Lamburgers, Riblets, & Advanced Cookies

With the lamb that we prepared the day before, we made lamburgers, lamb riblets, and lamb chops. This is the rack of ribs we would prepare for the lamb chops. The bones would be Frenched (scraped clean) and the chops would be cut between the bones.

 These cippolini (pronounced "chippolini) onions will be used for garnish with the chops.

 Here, chef showed us how to set up the meat grinder. Remeber how we made veggie burgers? This is the same process, but with meat and veggies instead of oatmeal and chickpeas.

Classmate Sheva stuffing the meat grinder with our mixture.

Below, the rack of lamb being temperature checked for doneness. Internally, lamb is done to medium-rare at 135 degrees, whereas beef is done at 125 degrees.

Chef's plate of interlocking lamb chops and veggies:

Another plate of lamb chops and veggies:

The class's lamburger sliders (with bread and butter pickles and ketchup):

Lastly, the lamb riblets, which were basted with a delicious secret sauce :-)

*See the bottom of this post for the recipe for the Honey Mustard Lamb Riblets

 

***

Advanced Cookies I

with Chef Philippe Kaemmerle

Since I will be missing a baking class at the end of the semester due to an international trip, I attended the afternoon Pastry class to fulfill my requirement. This class was Advance Cookies I. Luckily, I love baking (and cookies), so this was a breeze.

The class was given a list of 12 recipes to complete before the end of the day, and my partner and I started on the chocolate hazelnut crinkle cookies and brownies.
 

 Ingredient set up for the hazelnut cookies (semi-sweet chocolate already melted)

Chopped pecans for the rich chocolate brownies.

Can you see me in the chocolate? This batch of melted semi-sweet chocolate was for the brownie recipe.

Here you can see me rolling the chocolate hazelnut dough in powdered sugar before placing it on the baking sheet.

Here, Chef Kaemmerle is demonstrating how to roll filled dough for rugelach.

Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies ready for the oven:

The batcches of mini chocolate chip nut cookies and peanut butter cookies (made by two other pairs of students in the class) were already cooled and stacked on a tray. On Day 2 of the class, they would make a giant cookie display of all the kinds of fancy cookies they made.

These are the coconut orange macaroons being dipped in chocolate:

Our crinkle cookies are out of the oven!

One student was working alone on the recipe for Linzer cookies, a sandwich cookie with jam or ganache filling. The top layer of the sandwich has a hole in it. Here, you can see that she used a floured pastry bag tip to make that size hole in the unbaked dough. These cookies would later be baked and filled.

Biscotti! Called biscotti because they are twice-baked, the loaves of chocolate dough are baked, sliced, and baked again for a few minutes. This results in very dry and brittle "cookies." In this case, that is the ideal outcome with biscotti.

Finally, the chef demontrated how to make elephant ears, a rolled and shaped puff pastry dough cookie with sugar.

Finished Fancy Cookie Tray (photos by classmate Eugenia)

 Above, from left:

chocolate hazelnut cookies, linzer cookies, chocolate biscotti, coconut orange meringues dipped in chocolate, elephant ears, langue du chat (cat's tongues), rugulach, brownies, diamond cookies, & more hazelnut crinkle cookies.

 On this tray, to the right of the elephant ears, you can see mini chocolate chip nut cookies, peanut butter cookies, and more rugalach.

------

Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

2/3 c hazelnuts, peeled
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and set aside
2  3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
can use extra dark if you'd like
 2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
1  1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup whole milk or rice/almond/cashew milk
 1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup confectioners sugar

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In the mixer, paddle-mix the butter/margarine and the brown sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Reduce speed to low and tap in half of the flour mixture (don't dump in all at once). 
Mix until well combined.
Add in the chocolate and mix until combined.
Then pour in the milk and vanilla.
Pour the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl and mix on low until the dough comes together.
Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm up.

After you've been productive for 3 hours, turn on the oven to 350 and pour your pre-measured powdered sugar into a shallow pan.
Scoop whatever size you want your cookies to be and roll into a ball.
Then, roll that ball in powdered sugar until completely covered. **BE CAREFUL NOT TO HANDLE THESE BALLS TOO MUCH, because the powdered sugar will melt into the dough and you won't get the beautiful crinkle effect.
Place the balls on a baking sheet about an inch apart (they will spread) if they are 1 TB or smaller. If larger, increase the space between the balls.
Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees around in the oven.
Bake for another 6-8 minutes, checking the cookies for doneness - they should be cracked open on the top and the sides should feel dry. DO NOT OVERBAKE: they will not be scrumptious.
When done, transfer to a cooling rack and put away when completely cool. Otherwise, serve to hungry guests!

Enjoy!