Just Desserts

jfm0830 · March 2014

Things have slowed down for me where I have been able to spend more time out at the Egg. I am using the time to learn some new types of recipes and learn about a bunch of Eggcesories I bought around the time of Eggtoberfest, but hadn't found much time to use. This included an Adjustable Rig and various accessories, the Two-tier Adjustable Swing Rack, Looftlighter and Maverick ET-733. I've been making a bunch of cookie recipes from America's Test Kitchens Christmas Cookies supplement. I am new to baking cookies and they let me learn about the AR, Looftlighter & ET-733. Here are some pix of my last 3 cookie efforts.

Hungarian Christmas Cookies:

The ingredients are gathered.

The finished dough was rolled flat and cut into squares.

A teaspoon of apricot filling was placed in the center of the square of dough & the corners of the dough are folded over to meet in the center.

The AR Setup is the same for each batch of cookies: The oval stone at Level 3, a sliding oval grid at Level 4.5 for a tray of cookies & the temp probe at the back of the shelf and the D-grid shelf for cookies on the Rig Extender. The Egg has been stabilized at 325 degrees at the grate level (oval shelf at Level 4,5). I plan to buy another oval grid so I can fit a third sheet pan of cookies.

The first two trays of cookies are done. I swapped the trays top to bottom plus turned them 180 midway through. I got an incredibly even cook.

The cookies are cooled to room temperature before being dusted with Confectioner's Sugar.

These cookies had a very unique (to me at least) cookie dough. It tasted like a baking powder biscuit, had the texture of a pie crust and at the same time was more moist than either of those two items.

CHEWY OATMEAL LOGS:

The ingredients are gathered.

The finished dough is divided into quarters & rolled into 4 logs 9" long.

The trays of oatmeal logs were swapped top for bottom and turned 180 degrees midway through when this picture was taken. The logs were cooked at 350 degrees.

The logs are done.

After the logs cooled they were cut into squares & were glazed with a glaze from Confectioner's Sugar & Lemon Juice.

These Chewy Oatmeal Logs lived up to their name. They were really chewy & were the best oatmeal cookies I remember having.

GINGERSNAPS:

The ingredients:

The dough was refrigerated for an hour. During this time I got the Egg stabilized a 300 degrees. When it came out of the fridge the dough was formed using a cookie scoop & then rolled in sugar.

This recipe made 80 cookies & had you establish an assembly line in the oven, or in this case the Egg. You put a tray of cookies on the top shelf to start. You moved the tray down to the lower shelf, rotating 180 degrees, and added a new tray of cookies to the top shelf.

These cookies were excellent and like the other 2 cookies I made they cooked nice & evenly on the Egg even in windy weather with temps in the teens.

I have been having a ball running these and other experiments on my Eggs. I've been learning how to bake cookies, how to use my new gear, cooking in bed weather & been having some good eats in the process.

Jim

johnmitchell · March 2014

Fantastic...This makes a pleasant surprise and change from waking up to look at a "Hogs Head"

)

Dyal_SC · March 2014

You always dish up some outstanding desserts. Nice work!

Brisket_Fanatic · March 2014

I have a hankering for some cookies all of a sudden, very nice post and details.

Conneggticut_Yankee · March 2014

Nice job as always, Jim. Can always count on you to post something different and done well.

Chris_Wang · March 2014

Nicely done!

SkinnyV · March 2014

Well done and pics so good its another AR advertisement, thing looks awesome
BTW if you get another oval grid do you get the slided guide or just cross bars for it?

caliking · March 2014

Most eggcellent! I especially like the apricot cookies.

Just curious as to why you bought both the AR and the swing rack?

jfm0830 · March 2014

Thanks guys for your comments!!.

SkinnyV said:

Well done and pics so good its another AR advertisement, thing looks awesome BTW if you get another oval grid do you get the slided guide or just cross bars for it?

I was just out at my Egg getting set up to use the Swing Rack tonight for some pizzas. I looked in my storage drawers & I found I had bought a second oval grid, just no supports of any kind for it. After thinking about it I am going to get the slide guide. Granted the shelf is inside the Egg while the food is cooking but if I lift the unit out of the Egg to work on the food, being able to slide the shelf out to get at the food will be handy.

caliking said:

Most eggcellent! I especially like the apricot cookies. Just curious as to why you bought both the AR and the swing rack?

Because I have 2 Eggs & I could, is the quick flippant answer. But honestly I couldn't make up my mind between the two. While there is much overlap between the two, it appeared to my novice eyes there were areas where each had some advantages. Right now I am a relative newb on the AR and a virgin on the Swing Rack up until tonight. I see the Swing Rack as possibly being better suited to some direct grilling tasks, like wings or steaks. The AR makes more sense to me for many indirect tasks like baking cookies on 2 or 3 shelves. Doing two pizzas seemed to be something that might be better on the Swing Rack. I will know more after tonight.

caliking · March 2014

jfm0830 said:
Because I have 2 Eggs & I could, is the quick flippant answer. But honestly I couldn't make up my mind between the two. While there is much overlap between the two, it appeared to my novice eyes there were areas where each had some advantages. Right now I am a relative newb on the AR and a virgin on the Swing Rack up until tonight. I see the Swing Rack as possibly being better suited to some direct grilling tasks, like wings or steaks. The AR makes more sense to me for many indirect tasks like baking cookies on 2 or 3 shelves. Doing two pizzas seemed to be something that might be better on the Swing Rack. I will know more after tonight.

But of course!

Didn't know you had 2 larges. I would do the same - you get the best of both eggcessories

Just Desserts

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