As a seasoned home cook, I’ll never forget that first batch of chocolate crinkle cookies I made when I was just 11 years old. It was for my piano school’s holiday recital, and the combination of a little Chopin, some virgin eggnog, and an array of cookie-covered platters made the party a great success. I loved watching people enjoy the cookies I had made, celebrating the season with a sweet bite of something homemade. After that, my cookie-making couldn’t be stopped.
Those humble chocolate crinkles were just the beginning. A quick roll in cinnamon sugar made those cookies sing, and every year, I’d try new recipes, dipping them, dusting them, and adding a pinch of nutmeg here, a half-teaspoon of cinnamon there. It was child’s play. But as I grew more experienced and a bit more confident, I started to crave not just a subtle hint of spice, but an intense burst of flavor.
The secret? Definitely not simply doubling or tripling the amount of spices in the dough – that can make cookies turn out overly intense rather than fragrant. I needed to suss out smarter and tastier strategies than that. Almost before I knew it, I’d started creating the recipes that would become my new cookbook, “The New Sugar and Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking.”
Spice Up Your Baking with Sizzling Ingredients
If your holiday cookies are ready to grow up too, just follow these three ideas – and brand-new recipes – to make treats that really pop.
1. Toasting Spices in Butter or Oil
You probably already know that toasting spices or sizzling them in oil or butter helps their flavor bloom, and the same principle applies for baking too. For recipes that call for melted butter, just heat that butter with whole or crushed spices like a split vanilla bean, a broken cinnamon stick, or a few crushed whole cloves or cardamom pods.
With heat, the essential oils from the spices make their way into the browned butter, and the two swirl around and become one tasty mess. Besides spice, this method creates toasty depth in the butter – a guaranteed flavor booster.
2. Double the Spice for Double the Delight
Sure, a hint of spice is a pleasant addition to a holiday cookie, but two kinds of spice is two times as nice. Try adding various kinds of the same spice to one cookie to create delicious depth of flavor and an intense aroma. Think vanilla beans and vanilla extract in the same treat. Or do what I did – make sandwich cookies with a healthy dose of ground ginger and grated fresh ginger, and then fill them with a candied ginger-spiked cream.
3. Spice from the Inside Out
We taste with our noses as much as with our tongues, so creating a pleasant aroma is an important aspect of cookie making. Try adding spice to the outside of a cookie as well as the inside for an extra whiff.
These hazelnut cookies start with a chocolate cinnamon dough that’s rolled in a cinnamon-spiced sugar and then finished with a sprinkling of fresh cinnamon and hazelnuts. The smell of cinnamon hits your nose at the same time as the cookie meets your lips, producing a complete and enveloping spice experience. Beats a simple crinkle any day!
Elevate Your Everyday Cooking with Truffle Butter
While those holiday cookie tips are sure to make your baked goods shine, infusing everyday dishes with bold flavors is a game-changer in the kitchen. One of my secrets? Mastering the art of the sauté with a little help from the magic of truffle butter.
The two keys to being able to sauté successfully are the pan you use and heat control. You want a heavy-bottomed pan that will retain the heat when you add your food. If the pan is light and flimsy, it will cool down instantly, and you won’t be able to achieve the high temperatures necessary for proper caramelization and coloring.
The initial high temperatures are important to start because they’re what sear the exterior of the food being sautéed. You’re essentially flash-dehydrating the outsides, removing the moisture to the point where you reach the sugars that start to caramelize, resulting in flavor development. This process needs to happen quickly, or you’ll end up slowly evaporating the liquid out of the food and be left with very little caramelization or flavor.
Once you get the food into the hot pan and establish that initial sear, you can turn the heat down to medium and let it cook until all sides are evenly roasted. Don’t forget to add a splash or two of oil to serve as a conductor for the heat.
The Secret Weapon: Truffle-Infused Butter
But what really takes sautéed mushrooms to the next level is the addition of truffle-infused butter. While the dish would still be good with regular butter, the truffle butter is what makes it pop with flavor.
The key is to first emulsify the truffle-flavored oil into the butter, so the truffle essence doesn’t just separate out and leave an oily texture. By binding the oil into the butter, you can then mount the butter into the sauce, infusing the whole dish with the rich, earthy aroma of truffles.
Making the truffle butter ahead of time is a great tip, as it can be used for many things, such as topping a steak or flavoring a pasta dish. And if the sauce does happen to break, you can try adding a few splashes of cold stock or water while stirring vigorously, which will help the butter cool down and re-emulsify.
Knowing how to make the best sautéed mushrooms with this truffle-infused, butter-enriched technique will elevate any meal. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes. Cheers, and eat well!
Mastering the Fundamentals for Confidence in the Kitchen
As an experienced cooking instructor, I’ve seen firsthand how mastering a few key techniques can instill newfound confidence in the kitchen. That’s why I poured my heart and soul into creating my latest cookbook, “My Master Recipes: 165 Recipes to Inspire Confidence in the Kitchen.”
Over the years, as my intensive cooking classes would come to a close, I’d often hear students exclaim that the experience had given them much more confidence in the kitchen. I was inspired to record my most treasured recipes – the ones that teach fundamental techniques and encourage useful practices, the little things that can make us all better cooks.
In many ways, this project has influenced my cooking more than any of my other works, helping me to think systematically about the secrets to confidence and success in the kitchen – how I cook and why, which techniques I use and why they really achieve the best results.
The book covers 17 essential techniques, from blanching and searing to braising and roasting. For each blueprint recipe, I offer many variations, because once the fundamentals are learned, the cook can become the master of the recipe, not the other way around. This frees us to experiment and become truly creative, offering endless pleasures in the kitchen and at the table.
One of my favorite recipes from the book is the Chestnut Honey Madeleines. I guarantee these madeleines – which would make fabulous holiday gifts – are like none you’ve ever tasted before: dense, rich, and sumptuous, made with ground almonds, beurre noisette (brown butter), and an intensely flavored chestnut honey.
So if you’re ready to infuse your cooking with confidence, whether it’s elevating your everyday sautés or baking up a storm this holiday season, just keep these essential seasoning secrets in mind. The possibilities are endless when you master the fundamentals and learn to trust your instincts in the kitchen.
