Two Christmas Cookie Recipes from Repertoire, One of 2018’s Best Cookbooks
A pair of simple and delicious Christmas cookie recipes from Repertoire, the first solo cookbook from food writer and Vermont native Jessica Battilana.
Cocoa Oat and Chewy Molasses Cookies from Jessica Battilana’s new cookbook, Repertoire
Photo Credit : Ed Anderson
Jessica Battilana, my friend of more than a decade, has ghostwritten several chef’s books: a collaboration with Charles Phan of San Francisco’s famous Slanted Door restaurant, a book with Boston chef Matt Jennings called Homegrown: Cooking from My New England Roots, and Tartine Book No. 3, from the beloved San Francisco bakery of the same name. But for her first solo book, the Vermont native went straight to her own home kitchen, drawing from the everyday recipes (and a few special-occasion ones) that she found herself returning to again and again as she polished them into foolproof perfection.
The result is Repertoire, a curated collection (“all the recipes you need,” according to the subtitle) that stands out among this year’s cookbooks for its sheer usefulness. But don’t just take my word for it: Culinary superstars such as Samin Nosrat and Yotam Ottolenghi have sung its praises (“Repertoire is a magical book of insanely delicious keeper recipes you can trust with your life,” Nosrat said.“Guard it like it’s made of gold.”).
So now that it’s the holiday season, I am loving two of the cookie recipes from Repertoire: the deeply chocolaty Cocoa-Oat Cookies and the aptly named Chewy Molasses Cookies. They’re not fancy, but let’s face it, the most elaborately frosted cookies aren’t usually all that delicious. These are, in spades.
Cocoa-Oat Cookies and Chewy Molasses Cookies from Jessica Battilana’s Repertoire. Photo Credit : Ed Anderson
When Jessica Battilana set out to create the perfect oatmeal-raisin cookie, she got a bit distracted by chocolate crinkle cookies, chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons, and Dorie Greenspan’s dark-chocolate-studded World Peace Cookies (Google it). And what she ended up with instead was this rich, fudgy cookie, shot through with coconut. The small amount of rice flour in the dough might seem like a fiddly detail, but it contributes enormously to the soft, chewy texture. It’s vital that you don’t overbake these cookies; if you do, they’ll go from soft and chewy to dry and crumbly. Pull them out when they still look a bit underbaked.
A recipe from Battilana’s mother-in-law, these spicy cookies are just as good dunked in coffee as they sandwiched with ice cream. If you want, skip the step of rolling the cookies in sugar and instead drizzle them with a glaze (½ cup confectioners’ sugar to 2 teaspoons milk, whisked until smooth) after they’ve baked and cooled.
Find many more instant-classic recipes in Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need (Little, Brown and Company, 2018). Excerpted with permission. All rights reserved.
Amy Traverso
Food Editor Amy Traverso oversees the Yankee Magazine Food department and contributes to NewEngland.com. Amy's book, The Apple Lover's Cookbook (W.W. Norton), won an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook award for the category American.
The result is Repertoire, a curated collection (“all the recipes you need,” according to the subtitle) that stands out among this year’s cookbooks for its sheer usefulness. But don’t just take my word for it: Culinary superstars such as Samin Nosrat and Yotam Ottolenghi have sung its praises (“Repertoire is a magical book of insanely delicious keeper recipes you can trust with your life,” Nosrat said.“Guard it like it’s made of gold.”).
So now that it’s the holiday season, I am loving two of the cookie recipes from Repertoire: the deeply chocolaty Cocoa-Oat Cookies and the aptly named Chewy Molasses Cookies. They’re not fancy, but let’s face it, the most elaborately frosted cookies aren’t usually all that delicious. These are, in spades.
