Momofuko Confetti Cookies

I've now made three cookie recipes from the Momofuko Milk Bar cookbook and my conclusion is...they're good...but a bit irritating to make. Each one incorporates a separate "crumb" or "crisp" element that you have to make first. While they're always tasty, I'm not sure how much that element actually adds to the final product (or if, ultimately, it's just a gimmick). In addition, I was recently down in New York and did some "research" at an actual MMB to see how the authentic cookies compared to mine.

The first recipe I made was called Blueberry & Cream Cookies. I made these once before I had the cookbook (via Martha Stewart) and once after--and they turned out dramatically different the second time. (I made a half-recipe the first time and suspect that I messed up some of the measurements since the consistency was so different for each batch.) They were good enough to make a second time, but I'm not sure I need to make them a third time--maybe I'd try them with a different dried fruit or mix-in.  Anyway, these used Milk Crumbs that looked like this:

The cookie looked like this:

The authentic Momofuko version...not too different than mine, but chewier:

Next I made Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookies, which used Cornflake Crunch. I didn't take any pictures of my cookies, but here is Momofuko's cookie. I liked these cookies a lot--the bits of marshmallow made them a little like a cookie version of a Rice Krispies bar. Once again though, mine were not as chewy as Momofuko's.  (Either their baking times are way off or my oven is too hot.)

Which brings me, finally, to Confetti Cookies, which use Birthday Cake Crumbs. They look like this:

I think these came out the best, perhaps because they include a bit of cream of tartar. I don't know if sprinkles really bring much to the party except some color. But they're fun. (These were not available at Momfuko on the day I visited.)

Birthday Cake Crumbs:
1/2 cup sugar
1 + 1/2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3/4 cup cake flour (I used all-purpose flour with a bit of cornstarch)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles
1/4 cup oil (book called for grapeseed, I used butter)
1 tablespoon (clear) vanilla extract*

Combine first six dry ingredients, then add oil & vanilla and mix until crumbly.  Place on a parchment-lined sheet and bake for 20 minutes, breaking up crumbs occasionally.  Let cool completely.

Confetti Cookies:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 + 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons glucose*
2 eggs
2 teaspoons (clear) vanilla extract
2 + 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup milk powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 + 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (less if table salt)
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

1/2 recipe Birthday Cake Crumbs

Cream butter, sugar & glucose. Add in vanilla & eggs and beat until smooth, about 7 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients (or mix on low speed if you're using a stand mixer).  Mix in crumbs last, until just incorporated.

Scoop out large spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined sheet. Flatten slightly. (The book calls for 1/3 cup scoopfuls, but that seems like a bit much to me.) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to onr week.

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange dough balls so they're several inches apart--the larger the ball, the further it will spread (duh!).  Place in oven and check after 15 minutes--cookies should be slightly browned on the edges. (The book says to cook for 18 minutes, which may be necessary if you actually plop down a whole 1/3 cup!) The book also says to cool on the sheet, but I always remove them to a cooling rack after a minute.

*They recommend using clear vanilla extract to get a sort of fake vanilla flavor.  Whatever...I'm sure regular vanilla is fine too. Glucose is some very strange stuff! It's like corn syrup, but 10X denser and stickier, making it very hard to measure out. You can sub in corn syrup if you don't have this.

Nutter Butters

I should start off by saying that I did not grow up with Nutter Butters, so I don't really know how close this is to the original Nabisco cookie. Nor have I ever had them from Bouchon Bakery (from which this recipe is adapted). But whatever, they're good! Chewy, buttery, not overly peanutty. It does make for a substantial cookie though. I often cut one in half so as to not feel gluttonous...but then end up eating the other half anyway! In any case, it's also a perfectly good cookie without the filling.

A note on peanut butter: the original recipe recommends using creamy Skippy and then adding in chopped peanuts separately. I always have crunchy peanut butter on hand and see no point in adding chopped peanuts separately. (Caveat: using creamy peanut butter might make the filling easier to spread.) Bottom line: use what ever you like...creamy, creamy with separately added peanuts, crunchy or hell, crunchy with even more peanuts added in!

cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

(coarsely chopped peanuts)

1 + 1/4 cups rolled oats (orig. recipe calls for "quick cooking"but I only ever have "old-fashioned" on hand)

Heat over to 350 degrees. Beat together butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg & vanilla until smooth and creamy, about 4 minutes. Stir in dry ingredients. Drop rounded teaspoons (or larger if you want) on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes, until cookies have spread and turned very light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes, then cool completely on a rack.

filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Spread a thin layer of filling (about 1/8 inch) on the underside of a cookie and sandwich with another.

Gingerbread

Generally we make and decorate sugar cookies for Christmas, but last year I tried this recipe because I wanted to hang them on the tree and I thought it would be a little hardier than sugar cookie dough. Man, it was good! Much better than the gingerbread I remember as a kid. So most of the cookies still ended up on the tree, but not all.

This recipe is from Wheatleigh, a fancy schmancy resort here in the Berkshires. I’ve never been, but they printed this recipe in our local paper.

1 cup shortening
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Approximately 5 cups all purpose flour

Combine shortening, molasses and sugar in a pot. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat and add cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir in up to 5 cups of flour to make a stiff but workable dough. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Chill rolled dough for a half hour, then cut into desired shapes. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, or until firm.

Cool completely, then decorate as you like!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

This is another favorite from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (slightly adapted). The key is the almond extract, which I think goes wonderfully with chocolate.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream together butter, sugar, egg and extract. Blend in chocolate. Stir in dry ingredients, then oatmeal and nuts. Drop rounded tablespoons on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Slide parchment paper off the baking sheet and on to racks to cool cookies.

Meringue Cookies

I've been wanting to make a recipe for Strawberry Curd I saw on TasteSpotting since I have a ton of recently picked and frozen strawberries taking up nearly my whole freezer. But it called for three egg yolks, so I decided to pair it up with Meringue Cookies which would use up the leftover egg whites. The strawberry curd turned out excellent, but I'm not going to post that recipe since Hungry Cravings has it all ready to go: http://hungrycravings.blogspot.com/2009/07/strawberry-curd.html I defrosted some strawberries and then pulverized them in my mini-processor and strained it to get out most of the seeds. (Mom, I think you would really like this recipe!)

The meringue recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, and has always worked wonderfully--though a little less so this time because of the extremely high humidity (in which case it's more like a taffy when you try to eat it). Still, I'd highly recommend it when there is less humidity!

3/4 cup sugar (5.25 ounces)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 large egg whites
3/4 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch.

Beat egg whites, vanilla, and salt at high speed until soft peaks begin to form, 30 to 45 seconds. Reduce mixer to medium speed and gradually add sugar mixture in a steady stream. Stop mixing and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula. Return mixer to high speed and and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 30 to 45 seconds.

Place meringue in a large ziplock bag with 1/2 inch of the bottom corner cut off (or a pastry bag). Pipe meringues into little mounds about one inch high. They won't spread, so you can place them quite close together on the pan. Bake for one hour, rotating pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking. Turn off oven and allow meringues to cool in the oven for at least one hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before eating (they are chewy when warm, but get crunchy when fully cooled).

Variations: Gently fold in 2 ounces of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate or instant espresso flakes into the meringue when you are done whipping.

Macarons

I'm not going to write out this recipe because I don't know if it will ever become a "regular" like the others I have posted are. I wanted to try these just to see if I could--apparently they are very temperamental. It was an interesting exercise to convert grams to ounces, then weigh out (as opposed to measuring) all the ingredients. They seemed to come out OK--nicely chewy and certainly cute!--although some cracked, which is BAD (I guess). I added in a tablespoon of instant espresso, hence the brown specks.

Here's a link to the recipe I used:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/10/how-to-make-macaroons-recipe.html