Flour · ish

adapted from smittenkitchen; photos: Karen Go

My friend Karen (the lovely photographer who thought of making cupcake towers!) and I made these to celebrate birthdays at our church retreat. We just used the random bowls & plates available at the house we stayed at!

I have been wanting to attempt 2 things for a long time: Bouchon's Thomas Keller Oreo's (TKO's) and french macarons. But they're kind of intimidating....

BUT. A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with a sore throat, feeling pretty miserable. Then, I heard a knock at my door, and my roommate came in with a HUGE TKO that she brought back from NYC!! I was so touched by her thoughtfulness that definitely brightened an otherwise dreary Monday.

And now that I had the real thing, I was so inspired to make it! Gah, it was freakin' delicious...!! Can you tell I totally fell in love with that cookie???

Homemade TKOs
adapted from Piece of Cake, from The Essence of Chocolate
makes ~15 2 1/2 inch cookies

There is an official recipe from Bouchon on this site, but it uses weighed measurements, and I don't have a scale here. So I went through a lot of recipes for homemade oreos until I found one closest to the Bouchon version. The difference is mainly in the filling. While most recipes use a traditional frosting, Bouchon's tastes lighter because it's simply white chocolate melted into cream, then whipped. The cookie itself is saltier, darker and much larger than most homemade oreos.




Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups + 3 T flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup + 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Trader Joe's--unsure of the quality! probably be better to use higher quality cocoa)
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 15 T unsalted butter, cut into 3/4" cubes, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz. white chocolate, chopped (I used chips)

Steps:

1. Make the filling: In a small pot, bring the cream to a boil on the stove. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up (you can also chill it in the refrigerator, stirring often).

2. Make the cookie dough: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed. With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time. The mixture will be dry at first, but over 2 minutes, will start to form a dough.

3. Transfer the dough to a work surface. 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 and chill until firm, for at least 20 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Position a rack to the center of the oven (I was short on time and placed a second rack below, resulting in cookies that looked like they exploded). 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 (I used a small glass for 2 1/2 inches and a shot glass for 2 inches--will someday invest in cookie cutters...maybe) 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.

6. Assemble! Lightly whip the white chocolate cream to smooth it and fluff it up. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain tip. Pipe as much as you'd like 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. Cookies can be stored for up to 3 days.

There is something magical about brunch, I tell you!

Someday I'll print out recipes and laminate them nicely, but until then...


This is how I write out all my recipes before going to bake.

Chocolate chip cookies are probably my favorite thing to bake, and this is probably my favorite recipe for them. It might not be the best out there, but I've tried several other recipes, and this one is the most simple and satisfying. They're even better if you let the dough sit in the fridge for 1 or 2 days because the wet ingredients get soaked up.

So good with a glass of milk. oh my goodness.