Everyone has been abuzz over Dominique Ansel's latest craze, the cookie shot glass. We covered the cronuts and even recreated them here on the Chow Bella blog. But I had to put my foot down on the cookie shot glass. Who wants to drink the milk before eating the cookie? Not me!
That is why we are proud to introduce the cookie bowl!
See also: 5 Substitutes for Basic Baking Ingredients
Part bowl, part cookie. Perfect for a sundae or whipped cream, or trying to get your husband to eat salad. But, I wanted to do this in a simple way, so that everyone who may not have a ton of kitchen tools could make one as well. I scoured my kitchen cabinets for a bake-able container that would keep the bowl shape that I wanted, finally settling on a small glass pyrex container.
Step 1: Make your cookie dough like you normally would. I usually scoop it right after I make it, and then freeze it. This time, I molded cookie dough into my greased Pyrex container, covered it with plastic wrap and chilled it over night.
Step 2: Grease a piece of aluminum foil and place in the cookie cavity. Fill with dried beans to hold it down. Fold aluminum foil over the top of the beans. Make sure you are able to easily pull the aluminum foil pod of beans out of the cookie cavity easily, since you will be doing it when it's hot. (I also cover the whole cookie bowl with aluminum part way through baking to keep the edges from becoming too brown.
Step 3: Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes, or until the cookie is golden and the aluminum pod pulls out easily without ripping away your cookie dough. Remove the aluminum foil pod. Wrap the edges of the cookie bowl with aluminum foil and place back in the oven to bake the interior a bit longer, roughly about 20-25 more minutes.
Step 4: Allow cookie bowl to cool completely.
Step 5: Paint the interior of the bowl with a glaze mixture of powdered sugar, splash of milk and some vanilla. Make the glaze thick like paint, and using a paintbrush, paint the interior. It may run down and pool in the bottom, so make sure you get a good coat on the sides too. This will help your bowl keep its structure if you put something moist like ice cream in the bowl.
Note: I left my cookie bowl in the pyrex bowl. Mostly because I know that my husband won't be waiting to eat the cookie and we will end up with ice cream everywhere! To remove the cookie bowl from the Pyrex, take a few 1 ½" strips of parchment paper and line the bowl with them, leaving their tails hanging out on either side, this will make it easier to lift your cookie bowl out once it has cooled. Have a few strips of the parchment paper, to help loosen the bowl and remove it.
Step 6: Fill bowl with goodies!
Rachel Miller is a pastry chef and food writer in Phoenix, where she bakes, eats, and single-handedly keeps her local cheese shop in business. You can get more information about her pastry at www.pistolwhippedpastry.com, or on her blog at www.croissantinthecity.com.
