COOKIE CRUMBLE,JAMMERS + R&J COOKIES in SABLES @COOKIE BAR@NYC with MS GREENSPAN

 Ur are all snuggled up in ur pink bedroom ,dreaming away under  ur pink cuppycake comforter , and u have been thinking cookies all evening and its only natural that as u drift off , ur going to be thinking cookies too.....

And jus as ur drifting off , ur mind starts putting together a dozen and more cookie ideas and u wanna get up , switch on ur laptop and get right away to put the post , bake the next day and complete the post...

This is exactly what happened to me ,the day i read all about Ms Greenspans Jammers and more at the cookie bar.

Adding more goodness to a wonderful Sable , the buttery ,tender ,melt in ur mouth cookie , only makes things better and add some fantastic home made preserves and topped with streusel/Crumble , is always a winner and more.

I mean how can  this go wrong , A Vanilla bean Lemon zest Sable , reinforced with some Vanilla Crush And Fiori di sicilia...

And u need no sprinkles for these , but i could help taking my heart sprinkles out , but finally these babies landed on the cookies:-)

 So here i have some wonderful Vanilla bean Sables , made better , with rubbing some zest in the sugar , and a wee bit of Fiori di Sicilia.
Infact ,along with the Vanilla bean , u can go with any of these flavors , or maybe jus all and they'll be absolutely wonderful.
Go with whatever flavor rocks ur boat , or a little of all maybe?
What ever rocks ur boat , rocks these cookies too.......

I lovee streusel and find myself many a times adding streusel to many a bake and a bit back when i saw lemon bars with streusel i was jus as excited as well.

I am also always adding a Vanilla bean or 2 every where , including my streusel and sables!

Oh i filled them with Caramel and chocolate last time and this time there is something fantastic too...Jammmmm...lods of good fruity jam = jammers.

Beginning with Sables , baking them in rings ( nice straight brown edges on the cookies come coz they are baked in the rings), i used shaped rings , like i do many a time , for cookies ,right from the wedding cookie to many more....so was more than happy when i read that Ms. Greenspan does this too!

 Oh sure , had lods of cookie cutters to wash , some of them custom made , but that was a breeze with some hot water and good dishwashing liquid.

So lets begin with the cookie , for step by step pics , go here , this time i patted them all to cut out the shapes desired and bake them along with the same cutter.

Here is the dough , patted out , roughly into 2 squares , ready to be cut out, after an over night refrigeration.

 And before u go any further brew ur self a coffee, Vanilla coffee is good...and if there are hearts and pink , then fantastic.....

And pour urself some, to begin with ie.....u can dip in more as u go... 

Ready to bake here , ahh ,yes do make a little dent in the middle to hold ''more''jammies!

 And once ur done with that , and the tray in in the oven , u can look after the struesels..here's the one with the shortbread dough itself , some flour , butter , later , chopping roasted cashewnuts....
And the brown one is S number 2 , the hazelnutty brown sugar one ...sure u can grind the cashewnuts for number one , but i wanted texture here...
The pastry blade works fantastic , but a processor might do the job faster.

This is going to be or is my basic filler for most of cookies , sooo wonderful....

And when half baked , take them out, using a smooth round surface (i used a mini rolling pin here), press the cookies in the middle , fill them with Jam/preserves and add the crumbles ....oh delicious....
Dont worry if u cover the jam too muc with the crumble , we are going to top it with some more jam later.....
And u could spread the jam all over the cookie ,if u want too....

And for the filling there are 3 options too, for one Goiabada , sprinkled with Parmesan that will give u the Romeo and Juliet cookie.

Apricot preserve from France with vanilla and sprinkled with Lavender....

And Red Morello Cherry Jam ( which i went by),also french!

I baked them for much longer @very low heat coz i lovee the crunch....
And ready....

So for struesel i have 3 options , one is the Sable dough , rubbed with ur fingers so u have crumbles , and chopped nuts added in.

This amazing struesel topping , the buttery crispy one with hazelnuts in there....u can see how to make it here and here too....

And the 3rd one from Ms. Greenspan herself...

And all sprinkled with some sea salt here and vanilla sugar there.....

~~~Mia's Tips Picked from Dorie n reading n baking around~~~

**The butter need to be at room temperature ,not oily soft. I used salted butter and loved it.

**Beat butter , then with sugars and then with egg yolk , till smooth and creamy ,not airy.

**I add the flour and instead of switching on the mixer and have flour flying around , fold it in well with a spatula , and then run the mixer if need be.

**this dough doesnt come together and it shouldn come together, and is very soft.

I turned it on to a cling film , lightly dusted with flour, dusted my hands with flour too , and worked to flatten it to the desired thickness and then cling wraped and placed  in a flat tupperware.

**to make the roll, i cut out a cardboard from a silver foil roll , in the middle and cut it to desired lenght as shown below , had shaped it first and the roll made it easier.

A kitchen roll would work better.

**Refrigerate for atleast 2hours or more , i did overnight and a few hours, it improves flavor.

**Work with the dough Cold , its gets soft pretty quick.

**Cut slices with a sharp pairing knife.

** Dont have very large or very thing cookies , they break easily and DONT pick from the tray till u cool them there a bit , i broke my most beautiful large cookie, though u can make large but thick please, and when u do pick them , use a large cookie spatula , i broke another one when i was dancing around with it while clicking pictures ,and i have 2 cookie spatulas mind u...

**I baked them at a very low temp , for a lonnnggg time , gives me a crunchy crispy cookie+melt in the mouth.
**This is my version of how i think the Jammers would be , i would have loved to have them at the cookie bar ,since i didn , i had to be happy and was ,with these.

RECIPES
S a b L e S
(Baking from My home to urs by Dorie)

2 sticks {8 ounces} unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar (zest from 1 lemon rubbed into sugar if making lemony sables)
1/4 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. salt, preferably fine sea salt
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 c. flour

a vanilla bean , seeds scrapped or/and any of the flavors u might be using.

1. .Beat the butter till smooth and very creamy , in a stand /hand mixer.
2. Add in sugars and salt , vanilla bean, seeds scrapped in, whatever flavors , if using and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. The mixture should be smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy.
3. Add in egg yolks ,beating until the mixture is homogeneous.
4. Fold in flour with a Spatula , sure u can do this with the mixer , but i prefer folding in by hand for 2 things , i dont end up over mixing +i dont have flour all over the place.You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you're aiming for is a soft,moist,clumpy{rather than smooth} dough. Pinch it, and it will feel a little like Play-Dough.
5. Divide the dough into 2 ,and since we are going to bake in the forms themselves , pat to 1/2inch thick , thick is better , thin makes them break ,when moving and stuff.
6. Cling wrap and refrigerate dough , overnight or upto 3 days.
7. On the day of baking ,Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
8. Cut out shapes and place on baking tray with the shapes itself , larger the better ,though not to large.Make a dent in the middle to take more jam later.
9. Bake for around 15-25 mins , though my oven takes much longer but then i bake a low temp for a longer time to get crisp cookies.
10. Warm whatever jam ur using to ,with a splash of water and fill the dents , if they have sprung back ,u'll need to press a spoon in , coz they will be hot for ur fingers.
11. Spread the crumble atop in any way u want and bake again for another 10-12 mins till cookies are golden. My oven takes longer as i said , and i love a crisp there.
12. I leave them to cool in the warm oven but by all means , place them on a cooling rack , carefully , if u want to.

If u are using only one of the struesel , then make the full recipe , if all 3 , then half each will be fine and u'll still have left overs.

S t r e U s A L  - 1
Keep aside some of the Vanilla Lemon Sable dough , add some finely chopped nuts,ie roasted cashewnuts ( macadamia is also a fa), and using ur hand clump it till u have crumbs.
To be precise, take aside 3/4 cup of the dough , add upto 4 tbh (even more if u like)of Vanilla sugar, a few tbh butter (till it feels right) i think i added around 25 grams, infact u can do all this is the processor and u'll have crumbs in seconds

S t r e U s A L 2

Full recipe of the Vanilla buttery , really crispy , hazelnut crumble here or here.

S t r e U s A L 3
(i did not make this one  coz i had lods of the prev 2)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar(white vanilla sugar would give u a white struesel)
1/3 cup sugar
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 a vanilla bean scrapped or almond extract (few drops) if using almonds as a nut
1/2 cup nuts (honey roasted almonds chopped)

Place all the ingredients, except the nuts, in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms curds and clumps and holds together when pressed.
Add the nuts, pulse a couple of times and, if you’re not ready to make the crumble, turn the mixture out into a bowl, cover and chill until needed.
Ofcourse u can do this with hand with the pastry cutter too.

Oh cookie , A Vanilla Bean Lemon Sable , with a Cashew nut and Hazelnut buttery crispy crumble and jam of ur choice , add more or less, under the crumble or around it ....u still have a winner.

A cookie each......i loved adding some jam atop , u can skip this step ofcourse...

..... for A gift/s for someone u loveee......

 

If ur in NY , hop on to the cookie Bar and stock on the most wonderful cookies By Ms Greenspan , else get urself to bake these at home , u wont regret it....and dont forget to bake ur sweety heart a teddy or 2 (see above pic)

 Im also sending these cookies to NY, thru my dear pals blog ,thru her Monday linky here

  February 7 through February 11 – Mizu Salon, 505 Park Avenue between 59 and 60 Streets; – 10am until only the crumbs remain

Am also sending these lovely cookies to Amy  who is Feb's winner of the Culinary Smackdown Battle and is hosting this months cookie theme.....