“Should I talk? [LAUGHS]:” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi. I’m Sam. I’m here in the ‘NYT’
Cooking studio to make My cheesecake-stuffed
ginger cookies. So this is a chewy
ginger cookie Stuffed with a set
cheesecake filling. So there’s a secret
special surprise inside. I think the fresh ginger,
the crystallized ginger, The black pepper gives them
a lot of wonderful spiciness, And then the cheesecake
is creamy and rich And sort of mellows
the whole thing out. It’s a good combination. It’s my favorite week. So we’re going to start by
making the cheesecake filling, Which has to freeze before
you put it in the cookies, So that’s why we’re
starting with it. You want to start with
really soft cream cheese Because otherwise it
gets a little lumpy. Ooh, this is perf. And then we’ll add our
confectioners sugar. So if your cream
cheese is cold, You can take it
out of the foil And throw it in the
microwave on 50 percent Power for 10 seconds. You don’t want to melt it, but
just soften it up a little. Yeah, take the foil off. [LAUGHS] Now we’re putting in egg
yolk, which will help it set And then also give it a
little bit of richness. Ooh, I broke it, but it’s
not the end of the world. Get in there.
And then a little
bit of vanilla. You could flavor it with
other things if you wanted. I feel like orange blossom
would be really good, Or almond extract
would be good. And that’s it. So now we have to
scoop this onto a tray So that we can freeze
little dollops. I think the easiest
way to do that is To put it into a pastry
bag and just pipe them out. If you don’t have
a pastry bag, You can use a
resealable plastic bag. And the recipe makes
between 18 and 24 cookies. We’ll do 24, so we’ll
do 6 times 4, right? Yeah. It doesn’t matter what they
look like as long as they’re Equal size, roughly.” “I thought you were
going to make 24. Am I wrong?” “Didn’t I make 24?” “Yeah, that’s 5 by 4.” “Oops. Well, today we’re making 20. [LAUGHS]: All
right, that’s O.K. Go on vacation for two
weeks, and you can’t do Multiplication anymore. What are you going to do? It’ll be fine. I said 18 to 24, so
today we’re making 20. O.K., so now these have to go
into the freezer until they’re Frozen solid. Now we’re going
to make the dough. We have to chop up some
crystallized ginger. You can leave this out
if you can’t find it, But I just think it adds
something so nice because it’s
Sort of peppery in a nice way. It has a good bite to it. Fresh ginger. I’m not even going to
peel it, just wash it, But you don’t ever
have to peel ginger. And this is nice, too, because
it’s all those different — You have ground
ginger, fresh ginger, And crystallized ginger, so
ginger forward in a good way. That’s about 2
tablespoons, I think. So now we can make the dough. So we’ll start with our flour. So I put black
pepper in these, Which amps up the
spiciness of them, But I’m just going
to eyeball it. Make sure you give it a good
whisk so that baking soda gets Well combined. Did I forget to add salt? I did. I believe in properly
seasoned baked goods. I would say use salted
butter if you have it. I’m a real big proponent
of salted butter in baking. I think it’s great, but I
don’t know what I called — What did I call for here?” “You did call for
salted butter.” “Oh, I did call
for salted butter? Good. I meant it. I didn’t measure that, but
I think that looks like 1/2 A cup. Ooh. It’ll be fine. So if you want to
make about 20 cookies, Each one should
be about 45 grams, Which is also a
2-inch round ball.
And you should form all your
cookies first because you Don’t want your cream-cheese
mixture to soften while you’re Forming them. And you can freeze
these cookies. You can assemble them
and then freeze them, But you want to let them
thaw out a little bit Before you bake them. I mean, they’ll bake fine if
you bake them from frozen, But they’ll look nicer if
you let them come to room Temperature before
you bake them. O.K. And wait, I made
20 balls, didn’t I? I’m so pleased. My mistake worked
out just perfectly. So now we need our
frozen cheesecake, But you want to work with
just a few pieces at a time Because you don’t want them
to thaw while you’re filling. It’s a little annoying,
but you’ve got to stay near Your freezer and
work back and forth. Here are my cute
little frozen dollops. So then we just flatten
it out a little bit. Put a dollop in the center,
and then wrap the dough Around. It’s totally easy, right? Oh, let’s get more dollops. It’s really satisfying. It’s like putting a
baby in a blanket. A swaddle. [LAUGHS]: Little
cheesecake baby. O.K., they’re all filled. If your dough is
super, super soft, You can pop it in the fridge
to chill for about 15 minutes Before you roll and bake them,
but mine is feeling pretty Nice and firm, so I’m just
going to go straight through.
This is the fun part. Now we get to roll
these in sanding sugar. White sanding sugar is nice. You can also use
colored sanding sugar. I made them in fuchsia
when I was developing them, And I think they
looked really pretty. Sanding sugar is
a coarser sugar. It’s really clear and
pretty and sparkly, And it doesn’t
melt when you bake. If you don’t have
sanding sugar, You can roll them in demerara
sugar or even granulated. The look will be
slightly different, But they’ll be very
pretty nonetheless. But also, you could skip
it altogether and just Do them naked if
you wanted to too. So we’ll do about six on a
tray because they are going To spread. They’re so cute. They look like donuts. [LAUGHS] All right, let’s put them
in and see what happens. Everyone loves to hear that. O.K., so my first
batch are out. I know that they’re done. If you look in the cracks
in the very center, You can tell if the dough
is wet or if it’s dry, And so you want to pull
it out when it’s dry. If you want your cookie to be
perfectly, perfectly round, When you take it out of the
oven while it’s still warm, Use a cookie cutter or a glass
or a bowl like this and sort Of spin them so that the edges
hit the bowl and then tighten Up and become perfectly,
perfectly round. But you have to do it while
the cookies are still hot, Otherwise it doesn’t work.
Ooh, they’re so cute! For the optimal crackly top, I
would bake one tray at a time. When you do two
trays, this is what The bottom tray looked like,
which is perfectly acceptable. They’ll be delicious
and lovely, But they just look a little
nicer if you bake one tray At a time. Let them cool on the trays
for about five minutes Before you transfer them to
a rack to cool completely, Or for as long
as you can wait. I’ll just do three because
that looks so pretty. And now I get to eat one. O.K. Look at that. The cheesecake is so creamy
and delicious and light. And then the cookie itself is
sweet but also really spicy. They’re sort of a — you get
a little back note of ginger Spiciness and
pepper spiciness. It’s actually a really
lovely combination. I don’t want to toot
my own horn, but –” “What’s happening?” “I have a surprise for you.” “You do? Oh, cute.” “It’s all the Cookie
Week cookies.” “That’s a work of art.” “Ooh, these are
a work of art.” “Look at that. Yay!” “These look so good.” “That one’s going to be warm.” “That one looks so good. Oh, that was thick.” “Oh, it is warm. Oh my God.”
“Do you like it? [LAUGHS]:” “Oh my God. The reason why
I came over here Is because I was
in the office, And I smelled the
cookies baking. And I was like –” “[LAUGHS]: it’s a good smell. It’s a real –” “Wonder if they’re
almost done. If somebody wanted
to make those, Where would they be
able to find them?” “You can find this recipe and
all the delicious Cookie Week Recipes on ‘New York
Times’ Cooking.” “Happy baking!” “Mm.” “Mm.” “Oh, Santa’s
going to love it.”
Have you ever wondered why most of the Vinaigrettes in the grocery store are made with 10, 20, sometimes even almost 30 ingredients? I remember growing up in Provence watching my mother whipping vinaigrettes before every single dinner. She would mix in a giant bowl, delicious extra virgin olive oil, a robust aged vinegar (the flavor would depend on the main dish), sea salt and pepper and voila! I decided to do the same thing for my family and friends more than 20 years ago here in this beautiful country. And Provence Kitchen® was born. Stay tune for more articles and wonderful family recipes..
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