I made that!

First, let me apologize for my absence. December was rough. Fun, but rough. But January is here and I am finally back in the kitchen.

Now, to business.

When I was itty bitty and carried a lunchbox to school, my mom used to pack it full of yumminess. Well, at the time I thought it was yummy. Though I remember being jealous of my friend Leia’s lunch, because she always had more homemade-type things. Years later she told me she was always jealous of my lunch because I had Little Debbie snacks. Today we both win! I’ve been wanting to recreate these cookies for years, but have been lacking what I thought was a great oatmeal cookie recipe. I wanted a thin cookie, one that was chewy enough to hold a soft fluffy filling. After some tweaking, I feel confident in saying that I’ve got it. In this batch I chopped up dates into my dough, but next time I’m thinking currants, because those dates are just too sweet for me!

I scooped the dough into little balls.

And smashed them down with the back of a wet spoon (wet is important if you don’t want them to stick). This might seem like a meaningless step, but it makes the cookies spread nice and thin.

While they were baking, I got to work on the filling. I first tried making a simple vanilla fluff, much like the original. My friend Olaiya happened to swing by at the exact moment I finished and confirmed for me that to make these little guys palatable to adults, I needed some acid. So I decided to go with a lemony filling, to balance out the sweetness of the cookie. I ground lemon zest and half of a vanilla bean into sugar in the food processor until it was nice and crumbly.

I mixed the lemon sugar with egg whites and heated the whole thing up before whipping it into a swiss meringue. Into the meringue I folded in some lemon juice. And then I hid it until the cookies were all ready for sandwiching, because nobody needs a giant batch of fluff within reach.

Once my cookies were cooled, I started stacking. It took me a few hours before I was ready to munch on them, because all the snacking during the testing phase kind of blew me out. When it was time though, oh boy was I happy. Little Debbie, you have been one-upped.

OATMEAL COOKIE RECIPE:

8 oz butter, RT

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, RT

1 egg white, RT

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup AP flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 cups oats

6 oz chopped dates

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

– Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the chopped dates and rub to break up clumps. Add the oats. Set aside.

– Cream butter for 1 minute.

– Add the sugars and cream for 3 minutes.

– Add the egg and vanilla and cream for 2 minutes.

– Add the dry ingredients.

– Scoop onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Press flat with a wet spoon.

– Bake for 11 minutes.

LEMON FLUFF RECIPE:

6 oz egg whites

12 oz sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 tsp lemon juice

– Combine sugar and lemon zest in food processor. Process for 1 minute.

– Combine with egg whites in a kitchen aid bowl. Whisk well.

– Heat over a water bath, whisking constantly until the egg whites reach 160 degrees.

– Remove from water bath and whip for several minutes, until cool and fluffy.

– Whisk in lemon juice.

Ummm… I know what you’re thinking. “Brandi: It’s November, Thanksgiving time. For crying out loud, it’s SNOWING in Seattle today, and you’re talking about figs.” It’s true, I’m terribly not of the season today. But you see, these figs — albeit from California — they were THERE. Left over from a fantastic dessert we were running at Delancey a few weeks ago, they were all lonely in the fridge, obviously uncomfortable sitting next to the pears and Meyer lemons, knowing their time was over. So I took them home to show them some respect. And by respect I mean I made fig newtons.

Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I went bonkers for fig newtons as a kid. The Nabisco kind were regular visitors in my lunch box and I was loyal to the fig flavor, even though I didn’t know what a fig was. As my palette grew up, the fig newtons were left behind. I tried them again a few years ago and had one of those “Have these gotten worse, or am I a complete food snob now” moments. I figured their time was finished and moved on. Until this summer when Pastry Studio (my pastry blog hero) wrote about them on her blog. I bookmarked it for a later date and promptly forgot. Until those lonely little figs called out to me.

First I made a food processor dough with some whole wheat flour in the mix, as well as some milk.

I let the dough chill while I got to work chopping up those figs.

I cooked the figs into a jam flavored with vanilla bean, honey and lemon.

Then several days later I finally got back around to assembling the little guys. I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle and smeared on some of the jam.

I folded in the edges to enclose the jam.

And sliced it into little newtons.

I baked them with a little sugar on top until they were nice and golden.

And then I stacked them up and took pretty pictures with Molly’s camera (thanks Molly!), because I accidentally left mine in San Francisco. Her lens is much better than mine and I now have camera envy. But back to the fig newtons. Oh. My. They were perfect. And that dough! Pastry studio, you just rocked my dough world.

FIG NEWTONS RECIPE, inspired by Pastry Studio:

Yield: 24 cookies

Dough:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup AP flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 TBSP brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

6oz cold butter

1/4 cup whole milk

Filling:

1 lb 2 oz figs

3 TBSP water

1/4 cup honey

3 TBSP sugar

1/4 vanilla bean

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

– Place the flours, sugars and salt in a food processor and process to combine. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse the mixture until the butter is in very small pieces. Add the milk and pulse until the mixture begins to look more like dough and less like sand.

– Shape the dough into a rectangle and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least an hour.

– Slice open the vanilla bean and rub the seeds into the sugar. Cut the stems off the figs and chop into small chunks. Place them in a saucepan with the water, honey, vanilla sugar, vanilla bean pod, salt and lemon zest. Cook on medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer. Lower the heat and cook the fruit slowly and gently for about 15-20 minutes or until the fruit is jammy, stirring every few minutes and adding a bit more water if necessary to prevent scorching. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Remove the vanilla bean pods and use an immersion blender to pulse a few times to smooth out large pieces of fig. Store in the refrigerator until completely chilled.

– When everything is chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured board. Slice lengthwise into 3 strips. Rewrap 2 of the strips and place back in the fridge. Dust the top of the dough lightly with flour and roll out to a rectangle measuring 12” x 4”. Work quickly, running an offset spatula under the dough to make sure it isn’t sticking to the board and dusting lightly with flour whenever necessary. When you have the finished rectangle, place the dough onto a parchment lined baking tray in the fridge. Repeat with the other 2 pieces of dough. Chill the rolled dough in the fridge for another 10 minutes.

– Remove one rectangle from the fridge and lay back on the floured board. Spread some of the fig jam lengthwise along the center of the dough. Gently lift the dough sides over the fruit. Cinch the edges together to completely seal the jam. Use your hands to press down slightly on the dough to smooth out the jam within. It’s ok if some oozes out the ends. Cut into slices and place on a parchment lines sheet pan. Chill in the fridge while you repeat with the other 2 strips of dough. Once finished, chill for another 30 minutes.

– Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the bars with sugar and bake for about 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake until nicely browned, about 20 more minutes.

– Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Give me a recipe that starts with cooking oats in butter and vanilla bean and you’ve stolen my heart. Throw in some peanut butter and you’ve convinced me to make cookies, something I rarely feel inclined to do.

It had been a while since I made a Nancy Silverton recipe, and now I feel the need to pull all her books off of my shelves and hit the kitchen with a vengeance. Seriously, she might be my pastry hero. Top 5 at LEAST. This cookie recipe came from her Sandwich book, a book I might never have paid attention to had it not been for her take on Nutter Butters.

As mentioned above, I started by toasting oats with butter and a vanilla bean.

I mixed those into a pretty straight-forward peanut butter cookie dough.

I rolled and stamped out little discs that I popped into the fridge to chill before baking.

While those were baking I made the filling, a salty, buttery, peanut fluff.

And then it was the best assembly line one can imagine. The funny thing is, these cookies actually get BETTER as they age. The first night I had them after a Monday night family dinner, with some ice cream. They seemed rich and intense, almost to the point of turning me off. I couldn’t eat a whole one and considered sending them away with my friends just to get them out of my house. The next day though, either I was hungrier or they mellowed out because I devoured one in 15 seconds flat. And they were so much more tender. So from now on, I’m making these little ones the day before I actually need them. And I’ll definitely keep them oreo sized next time.

NUTTER BUTTER COOKIES RECIPE (by Nancy Silverton)

Yield: 36 cookies

Cookies:

12oz unsalted butter, cool

1 vanilla bean

2 cups quick cooking rolled oats

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup chunky peanut butter, I prefer JIF

2 ¼ cups AP flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

– In a medium sized skillet, melt 4oz of butter over medium heat. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Toss the seeds and the pod into the butter along with the oats. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly, until the oats are lightly toasted and golden brown. Transfer the oat mixture to a bowl, discarding the vanilla bean pod, and chill in the fridge.

– Place the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

– In a stand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for a minute with the paddle attachment. Slowly pour in the sugars and continue creaming until the mixture is light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the peanut butter and mix just until combined. Lower the speed and add the chilled oats, mixing until just combined.Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a ball.

– Roll the dough into 2″ balls, or use a scooper to scoop out individual portions and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Slightly flatten each cookie and use a knife to score each cookie with criss-cross patterns. Chill the dough for about 15 minutes.

– Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. They should be lightly browned. Cool completely.

Filling:

3oz butter, cool

1½ tsp salt

6 TBSP powdered sugar

1 cup + 2 TBSP natural chunky peanut butter

– In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and salt on medium speed for about a minute, until the butter is softened.

– Add the sugar and peanut butter and mix another minute to combine.

– Assemble and Enjoy!