The Test Kitchen

I've already posted about my new obsession with message cookies. I did not talk about how frustrating it has been to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe to use them with. I tried three recipes over the course of a couple days to try to find perfection. It was not found.

The first recipe, the one that came with the cookie cutters, I found to be too crunchy. They turned out more like sweet crackers. I think they did this so that the letters would keep their shape. The text did look fantastic but I was not a huge fan of the cookies (sorry muddy buddies). Fail.

Next I tried a recipe from my favorite baking book. It is kind of fancy and everything I have ever made from it has been fantastic so I was expecting the best. These cookies tasted great and kept their form well but I thought they were a little dry. Almost like shortbread, which I love, but it just wasn't what I was looking for in a sugar cookie. Tasty Fail.

The last recipe was from one of those cookbooks that has a little of everything and it all turns out pretty good. It is an old standby. These cookies were more like a typical sugar cookie. They were pretty sweet and slightly puffy. I found them hard to roll out because the dough got a little crumbly. The puffiness meant the letters didn't turnout as sharp. I was not a fan of the level of sweetness either. I think sugar cookies are often too sweet, almost to the point of being grainy with sugar, yuck. These weren't that bad but still too sweet for me. Sugar Fail.

The only solution was to combine the best elements into a new recipe. I think they are perfect, not too dry, not too puffy, not too sweet.

Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt

Beat the sugar butter, shortening and vanilla together on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for another minute or until well combined. Add the flour and salt slowly, beating well after each addition.
Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick, cut out shapes.
Bake cookies for 12-18 minutes, rotating baking sheet once halfway through. Cool on wire cooling rack.

 I made Thank You cookies to go in the freezer and Wine Party cookies for a party we were going to. I added a little frosting to the wine party cookies just to make them a little cuter. It is just a combination of red wine (for a wine party after all) and powdered sugar. I just played with the ingredients until I got the consistency I wanted.

I love the way these cookies taste and I really love the way they roll out. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Watch It!

So far, everyone I know has been really supportive of my decision to try something new. I have gotten lots of comments, mostly variations on two specific comments.
#1. You are going to be very popular now.
Rebuttal - Um, I already am.

#2. Aren't you worried about gaining weight? Variations: You better be careful, I hope you don't lose your figure, you better keep going to yoga, be careful with how much tasting you do, I've never seen a skinny baker.
Rebuttal - I found a skinny baker here (co-author of my favorite bread book).

Most of these comments came from people I don't know very well and will probably never see again. Why do they care? I really hadn't thought about gaining weight until it was all I heard about. Then I stopped thinking about it because I thought it was dumb. Now I am thinking about it again because I am blogging about it. I firmly believe that you can be a pastry chef and be healthy. I firmly believe that you can be in love with dessert and be healthy. I believe in moderation. I believe in staying active. I believe in maintaining whatever weight makes you happy. I will never be Hollywood thin because I would rather eat half a chocolate bar when I get home from work, preferably followed by a glass of wine and then maybe pizza. I am fine with that.

I also believe that you can indulge without really indulging. There are fantastic things to be done with fresh fruit. With egg whites and sugar you can perform miracles (called meringues). I performed one such miracle yesterday by making my first angel food cake. The most tedious part of making angel food cake it beating the egg whites. If you have a stand mixer you will be fine, if not you will get your work out for the day.

Everything went according to plan because I actually remembered to read the directions first. I used a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks and went with the chocolate version of the cake. My favorite part was letting it cool upside down on a bottle. I was nervous about it at first but it did not tip over or fall out so now I think it was fun.

In the end I decided that it should have a little extra something. I am always looking for reasons to use Creme de Violette so I melted some white chocolate and mixed in a shot of the liqueur. As the finishing touch I added whipped cream and blackberries and I was happy. It isn't the prettiest cake I've ever made but it is probably the healthiest and it even tasted great.

Decadence without guilt can be had.





*But just in case, I signed up for a 10k.