Mix the flour. Beat the eggs. Scoop the dough. … Mix the flour. Beat the eggs. Scoop the dough. … Mix the flour. Beat the eggs. Scoop the dough. …
Get the point? Now repeat, oh, about a dozen more times, and do NOT stray from the process.
Kate Cole has developed a precise “cookie chain of command” over the years, a method that allows the freelance photographer to merrily crank out batch after batch of holiday treats in her Lakeview kitchen.
“My friend once made a really good sugar cookie, and I wanted to try it out,” Cole, 27, recently told RedEye during a break in her baking. “Since then, every year I’ve gone crazy with making cookies.”
Step aside birthday cakes, Valentine’s candies and Thanksgiving pies, this is December — cookie season — and standards are high for the dessert of choice. Chewy or crunchy, homemade or store-bought, hot out of the oven or served at room temperature, the cookie is at its peak of popularity on the calendar, when even the most casual cookie appreciator becomes a connoisseur.
This year, Cole has whipped up peppermint sugar cookies and an oatmeal-pomegranate blend — and she’s toying with the thought of breaking out her old goat cheese gingerbread recipe, a confection she says tastes fantastic out of the oven but has the bad habit of fading once it has cooled.
There is just one rule in Cole’s kitchen during the holiday baking frenzy: unsalted butter only.
“I’ll taste the first cookie out of the first batch just to make sure it’s how I like it,” said Cole, who expects to bake about eight dozen cookies before the year is through. If the cookie isn’t the right flavor or texture, she’ll tweak the recipe or the temperature of her oven by a couple of degrees.
Of course, true cookie devotees like their dessert no matter what time of year — a concept Joe Bova and Jeff Steinberg are banking on as they prepare to open Cookie Bar next month in Lincoln Park.
“We’ve catered parties and [served] cookies and cupcakes,” said Steinberg, a screenwriter who baked with Bova for a year and a half before they decided to open their own shop. “People prefer cookies, and we wanted to reinvent the cookie store.”
The concept of Cookie Bar is pretty self-explanatory. Customers will be able to belly up to the “bar,” designed in a retro 1970s theme, for shots of milk and 18 different cookies daily, including as many as six varieties of chocolate chip cookie. For culinary daredevils, the bakery occasionally will serve — brace yourself, now — oatmeal-chili-mango-macadamia nut cookies.
Holiday cookies tend to be a little more traditional — chocolate chip, sugar or spice — and our winter passion for them is driven by nostalgia, said Stephanie Samuels, owner of Angel Food Bakery in Ravenswood.
“The holidays give people an excuse to go all-out,” she said. “They pull out all the stops and go carte blanche to have all their favorite cookies.”
But just because cookies traditionally are loaded with naughty ingredients — butter, eggs and sugar — doesn’t mean they can’t also be nice.
In fact, desserts can be a gateway into a more healthy diet, said raw food chef Linda Szarkowski.
“We all want those treats, especially around the holidays,” she said.
To satisfy her sweet tooth, Szarkowski makes chocolate mint squares, truffles and almond date balls that use no refined sugar, dairy, trans fats or processed foods. Szarkowski also doesn’t bake her treats above 118 degrees.
“Most people say they taste better than regular cookies and desserts,” she said. “They are still very sweet and decadent, but you don’t get that heavy feeling after eating them.”
Despite the cookie’s popularity, some dessert lovers snub the treat over the holidays.
Lindsay Shepherd, a baker at Molly’s Cupcakes in Lincoln Park, makes varieties of fudge for her friends and relatives because it’s easier to ship and stays fresh longer than cookies.
Not that Shepherd, 27, hates cookies — it’s just that “it’s hard to break fudge.”
Cole will stick to cookies, thank you very much. The amateur pastry chef says she’ll fire up her amateur cookie factory for any friend who asks — oatmeal toffee, chocolate chip and raisin, or fruit. She’ll even top some with a little frosting infused with her secret ingredient — lemon juice.
It’s a fun holiday tradition, Cole says, but experience has taught her too much cookie appreciation isn’t necessarily a good thing.
“I try not to eat too many of them,” she said. “The first year I got super sick eating too many cookies.”
CHELSEA SCHNEIDER IS A REDEYE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR.
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DO IT ALL FOR THE COOKIE
Tiffany MacIsaac is, by her own admission, a “cookie snob.” An extra minute or two in the oven, in her opinion, can spell ruin. If cookies are no longer warm — any more than 10 minutes out of the oven — MacIsaac just isn’t interested.
“Cookies are easy to make, but they’re not easy to make great,” the 28-year-old pastry chef said. “People at home read a recipe and it says eight to 10 minutes. But it could be eight; it could be five. There are so many factors, and every oven is different.”
To help put you on the path to cookie greatness, MacIsaac shared a handful of pointers. THE WASHINGTON POST
— When baking chewy cookies, always pull them out of the oven one minute before you think they are done. Overbaking ruins their texture.
— When using a rolled cookie dough, re-roll the scraps just once. (It may help to roll out small portions of dough at a time.) Overworked dough can result in a dry, crumbly cookie. But you can pat any remaining dough onto a baking sheet. The baked and crumbled cookies are great for making cookie crusts or for sprinkling over ice cream.
– Get to know your oven. Find out whether it heats from the top or the bottom. An oven that heats from the bottom may have a tendency to burn foods baked on the bottom rack. To guard against burning cookies that are baked even on the middle rack, place a similarly sized empty baking sheet on the bottom rack to absorb some of the heat.
– Preheat a gas oven at 25 degrees hotter than the temperature required for a particular cookie recipe. When the sheet of cookies goes in, reduce the heat to the proper temperature. (The oven temperature usually drops when you put something into the oven, causing the flame to ignite. Starting at a slightly higher temperature will allow the temperature to drop without further ignition.)
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Got milk?
Santa got it right. There’s nothing like a plate of fresh-baked cookies to brighten your holiday mood. Whether you feel the cookie itch just around the holidays or are a cookie monster year-round, check out these four bake shops to feed your hunger.
LISA BALDE, METROMIX PRINT EDITOR
Bake
2246 W. North Ave.; 773-384-7655getbakedchicago.com
Lovers of store-bought cookies just might end up with cravings for this new Bucktown bakery’s sweets. As a follow-up to owner Jennifer Kane’s sandwich-cookie homage to the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie, she offers up two crispy chocolate cookies sandwiching her own vanilla frosting ($2) — just like an Oreo!
Oak Mill Bakery
2204 W. North Ave.; 773-252-4400oakmillbakery.com
Need a last-minute dessert on your way to a holiday party? Pick up a wrapped tray of assorted sugar and butter cookies ($24.95) at this just-opened addition to the local Oak Mill chain. Want something even more impressive? Scoop up a pre-made gingerbread house, decorated with pretzels and candies aplenty, starting at $27.95.
The Twisted Baker
1543 N. Wells St.; 312-932-1128 thetwistedbaker.com
A dozen cookie options are available on any given day at this Old Town bake shop, including the berry white (79 cents), made with oatmeal, blueberries, cranberries and white chocolate chips. For your holiday dessert table, don’t miss Twisted Sister’s cute gingerbread men ($2.75) and the pecan cookie bar ($1.50), topped with a pecan-caramel mixture and available year-round.
Sweetwater
225 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-698-7111sweetwatertavernandgrille.com
We’d be remiss not to mention this new Loop bar’s irresistible baked cookie dough dessert ($7.95). It’s a melty mess of ice cream nestled within a warm cookie shell that’s not quite baked in the middle. All that’s missing? A tall glass of cold milk.
