. (1 stick) very soft unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Beat at low speed with the whisk attachment for one minute. Scrape down the bowl. Raise the speed to medium low and beat for 1 1/2 minutes.

Add:

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Mix at low speed for 30 seconds.

Fill each liner three-quarters full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden. The tops should spring back when pressed lightly.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe take from The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen.

Grease the tops of two 12-cup cupcake pans and line pans with cupcake liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

In a saucepan, melt together over low heat, whisking often:

1/2 c. milk
1 c. brown sugar
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate

When the chocolate is melted, whisk in:

1 large egg yolk

Remove from the heat and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium-high speed, cream:

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter

Add and cream until light and fluffy:

1 c. granulated sugar

Add slowly, beating well and scraping down after each addition:

2 large eggs
1 large egg white

On a piece of wax paper, sift together:

2 c. cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

On low speed add the dry ingredients alternately to the butter and egg mixture with:

3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Stir the chocolate mixture into the batter by hand, mixing only until combined.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each seven-eighths full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops spring bake when lightly pressed.

Yield: 18 to 20 cupcakes

A Tale of Two Cupcakes

I have a favorite cookbook, I will admit it. It is very closely followed by another book, but I think this one wins in the death-cage match. It would be damn close, but The Whimsical Bakehouse would emerge bloody but triumphant. Every recipe I have made from this book is gold. The ladies who run the Riviera Bakehouse are lovely. I greatly admire them.

My latest labors of love have come in the form of cupcakes. I began with the chocolate cupcake recipe. I've made it before, but I don't remember being as amazed by the texture the last time. That time I did make about four dozen cupcakes, so I was a bit tired of them. They have a lovely, light, fluffy texture. Lighter than even box cake, and that's tricky. The crumb is very fine and soft. The taste is nice, but not overly chocolately. One of my guinea pigs, erm, co-workers, said he was not initially sure if they were chocolate, but he was very pleased. I did pair them with a very chocolatey ganache-based frosting, so that might be the cause.

For that frosting I began with a simple ganache, cream and chocolate, whipped it up when cold, and tinkered with it. I was not overly pleased with the experiment; I chalk it up to an interesting failure. I added some butter and powdered sugar in hopes of making it more stable, but it didn't really help. It tasted divine, but the texture and visual were poor.

Cupcake Part Deux: Vanille
Vanilla cupcakes. Recipe I have used before and thought, they are pretty good, I guess. I suppose I forgot this less than stellar experience and made them anyway. They are really not bad, in fact the boyfriend gobbled them up and proclaimed his undying love, so maybe it is just me. They have an odd texture. Said boyfriend likened them to cornbread, but more chewy. The crumb is large and just a wee bit odd. The taste is okay, it is just the texture that unnerves me. They greatly improved with an excellent buttercream. I will make them again, but it is not my cupcake of choice.

In case you are wondering, the runner-up cookbook is Baking with Julia. It is a collection based off of the television shows. A lot of different bakers compiled their recipes for it and it truly is great, though probably not best for complete novices. It has taught me a lot, and what I have tried has been quite good. It probably should have won the death-cage match, but I am biased towards cakes.

Damn Pastry Tips

What I hate more than anything about icing a cake is cleaning the damn tips. I let them sit for ages between uses, crusting and rusting, and thinking, well, they are cheap, maybe I can just buy new ones... I really hate cleaning them, and haven't been able to come up with a good way of cleaning them.

I do not have a true solution, but I have come up with something fairly effective. A bottle brush, with nipple brush. It is for cleaning baby bottles and the nipples, and sippy cups, but damned if they ain't useful for cleaning pastry tips. The brush is very stiff and good at scraping out the butter-laden gunk that collects.

I have also heard that putting the tips in a bottle with hot water and soap, lidding the bottle and shaking it works well. I have yet to try it, but I definitely intend to. Maybe when that little jar of relish is done it will work nicely.