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IMBB 10: Cookie Swap

When I told Melissa that Jennifer suggested a cookie swap for the latest round of Is My Blog Burning?, my wife became very excited and started talking about all the possibilities. (Cookies! You're going to make me cookies?)

I had plenty of ideas for what to make. (You could make me chocolate chip cookies. Your chocolate chip cookies are so good.) I considered snickerdoodles, my favorite cookie, but I made some recently, and besides, I like to do new things for IMBB. (Ooooh. Or remember those ice cream sandwiches you made with those chocolate chip cookies? You could make those for me.) Two and a half years ago I took a confection and cookie class, and I didn't make all the recipes in the class itself, so I thought about pulling out my handbook and trying them. (Or maybe thumbprint cookies. I love thumbprint cookies.) Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, people commenting on Jennifer's original post were intrigued by my joke about a tripe cookie (see my entry for IMBB 9 if you don't get the joke). I felt as if a gauntlet had been thrown down. (Ew. No. But maybe a sausage cookie. I'd eat a sausage cookie; it could be like pigs in blankets).

Then I remembered East of Paris, David Bouley's cookbook about "The new cuisines of Austria and the Danube". (Maybe oatmeal cookies. Without the raisins.) Austria is well-regarded for its desserts, and the cookbook has a number of cookie recipes. I looked through the pictures, and that clinched my decision.

I'm entering two cookies for IMBB 10: Vanilla Butter Crescents and Cinnamon Sablés. The first, a sugary horseshoe of nutty flavor, had a dry texture (there's no liquid in the recipe). The second was more like a thick butter cookie covered in a crisp sugar shell. Melissa preferred the crescents; I preferred the sablés. Despite our best efforts, I still had plenty to bring into work.

We didn't try this pairing but if you wanted to serve wine with these, I'd have to recommend Tokaji Aszu, the Hungarian dessert wine. You get a certain regional appropriateness because Austria and Hungary have a lot of culinary and cultural overlap not only from their proximity but from the days of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire. Tokaji Aszu is often paired with hazelnuts, too, and it has a certain spiciness that would work well with the cinnamon. I'd get a 5 puttonyos version, at least (puttonyos are the baskets they use to add botrytized grapes to the base wine).

I'll just offer one recipe. Cinnamon sablés are easy to improvise: make your favorite butter cookie, but add a lot of cinnamon to the dough. Roll into a log, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Unwrap the log, brush it with an egg wash, and roll in granulated sugar until well coated. Slice into 1/4" coins and bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Cool on a wire rack. If I made them again, I'd roll the egg-coated log in a combination of sugar and cinnamon, and I'd paint egg wash on the tops and bottoms of the coins and then coat them with the sugar-cinnamon mixture as well.

Vanilla Butter Crescents from David Bouley's East of Paris

1/2 cup whole hazelnuts toasted and peeled
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus some for baking sheets
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
pinch of fine sea salt
8 Tb unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out with a knife or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Place hazelnuts in a food processor and add 3 Tb. of flour. Pulse until the mixture is ground to a fine meal.

In a bowl, whisk the remaining flour with 1/4 cup of the confectioner's sugar and the salt. Add this to the hazelnut mixture and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the dough begins to come together. Add the vanilla seeds and pulse until a smooth dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or as long as 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and flour two baking sheets, or line them with nonstick liners.

Form the dough into 1-inch balls; then roll each ball out to form a 3-inch-long snake, and curve it like a horseshoe. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and bake until light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. Generously sift some of the remaining 1 cup confectioner's sugar over them while they are still warm, and then again when they are cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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