Tracking down a commercial cookie's roots

[Tri2Cook]

I shamefully admit to actually liking the Dare Ultimate French Cremes. They almost dissolve in your mouth other than the currants which are a nice contrast and are nice with tea (Which I've been drinking a lot of lately in an effort to cut down on coffee. I assumed I'd drink less tea since it's coffee I really wanted. I was wrong. The easist way to break an old habit is get a new one I guess. ). I know there's room for them to be better because they could be a bit less sweet and I'm thinking more butter and less palm oil would be nice but I've had no luck finding any reference to any such cookie other than from that company. Does anybody know if these are based on an existing cookie or are they straight out of the Dare company creations?

[chefpeon]

I think Dare makes awesome cookies. If I buy a commercially baked cookie, that's the brand I usually go for (along with Pepperidge Farm and Lu).

I haven't had a French Creme though. I went to their website and looked it up, and from the ingredient list, it looks like it's basically a butter-rich (ahem-shortening) sugar cookie with coconut and currants.

Where is the coconut? Is is in the cookie or in the icing?

It looks like you could probably start with a basic sugar cookie recipe and tweak it from there.

[Tri2Cook]

The coconut must be in very fine or powder form. It's not at all present as a texture and not in the foreground as a flavor. It makes an appearance but it's not at the top when they roll the credits. The currants and glaze make the cookies. Something about the glaze does actually give them the illusion of being creamy even though it's a dry-to-the-touch glaze and the currants give some chew to a cookie that would just disappear in a pool of creamy mush otherwise.

[CanadianBakin']

What about a sable cookie with currants added. The slice and bake kind found in Dorie Greenspan latest cookbook might do the trick.

[Huck]

I realize this is a really old thread but I believe I know the answer. I recently found out that Dare has discontinued French Cremes and was looking for a copycat recipe when I came upon recipes for the French cookie,  "Palets de Dames".  There are different variations but some have the glaze and some have the currants so I believe these are what the Dare cookies were based on and you could make a decent or better copy.

 

Good Luck

[AAQuesada]

This is kind of random answer to an 15 year old thread is what makes EGullet worth reading! Good sleuthing