Five Ways to Fancy Up a Basic Cookie Recipe
Anne Grossman of Rebel Daughter Cookies shares simple tips for taking your cookies to the next level.
Quick Growth
Founder, owner and mom of two, Anne Grossman started Rebel Daughter Cookies in 2019 without any culinary or business experience. Beginning with local delivery, she is now shipping nationwide. In 2021 alone, RDC grew 3X and sold over 20,000 cookies (that was the max amount they could make as they were constrained by capacity, but this problem has been solved with the opening of the new kitchen space.)
All about indulging your inner rebel with ultra-decadent gourmet cookies, Rebel Daughter offers a menu of seven crowd favorites, rotating specials, and three kinds of lactation cookies made especially for breastfeeding mamas. A “bite” out of all sales are donated to organizations focused on supporting women and children.
In the following slides, Grossman provides tips for taking cookies to the next level.
Meltier
Forgo the standard bag of chocolate chips and get to work breaking up high-quality bars. Uniformity is not ideal here. Taking your cookie from ordinary to sublime, the bigger chunks will create melty, mouthfuls of chocolate while the small slivers create ribbons of cocoa flavor. Choosing bars over a bag also offers more creative freedom. Experiment with various cacao percentages and countries of origin to create a decadent sweet truly unique. Why stop at just plain chocolate? Grab a few go-to candy bars and layer in nuts/nougat/coconut/marshmallow… whatever you fancy.
Caramelize
Baking cookies typically begins with blending butter and sugar. Add a new first step for a richer, nuttier treat; brown that butter. Creating depth and a caramel, toffee-esque essence, cook the butter in a pan until some of its water evaporates, toasting the milk proteins. Allow the golden brown butter to cool before proceeding with your recipe for that extra “je ne sais pas.”
Chewier
This tip might be known, but it’s worth repeating. Chill that dough!! If you want a thick cookie with a doughy center and slightly crispy edges, let the fridge solidify the butter before baking. Otherwise, you’ll be left with thin pancake-like cookies.
More Colorful
Cereal, dehydrated berries, edible glitters – the sky's the limit. Crunchy cereal boosts texture, while fruit adds an element of brightness. Baking for an event? Bedazzle and customize with colored glitters. Each cookie I create is based on vivid childhood memories and life favorites. Obsessing over finding the right flavor profiles, I only create cookies that make my inner child happy, so this involves lots of nostalgic add-ins. I labor over the balance necessary when baking a gourmet treat that will be loved by adults and kids alike.
Extra Salty
Skip the average table salt and sprinkle the finished dough balls with coarse flakes before baking. Upping the texture, salt makes sweet so much sweeter. Take this common tip to the next level with different kinds of salts; smoked, black lava, fleur de sel, pink himalayan or other fun flavors.
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