Posts Tagged ‘chocolate’

Or at least the best I can remember ever tasting. A few weeks ago Nir, a good friend of Avi’s from work, invited us over to watch the finals of the “Big Brother” show, the Israeli version. I obviously felt a need to bring cake, so what if Nir’s house is 10 minutes away from ours But since we’ve only talked about meeting a few hours before the show, I didn’t have much time on my hands. Exactly on time I remembered seeing this cake on Fanny’s wonderful blog, and drooling on it several times.

I made the cake in a large loaf pan, and I also kept enough batter for 2 muffin sized cakes, so I’d be able to taste the cake before bringing it for people to eat in the evening. The instant my lips touched the warm and soft cake, I fell in in love! A chocolate cake that looks quite innocent and ordinary on the outside, completely takes you by suprise when you get to taste it. So rich and fudgy on the inside, with an intense chocolate flavor and a very pleasant sweetness. I’ve probably told you by now that Avi says that I use the description “the best ______ I’ve ever tasted” much too often, but when I told him that this was the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had, he looked at me for a second and simply said “yes”.

In the original recipe there is also a chocolate syrup that you’re supposed to pour on top of the cake after taking it out of the oven. I’ve made it but ended up not using it, since in my opinion it makes the cake overwhelmingly sweet.
Since then I’ve already made the cake again, and brought it to a Hannukah social gathering that our friends Daniel and Dana organized last week, and there too it was a huge hit.

Some notes and tips about the cake:

* In the original recipe Fanny says that you can make the cake by mixing all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. The first time I made it I tried to use a wooden spoon but couldn’t get all the many ingredients incorporated, and the butter, that is soft but not melted, didn’t make it any easier. So in this recipe I really recommend using a mixer, unless your hands feel strong enough for a vigorous mixing.

* Something we’ve learnt in the pastry course - Cakes baked in loaf pans tend to crack on top. The place of the crack can be controlled, so it will be nice and symmetrical. The way to do it is by passing a knife or a thin spatula in the middle of the cake (lengthwise), which will determine that the crack will be in the middle.

* If you, like me, often forget to take the butter out of the refrigerator in advance for cakes that require soft butter, you can cut the cold butter into cubes and place them in the microwave for 10 seconds. If it isn’t soft yet, place it for another 10 seconds, and so forth until the butter is soft, but note that it’s only supposed to be soft to touch, but not melted.

If you’re in the mood for cute little shapes, you can slice the cake
and use a cookie cutter to create beautiful mini cakes from each slice

Ultra Chocolate Cake / Slightly adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
For a 30X11 cm and 7 cm deep loaf tin

Ingredients:
200 gr plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
50 gr cocoa powder
275 gr caster sugar
175 gr butter, soft
2 eggs
1 tblsp natural vanilla extract
175 gr chocolate, melted
80 gr double cream
125 gr boiling water

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line the loaf tin with baking paper, making sure you cut it well above the rim so you’ll have handles to later get the cake out from its tin.
2. Place all the ingredients except the boiling water in the bowl of a mixer. Mix using a paddle attachment until the batter is smooth.
3. Slowly incoporate the boiling water and mix until smooth.
4. Place the batter in the tin and smooth its top. If you want, see tips on how to control where the cake is going to crack while baking.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch.
6. Cool the cake.
7. Before serving you can sprinkle Dutch cocoa powder on top of it, or powdered sugar or grated chocolate (dark, milk or white).
8. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature.

There are times when my need for baking arises merely for satisfying a craving for a sweet delight, that catches me ever so often. On these occasions I need a quick recipe at hand, one that I can whip up in a heartbeat and enjoy the finished baked good within an hour. Other times I feel like making a more complicated dessert, one that requires the patience to follow numerous steps throughout the recipe, and then the final assembly of the complete dessert. It is like therapy for me. Also, when I need to impress someone with a beautiful dessert, recipes of the second kind I mentioned are the ones that are gonna do the trick.

Here I made 24 cupcakes with no graham cracker and chocolate
base, so they turned out quite short

Two friends of mine started working at the same company a while ago, and needed to throw an entry party for all the other employees. They asked my help with making two desserts that will be croud pleasers - both to taste and to watch. The first one I chose is a dessert you really can’t go wrong with when bringing it to a party - its beauty gets a lot of ‘wow’s from the croud, and its taste doesn’t fall behind. The second are these cupcakes, which I’ve seen on the Martha Stewart’s show during the cupcakes week she hosted a while back. They are the bestsellers at “Trophy Cupcakes” in Seattle, and for a good reason - they have a crispy base made of crushed Graham Crackers and butter, a thin layer of dark chocolate above it, on top of that a moist chocolatey cupcake, and to seal the deal we’ve got a so tender marshmallow-flavored meringue frosting. Did I convince you yet? Those 3 different textures are heaven in your mouth, and I urge you to taste all of them at once, and not eat each layer separately.
The girls said the party was a success and that both the tart and the cupcakes were gone so quickly. If you’re in for a little effort, try these. You’ll thank me.

Notice the crispy bottom

Some notes and tips about the cupcakes:

* You don’t have a burner? Don’t worry, you can brown the meringue in the oven as well. Leave the oven on after finishing baking the cupcakes, and switch it to grill mode. Prepare the meringue according to the directions below, pipe it on top of the cupcakes and put them back in the oven until the meringue gets a color that you’re pleased with (some like it more brown than others).

* Don’t feel like sweating for these beauties? You can also ommit the 2 bottom layers (the Graham Crackers and the bitersweet chocolate), and simply make chocolate cupcakes topped with meringue. Note that in this case your cupcakes will be lower in height than the original ones, if you make the specified quantity (24). If you want them higher, simply make 2-3 less.

* 8 egg whites for the frosting?? Are you crazy?? Well, no There are many recipes that leave me with a lot of whites in my freezer, and that’s a beautiful opportunity to use them. You can also make only half of the recipe for the frosting, and simply top each cupcake with a smaller amount. The original recipe results in a very generous frosting amount for each cupcake, so half of it would still be good.

We used up the small meringue amount that was left along with a bit
of leftovers from the pie crust and made meringue topped cookies. YUM!

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow / Adapted from Trophy Cupcakes’ recipe
Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 flat teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
80 gr unsalted butter, melted
2 Tablespoons orange juice
150 gr bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

For the frosting:
8 egg-whites
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C) degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
2. Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add in the eggs. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed, until the batter is uniform.
3. In a large bowl, mix together milk, oil, vanilla and boiling water. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed until the batter is uniform.
4. Place graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and orange juice in a large bowl; stir until well combined. Check the mixture - if you can take some of it between your fingers and unify it into a shape that doesn’t fall apart and all crumbly - that’s what where looking for. If still too crumbly, add some more juice, spoon by spoon, until you get it right.
5. Place 1 tablespoon graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Use a tablespoon or the bottom of a small glass to pack crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Place a teaspoon of the chopped chocolate above it. Reserve remaining graham cracker mixture and chocolate for topping.
6. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until the edges of the graham cracker mixture is golden, about 5 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter. Sprinkle each with remaining chocolate and graham cracker mixture.
8. Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
9. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.
10. Prepare the frosting: Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes.
11. Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined.
12. Pipe the frosting on top of each muffin. If you don’t feel like piping, place spoonfuls of the frosting on top of each cupcake and arrange it nicely.
13. Slightly burn the frosting using a burner, or put it back inside the oven (see tips).

In other countries there are the falling leaves that fill the pavements with a wonderful variety of colors, and tell everyone that autumn is here. In Israel there are other signs, the first of them I run into each year, is a sign for me that the summer heat is finally behind us. Sometimes it’s the first rain, that makes me notice that seasons have changed, other times it’s when I wake up in the chilly early morning hours, looking for my blanket. But above all those, there is one thing, that when you see it filling up the stores, you no longer have any doubt about it - that would be the “Krembo” (which means “cream inside”). The Krembo is made of a cookie base, on top of it there is a vanilla flavored egg-whites foam, and all this is coated with a layer of chocolate. There are other variations for the filling besides vanilla, the most popular among them being mocha.

There are quite a few Krembo recipes all over the net and then some more in cookbooks, but none of them tempts me more than this original one. Yes, the store bought ones, wrapped with a thin layer of aluminium foil, the same one that a single taste from it fills your mouth with a tender silky cloud of goodness. Personally I prefer my Krembo vanilla flavored, but here in Israel, debates can go on and on about which is the best flavor - vanilla or mocha.

Somewhere along the way I found out that the Krembo’s filling is made out of unbaked egg-white foam. The disaster! I immediately stopped eating them, and haven’t for a really long time. Luckily I became interested in the pastry world a while back, it was then that I discovered that the egg-whites are being heated before beating them, to a temperature that kills most bacterias that can potentially reside in them. This revelation made me better my ways again, and so Krembo reappeared in my menu occasionally.

So, in honor of the most welcome autumn, here is a Krembo recipe, that is very close to the original one. I made the cookie base out of crashed petit-beurre biscuits, which I mixed with melted butter and with a little orange juice. They turned out yummy, with a delightful orange aroma. For the filling, I followed a recipe published by “Feldman”, a company that produces Krembo, and it turned out exactly like the original one. Finally, I also used Feldman’s recipe for the chocolate coating, although it turned out way too thick, so I diluted it with some oil. It turned out softer than the store bought one, but far better, because of the use of a good quality chocolate.

Some notes and tips about the Krembo:

* I made the base cookies too small, and so they weren’t able to hold the right amount of filling. I made them about 4 cm in diameter, and I recommend making them about 6-8 cm length diameter.

* The best way to fill the cookies is to pipe the filling upon them. It’s quite easy, not to worry. Just hold the piping bag straight above the center of the cookie, and press it until the whole cookie’s base fills up. Then slightly lift up your hand and pipe another layer, and so on, until there is enough filling on the cookie.
Not in a piping mood? Simply take a spoonful of filling and place it on top of the cookie. Then use the spoon to neatly arrange the filling.

* How do we coat the Krembos? By simply dipping them inside the chocolate mixture.

Krembo / Inspired by a recipe by “Feldman” company
For 40 small Krembos or 30 medium ones

Ingredients:
For the cookies:
170 gr petit-beurre biscuits
100 gr butter, melted
2-3 Tbsp orange juice

For the filling:
5 egg-whites
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp gelatin powder
3 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating:
300 gr bittersweet chocolate
100 gr butter
Vegetable oil, for diluting the mixture

Directions:
1. Prepare the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
2. Crash the biscuits in a food processor. Add the melted butter and mix until crumbly and moist. Add in 2 Tbsp of orange juice and mix until homogenized. Then check if the dough is now firm enough in order to take a small bit and make a sphere out of it that will hold its shape. If not, add another Tbsp of juice, otherwise skip it.
3. Roll out the dough, and cut cookies from it, using a cup or a round cookie cutter.
4. Place the cookies on a pan lined with baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden.
5. Meanwhile prepare the filling: In a double boiler heat together egg-whites and sugar while stirring, until most of the sugar melts (60C temperature, if you have a sugar thermometer). Remove from heat.
6. Place the gelatin in a small bowl, along with the water. Let stand for 15 minutes. Place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then stir the mixture. Beat the egg whites mixture and add the gelatin and vanilla extract to it. Keep beating the whites until the mixture cools down and the foam is stable and stiff (stiff peaks).
7. Pipe the filling on top of each cookie (see tips). Freeze the uncoated Krembos until you finish preparing the coating.
8. Prepare the coating: Melt together the chocolate and the butter. If you’re doing it in the microwave, make sure to do it in 30 seconds intervals, in order to not burn the chocolate. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes. Now is the time to dilute the mixture, by adding in some oil. Add in the vegetable oil, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the coating is thin enough to allow us to dip the semi-frozen Krembos in it. Dip each Krembo in the coating, and place to dry on a baking sheet. Keep them in the refrigerator, and take them out a few minutes before serving.

When people ask me what I love to bake most (or eat, it’s the same in this case), the answer is real simple - tarts! Desserts with a short crust base and a filling, any filling really, from pastry cream topped with fresh fruit, through chocolate or banana creamy fillings and even the simplest ones (a few weeks ago I’ve even made pear and ginger jam filled tartlets - wonderful!) can make me truly happy.

This time I chose a recipe by Carine Goren, a very talented Israeli pastry chef, whom I’ve mentioned at least once before. “Sweet Secrets”, a great cookbook she published a few years back, brought baking to the people. I mean this is the first book I’ve seen until then that was perfect in every way - its beautiful design, the stunning and mouth-watering photos it was rich with (I wonder how come not all the books today come out with such wonderful photography! For me it’s basics in a cookbook), and the most important thing - the clarity and simplicity with which all the recipes were written. You could really tell that’s she truly wants everybody to succeed in making her recipes. And succeed we did, I think that she’s the most praised book writer in Israel in the sense of the recipes’ quality.

And so is this tart. I haven’t yet met the persons that didn’t LOVE this tart and enjoyed every second of its first bite.  Using a good quality chocolate (I use Callebaut with 53% cocoa solids) will make the experience even greater.
I really enjoy giving sweet gifts to my friends, and this tart was made for Neta, a very good friend of ours, when she gave birth to little Noa. She really needed this sweet comfort after a long and not so easy childbirth.

Some notes and tips about this tart:

* The 2 remaining egg whites can be kept for a later use. Put them in a cup, cover with plastic wrap, write how many whites are in there (these things tend to be forgotten) and today’s date, and freeze them. They are kept great for 3-4 months, longer than that I haven’t tried.

* Short crust is not a great delight to roll out, it tends to stick to the surface it’s on, if not carefully floured, and too much flour doesn’t do it good as well. You have to options here:
1. The pretty one - roll it out. The method I find least painful is between two plastic wrap sheets, and the the rolling out part and moving it to the pan part get a lot easier.
2. The less pretty - use your hands. You can skip the rolling part and use your hands to place crust in the pan. Messier and less pretty, but it works. I use option 1 most of the times, and turn to option 2 when I feel really lazy.

* The crust’s margins are an important source of the tart’s beauty, in my eyes. So pay attention to them - and make sure that they are even throughout the whole tart, and make them quite thick (that also depends on the thickness of the crust you rolled out). If you need a little more dough for a corner there, look carfully and you’ll be able to find another corner to pinch from.

* Short crusts are sometimes baked apart from the filling - fully or partially, and in that case the filling is added to the crust and they are baked together for some more time. This process is called “blind baking“.

* Have you ever blind baked a crust and the base puffed up or the margins simply crashed into the bottom of the crust? 3 simple steps to solve these problems:
1. Make holes with a fork on the crust, after moving it to the pan.
2. Right after that place the pan with the crust in it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
3. Before baking, place a baking sheet on top of the dough and scatter “baking weights” on it - you can use relatively heavy legumes (like beans or chickpeas). The weights serve a double purpose here - they also press the crust down and prevent it from inflating, and also push the margins aside and prevent them from falling. See the picture below to have a feeling of how dense should the weights be.

* The tips about short crust I’ve given in my previous post are also valid here, so take a look.

Chocolate Tart / Carine Goren
For a 10 inch (26 cm) tart pan + 1 tartlet

Ingredients:
For the crust:
300 gr (2 packed cups) flour
200 gr butter, soft
100 gr powdered sugar
1 egg
10 gr vanillated sugar (can be replaced with 1 tsp of vanilla essence)

For the filling:
250 gr bitersweet chocolate
150 gr butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
50 gr (1/4 cup) sugar
a pinch of salt

Make the crust:
1. Process butter and sugar in the mixer until creamy.
2. Add in the egg and 1/4 amount of the flour, until smooth. Add in the rest of the flour and process only until a dough is formed (careful, too lenghty processing will harm the texture). Gather the dough with your hands, form a flat circle, wrap it with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours, until the dough is cold and stiff.
3. Roll out the dough (see tips) to a circle a bit bigger than the pan’s size. It’s supposed to be about 0.5 cm thick. Place the dough in the pan and press the dough so it will fit perfectly in the pan. Here’s the place to give those margins some TLC, they’ll pay it back bigtime.
4. Make holes in the dough using a fork (see tips) and then freeze it for 10 minutes.
5. Take out of the freezer and scatter the baking weights (see tips).
6. Bake for about 15 minutes in a 350F(180C) preheated oven, until the margins begin to become golden. Remove the weights and allow the bottom to bake as well, until it becomes slightly golden.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling:
1. Melt together chocolate, butter and salt. If you’re doing it in the microwave, make sure to do it in 30 seconds intervals, and stir between each one, in order to prevent the chocolate from burning.
2. In the mixer beat together eggs, egg yolks and sugar for 5 minutes, at high speed., until light in color and fluffy in texture.
3. Gently fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture, until well blended. Pour over the baked crust. Bake together for about 20 minutes, or until the filling slightly cracks, is bearly stable and soft to touch.

There are times when you see a food photo on one of your favorite blogs, and you know you’re not just tagging it on your Delicious list. This one is gonna be made! So was the story of these cookies, when I first saw them at Joy The Baker’s blog - I was in love! But then again, there hardly is anything on this talented gal’s plate that doesn’t make me instantly want to jump right into my apron and make it. Other than that her writing is so great, and there’s no post of hers that I’ll miss, she always succeeds in putting a smile on my face. So if there’s a chance that you’re still not familiar with her blog, go ahead, what are you waiting for?

It’s funny that when people first find out that I love baking so much, they’d always ask me what do I make. Then I try to think really hard about all the more complicated desserts I’m making, hoping to impress them . But the thing is, that when it comes to actually eating the products - I’ve come to understand that people will (almost) always prefer the simplest things. A friend of mine once asked me to make him some cookies, I offered him a variety of cookies, and he finally chose these ones.

These cookies are great, and everything I expected them to be. I’m really into chewy cookies, so those of you who share this chewy love, will also adore them. I’ve used white chocolate chips (actually I took a white chocolate bar and chopped it). If you do the same - beware, cause white chocolate tends to burn easily - so when you roll the batter into balls, make sure that the white chocolate is tucked well into the batter.

I’ll leave you with the most exciting news for me this week:
1. Avi started his own English photography blog! Now that’s so exciting! In my eyes, and in those of everyone who has ever seen a photo of his, he’s such a gifted photographer! Go ahead, visit him.
2. Shahar Tzuberi, the Israeli windsurfer, has won a bronze medal on the Beijing Olimpic Games. More than the medal made me happy, I was impressed with how he managed to keep his cool, eventhough he knew that he was Israel’s last hope for an Olimpic medal in Beijing.
3. Maya, a very talented Israeli food blogger, has started writing a food column in one of the leading Israeli news-papers! Congratulations, Maya, I loved the 2 columns you’ve written by now, and it’s great to read you now in 2 places!

Chocolate Brownie Cookies / Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour’s recipe
For 35 medium sized cookies

Ingredients:
225 gr bittersweet chocolate (chopped or in chips)
40 gr butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 flat tsp espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100 gr white-chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1. In a double boiler, or in the microwave, gently melt together the chocolate and butter. To avoid heating the chocolate too much and possibly burning it, the best method is to heat till the butter is melted and the chocolate has partially melted, then remove from the heat. Stir till all the chocolate melts.
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs till they’re thoroughly combined. You don’t need a mixer, just do it in a medium sized bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the hot melted chocolate, then stir in the remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips, if you’re using them. Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour, to make it easier to handle. 
3. Preheat the oven to 325F (160C). Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
4. Drop the cookie dough by the tablespoonfuls (about the size of a small ping pong ball) onto the prepared baking sheets. A tablespoon cookie scoop makes this task extremely simple. Leave about 5 cm between the dough balls, as they’ll spread as they bake.
5. Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, until their tops are shiny and cracked.  They won’t crack until the very end, so keep a close eye on them; when they’re cracked all the way across the top surface, they’re done.  The point is, you want these baked all the way through, but just barely; additional baking makes them more crisp rather than chewy. Remove the cookies from the oven, and top each with a kiss-shaped chocolate, a bittersweet chocolate wafer, or a chocolate covered sunflower seed.  Wait 5 minutes then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

עוגיות שוקולד פאדג’יות / עיבוד קל למתכון של King Arthur Flour
עבור 35 עוגיות בגודל בינוני

רכיבים:
225 גרם שוקולד מריר, קצוץ גס
40 גרם חמאה
1 כוס סוכר
3 ביצים מס’ 1
1 כפית שטוחה אבקת אספרסו (אפשר גם אבקת נס קפה)
1 כפית תמצית וניל
1 כוס קמח
1/4 כפית אבקת אפיה
1/4 כפית מלח
100 גרם שוקולד לבן, קצוץ גס

הכנה:
1. מעל ביין מארי (סיר מעל סיר, כאשר בסיר התחתון יש שכבה דקה של מים רותחים) או במיקרו, ממיסים יחדיו חמאה ושוקולד. כדי להימנע משריפת השוקולד, הדרך העדיפה היא לחמם עד שהחמאה נמסה לחלוטין אבל השוקולד עדיין לא, להוריד ממקור החום ולערבב היטב עד שהשוקולד נמס. כאשר ממיסים במיקרו, עושים זאת באינטרוולים של 25 שניות, ומערבבים בין פעם לפעם הבאה.
2. בקערה נפרדת, מערבבים היטב סוכר וביצים עד לתערובת אחידה. אין צורך במיקסר, כף עץ או מטרפה יעשו מצוין את העבודה. מוסיפים את השוקולד המומס החם, ולאחר מכן מוסיפים את שארית הרכיבים, כולל שברי השוקולד הלבן, אם החלטתם להשתמש בהם. מקררים את התערובת למשך שעה, על מנת שיהיה קל יותר לעבוד איתה.
3. מחממים תנור ל - 160 מעלות. משמנים (או שמים נייר אפיה על) 2 תבניות התנור.
4. יוצרים את העוגיות באמצעות שתי כפיות, שמים כמות של כפית גדושה בכל פעם, מה שייצור תלוליות בגודל כדור פינג-פונג קטן. מקפידים להשאיר רווח של כ-5 ס”מ בין עוגיה לעוגיה, היות שהעוגיות נוטות להתפשט במהלך האפיה.
5. אופים במשך 11-12 דקות, או עד שהן מבריקות והשכבה העליונה שלהן “שבורה” כולה. יש לשים לב טוב לעוגיות לקראת סוף זמן אפייתן, היות שזמן אפיה ארוך מדי יהפוך אותן לקריספיות, וזה לא מה שאנחנו מחפשים כאן. מוציאים את העוגיות מהתנור, אפשר לקשט מעל בשברי שוקולד קטנים, עדשים צבעוניים, שברי וופלים עם שוקולד ועוד.. מחכים 5 דקות ומעבירים את העוגיות לצינון על רשת