Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut...

Although I was a little sugared out after yesterday's chocolate making lesson, I have house guests this weekend and no tour of hostess duty is complete without baking something for my boarders. After all the time I spend writing here about my kitchen experiments, I feel it would be somewhat unfair not to share with people who come to visit me. So, despite lacking my usual enthusiasm, I set out to find something to bake for my family.

I was prepared to bring an end to the Martha embargo this weekend, after weaning myself from her recipes for nearly a month and a half, but all the recipes I've been most excited to tackle from her book once I finally returned to it contained chocolate, and the idea of eating more chocolate at this point turned my stomach a bit. (Shocking, I know! I didn't think it could ever happen to me either.) Instead, I turned once more to my new Alice Medrich book, even though I find it, on balance, less inspiring than Martha's, for a variation on classic peanut butter cookies. I actually have an old, family recipe for peanut butter cookies that I don't really ever hope to improve upon, but these new cookies caught my eye because they were encrusted on top with chopped toffee-covered peanuts.

Toffee peanuts are a bit of an obsession of my mother's, who then introduced them to her siblings, and they became a bit of a family-wide addiction for a while. Since I knew both my mom and my aunt would enjoy the toffee peanut aspect of the cookies, I ran over to Jewel to pick up a can, as well as a jar of natural peanut butter, which I don't keep in the house. (I'll stick to the emulsifier-laden, processed within an inch of its life version for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, thanks.)

Despite the extra effort and mess that came from trying to stir up a full jar of separated natural peanut butter, the cookies were easy to make, largely because Medrich gives all measurements in weights and volumes, so I could employ my digital kitchen scale and save myself a bunch of measuring. The only labor intensive part was rolling the tops of each cookie in the crushed peanuts, but even that was fairly straightforward. I was pleased to discover that the finished cookies had a chewy, moist texture, whereas my go-to peanut butter cookie has a crumbly, sandy consistency, and I think the chewiness paired nicely with the crunch of the peanuts on top.

The toffee flavor was a bit lost, aside from adding some additional sweetness, but I loved how the shiny, candy-covered peanuts looked on top of the cookies. It was almost like they were covered in sparkly peanut glitter. The toffee peanuts help elevate what would otherwise be a basic cookie to something pretty and special, and I think these would make a lovely gift to someone if you wrapped them up in cellophane with a bit of ribbon.


Toffee Peanut Cookies
adapted from Alice Medrich

1 1/3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 c. natural, but not unsalted, peanut butter
5 oz. toffee peanuts, coarsely chopped

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and mix together thoroughly with a whisk.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter with the sugar. Whisk in the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter, add the flour mixture, blending with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon just until evenly incorporated.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for an hour or two and up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 325.

Pour the chopped nuts into a shallow bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and coat the top and sides heavily with the chopped nuts, pressing in any pieces that fall off so that there are no bare spots. Place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake the cookies 15-18 minutes, until they are lightly colored on top. The cookies will be very soft to the touch, but will firm up as they cool. Cool cookies completely on wire racks.

Open Sesame...

Now, I know I said yesterday that I was trying to branch out a bit in terms of my new dessert experiments, but let's be real here -- did you really think I could stay away from cookies forever? Especially when you take into account the fact that my copy of Alice Medrich's new cookbook, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies just arrived from Amazon late last week? No, I think not.

After stalking my mailbox all week long, the first thing I did when the package finally arrived was tear it open and pour over the book from cover to cover. Although I had high hopes for Medrich's new book after finding great inspiration in Pure Dessert, I found myself a little disappointed in her latest outing. First of all, it contained several recipes that I'd seen in her other books, like the Nibby Whole Wheat Sablés that I baked not more than a month ago, and the Golden Kamut Shortbreads also from Pure Dessert. Honestly, recycling recipes from her old books seemed a little cheap to me, no matter how good they were in the first place.

Also, the organization of Medrich's new book, if you couldn't tell based on the title, is based on cookie texture, which seemed like a blatant rip-off from my usual go-to cookie cookbook, Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and Share. In fact, the books are even approximately the same size, and come in the same paperback format. The recipes from Medrich seem a bit more gourmet, with ingredients that are harder to locate in regular stores, though not necessarily any less labor intensive than Martha's. However, Martha's book has significantly more pictures, which actually makes it much more inspiring, in my opinion. It has a beautifully-styled photo of every single recipe that tempts you to make every last cookie, whereas Medrich relies on the powers of description alone.

One of the limited photos did capture my interest though, for long, skinny cookies speckled with toasted sesame seeds. I'm more or less indifferent to sesame as a flavor, but the technique was unlike anything I'd seen before in a cookie: a crumbly, pie crust-like dough gets pressed into the bottom of a loaf pan, creating a thin layer that is then sliced crosswise to create strips of dough. It was an innovative riff on the classic slice-and-bake cookie, and I wanted to give it a spin. Plus, Justin likes sesame seeds, so I figured he, at least, would be a fan.

The cookies, which were found in the "Crispy" chapter of the book were definitely more crunchy than crispy, but that might have been because the exceedingly crumbly dough was nearly impossible to cut into sticks as thin as those pictured in the book's photo. That said, they were still quite good, with a a pleasantly nutty flavor and a buttery finish. They weren't overly sweet, so I think they would make a nice accompaniment to a cup of tea, or perhaps a dish of ice cream.


Sesame Sticks
adapted from Alice Medrich

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. lightly toasted sesame seeds
1/3 c. ground blanched almonds
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cold water

Put the flour, sugar, sesame seeds, almonds, and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to blend. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until butter is reduced to small pieces. With the fingertips of both hands, lightly toss and rub the mixture together until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine the vanilla and water in a small bowl. Stir the flour and butter mixture with a fork while the water and vanilla into the bowl. Continue to toss and stir lightly with the fork or your fingers until all the dry ingredients are slightly damp. The dough should remain crumbly and stick together only when pinched.

Dump the mixture into a 5x9 inch loaf pan lined with aluminum foil, and spread it evenly. Press it very firmly, making a thin layer. Fold the foil over the dough and wrap it tightly. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Unwrap the dough and transfer it to a cutting board. Use a long sharp knife to cut the dough crosswise into 1/4-inch (or thinner, if possible) slices. Use the knife to transfer each slice to a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing the slices 1 inch apart. The slices will be fragile and require the support of the knife in transit.

Bake for 12-18 minutes, until the cookies are golden with golden brown edges. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool completely before eating or storing.

One From The Vaults...

Making good on my promise to lay off the Martha for a while, I found myself looking at my shelf of cookbooks when I spotted one entitled, Pure Dessert. My first thought was, "What the heck is that? I don't even remember ever buying that book," but upon pulling it from the shelf and paging through it, it quickly came back to me. I originally purchased it back in 2007, not long after graduating from college, when I was having a love affair with the writing of chocolate expert and baking guru Alice Medrich. I'd checked out her earlier works from the library, photocopying the recipes I deemed interesting enough to try at a later date, but Pure Dessert was newly released, so I invested in a copy of my own.

The book focuses on respecting the integrity of quality ingredients, and seeks to educate its readers on the "pure" flavors of each. There are chapters dedicated to the flavors of dairy, where she makes things like cheesecakes and simple ice creams, chocolate, fruit, and the one I found most interesting, the flavors of grains. To write this chapter, she went beyond the standard unbleached all-purpose flour used for most baking to explore the unique flavor possibilities presented by incorporating various whole grain flours into baked goods. Many of her more intriguing recipes had ingredients that were too difficult for me to source without resorting to ordering them online (for instance, a phenomenal-looking recipe for shortbread featuring kamut, an heirloom wheat variety with its origins in ancient Egypt).

I ended up settling for a recipe that turned regular whole wheat flour into buttery, crumbly sablés studded with cacao nibs, which were just beginning to become trendy at the time. Cacao nibs are the fermented beans of the cacao plant that are broken up into tiny pieces before being ground and processed to become the chocolate that we're used to eating. The nibs are crunchy like a nut, with a variety of complex floral, fruity, bitter, and roasted flavor notes. I easily found them at Whole Foods, but it took a while to get around to trying the recipe.

Not unlike my current custom of pawning off my baked goods on my hungry coworkers, I was in the habit of taking my baking experiments to the office where I was working my first job, because one of my coworkers was a self-described foodie with whom I often exchanged recipes. It was a small office though, consisting of about four people besides myself, and one of the ladies who worked there was a sad, middle-aged floozy who wore things to the office that wouldn't be appropriate on a woman half her age, and spent long hours during her day on the phone with her girlfriends loudly discussing her sexual exploits. I couldn't stand her, to say the least. One day, I'd baked some peanut butter cookies and brought them to work, and she angrily poked her head in my office and hissed, "You're just trying to sabotage my Weight Watchers aren't you?!? You know I'm on a diet!" She wasn't kidding.

So, I did the only thing I could do -- I baked my first batch of Alice Medrich's Nibby Whole Wheat Sablés and took them in to the office with a sign that read, "Whole Wheat Cookies with Cacao Nibs -- Full of antioxidants and low in calories!!" I gleefully watched as the woman gobbled down cookie after cookie, thanking me for considering her dietary needs. I never felt the need to let her know that each batch of cookies contained a full half-pound of butter, and I made sure to bake them frequently and bring them in to work for her enjoyment.

After that job and I parted ways, the recipe fell off my radar screen until I was compelled to pull its book off the shelf once more. It was fun taking a trip down memory lane, but even more fun getting to taste these sophisticated treats once more. Now that I've got more baking experience under my belt, it might be time to see about obtaining some of the other ingredients featured in Pure Dessert so I can make some more flavor discoveries. Until then, I can definitely recommend these sablés as a starting point for someone looking to experiment with alternative flours in their own baking.

Revenge is a dish best served full of butter.

Nibby Whole Wheat Sablés
adapted from Alice Medrich

1 c. (4.5 oz) all-purpose flour
Scant 1 c. (4 0z) whole-wheat flour
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 c. cacao nibs

Whisk together the all-purpose and whole wheat flours and set aside. In a medium bowl, with the back of a spoon, beat the butter with the sugar, salt, and vanilla for about one minute, until smooth and creamy but not fluffy. Stir in cacao nibs. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. Scrape the dough into a mass and, if necessary, knead it with your hands a couple times, just until smooth.

Form the dough into a 12 by 2-inch log. Wrap with wax paper and refrigerate for at least two hours, or, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into 1/4-inch slices. Place the cookies at least 1.5 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are golden brown at the edges, 12-14 minutes. Let the cookies firm up on the pans for about a minute, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to one month.