It’s a Cookie! No, a Cake!... Wait – It’s a Cookie Cake for Mother’s Day!!

What’s cooking? Parisian Cookie Cake 

Several days before my very first Mother’s Day, I told my husband I did not want one of those ultra-sweet cards, like the ones with the flowers and lace that his mother always enjoyed. I just wanted something simple, ...but I didn’t say that part. And thus began another early lesson in husband-wife communications.

I thought: Maybe now, I’ll just get a nice, simple card... and maybe some flowers.

He thought: Ok, so she doesn’t want a card. Maybe she doesn’t want anything.

You can imagine how this worked out, can’t you? All I will say is that it involved tears on my part and a rant on his about how Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day were just traps for guys, and a conspiracy on the part of the card and flower and candy companies. And every year since then, he has reminded me that I’m not his mother.

Then more recently, I actually forgot his birthday. Sort of. I had presents – not yet wrapped – but waiting to be wrapped. And while I always remember his birth date, we had so much going on in our lives that I didn’t realize the date had arrived. We were at a reunion of his college friends, and one of them gleefully announced that it was my prince’s birthday, while I sat slack-jawed at the news that I had missed the boat.

He was more than kind about it – actually thought it was funny – but of course, I was mortified. So I have given him a permanent pass for Mother’s Day.

* * *

If you’re looking around for an easy dessert to make for Mother’s Day, you have come to the right place. This one feels so much like an art project that I’m sure my own mother would have loved it. Very “hands-on.” Also elegant – the original recipe comes from Le Comptoir, the pastry shop at Paris’s legendary Ritz Hotel on the Place Vendôme.  (Of course it’s French. You know, chocolate.)

 And the whole process takes me little more than an hour.

What makes this cookie cake so good?

• The texture is a mix of soft and crunchy – soft from the underlying cookie part that tastes very much like shortbread, and crunchy from the nuts on top.
• Complex flavors. Instead of white sugar, the shortbread contains turbinado sugar, which is only partially refined so as to retain some of the original molasses from the sugarcane. Thus the subtle caramel flavor. And then there’s almond butter, that contributes a light nuttiness to the dough.
• The shortbread bakes in a form that sits directly on the baking sheet, so the bottom of the cookie gets a little extra crispy caramelizing from the more direct contact with the sheet.
• The topping is a riot of chocolate, almonds, and caramel (or butterscotch), with a finish of sea salt. I mean, what’s not to like?

Kitchen Goddess note: The original of this cookie cake featured hazelnut purée instead of the almond butter, and chopped raw hazelnuts on top instead of almonds. Chef Greenspan suggested the almond butter/almonds. I’ve made it twice that way, and it’s fabulous. But I want to try it with the original flavors, using Nutella or Italian hazelnut purée and hazelnuts. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The first time I made this dish was in December. Can you tell?

Parisian Cookie Cake

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan in The New York Times.

Serves 8-12, depending on how generous you are with the pieces.

Special equipment: 9-inch springform cake pan, baker’s parchment

Ingredients

1⅓ cups(170 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

4 ounces (1 stick/113 grams) very soft unsalted butter

¾ cup (150 grams) turbinado sugar (e.g., Sugar in the Raw)

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

3 tablespoons (54 grams) of pure almond butter (i.e., without added sugar or other ingredients), well stirred 

1 large egg, at room temperature and lightly beaten

4 ounces (113 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

⅓ cup (48 grams) raw almonds, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons (60 grams) caramel (or butterscotch) topping, for finishing (use more or less depending on your taste for caramel)

Fleur de sel, for finishing (I use Maldon salt, which is less expensive and easier to find). Do not leave out this salt: it adds crunch and that famous sweet-salty thing.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350º. Line a baking sheet with baker’s parchment. Set the ring of a 9-inch springform pan (without its base) upside down on the prepared sheet. The ridge in the ring should be at the top.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork or a whisk to stir together the flour, baking powder and baking soda, being sure to aerate the mix. Set the dry ingredients aside.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and salt on medium-low for 2-3 minutes, or until the texture is smooth.

Add the almond butter and continue mixing for another 2 minutes.

Spoon in about a third of the flour mixture and beat – still on medium-low – until it’s absorbed into the butter mixture.

Pour in the egg and mix on low speed until well incorporated.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and continue mixing on low until the dry ingredients are completely absorbed.

Transfer the dough into the center of the springform ring. Use your fingers (or the back of a large spoon or an offset spatula) to get the dough pushed to the edges of the ring and evenly thick. Again using your fingers/spoon/offset spatula, gently smooth the surface of the cookie (no mashing down, please!).

Ready for the oven.

Scatter the chocolate and then the almonds across the surface of the cookie, and bake 22-26 minutes. (I have made this dessert twice in different ovens and needed almost 28 minutes the first time, 25 minutes the second time.) To test, insert a toothpick or other cake tester into an area of the cookie not covered by chocolate. If it comes out clean, the cookie is done.

Move the baking sheet to a rack and immediately – but carefully – open and lift off the springform rim. Do not move the cookie. Once the cookie has cooled to room temperature, drizzle or dot the surface with caramel. Sprinkle the top lightly with sea salt. Don’t cut the cookie until it is completely cooled, as it tends to crumble while it’s still warm.

Ready for the caramel and finishing salt.

You could serve the finished product in 10-12 wedges, as Ms Greenspan suggests; but I find that people are happier with a dessert this rich if they can have something closer to bite-sized pieces. So I like to cut it in a lattice pattern with strips about an inch wide (see the diagram at left). This allows for smaller portions and even some oddly shaped pieces on the edge. The dessert goes well with vanilla ice cream.

Wrapped in plastic wrap or in a sealed container, the cookie will keep for about 4 days at room temperature. 

 And a happy Mother’s Day to you all!