Week 4 - Better Nutters (page 36)

To skip my babble and get to the food, click here.

To read about the cookie itself, click here.

To read about the buttercream, click here.

To read about the peanut butter filling, click here.

To read about the whole cookie put together, click here.

To skip all my babble and get to the conclusion, click here.

As always, photos are at the end of each section.

Check out Jenn's post of this cookie here!

This was a particularly involved cookie so get ready for a long post!

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Week 4! It's crazy how time seems like it's flying. It doesn't feel like it's been almost a month since we made Pecan Sandies and wrote up our first blog post.

This week we're making Better Nutters. Apologies in advance for people who are allergic to nuts - in this case, peanuts specifically. This is Keller's take on his classic favourite cookie - the Nutter Butter. Personally, I'm not a nut or seed person but my better half is and so are many others in his family so I'm not worried about finding guinea pigs for this recipe.

I'm excited to make the Better Nutters for a few reasons. First, the process is the same for making the cookie dough but the ratios of fat and dry ingredients are very different which leads me to assume the dough will have different characteristics when being handled. Second, I assume the baked cookie texture will be different from what we've made so far so I'm excited to see how the different ingredient ratios affect the final product. Third, there's a filling to make and I've never made buttercream before. And finally, I've never put all of these components together to make a sandwich cookie before. There are a few firsts in this recipe for me and trying new things in the kitchen makes me happy!

Enough of my babble. Keep reading for the good stuff (:

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"Better Nutters" - The original recipe

There is so much going on in this recipe - cookie dough, buttercream, peanut butter filling - I knew I had to get an early start on this. I'm going to break down my process for each component of the cookie below to keep this clean.

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Cookie Dough:

The cookie dough for Better Nutters is very high in fat - lots of butter and lots of fat from the peanut butter as well. This is why Keller instructs us to refrigerate the dough before we rolling to cut out rounds. After cutting out rounds, we're instructed to freeze the raw cookie rounds for at least 2 hours before baking them straight from the freezer so that the cookies stay round and don't spread too much.

Aside from the peanut butter and basic ingredients a cookie normally has, this cookie includes oats and roasted peanut halves.

I baked these cookies only using the convection setting this time because Keller mentions that they will have a more even colour and less spread. Considering how much his previous cookies spreaded in the oven and how much time I had this week, I stuck with my gut and didn't bother trying the standard oven setting.

My observations:

1. The cookies were beautiful! They definitely didn't spread much, kept their round shape and browned very evenly. Very happy with the result from the convection oven bake.

2. The cookies were very crumbly, definitely not the chewy type. And it's not because I overbaked them, I promise! I think that's in large part due to the high fat to dry ingredients ratio.

My fellow guinea pig, H, sampled these cookies on their own with me.

Our conclusions:

1. The cookie wasn't too sweet which is always a bonus for us.

2. The cookie was surprisingly very light considering how much fat is in the recipe.

3. The cookie was very crumbly on its own.

4. The slight texture variation from the oats and roasted peanut halves was nice.

Photos of the Better Nutters Cookies:

Better Nutters Ingredients

Always Start on the Edge

Cold Dough Can Be Hard To Cut

Make Sure To Maximize Space

Save the scraps and re-roll!

Cookie Cutter, Rounds, Scraps

From Freezer to Oven

Mid-Bake

Finished Baking

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Buttercream:

I've never made buttercream before but the process seemed fairly simple - make a meringue and throw room temperature butter into it. This seemed easy and normal until I noticed the recipe called for two separate weights of sugar. The smaller amount of sugar was beat straight into the raw egg whites first (the French meringue technique) while the larger amount of sugar was turned into a syrup (how sugar is used in the Italian meringue method) then added to the French meringue that was already in the mixer.

This method was odd to me because I've never used what is essentially two meringue methods in one recipe. The first method was a French meringue - the most unstable meringue method where the egg whites are raw and the sugar is added in as it is. Then, the second method used a sugar syrup (Italian meringue method) that was poured into what should've been raw egg whites but was actually a soft-peak French meringue already. Basically, we turned a French meringue into an Italian one.

I wonder why he bothered with the French meringue step at all when the Italian meringue method is very stable. Perhaps starting with a French meringue makes it easier to create a flawless Italian meringue? I tried to look this up online but couldn't find any answers. If it keeps bugging me I'll do more digging into it but his method worked so I may leave it at not questioning a good thing.

My observations:

1. The most obvious observation was regarding Keller's method as explained above.

2. Keller's method seemed to work. Though he doesn't mention this step, I brought my egg whites to room temperature prior to mixing them in the mixer because I was taught that warmer eggs whip faster and are more stable when building volume.

   1. Also, I found Keller's phrasing, "slowly add the syrup to the whites, pouring it between the side of the bowl and the whisk"(p.375) to be a little less specific than I personally think it should be. Though he isn't wrong, his phrasing could lead someone to wonder how you would pour the syrup between the whisk attachment and the bowl considering how little room there is. If he had phrased it more like "slowly add the syrup to the whites, pouring the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl" and included a photo (*refer to my photo below), it would've been easier to understand. But, that's just my opinion. Maybe I'm just too picky but I like really specific instructions especially when it comes to things like baking that require precision. In this case, precision is important because if at any point the sugar syrup touches the whisk and gets spun, the sugar syrup will cool and create little crunchy sugar pieces that either get incorporated into the meringue and ruin the smoothness or throw off your recipe because the amount of sugar that should be in your recipe is now stuck to your whisk and your bowl.

3. This was my first time making buttercream so I panicked a little when the butter didn't seem like it was incorporating evenly into the meringue. This subsided when I turned the speed up to medium-high again (when Keller tells you to incorporate the butter using medium speed) and finished the recipe. Everything worked out in the end!

I sampled the plain buttercream on my own. No guinea pigs ):

My conclusions:

1. The buttercream had a good stiffness. I worried that it may not be stiff and wouldn't hold its shape as filling in the cookie when the peanut butter was added to it.

2. The buttercream was beautiful when everything was incorporated and evenly mixed.

3. The taste of the buttercream was surprisingly light for how much butter is in it.

4. The buttercream was not as sweet as I thought it would be. I've never had good memories of buttercream. They've always been too heavy, too sweet or had strange mouth-feel. This was a pleasant surprise.

5. This may be stupid to note but you really do need to use good butter for buttercream. The taste of the butter really comes through and if you use cheaper butter like I did, you will notice it. Now that I know this recipe works, I'll use the good stuff for the next batch (:

Photos of the Buttercream:

Left: * If you notice the sugar stream down the side of the bowl, this is what I meant with how I would write the instructions. If I didn't know better, it wouldn't occur to me that I could use the side of the mixing bowl itself to help stream the sugar syrup into the meringue to lessen the chance of the sugar syrup hitting the whisk prior to making it into the meringue. Perhaps my common sense is lacking and others would've figured this out.

Middle: The meringue in the mixer doing its thing.

Right: My stiff peak meringue! The peak slanted to the left a bit because I pulled it out of the bowl at an angle but I promise it's at stiff peaks 😅

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Peanut Butter Filling:

Not too much to say about the Peanut Butter Filling for this cookie. It has three ingredients - buttercream, peanut butter and salt - so all the hard work was done when making the buttercream.

My observations:

1. Like I said in my first conclusion about the buttercream, it had a good stiffness. When I mixed in equal parts of fresh peanut butter (which had a more fluid consistency than Kraft peanut butter) to the buttercream, I was really glad it didn't turn into a puddle.

2. My filling kept its shape in the fridge but was definitely a little soft at room temperature. If I ever make these again, I'll be sure to try using a jar of Kraft and fresh peanut butter to see the difference in consistency.

I was the only one to sample the peanut butter filling before it was sandwiched into the cookie.

My conclusions:

1. I was so glad that this filling wasn't insanely sweet. When I hear "filling" my brain immediately jumps to the sugar icing in an Oreo which is amazing but also just pure sugar.

2. The filling has a good peanut butter taste to it and the buttercream didn't detract from it too much.

3. I'm glad Keller didn't mix any inclusions into the filling. It was a good choice to keep the filling smooth and leave the peanut halves in the cookie.

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The Whole Better Nutter Put Together:

This cookie was fun to make. It was definitely more work and had more steps than the cookies we've made so far but it was fun to make something different!

The steps for putting the final cookie together are pretty simple. "Turn half the cookies over. Beginning in the centre, pipe a spiral of peanut butter filling on each one to within 1/4 inch of the edges. Top each with a second cookie and press gently to sandwich the cookies" (page 37).

My observations/thoguhts:

1. These cookies are beautiful! The cookies were round and the filling had a little flair to it when a star piping tip was used.

2. I would add another little specification into the instructions. As well as the cookies kept their shape, some of them still ended up slightly different sizes. I would add in a step that instructs people to match up the baked cookies with ones of similar sizing then proceeding to turn half of each of those pairs over. Perhaps this would come with common sense and frequent cookie sandwich making but for me, this step/habit comes from making macarons in the past.

3. Something to note, not necessarily to add, is that when you're piping the filling, either find a surface for your cookie to sit on where it won't spin while you pipe or learn to pipe with one hand so that the other can hold the cookie in place.

4. Another note, but this one comes from my lack of thinking, is to sandwich the cookie on a flat surface, especially when you gently press it down. I made the mistake of picking the cookie up to make sure the filling wouldn't seep out anywhere while I was pressing the cookie together and ended up cracking the top cookie. The rest of the cookies were left on my baking tray and didn't have any problems with cracking.

I made a larger batch of these cookie as one recipe yields 6 sandwich cookies and I knew that wasn't going to be enough. I had H and his family sample these cookies and they were a hit!

Our conclusions:

1. H liked how light the cookies were. I didn't have the heart to tell him exactly how much butter was in the recipe but he knows that when I say there's a lot of butter, there really is a lot of butter.

2. As noted in the cookie section, the cookies were very crumbly. On their own, they're a very messy cookie but sandwiched with the peanut butter filling, the crumbs adhered to the filling and didn't create as much of a mess. Experienced cookie eaters would know how to reduce the chance of mess with this cookie.

3. The cookie as a whole had a good amount of peanut flavour in it but it wasn't so overpowering that it was off-putting to those who don't love peanuts.

4. The oatmeal and toasted peanut halves were a nice touch in the cookie. It made for different textures in each bite which is nice for some.

5. Some preferred the cookie crumbly and some thought it would be better if it was a bit softer. Funny how everyone has such different tastes but no one is wrong!

Photos of the Better Nutter Cookies:

Cookie halves ready to fill!

Thank you, star tip!

Do not pick up and press... ):

Little cookie stack!

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TL;DR Conclusion:

Good cookie recipe. A little more involved than previous cookies and a bit of technique and knowledge necessary to successfully make a meringue but overall, a good cookie that people will know some effort was put into! Strongly suggest you try making this cookie if you want a bit of a challenge and some tasty treats (:

Thanks for reading! Can't wait for week 5!