Tag: cookies
The cookie corollary to an “espresso shot” of sesame
Sometimes we work hard to craft a new product so it can make a big impact almost immediately. Other times, we start something for a good reason (like we love it and think it’s terrific) but don’t actually expect it to garner much attention. And then, suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, it turns out to be one of the tastiest things we make!
The latter is the lead-in to these terrifically tasty new Miso Tahini Cookies in the Bakeshop! During the time we’ve been making them, they have probably gotten the least attention of all of the many lovely cookies in our famous Fancy Schmancy class, a class we offer seemingly countless times as we come ever closer to the holidays. While the public at large has pretty much passed these cookies by, Bakehouse co-managing partner Amy Emberling and I are both of the opposite ilk. We love them! They’re delicate, delicious, slightly sweet, just the tiniest bit savory. They’re also very full-flavored, with a lovely, complex flavor and a long, delicate finish. Truth be told, I could eat a lot of them! Man, oh man! So, so good!
The tahini in the cookies comes from the three sisters who started and run Soom Foods in Philadelphia. New York Magazine deemed Soom’s tahini the best of the best back in 2019, and it’s also been praised by the New York Times, Food & Wine, and Bon Appétit. They use only high-quality Humera sesame seeds from Ethiopia. The quality of the tahini, of course, takes the cookies to the next level.
The cookies are crafted by mixing butter, brown sugar, white miso paste, and tahini with eggs, vanilla, and flour. Each cookie is garnished with both black and white sesame seeds. Put these little treats out after dinner, enjoy one with your morning espresso, or have one with a cup of the current Roaster’s Pick from the Coffee Company, the Honduras Pablo Paz. Great, too, with a dab of good jam on top—try ’em with that wonderful Apricot Jam from Olbia I opined about so enthusiastically week before last!
Check out our cookie lineup
Wednesday and Saturdays only, and only at the Bakehouse!
The Big O Oatmeal Raisin Cookies have long been one of my favorite Bakehouse products. We take organic oats, sweeten them with Michigan maple syrup, and stud the cookies with large, juicy Red Flavor raisins. I think the results are remarkably good! Because these cookies have no chocolate, they are akin to what an early-19th-century colonial grandmother might have made for her family in the 1830s, around the time Cornman Farms’ barn and house were being built. I think she would have used oats, wheat, and raisins from Europe, along with native maple syrup to sweeten them.
Come by the Bakehouse to get an especially excellent version of these already amazing cookies. Two small Little O Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, sandwiched around a generous spread of Ermine Frosting. Though little known now, this old-fashioned frosting was once very popular amongst American bakers. Sometimes called “roux frosting” or “boiled milk frosting,” it’s made by whipping together a cooked-flour roux, butter, and sugar. Ermine is less sweet than a typical buttercream and boasts a delightfully silky texture. Best I can tell, the frosting called for on a traditional Red Velvet cake. Closer to whipped cream than would be typical for most frostings, it’s creamy, tender, and terrific.
Here it makes for a really marvelous, frosting-filled sandwich cookie, one that will thrill anyone who has a love for that kind of thing.
And remember, Wednesday and Saturday only, and only at the Bakehouse on Plaza Drive.
This year, Erev Purim began on the evening of Thursday, March 13 and continued on through Friday the 14th. The Bakehouse had a head start on hamantaschen season, though; we make them all month long because the truth is that hamantaschen taste great at any time! They’ve certainly been hugely popular so far this month! They also happen to have been my business partner Paul Saginaw’s favorite pastry for as long as I can remember!
If you don’t know it, Purim is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the occasion of the Persian Jews outwitting the wicked minister Haman, who was out to annihilate them. (Parallels, I see now, with Putin and Ukraine and maybe more …) Haman was determined to have all the Jews of Persia put to death, but the queen’s uncle (Mordechai) found out about Haman’s evil intentions and passed word to his niece (Queen Esther), who in turn told the King, who then put Haman to death instead of the Jews. The triangular shape of modern-day hamantaschen was said, in some stories, to be derived from the three-cornered hat that Haman wore.
The beautiful little triangularly shaped, all-butter cookie dough crust pockets are stuffed with an array of fillings: cream cheese (from the Creamery) and vanilla bean, apricot, Hungarian prune preserves, and, Paul’s favorite, Dutch poppy seed. All are excellent. The two newest flavors—both introduced last year—are winning raves: Apple Pie and, yes, you read it right, Chocolate Birthday Cake. Stop by the Bakehouse before the end of the monthWe happily ship hamantaschen all over the country, so log on and place your holiday orders soon to get them there before Purim!