I'd like to share my favorite sandwich cookie memory with you. It is of my mom and I sitting at the oak table in our kitchen eating Oreos and drinking milk. I was less than 12½ years old, and it was back when my parents used pastel-colored cloth placemats because the kitchen table was still new, and we lived in a town that had a dairy where you could buy milk in glass bottles. My mom didn't like the Oreo crème filling, and I did, so she used a butter knife to gently remove the filling in one piece from her cookies and helped me transfer it to my cookies so all of mine were Double Stuf. That put my mom at the top of my list of people to eat Oreos with; she still tops that list.
This recipe isn't for Oreo cookies, but it is for sandwich cookies, and when I make them, I think of them as a grownup version of Oreos. I made these for the first time just over a year ago when Scott needed cookies for work, and I wanted to make him something that looked fancy. These are not the kind of cookies that you can eat endlessly in one sitting; they are rich and satiating. I never make them for just Scott and me; it would be impossible to eat them all, and they're cookies that beg to be shared.
Notes:
Don’t be afraid of the extensively detailed instructions for these cookies. They require some time because there are a few steps, but they are delicious and well worth the effort. I spread the creation process for these cookies out over two days to make it more manageable. The first day, I make the pistachio wafers, and the second day, I make the ganache and dip the cookies. I use dark chocolate for both the ganache and the dipping, but milk chocolate would probably work as well. Just be sure to use chocolate that melts and that you wouldn’t mind eating on its own. When you make the pistachio paste, you will know when it is ready because the paste will begin to clump in a large mass around the blade in the way that pie dough clumps in the food processor when the liquid is added. While working with the completed dough, wetting your fingertips with water will help to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. When putting the ganache in a large Ziplock or piping bag, place one of the bottom corners of the bag inside a large drinking glass and stretch the opening of the bag over the lip of the glass (in the same way that you put a bag inside a trashcan) so that the bag is supported as you fill it. This recipe doubles well.
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake
Pistachio Wafer Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup salted shelled pistachios
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg white
⅛ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling:
½ cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch salt
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Coating and Garnish:
6-8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
whole unsalted shelled pistachios (optional)
Yields 15-20 sandwich cookies, depending on the size of the pistachio wafers
Make and Bake the Pistachio Wafers:
Place the cup of pistachios in a food processor with a metal blade, and grind them until they form a paste. Transfer the pistachio paste to a mixer bowl, add the sugar, and blend for a minute or two on medium speed until smooth. Add the egg white and vanilla, and blend until combined. The dough will be very thick and sticky. Using a small spoon or a cookie scoop, portion out the dough into 1- to 1.5-teaspoon sized mounds, and place them on a large plate. You may need to wet the spoon or scoop to ensure easy release of the dough.
Line 2 cookie sheets with a silpat mat or parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Put some water in a small bowl. Dip your fingers in the water (the water will keep the dough from sticking to your fingers) and pick up a dough mound, roll it into a ball, and place the dough ball on one of the lined cookie sheets. Repeat with the remaining balls, wetting your fingers as needed and placing the balls 2-inches apart on the cookie sheet.
Once all of the balls are rolled and placed on the prepared cookie sheets, wet the tip of your finger with water. Start at the center of the dough ball, and pressing gently, rub your finger in a circular motion on the dough ball to press it out into a disc that is 1 to 1.5 inches wide and ⅛ inch thick (or so). Keeping your finger wet will help to make the process easier. Don’t worry if the cookie looks a little bit wet from the water; the water will evaporate during baking without any negative effects. Also, don’t stress if all of the wafers don’t look the same. Since these cookies will be dipped, it won’t be as obvious that they are not perfectly shaped. You’re just looking for them to be generally the same size.
Bake the wafers at 350ºF for 5-8 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Remove the cookies from the oven. Being careful not to burn your fingers, lift the silpat or parchment paper from the cookie sheet with the baked cookies still on it, and place the entire mat or paper on a rack, and allow the cookies to cool completely. If you not filling them right away, remove them from the silpat or parchment paper once they are cool, and place them in an airtight container.
Make the Ganache:
Chop the chocolate into pea-sized pieces. In a medium-sized pan over low- to medium-heat, combine the heavy whipping cream, butter, sugar, and salt, and bring to a simmer, stirring regularly. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, use a whisk to fully incorporated it, and then stir in the vanilla. The ganache will be too runny for use at this point. Scrape the ganache into a freezer-safe bowl, and place it in the freezer, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until it is the consistency of thick frosting. If you forget about it and it becomes solid, break it into several pieces and place a few of them in a pan, heat them until they are liquid again, pour it over the remaining solid ganache pieces, and stir to bring all of it to a frosting consistency.
Sandwich the Cookies:
Take the pistachio wafers, and make pairs of the wafers that look alike (i.e., match the size and shape of the wafers). Place the pairs side by side on a cookie sheet with the bottoms facing up. Fill a large Ziplock or piping bag with the ganache. Try your best to place the frosting towards one of the bottom corners of the bag, as opposed to just filling the entire bag. Secure the top of the bag with a twist tie just above where the frosting ends, and snip off the bottom corner of the bag that you placed the frosting in. Pipe a mound of ganache on the bottom of one of the cookies for each pair. Don’t put the ganache all the way to the edge of the cookie, because when you sandwich the cookies, it may ooze out. After one cookie from each pair has ganache on it, place the second cookie on top of the ganache to form a sandwich, and gently push down so it is securely attached. If one of the wafers cracks, don’t fret, because it won’t be noticeable once the sandwich is dipped. Place all of the sandwiches in the freezer for 30 minutes or until the ganache is set. If you don't have time to dip them right away, once the sandwiches are frozen, put them in an airtight container, and leave in the freezer until you are able to dip them.
Dip and Decorate:
Fully melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a small pan over low heat. Place a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet, and remove 3 to 5 sandwiches from the freezer (you want them to still be frozen when you dip them so that the ganache doesn’t run out.) Place one of the frozen sandwiches in the melted chocolate, and flip it over, making sure that it is fully covered. Lift the sandwich cookie out of the chocolate with a fork, and tap the fork on the edge of the pan several times, allowing the excess chocolate to drip back into the pan. Place the chocolate-covered sandwich cookie on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet, and top it with an unsalted shelled pistachio. Repeat until all of the cookies are dipped. Place the cookie sheet with all of the dipped cookies in the freezer to set the chocolate. Once the chocolate is set, store the cookies between layers of wax paper in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer. Set the cookies out a few minutes before serving to allow the ganache to soften. Pin It
No comments:
Post a Comment