Starry, Starry Nights

What’s cooking? Chocolate Star Cookies with Pistachio Stardust, and Chocolate Bark

 

Generally speaking, winter is that time of year when we’re mostly waiting for it to be over. But if you think about it, there are lots of things winter is great for. When else would you get to wear those soft, warm sweaters? Or a fur coat, if you have one? As long as it doesn’t go on for too long, clomping around in fuzzy boots and mittens is fun, as is the snow. And I wouldn’t be the Kitchen Goddess if I didn’t mention thick soups and stews, like this Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup, or Coq au Vin.

Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup

Coq au Vin

 It’s also the season for mushrooms, as in this Wild Mushroom Soup with Madeira. Mmmmm...

Wild Mushroom Soup – for two – with Madiera

You know what’s also great in winter? The stars. That’s right – the night sky in December, January, and February is darker and clearer than in the summer. The major reason is that cold air can’t hold as much moisture as can warm air, so the winter skies offer a drier, crisper light, while summer skies – beautiful though they may be – come across as hazier. Winter night skies (in the Northern Hemisphere) allow a richer, deeper, and darker shade of blue that only sharpens the contrast with the wintertime constellations.

And here’s one I didn’t know before I did all this research: our view of the night sky improves in winter because of our solar system’s position in the Milky Way. In summer, we’re facing the center of the galaxy, toward the combined light of billions of stars, so the sky is more crowded. In winter, we face the opposite way, toward the galaxy’s outskirts. There are fewer stars between us and extragalactic space. It’s another morsel of knowledge from the KG.

With all this thinking about stars, I was thrilled to receive a recipe for star cookies from a friend in Florida. She’s a terrific cook and an ultra-talented designer (see her website at Fina Design), so I was intrigued with these cookies mostly because they were so beautiful in her photo. Mine didn’t emerge with the same level of beauty, but they looked good enough to wow my book group, and the taste is outstanding – rich without being cloying. Who doesn’t like chocolate dipped in more chocolate and pistachios?

I cannot tell a lie: these cookies – and the photo – were made by my friend Barbara. 

Because there’s no egg in the recipe, the cookies have a shortbready texture – not fudgy, but soft and crumbly. Until they cool from the oven, they need to be handled carefully – like with as wide a spatula as you have for moving them from the baking pan to the cooling rack. The Kitchen Goddess broke three until she figured that part out, and then had to eat those that broke. Bad news for the book group, good news for the KG.



Kitchen Goddess note on cocoa powder: (And here I rely on the expertise of Stella Parks, the pastry queen at SeriousEats.com, and my friends at America’s Test Kitchen.) For big chocolate flavor in baking, the weapon of choice is usually cocoa powder, which comes in two forms: Dutch-processed and natural. Both are derived from the cocoa bean. Like chocolate, cocoa is naturally acidic. In Dutch processing, the cocoa is treated with an alkalizing agent that neutralizes that acid. So Dutch-processed cocoa is darker and browner in color, and has a smoother chocolate flavor. Because of the lack of acidity, most recipes using it call for baking powder only.

The color difference is starker when viewed from above

Unsweetened Natural Cocoa is reddish brown in color, and has a chocolate flavor characterized by some as bitter, by others as sharp and almost citrusy. Many recipes using it call for baking soda to help neutralize its acidity.











You’ll notice that Barbara’s cookies are a lighter shade than mine, which I attribute mostly to the type of cocoa powder. Hers, on the right in this photo, is Ghirardelli 100% Unsweetened Cocoa, which is natural; mine, on the left, is Hershey’s Special Dark, which, according to the label, is a combination of Dutched and natural cocoa.  Both hers and mine are delicious and chocolatey, and impressively easy to make.

I’m still working on the technique for getting mine to be as perfect a star shape as Barbara’s. Very frustrating for a Kitchen Goddess. But if you follow the intermittent chilling instructions and don’t crowd the baking pan, you’ll come very close.

These are the Kitchen Goddess’s, before she realized the cookies look even better when thicker.

Chocolate Star Cookies with Pistachio Stardust

Adapted from my friend Barbara Fina

The flavors in these cookies are simple and straightforward, so it’s good to use the best quality ingredients you can find.

Yield: This recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients
For the cookies:
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon kosher salt
175 grams all-purpose flour (approximately 1⅓ cups)
½ teaspoon baking powder or baking soda, depending on the type of cocoa you choose*
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder*
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

*Note: If your cocoa powder is “natural” (i.e., not Dutch-processed), use baking soda; if your cocoa powder is Dutch-processed, use baking powder.

For the pistachio stardust:
1¼ cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup shelled, unsalted whole pistachios

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer on low speed, use the paddle to cream the ½ cup butter with the brown sugar and salt until the mixture is smooth, then raise the speed to medium for a good 30 seconds to aerate.

In a small bowl, sift or stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda (or baking powder, depending on your type of cocoa). Set aside. Separately, combine the milk and vanilla.

To the butter/brown sugar/salt mixture, gradually and alternately add the milk/vanilla and the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough is a smooth and consistent texture, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl occasionally.

Divide the dough into two relatively smooth balls and flatten them slightly for easier rolling out. Wrap the two disks in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill for 30-60 minutes. (The Kitchen Goddess absent-mindedly left hers in the fridge for 2 hours and was very sorry.)

Before you start rolling/cutting, preheat the oven to 375º.

On a lightly floured surface, working with one disk of dough at a time, roll out the dough to a ¼-inch thickness and cut into stars with a cookie cutter. (The KG uses a 3-inch star.) Transfer the stars to a parchment-lined (or lightly greased) baking sheet, being careful to leave them 1-2 inches apart for best results. Refrigerate each sheet for 5 minutes before baking. Re-roll unused dough as many times as you like, refrigerating occasionally to keep the dough firm. Note that these cookies are thick. It’s part of their charm.

Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm. KG Alert: Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. Cool on wire racks completely before dipping.

While the finished cookies are cooling, prepare the Pistachio Stardust:

1. In a double boiler, combine the chocolate pieces and the butter. Stir until smooth.

2. Before you turn off the oven, scatter the pistachios into a small baking pan and lightly toast (4-5 minutes). Use a cutting board to chop the pistachios into a relatively fine texture (or however fine you like). While somewhat tedious, chopping nuts by hand will give you a more consistent texture. (Barbara says it also looks more “artisinal.” And, of course, she’s right.)

Once the cookies are cooled, dip two points of each star into the melted chocolate, allowing the excess to drip off, then into the pistachio bits. Return the decorated cookies to the cooling racks until the chocolate is completely firm.

These cookies keep well for up to 10 days in airtight tins. (Separate the layers with wax paper.) You can also freeze the undipped cookies, then thaw and dip them when you’re ready.

One final Kitchen Goddess note: While I do think the star shapes are about the cleverest and most artistic I’ve seen, do not despair if you don’t have a star-shaped cookie cutter. You can always make these any shape you want and dip some portion of each into the chocolate/pistachio mix.

Kitchen Goddess Bonus Recipe: Chocolate Bark

When you have finished dipping all those stars, you’ll find that you have both chocolate and pistachios left over. What can you do? Make bark. Spread the chocolate out in a pan lined with parchment or foil and sprinkle the nuts on top. Add other nuts or dried fruit or (KG’s fave) candied ginger, and let it cool. The KG also likes to sprinkle kosher salt on her bark, and on a frisky day, also a large pinch of Aleppo pepper. Depending on the humidity in your house, you may find the bark firms up better in the fridge. Break it up and store it in an airtight container. Serve on its own or with ice cream/sorbet for dessert.

A Final Note about Star-gazing

If you want a truly eye-opening experience, head to one of the Dark Sky spots in the U.S. These are places far enough from city/highway lighting that the nighttime conditions are essentially the same as they were before the introduction of electric lighting. As your eyes become accustomed to the dark, you’ll be blown away at the number of stars you can see. The Milky Way appears as if by magic, and the universe literally opens up to you.

The brightness of a full moon can wash most stars out of the sky. For most stargazing, you’ll want to plan to be out on or near the new moon, which for this month, began the 21st and runs through the 29th, at which time the visible percentage of the moon will be less than 20%.

And you can make some of these cookies for the trip!

Get Set... – Day 2 of This Year’s Marathon of Sides

What’s cooking? Fava-Mint Pesto

Fava beans are one of those foods I always expect to learn that Martha Stewart popularized. (And yes, I do remember the Hannibal Lecter line from Silence of the Lambs, but I think that reference more likely put people off this fine veggie.) In any case, it’s certainly true that favas currently enjoy a sort of cult following among foodies and chefs, including Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Giada De Laurentiis, and – laughably – 15 recipes at marthastewart.com. The woman is truly incorrigible.

Yet it happens that fava beans – known also as broad beans, field beans, and tic beans – have long been an integral part of cultures as far-flung as China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sudan, and Turkey. Whew. Even tiny Luxembourg, where I’m told (by wikipedia, of course) that smoked collar of pork with broad beans is the national dish. It seems that the U.S. is one of the few countries where these nutty, buttery members of the pea/bean family have not been widely celebrated.

That’s about to change, as the Kitchen Goddess is now a fan. Hahahaha... well, we must have our little joke. But seriously, the expanding popularity of favas in the U.S. has meant that they are much easier to find in your grocery store. (If you don’t find them, try the frozen food aisle.) And although the peak season for them is in the spring, I found some just the other day. I’d been saving today’s recipe for next spring, but was so delighted to see them that I decided what-the-heck. I’ll bet you can find some, too. And if you can’t, try this recipe with lima beans, which are not as flavorful but will take you in the same general direction.

One of the oldest plants in cultivation, fava beans are also one of the most densely nutritious. They’re a cheap and fiber-rich source of lean protein, with no saturated fat or cholesterol. What they do have is lots of thiamin, vitamin K, vitamin B-6, potassium, copper, selenium, zinc and magnesium.

So don’t be put off by the way they look, which is a bit like something Jack might have stolen from the giant. The only small downside is that they take a bit of time to peel:

1. Snap off the end of the pod, and pull the string – like you would with a sugar snap pea.

2. Use a finger or a paring knife to break open the pod along the seam, almost like a zipper. Remove the large, white shells.

3. The meat of the plant is inside those large white shells, and it’s easiest to extract the green insides if you drop the shells in boiling water for 30 seconds, then cool them off in an ice bath.







4. Make a small slit in the white shell, and you can practically squeeze the green insides out.

So, not really hard, just a little tedious. (This is where re-runs of Law & Order will come in handy.) The good news is that the green insides need very little cooking (30 seconds). And once they’re cooked, the pesto comes together quickly with a food processor. So for your Thanksgiving feast, this pesto recipe gives you a tastes-good and good-for-you spread to use on crackers or crostini as an appetizer.

Kitchen Goddess note: The recipe calls for Agrumato olive oil, one of the few items the KG doesn’t have in her larder. It’s an extra-virgin olive oil that has been pressed from olives and lemons, simultaneously. The idea intrigues the KG, but not enough to put off making the recipe. So she bought a lemon-infused olive oil, and was very happy with the results. Then, to satisfy the itch, she ordered some Agrumato. Will let you know how that goes.

The freshness of the lemon and mint flavors works beautifully with the nuttiness of the favas, pistachios, and Parmesan. And the color is outstanding.

Fava-Mint Pesto

Adapted from Los Angeles chef Jessica Largey, in Saveur magazine, June 2015.

Makes 2-2 ½ cups.

Ingredients
3 pounds fresh fava beans in their large, green pods (If you find shelled beans or frozen beans, you’ll need 2 cups of them.)
kosher salt
2 tablespoons raw pistachio nuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced in half
6 tablespoons Agrumato lemon oil or another good quality lemon-infused olive oil
¼ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
¼ cup loosely packed mint leaves, roughly chopped
finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For presentation:
• seeded crackers or French baguette, sliced and toasted
• shaved Manchego cheese or Pecorino Romano, OR goat cheese with small, fresh basil leaves

Directions
Shuck the fava beans from their pods, then peel off and discard the white shells. (See directions above.) You want to have about 2 cups of cleaned fava beans.

Fava beans: the shucking process.

Prepare a bowl of ice with water and set it aside. Drop the beans into a medium saucepan of boiling, salted water, and when the water returns to a boil, cook the fava beans 30 seconds. Drain the beans and plunge them into the ice bath for a minute to stop the cooking and set the color. 

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the pistachios with the garlic until well chopped. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides, then add 2 tablespoons of the lemon oil and pulse again to combine it well with the nuts and garlic.

Add the fava beans and pulse long enough to get a coarse purée. Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl, and add the remaining 4 tablespoons of lemon oil, the Parmigiano-Reggiano, mint, lemon zest, and juice. Continue to pulse long enough to reach a consistency you like. (This spread looks best when it’s slightly rough.) Season with ½ teaspoon of kosher salt and ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with seeded crackers or crostini on the side, or assemble the crostini with shaved Manchego or Pecorino, or goat cheese with a basil leaf.

* * *

I’ve shown the crostini paired with the Curried Butternut Squash Soup from yesterday’s post, but they’d work well with any of these other treats you can find here at Spoon & Ink (click each name for the appropriate link). And all of them can be made ahead of time and reheated on the big day:

• Cold Zucchini Soup
• Cream of Broccoli Soup
• Thai Curry Soup with Broccoli, Spinach, and Cilantro
• Wild Mushroom Soup with Madeira

Come back tomorrow for Smashed Carrots with Feta! We’re marching toward Thanksgiving...