Cookies

Final Idea: The “Pasta” cookie
The pasta cookie is intended to invoke some feeling of Italian cuisine without actually being an Italian cookie.Very nearly a pastry, this cookie incorporates semolina flour, basil, tomatoes, olive oil, and lemon.
Tomato and basil are rarely used in non-savory foods of any kind, which is a shame. The combination works surprisingly well in a cookie, and rewards those brave enough to try it with a sweet, (but not too sweet) bright and unique treat. Using a quality olive oil instead of butter in a cookie dough results in a (relatively) healthy desert and helps to complete the international experience.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
The “Pasta”
-2 Cups Flour
-1 Cup Semolina
-1 Cup Sugar (or less to taste)
-3/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-3/4 Cup warm water
-2 eggs (separated)
-2 tsp lemon zest
-1/4 teaspoon yeast
-1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
The “Sauce”
-1 cup quality powdered sugar, sifted
-2 Tbsp tomato paste
-dash salt
-2 Tbsp lemon juice
-handful fresh basil (about 8 leaves on stem)
-2 Tbsp Corn starch
-1/4 cup water
Procedure:
Combine semolina, sugar, salt, and olive oil with a mixer.
Add 2 egg yolks and lemon zest.
Stir yeast into warm water then mix into dough, the combination should be quite wet.
Add flour a little at a time, pausing to let mixture combine after each addition. When the dough is forming into a ball and cleaning the sides of the bowl stop adding flour. The dough should be fairly wet but not sticking to your hands. It should be a fairly easy dough to work. Kneed the dough for a few minutes just to combine the the ingredients and smooth the texture.
Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour (overnight is best).
Begin the “Sauce” at this point if possible.

The dough should now be easy to work and not too sticky.
Separate the dough in to equally sized balls (approximately 50g).
Divide a ball into 3 pieces and, on a lightly floured surface, roll each into a long (approximately 15") “noodle”.
Lay the three noodles across each other to form a sort of star shape and press the center very flat to join them. This will be the base for the cookie.

Pull the long(ish)est legs across the other two so they point in opposite directions again



Continue until the ends are shorter than about 2" and pull them, one over the others again and finish the ends in the center of the cookie, pushing the center flat and shaping the “nest”. The center must be very flat before baking and the cookies needn’t be perfectly shaped, it is supposed to resemble a pile of pasta you see.
Brush the cookies with egg whites (if you like) for a nice shine and sprinkle with sugar (for funsies).
Bake in a preheated oven at 325 (convection) or 340 non, for about 15–18 minutes until they start to brown, turning the cookies half way through for an even bake.

The Sauce:
Whisk tomato paste, lemon juice, salt, powdered sugar, corn starch and water in a pot. It should be a light orangy pink color. Add basil and stir over a low burner until the mixture darkens and becomes quite thick. Remove basil and let the mixture cool to near room temperature.

Assembling the cookies:
Spoon cooled sauce into the center of each cookie. If you get it at the right temperature it spoons nicely, wait too long and it gets pretty stiff.
Idea Generation:
I wanted to make a cookie that “felt” like somewhere that I’ve traveled or somewhere I’d like to travel. I didn’t want to simply adapt a regional recipe or gain inspiration from an existing cookie from one of these places. I wanted something that would represent both the place and its cuisine, but as a cookie.
I started in Europe:
Germany:
— Chocolate and Rosemary with chocolate glaze (Like the german cake I used to eat).

— Blue Cheese and liquid smoke savory cookie
Ireland:
— Thyme and mint

— Browned butter with rye flour
Japan:
— Wasabi and Ginger Narutomaki style cookie

— Plum and lychee fruit cookie
— Rice flour cookie with red bean center
— Seaweed (for salt) cookie with dashi and???
Italy:
— Durum and olive oil with lemon

— Pasta cookie (developed after the drop cookie failure)

Outer Space!:
— Perfectly round cinnamon and cayenne (because fire and zero g!)
Other :
I considered a slow braised meat cookie with cardamom but couldn’t attribute it to a specific culture.
Idea 1 Test:
Semolina, basil, and olive oil cookies:
My initial test was with semolina, lemon and a tomato glaze. I wanted to see how semolina and olive oil baked in a traditional “drop” cookie configuration. I also threw some basil in there.

The batter came out wetter than I anticipated. I believe the semolina was not up to the task of binding using just the olive oil and eggs.
I must have put too much baking power/soda in the mix too because the test batch came out very fluffy!
I learned that semolina cookies trend on the dry side. They would be an excellent cornbread type dinner roll substitute!

I also experimented with a tomato “glaze”. This used basil and fresh tomatoes from my garden. I found the fresh tomatoes to be too wet and mild in flavor for the impact that I wanted to achieve.
Idea 2 Test:
Narutomaki cookies with rice flour:
Narutomaki are Japanese fish cakes, often white with a pink center. I usually find them in a bowl of noodles and I think they are an item unique to a Japanese dining experience.


My attempt worked out not-so-good.
I wanted to use rice flour, which I’ve never cooked with. I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to use.
Rice flour tends to be much coarser than wheat flour and doesn’t hold together well by itself.
I made two flavors of dough. One with Wasabi and dashi for the white external section of the cookie and the other with red bean and pickled ginger. I was particularly excited about the red bean and ginger. The ginger really popped.


I laid the two contrasting doughs and rolled them into a log. I intended to slice them into cookies and bake them after. I found that I needed to chill the dough in order to make it workable at all. It remained difficult to cut and the beautiful “swirls” were nowhere to be found. The flavor was OK but I could have done without the dashi. It lent a meatiness to the finished bake that I wasn’t expecting. Something to consider in future savory bakes I suppose. I was pleased at the combination of ginger and wasabi and didn’t find that they were out of place in a cookie at all.
Iteration
I modified the semolina dough to exclude baking powder and include yeast since I understand the science a little better. I then tested some simple “noodles”. I decided to insert what I had learned from the previous cookie into a new “pasta bowl”. I feel like the presentation is a little more in line with the intent to present a specific style of food in a cookie in an obvious way. I also think the noodles give the cookie an interesting texture. I attempted another tomato “frosting” with tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes. This ended up too far on the other end of the tomatoey spectrum.

The noodle dough was pretty easy to dial in after I discovered that regular flour was required for a dough to hold together. (a lesson learned from the rice flour) The combination of semolina, lemon, and olive oil is interesting and tasty. I decided to go easy on the sugar in order to give myself more freedom to add sweetener to the sauce and to let the subtle flavors in the dough present themselves.
One of the things I realized in creating the sauce was that it didn’t require any fat.
I tried to add butter since some of my favorite pasta sauces use plenty of it, but I found that it tipped the whole experience too far to the savory side and the balance didn’t work. (by “didn’t work” I mean it was gross. Don’t try it.)
Another was that in order to get a vibrant red, it was necessary to heat the sugar/tomato paste mixture.
This created many frustrations for me. Finding the right mixture of thickeners and flavor, and determining the correct set times is tricky. I’m still not sure I have it and may try some experiments with gelatin in the future.

Timeline:
Wednesday 5th: Prepare Timeline
Thursday 6th: Develop Ideas and document process. Discuss possibilities and research ingredient options and baking methods
Friday 7th: Refine options and gather ingredients
Saturday 8th: Prepare and bake first iteration of 3 test cookies and subject test victim(s) to experiments. Record images and reactions
Sunday 9th: Prepare and bake second iteration and with refined options and determine final cookie for project.
Monday 10th: Collect elements for blog and test publishing format. Consider alternatives and remake final cookie if necessary.
Tuesday 11th: Morning — Document any missing elements
Wednesday 12th: Finalize blog post and publish. Bake backup cookie in case Thursday morning bake doesn’t go well.
Thursday 13th: Bake final cookie for presentation.
University of Minnesota, UMN, PDES2701, Fall 2018
