The Culinary Tales Week 20: “C” is for Cookie

July 14, 2014

 

 

My favorite glutton in the world, Cookie Monster, would have been in heaven during Week 20 of culinary school. Or as I like to call it: Cookie Hell Week.

 

 

We learned to make eight different kinds of cookies, and we’re not talking about pedestrian chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin. It seemed unnecessary to spend a whole WEEK learning about cookies but that’s exactly what we did, making:

• Linzer cookies (cookies with cinnamon, graham cracker crumbs and hazelnuts that can be made as “windows” where a layer of raspberry jam is sandwiched between two pieces or “jewels”, shaped into balls with a small amount of apricot jam piped into a hole on top)
• Sablé cookies (these are the ones that have the black and white checkerboard pattern)
• Biscotti
• Coconut macaroons (think of little haystacks)
• Almond macaroons (or rather, macarons)
• Florentine bars (a staple in coffeehouses)

AND we also made tuile, ice cream and souffle.

 

 

 

 

 

There was so much to do that the chefs permitted us do the cookies in teams of two – which is both a good and bad thing. On one hand, the tasks should go faster. On the other hand, if your partner screws up, that means your product is screwed too. (Likewise if you mess up, then you’re affecting someone else’s grade too.)

 

 

The process of making these cookies called for the “creaming method” in which we creamed butter in a mixer (letting the KitchenAid run with the paddle attachment until the butter is fluffy and cream-like.) Then sugar, flour and flavorings were added. Easy enough, right?

 

 

We mixed the cookies in one day and then baked and assembled over the course of an additional two days. Then they were presented on the fourth day. And whoddathunk that there was actually a science to cookie platter presentation?

 

 

When plating up cookies, you actually have to take into account the size and visual presentation, and that there has to be a pattern, some kind of rhyme AND reason for lining them up.

 

 

My favorite of these cookies were the earthquake cookies (they look like mounds of chocolate brownies dusted with powdered sugar) and the almond macaroons (which are actually composed of two cookies with a thin layer of chocolate ganache sandwiched in between – the effect is that of a mini-burger – and it just melts in your mouth.)

 

 

 

I was surprised to learn that biscotti actually fell into the cookie category. FYI, “biscotti” means twice baked and that’s exactly what you do. It’s formed into a baguette shape, baked lightly, and then sliced up into bias-cut pieces and baked again.

 

 

The unfortunate thing was that biscotti and sablé cookies weren’t supposed to have color (the white parts should stay white-ish). My partner Advertising Buddy and I checked on the cookies several times during the baking process and though we thought they were done, they looked a little too light, or still raw. We decided to keep them in the oven for just a minute longer. That minute proved all the difference as both sets browned a little too much for what we needed to do.

 

 

We also needed to put together a tuile batter which was going to be used the following week as a vessel to hold some goodies. You’ll hear all about this in the next blog.

 

 

I also made ice cream for the first time ever. We were actually encouraged to try out unusual flavors or combinations if we so chose. We had recipes for a vanilla and chocolate, and in either case, creme anglaise formed the base. (Creme anglaise is considered THE mother sauce of bakery.) I really didn’t feel like thinking out of the box, and decided to go with a basic chocolate for my first attempt at ice cream. We were going to have to create two sauces to go with the ice cream anyway, and I figured I’d get creative there.

 

 

Class Buddy went with something like basil-pine nuts. Somebody else mentioned doing something with sriracha (yuck.) Experimenting with food is always a good thing, and it’s only by trying out things that you discover interesting new ones. Sometimes, you think of a flavor combination and it may sound weird or disgusting – and many times, it turns out so. But once in a while, you’ll hit something where flavors that don’t sound like they would mesh but actually do. Once again, the old cooking adage applies that there are no rules in cooking as long as it tastes good.

 

 

I just didn’t feel like pushing the envelope at all. And if you’re going to stay basic, chocolate is as good as any exotic flavor I could ever dream up.

 

 

 

One other thing we learned to make is souffle, and it actually comes in hot and frozen varieties. Souffle is a temperamental, delicate product. You must treat it with utmost care when baking, and it needs to be served as soon as it’s pulled out of the oven because it will deflate. We made a chocolate souffle which surprisingly turned out well.

 

 

When done right, souffle is a tremendously wonderful dessert, served with a tiny pitcher of creme anglaise on the side, and that combination of hot-cold, soft crust and mushy inside makes for a heavenly bite.

 

 

The frozen souffle technically isn’t a souffle – it’s actually more of a mousse. In Italian it’s called a semi-freddo and souffle glace in French, and I hated it for one reason only: it was pink.

 

 

Now, I like the color pink. I like it on my clothes, I like it on my purses, I even like it on certain shoes. I just don’t like it in my tummy.
Generally, I have an aversion to pink food. There are a couple of exceptions: salmon, strawberry yogurt and “pink” sauce at Fritto Misto. Anything else just reminds me of the time my crew and I got extremely drunk during a freshman year party in college. My friend Michelle got so sick, so we tried to give her Pepto Bismol. We all woke up the next day to find her blond hair drenched in it. Now, when I see pink mush, I fight an urge to barf.

 

 

Anyway, the semi-freddo was a mixture of whipped cream and cassis (which is black currant) and when mixed together turned into a mauve-y shade of pink. Our task for the day was to make it and freeze it – we would be presenting it the following week (details to come in Week 21 blog.) I just knew I was not going to like it. Oh I will taste it, and taste it again for good measure, but I had a feeling it will go down as a non-favorite.

 

 

Which actually brings me to one of my pet peeves: I hate it when people refuse to try food they’ve never had before. Even for just one tiny bite.
As a rule, I’ll try anything once and if I don’t like it, I never have to eat it again. I stumbled upon one of my current favorite Indian dishes – salmon pakora – only because we had asked the waitress to “surprise us.”

 

 

There’s a lot of food that’s not even exotic, but I’ve met people who won’t care to try them out. That bugs me a little. To each their own, that’s true, but a lot can be told about a person’s food preferences: I don’t need to tell you what a person is like who always orders the same thing wherever they go. You can probably guess what I think of the person who ALWAYS orders a steak and beer whether it’s at P.F. Chang’s or Border Grille. (That guy lasted all of two dates.)

 

 

If you’ve never used food to gauge a person’s personality, try it as an experiment. I firmly believe that a person’s attitude towards food tells you what kind of person they are. Try it with someone you don’t know that well, and you might be able to piece together some of their “story.”

 

Then you’ll see that the saying is true, that “You are what you eat.”

 

 

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