Episode 14: Bittersweet (with Helen Zaltzman)
We’re wrapping up this pandemic year and our pandemic podcast in a carefully-sealed bag, so as not to let the flavors intermingle with other flavors in your podcast cookie tin. For our cookie-themed episode, we‘ve got chocolate chip cookies, no-bake cookies, and smart cookie Helen Zaltzman (@HelenZaltzman), who tells us about her gingerbread creations. Plus, a Chef Detective mystery about a lost family favorite from an out-of-print magazine.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
For more info about Samin’s jam auction, click here.
Food ideas discussed in this episode:
The Baby Boo
Make the tiniest chocolate chip cookie.
From Emily Weinstein, Distinguished Deputy Food Editor at The New York Times:
“I just went on a whole journey to try to capture the size of an idea baby boo in a photo and not sure I did it. To my mind the perfect boo contains a single chip, is bigger than a penny and smaller than a guitar pick. Also my father-in-law has labels he puts on that my sister-in-law designed a million years ago to put on his boo tins.
There’s a thousand-word document with pointers on the recipe, but I can’t find it right now. I do know that thinks the ideal scooping implement is a grapefruit spoon and that you should be able to get at least 50 boos on a cookie sheet. He cools them on brown paper supermarket bags (though I don’t know why). “
Shirley Corriher’s roasted pecan chocolate chip cookies [ link ]
From Bakewise by Shirley O. Corriher
Here are some gift guides!
Samin’s Instagram Gift Guide Thread
Samin’s Twitter Gift Guide Thread
Bravetart’s triple oatmeal cookies
From BraveTart by Stella Parks
Allison’s Grandma’s preacher cookies
Original:
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups oats
1 cup coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Combine sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and let cook for three minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Dollop onto a parchment lined baking sheet and let set as long as you can wait.
Hrishi’s modified version:
Substitute 2 cups sugar with:
1¼ cups of white sugar, ½ cup of brown sugar (or substitute even more or all white sugar with brown sugar)
Add ½ teaspoon of diamond kosher salt
Sprinkle Maldon Sea Salt on top to finish
80’s tangy lemon icebox cookies from Gourmet magazine [ link ]
Thanks to Francis Lam, Dorie Greenspan, Zanne Stewart, and Ian Knauer for helping us get to the bottom of this cookie mystery!
Coquine’s chocolate chip cookies
We don’t have a recipe, but you can order them.
Flour bakery’s chocolate chip cookies
From Pastry Love by Joanne Chang
Crumpets Bakeshop
Hrishi’s favorite cookie in Los Angeles is the Mocha Chip Cookie with Sea Salt. You can order it here
Helen Zaltzman’s gingerbread Beyonce [ link ]
Illustration by Mamie Rheingold