Fueling a Cookie Habit by Mail

 

The past few months have turned me into more of a cookie monster* than usual. There’s a bit too much uncertainty about the coming few months, and cookies have become a coping mechanism (I’m smart enough at this point to keep ice cream out of the apartment). Just so you don’t get the wrong impression about my choice of coping mechanisms, my other one is the gym. Sweaty spin or relaxing yoga classes, both of course increasing my appetite and leading to the consumption of more cookies…

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that I had finally purchased cookies form Dorie Greenspan’s new cookie shop Beurre & Sel in New York City. I was done looking at everyone elses’ pictures of these cookies and ready to try them myself.

I tried three kinds: plain and simple sables, fruity and streuseled jammers, and bite size sesame sea salt. These are solidly good cookies. The sables are buttery sweet with a crunch of coarse sugar and a texture that is tender but doesn’t disintegrate on contact. The sesame sea salt from the cocktail collection are delicately salty with a hint of savory that makes it perfectly acceptable to serve these with wine and cheese as suggested in lieu of boring old crackers. The jammers are a tender sable base with an even more tender streusel topping and the barest hint of a warm spice I couldn’t place (cardamom?). My one complaint is that with only a scant half teaspoon of jam I was a bit disappointed; longing for that chewy, fruity jamminess suggested by their name but lacking in their execution.

Truthfully, though perhaps a bit more jam is in order, I think my expectations were at fault. It didn’t take more than a bite or two to decide that a key flavor was missing. I wanted peanut butter; a PB&J sandwich in cookie form.  Thankfully, this recipe is no secret; and I started experimenting with the version I found here, substituting 1/2 cup flour with peanut flour in the dough and 1 Tbsp of butter with peanut butter in the streusel.

Ta-da! PB&J cookies.

These are no longer the delicate, subtle jammers that came in the tubes. These pack more flavor and a bit more heft; they are saltier and richer. The peanut flour adds a savory quality that demands extra jam for balancing sweetness (I would actually try increasing the sugar next time). The truth? Now that I have my PB&J cookies; I think I prefer the delicate, restrained cookies from Dorie…

With some extra time and effort, I could get this cookie where I want it; sweeter and more delicate. Maybe I’ll come back to them in a couple months or a couple years. For now I’ll leave the recipe testing to the pros and try taking Cookie Monster’s updated opinion of cookie consumption more seriously.

….or not.

*C is and always will be for Cookie; not for carrot, not for celery, not for cauliflower. If you’re not convinced, just ask yourself which song sounds immediately familiar: “C is for Cookie” or “A Cookie is a Sometimes Food”?

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