Sablée Cookies

Today's recipe is Sablée Cookies!
I'd been meaning to make these for a while, since they looked interesting. I got a cookie press for Christmas and the cookbook I got the recipe from (Baking, by James Peterson) had instructions on how to make them with a cookie press.
"Ah, this is a sweet crust for tarts," Ruth said, looking at the recipe. "I've never tried making cookies out of it, though. Generally I use it for tarts, especially those made with fruits that have more of a bite. It's also quite good for cheese tarts, and is the crust for Sugar Pies."
"Sugar Pies? That sounds interesting," I remarked. "I don't think I've heard of that pie flavor before."
Ruth laughed. "You have to have a well-developed sweet tooth to properly enjoy them. Sugar Pies are quite popular with some of the Fae who visit often, especially those whose primary task is to tend gardens. They're nicknamed 'Flower Fairies'."
"Do they help the bees?"
"They often keep bees, yes," Ruth explained. "I think you're picturing them a lot smaller than they actually are, Miaka. Flower Faries are... hmm, I'm not sure I have a good reference in your world. Well, an adult Flower Fairy would probably not be able to see over your kitchen counters, but would still be comfortable in one of your chairs."
"Child-height?" I suggested. "Let's see, you use Imperial, so... about 3 feet tall?" (Just under 1 meter.)
"Yes," Ruth agreed. "That sounds about right. The tallest of them is a little bit shorter than the twins, although that reference doesn't carry to your world. Not that any of this has much at all to do with the cookies."
"I'm very good at getting off track, Ruth. We should get started, though."
Here we go!

You can see the cookbook in the background as we go about getting everything that goes in these cookies together. Ruth has the salt (he's standing on it) and the cake flour. Hi-chan is making her way across the powdered (confectioner's) sugar to the canister of all-purpose flour. (One of the boxes of powdered sugar was almost empty and I wasn't sure there would be enough in it.) Black is herding the whole egg into the two sticks of butter, and Red has the egg yolk. One of the eggs broke as I was trying to take it out of the carton, but the yolk was still just fine, allowing me to salvage it.

We'll be using the stand mixer with its paddle attachment and the larger bowl. Since the mixer takes up most of the counter it's on, here's everything else we'll need.
Red has the measuring spoon, as usual. He seems to like the scale; apparently the glass is comfortable to stand on. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups and is rather curious about the cookie press. Ruth is rather intrigued by this tool. "I don't have one of these at home. I've seen them, but ours look a bit different," he says. "Perhaps I should look into purchasing one."
"What do these discs do?" Black asks.
"Those go in the end of the cookie press. The dough is pushed through them to make fancy designs," I explain. "You'll see it in action later."
Behind everyone is the cookie sheet, with the sil-plat mat. I haven't had a chance to try out the mat yet, and this seems a perfect time. Normally I use parchment paper for cookies, but that won't work well with a press, as the dough will stick to both paper and press, causing a mess when you try to pull the press away.

Ruth adds 2/3 cup (80g) cake flour to the mixer bowl to get us started. Hi-chan has found a nice perch on the rim of the bowl.

Black gets to add 1 1/3 cup (160g) all-purpose flour, for a total of 2 cups (240g) of flour. The mix of cake and all-purpose flours is to make sure that the cookies come out nice and smooth. You may need to adjust the proportions depending on the gluten content of the flour you're using.

Hi-chan takes up the measuring cup next, adding 1 cup (100g) of powdered sugar. It's really hard to tell what's sugar and what's flour in the bowl.

Red, Captain of the Measuring Spoons, adds 1/2 teaspoon salt. He also objects to my teasing, apparently not finding it as funny.

With all the dry ingredients in, Ruth turns on the mixer to combine them. Everyone else has found a perch of sorts where they can watch the mixer go. Watching things swirl is entertaining, especially when no one is exhausting muscle power to do it.

Hi-chan helps me add 2 sticks of butter, since we need 1 full cup (226g).

With the butter added, it's time to mix it in, so Ruth turns on the mixer on low speed.

Except this turns out to be a problem, as the flour mixture sprays out. He promptly turns it back off.

"I'm sorry, Red! Are you alright?"
"Pfflph." Red says, shaking his head. "Pleh. Yeah... pleh... flour by itself isn't tasty. The sugar is good, though. I need a shower..."
"I'm sorry! That was my fault. I forgot to cut up the butter. Let's get you rinsed off, Red..."

While Red is getting rinsed off, I take a pastry blender tool and cut the butter into the flour mixture, under the watchful eyes of Hi-chan and Ruth. "There. I think we can try again without it going all over the place."
"Please add a little more sugar and flour, Miaka," Ruth asks, "we did lose a good bit with that mishap."
"Of course," I assure him, grabbing the box of powdered sugar.

With Red clean and the mixture corrected, it's time to try turning the machine on again to mix it up. It should work a lot better this time.

Black sets the timer for 2 minutes, as it should take about that long to get the butter fairly well mixed in.

Now we're ready to add eggs. Red is having a little trouble adding the egg yolk--it doesn't want to come out of the prep bowl!

Once Red finally gets the egg yolk into the bowl, I add in the whole egg.

Now we're ready to mix it all together! Ruth turns on the stand mixer to low while Black sets the timer for 2 minutes again. Ruth will keep an eye on things and gradually edge the mixer speed up to medium-low as everything is incorporated. We don't want more flying-powder mishaps!

After about 2 minutes, the dough has come together! Ruth turns off the mixer and moves to get a closer look.
"Excellent," he says. "It's ready for shaping."

Black goes to pre-heat the oven. There's plenty of things to be done before we can get the cookies into the oven, so it should finish pre-heating about the time we're ready to put the cookies in. These cookies bake in a 350°F (180°C) oven.

The first thing we need to do is pick out a disc to put in the cookie press, which will shape the cookies. Hi-chan and the twins poke through the discs available, each having various preferences and suggestions, though they all immediately rule out the cone-shaped tree, declaring it "Too Yule; wrong time of year for that." In the end, everyone agrees on Black's favorite, which looks a bit like a coin and should make some pretty cookies.

With the disc in place, the next order of business is to load up the cookie press with dough. Ruth supervises this from behind the stand mixer. Only about half the dough will fit in the press at once. I've rolled the rest into a ball to add later.

The press is a bit too big for Ruth to properly wrap his arms around, so the dragons all gather around to watch me pop out cookies. This is the first time I've used the cookie press, so I'm still working out how to operate it properly. Well, even if the cookies end up in funny shapes, I'm sure they'll still taste delicious!

Here I've pressed out about as many cookies as I think can fit reasonably on the tray. I'm starting to get the hang of the press.

Ruth helps me slide the tray of cookies into the oven to bake. Sorry about the blurry photo.

Black sets the timer for 12 minutes, though these cookies may need as much as 14-15. Bake the cookies until they're just slightly starting to brown at the edges.

Here we have finished cookies, with just the lightest hint of brown at the edges. Excellent! They look really tasty, don't they?
"Shouldn't we get them off the baking tray so we can run another batch? There's still a lot of dough left," Hi-chan points out.
"Good idea," I tell her. "Let's get the cooling racks set up." Everyone hurries to help.

All the cookies are done, now! So here we have the wire cooling racks loaded up with tasty sablée cookies. Black is trying to sneak a bite.
"Wait for them to cool off all the way," Ruth scolds lightly. "You'll enjoy it more if you don't burn your tongue."
"It's a lot easier to taste things with an unburned tongue," I remark. "Temporarily-dead taste buds are the worst part of a too-hot drink."
"Wouldn't taking a cold drink fix it?" Red asks.
"Not quite, Red. The cold will help to kill the pain, but it won't get the dulled taste buds working again."
"That doesn't sound like fun at all," Hi-chan remarks. "Why would you drink something that is too hot?"
"Generally by accident."

Cookies cooled off and plated up! Om nom nom, yummy! Everyone is too busy chowing down to make any comments.

Ruth's Recipe!

Today we're making... what are we making today, Ruth?

What is all this?

Well, you've gathered quite a few things, but these ingredients seem really random. Rice, whole-wheat flour, dried cranberries, Karo (corn) syrup... "Why do you have both brown sugar and molasses? There's molasses in brown sugar already."
"There is?" Black asks. "Oh. Well, maybe it's not enough molasses."
"I wanted dark brown sugar, but you only have light. So we add extra molasses," Ruth explains.
"I suppose that makes sense," I reply. "Um, Red, you do know that's mint extract, not the vanilla, right?"
"That's what Ruth asked for," Red tells me. He sounds a little confused as well.
All this, plus white chocolate M&Ms, sliced almonds, and marzipan. "I don't get it, Ruth. What are we making? You didn't give me a recipe, and I don't see how all this goes together at all."
Ruth looks up at me and starts laughing. "Indeed it does not, Miaka. The recipe is April Fool!"
"It is a Fae tradition," Hi-chan explains. "Mostly just an excuse to pull pranks like always, but one day of the year when no one gets punished for pranks."
"Robin gets away with pranks all the time, though," Black points out.
"Like the time with the pants," Red adds.
"That sounds like a story you'll have to tell me..."

April Fool! So there's no recipe today! Look forward to Sablée Cookies tomorrow, though!

Oatmeal Cookies

Today's recipe is Oatmeal Cookies! I got this recipe from a friend a few years back when I was looking for a good way to use up oatmeal quickly. These are quite tasty!
"It's just oatmeal in these?" Red sounds a little confused.
"No raisins or anything?" Black adds, agreeing with her twin that such a thing sounds strange.
"Yup! Just plain oatmeal cookies. Really good oatmeal cookies, though," I assure them.
"Hmm," Ruth remarks. "I suspect these might be popular with Centaurs and such folk..."
"Wouldn't you have to substitute something else for the butter and egg, though?" I asked.
"Why?" All four dragons looked a little confused. "What's wrong with egg and butter?" Ruth asked.
I squashed the slight sense of embarrassment--they're all quite well aware that I know very little about their world. "Um, nothing. I just... well, horses can't eat animal products, as far as I know, so I figured centaurs and such would be the same way."
"But the 'camel' thing the djinni brought liked cookies," Red told me. "I wonder if it would like these?"
"I shall have to keep a stock on hand, in case a djinni stops by again," Ruth said. "Then we could find out."
"You're going to have to tell me about the camel and the djinni at some point," I insisted. "Let's bake first, though."
"Lets," everyone agreed.

Here we have everything we need for the oatmeal cookies, except for the nutmeg. Somehow we all forgot to get the nutmeg. Black has decided that the oats make a good perch, from which she can see everything going on. Hi-chan has claimed the brown sugar for her perch. The copper canister in the center-rear is flour, while the one behind Ruth is white sugar. Ruth has brought the butter. Yes we actually need 2 1/2 sticks of butter. Tucked behind Ruth is the baking powder, with the salt next to and slightly behind it. Red has the egg, and next to him are the cinnamon and vanilla. It looks like a lot, but the recipe is actually pretty simple to put together.

Far less equipment to mess with. In the far back are the wire cooling racks, tucked behind a cookie sheet. It's a good idea to have at least two cookie sheets on hand for this, so that you can rotate them out. Ruth has the bowl and spoon. Make sure you have a big bowl, or you won't have enough room to stir everything in. Black is perched on the parchment paper, partly hiding behind Red with the measuring spoons. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups.

Black gets us started by setting the oven to preheat. These cookies want to be nice and toasty, so warm the oven to 375°F (190°C). It's still chilly here, so I'm glad to have the oven going and warming up the kitchen.

Butter holds these cookies together, so Hi-chan starts by adding 1 1/4 cup (282g) to the bowl. Make sure you take the butter out of the fridge a bit early, so it has time to warm up a bit. Warm butter is softer and a lot easier to work with. If you don't have enough time, you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds, though more than half a minute will melt it and that isn't what you want right now.

Ruth breaks up the butter so that it'll be easier to stir everything together.

Black adds 1/2 cup (100g) of white sugar. Just normal granulated sugar, nothing special about it.

"It stays in the cup shape," Black observes as she finishes adding 3/4 cup (177g) packed brown sugar.
"It has been compacted into the cup," Ruth explains. "That is how one measures brown sugar."
"Why is it brown?" Red wants to know.
"Brown sugar contains molasses," I tell him. "That's what gives it the colour, as well as a slightly different flavor from regular, or 'white', sugar."

Uh, Hi-chan, do you really need to be right there while I'm stirring?

With all the sugar in the bowl now, Ruth creams it together with the butter, making sure it's all mixed as thoroughly as he can get it. Black seems almost as interested in the shadow of the bowl's rim as in the mixing.

I crack one egg neatly into the bowl, which Ruth promptly mixes into the sweetened butter.

Red's turn! He really loves the measuring spoons. In goes one teaspoon of baking powder, followed by...

...one teaspoon of cinnamon, not quite entirely leveled off because we like cinnamon a lot, and then...

...one teaspoon of salt, measured much more carefully. Adding too much salt by accident can really ruin a batch of cookies.

Hi-chan jumps in for a turn, managing to add one teaspoon of vanilla with no measuring-spoon mishaps.

Black claims the honor of adding the last bit of spice, one quarter teaspoon of the nearly-forgotten nutmeg.
Hi-chan is back up on the bowl rim again.

"Hi-chan, please get off," Ruth asks her. "I don't wish to hit you in the nose and I need to stir."
Hi-chan grumbles a little, but complies. "I like the view from the top better."
"Yeah, but from the side you're not risking a bruised nose," Red points out.

To stop Hi-chan's pouting, I convince her to come help me measure out the flour and add it in. She's quite pleased to add 1 1/2 cups (211g) of flour, especially as it gives her a chance to be up at the edge of the bowl again.

Now that Ruth has stirred in the flour, it's starting to look like cookie dough. Just one more thing to add.

Can't have oatmeal cookies without oatmeal! Ruth takes the honor of adding the eponymous ingredient. "Of course the star of the show turns up last," Black teases.
"It's the prerogative of the lead actor, since the show can't start without the star," I joke.
"Well, now we have all our players in place," Ruth says as he adds the last of 3 cups (275g) of oatmeal. "Time to get the show on the road, isn't it?"

One last session of mixing presents us with this nice cookie dough. Yum! This part is ready to go, but needs a place to go!

Everyone pitches in to roll parchment paper out onto the cookie sheet. This is the fastest and easiest way to prep a baking sheet, but greasing it works as well. The cookies will slide off the parchment quite nicely, though, so it's my first choice.

Pull out a couple of spoons and use them to plonk balls of dough about 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2-3cm) in diameter onto the tray, making sure to leave 1 1/2 to 2 inches (3-4cm) between them, as these cookies will flatten out a little and you don't really want to run them all together. It's a touch harder to share them if you have to cut them apart first. Uh, the littlest ones seem to have misunderstood slightly. These aren't shaped cookies...

Ruth slides the sheet of cookies into the oven to bake.

Black sets the timer for 9 minutes, to be on the safe side. The recipe calls for 9 to 11 minutes, but ours ended up taking more like 12 or 13.

Ruth pulls the first sheet of cookies out of the oven! "Mm, these look quite tasty," he says. "I am looking forward to trying them!"
"They're quite good," I tell him, "and they got rave reviews from Archi's coworkers the last time I made them."

We carefully piled the cookies onto the cooling rack. Hi-chan and the littles are trying to sneak bites, while Ruth points out that they'll taste even better accompanied by a glass of milk or tea... but no one seems interested in getting a drink. Yummy cookies!!