Joe Froggers

originally posted sept 26, 2014

We are officially over our heads in dessert. Don't look in the freezer, it is embarrassing. Also--I don't see an end in site, with a can of pumpkin lurking around every thought and our chocolate mint plant over flowing with green leaves. Let's just say that to everything there is a season, and this season is consumed with baking. So you should come over and help me clear out the freezer.

 I want to share with you one of the recipes I tried this week. It is from the cook book "America's Best Lost Recipes" by cook's country. I love food with a history, so along with a short story there is some old recipe your grandpa used to talk about. I also love molasses, which is why I tried the Joe Froggers recipe first. Joe Froggers come from 200 years ago in Marble head Massachusetts and Joe's tavern--owned by Joseph Brown, a freed slave and Revolutionary war veteran. Apparently his signature rum and salt water made the cookies amazing. A molasses cookie is always perfect for fall, and although I can't vouch for the authenticity of this recipe, I can say that I love them. Soft and chewy and beautifully brown. I made some considerable alterations, which I will include in the recipe below. Namely I used a combo of black-strap molasses and dark molasses. The cookbook warns against this--but I didn't notice anything off. The dark molasses gives a beautiful color and a bit of a smoky flavor. If of course you hate molasses--I don't know why are you are still reading-- you can use light molasses. Also, the rum and the salt flavor is essential--so find some rum or use a decent amount of extract. Without it the cookies would just be your average (albeit flat and soft) ginger cookie. 

The recipe also calls for the dough to be rolled out and cut into 3 1/2 " circles. I really dislike rolling out cookies, especially rolling out sticky dough. Plus this dough spreads out enough that it doesn't really matter, so instead I scooped the soft dough onto the pan, and pressed them flat with a floured cup. Easier right? Or is that just me.

The end cookie is chewy, soft, butterscotchy and dark. I find them slightly addicting, I'm convincing myself it is the ridiculous amount of iron from the blackstrap molasses that my body craves, but we all know I just want a cookie.

1 1/2 Tablespoon rum extract
scant 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups flour *
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup molasses *
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar

Stir the rum extract, water and salt in a small bowl until the salt dissolves.
Whisk the flour and spices in a medium bowl
Stir the molasses and baking soda in a large measuring cup, and let it sit until doubled in volume (about 10 minutes)
With an electric mixer on medium-high beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the rum mixture.
Add the flour mix and the molasses mix alternately in 2 batches, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until stiff, at least 8 hours or up to 3 days.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. Make 6 cookies per sheet (they will spread) and scoop the dough (about 2 tablespoons) on to the parchment. With the bottom of a floured cup press the dough down so that it is about 1/4" thick.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are set and the first cracks start to appear
Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes so they can finish to set.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Notes
* I used 3 3/4 cup of flour, the dough was still very sticky-- but without the extra flour my dough looked like cake batter.
* original recipe calls for mild molasses, I used half dark, half black strap and an extra tablespoon of sugar. The darker the molasses, the less sugar in the molasses.

Option: you can put 2 pans in the oven at the same time, just be sure to rotate. Also the silpat cookies will take longer to bake then the parchment paper cookies.

Brownie Pillow

There is a time in a CTE teachers life every season wholly dedicated to conferences. Full blown, 8-5, PowerPoint riddled, free-lanyard covered conferences. Some dull, some interesting, all long. One conference I attended in August (2 days) had a bright spot among the group activities and endless handouts. The brownie pillow. Nestled between other store-bought confections and veggie platters, this little jewel took me to a beautiful place for the last 2 hours of conference day one. What would seem to be another sugar rich flat cookie from Albertsons (Fresh-Mart??), was in fact a texturally complicated baked good. Chewy and dark, while still light and sweet? Like a sugar cookie tightly hugging a tender brownie.
I sneaked some Google searches in between “note taking” and found one disappointing recipe after the other. All required baking a box of brownies, and then squish-rolling said brownies into a ball, then covering the ball of pre-chewed brownie in chocolate chip cookie dough (store bought being cookie of choice). The result looking like a pregnant flounder, and only one greasy brownie bite in the whole thing.
Now that was completely snobbish of me to write, but when I see inequality and bakery blasphemy like that, I must correct it. So I invented my own recipe, and I want to share it with you (which is kind of un-snobbish of me to do).
Just look okay?


Do you see why this is so important?
Now I’m going to do a blog like recipe reveal for this one, but just bare with me. I want to set the brownie Pillow record straight.
Method: 2 cookie doughs, measure out equal balls, refrigerate, combine. freeze, bake
For both doughs start by creaming butter and sugar until nice and fluffy. Butter is what takes this from day-old bake shelf to after dinner show-stoppers. (I know, I’m going to do this food blog way remember?)

After creaming the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, beating really well before adding the next. This should help the batter stay fluffy and velvety, like this:

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The sugar cookie dough should be like playdough, hardly sticky at all. If not, add some flour.

If you have a cookie scoop, pull that sucker out and make your life easier. I scooped the sugar cookie dough into a separate bowl, covered it and refrigerated it. Cold dough will make things a lot easier. My scoop is about 3/4’s, or the equivalent of 2 tbsp. We want good sized cookies here.
Next, start your “brownie” cookie. Don’t even bother washing the bowl and mixer, who cares? The secret to getting a cookie that tastes like a brownie is this recipe. Just stop looking. Same method, but this time our dough is going to be a bit softer, and we are throwing in some chocolate shavings for extra richness (because lets face it, once we started using butter, we just had to go all the way.)

Yeah. That’s going in our cookie.
No chocolate bar? Don’t use chips, because we want a flat, level end-product. The shavings aren’t even that necessary, but just make the cookie better enough that I care. Dark, rich, moist, this is what the chocolate helps us achieve. Yeah, the cookie is pretty dang good without it.  In fact, I like this recipe so much I didn’t bother to change it, and you are going to get some leftovers. Save that dough for later!

Mixing the dry ingredients in. Notice messy bowl, and no I don’t combine dry ingredients separately at home. No time.

Do you see the depths of chocolate?
Now lets take a break, because I want to say that I love both of these cookie recipes by themselves. It’s just that sometimes when you have the patience something's are more amazing together.
Scoop this dough into a separate bowl, cover and refrigerate. Use the same size cookie scoop (about 2 tbsp). Let the dough chill for 1-2 hours, the colder the better. Plus you might thank me later for this break. It’s about to get crazy.
After the dough is good and cold start combining.
Flatten a sugar cookie dough ball, top with a chocolate ball (sometimes a chocolate ball a little smaller then the sugar cookie one worked better for me)

Cover the chocolate with the sugar cookie dough, there is an art to this, but you will get it. Use floured hands and a floured surface.

Pat or roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick (on a floured surface). Like a sugary papusa! Lean towards the thicker side if you are nervous.


Place cookies on a sheet, 6 on a pan, and freeze for 10-15 minutes. This will help keep the nice shape, and keep the cookies thicker. Meanwhile keep rolling out the cookies…
Bake for 9-11 minutes and you have it! The sugar cookie should be dry, but light colored on top, then golden blonde on the bottom.

The more equal brownie and sugar dough, the more awesome marbling you get. (less brownie dough then sugar dough = smoother top)

 

So…. do you want the recipe?
Okay.
But this is important, no more smooshing brownies and covering them cookie dough and baking again. You know better. You know better…
Brownie Pillow
sugar cookie dough :
14 T butter
2/3 cup + 3 T Sugar
1 egg
¼ tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cup flour

1. Cream Margarine and sugar till fluffy
2. Beat in egg till combined (and a bit fluffy)
3. Add vanilla and the rest of the ingredients. Mix until combined (do not overbeat)
4. Portion into equal sized balls, about 2tbsp and refrigerate for at least an hour
5. Prepare Brownie cookie

Brownie Cookie
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dark  chocolate

1. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar (with a wooden spoon) until creamy and a little fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and vanilla and beat until well blended after each addition
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.
4. Finally, add chocolate and combine
5. Portion chocolate balls same size as sugar cookie dough-balls. Cover and refrigerate.
6. Preheat oven to 350
7. When dough is cold start assembling. Flatten sugar cookie dough and wrap it around a chocolate cookie ball. Once covered, roll or pat out on a floured surface about 1/4” thick. Place 6 of these on a cookie sheet and freeze for 10-15 minutes.
8. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Cookies should look dry on top with a few cracks, and golden on the bottom, do not let them get brown, or they will get too crispy.