[Photograph: Tina Rupp]
When it comes to baking, no one ever bats an eyelash when it comes to adding a dash of salt to an otherwise sweet recipe, but when you go and add a touch of spicy pepper to cookies, things start to get a little crazy. These Salt-N-Pepper Sandwich Cookies from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito‘s Baked Explorations add white pepper to their version of homemade Oreos, and I’ve got to say, they’re pretty genius.
While the chocolate cookies aren’t quite as inky and crumbly as the bookends to the Oreo, they are crisp and chocolaty with a great saltiness, and a punchy heat from the white pepper that hits you at the very end. On the other hand, the filling is eerily similar to the cookie classic: bright white, super sweet with the kind of texture that only comes from a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. Pairing the peppery cookies with the familiar-tasting filling keeps these cookies from venturing too far out there. These reinvented Oreos are easy to love, no matter how strange they sound on paper.
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Baked Explorations to give away this week.
Adapted from Baked Explorations. Copyright © 2010. Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.
