Key Takeaways
- The New York Times' annual "Cookie Week" has evolved into a popular holiday tradition featuring innovative daily cookie recipes.
- This year's "Cookie Week" theme, "but make it a cookie," transforms non-traditional flavors and inspirations into unique cookie forms.
- Baking experts provided practical holiday entertaining advice, covering efficient cookie preparation, smart storage, and make-ahead meal options.
- The episode featured a holiday-themed game, challenging participants on food references in movies, literature, and festive songs.
Deep Dive
- The New York Times' annual "Cookie Week" originated in 2020 as a virtual cookie exchange to foster connection during the holidays.
- It evolved into a larger event that highlights a new holiday cookie recipe daily for seven days.
- Food reporter Melissa Clark noted that while cookies were always part of holiday coverage, "Cookie Week" formalized the celebration, gaining significant popularity.
- Vaughn Vreeland's "popcorn bucket cookie" was inspired by movie snacks, incorporating Kit Kats, Raisinettes, crushed popcorn, and sea salt.
- Melissa Clark's mortadella cookie mimics the Italian meat's appearance using freeze-dried strawberries, almond paste, pistachios, and macadamia nuts.
- Unsuccessful inclusions included gummy bears, which melted into a "molten mess" during baking, while Milk Duds were deemed too hard.
- Other unconventional cookies featured "Payday" bar inspiration with salty peanuts and caramel, and a creamy mint chocolate cookie.
- Melissa Clark's favorite is a gluten-free, macaroon-style buttered rum cookie made with almond flour, brushed with butter and rum.
- A gluten-free chocolate chip cookie from NYT Cooking was praised for its delicious taste and tender texture, also featuring almond flour.
- These gluten-free chocolate chip cookies are noted for their ease of preparation, requiring no chilling time for the dough, allowing immediate baking.
- Listeners can use a single shortbread base dough, dividing and personalizing it with different flavors, shapes, spices, jams, chocolate, or nuts for variety.
- For savory alternatives to sweet treats, cheese straws with cayenne pepper and spicy nuts with rosemary and lemon zest were suggested.
- Cookies with high fat content, oats, or specific ingredients like cream of tartar (e.g., Snickerdoodles) tend to last longer, with spice cookies improving over time and gingerbread lasting up to a month.
- For freezer storage, cookies should be placed in airtight containers with parchment paper layers separating them to prevent sticking.
- It is recommended to avoid overlapping cookies and use parchment paper to fill any gaps within the container to maintain freshness.
- Most cookies freeze well for at least a month, but meringue cookies are an exception and do not hold up well to freezing.
- Sophisticated non-alcoholic drink bases recommended include spiced apple cider and a rosemary-lemon infused simple syrup, which can be mixed with seltzer or spirits.
- Host Michael Barbaro shared a batchable cranberry-orange Manhattan recipe, combining rye or bourbon with cranberry juice, orange bitters, and ginger beer.
- Braised dishes such as lamb shanks or short ribs were suggested as make-ahead, festive alternatives to traditional ham or turkey, offering a lower-stress main course option.
- A holiday game, 'Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding,' challenged players to identify characters based on their favorite holiday meals, with Kevin McAllister from 'Home Alone' being a correct answer.
- Other characters identified by their food preferences included Buddy the Elf, Ebenezer Scrooge, and John McClain from 'Die Hard'.
- The game also included identifying food items mentioned in classic Christmas songs, such as lyrics from "Let It Snow" and "Sleigh Ride."
- The game segment included identifying food items from Hanukkah songs, specifically "Latkes to eat" from "Oh, Hanukkah."
- A Christmas song round featured "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," with the guest correctly identifying the singer as Thurl Ravenscroft, also the voice of Tony the Tiger.
- The final round, "Milk and Cookies," challenged participants to identify whether a given word referred to a cookie, distinguishing examples like "Chin Chin" (a cookie) from others.