In her newest book, Dorie’s Cookies, Dorie Greenspan gives us 300 incredible recipes that will have you baking for months. I share something with Dorie: an obsession for cookies, especially old classics. In this case, Dorie remembers a Nabisco cookie that disappeared from the store shelves 40 years ago. But, would Dorie let that stop her. No.
These are refrigerator cookies where you have to roll the dough, chill it, and then cut it out. It demands something called patience. I have to admit, I ate a quarter of the dough but the dough that made it all the way through the oven produced beautiful and sumptuous cookies.
Sometimes a “simple” cookie can bring such satisfaction, that, well, you mind spend 40 years resurrecting them. This is the first cookie I made from Dorie’s Cookies. It’s so good I wanted to just make more, but I have dabbled with other recipes. And soon you’ll see those too!
For my review of Dorie’s Cookies, just look here.
Melody Cookies
Yield: about 55 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (306 grams) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (28 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 sticks (8 ounces; 226 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
- ¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg white
- Sanding or granulated sugar, for sprinkling
Preparation:
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and salt together on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes; scrape down the bowl as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low and blend in the vanilla, followed egg white, and beat for 1 to 2 minutes. The white might curdle the dough and make it slippery — keep going; it will smooth out when the flour goes in.
Turn the mixer off, add half the flour-cocoa mixture and pulse the machine to get the blending going, then mix on low only until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and repeat with the remaining flour-cocoa mixture, this time beating just until the dry ingredients disappear and comes together.
Scrape the dough onto a work surface, divide it in half and shape each into a disk. Working with one piece of dough at a time, sandwich the dough between pieces of parchment paper and roll out to a thickness of ⅛ inch. Slide the dough onto a baking sheet — you can stack the slabs — and freeze for least 1 hour, or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats. I use a 2-inch-diameter scalloped cookie cutter, but you can make the cookies smaller or larger if you’d like; the baking times will be almost the same, though the yield, of course, will change.
Working with one piece of dough at a time, peel away both pieces and return the dough to one piece of paper. Cut out as many cookies as you can. Place them on the lined baking sheets, leaving a generous inch between rounds; reserve the scraps. Sprinkle the cookies with sanding or granulated sugar.
Gather together the scraps from both pieces of dough, re-roll between paper until ⅛ inch thick and chill thoroughly.
Bake the cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom at the midway mark. The cookies are done when they feel firm to the touch around the edges and only the least bit when poked in the center. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 2 minutes before transferring them to cooling rack using a wide spatula. Let cool completely.
Cut out and bake the remaining dough, always using cool sheets.
Source: Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan [HMH, 2016]
Photo Information: Canon T2i, EFS 60mm Macro Lens, F/4.5 for 1/20th second at ISO‑3200