Before starting The Kitchen Scout, I followed only a handful of bloggers. Most of my kitchen inspiration came from cookbooks, cooking magazines, family, friends and that other “F”, the Food Network.
Now, I am following a fair number of food and style bloggers. My Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are so filled with inspiration that I could spend the live long day click-click-clicking through all of the posts (and all the embedded links). Sometimes, I think I do.
Some bloggers are incredibly prolific. It makes me wonder if they sleep!
Some are “who I want to be when I grow up”, although most of them are a fraction of my age.
And some of these bloggers feel like a best buddy who occasionally checks in with a great new recipe and a story (often amusing) to tell. One of the sites that fits into the last category is The Bitten Word, a blog my friend Pam suggested to me when I first started out. I am so glad to be following them!
The Bitten Word is written by married couple, Zach and Clay who live in Washington D.C. Zach works as a journalist and Clay at a non-profit. They blog in their free time. The original idea behind The Bitten Word was Zach and Clay’s resolve to put their food magazines to use. How many of us can relate to that idea?
They began by cooking at least one dish out of each of the food magazines they subscribed to at the time. They have been very, very successful and the blog has won lots of awards and grown to include original recipes and travel posts as well. Check them out if you can.
Last week, Zach and Clay (Z&C) announced their “Cover-to-Cover” project for 2014 which would focus on nearly all the holiday cookies in the December issues of their magazines. In past years, they did Cover-to-Covers with themes such as “All the recipes in Bon Appetit’s September issue” and “All the recipes from 6 food magazines cooked in one month’s time”.
They put out the call for volunteers and since I had nothing better to do this week (holiday cards are still not sent, holiday shopping is still not done, tree is but a dream and laundry is a disaster), I of course, raised my hand.
Z&C randomly assigned each volunteer a cookie to prepare in one week’s time. We are supposed to report back to them with no more than 2 sentences about our experience with said cookie. What’s in it for the volunteers? According to Z&C, delicious cookies (check), lots of new cookie recipes (hopefully), a fun challenge to kick off our holiday baking (I guess but I really need to send out my cards) and of course, lots and lots of glory as they plan to publish the results on their blog starting Monday the 15th (fingers crossed).
Let’s get started, shall we. My assignment….Sarah Bernhardt cookies from Saveur Magazine.
Have you ever heard of these cookies? Do you know who Sarah Bernhardt is? I knew who Sarah Bernhardt was, but had never tasted the cookie named for her. The picture on Saveur’s website gave me a tiny glimpse into the finished product so I searched around and found some better examples. I wanted a sense of what this cookie was meant to look like before I dug in! I also wanted to taste them, but after two failed attempts at locating any at bakeries in Greater Boston, I decided to just proceed.
According to Saveur, the cookie originated in Denmark and was named for the famed French actress who visited Copenhagen and fell in love with the confection. The decadent treat, a combination of almond meringue cookie layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with a chocolate glaze are now a Christmas favorite in Iceland. Who knew?
The recipe had a few issues that I worked through, including a misprint (it called for 1 3/4 confectioners sugar in the list of ingredients and 2 cups in the instructions), and some awkward wording that signaled someone didn’t reread the recipe before publishing (oops). Nevertheless, I was not intimidated! After all, this was butter-sugar-chocolate and almonds. How could it go that wrong?
First step was to make the cookie base with “blanched” whole almonds which I could not find at the grocery, but were pretty easy to achieve by boiling raw almonds in hot water for a minute and removing the skins…
The almonds are ground in a food processor with confectioners sugar. The mixture is combined with whipped egg whites and piped onto a sheet pan into one inch rounds. I traced one inch circles on my parchment paper and then flipped the paper over to use as my guide. You could definitely make the cookies larger if you wanted to…
The meringues bake for 15 minutes and are light and chewy…
The next step was to make a chocolate buttercream. Egg yolks are whipped until light yellow. Sugar and water are heated to 242 degrees (firm ball) and slowly added to the yolks (if you do not have a candy thermometer, you can cook the mixture just until it becomes a light caramel color and it should work just fine). Softened unsalted butter and cocoa powder are added to the egg-sugar mixture to yield a luscious buttercream. Once the buttercream has firmed up a bit, a heaping tablespoon is spread on the flat side of the cookie and they are placed in the freezer…
Semi-sweet chocolate is melted in a double boiler and allowed to cool slightly. The cookies are removed from the freezer and dipped in the cooled chocolate for its third layer of decadent flavor. The cookies need to set up in the fridge until the chocolate has hardened which does not take long…
Can you stand it? They are so delicious!!!
The picture below shows the cookie’s interior so you can see the layers of flavor. Some of the first ones I made were a little flat, until I got the hang of it. They are almost like little cakes, rather than cookies. Next time I make them, I might add some fleur de sel on top of the glazed chocolate before it sets. I also think finely chopped hazelnuts might be nice too. Or you could mix them into the buttercream. The cookies are definitely time consuming to make, but trust me, you will probably be the only one showing up at your annual cookie swap or holiday celebration with Sarah Bernhardts…
Z&C encouraged us to be clever with our two sentences so this is what I am thinking about offering…
“Sarah Bernhardt, you’re lucky you are so pretty and have good taste because you are one high maintenance cookie! Your combination of almond meringue, chocolate buttercream and glossy glaze deserves an Oscar”.
Ok, now it’s your turn to help me out. Which photo do I send to Zach and Clay TONIGHT???!!!! Either this one…
Or this one?
Or this one?
Please let me know in the comments. I had a great week participating in The Bitten Word’s Cover to Cover Project! Now, I think I will tackle the laundry…
Sarah Bernhardt Cookies
Yield: Approximately 56 one-inch cookies
Recipe adapted slightly from Saveur Magazine
Ingredients
- 8 ounces whole blanched almonds
- 1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 8 egg yolks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened and cut into small cubes
- 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 16 ounces (1 pound) semi-sweet chocolate
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. You can trace one inch circles on the parchment paper as your guide and then flip the paper over so the cookies don't mix with the pencil/pen.
- Make the cookies: Process almonds in bowl of food processor until finely ground, about 1 minute. Add the confectioners sugar and process for 2 minutes. Scrape bottom and insides of bowl to loosen clumped almond mixture, then continue to process until very finely ground, 3 minutes more; set aside.
- Beat egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with a whisk attachment on medium-low speed until frothy, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 2-3 minutes more. Transfer whites to a large bowl. Fold in almond mixture one-third at a time.
- Transfer mixture to a large pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain pastry tip. Pipe 1 inch rounds about 1/2 inch apart onto baking sheets. (If you do not have a pastry bag, you can spoon the mixture instead) Set aside for 10-12 minutes; bake 15 minutes until stiff. Leave to cool.
- Make the Buttercream: Combine 1 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 cups water in a 2 quart saucepan over medium high heat. Heat until a deep-fry thermometer reaches 242 degrees, about 20 minutes. Be careful during the last 10 minutes - watch the mixture closely so it doesn't burn. In the meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl with a hand mixer; slowly add sugar syrup, then butter and cocoa powder until completely combined. Set aside for 30 minutes to firm up.
- Make the glaze: Pour enough water into a 4 quart saucepan that it reaches a depth of 1 inch. Bring to a simmer. Place semi-sweet chocolate in a medium bowl and set over saucepan. Cook, stirring until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Assemble the cookies: Mound 1 Tablespoon of buttercream onto the bottom (flat side) of the cookies. Freeze for 15 minutes. Dip cookies, buttercream side only, in cooled chocolate to fully coat.
- Place meringue-side down on a baking sheet and refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.
- Best eaten directly from the fridge.
Tips from The Kitchen Scout
To blanch raw almonds, place them in a pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water. Place almonds on paper towels and rub gently to begin the process of removing the skins. The skins should remove easily from the flesh at this point. Once the skins are removed, place the blanched almonds on a new paper towel to dry completely before proceeding with the recipe.
To mix things up, you could add finely chopped hazelnuts to the buttercream or some fleur de sel on top of the glaze before it sets.
https://www.thekitchenscout.com/recipes/sarah-bernhardt-cookies/
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