Christmas in July

I hate to waste food. Since I’m somewhat of a cooking fanatic, we spend a ton of money each month on groceries (really more than I like to face up to, and I track the grocery expenditures carefully in Excel—my secret-software best friend—so I know what the exact damage is, ouch). So I pounce on any opportunity to freeze and save leftovers for future use—sometimes being a little ambitious about the likelihood that we’ll whip out a given frozen leftover in the future. (A prime example: a wheat berry stuffing that we had with chicken once; it was tasty at the time and we had a ton it leftover so I froze it, but chances are that if I’m stuffing a chicken in the future I’ll probably opt for a fresh stuffing). I made a big batch of gingerbread cookie dough during the last holiday season; this recipe makes four big balls of dough, each of which probably makes 30 to 40 cookies. I rolled and cut gingerbread shapes (not all men; sorry, guys) out of the first two balls, but got fatigued and decided to cut my cookie making short and freeze the remaining dough (cooking nut that I am, chances are—particularly during the holidays—that this cookie making probably followed 10 to 12 hours of standing in the kitchen that day making various creations; even I get tired—sometimes). So I froze the two remaining balls of dough and they’ve now been occupying space in our ridiculously cramped upstairs freezer for about six months. These could be frozen with confidence that they’d be revisited someday—we might not be salivating over leftover wheat berry stuffing, but there’s a definite appeal to having cookie dough at the ready any time.

Six months is, I think, about as long as you probably want to keep frozen cookie dough around before it’s quality and safety begins to become questionable. Knowing that the dough is in there—and that I need to use it soon—I’ve been toying with the idea of rolling out the dough to use it as a crust for a tart or pie for a few weeks. I had not settled on the flavor of the filling yet (I had a few general ideas floating around my head), but I had finally settled on making a tart. The problem with this was that I do not own a tart pan…but I do have a ton of leftover Williams-Sonoma gift cards (a great gift for a cook—keep ‘em coming guys), and I’ve eyed their tart pans before. So, on Friday evening—after my last full day of office work (as an update: I quit my job, got a job in the bakery counter at an-as yet to be named-national grocery store chain that prides itself on the sale of organic and other high-quality goods), I stopped by WS (ok—the abbreviation here—I’m not a sick and disgusting yuppie, I swear. I am, however, a really lazy typist) to obtain a tart pan (9.5 inches, nonstick). Now I’ve got the equipment, and I just need to formulate an idea.

Many of my recipe ideas come to me during my daily workout. The ultimate use for this gingerbread dough was no exception. On Saturday morning, on the Nordic Track, I was pondering the potential filling for my tart-creation. I was thinking about a vanilla pudding/custard filling (light, of course—any way I can do it, knowing me), perhaps with some fruit on top. The problem there was that I would want to use actual vanilla beans for maximum effect, but didn’t really want to go out that day and spend $7-10 on a jar of vanilla beans (yes, they’re expensive and it’s the end of the month and I can see that I’ve far exceeded my targeted grocery spending). Ok, axe the vanilla custard. Perhaps some sort of cheesecake-type filling…but what flavor? I pondered this for a bit and suddenly a thought came to me…Gingerbread Latte. Yeah, coffee and gingerbread go pretty well together, as a certain coffee chain has shown us. I’ll make a coffee flavored cheesecake-type filling (light, of course), with a tad of whipped cream on top, and call it a Gingerbread Latte Tart.

The gingerbread dough was made according to a recipe from Eating Well magazine; it is entirely whole wheat (I differed from the recipe on that point, because they call for some AP flour) and contains butter in a more reasonable proportion than most cookies. So while the crust for the tart would be composed of cookie dough, this is a less-unhealthy cookie dough than most. I won’t give the recipe here, but will direct any interested parties to the Eating Well website, where the recipe is posted (and feel free to use all whole-wheat pastry flour in place of the whole wheat + AP flour—works fine, tastes great).

I took the cookie dough out of the freezer on Friday night, after I had secured the tart pan, and allowed it to thaw in the refrigerator until the next day. On Saturday evening, before dinner, I rolled the dough out to about a quarter inch thickness and did my best job at getting the rolled dough into the tart pan in one piece. Of course, it ripped in several spots. This was an easy fix, however, because in the process of pressing the dough into the tart pan, I was able to mend any tears that had occurred. After pressing the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, I lightly pricked the dough with a fork in many places (to create holes for air to escape, thereby preventing the dough from rising too much and leaving room for filling). I set the pan on a cookie sheet (for easy deposit and removal from the oven, since the pan has a removable bottom) and baked the crust at 350 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes. I removed the crust from the oven and observed that it had puffed up more than I had wanted. To deflate the crust, I again poked it lightly with a fork in several places; the crust collapsed to an acceptable height and I allowed it to cool on top of the oven while I prepared the filling.

I have made a ton of cheesecakes over the years, so the filling was very familiar territory. I didn’t want to have to bake it for long (I wasn’t sure how much additional baking the cookie crust could take before beginning to burn), so I wanted a less loose mixture than my typical cheesecake formulation. The problem caused by my cheesecake familiarity is that I basically combined a bunch of ingredients by sight, with little or no measuring, until the mixture looked and tasted about right…so there’s no real “recipe” to impart to you. But, I’ll try to summarize and estimate in order to provide some kind of idea of what the mixture was composed of (and maybe someday make it again and actually measure this time). I softened about 12 ounces of light cream cheese while the crust baked; when it was softened adequately, I added it to my stand mixer and mixed on medium-low speed to further soften it and prepare it for the addition of sugar. I then added about ¼ c plus 2 T of white sugar and maybe about 1 T of brown sugar (by sight and taste; no measurements here) and mixed well. After this was well incorporated, I added one egg and one extra egg white and mixed until the new addition was integrated into the mixture. After eggs are added to the cheesecake mixture, the more liquidy ingredients can be introduced, so I next added about 2 T of cold brewed coffee, 2 T of 1% milk, a couple spoonfuls of light sour cream and 1 ½ T of instant espresso powder. I also added about 1 T of bourbon, because there are few things that won’t benefit from the addition of a little liquor (especially cheesecake; I routinely add rum to my vanilla cheesecake–it gives it that extra little “something”). I mixed on low speed until these ingredients were fully mixed-in, tasted the mixture for flavor (I had initially added less espresso powder and through tasting got up to the final amount quoted above—needs more coffee!!). I then poured the batter into the pre-baked tart shell and put it in a 325-degree oven. I think that it took about 20 to 30 minutes to reach the proper temperature in the center of the cheesecake mixture (160 degrees—to make sure those eggs are cooked; a digital instant read thermometer is a cook’ best friend). I removed it from the oven and allowed it to cool on the countertop until it reached room temperature. Once this state was achieved, it traveled to the refrigerator to set and chill. After a long period of chilling, I piped some freshly whipped cream on top (sparingly, around the edges, and a dot in the center to cover up the hole where my instant read thermometer was inserted). It surely looked good enough to eat.

We tasted some after dinner and the review was positive; the coffee flavor of the cheesecake complimented the gingerbread well. This made a 9.5-inch tart and there are only two of us, so leftovers remained in the fridge for a few days (which isn’t too bad, because cheesecake actually gets better when given a few days to rest). The crust softened a bit after a couple of days in the fridge, which I was told was a positive development because the initial crunch of the crust made the tart more difficult to eat. So: overall, this attempt at eliminating food waste was a success; I managed to create a new dish from leftover frozen cookie dough that I will most likely endeavor to make again. I’m filled with glee and a bit of shy pride for my creation. It’s like Christmas in July.