ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICHES

There was a recent article in Bon Appetite with some recipes for making perfect cookies for ice cream sams. They were thin and crisp, one of which read a bit overly fussy to me, but I can appreciate the extra effort to get something just right. That is not my life right now, I'm more about ease and speed, but I appreciate it. They looked pretty and would undoubtedly be delicious, but I'm quite happy with our current "house cookie" acting as book ends to a creamy scoop of ice cream... or as a skillet cookie, I'll put those notes below. The recipe started at Tara O'Brady's chocolate chip cookies but they're looking pretty far from her original at this point, so I'll leave you her words here. I replace some of the flour with oats and reduce the leaveners for this reason (and also because I don't want a poofy cookie for an ice cream sam). I skip browning the butter out of sheer laziness, though I assume you could handle that step if you wish. I also let the dough sit overnight a la Jacques Torres which he swears makes all the difference and is habit for me now. All sorts of cookie science here on Serious Eats. 

I made these for a dinner with friends, which is great because a sit in the freezer is necessary, making them a great make-ahead dessert. When you eat them straight off assembly, the cookie and ice cream are both too soft and they make a big mess. When you assemble them, and then freeze them again together, they become the same temperature/consistency, so they are just easier to eat. Because thin and crispy is also delicious and homemade is not always possible, in a pinch, the Tate's cookies (or gluten free chocolate chip ones from Trader Joes which are private labeled from Tate's) are perfect. Just have dinner with friends, that's the important part. xo

ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICHES // Makes 14ish
To make this a skillet cookie, simply press half the dough into an 10" skillet and cook it at 325' for about 20 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. The center will still look tender but that's ok, it will set more as it cools. Let it rest for 10 minutes before topping it with ice cream and serving.  
You can halve this cookie recipe and end up with about 16 cookies/8 sandwiches. Specifics will depend on how big you make your dough balls. 

2 sticks/ 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar or muscavado sugar
3/4 cup natural cane sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips
flaky salt, for finishing
1 quart vanilla bean, coffee, or chocolate chip ice cream

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and both sugars for a good two minutes. Add the eggs, salt and vanilla and mix again, scraping down the sides so it is all incorporated. Add the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix again until just combined, do not overmix. Add the chocolate, one more quick mix, scrape down the sides, and store it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, up to overnight. 
Preheat the oven to 350'. Make golfball size rounds and arrange them on cookie sheets or baking pans. Press down the center gently and sprinkle them with flaky salt. Bake on the middle rack for 8-10 minutes until the edges are browned and the center still looks slightly tender. You want them slightly underdone. Remove the tray, smack it on the counter, and let them cool a few minutes. Remove from the tray and let them cool completely on a wire rack. 
Assemble each sandwich with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center and then gently smush them together to press down the ice cream ball. Freeze them for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. 
*I put a long skinny tupperware in the freezer and just stash them in there as I assemble. They should last for about a week, or longer if you keep them individually wrapped in plastic wrap. 

STRAWBERRY + RHUBARB YOGURT CAKE

My oven currently smells like it's burning off oil that had dripped to the bottom at some point. I should clean it; it really does interrupt the beautiful waft that comes from a springy cake in the oven. I have a handful of prospective projects I am back and forth about between two email addresses that while made with good intentions to keep personal and work separate, have done no such thing. There are threads regarding a potential cookbook, a recipe and article assignment about avocados, a menu card for our fundraiser dinner and open items to finish filing our taxes. Woven in between are emails about Curran's first (overdue apparently, oops) dentist appointment, follow up on invoices and the receipt for that weird oversized shirt I ordered from Nordstrom that I keep there to remind myself to return it some night after the kids are down. I never feel like doing that once the kids are down... but I also don't like going to the mall with two spirited toddlers so you may find me in a terribly unflattering oversized shirt. Anyway. I get stuck on writing here because the balls I am trying to keep in the air follow no apparent rhyme or reason or lessons learned. It feels like a simple yogurt cake on top of the stove is a constant to a life that seems to be buzzing by faster than I can keep up with. The fruit shrinks in after some time in the oven, and because fruit has a lot of water in it, the result is almost custardy which I don't mind at all once it cools. The jammy fruit and cake batter are almost tough to distinguish. It works for breakfast or an incentive for a moderately potty trained little boy or something to bring along on a date with my nieces. There is no frosting or chocolate or decadence really, it's an everyday sort of cake and the only kind that feels right to make around here lately. 

STRAWBERRY + RHUBARB YOGURT CAKE // one 8" cake
Recipe adapted from Sarah Waldmans Feeding a Family

I swapped in half strawberries for Sarah's exclusively rhubarb cake because I love the combination and my wee people are fans. I also cut down on the sugar slightly from her suggestion and found it to be plenty sweet. If you don't stock spelt flour, completely all purpose is fine, the texture would probably be better, I just like to sneak some whole grains in there.
You can make this dairy free by replacing the yogurt for a plant based yogurt and the butter for a scant 1/2 cup of coconut oil. It's a pretty forgiving cake. 

3/4 cup full fat yogurt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup/1 stick unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. grated gingerroot (or twice as much crystallized ginger pieces)
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup spelt flour (or more unbleached all purpose)
1 cup muscavado or brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup 1" diced rhubarb
1 cup diced strawberries

turbinado sugar, for finishing
creme fraiche, yogurt or ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350' and grease an 8" pan (square, springform, cakepan etc.).

In one mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, butter, vanilla and ginger. Set aside. 
In another mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, salt, baking soda and stir to mix. Mix the fruit into the dry mix (this helps to keep the fruit from sinking) then gently combine the wet and dry mix together. 
Pour the mix into your prepared pan and generously sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar.
Bake on the middle rack for around 45-50 minutes until the cake is browned on top and a toothpick test shows that the center is cooked through.
Remove to cool so the cake sets. Serve with creme fraiche, yogurt or ice cream.
Cake will keep covered on the counter for two days, beyond that, store it in the fridge as it has a lot of moisture to it. 

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PUMPKIN PIE TART

Well that didn't turn out how I thought it would. I was so excited yesterday - grateful that at one point in history women weren't considered important or intelligent enough to even vote and now one may be president! That is huge. But today, feeling pretty disappointed that he is the best we could come up with, and with that, the vicious comments and hate that are being tossed around far lightly. I was encouraged by Glennon Doyle's words: 

Woman Warriors have always made beautiful worlds out of nothing.

Every time a child gets sick or a man leaves or a parent dies or a community crumbles, the women are the ones who carry on, who do what must be done in the midst of their own pain. While those around them fall away, the women hold the sick and nurse the the weak, put food on the table, carry their families' sadness and anger and love and hope. They keep showing up for their lives and their people with the odds stacked against them and the weight of the world on their shoulders. They never stop singing songs of truth, love, and redemption in the face of hopelessness. They are inexhaustible, ferocious, relentless.

We've been Warriors all along, and nothing will change that.

We are not what just happened. But we might be what we do next.

The world needs our relentless, inexhaustible, fierce, boundlessness love today more than it ever has before. So let's do what we do: Let's feed some hungry babies and clothe some hurting families and get the heat turned back on for as many as possible.

- Glennon Doyle Melton

I signed up for a vegetable side and a non-pie dessert for Thanksgiving. I didn't necessarily have any dishes in mind besides not liking overcooked green beans or marshmallows on my sweet potatoes and generally not liking pie. We are having dinner with Hugh's side and there are a lot of people - three generations down from a family of five kids and it makes for a full house and a pretty random spread sometimes. So what is "of the season" but not pie? I understand the buttery crust is a vehicle for flavorful fillings and some people are all about it, but I will take most anything else before pie. The crust is a little plain and the filling usually overly sweet to compensate and I'll just take a scoop of the a la mode portion please. I tinkered with a pumpkin pie filling, cleaning it up as much as I could, and made a rough crust of dates, nuts and oats to carry it. Before the whipped topping, it resembles a breakfast good, I would suggest it for such - kind of like granola on the bottom with barely sweetened squash goodness on top. I heaped creaminess on top and sprinkled a little turbinado sugar and I'm already excited to eat this again in a couple weeks.

Remember we get to choose to be good to each other. 

* If you live in the So Cal area, come to Heritage Mercantile in Costa Mesa this Sunday, 11/13 for a small book event! There will be snacks and drinks and beautiful home and kitchen goods so come hang and maybe do a little holiday shopping. You can rsvp on their site. Hope to see you!

PUMPKIN PIE TART // Serves 8-10

The tart is both gluten and dairy free and then I leave the whipped topping decision to you. You could make a coconut cream or go straight whipping cream and both options are in the published recipe. If you are taking this somewhere to share, a hot tip I learned was to add a couple tablespoons of mascarpone or cream cheese to the whipping cream and it'll help it stay set for longer. I also love the depth of flavor. This direction does take us away from the dairy free camp but is delicious. The coconut cream should keep fine as long as it is cold. 

Crust:

• 1 cup pecan pieces

• 1 cup rolled oats

• 1/4 cup crystallized ginger

• 6-7 soft Medjool dates, pitted and halved

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened

• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Cake:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup full fat coconut milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1/4 cup natural cane sugar

• Turbinado sugar or toasted pecan pieces, for garnish

Coconut Whipping Cream:

• 1 14-oz. can full fat coconut milk, chilled overnight

• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Maple Whipping Cream:

• 8 ounces heavy whipping cream, chilled

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 tablespoons real maple syrup

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Prepare an 8” or 9” springform pan with the bottom lip upside down, so the tart is easy to remove. Line pan with parchment paper and grease with coconut oil.

In a food processor, pulse pecans and oats together until a coarse meal forms. Add ginger, dates, coconut oil, and salt, and pulse until it begins to stick together. You should be able to press it together between your fingertips; add one more date if needed. Press mixture into the bottom of the springform pan and chill for 10-20 minutes. Prick the bottom with a fork and bake for 10 minutes until just toasted on top. Remove to cool completely.

While the crust cools, make the cake. Bump the oven up to 350°F. Combine pumpkin puree and eggs in a bowl, and whisk well to combine. Add coconut milk, vanilla, pie spice, sea salt, both sugars, and mix well. Spread on top of the crust and smooth the top. Bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes until just set. Remove to set and cool completely.

This much can be done up to two days in advance, covered with plastic wrap and kept in the fridge.

Once cooled, garnish cake with whipped cream or coconut cream, and turbinado sugar or toasted pecans, and serve.

For the dairy-free coconut cream:

Scoop the firm coconut cream layer off the top of coconut milk and reserve for smoothies or another use. In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, blend the chunks of coconut cream until broken down. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat another minute or two until light and creamy. Coconut whipped cream is best served immediately. It can be stored, covered, in the fridge—but it will turn hard, so you will need to whip it again to soften.

For the maple whiping cream:

In a stand or electric mixer, whisk cold cream until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and maple, and whip to combine.

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