TWD: Salt&Pepper Cocoa Shortbread

 When I read "shortbread" I was all excited. I love shortbread, I love baking it, my colleagues love eating it - perfcet.
When I read "salt&pepper" I was even more excited. Savory shortbread! Can it get any better?
When I read "cocoa" my excitement was all gone. Cocoa? With salt and pepper? In shortbread? Why?? Why spoil them?

I was very much tempted to leave the cocoa out and exchange it for grounded nuts or just use more flour. But in the absolute very last minute I thought - stop. No. Don't. very often the recipe that do not sound that appealing turn out best. And I learnt so far that it is mostly better to stick to Dorie's recipes, because she is always right.

So. Salt&Pepper COCOA shortbread. The recipe was chosen by Tia for this week's TWD. Go to her page "Buttercream Barbie" to find the recipe or have a look in Dorie Greenspan's book on p 128.

As all shortbread it takes some time for chilling the dough thoroughly. I rolled the dough too thin (What happen always when I do shortbread. Learnign effect? Me? Never!) I opted for not making logs and round shortbread but to cut rectangles and use my Eiffeltower- and Statue of Liberty-forms.

The first batch was spoiled, but it was all my fault. I forgot that the line between "still too soft" and "burnt" can be very thin and be passed in half a minute. So, the first batch was for the trashbin. But the second one turned out fine.

The verdict? Well. I like them. Compared to my expectations - I like them a lot. My colleagues on the other side where excited, thrilled, ardent. Why? I guess because me - I knew what was in the cookies. They didn't. So they really had a surprise-moment when they found out that these shortbread cookies, with their chocolate-colour, are not that sweet at all, and have a savory after-taste. Therefore - they are a winner!

TWD: Cocoa Almond Meringues

Meringue is something Iusually only make as a side product. I got to admit, normally they are not my favourite treat. But I like doing icecream, and I particularily like doing it French style, but this involves leftover eggwhites. In general, I guess there are more recipes calling for eggyolks than eggwhites, so from time to time I try to make some meringue or some cookies popular in Austria especially around Christmas, called "Kokusbusserl" or "Nussbussserl" which literally means "coconut / nut peck", which are similar to meringue.

This time it was the other way round - I was in need for a recipe to use up the left over eggyolks. So I made icecream. Toasted Coconut Icecream, with folded in sauted sour cherries, again a David Lebovitz recipe from "The perfect Scoop". (increadible good!!!)

But lets get back to the main topic: The meringue went all fine. Iopted for the "playing around" variation and used shredded toasted coconut instead of chocolate. It was easy done, got firm but still chwy in the middle and tastes surprisingly good. I don't know where I lost the coconut shreds. They have a slight taste of it, but not very much. But you know what? I guess I am happy with this little idea of coconut. As overall, I am happy with these. They turned out so much better than expected!

When I see a recipe on the TWD schedule I surely will like, I am eager to do it and can't wait for the week to come. But when I see a recipe that does not sound so appealing to me, I am happy someone has chosen it, because I would have never tried it on my own. And I definitely like experiences that I would not have taken if it was not for someone else.
So - this week props go out to Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude. Turn to his page for the fast and easy recipe or have a look into Dorie's book on page 155.

TWD: Midnight Crackles

 Cookies! Yeah! Haven't had them on the TWD-schedule for some time... Midnight Crackles are pure chocolate. They come with not much more than a whole lot of bittersweet chocolate and cocoa. Sounds like great chocolate cookies, not too sweet, but chocolatey ad nauseam. Good, huh?

Well. The cookies where a pain in the making and didn't turn out well. :o[  The options where I may have failed:

I used less sugar. Because all the recipes always turn out very, very sweet for my taste, and for that of all my colleagues. I started to mostly use less sugar than asked for. This time, I maybe went too far.
The batter didn't come together. Not. At. All. I had individual crumbles like shortcake-crust for tartes. I included another egg. That was a slight improvement. But I wasn't able to get somehting like one piece of dough before I mixed it with some water. Then, the consistency was as described in the book.

But, after chilling the dough for 2 hours (much longer than most other bakers recommended), it was still a soft, smooth dough. So I had no problem to scoop and form it, but: despite the softness, my balls didn't really stick together.

Somehow I managed to roll balls and press them softly (see again the hints from other bakers) on the baking sheet. But: After about 8 minutes, not a single ball had spread. They remained in their shape. That's not what a cookie should look like! I took a spatula and pressed them flat. That was about the moment when I thought: What a mess. Nothing did work properly today. Nothing. I had to fudge on these cookies in every step.

At least, in the end they looked like cookies should in my world. But the first bite from a still slightly-warm cookie: disappointment. Sometimes cookies seem to absorb some taste from the cookie-scented air in the kitchen while cooling. So, let's wait and taste again later. --- Later: No difference. The cookies taste bland and boring. Not sweet at all. No good not-sweet-at-all like shortbread, just ... flavourless. Don't ask me. No idea how I managed to mess so completely up with them.

I am sure the problem is all on my side, so have a look at the perfect Midnight Crackles from all the other gifted TWD'ers, and especially at wep-pages of Laurie of Slush and Jules of Someone’s In the Kitchen, a.k.a. our wonderful TWD-team who can't get enough thanks and thumbs-up for their great work and devotion! There (or in Dorie's book on page 74)  you will also find the recipe as it was their turn for TWD-birthday to choose this week.

Interestinlgy, they really look much better than they taste. And: I tried them with orange marmelade and this is really a winner-combination! So, a mess in between, a dissappointment for the plain cookies, but in the end I can close with a slightly positive balance sheet.