Great Modifications: Scrumptious Sandwiches

Some days, you just gotta bake cookies. Your sister leaves you for exotic climes, your friends are flakes, your sweet tooth is achin' and you need to do something with your hands or you'll go crazy. You call up your good pal Maida Heatter and she suggests that you try some fancy little cookies called "Les Petites." "But Maida," you protest, "I wanted to make these for Shabbos, and they have dairy in them!" And then a brainwave hits you! You will MODIFY the cookies so that they are parve!

These cookies were way fun to bake, even if they were time-consuming. They also look very nice and taste very good. I changed the assembly a little because I didn't have a small enough cookie cutter to create a hole within the top cookie, and my recipe reflects that, but if you have such a thing then by all means go with it. These are good cookies to serve on special occasions, and since the holy Sabbath is always a special occasion, they were perfect! I will definitely make these again. Of course, they are probably even better not parve; simply substitute butter for margarine and you are set!

3/4 blanched hazelnuts or almonds, finely ground in a food processor
1.5 sticks unsalted margarine
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1.5 cups sifted flour
5 ounces parve semisweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the margarine in the mixer, then add the vanilla, sugar and salt, then the flour, then finally the nuts. Beat well until mixed.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface so that it is between 1/3 and 1/4 inch thick. Using a round (preferably scalloped) 1.25 inch cookie cutter, place the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes or longer, until the cookies are sandy-colored but not too soft- do not underbake.

While the cookies are still on the sheet, use a fork to poke holes in half of the cookies. Be careful with this step, since the cookies will still be warm and a little fragile. Once you are done, put all the cookies on a rack to cool.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or a microwave-proof bowl. When it is melted, find a cookie without holes in it. Place a dollop of chocolate on the cookie- don't spread it- and then sandwich it lightly with one of the holey cookies. Repeat. Refrigerate the cookies so the chocolate can set, then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar through a sieve.


P.S. Here are the answers to the Tony Cupcakes quiz from last time.
1-4 2-a 3-g 4-e 5-h 6-c 7-f 8-b

Great Modifications: The Chocolate Chip-Peanut Butter Cup Cookie

Let us now sing praises of the chocolate chip cookie. It is so simple, yet so rich in taste and memory. It comes in a million different recipes, each unique, yet each producing a fairly similar result. But what if you, like the Baking Sisters, were looking for something a little different, a little more exciting....

We came across a container of tiny milk chocolate peanut butter cups while on a trip to Trader Joe's of New Jersey and we couldn't resist. Behold, the delicious love child of chocolate chip cookies and peanut buttery goodness:



Of course, the great thing about chocolate chip cookies is that you can really put anything in them: peanut butter cups, white chocolate chunks, M and Ms, or, if you're really nuts, nuts. (This is not just cutesy wordplay — we never put nuts in our cookies or brownies, and we believe you'd have to be nuts to do so.)

Our recipe was adapted from the great Dorie Greenspan, and the cookies were delectable (although just eating the dough might have been even better). However, we are having a lot of trouble with our mixer; after an heroic effort, we eventually got Rebecca's husband to unstick the bowl (yay feminism!) but soon he will be gone and Sarah will have to struggle on her own. If any of you bakers out there have ever had to unstick a KitchenAid stand mixer bowl and have suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. And now, le recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini-milk chocolate peanut cups or regular-sized peanut butter cups, chopped into small pieces (You may want to refrigerate them before using so that they don't melt and stick together)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients. (You can add them in portions, because otherwise your flour might spray everywhere.) Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate and peanut butter cups — be careful, since the peanut butter cups are fragile.


Because of the peanut butter cups, these cookies spread a lot more than normal chocolate chip cookies, so you might want to chill the dough before baking. Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls. Bake the cookies- one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point- for 10-12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature. Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.