Hot damn these cookies are good. I used to have an uncontrollable habit of marching into Momofuku Milk Bar anytime I was within a 10-block radius and picking up some of my favorite things there: a slice of chocolate chip cake (back when they used to sell cake slices), a volcano, a blueberry cookie, and/or a compost cookie. I found the recipe for that last item online and figured it would be a good contribution to an event that is (for me, anyway) all about over-consuming fatty, salty, crunchy, and sugary things to wash down lots of beer in front of a televised sports event featuring expensive commercials.
The recipe calls for rolled oats, graham cracker crumbles, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coffee grounds, potato chips, and pretzels. In the true spirit of composting, I dumped whatever other cookie-appropriate leftover stuff from my pantry into the mix: pecans and shredded coconut. If you choose to make these cookies less enormous than the recipe calls for, make sure you reduce the baking time accordingly.
Pomegranate molasses was called a “power ingredient” awhile back. Kind of a funny description, but I do understand what they’re getting at because I have a sticky, half-empty bottle of it in the back of my cupboard. I’ve mixed it into seltzer, salads, and now an easy little cake that is perfect for, say, potlucks. It’s buttery but not too rich, and unexpectedly perfect for cutting into hand-held squares to be passed around and eaten like brownies.
Another thing: the recipe makes more glaze than you’ll need, so go ahead and make doughnuts, cookies, or even more cake to use it up.
One glimpse at this recipe and I knew I had to try it. Are these cookies supposed to be eaten for dessert? Breakfast? Late-night snack?
Who cares, they’re delicious. I want to start carrying them around in my pockets so I can eat them whenever I want.
A few notes: I didn’t peel the apples and I finely chopped them instead of grating them. I ran out of golden raisins so I added dried cranberries. Chill the dough before baking to get chewy, tall cookies. Best when fresh and gooey and crisp on the outside, in my opinion.
Those of you who are as in love with Joanna Newsom’s music as I am get it. It was that time of year that straddles summer and fall, when my CSA gives us the last of summer’s peaches and plums along with early fall pear varieties like Red Clapp, Bartlett, and Seckel. And the opportunity to allude to a good song while handling food is one I can rarely pass up (it happens in my mind when the Simon & Garfunkel herbs go into something, out loud when John sees summer or winter savory and iTunes is within reach, and don’t even get me started on the teaches of peaches).
After a long day of work, the thought of chilling and rolling out pie dough or even making biscuit batter to scoop on top of this fruit combo seemed like too much in terms of time and how big of a production I wanted it to be. Mark Bittman to the rescue: fruit gratin (with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and amaretto instead of vanilla extract). I couldn’t get the top to brown because my baking dish explicitly says “No Broiler” on the bottom. And to be really honest, this would’ve been better with some kind of crust or crumble or batter surrounding it. Oh well, you really can’t have it all sometimes.
Next up: clam, crab, cockle, cowrie risotto?
Don’t let the fact that this is frozen yogurt mislead you. It is rich and thick and coats your mouth the way ice cream does.
5 medium (about the size of a tennis ball) very ripe yellow peaches
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (or yogurt you strained yourself)
a squeeze of lemon juice
Peel peaches and cut them up into chunks. In a small saucepan, combine water, peaches, and their pits (cooking them helps loosen the very last bits of fruit and maybe it contributes some kind of faint almond-like flavor?… didn’t hurt to try). Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and add sugar, stirring it until it’s all dissolved. Let cool, then puree (it’s okay if there are a few chunks of fruit bobbing around). Chill peach puree for several hours or overnight.
Whisk peach puree into yogurt. Add lemon juice. Freeze in an ice cream machine. Yum.
Like cake salé, yogurt cake is a homey baked good from France that comes in a loaf pan. No waiting for butter to soften, no need to plug in any mixers, and all you need to start are everyday ingredients (which you can then add to, according to whatever else is spilling out of your fridge and pantry).
I used this recipe from Bon Appétit, minus the glaze and with half as much sugar (it was still sweet enough for me), plus about a cup of chopped fresh plums and a few sprigs’ worth of fresh thyme folded into the batter at the very end.
Check out my new favorite summer dessert. Granita is basically shaved ice, and you can make it with fruit, booze, and even coffee. I used squishy-ripe, beautifully colored plums this time around, but any kind of pureed fruit will do. And you can of course use plain water or some other liquid instead of tea. My David Lebovitz ice cream book also says that in Sicily, they scoop coffee granita into brioche buns for breakfast, which sounds heavenly for warm, groggy mornings.
(makes 2 servings)
3/4 cup hot water (I turn the kettle off right before it starts actually boiling)
1 heaping teaspoon jasmine tea (or one teabag)
2 tablespoons sugar
8 small (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter) plums
Steep tea in hot water for 3 minutes. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Let cool.
Meanwhile, puree pitted, unpeeled plums in a blender or food processor. Add tea.
Pour mixture into a small dish that is about 2 inches deep (I used a plastic tupperware type container that is about 8 by 5 inches). Place in the freezer for about 45 minutes, then check on it. The top and edges should be starting to freeze. Scrape with a fork and make it all slushy. Put it back in the freezer and repeat the scraping-with-fork part every 30 minutes or so, until the whole thing is mostly frozen. I got impatient (and it was getting late), so mine looks a little softer/more watery than the way this sort of thing usually goes.
