Salty Malty Cookies /  by Molly Brodak

Over in the Buy a Recipe section of Kookie House I sell a very good and special recipe that I typically have spent months/years developing. These recipes will change in inconsistent amounts of time since time is arbitrary here at Kookie House. Each recipe is available for a limited time only and I can't sell you the old ones, so be sure to save or print your downloads as soon as you purchase them, and check back regularly for new ones.

To start things off I wanted to offer my all-time favorite cut-out cookie, since cookies make up the floors and the ceiling and the around-and-around of Kookie House. No matter how many cakes and eclairs and fancy gumpaste flowers I make, cookies remain the still point of my spinning world.

The flavor of these cookies is incomparable. You have never had a cut-out cookie so good. I have never truly enjoyed eating sugar cookies, especially those iced with royal icing. They are typically too sweet and bland. These were designed to taste delicious with royal icing or fondant icing, but are incredibly addictive on their own. The malt flavoring not only adds a delectable richness to the buttery flavor of the dough but also encourages browning, gilding the edges of your cookies with that crucial Maillard gold.  

You do need to get yourself some dry malt extract. Malted milk powder will not work as a substitute. You need the pure stuff, and the darker the better. I highly recommend Briess Traditional Dark, which you can buy here or at your local home brewer's supply shop. If you like malt flavor, or just delicious things in general, you will find all kinds of other uses for powdered malt around your kitchen, from malted milkshakes to malted waffles to a more fantastic fried chicken batter. (Be sure to store the rest of your malt powder in a tightly sealed container away from humidity (not in the fridge), as it is hydrophilic and will turn into a sticky/crusty mess if moistened.)

These were designed to hold their shape yet remain soft in the middle, with a balance of granulated sugar and powdered sugar that I have spent a long time perfecting. They become just slightly larger after baking so that they will fit fondant cut-outs with a tiny border (a post on this soon). The edges aren't the sharpest cookie edges around, but what kind of maniac expects unnaturally razor-sharp edges on their cookies anyway. 

Included in your recipe will be some tips on rolling techniques, like why you should freeze your dough in sheets rather than chill it in a lump after mixing (it never made any sense to me that most recipes ask you to chill a disk of dough THEN attempt to roll it out once chilled into a crumbling, difficult mess), and why you should bake off your scraps into one giant Malformed Monstercookie instead of rerolling scraps more than twice.

freeze your dough like THIS before cutting out shapes

Buy it here for just two dollars then make yourself a pair of Yeezy Boost 350 to eat.

NFS

Glazed Orange Cinnamon Madeleines /  by Molly Brodak

Madeleines seem like a good place to start. Both a cake and a cookie, they satisfy on all counts. And these delicate Orange Cinnamon beauties are the most tender, melt-in-your mouth madeleines you will ever taste.

Yes bring me this tray

 

And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory...

writes Proust in that famous bit of In Search of Lost Time reflecting on the power sensory objects have to flood us with vivid memories. While I have no specific Sunday mornings at Combray to relive, I certainly can relate to the part about the vicissitudes of life becoming indifferent to me when I bite into a perfect madeleine.

Made with cake flour instead of all-purpose, these skirt the debate between the no-baking-powder-purists and those who prioritize the authentic underside bump via some very non-authentic baking powder altogether by adding a different ingredient for lift: whipped cream. The whipped cream also adds a rich, milky tenderness that is simply transcendent.

(For my treatise on whipped cream--one of my favorite things in the world--see this post over at Real Pants.)

There are a million varieties of madeleines, but for my money the warmth of cinnamon underneath fragrant fresh orange in both the cookie and the glaze cannot be beat. You can omit the glaze if you prefer your madeleines slightly less good.

Side note: Alain de Botton? Are you listening? I love you. Your Proust book is too great. Readers, if Proust is really all too much for you, at least read this by de Botton.

Ok. Onto it then. By the way, you don't really need a madeleine pan here, you can make these in muffin tin bottoms if you want to. But if you are going to buy a madeleine pan, buy two, since cleaning then re-buttering and re-flouring your pan after the first batch is a pain in the...underside bump.

Orange Cinnamon Madeleines

makes about 24

3 large eggs, room temperature

2/3 c. (130 g.) sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. (170 g.) cake flour (I use White Lily)

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

9 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

zest of one large orange

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 c. (2.7 fl. oz.) heavy whipping cream

for the glaze: 3/4 c. (150 g.) powdered sugar + 3 Tablespoons of strained juice from orange

Grease and flour madeleine pans thoroughly and place them in the freezer. Melt butter in the microwave or on the stovetop and set aside to cool. Whip cream in a small bowl with a hand mixer or with a whisk to stiff peaks, cover, and place in fridge (whipping such a small amount of heavy cream can be awkward, just tilt the bowl and scrape with a spatula occasionally to maintain consistency). Sift flour and cinnamon together into a small bowl. 

In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer, beat eggs, sugar and salt until thick and frothy, about 6 minutes. Gradually add the flour mixture, gently folding with a spatula as you add it. Add the orange zest and vanilla to the butter and dribble in the butter mixture gradually, folding carefully until it is incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream until no streaks remain. Resist the urge to mix it; be patient with your folding and remember you are trying to preserve the delicate air bubbles in the whipped cream. Cover batter and let rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour (can rest for up to 24 hours). 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Mix together glaze ingredients and set aside. Fill the molds with batter to about 3/4 full; do not spread or press the batter into the pan. A 1" ice cream scoop works well for this. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until the centers are set. Loosen from molds by gently shaking pan. Allow to rest on a wire rack for a few minutes until just cool enough to handle, then dip each side of each madeleine in the glaze.

Glazed madeleines are best eaten the same day, but can be stored uncovered for several days. Unglazed madeleines can be stored sealed in an airtight container for two weeks, or frozen for up to three months. 

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