my.requiescence.

Chez Panisse Gingersnaps and Thomas Keller’s Oreos

Well, how quickly time flies (I guess I was having too much fun this month), I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve.

I’m in Virginia (which is as cold as Boston, boo) for Christmas, and since no holiday is complete without an EXCESSIVE amount of BUTTER, I brought an army of cookies with me: Chez Panisse Gingersnaps and Thomas Keller’s Oreos. It’s like bringing a bit of California to Virginia, wouldn’t you say?

This was my first time ever baking gingersnaps. I’ve never really been a fan of ginger-flavored cookies, even with all the gingerbread men and gingerbread house hype during the holidays; unlike others who perhaps have difficulties refraining from sampling the gingerbread men or houses they were supposed to be decorating, I’ve never had a problem. 

These cookies are fantasticly tasty- warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and molasses, and topped with crunchy raw sugar. The cooking time is customizable to your cookie texture preference- if you’re into less snappy gingersnaps, bake with a little less time, and if you’re into high snap factor, bake with more time. If you’re into the crispy sides and chewy middle.. well, I don’t think I managed to get that perfect balance THIS time (sorry Andreas), but I don’t doubt that you guys can figure it out. 

Added bonus to a yummy spicy cookie? They make your kitchen smell like the HOLIDAYS.

Now these guys are less holiday-themed and more because I had been dying for an opportunity to bake them. Cookies that require rolling out, cutting, chilling, baking, cooling, AND filling are not baked on any random day in my kitchen- I’m gonna be honest, that’s quite a bit of work for a cookie just for myself. But given how well-received the chocolate-y chocolate World Peace Cookies have been with Andreas’ family the last two Christmases, I felt that they might enjoy Thomas Keller’s Homemade Oreos.

The secret to their awesomeness is in the white chocolate cream filling. You heard me. WHITE. CHOCOLATE. CREAM. FILLING. You will NEVER look at store-bought oreo filling the same. Believe me.

Sometimes “homemade” versions of store-bought goods sometimes lack the essence of the commercial counterpart (perhaps because we taste that first and forever define that food with the commercial flavor), I have to say, Thomas Keller’s Oreos pretty much TKO (technical knock out.. HAHA, get it??) store oreos’ butts! Although this isn’t the best chocolate cookie recipe I’ve had (for that, see here), but the combination of the crispy and slightly bitter chocolate cookie with the creamy and buttery white chocolate filling is the epitome of the old adage “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Chez Panisse Gingersnaps
from David Lebovitz, via Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food
makes 40-50 cookies

2 cups (280 g) flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
11 tablespoons (150 g) butter, salted or unsalted, at room temperature
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (80 g) mild-flavored molasses* (sometimes called ‘light’ molasses)
1 large egg, at room temperature
optional: coarse or raw sugar for coating the cookies

1. Stir together the dry ingredients.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter just until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl.
3. Stir in the vanilla, molasses and egg.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients gradually until the dough is smooth.
5. Divide the dough in two equal portions and roll each on a lightly-floured surface until each is about 2-inches (5cm) around.
6. Wrap each in plastic wrap then roll them lightly on the counter to smooth them out. Refrigerate, or better yet, freeze the cookie logs until firm (about 10-15 minutes).
7. To bake, preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
8. Slice cookie dough into 1/4-inch (a scant 1 cm) rounds with a sharp knife. Dip one side and press firmly in a bowl of coarse sugar if you want (you can also use granulated sugar instead), and place sugar-side up on baking sheet, evenly-spaced apart. Leave a couple of inches, about 5 cm, between cookies since they’ll spread while baking.
9. Bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until deep-golden brown. The cookies will puff up a bit while baking, then settle down when they’re done. Bake on the lower end of the range for softer cookies, and more for snappier ones, depending on your oven. 
10. Let the cookies cool two minutes, then remove them with a spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack.

Thomas Keller’s Oreos
from Piece of Cake Blog

makes about 24 sandwich cookies, depending on size

For the Cookies:

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened premium cocoa powder (I like Valrhona)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
15 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3/4” cubes, at room temperature

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed. 
2. With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time. The mixture will be dry and sandy at first, but over 2 minutes, will form pebble-sie pieces that start to cling together—be patient, it will eventually come together. (This took me maybe 5-7 minutes by hand mixer) Transfer the dough to a work surface.
3. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half between two large pieces of parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. Stack the rolled sheets of dough onto a baking sheet (to keep them flat) and chill until firm, at least 15 minutes.
4. When you’re ready to bake, position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats. Working with one sheet of chilled dough at a time, use a round 2 to 2 1/2-inch cutter to cut the dough into rounds (scraps can be gathered and rolled out again). Place the rounds about 1/2 an inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. (They don’t spread much)
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
   

For the Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped (I used mostly chips instead of bar chocolate, it worked fine)

1. In a small pan or microwave-safe bowl, bring the cream to a boil on the stove or in the microwave. 
2. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. 
3. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up (you can also chill it in the refrigerator, stirring often, to speed things up significantly).

To assemble the cookies: 

1. Lightly whip the white chocolate cream to smooth it and fluff it up (about 2 minutes).
2. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4” plain tip (I just used a knife to spread it on the bottom cookie). Pipe about 1 1/2 tsp in the center of half the cookies. Top with another cookie to sandwich. Gently press down until the cream comes to the edges. Refrigerate to for a few minutes to firm up the filling.