Skip to main content

#27 Mandelbrot (Chocolate Almond Slices) 1967

My "skewed distribution" cookies.
If you like playing with clay, you'll love making these cookies. Form a long rope of the chocolate part and wrap it in the vanilla part. Bake the two long cookie bars once, then slice (like biscotti), and bake cookies flat for another 5 minutes. Sounds doable, right?

The trick is to get each half of the dough the same consistency. The recipe doesn't accomplish that goal; the center is too stiff and the vanilla covering too flabby. I hate flabby.

Chocolate center is too dry to hold together.

Vanilla layer spreads and spreads.
The problem is the timing of the dry ingredients. The recipe wants you to incorporate a full 1/4 cup of cocoa (dry ingredient) plus a half cup of almonds (another dry ingredient) to the chocolate half, at the very end of the mixing. The result? A stiff chocolate dough that barely holds together.

Meanwhile, the vanilla layer gets no compensating addition of flour to firm it up. So, the vanilla outer layer oozes around the chocolate core. Poor planning.

Recipe alteration: After adding the 3 cups of flour, divide the dough in half. Make additions to the chocolate half. Then, add the "extra" 1/3 cup flour only to the vanilla half.

To be fair, the Notes suggest using a well-floured board to roll out the covering layer. IMHO, the board cannot be floured enough. Best to incorporate the extra flour into that layer before rolling. Flour the rolling surface, as well.

For the second roll I formed, I made a point of kneading more flour into the vanilla layer--beyond just using a well-floured surface--for a better result. The first roll split apart (see bottom photo), whereas the second held together just right.

Outer layer is too pliable and relaxes around the center.
If only this didn't describe my waist, too.
The chocolate-almond layer makes a nice color contrast with the vanilla covering, not to mention the fun look of these cookies on a plate. They are a traditional Jewish cookie and a festive addition to Jewish holidays, as they contain no butter or milk. That means that under kosher dietary laws they can be eaten with meals that contain meat or those that contain dairy.*

Remember my research training? I couldn't help likening the shape of these cookies to a bell curve. Only my cookies were not really symmetrical, owing to the loose outer skin. (I hate loose outer skin, too.)

Loose outer layer pulled apart during baking.
When the "curve" is not symmetrical, you have what is known as a skewed distribution. I call these my Skewed-Distribution Cookies. OK, so not everyone can appreciate statistics-geek humor. My research group thought it was hilarious.

The recipe is here and here.

*http://newsok.com/happy-merry-mandelbrot/article/3516943
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#33 Almond Bolas (Portuguese Almond Cookies) 1975

Three almond balls ( bolas ) in a row. "This one is good," my sister-in-law Jill told me. She tried not to express too much surprise, but I have regaled her with too many tales of failed cookies. And forced her to eat a few duds. I was glad this one made the grade. I liked it, too. You might think I am a hopeless romantic to fall for another almond cookie. (Italy, almond cookies. Almond cookies, Italy.) The fact is every country that can grow almonds has its special recipes for almond cookies. Portugal is no exception. The ground blanched almonds combine with dry bread crumbs, then the usual sugar, egg whites and almond extract. The dry bread crumbs are key. When the cookies are fresh from the oven, the bread crumbs add a perfect crunch to their rustic, nutty texture. Holes in the center ready for filling. These cookies don't "drop." You roll them in a ball ( bola ) and press a hole in the center, as for jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. Egg yolk ...
1 comment
Read more

#21 Cornetti 1989

First, the texture. These crescent-shaped darlings came closest to the crisp-outside, soft-inside of the almond cookies I've been craving. The difference with these is their distinct orange flavor, from chopped, candied orange peel, and the cup of white cornmeal that adds a gritty crunch to each bite. Cornetti, dusted with powdered sugar. These firm, hearty cookies, with a ground almond base, are my first real almond cookie success. They are not the same as any cookie I tasted in Italy; I have yet to duplicate those bakery cookies. These stand on their own, apart from the rest, and they are every bit as good. After one minute in boiling water, almonds are ready to have skins removed. Blanching almonds. Orange peels simmering in sugar syrup. The bad news is the labor required, especially if you begin with almonds that have their skins. Although an easy process of blanching in hot water allows the skins to be removed for an all-white dough, by the time I was done, ...
1 comment
Read more

#12 Navettes Sucreés (Sugar Shuttles) 1950

Cookies topped with sparkling sugar on left, granulated sugar on right. This cookie is almost as satisfying as the vanilla scent that fills the kitchen while baking.  Similar to the Christmas Butter Cookies, egg yolks contribute to their light, crumbly texture. The name is a reference to the long thin device that guides yarn back and forth across the warp in weaving (or a device on a sewing machine). But these cookies look nothing like their name. Frankly, I would not expect anyone to take one look at these cookies and say, "I know - a weaving shuttle." Not happening. Butter, eggs and vanilla await kneading into dry flour, sugar and salt mixture. I wonder if the recipe or cookie shape goes back to an era of early weavers, or if this was a 1950's invention for the magazine. The Cookie Book calls them "cigar-shaped," not an image I'd evoke to sell a cookie. The making is easy. After rolling bits of dough into, shall we say, a small slug shape (I ...
Post a Comment
Read more