OBA Heartmade Goodies: Making and eating cookies and others. Oct 2011

A sweet pastry day may be fun.

Especially in the begging of the day when I haven't stuffed myself with too much sugar.

This usually ends up happening during every pastry "session" in school, since we make so many yummy sweets and want to try all of them, so I do.

Here are some that we made today:

Vanilla Ice Cream (creme anglaise)

Yield: 40 floz

1 qt half and half
1 Vanilla Bean Split
8 oz Egg Yolk
10 oz Granullar sugar

In a heavy sauce pot heat your half and half, half the amount of your sugar and the vanilla bean, stirring very slowly so that you do not create air in this creme. You want it to be dense and thick.

Meanwhile, whisk your eggs in a bowl with the other half your sugar.

When your cream comes to a scald, remove it from the heat and with about 1/2 of it temper your egg mix. You will do this by pouring the hot liquid in a thread like paste into your egg mix while whisking it, so that it emulsifies and your egg protein does not curdle.

Now return this emulsified mix back to the stove until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Immediately cool it in an Ice bath to stop it from cooking stirring every once in a while so that it cools uniformly and the middle does not curdle.

Chill your custard in a cooler.

At this point your have made Creme Anglaise and can use it as a sauce or base for other desserts if you wish.

Turn on your churning machine and chill it.

Add your creme Anglaise.

If you wish to add pieces of chocolate, fruits or candied nuts, this is the time to do it. Just remember that when adding fruit pieces, first brine them in sugar and some form of liquor, so that they don't form water crystals.

Check your churning cream every 5 to 10 minutes, until it gets to an ice cream consistency.

Remove it from your machine and keep it frozen until service time.

You can serve your ice cream on top of a Tuile cookie, as we did.

Tuile Cookie:

8oz Unsalted Butter
8 oz Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
8 oz Egg Whites
8 oz ap Flour
2 pinches Salt

Cream the butter and the powdered sugar together. Incorporate your egg whites slowly, your vanilla, salt and flour.

Mix carefully.

Cut a hard paper mold or use similar mold and on top of a sil pad place your mold steady and some dough, just enough to create a paper thin layer of cookie.

Form your very thin cookies and bake them at medium oven for about seven minutes or until golden.

With an off set spatula, unstick them and mold them to the shape you want as soon as they come out of the oven while they are still soft.

Let them cool at their final shape.

Strawberry Ice cream, chocolate chip and peach over a Tuile cookie.

Here are some of the cookies we made this day as well.

The two most used methods that are used mix your cookies:

The creaming method, such as Chocolate Chip Cookies
The egg foam method, such as the Madeleines

There are different make-up methods of cookies that are used:

Drop Cookies, such as Chocolate Chip cookies that are dropped with a spoon forming random shapes.
Icebox cookies, such as the Check Board cookies that need to be shaped into logs and chilled before baking.
Bar cookies, which are the cookies that are rolled into a log, then baked, such as Biscotti.
Sheet cookies, made from dough that is pressed on a sheet, baked and then cut into portions.
Cut out cookies, which are cookies made from a dough that is chilled, rolled out and then cut into shapes, such as Sugar Cookies.
Pressed cookies, such as Spritz that are forced through a tube or even Pipe Bag cookies.
Rolled or molded cookies, made from a stiff dough that is hand shaped.
Wafer Cookies, thin and delicate cookies that are made from batter that is spread into a variety of shapes, such as Tuile Cookies.

And there are also different cookie textures that are preferred and chosen for each cookie type:

Crispy cookies, usually are done with a high amount of sugar and fat, low amount of liquid, and cooked to well done. The dough usually looks thin and the flour used is usually strong in gluten.
Soft Cookies, usually use a low amount of hygroscopic sugars and fat, a high amount of liquid, and are under baked. The dough should look thick and the flour used is usually weak in gluten.
Chewy cookies usually us a high amount of fat, hygroscopic sugars and liquid and are usually under baked. The flour is usually strong in gluten.
Spread cookies usually use a high amount of granulated sugar, fat and liquid, especially eggs. They should be baked at low temperature.

Nut and Chocolate cookie are rolled and molded crispy cookies.