I'd heard of cookie swaps before but had not been too eager to participate because the tales I'd been told were just too scary. Another friend, who will remain nameless to protect her innocence and sanity, goes to a dictatorial cookie swap every year where each participant has to bring nine dozen cookies and email the recipe in advance so that the hostess can assemble a spiral-bound cookie cookbook for each guest to take home, along with the nine dozen cookies they receive from the other bakers. Yikes. Too much work and too much preparation for a disorganized flake like me. Joanie invited me to Mary Kate's party on Thursday, and we decided what to make on Friday afternoon. Much more my style.
After work on Friday, Joanie and I headed to the Boston area's finest source of provisions, the Johnnie's Foodmaster in Charlestown (not to be confused with the carpeted Foodmaster on Beacon Street in Somerville or the scary Foodmaster on Route 16 in Somerville). The Charlestown Lord of the Food, as those of us in the know call it, is in a shopping center with a whole bunch of other New England-headquartered or New England-only businesses (the Ninety-Nine, CVS, Dunkin Donuts, Friendly's, Papa Gino's, and so on). We grabbed some basic baking ingredients along with a bag of Rolos, a bag of peppermint candies (the kind that I think of as "starlight mints"), and a bag of sweetened flake coconut. Then it was off to Joanie's parents' house down the street to start baking while watching a WGBH pledge drive and fending off Joanie's dad, who kept coming downstairs to check on our progress (read: look for cookies) and get some ice cream (read: look for cookies) and things like that (read: look for cookies).
I always forget—willfully, I think—that baking takes a lot longer than the recipe indicates. I had picked out a Martha Stewart, Barnard '63, recipe for something called coconut balls that looked about as simple as cookies get. And it was, but it took a lot longer than Martha said it would. Or than it would have taken Martha herself to make.
Part of the problem was that we started baking later than anticipated (those of you who know Joanie and me are shocked to hear this, I'm sure) and got impatient while waiting for the butter to soften. I also willfully forget how hard it is to work with butter that isn't completely softened, especially when you're using a hand-held electric mixer. The butter kept getting trapped in the beaters, and I had to scrape and poke it out with a spatula and a knife. Martha would not have this problem, so take note—be like Martha and let your butter soften.
Joanie doctored up another Martha recipe for chocolate-raspberry thumbprint cookies and made chocolate-Rolo thumbprints and chocolate-peppermint thumbprints. Things got a little dicey when I tried to figure out how to smash the peppermint candies for the thumbprint fillings.
Gourmet had recommended, in a recipe on their site, putting the candies in a plastic bag, wrapping the plastic bag with a dishtowel, and hammering it. This did not end well. The bag broke, and little peppermint shards and a cloud of powdered candy dust went flying all over the kitchen. I ended up smashing the candy by putting it in several ziplock bags and throwing the bags repeatedly on the floor. It made a lot of noise and sort of worked. Then a few minutes later, in an unrelated incident, I dropped a bag of flour on the floor. After the ruckus and the mess, I'm still waiting to hear whether Joanie's parents will let me come over again.
When all was said and done, the coconut balls were very good, we think the peppermint thumbprints could have used a bit more peppermint, but the Rolo thumbprints were the real standout of the evening. A true work of genius. They were chocolately in a comforting warm fudgy way, and the melted Rolos gently infiltrated the cookie in pleasantly gooey fashion when you bit into them.
By the time all the cookies were out of the oven and somewhat cool, it was after 9 o'clock, and the party had been underway for more than an hour. We threw everything in some uncovered containers, hollered up to Joanie's parents that cookies were waiting for them in the kitchen, hopped in the car, and zipped over the Tobin Bridge to the party. I came home with an assortment of other cookies—far less than nine dozen and just a few of each—that will be breakfast for the next few days. The verdict: we should do this again!
Charlestown Chocolate Rolo Thumbprint Cookies
Based on Martha Stewart's Chocolate-Raspberry Thumbprints
I'm noting here some changes in baking time and Rolo placement based on a post-baking consultation with master chef Joanie, but otherwise, these are pretty much as we made them last night.
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon salt
2.5 cups flour
4 ounces semisweet chocolate (4 squares if you're using Baker's brand)
1 large bag of Rolo candies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar, ideally using an electric mixer with a bowl and a paddle attachment. We used a food processor, and if you're very patient, a hand-held electric mixer will work. Mix on high speed until light and fluffy.
Mix in egg, vanilla, and salt until just combined.
Add flour in two batches and mix on low speed.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm (at least two hours). Note that we did not do this because we were in a rush, but I'm sure Martha would do it. Use your best judgment or go by what your watch says.
Melt chocolate carefully using your chocolate-melting method of choice. I am a fan of the double-boiler method on top of the stove, which can easily be improvised by nesting a little saucepan in a medium saucepan with boiling water in it. You can do whatever you want to do as long as you don't burn the chocolate. Warning: it's easier to do that than you think.
With dough still in mixer or back in mixer, drizzle melted chocolate on top. Mix on low speed until combined.
Roll dough into one-inch balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, about two inches apart. Gently squash each cookie a bit using your thumb. There should be a shallow thumb-shaped indentation with enough room for filling.
Bake for seven minutes. Use this time to unwrap Rolos, one for each cookie. I think this recipe should yield about three dozen, but hey, you can count, and the worst thing that happens is you end up with a few extra Rolos and have to eat them. Bummer.
Remove cookie sheet from oven and gently press an unwrapped Rolo into each cookie with the wider end facing up. Don't push the Rolo all the way through, but make sure it's far enough in to be wrapped in a nice little well of dough. The cookies will be hot, so be careful.
Put the sheets back in the oven and bake for an additional seven minutes. It's probably a good idea to switch positions of the the sheets for the second baking shift. We forgot to do this and the cookies were fine, but with some ovens you could end up with uneven baking, so be careful.
Remove cookies from oven and place on wire racks to cool. If you're late to a cookie party, allow them to cool a bit and then transport in uncovered containers to avoid problems with condensation. Otherwise, store in an airtight container until devoured.
No comments:
Post a Comment