This was an eventful week. Hari's 24th birthday was Tuesday, May 4th. I made 10th Avenue Brownies for his "birthday cake". This brownie recipe is the last brownie recipe in Cookies Unlimited. Onto other categories such as fried cookies, oh my.

Hari is a great guy and I wish him all of the best in life. And the brownies were nice and dense, chocolaty, great for a celebration.

Pastry Bag & Cookie Press

There are 23 recipes in the Piped Cookies chapter. This week I made a 4th and 5th batch of these. As I recall, my first try was the Langues de chat (Cat's tongues). These were thin cookies that spread while cooking and resulted in a thin crispy cookie. My second recipe was a meringue, Walnut Boulders. These were easy because I have made meringues before and so knew what to expect vis a vie consistency, texture, baking times, conditions.
So now we get to the 2 I made this week. One is called W's and the other, Paste di Meliga or Italian Cornmeal Butter Cookies from Piemonte. Both of these cookies called for a pastry bag to be filled and the cookies to be formed by piping shapes through a tip. Right. Both doughs were so dense that it took all of my strength just to get a bit out of the pastry bag. I fought with the bag and surmised that this is how male chefs keep fit. My upper body strength is no match for these cookies.
Anyway I slogged through with the Italian Cornmeal Butter cookies but gave up and used a cookie press on the W's - which became wreath like looking. They both taste alright, but what a pain.
The third offering this week is the Honey Pecan Squares which has a buttery crust topped with a honey, pecan, butter, sugar (what's not to love) topping. The whole thing is baked and then cooled.
I'm off to Pittsburgh to pick up my son, Anil and then we are off to Washington, DC where he will be interning in a medical robotics lab all summer.

Einstein on a Train (nothing to do with cookies)

Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it.
Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn't find it..

The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are.  We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. 
Don't worry about it.'

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry, I know who you are No problem.
You don't need a ticket.  I'm sure you bought one.'

Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too, know who I am. 
What I don't know is where I'm going.'' 

More Mandelbrot and Brownies plus ANZAC Biscuits

The other mandelbrot in the book is Carole Walter's Ethereal Mandelbrot. It is a more crumbly biscotti probably because butter is involved. Also this recipe includes pecans. I must admit that pecans have never really been a favorite of mine, but in this recipe the nut gives the mandelbrot a great taste. The dough for this is so sticky I just plopped it on the cookie sheet in two rows and it spread as it baked resulting in a very wide log. 

The brownie is White Chocolate Chunk made with cocoa powder and white chocolate chunks. I may have mentioned this before, but did you know that all chocolate recipes contain vanilla? 

The drop cookie for the week is called ANZAC Biscuit. ANZAC is an acronym for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and biscuit is the British word for cookie (like crisps = potato chips). They were made during WWII and sent to the "boys" at the front. Interesting cooking technique, you cook the butter, sugar and honey together and add it to the oatmeal, coconut, and flour. Great crispy cookie. I must confess that I didn't share many of these.

Study Brownies

Next week is exam week at my son Anil's school. So in my "good mother" attempt, I made him Pecan Brownies. Wow, what a recipe, loaded with chocolate, eggs, and sugar. What's not to like. I baked them and sent them off. I hope the exams go well.

Did you know that Mandelbrot is Biscotti?

I grew up in the New York metropolitan area and so grew to understand that Mandelbrot was a Jewish concoction. Cookies Unlimited has two versions; this one is the Traditional Jewish Mandelbrot. In this version there are almonds and before the second baking (or toasting) the slices are rolled in cinnamon sugar. I believe that traditionally mandelbrot was given to babies when they were teething. 

Tuiles as in roof tiles

In Cookies Unlimited, part of the drop cookie chapter is an entire section entitled, Tuiles. I had never heard of this type of cookie before and as I read the instructions and warnings in the Tuiles section (there are no less than 5 warnings), I got apprehensive. Luckily I had my friend, Ellen, staying with us overnight and she said that she'd help. Nick Malgieri explains that tuile is the French word for the curved roof tiles common in the Riviera (and other Southern climes). The cookies are thin, wafer cookies that are curved. The way this is accomplished is very simple. When the cookies come out of the oven you take them off of the cookie sheet and put them on a curved surface, like a rolling pin, to cool et voila, curved cookies.
I could have done a better job with these. They were a bit chewy when they should have been extremely crisp. Since there are more recipes in the section, I will do better next time.