Nadine Levy Redzepi’s coconut tops
This is the ideal way to use up extra egg whites when I’ve made mayo or cured eggs. Less a dessert than a confection and similar to American macaroons, these sweet and sticky little treats come together in just minutes. As an added bonus, they are gluten-free.
Makes 12-14
desiccated coconut 260g, or more as needed
brown sugar 130g
granulated sugar 130g
egg whites 4 large
dark chocolate 140g, minimum 50% cacao solids
flaky sea salt 1 tsp, or to taste
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with baking paper.
Cook the coconut, brown sugar, granulated sugar and egg whites in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until the sugars have melted. If the mixture is too runny to shape by the spoonful, add more coconut.
Using 2 soup spoons, drop heaped tablespoonfuls of the coconut mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 5cm apart. They do not have to be perfect, but try to make them about the same size.
Bake until the coconut mounds are golden brown, 18-20 minutes. Let stand on the baking sheets until completely cool.
Bring about 2.5cm of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Turn the heat to low so the water is barely simmering. Place a glass or metal bowl over the pan. Coarsely chop the chocolate and put in the bowl. Let the chocolate melt, stirring occasionally, until it is almost, but not completely, melted. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and let the chocolate stand, stirring often, until fully melted and slightly cooled and thickened.
The bottom of the bowl shouldn’t touch the simmering water as the chocolate melts. If the chocolate gets too hot, it can become grainy.
One at a time, dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate, just so the chocolate comes about 3mm up the sides of the cookie. Transfer the cookies to a plate, chocolate side up. Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle with the salt. Refrigerate the cookies until the chocolate hardens, about 15 minutes, then turn them upright and cover with clingfilm or transfer to a covered container. Store in the refrigerator, but serve at room temperature.
Sprinkle chopped nuts, ground freeze-dried berries or extra desiccated coconut over the chocolate just after dipping them in the melted chocolate, if you like.
From Downtime by Nadine Levy Redzepi (Ebury Press, £27)
Judy Rodgers’s tuiles
These “tiles” require a bit of fussing to make, and are fragile to boot, but they are so elegant and delicious as to merit the trouble. I caution you to set up your cooling operation in a no-traffic zone – I once spent hours baking more than a hundred tuiles for a charity dinner. Every whack of a cleaver, every footstep, sent some of the fragile tiles to the floor. We christened the replacement batch “floor tiles” because we opted to leave them flat. This sensible alternative tastes the same and precludes calamity.
For about 28
salted butter 2 tbsp
caster sugar 55g
sliced almonds 70g
plain flour 2 tbsp
egg whites 60ml (1-2)
salt ⅛ tsp
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Set a mixing bowl near or on the oven to warm through.
Melt the butter in a pan over low heat, and monitor it as it turns a pale hazelnut colour and releases its nutty fragrance. Promptly pour into the warm mixing bowl. Add the sugar, almonds, flour and egg whites, and stir and fold gently to combine. Don’t beat. Add the salt and taste. It should taste salty-sweet. The batter will be viscous, ropey and glossy.
Spoon 1 heaped teaspoonful of the batter onto a nonstick cookie sheet and use a fork to spread it into a rough 7.5cm circle, barely thicker than a slice of almond. Try to scoop about half almonds, half batter for each tuile, and dip the fork into a glass of water between efforts, to keep it from “grabbing” the batter as you spread it into translucent puddles. The batter will spread a little more as it bakes, so leave 2.5cm between each puddle. You can fit about 9 tuiles on a 35cm-square baking sheet.
Bake until the cookies are mottled golden in the centre and tea coloured on the edges, about 3-5 minutes. Because many ovens don’t bake evenly, the cookies may not either. Watch and either rotate the cookie sheet to correct for this or remove any tuiles that brown much more quickly than the rest.
Pull the sheet from the oven and immediately transfer the tuiles one by one to the chosen cooling spot with a thin-bladed metal spatula. If the cookies start to stick before you get them all off the sheet, you need only return it to the oven for long enough to remelt the caramelised sugar, then peel them off while they are still pliable. Wipe the baking sheet clean between batches. (To speed up production, you may want to use two sheets, spreading the batter on the second one while the first set of cookies bakes.)
The caramelised sugar will readily grab humidity out of the air, which could quickly soften the cookies and collapse their curves, so as soon as they are cool, place the tuiles, cantilevered like roof tiles, in an airtight container.
NOTE If you don’t have a nonstick baking sheet, use a heavy-gauge regular sheet, brushed with clarified unsalted butter. Wipe and rebutter between batches.
From Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers (WW Norton & Co, £28.99)
Rose Carrarini’s hot gingernut biscuits
I used to buy these from Sally Clarke’s shop, Clarkes, on Kensington Church Street in London. This is her recipe, with a little less sugar and a little more ginger! If you think the biscuits may be too hot for you, don’t add the cayenne.
Makes about 24 biscuits
unsalted butter 200g, softened, plus extra for greasing
self-raising flour 440g
caster sugar 150g
ground ginger 3 tbsp
cayenne pepper a pinch (optional)
bicarbonate of soda 1½ tbsp
golden syrup 240g (or light corn syrup), warmed
treacle 40g (or molasses), warmed
Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3. Butter a baking tray or line it with parchment paper. If you are using a food processor, process the butter with the flour, sugar, ground ginger, cayenne if using, and bicarbonate of soda until they are well mixed. Otherwise, cut the butter into small pieces, mix the dry ingredients together and rub the butter into them with your fingers, and bring together to make a dough. Add the golden syrup and treacle. Break off pieces and shape them into 3cm balls.
Place well apart on the prepared tray and bake for about 10 minutes. The biscuits will rise and then fall a little. They must be crisp on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. Cool.
From Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery, by Rose Carrarini (Phaidon Press, £19.95)
Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s custard yo-yos with roasted rhubarb icing
Yo-yos were a staple of Helen’s Antipodean childhood. As an alternative to custard powder, you could use cornflour. It won’t have the wonderful old-school yellow of custard powder but the yo-yos will still taste great: you might just want to up the amount of vanilla extract you use. And if you’re not opposed to food colouring, a drop or two of yellow will also help to simulate the colour of the custard.
The icing can be made up to two days in advance and kept in the fridge. The dough tends to go very hard if left in the fridge, so it is best to roll them on the day the dough is made.
Makes 15
plain flour 175g, plus 1 tbsp extra for dusting
custard powder 65g (or cornflour)
icing sugar 65g
salt ⅛ tsp
unsalted butter 170g, at room temperature, cubed
vanilla extract ¼ tsp (or ½ tsp, if using cornflour)
For the rhubarb icing
rhubarb 1 small stick (70g), trimmed, washed and cut into roughly 3cm lengths
unsalted butter 65g, at room temperature, cubed
icing sugar 130g
lemon juice ½ tsp
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a small baking tray with baking parchment.
To make the rhubarb icing, spread the rhubarb out on the lined baking tray and roast for 30 minutes, or until softened. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before transferring to the bowl of a food processor. Blitz to a puree, then add the butter. Sift in the icing sugar, add the lemon juice and continue to process for a couple of minutes: it seems like a long time, but you want it to thicken, which it will do as it’s whipped. Transfer to a small bowl and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up. You don’t want the icing to be at all runny, so add a little more icing sugar if necessary: it needs to hold when sandwiched between the biscuits.
To make the dough, sift the flour, custard powder, icing sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Mix on a low speed to combine. Add the butter and continue to mix on a low speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 30 seconds, until the dough comes together.
Reduce the oven temperature to 170C/gas mark 3. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Pinch off small bits of dough and use your hands to roll them into 3cm round balls: you should have enough dough for 30 balls, about 15g each. Place them on the lined baking trays, spaced about 4cm apart. Dip the back prongs of a small fork in the remaining flour before gently but firmly pressing down into the middle of each biscuit: the balls will increase to about 3.5cm wide, but don’t press all the way to the bottom; you just want to create firm lines in the dough rather than force them to spread out.
Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through, until the biscuits are dry on the bottom but have not taken on too much colour. They will be relatively fragile when warm but still firm to the touch. Set aside on the trays to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To assemble, sandwich pairs of biscuits together with the icing, with the “forked” sides facing outwards. You should use about 15g of icing in each biscuit. It will seem like a lot, but trust us – the biscuits can take it.
Once assembled, the yo-yos can be kept for up to 5 days in an airtight container, so long as they are not anywhere too warm (in which case the icing will soften).
From Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (Ebury Press, £27)
Claire Ptak’s egg-yolk chocolate chip cookies
At Violet, we use an ice-cream scoop to portion the cookies perfectly, but at home you can use two dessertspoons.
Makes 16 large cookies
unsalted butter 250g, softened
light brown sugar 200g
caster sugar 100g
vanilla ½ tsp
egg yolks 3
plain flour 325g
fine sea salt 1¼ tsp
bicarbonate of soda ¾ tsp
dark chocolate chips 250g, or broken-up bar of your favourite chocolate
Line a small baking tray or baking tin (one that will fit inside your freezer) with parchment paper.
Beat the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer until combined but not too creamy – you are not aiming for light and fluffy here, as that would make the cookies too cakey. Add the vanilla and the egg yolks and mix well.
In another bowl weigh out the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and whisk together well. Add this to the butter and egg mixture along with the chocolate, and mix until combined.
Scoop individual portions of cookie dough on to the lined baking tray or tin. If using spoons, pat each portion into a little ball. Cover with clingfilm and freeze for at least 1 hour, or up to a month. If you are pushed for time, or simply impatient, you can bake them straightaway, but the cookies will be slightly flatter and less even than the ones here.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a large baking tray or tin with parchment paper and arrange the cookies evenly on the tray, leaving enough space between each one so they have room to expand during baking (when they will almost double in size). If you are baking from frozen, allow the cookies 5-10 minutes out of the freezer before placing in the oven.
Bake for 18 minutes, until the centre of each cookie is slightly soft and underbaked but the edges are crispy and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before serving.
These cookies will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
From The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak (Square Peg, £20)
