Grown up Sandwich Cookies in Salt Lake Tribune

Those of you that follow this site probably remember the recipe in the video below from August of this year. I'm happy to report that the Salt Lake Tribune will be doing a cookie feature on December 6th that will include this recipe. I'm going to a photo shoot tonight, and was instructed to bring along a batch of these cookies, as well as the Orange Meringues. They'll be taking pictures of both me and the cookies. Who knows if they'll use the pictures they take or not but hey, there will be at least one food writer there, and it never hurts to spend some time with a food writer.

I made a few edits to the recipe to make it a little easier, as well as improve the overall results based on differences by brand in dutch cocoa powder and white chocolate chips.

To quote Navin R. Johnson, "Things are going to start happening to me now."

Part 1



Part 2


Cookie Dough:

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 cup unsweetened Dutch Cocoa Powder - you can always use a "dark cocoa" blend if pure dutch is unavailable.
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and cream together until light and fluffy, and the egg and mix until it is incorporated. Add the cocoa and mix until consistent.

Add the flour and mix in by hand. You want to mix the minimum amount and still get the flour incorporated.

Turn the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly and place in the fridge for two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

After removing the plastic wrap, sprinkle confectioners sugar on rolling surface. Turn the dough onto the sugar and then roll the dough into a consistent 1/4 thickness. Using a 2-3 inch wide circular cookie cutter, cut as many circles as possible. Place the circles on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Take the unused dough, and reroll it to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut more circles, each time putting them on the parchment covered cookie sheet. Continue the process until all dough is used.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 11-12 minutes. Transfer parchment paper to a wire cooling rack.

Let cool completely before filling.

The Filling:

1/4 cup plus 1 TBS heavy cream
1/4 stick butter (2 Tbs)
1 1/2 cups White Chocolate chips (try to get ones with at least some cocoa butter)

Place the chocolate chips in a stainless steel mixing bowl.

Combine the cream and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure the butter is completely melted.

Pour the cream/butter mixture over the white chocolate chips and let sit for 2 minutes.

Mix until all the white chocolate chips have completely melted, and then let it rest until room temperature.

Using a whipping attachment on your mixer, whip until medium peaks form.

Place a reasonable amount of filling between two cookies and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes to give the white chocolate a chance to set.

So decadent it should be illegal chocolate chantilly pie

We'll be breaking all the rules today.

If you've ever worked with chocolate, the two rules most commonly mentioned are don't EVER add even the tiniest droplet of water, and NEVER heat it directly over the stove. Chocolatiers take great pains to create barriers between their double boilers and chocolate to prevent even the smallest drop of water from entering their melted chocolate.

However, I've been doing a lot of study on molecular gastronomy lately and came across a chemical formula for making an egg less chocolate mousse, called a "Chocolate Chantilly" by the book author. His philosophy was that the rules we know about chocolate can be broken, if done with proper care. The trick, Mr. Herve This claims, is to use the three fatty acids in chocolate to your advantage. -use them to create an emulsion of fat molecules trapped between water molecules.

Mr This (pronounced Thees) gives a basic ratio of 3 to 4 by weight, and mentions in passing that gelatin may help thicken the mixture. This ratio, combined with strong agitation creates "tensoactive molecules" within the chocolate that hold the water in suspension. Instead of harming the chocolate, the water based flavoring enhances it.

So, armed with 5 lbs of chocolate, a massive box of gelatin and various water based flavorings (various fruit juices, espresso, and chipotle puree) I spent time playing Mr Science.

I found that no gelatin is great for a standard parfait type dessert, but doesn't set up well in a pie.

However, 2 Tsp of gelatin for every 16 oz of chocolate did the trick to create a light and airy, yet easily slice-able pie. I also added a little corn starch and sugar to improve the overall mouth feel -it enhances silkiness of the pie.

This pie is R-I-C-H. During taste testing with my guinea pigs, I observed that the significant amount of chocolate (2 oz) in each piece created a much stronger chocolate flavor than most of my tasters were used to eating. There is more chocolate in a single slice of this dessert than is commonly found in an entire chocolate cream pie. If Hershey's Dark is too bitter for you, this recipe may not fit your pallette. If, however, a Scharffen Berger Nibby Bar is your idea of a great treat, you'll love this.

I should mention that this pie is best if kept refrigerated until immediately before serving.

The Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of your favorite liquid (I like using fruit juice concentrates such as orange or cranberry but other liquids such as berry or chipotle puree makes a great,and interesting, pie!)
2 Tsp Gelatin
2 Tsp Corn Starch
1/4 cup sugar
16 oz semi sweet chocolate that is at least 33% cocoa butter by weight, cut into small pieces.* I used "Baker's Chocolate" brand, because of the cost vs quantity.
1 graham cracker pie crust

Dissolve the gelatin and corn starch in your liquid, whisk well and then let it sit for 1-2 minutes.

Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, making sure that all corn starch and gelatin is completely cooked (the mixture will turn from opaque to clear).

Add sugar to the liquid and dissolve.

Add chocolate pieces directly to the liquid, reduce heat to medium and stir until all chocolate is melted.

Take one large bowl and fill it halfway full with ice, add water to fill in all the voids, but not so much that you raise the level of the ice.

Pour your chocolate/liquid mixture into a metal bowl smaller than the bowl that you filled with ice/water.

Place the metal bowl into the ice/water mixture.

Using electric beaters, whip the chocolate taking care to make sure that no chocolate sits on the sides of the bowl. If chocolate starts to build up on the side of the bowl, stop mixing and scrape the sides of the metal bowl.

Continue to whip the chocolate until it increases in volume, and changes color from dark to a blond chestnut. -The color change will seem to happen almost all at once as the cocoa butter turns from a liquid to a solid. The change in color is a result of tiny air bubbles being trapped in the mixture.

Pour into your graham cracker crust and refrigerate for at least two hours to set.


*The way to tell the amount of cocoa butter in the chocolate is by looking at the nutritional information on the back of the packaging. If the serving size is 15 grams, the total fat should be at least 5 grams.

Delicious Short Ribs

This is a similar recipe to the "Pot Roast Nicoise" but includes a few tweaks to better take advantage of the flavors of the short rib.

4 lb rack of short ribs, cut into 3" widths by your butcher (roughly 4 - 1 lb racks)
2 Tbs cooking oil
1 lb pearl onions
1 lbs peeled carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp Sea Salt
1/3 cup all purpose flour
8 baby bella mushrooms cut into 1/4ths
3 cups low sodium beef stock
1 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 cup water
Zest from 1/3 of an orange
1 Tbs anchovy paste
5 sprigs thyme
4 bay leaves
1/4 cup nicoise olives (pitted is preferred but not necessary)

Preheat oven to 325. Carefully remove the fat side off of the short rib, being careful to leave enough connective tissue around the bone. Add cooking oil to an enamel coated dutch oven and warm over medium high heat. Once the oil starts to shimmer (but before it starts to smoke) add each rack of short ribs individually and brown just the meat side. Add the onions and carrots to the pot and cook until onions turn transluscent.

Arrange the short ribs back in the pan, with the bone pointing towards the sky. Add the 1/3 cup flour to the chicken stock and mix well. Add the mushrooms, beef and floured chicken stock. Bring to a strong simmer. Add orange zest, anchovy paste, olives, thyme, bay leaves and olives. Add additional water, if necessary, to bring the liquid level even with the top of your short ribs.

Cover the dutch oven with a sheet of aluminum foil, and then place lid on dutch oven. Place in oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until meat is fork tender.

Remove the dutch oven from the oven, and remove the short ribs, wrap loosely in foil and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Remove as much rendered fat as possible off the top of the remaining liquid. Place the meatless dutch oven over high heat and reduce remaining liquid by 1/2. Plate by making a bed of carrots, mushrooms and onions, and carefully place the short rib, meat side up on top of the vegetable bed. Place a thyme sprig and bay leaf on top of the short rib, and then ladle some of the reduced pan gravy over the top of the meat. Top with a few olives.