Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

[Tri2Cook]

3 hours ago, cakewalk said:

Interesting. Personal preference, of course. But it's always possible to use your favorite chocolate chip recipe (or oatmeal raisin recipe) and just, well, put fewer - or no - chocolate chips (or raisins) in it. I'm guessing that everyone on this forum could figure that out without Dorie! I'm sure we adapt recipes to our own tastes all the time.

That's true, which is why I mentioned I haven't been tempted into buying the book. I was just responding to the "A chocolate chip cookie with less chips, what's the point?" part, not the "Why buy this book?" part.

[MelissaH]

My copy of the book keeps taunting me, as I still haven't had the time to do much more than crack it open and briefly flip through and drool. And to add insult to injury, I'll be without water service for the better part of today while the authority fixes a water main (possibly the same one that got broken by a road construction project a month ago, which may or may not be the same issue that happened about a week and a half ago).

 

But I'm intrigued by the issue of baking cookies in rings (or muffin tins) to make them perfectly round. Has anyone done this yet?

[Cyberider]

My copy is finally supposed to deliver today.  Don't know what took Amazon so long to ship it.

 

In the meantime, I got this which is potentially of more interest to me:

[MelissaH]

@Cyberider, I picked up that one also! It makes fascinating reading, although I don't know how much I will actually bake from it.

 

I did carve out an hour to test out one of the recipes from Dorie's Cookies, the Pink Peppercorn Thumbprints on page 143.

I actually had a few problems with the recipe, which is highly unusual in my experience for a recipe from Dorie. I asked on Twitter for a confirmation of the measurements (everything with a mass measurement, I put on my scale), but she said they were all correct as published, and we used the same flour, so neither of us really knows where the problem lies.

 

The first sign of trouble came when I tried to buzz the pink peppercorns, sugar, and salt in my food processor: the blade just zipped over the top of everything without doing anything. I wound up dumping it all into my spice grinder, and using that to pulverize the peppercorns (and make the sugar a bit finer). My processor is a Cuisinart model with nesting bowls. The largest bowl has a 12-cup capacity, and the next one down is 8 cups. These two both use the same blade. If you need something even smaller, there's a 4-cup bowl that fits inside that, with a special small blade to go with. I decided to use the 8-cup bowl for this recipe; next time I might see if the 4-cup bowl with the special blade can actually handle the sugar mixture.

I continued on making the dough, but at the end instead of a "moist dough that holds together easily," I had dry crumbs, drier than even a piecrust dough would be. So I grabbed the bottle of vodka out of my freezer and pulsed in a couple of glugs so that what was in the food processor bowl was recognizable as a dough. It was still a bit crack-prone, but quite workable.

 

Dorie uses Oxo cookie scoops; for this recipe she specified a small scoop. My dishers are made by Zeroll, so I guessed at what size would match the Oxo small scoop. I used the orange Zeroll, which is size 100 (that's the number of servings per quart), which was a touch smaller than the Oxo because the recipe said the yield was 34 cookies but I got 41. Next time I might go up to the next bigger scoop I have, which is the pink size 60, look into buying the size 70...or just be happy making more, slightly smaller cookies.

 

My jam was homemade strawberry freezer jam. I didn't have any rose extract on hand, but I did have a bottle of rosewater so that's what I added in after heating the jam in the microwave. To make my life easier, I put the rosified jam into a piping bag, which was definitely neater than a spoon would have been. And I didn't bother with the confectioners' sugar dusting because I figured (correctly) they'd be quite sweet enough without.

 

The flavor of the finished cookie was great, and I want to try these again. The peppercorn zing was there, but only as a whisper, which to me was just about perfect. Next time, as I said, I'd try the smallest bowl of my food processor. The recipe doesn't make such a large amount of dough that I need a ton of space. And while the aroma of the pulverized peppercorn-sugar mix is almost intoxicating, I'd prefer to do everything in the same bowl and not have to transfer anything. I still don't know why my dough was so much drier than the recipe described, but if it's a problem again, I might try whisking a little ice water into my egg.

 

I'm open to other thoughts on why my dough wound up dry. Is it possible I got a small egg? Might my butter be at fault?

[cakewalk]

9 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

@Cyberider, I picked up that one also! It makes fascinating reading, although I don't know how much I will actually bake from it.

 

I did carve out an hour to test out one of the recipes from Dorie's Cookies, the Pink Peppercorn Thumbprints on page 143.

 

I'm open to other thoughts on why my dough wound up dry. Is it possible I got a small egg? Might my butter be at fault?

Location, location, location? Humidity can often make a difference in pastries. Amounts of liquid often need to be adjusted. The cookies look nice, so all's well that ends well.

[Toliver]

Regarding the crumbling issue, I wonder if Dorie would respond to emails on eGullet (she's been a member of eGullet since 2002)? She was always quite helpful when eGullet members had questions about her recipes/books.

Though today she has her own website:  http://doriegreenspan.com/

And is a member of the usual suspects...Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Here is her email address from her website:  contact@doriegreenspan.com

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Cyberider]

Finally got mine yesterday and had a chance to page through it briefly.  The photography is impressive with bigger than life photos, some of which are so beautiful as to be mouth-watering.  The text type is of the thin and gray sort but still readable by these aging eyes.  The titles for each recipe are also a thin type but in color and some of these, particularly the light orange ones, are hard to read.  Wish they wouldn't make the print so "artsy" but, instead, make it easier to read.  Some of the photos look pretty appealing, though, and I'll be tempted to try a few recipes when I have time. 

[NWKate]

I absolutely love Doris Greenspan but I tend to land on the savory rather than the sweet side of things.  However, am looking forward to reading everyone's exploration of this book!

[blue_dolphin]

@FrogPrincesse recently posted about the tiny Two Bite One Chip cookies from the book.  Today, David Lebovitz covers the other end of the size spectrum and features the giant Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie Bars, baked in a cast iron skillet.

 

I still haven't baked any cookies from the book.  I need a clear plan for getting them out of my house fairly soon after baking.  When I was working, that was easy but now, I need to strategize .

[FrogPrincesse]

@blue_dolphinWas that a gentle reminder that it was time for another batch of cookies?  Guess what, it worked!

 

Here are the French snacklettes. I never heard of this cookie but they looked good on paper with a mix of almonds & chocolate chips + cocoa powder, with a bit of cinnamon and salt.

They are made in a food processor. Mine is really small so I had to make the dough in 3 batches, which was a bit of a hassle, but other than that they are very to make. My yield was 52 cookies vs. the target yield of 60 (I made them slightly too big apparently).

 

Before the oven

 

 

After the oven. They are cooling down as I type. They are still extremely soft and crumbly.

 

 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Ok, so they are a bit dry (like a shortbread texture but a bit softer, with much less butter taste), and they taste very nice with coffee. The little hint of salt is great.

[MelissaH]

@FrogPrincesse, how small is small for your food processor?

[FrogPrincesse]

4 hours ago, MelissaH said:

@FrogPrincesse, how small is small for your food processor?

It's a Cuisinart Mini, so it's only 21 oz (2.6 cups). It is really meant for things like sauces, herbs, etc, not this kind of prep, but it worked fine.

[MelissaH]

15 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

It's a Cuisinart Mini, so it's only 21 oz (2.6 cups). It is really meant for things like sauces, herbs, etc, not this kind of prep, but it worked fine.

That's smaller than mine. Mine has a 14 cup bowl, but nesting inside it are two smaller bowls, the smallest of which is 4 cups. I'm curious if smaller might be better than bigger for some of these cookie recipes.

[Cyberider]

I made the peanut butter cookies Saturday.  Needed cookies and had lots of peanut butter on hand.  The cookies had more butter than a previous recipe and the nutmeg added an interesting touch, even if I can barely taste it.  They held together better than the previous recipe and tasted better too.  Maybe the butter? 

[MelissaH]

I'm wondering about that. I'm using Wegmans store brand butter, which is usually plenty good enough for most things. (Other store brands of butter are not sufficient for pie crusts, I've found, but the Wegmans butter does fine.)

 

I might need to step up to Land O Lakes, or even a step higher to the expensive European ultra-high-fat butter.

 

Or try using a bit more egg, perhaps?

[FrogPrincesse]

I am about to make a batch of the "Snowy Topped Brownie Drops" and would like to use gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mill all purpose baking GF) instead of regular all-purpose flour. Is there any potential issue with that? I don't have any experience gluten-free flour.

 

[chromedome]

I expect you'll be fine with a drop cookie. If it was a crisp cookie you might have to play with a it a bit, perhaps. 

[Cyberider]

On 11/14/2016 at 2:14 PM, MelissaH said:

I'm wondering about that. I'm using Wegmans store brand butter, which is usually plenty good enough for most things. (Other store brands of butter are not sufficient for pie crusts, I've found, but the Wegmans butter does fine.)

 

I might need to step up to Land O Lakes, or even a step higher to the expensive European ultra-high-fat butter.

 

Or try using a bit more egg, perhaps?

 

I was thinking it had more to do with the quantity rather than the quality.  I think I used the regular Challenge unsalted butter.  Bought it on sale and had it in my freezer. 

[MelissaH]

The thumbprint dough is the only cookie dough that gave me a problem. I've made a couple of other doughs (no report here because they're quiescing in my freezer still) and had no issue with them acting dry or otherwise weird.

[FrogPrincesse]

Snowy-topped brownie drops (made with gluten-free flour). They are cooling down as I type. My yield was 28 cookies instead of 20, so I guess they are a bit smaller than her recipe. They look a lot like @David Lebovitz's Chocolate crack cookies, but it's a different recipe.

 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Taste and texture wise, they are intensely chocolaty and have a soft interior like a brownie. I think I detect a bit of bitterness in the finish from the GF flour, but maybe it's my imagination. In any case, they are wonderful.

[Kerry Beal]

Had a good read through Dories Cookies on the Kindle on the way to Seattle. Saw a whole lot of cookies I'd like to try. 

 

Kept noticing Dorie's mention of the name 'Mardi Michels' - who writes eatlivetravelwrite. Mardi is the teacher who invited me to visit the school at which she teaches in Toronto - to show the Cooking Basics boys and the Tinkering Club (who had made molds) how to play with chocolate. Mention here. The boys had more fun with the IR thermometer I brought than anything else we did!

 

Pleased to see Mardi is working on a cookbook herself. I'll be first in line to get one. 

[Beebs]

I caved.  Bought it this weekend from Costco.  It's my reward for fixing our collapsing cookbook shelf & thinning out my collection. 

 

I'm especially excited about the savoury cookie recipes.  Has anyone tried them yet?

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

57 minutes ago, Beebs said:

I caved.  Bought it this weekend from Costco.  It's my reward for fixing our collapsing cookbook shelf & thinning out my collection. 

 

I'm especially excited about the savoury cookie recipes.  Has anyone tried them yet?

 

 

 

 

Interesting that you bought it at Costco.  I looked yesterday and they didn't have it.