Becoming a Boulangère

Today can be summarized in one word: cookies.  We spent the morning mixing, scooping, and baking to produce dozens of cookies.  At times we were literally up to our arms in dough but  it’s hard to complain when the final products are so delicious!

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

I was especially excited to bake white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies today, because they are mom’s favorite type. As the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafted into my nose, I couldn’t help but to wish that my mom could try one .  I was able to bring some home after class, but something tells me they won’t last until she visits on Friday!

White chocolate macadamia nut cookies after being removed from the oven. One test to see if they are fully baked is if the cookie can be loosened from the parchment, as seen in the row on the right.

An important consideration in making these cookies is to chop white chocolate bars rather than using white chocolate chips, which tend to be lower quality chocolate and do not provide the rich, luxurious flavor desired.  Because of the higher cost of ingredients for these cookies, bakeshops tend to sell them at a higher price than other cookies.  Conversely, some bakeshops will sell smaller cookies for similar prices to other large cookies.  Don’t be fooled!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are another childhood favorite of mine.  Whether topped with a Hershey’s kiss or stamped with a fork dipped in sugar, you can’t go wrong with a peanut butter cookie.

Peanut butter cookies scooped into 1.6 oz balls. They were frozen for later use. After letting them thaw for 15 minutes they can be baked as normal.

One group of students substituted Nutella for the peanut butter; perhaps surprisingly, these cookies were delicious!  Notably, they spread a bit more than the regular peanut butter cookies due to the higher fat content in Nutella, which may be compensated for by adjusting the amount of flour in the recipe to decrease the relative amount of fat.  The Nutella cookies were also slightly less set-up when removed from the oven, but as the chocolate cooled the cookies set up well.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think we can all appreciate the pleasure of a warm chocolate chip cookie and a glass of ice cold milk after a long, exhausting day.  Unfortunately chocolate chip cookies are difficult to bake.  Some batches inevitably turn out under-baked and fall apart while others are too crunchy and brown. To avoid the disappointment of a highly anticipated but less-than-stellar cookie, heed the advice below.

Touch the cookies in the very center first.  You should feel some resistance but the cookie should give a little bit.  Touching the edges should provide more resistance but it should not give in.

Walnut Shortbread 

The walnut shortbread cookies had a buttery taste and crumbly texture.  And if that wasn’t enough, we dipped some of the cookies in chocolate.

Shortbread cookies spread minimally and don’t change shape during baking. Slicing shortbread is made easier by forming the dough into blocks and freezing it.  We wrapped one pound blocks into used butter wrappers, which provided us with both a good scaffold and a nonstick wrapper.

Our cookies ready for evaluation. Top to bottom: walnut shortbread, white chocolate chip macadamia nut, peanut butter, chocolate chip.