Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I think Christina Tosi might be my long last twin. This book feels like it was written for me. She is the most innovative baker that I have come across. Her recipes feel so fresh and exciting. The flavor that she manages to bring out of common ingredients floors me. Every recipe is a project. I do not know very many people that could cook out of this book without tracking down ingredients and equipment. I love projects, especially when they are worth it.

Since I have already made so many things, I felt like I would start a thread with pictures and reviews. I have become so spoiled by using my crappy cell phone camera that I rarely haul out my real one. These recipes are worth it so I am really going to try. Here is my latest creation. Carrot cake filled with liquid cheesecake, milk crumbs, and ingenious graham frosting:



This is still frozen here. You freeze it to set the layers and then you pop it out of the cake ring/acetate and defrost.

I need some other bakers to bake through this with me.

You're on.

One issue. I have a very broken wrist, and just had surgery.

I'm not going to be able to start for a few weeks.

Amy

Yay Amy! I was thinking about you as I typed that. Emily was asleep on my arm and I was typing one handed. It gets old real fast... I hope you heal up quick.

I cannot wait to hear your thoughts and results. She does some of the neatest stuff that I have never considered. For the grapefruit pie you warm the supremes with a bit of oil to separate it into threads. The threads get folded into the passion fruit curd. So when you eat it you get the true grapefruit flavor in bursts.

This graham frosting above is neat. You put unbaked graham crust in the blender with milk and make like a Biscoff style spread. Then you beat that into the butter/sugar.

I need to get better acetate sheets. The ones I found at Hobby Lobby were only 8 by 11. I cut them in half lengthwise, and used 2 sheets... so four halves. It worked but the longer would work better. I was still pretty proud. It is my first cake that I have built using a cake ring.

Sounds really cool!

I have made the blueberry and cream cookies before from the recipe online, so I knew I loved them. This time they turned out flatter than usual. I am not sure why. I haven't compared the recipes to see if they are slightly different. They were still wonderful. Very buttery with nice chew from the blueberries. I only baked off 6 yesterday, so I will see how the other 12 do after a night in the fridge.

Amy, I could use your help. The chocolate chocolate cookies are outstanding, however I am having trouble finding the right baking time for them. Her cookie baking times seem waaay off for me, and these cookies are so dark that I cannot rely on appearance. Even when I am very careful they end up burnt half the time (though still delicious!). Do you have a copy of the book?

As a matter of fact, I just got it out of the library to check it out before committing to a purchase.

My all-time favorite chocolate chocolate cookies are Bittersweet Chocolate Decadence from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. With those I find there is a slight appearance change when they are done. (Although the recipe has extremely little flour, sugar and butter relative to the Milk Bar recipe.)

Tosi's recipe is interesting. There is a ton of both butter and sugar in them relative to the flour, and not a lot of non-fat related liquid.

I might suggest doing a soft-freeze on the dough prior to the baking, and I might also try lowering the baking temp to 350 at the same time. Also, make sure you rotate the pans halfway through baking. Are you using convection?

Amy

No convection. I have been refrigerating the portioned dough overnight before baking, but I will try freezing. I think I did lower the temp to 350 last time and it seemed to help.

I have Bittersweet but I do not think I have tried those cookies. I'll look into it.

Tosi's use of 'crumb' in the cookies is so smart. It adds a pop of flavor to every bite... it makes a big difference.

Without convection 375 is just going to be too hot, imo. But, I do think the soft-freeze might help. It will slow down how fast they can bake, and will give the cookies a chance to set-up prior to getting overdone.

Let me know how they turn out.

Amy

Fwiw, I usually lower my oven temp to 325 for cookies and rotate them every 5 minutes until they look done. Works well for me and my oven. Sounds hard to tell with dark chocolate cookies. (I don't use convection)