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Sunday, February 6, 2011

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 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 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 11Mizu 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.....