Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
Cenk had me at this cookie recipe, the first in the book. Oh, how I longed for a grandmother like his.
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Cenk’s House Cookies
Recipe by Cenk Sönmezsoy
One day in my early years of blogging, the food processor’s pulse button got stuck while I was making a tart dough. I was supposed to pulse until the butter pieces were the size of fat peas, but instead the dough gathered around the blade. There was no question that I was going to start the dough from scratch, but I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting the “ruined” dough. So I rolled it out, cut it into rounds, and jammed it into the freezer, ready to salvage it as cookies on a rainy day. I forgot all about it until one day when I was clearing out the freezer to make space for the ice cream I was churning.
The following day, I popped a tray of those cookies into the oven, still warm from a cake I’d baked for the blog. As I cleaned the kitchen, a familiar scent wafted from the oven—the aroma of the cookies I ate as a child while playing with my toy animals at the foot of my grandma’s chair, where she knitted for hours on end. They were Danish butter cookies from a royal-blue tin, separated with ruffled papers into five sections, each holding a different shape. I would take a long whiff before choosing which one to eat. Would it be the swirly one that instantly melts in your mouth? Or the extra-sweet one shaped like a small pretzel, topped with sugar crystals?
I experienced that same childhood excitement while those tart-dough cookies baked, and when I took a bite of a warm cookie it tasted the same, too: buttery and sweet, with a hint of coconut. What an amazing feeling it had been, knowing that those cookies would always be there waiting when I visited my grandmother. I reached for my notebook and wrote this: Everyone should have a house cookie. A dozen in a jar for last-minute guests, and stacks in the freezer, ready to be baked for those clever enough to call ahead. A cookie that will intoxicate guests with its aroma the moment you open the door. A cookie they will come to identify with you for life.
Months later, as I was going through the stack of recipe notes on my desk, I read that note and decided to stow the recipe away for a future book. That day has come. I commence this book with the revamped version of my house cookies, served on the most beautiful plate I own, sitting gracefully on the most beautiful tablecloth I have ever set my eyes on—the cloth my spiritual grandmother, Esin Giz embroidered seventy-nine years ago as a ten-year-old girl.
Makes 24 cookies
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (140 grams) confectioners’ sugar
¾ cup (75 grams) blanched almond flour
¼ cup (20 grams) unsweetened shredded dried coconut
¼ teaspoon (2 grams) fine sea salt
14 tablespoons (7 ounces; 200 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, separated
⅔ cup (67 grams) sliced blanched almonds
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, process the flour, sugar, almond flour, coconut, and salt until the coconut pieces are as fine as the almond flour, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the butter and pulse until coarse crumbs form. Add the egg yolk and process until the dough gathers around the blade, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Scrape the dough onto a large sheet of parchment paper. Cover with another sheet of parchment and roll out the dough into a round about 10 inches (25.5 cm) in diameter and ⅜ inch (1 cm) thick, occasionally flipping the dough with the parchment, then lifting and smoothing the parchment to avoid creases.
Transfer the dough and parchment to a baking sheet and chill until firm, at least 2 hours in the refrigerator or about 25 minutes in the freezer.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the chilled dough on a flat surface and peel off the top sheet of parchment. Using a 2-inch (5-cm) plain round cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. Gather the scraps into a ball, roll the dough out again between the parchment sheets, and continue to cut out cookies until you run out of dough.
Spread out the almonds on one of the parchment sheets in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white with a fork until frothy.
Using a pastry brush, brush a layer of egg white over the cookies. Invert the cookies onto the almonds one by one, gently pressing them into the nuts to coat the cookie tops. Turn the cookies almond side up and place them back on the baking sheet, then freeze them, uncovered, until firm, 10 to 15 minutes. (Once they are firm, you can wrap them airtight and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months. No need to thaw, though you may need to add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)
Meanwhile, set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Arrange as many cookies as you can fit on the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1 ¼ inches (3 cm) all around them. Keep the rest of the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator.
Bake until the edges of the cookies are golden and the almonds are golden brown, 22 to 24 minutes. Set the sheet on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies directly onto the rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
Storage: The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Excerpted from The Artful Baker by Cenk Sönmezsoy (Abrams). Text and photographs copyright © 2017 Cenk Sönmezsoy.
