White Chocolate Green Tea Cookies

I've been neglecting this blog due to the whole move-to-Boston-to-be-a-grad-student thing. But I really, really need to share this recipe. I tweaked the original recipe so there'd be more matcha and white chocolate  (I also ran out of sugar, but I ended up really liking the reduced sugar version). I'm so excited about this final recipe that I just had to share it!

Green Tea White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2  tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla  extract, and beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chunks or chips with a spatula. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

4. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking pans, spacing them about 1 1/2-2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven, and allow cookies to cool on pans for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

"Healthy" Desserts

No, I haven't gone completely mad. I still love butter and cream, and you won't see recipes for tofu cheesecakes or fat-free brownies any time soon. It just happened that I made some desserts this weekend that might seem healthy at first glance: banana coconut chocolate chip cookies and plain frozen yogurt.  

I read about these "healthy" cookies on Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks blog and was immediately seized with a morbid curiosity to make some for myself. This is possibly the strangest cookie recipe I've ever seen.

Here are the things this cookie does NOT contain:

- butter

- sugar

- eggs

- flour

Is this possible? Yes. Does it taste good? You bet.

My Kind of Brownies

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present apricot-walnut-cocoa brownies. 

After the last batch of French-style brownies, I wanted something bolder, chewier, more, well, American. Recently, there's been a resurgence of chewy brownie recipes that try to mimic the texture of box mix brownies without the box. The recipe from Smitten Kitchen looked promising. I added a touch of Pierre Hermé by tossing 3/4 cup of chopped apricots into the mix, along with the 3/4 cup of walnuts. Ever since making his Linzer tart, I've been a huge fan of mixing fruit with chocolate - the acid cuts through chocolate's richness, and the fruit echoes floral notes in the chocolate. Okay, it just makes the dessert so much more interesting and balanced, very good compliments in my book.

The batter was a cinch to whip up, and you can do it all in one pan (a very welcoming change after making buttercream and jaconde for opera cake).

Happy Macaron Day!

I'm not making this up, the 20th of March is Macaron Day! In Paris (and apparently New York*), bakeries give out free macarons. In honor of the occasion, I'll post some pictures of my latest (4th) attempt at making macarons.

Not to be confused with macaroons, macarons (I always get made fun of when I use the I'm-choking-on-broccoli French 'r') are almond and egg white cookies that sandwich buttercream, ganache, jam, even ketchup. The little cookies should have a delicately crisp shell on the outside, fluffy and slightly chewy on the inside, and most importantly, have a frilly skirt or "feet" on the bottom (otherwise they can't be called macarons). They're notoriously difficult to make, since they require precision and accuracy in temperature control, beating time, moisture, etc.

My first attempt was a total disaster, the cookies turned out crisp and flat as a pancake.

Le Brownies

I have a love-hate relationship with brownies. To me, they rank on the same level as chocolate chip cookies. It has the potential to be amazingly good, but the typical result is sadly mediocre. It's so American. So blasé. So over produced. Sometimes I cave in and grab a piece, thick with grainy frosting and smudgy in its plastic wrapper. It satisfies my sugar craving, but I always regret it later.

Brownies is one of those foods that's best cooked at home. I used to eat box mix brownies, fresh from the oven, at middle school sleep-overs. We would playing Mario Kart, trade school gossip that more often involved the math club than cute boys, and help stir the brownie batter. We ate the brownies warm out of the oven - I made sure we made it to the kitchen in time - with mugs of cold milk. My friend's mom would always urge us to have seconds, and I always did. Looking back, I suspect I had a greater appreciation for food than most people my age, or maybe my friends had more refined palates that rejected the industrial stuff.

Financiers

These are cute, brown butter almond cookies traditionally baked in rectangular molds so they resemble little ingots of gold. I didn't have a financier mold, so I used a mini-muffin pan. They're a little smaller than the traditional ones, but just as cute.

What distinguishes financiers from other cookies is the browned butter. You're supposed to cook butter until it's browned and smell like toasted hazelnuts.

Croq-Télé / TV Snacks

This is the first recipe I'm trying out from Paris Sweets. I wanted to bring something to the Super Bowl party, and I had ground almonds on hand. The recipe was super easy, especially with the help of a food processor. The dough mixture was very sandy, but it came together easily enough with a good squeeze.