Welcome to the second installment of my cooking classes
blog. Today I’ll be discussing the
testing process I go through for new recipes which I develop. Also, I’ll be writing on the Italian cookies
called Brutti Ma Buoni (Ugly but Good) which I am testing out as candidates for
my Beyond Biscotti class in November.
Please see my first post for the full schedule of fall classes.
BETA TESTING RECOMMENCES
Last year, borrowing a page from the software development
industry, I began preforming “beta tests” on recipes I had developed and tried
myself (the alpha tests). What I did was
invite friends over on a Saturday afternoon, two at a time. I gave them all the ingredients and equipment
they needed, and copies of the recipe. I
sat off to the side and observed and made notes, as well as timed each major
step. When they were done, we repaired
to the dining room to eat what they had prepared and critique the recipes while
they provided valuable feedback. For
each session, I prepared a dessert for the group.
For my classes coming up later this fall, I have been
developing some new recipes and will start a new round of beta tests, probably
in October. Some of the dishes we will
be testing are Chicken a la Normande (chicken with apples), Orange Pork Chops,
and a new take on an Italian favorite, Chicken Piccata. Since I have 2 dessert classes this fall
(Beyond Biscotti and No-Bake Desserts), we will also be beta testing some of
the desserts for these classes, like the Italian cookies called Brutti Ma Buoni
. See below for more information on
these.
BRUTTI MA BUONI
These cookies, which originated in the north of Italy, are
exactly as their name says, “Ugly but good.”
They are flourless cookies which have just 3 basic ingredients, chopped
hazelnuts, sugar, and beaten egg whites.
They are quite good made with just these three ingredients, but as a
Google search on “brutti ma buoni” will show, every chef has a riff on this so
that no two recipes are quite the same.
My version adds orange zest and mini chocolate chips.
After folding the wet ingredients (the beaten egg whites)
into the dry (sugar and hazelnuts), I folded in the zest of one medium
orange. Then I put everything into a
medium saucepan over a very low heat for 8 minutes, stirring almost constantly,
then removed from the heat and let rest for 10 minutes.
Now here comes the cool part. Usually when adding chocolate to your batter,
you need to melt it first in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering
water. But not here. Even after the 10 minutes the batter is still
warm, and you are using tiny chocolate chips, so as you fold them into the
batter they melt right away and blend in.
They are baked on parchment paper. A mistake I made on my
first try was to attempt to remove the cookies to a cooling rack before they
had really cooled. What happened was
that most of them were still sticking to the parchment paper. So now when they come out of the oven I leave
them for 30 minutes on the pan and then they just slide right off.
KJBrady@fcps.edu
or
chefdujour4u@gmail.com
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