Third Times the Charm at #CookieTakedown

This is what my cousin said to me a couple times on our way to the 2014 Sunday edition of the Brooklyn Cookie Takedown I was not wholly optimistic. For me, baking is somewhat therapeutic. I couldn't imagine baking full-time as some of the love would be chipped away. Whereas writing is a passion, and something I consider work, baking is a hobby. And like any hobby why the heck not make over 200 cookies for people to consume and judge at the annual Cookie Takedown? Matt Timms organizes the slew of Takedowns that goes on, and not just in Brooklyn. The cookie version is the only one I've dared to enter because of my love for baking.

I found I was pretty uninspired for cookies. Wanting to do something different, and without chocolate, like in previous years. 2012 was maple cookie with a candied almond. 2013 brought a toasty coco-lime shortbread. This year...I was blank for a bit.

In the end I knew I wanted to try shortbread and perfect what I did last year in a way. Shortbread is a good try for several reasons. One of which is that it is so full of butter that it freezes well and is easy to roll so moisture and texture can retain if you make dough ahead of time.

But what to add to said shortbread? Who the heck knows? Time flew. Thanksgiving came and went. And I figured "The hell?!" I'll do shortbread dipped in chocolate with homemade caramel swirled on top. Perhaps there'll be a slew of chocolate items like the year prior. Perhaps there'd be a lot of caramel or bourbon items as well. I dunno. All I knew was that even though I was going through some personal issues and was not wholly invested that I'd make the best damn cookie I could.

Some things I learned in re-trying my hand at shortbread.

1. Use the BEST butter you can. And that meant Kerrygold Unsalted. Being part of the Kerrygold Food Blogger Network I knew I could utilize some coupons and found the texture and quality to be enhanced than with that of butter available in my local stores.

2. Confectioners over Granulated. Sugar matters when it comes to shortbread. Shortbread needs to be smooth and crisp, but buttery and not too sweet. Which is why it's important to have a good balance in that taste when you're adding items onto it. Don't just add stuff to shortbread! It has to work on all levels. So confectioners tones down the sweetness to not overpower while also being so fine that it works in the dough itself to get that crispness you want.

3. Watch. Your. Shortbread. I moved into a new place and so have a much more powerful oven. Which means I had to nurse and guard my shortbread until it turned a slight toasty on the bottom edges. Once that happens and the top is somewhat firm take it out and slip onto your wracks to cool and then seal up tight.

So I made all the cookies on Friday. And then it was time to melt the chocolate (use a pan!) and dip said cookies into chocolate. What did I find though after 2 hours of waiting for chocolate to set in my hot a** apartment? That I need to set these things in the fridge because my apartment was not having it. This meant the 200+ cookies I had spread throughout my small NYC apartment in Queens needed to go into my fridge in shifts over the course of another 2 hours so I could stack them up.

Sunday morning, right before heading out to Brooklyn, I made caramel complete with more butter, (light) brown sugar, heavy cream, and kosher salt. After making the caramel I put it into a squeeze bottle and wrapped that up in foil to retain the heat in the hopes it was not too cold out (since my apartment was Hades) to freeze the caramel and rushed off to the Takedown.

Well, after 3 years of doing this I was having fun. Eating the other participants' cookies. Friend and Takedown Queen (Ice Cream Champene) Daisy Bow was my table buddy and had my fave cookie of the day her Darth Tater potato chip shortbread with chocolate drizzle. Sooo good.

The judges tasted. One of them co-owner of Baked Renato Poliafito and a previous Takedown judge from Schnack. So, at the end of the competition you get up on stage, introduce yourself and your cookie and wait to hear the verdict. The judges choice came first and they announced the two Honorary mentions. Then came third place.

At this point one is hopeful to hear their name but not expecting it and by the time the second place was called I was waiting to hear whom I'd be congratulating for the first place prize while sweating under the Bell House lights on stage and smiling due to a sugar high and since you're being watched by many, many people.

And then, someone, Renato of Baked, calls #19 Chocolate dipped & caramel tipped shortbread and your mouth drops open and you stagger back into your friends Daisy and Emily in shock at having your name called. Then you, or I, walk slowly to gain your prizes and smile really big and goofily and when the mic is placed in front of you say "I've been in this competition three times and this is the first time I won. Yay!" And then you get a bunch of congratulations from many people with genuine smiles and must figure out how to carry a Kitchenaid mixer home from Brooklyn to Queens with your cousin.

Afterwards you eat Thai food for dinner to try and cancel out the sugar. :-)

So yay! Bridesmaid turned bride at the latest Brooklyn Cookie Takedown after a rough couple weeks and worrying about what I was making knowing I made something people enjoyed--even having Matt Timms dad Pete strike up convo about how much he liked my shortbread and the best he's had was by his wife who is English and they, you know, invented shortbread--can be enough. I really do simply like to feed people and have them enjoy it. But winning a Kitchenaid mixer and Baked cookbook is pretty damn awesome too.

Happy Baking peeps!

Cookiepalooza 2013: #CookieSwapNYC & #CookieTakedown

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies. That's the gist of my weekend. Which was a very nice and blessed one indeed to be able to say, "I had too much sugar." Things started post-work Friday evening with me making over 100 toasted coconut and lime shortbread cookies as my entry for the Cookie Takedown on Sunday, which also happened on Saturday being split into 2 days instead of lumped into one. (Hope everyone had fun on Saturday!)

On Saturday morn I took about a dozen of my cookies from the 100+ batch to The Coffee Foundry in Greenwich Village where there were cookies, bars, and a nice display of Zugar Haus boxes. We set up our cookies along the bar (with labels) and ordered drinks from the great staff at the Foundry for cappuccinos with designs, tea, or even hot chocolate with co-sponsor Divine Chocolates. Along the bar were samples of Divine Chocolates mint chocolate or chocolate with ginger inside for all to taste and some cheese, multigrain crisps, and grapes to set off a bit of the savory vibe.

And then, we got to cookie eating and chatting and more cookie eating.

Kristin and Brittany with City Harvest told us more about how we can help with volunteer opportunities. One-third of the proceeds from each ticket sold went to City Harvest, a great food bank in NYC that provides food to the hungry. And if you tweet using the hashtag #feedourpeople $5 gets donated to City Harvest. So get to tweeting y'all!

I didn't load up on sweets since I had Cookie Takedown the next day but very much enjoyed what I did have such as Jennifer McHenry's bourbon cheesecake brownies made with, yup, Divine Chocolate. Hazel Sy's French macarons were a nice treat as was my introduction to Kouign Amann by Take The Toyz. There was an array of items from gluten-free, to chocolate filled, to zesty, and whoopie, and bar based. So delicious. So comforting for a chilly and windy Saturday morning transitioning into afternoon, and so many wonderful people. Sweets for a cause? I'm in for that every year.

Big, huge, ginormous thanks Divine Chocolate and Zugar Haus for being sponsors of this event and for providing goodies to attendees/donators. Look out for this event again next year right around the holidays by following organizer, foodie, and cool peep Lillian Huang.

Sooo, there was more baking on Saturday evening and then we rested in time for...the Takedown Sunday Edition. I had over 200 cookies, less than the almost 300 I made last year and I was feeling good about how many I made. The fact that they were small in size (thanks to a shot glass used as a cookie cutter) and getting to The Bell House 45 minutes before showtime snagging one of the front tables for me and my gal Angela of Mind Over Batter. After setting up was done I got some pics (and tastes) of some of the other entrants. I saw that I was one of the few if only one who's cookie was citrus based. There were many, many chocolate cookies this time around either with chocolate chips or chocolate based with bourbon or whiskey infused (or mixed) into batters, cookies, and yes even low-fat milk! There were a couple bacon entries and peanut butter was a fave this year as well. My neighbors who had The Last Call Choco Taco had orange zest in their cream but that was it I had the lone citrus cookie that, as Angela deemed it, could serve as a palate cleanser after all those sweets! I got a good amount of compliments on my cookie for it being different and smelling wonderfully like lime. Thanks y'all! And it was so nice to get support from fellow Takedowner Daisy Bow who had won at this year's Ice Cream Takedown and placed in the Bacon Takedown and others who had been entrants in the Ice Cream Takedown. Yay, Takedowner support!

So, as the lines wound around The Bell House and we're an hour in I realize, I'm running out of cookies! I made about 250 (or more) and brought 220+ with me and I was steadily losing ground. A few people around me were also running out of cookies. On the one hand it's good because it's less to take home but bad because you want everyone to taste your cookie! We got through many lines and I found I had 2 cookies left and those, over a course of minutes, were plucked away. And then I had nada. Last year I made about 300 and had a crapload left. This year I make over 200 and run out. Guess there's no winning when it comes to the numbers game but glad people seemed to enjoy my cookies.

Did I win? Nope. Did I place? Nope. Was it a lot of work to make 200+ cookies and test my recipe? Hell to the yeah. Did I have a fun time and get some great cookies, meet nice people, have eggnog, hang with my foodie friends and such? Yes on all counts. Would I do it again? Sure, why not? It's fun to see the variety of cookies that come through and what people, and the judges, like. Matt Timms is a fantastic host for the Takedowns because he appreciates everyone who enters and participates. Once all the work is done it's a really fun time with great people. I was glad to see Emily Hanhan of Nomnivorous place as one of the judge's Top 3 for her Ugly Betties (chocolate cookie packed with salted peanuts and caramel) as well as my FAVE cookie of the day the Smashed and Spiked by Elizabeth Peek of a sweet potato soft cookie that I continuously kept calling a pumpkin cookie. Oh goodness I loved her cookie and was so glad it placed with the people's choice. Elizabeth's as well as Angela's dark peanut butter chocolate and Emily's Ugly Betties were my top picks. And the big winner was the Vermonster cookie packed with peanuts and chocolate and had a maple syrup drizzle that won the people's top choice and the judge's top choice. Hrm, wonder if I had done my maple cookie this year if it would've placed? Who's to say. Either way I am proud of my lime shortbread and was glad to give lime some shine at the Takedown. It just doesn't get as much love as it should.

Ice Cream Takedown 2013

Sunday was the perfect day to be eating ice cream. Maybe not so much to take it to Gowanus and serve people though. But what can you do? The annual Takedowns hosted by Matt Timms went down, and it was a grand. Once again Matt organized a lovely event sponsored by PAMA, Il Laboratorio del Gelato, Phin and Phebes, Mikey Likes It, and Enterprise. And as it often is the event was at the Brooklyn gem, The Bell House.

Free cocktails (thanks to PAMA) of PAMA cocktails flowed for the first hour. And even after tasting a bunch of delicious ice cream from participants there was still some to be tasted from Mikey Likes It. Good times.

It is hot and humid on the east coast. Has been for a few weeks and needless to say people can get antsy. But there was dry ice to keep the ice cream chilled and lines to streamline things and people ready to eat and judge and eat some more. Even Tyra Banks, yes ANTM's Tyra Banks, made an appearance and ate and left and maybe she even voted. Who knows? I didn't want to be that person sneaking a picture of her as she tried to enjoy the ice cream, but even Matt Timms was all "Holy crap! A supermodel came to one of the Takedowns."

But yeah, ice cream. And lots of it! Twenty entrants overall and less people in the space because of the heat and precious goods made for a not too packed time with room to roam and slurp and get on lines for more creamy goodness of the frozen variety. There were a lot of great flavors and unique ones at that.

My Standouts

A couple adorable kids and their aunt (Team JujuBeans) presented Coco Cado, a creamy avocado ice cream with toasted coconut that was  a perfect merging of flavors. Each relied on the other and it was in my top 5.

Other faves were cannoli ice cream with a cannoli shell and a kind of icy cream with chocolate bits inside made by Kimberly Stein. The shell really made this one. Kimberly said she spent 22 hours making them and they were perfect.

Then there was Daisy's backwoods blueberry sherbet with buttermilk and moonshine that was quite refreshing after having so much cream based items. And she won not only a judge prize but an audience prize as well. Her's definitely stood out among the crowd.

An apple pie ice cream with sugared apples and crumble made by Angela made me think what she made should be mass produced and available to the world. It really had all the elements of apple pie in ice cream form. Something only Angela could produce.

Other standouts included the 3 PBJ which was peanut butter ice cream with balsamic jam glaze and brown buttered croutons. Flavors in all aspects and the crunch! Fantastic.

Add in some butterscotch (which took the top judge prize) and a lemon meringue pie ice cream by Alice (which took the top audience prize) and you have the contrast of cream flavors filling you up to lighter essences engaging your palate.

There were some entrants that may be a bit icy or too melty to properly get the flavors or badly constructed due to the heat but hey that's what experimentation is all about. Previous Takedown winner Adrian was one of the few to have booze and bacon in his while Steve, a Takedown winner from two years prior, also had alcohol and a great sandwich construction with his cakey sandwich and boozy Irish car bomb ice cream sandwich. There was "A Hot Friend Named Ginger" which combined the overall flavor of ginger with some heat that kicks in soon after it hits your tongue. There was a s'mores ice cream with a marshmallow base and then you also had some Mexican Hot Chocolate (won 3rd place by the judges) in spicy or mild. The texture of the Mexican Hot Chocolate was on par with Haagen Dazs.

And like Matt always says you have to give a HUGE round of applause to those who enter these Takedowns. As someone who did the cookie one I know how much work goes into it and in finding the right consistency and texture for your ice cream as well as balancing flavors AND getting it to another borough in 90+ degree weather? Well hats off to you Takedowners for making it happen and showing us a great time and what "amateur" cooks can produce. Though I feel none of these entrants are amateurs in the least!

Congrats to ALL those who entered and Thanks so much for your delicious treats. I will be there again next year and will probably see some of you at a later Takedown. Off to nap now.

To see a full list of entrants check thetakedowns.com for Matt's follow-up post. 

#CookieTakedown 2012

Gray Sunday. Rain. Wind. Cookies. Bourbon. Brooklyn. Mid-December and the 2012 Cookie Takedown at The Bell House was officially on! In my corner, I had maple deliciousness. Shaking off the droplets my cousin Melissa and I walked into a literal smorgasbord of cookies and some serious competition. For some, or many, this wasn’t just for fun. This. Was. It.

Admittedly, I felt pretty confident about my original creation. I’d done a test batch and got thumbs up from discerning eaters in the form of my co-workers and got raves from members of my writing group. But, like anything when it comes to NYC, in smaller communities you feel like a master, but when facing the larger realm you realize how steep the competition is.

With my tin pans full of cookies I was beside women with nice tablecloths, neon colored gloves, cute zebra printed plates and a light-up sign! Luckily fellow foodie, food blogger, fashionista, and kickass mom Angela (Mind Over Batter, by the way she's also currently doing a cookbook giveaway!) had done one of the of the Takedowns before (she placed at the Ice Cream Takedown earlier this year) and brought a lovely tablecloth. She also brought some delicious Banana Bread Re-snicker-cycle-doodles. If you like banana bread you’ll love her cookie it has the great balance of bread and cookie and a perfect banana taste.

Matt Timms knows how to treat his takedowners. There were nice giveaways for all including Bulleit Bourbon, Bulleit Bourbon glasses, and a handy Anolon wooden spoon. There was free eggnog (strong stuff!) and the first round was on Matt. Winners got either a Cuisinart stand mixer and other goodies (audience choice prizes) or an electronic handmixer (judge’s choice) or baking pans (honorable mentions). Oh yeah, there were cookies galore!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to partake in as many cookies as I would have liked since I was so busy serving the masses. One of the nicest compliments was seeing people nod after taking a bite of my cookie knowing that it hit a soft spot. One attendee, who was friends with the ladies giving out Pistachio Chip Chip cookies said my cookie was the best of all! One of the ladies manning their table came over to me and said “My friend said your cookie was the best one here. And he’s my friend!” I was aghast and flattered and psyched up!

The Cookie Takedown is a major cookie bonanza. There was an abundance of salty sweets from the salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (one of my faves for the perfection of something simple), salted chocolate chocolate chip cookies, one of the winners of the audience prize was a sea salted chocolate chip cookie. There was a Frankencookie (peanut butter cookie atop a brownie atop a chocolate chip cookie). There were bacon cookies, Drunken Chocolate Pig (chocolate, maple, sea salt, bacon) and a cookie with maple drizzle. A Miso Awesome cookie, yes miso in cookie along with chocolate. There was the Fluffer Nutjob (which also placed) and a cookie that was smothered in fluff (homemade mallomars) hiding the bit of cookie underneath. There was chewy gingerbread and thyme toppings and potato chips with chocolate chips (pistachio chip chip) and pistachio cookies with pomegranate buttercream and...so. many. cookies!

What was my cookie you ask? I made a maple almond praline cookie. As a fan of Vermont, and especially Vermont maple, I saw that Trader Joe’s had maple sugar! I purchased some and when I found out I was no longer on the waiting list for the Cookie Takedown but an official entrant I went to Trader Joe’s and bought a crapload more in addition to maple syrup and stocked up on maple extract.

This is a chewy cookie and the maple is there but not too intense. Being that maple itself is a subtle flavor I don’t think you can overdo it, however, you definitely need a balance of maple and non-maple ingredients. I rolled the almond in grade A dark amber maple syrup and then in light brown sugar to make a sort of praline and put that in the middle of the cookie so it’d crust up while baking. Along with the chew you get a nice crunch. I got many compliments from those outside of the competition as well since I had leftovers.

Something to also note...you have to make a few hundred of these. I made close to 300 over the course of two nights. And (thanks for the tip, Angela!) made dough for five straight days and refrigerated it so I could bake over two nights rather than try and balance making dough and baking. Luckily the dough I made handled well being refrigerated for several days making baking go smoothly. I made 150+ on Friday night and 120+ on Saturday night. With maple in baked goods the flavor has to settle. You will not taste maple right out of the oven, but after everything’s been sealed for a few hours and you open that sealed container anew BAM you are hit with it. And it is wonderful.

So after two hours of serving cookies, tasting cookies, drinking some strong eggnog, and chatting with attendees and contestants the judges deliberated and Matt counted ballots from audience votes. We all gathered on stage and introduced ourselves (and our confections) and waited to hear the results.

Admittedly, I felt a bit confident. I knew the cookie was good, but being up against 29 other cookies, well, you wonder how good.

Unfortunately again, friends, I did not win. The big winner was Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen who won both the judges top prize and the audience prize for her French macarons. Yes, maple got beat out by the French. But they were well done and I don’t know if I’d have the patience to make those bad boys, especially several hundred in my own little kitchen.

Do I wish I’d have won? Sure. But mostly I wish I’d gotten to taste more cookies! Seeing everyone set up and hearing them say them onstage I was disappointed I didn’t get to try more. Lucky audience members and judges. People worked hard on their cookies and the other takedowners were super nice and complimentary. It was good vibes all around on a rainy day and warm fuzzies. My cousin had a bunch of fun and again, Matt knows how to host an event and treat his people so he made it extra awesome.

I may do the Cookie Takedown again next year, may not. I didn’t feel too stressed about it do to good prep but who knows. Maybe next year I’ll just sit back, relax, and with eggnog in one hand and a plate of cookies in the other take in all the goods.

Sidenote: Because I was so busy distributing cookies to the public I didn’t get as many pics as I’d like but here are some great ones from Brooklyn Exposed (you can see Angela and I in one!). And SeriousEats has a nice slideshow of the event.