The Pastry Chef's Baking (2024)

I love test cookies, especially ones like these. It's a "pie cookie" which basically means a cookie shell filled with, in this case, goodness. There's a caramel layer topped by a chocolate mousse layer topped by a thick chocolate ganache. Then sprinkled with flakes of sea salt.

If that sounds good to you, it's because it was. This is supposed to be served chilled, probably because of the mousse, and I don't like chilled cookies so I let it come to room temperature first before I tried it. I liked this cookie because I liked each of its components separately and they worked well together. The cookie base isn't too sweet (although to be honest, weeks later, I can't remember clearly what the base was, only that it served as a good base) and I always love Crumbl's caramel. I'm not a huge fan of mousse or ganache but both were good and worked well with this cookie. The ganache was almost likea thick fudge and wasn't too overwhelmingly chocolaty. I'm also not a big fan of sea salt sprinkled on cookies but I'm probably a minority on that one and I don't see them omitting it if/when this hits the regular menu.

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatWednesday, January 03, 2024No comments:

Chocolate Crumb Cake

This review is mostly about the Chocolate Crumb Cake as I've already reviewed the Lemon Poppyseed (twice, the second Lemon Poppyseed bought at the Sparks store was way better than the first one bought at a Las Vegas store).

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatSaturday, December 30, 2023No comments:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking power and salt; set aside.
3. In the top half of a double boiler over hot water, combine butter and unsweetened chocolate, whisking until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
4. Add sugar to melted butter-chocolate mixture and beat to combine. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. Beat in vanilla extract.
5. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing until just combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatSunday, December 24, 2023No comments:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip yolks and sugar until pale and thick.
2. Add softened butter and vanilla until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
3. Switch to a paddle attachment and gradually add cake flour on low speed.
4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Once chilled, stamp cookies. Freeze stamped cookies for at least 1 hour.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatThursday, December 21, 2023No comments:

Speculaas Cookies - made dough December 3, 2023 from Bigger Bolder Baking

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, aniseed, nutmeg, black pepper, ginger and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in the milk then gradually add the flour mixture in several additions, mixing on low speed.
4. Once dough is combined, gather into a ball, flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. If using an embossed rolling pin, chill dough 10-15 minutes then roll out with a plain rolling pin to 1/3" thickness between two sheets of parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
5. If using cookie stamps, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. If using embossed rolling pin, dust embossed rolling pin with rice flour and run rolling pin over rolled-out dough; cut with cookie cutters. If using cookie stamps, pinch off pieces of dough and roll into balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar and stamp with cookie stamp(s). Cut edges if you want them neat.
8. Evenly space stamped cookies on prepared baking sheets and bake about 15-18 minutes until slightly golden. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I made these earlier in December so I'd be able to ship them out to deployed military troops hopefully in time for them to receive it for Christmas. While I'm not usually a big fan of too many spices in cookies, speculaas are the rare exception (although I'm starting to develop a taste for gingerbread, finally).

Biscoff cookies rank right up there with Oreos in my snobby taste buds exceptions for store bought cookies. It doesn't mean I don't try to bake replicas at home though, although so far nothing tops the original Biscoff cookie.

But these were meant to be stamped and I can't not use my new Christmas stamps, right?

The impressions turned out decently well on these, although the fine writing on the "Merry Christmas" stamp was a little hit or miss.

The tradeoff you have to make with these is how much of a crunch you want in them. If you bake closer to the 15 minute mark, they're a little softer but they're actually meant to be crisp. If you bake closer to the 18-20 minute mark, you'll get the crunch but they are a little harder to bite into. It's all a matter of preference and how strong your teeth are.

Surprisingly, I like the crunchier version in terms of both taste and texture. When they're not baked to full crunchiness, you'll get a mixture of crunch at the edges and more chewiness in the middle but, like the original Biscoff cookies, they are meant to be crisp throughout. The flavor seems to come through better when they're crunchy. I ended up liking the spiciness of this cookie as well, crunch and all.

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatTuesday, December 19, 2023No comments:

Lemon Curd Linzer Sandwich Cookies - made dough December 2, 2023 from The Pretty Life Girls

1. Combine butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy and well combined.
2. Add flour, mixing at low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a ball; flatten slightly into thick disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Roll out dough between two large sheets of parchment paper to 1/4-inch thickness. Emboss with embossed rolling pin or cookie stamps and cut with 2-inch cookie cutters. Cut out center from half the cookies using a smaller decorative cookie cutter.
6. Evenly space cookies on prepared baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake 7-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on baking sheets before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Place cooled cookies with center cut-outs onto parchment paper; sprinkle with powdered sugar.
8. Spread bottom-side of cookies without the cutouts with 1/4 teaspoon lemon curd. Top with center cutout cookie, powdered sugar-side up.

I took these cookies to a holiday cookie exchange party earlier this month and they seemed to be a hit. Can you believe that I've never been to a cookie swap? Back in the Bay Area, most of my friends weren't bakers so I was the one supplying baked goods. When I moved to Nevada, well, I didn't have local friends, lol.

But I joined a local women's group that plans various activities so people could meet in person and form connections. I have to admit, after several years of Covid-quarantine/isolation, it's been nice to socialize. And I say that as an introvert.

Just like with the baking meetups I've hosted at my house, the party gave me a chance to try out a recipe I normally wouldn't bake since I can't send these in my military care packages for my volunteer work with Soldiers Angels. The filling and the delicacy of the cookies would never survive overseas or military mail.

A slight digression before I go into the recipe. One of the challenges I have with my cookie stamps and cutters is some of them, primarily the Anis Paradeis ones, come with specialized cutters that fit the stamped impressions. Try keeping them together without getting them mixed up with other stamps? A bit tricky. Until now. Thanks to other cookie stampers, I discovered using these photo storage containers were perfect. They're the perfect size in length, width and depth to hold most of my cookie stamps that don't have handles. And an easy way to keep everything organized.

Back to the cookies. Although they're called "linzer" cookies, a true linzer cookie typically has ground hazelnuts in the dough and are filled with some kind of jam, usually raspberry. Plus the tops are covered in powdered sugar before sandwiching the jam.

As you can see, I broke all those rules. Since I had stamped them, I didn't want to hide the impressions by sprinkling powdered sugar over them. I also don't like raspberry jam or any kind of jam or jelly which is why I deliberately picked this recipe that uses lemon curd. Lemon curd is supposedly easy to make but I didn't have time to make it from scratch so I went with the ready made stuff in a jar. Which turned out to taste pretty good. As was the whole cookie. The cookies themselves are light in texture and a little crisp, a perfect foil for the tart lemon curd. They're not too sweet either so they also don't clash with the curd. I liked these cookies. They took more time to make but were worth the effort.

Posted byPastry Chef BakingatSunday, December 17, 2023No comments: