What skills or lessons have you learned recently?

I went to my annual Christmas potluck for work that my manager hosts, and I decided to make cream puffs. I had made them two years ago and everyone seemed to like them, but last year I did Oreo truffles instead. I figured I would bring the cream puffs back, though, because I had stumbled across a new recipe on YouTube. I also still wanted to do something Oreo related, so I picked up extra dark dutch-process cocoa powder.

Choux au Craquelin was the new recipe, and I won’t pretend that I knew exactly what I was doing in the first place. I tried to follow the recipe, but I wanted to make a bigger batch so I doubled the ingredients.

Mistake number 1: Assuming proportions for certain things always scale the same as others. The first batch of choux dough I tried making was a disaster. When it came time to mix in the eggs, one at a time, I figured I would just follow the doubled quantity. Instead of thinking to myself “hmmm…this is looking the way I recall…I should stop adding eggs” I just went for it and kept adding the eggs. I probably could have gotten away with one or two less. The end result was too thin and practically poured out of the tip of the bag when I went to pipe it onto the baking sheets. Thankfully I had planned ahead and bought extra ingredients.

Mistake number 2: Sometimes, substitutions for ingredients require more (or less) than you think. I was planning to make an Oreo-esque cream puff (thus the extra dark cocoa powder) and I wanted to make the craquelin topping stand out in a way that screamed “Oreo cookies and cream” so I tried to substitute baking shortening for the butter. According to what I had read online and on the side of the packaging, it was practically a one for one substitution. Unfortunately, there is something about butter (and probably the ratios of flour and sugar) that requires a little extra if you want to substitute it with shortening. I just wanted to have the craquelin stay white after baking, which the few test ones I made did end up working out that way. The texture wasn’t right though, and it basically crumbled off in spots. So I scrapped that.

So while the first batch of regular choux dough was a bust, I learned from that mistake. I found a handy tip through SeriousEats about measuring the temperature of the dough when it’s being cooked on the stove. I needed to get it up to 175°F so that the flour gelatinizes. So, with that, I made a successful batch of regular choux dough, bagged it up, and set aside to start on the Oreo choux dough and another try at the craquelin. The second attempt at the craquelin was also a bust, but the Oreo choux dough came out great on the first try.

Eventually, over the course of about 4-5 hours of baking and experimenting, I did end up with very dark cream puffs that tasted very much like the cookie part of an Oreo. It was about 1:00AM at this point so I put everything away and saved the regular choux dough for the next afternoon before the party.

Definitely a learning experience. I also have a lot of extra cocoa powder left over, so I’ll probably be making cream puffs for the next several months. Oh well, makes for good practice!

What food would you say is your specialty?

Cooking is one of those things that people either really enjoy, loathe, or simply tolerate. My family loves to cook. We like the sense of adventure one can get from trying a new recipe or just throwing stuff together to see what we can create.

If I had to pick just one thing to say is my specialty, then I don’t know that I could give a strong answer.

That being said, baking is a different story. Baking is more measured and “scientific” than cooking because every ingredient in a baked good needs to be precisely used and balanced to reach the desired end result. Cooking you can just “go with your heart” and disregard a recipe when they say 2 cloves of garlic (to which I say fuck that and toss in 5 or more because I love garlic.)

So, in the realm of baking I would say my specialty would be cookies, although lately I’ve gotten better at making homemade pizza dough.

I love the kinds of cookies that aren’t too hard, not super crispy and crumbly. The outside and the edges can have a bit of crispiness because that texture adds to the experience, but I like somewhat soft and chewy cookies. If you all want I’ll gladly share my secret for these cookies. Super simple modification to any cookie recipe. I mean it, just about every cookie recipe I’ve followed and applied this trick to has come out amazing.

All you need is to pick whatever recipe you like, add a box of instant pudding mix and an egg to offset the additional dry ingredient. (So if your recipe calls for one egg and you add the dry pudding mix you’ll want to add a second egg.)

The fun part here is you can try different flavor combinations! I have two favorite flavor combinations for these cookies. One of my favorites has a white chip orange creamsicle kind of flavor and the other is a minty Grinch cookie.

Regardless of which recipe you follow and instant pudding flavor you choose to go with, my tip is to mix the instant pudding with room temp softened butter at the very beginning.

So for the white chip orange creamsicle flavored cookie, you can take a standard sugar cookie recipe or box mix from the store and add a box of vanilla instant pudding (I sometimes use the cheesecake flavor) then add an additional egg along with 1 to 2 teaspoons of orange extract followed by some orange food coloring or a mix of red and yellow to your desired shade of orange. Be careful with the orange extract, it can be more potent than vanilla extract in a baking recipe. When the dough comes together fold in about 2/3rds to 1 Cup of white chocolate chips. Most cookie recipes probably say to bake them for like 8-10 minutes, but because of the pudding mix and extra egg you’ll want to keep an eye on them and make sure they bake properly. I’ve had them bake for 9-13 minutes depending on the oven.

For the minty Grinch cookie I take a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, add a box of Oreo Cookies and Cream instant pudding mix and the additional egg, as well as green food coloring to the desired shade of pastel mint green. Then substitute mint flavoring extract for the vanilla, and if you have them you can substitute Andes Mint pieces for the chocolate chips. The same tip for bake time applies here.

And that’s it! Perfect chewy cookies with a light crispiness to the edges.