but i can't find it anywhere on this blog,
so i'll just write about it and apologize
if you've heard this 3-second tale before.
it was senior year of college and i was
sitting in the living room of my college apartment,
talking about how i'm always looking for something
that's different, something that you don't see
coming and going, just something. (to be honest,
i remember that part, but i have no idea what i
was talking about.) my friend turned to me and said,
brooke, sometimes there's nothing wrong
with a plain potato chip. (note: i know we weren't
talking about food.)
i know what he was saying.
sometimes life is not about being different.
sometimes it's about the familiar.
it's about the classics.
the thing is, i never want a plain potato chip.
it's plain. i've seen it before. it offers me very little.
i always want the chip that's coated with
craziness.
and so when i buy a cookbook,
i want one that offers me something new.
yes, i want to one day make
chocolate chip cookies
and
brownies that are classic,
but so good that my kids constantly wish
they're eating mine when snacking on someone
else's (am i nuts? yes.).
but, for now, i want the crazy. i want the recipes
that make me look at food and ingredients
differently, while resulting in desserts that are
surprising and unforgettable
(they should taste good, too).
this, it should be noted, is my philosophy
when finding a restaurant, too, which is why
it takes so long for us to find a place to
eat dinner and why it takes me hours
to research places to eat while on vacation.
surprisingly, when i decided to take home
alice medrich's newish book,
chewy
gooey
crispy
crunchy,
it was for both reasons:
this book is full of the classics
and it offers really interesting twists
on recognizable recipes.
still, the first one that i decided i had to make,
spicy carrot masala meringues, fell into the second
category. they looked pretty simple, but
provided several things that i love:
carrots (reminiscent of my favorite cake, carrot),
garam masala (a new love)
and shredded coconut.
i think - if you are glancing quickly and in a rush -
you might look past this recipe.
it involves grinding almonds,
shredding carrots,
giving the recipe 10 minutes to hydrate,
stirring while set in simmering water,
and ultimately, baking.
but, thanks to my food processor and
a decent mise en place,
i think it took me less than 30 minutes
to get these cookies in the oven.
and, then, i let them be,
worrying about the next thing that
i was making, when really, i should
have focused on making sure these
teeny bundles didn't burn their
bottoms in the oven.
so of course, they got a little too
dark underneath. and i got a little
angry. but then i calmed down and
tried one. and here's what i learned
from these cookies:
1) the carrots really taste like carrots.
while that might sound like a charlie
and the chocolate factory rip off,
i was really surprised to find that i could
taste the strands of carrots in a very different
way than you can when the veggies are
baked into a cake. i'm not a huge carrot lover,
so my first bite worried me, but i persevered.
2) you really can taste the garam masala.
i - someone who wants to jam pack everything
she eats with spice and flavor - worried that
1 teaspoon wouldn't be enough to make an
impression, but i was wrong. the spice comes
after and lingers, slightly spicy, cinnamon-laced
and faintly indian-influenced. (i would say the spice
was most pronounced on the second day and decreased
in intensity on each day forward.)
3) they were a little bit sticky, which is something
i'm not crazy about. i did find that the ones that were
closer to burnt on the bottoms were slightly less
sticky, which made me think that my oven might
need to be adjusted. but, i digress.
4) my family, when offered slightly weird cookies -
with carrots and indian spices woven throughout -
at the same time as brownies, will eat an equal
amount of both. and, i'm pretty sure that at least
some of them, if given a choice,
would reach for a plain potato chip.
masala-laced carrot macaroons
adapted from chewy gooey crispy crunchy by alice medrich
this is how i tackled the recipe: i ground the almonds in the food processor, then transferred them to a bowl. next, i used the shredder attachment on the food processor to shred the carrots into the bowl, which i did not bother wiping clean of almonds, since they were ultimately going into the same bowl anyway. the only thing i struggled with with these cookies was how long i really needed to stir the mixture over boiling water. the recipe said 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture had thickened slightly. i went for the full 7 and the mixture did seem thicker, but when it came time to scoop them into the cookie sheet, the ingredients did not hold together, instead, functioning like separates, coated in something wet. i placed the bowl back over the simmering water and stirred until the mixture was scoopable and was able to form something closer to a batter that kept its shape.
ok, i will tell you this. i read this recipe about 10 times before and while making it. and just now, when i went to type it out, i realized it says, "set the bowl directly in a wide skillet of barely simmering water." that's not what i did. instead, i read "set the bowl directly in" as "place the bowl over a double boiler." most likely, that was where i went wrong. below, i'll write as intended.
also, the recipe called for (a generous 1/4 teaspoon of) lemon zest, but i'm never crazy about lemon in baked goods - save for lemon bars - so i omitted it.
3/4 cup whole almonds
2-3 carrots, peeled
2 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon garam masala (alice also offers that you could use cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened dried coconut
position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. heat oven to 325˚f.
in food processor, pulse almonds 10 times, or until chopped (you're looking for almonds that are both large chopped and finely chopped). set aside.
on box grater or using shredder attachment on your food processor, grate carrots. measure 1 1/3 cups lightly packed carrot (reserve remaining for another use).
in medium stainless steel bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy. stir in sugar, garam masala and salt. stir in carrots, coconut and almonds. set aside 10 minutes, to hydrate the mixture.
bring a large wide skillet of water to a very low simmer; place bowl in skillet. cook 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture is very hot and the liquid turns from opaque to translucent, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, making sure to scrape the bottom.
use 1 heaping teaspoon measure to drop cookies on two parchment-lined baking sheets. bake 20-25 minutes, or until the cookies are deep golden on the bottom (check by turning up the corner of the parchment paper), rotating the pans top to bottom and left to right midway through baking.
place pans on cooling racks and cool completely. remove from parchment paper and store cookies, loosely covered, 3-4 days.
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