No Longer a Rookie Cookie

I love to get gifts of food, and every now and again someone sends me something. There is the yearly arrival of luscious honeybell oranges from Florida sent by a close friend; around the holidays, a large tin of Middle Eastern pastries arrive from a bakery in Dearborn, Michigan, (a tradition started by my father and continued by my husband), and recently I received a fabulous package of artisan food products from Spain -- including an unusual semi-soft chorizo known as sobrasada Mallorquina from my sister-in-law when she finally exhausted her gift ideas. And just the other day, a box of delectable cookies and one-bite mignardises, arrived safely from Culver City, Calif. Not only was I impressed with the originality and quality of the brown butter, dark chocolate & smoked salt cookies, the delicacy of the lemon pieters, made with a bit of lemon oil and lemon sugar, and the addictive platino -- an elegant version of an Oreo, I wondered how a business that deals with high-cost ingredients and lots of labor, manages to thrive. Especially when much of its business is coast-to-coast. Many people have fantasies about food and opening food businesses. Some succeed; but most of them fail, with dashed bank accounts and broken dreams as the payoff. But Jamie Cantor, the owner of Platine Cookies, in Culver City, Calif., located east of Santa Monica and south of Beverly Hills, has been in business for more than 10 years and had her largest order -- 3,500 dozen... that's 42,000 cookies to roll out, bake, and package, in a rather small space -- just last month. Whether it's "Android" cookies for Google, "engagement ring" cookies and miniature Ho-Ho's for the local Bloomingdales, or gift boxes for corporate clients, Ms. Cantor has beat the odds in an industry where small entrepreneurs are notorious for abruptly disappearing.

Lucky for her, Jamie Cantor chose to make sweet things, which, despite our national obsession with obesity, are today all the rage. Just think of the cupcake madness around the country, with endless lines for Magnolia Bakery's products, and with Sprinkles, a California-based company, fitting out some of their stores with 24-hour cupcake ATMs for those clamoring for a sugar fix at midnight. Even McDonald's just last week announced that it would be selling baked goods all day long, hoping to snare some "treats" business from the likes of Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. New business hopefuls are trying their hands at artisan gelato, which looks like a precarious trendlet to me. And chain restaurants are following the lead of Darden's Seasons 52 with socially-responsible mini-dessert options.

Jamie's dream of opening a cookie store (not unlike that of cookbook author Dorie Greenspan who opens "pop up" cookie stores all over New York), began when her father bought her a copy of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookie Book when she was a young girl. Combine that yearning with the creative precision of her mother who was an architect, and you have the stuff dreams are made of. Jamie enrolled in the CIA in Hyde Park, New York, and received the 1998 Women Chefs & Restaurateurs Scholarship to study in the Napa Valley campus where she earned a degree in Bakery & Pastry Arts. She landed an internship at Thomas Keller's French Laundry, and then, after graduating, worked as Chef de Partie in the pastry department under the tutelage of pastry chef Stephen Durfee and Keller, himself, who she describes as impressive, smart and fastidious. It was there that Jamie honed her perfectionism and her desire to infiltrate a world smitten by cupcakes with her own, more upscale, petit pastry and cookie offerings. More Francois Payard than Sandra Lee, Jamie headed south to Los Angeles, bought some flour, and started a company.

Her first items? Jamie created the platino (a cakey-chocolate cookie sandwich filled with voluptuous white "cream") and the camee -- which is an all-white vanilla version. These continue to be her best sellers among a comprehensive list of brownies, lemon meringue grahams, and more. What I find compelling is that her cookies have a home-made quality about them rather than appear like (well) cookie-cutter products from an industrial manufacturer. And for the last few years she has two dynamite offerings for Passover -- traditional coconut macaroons and the less-traditional chocolate flourless "baby cakes." Others swear by the caramel-topped brownie and the chocolate pots de creme with black lava salt: Return the little cup and you receive 10 cents -- Jamie's nod to ecology. I, for one, am enamored with Jamie's exquisite balance of salt and sugar in her recipes.

Discovered by the Food Network in 2004, Platine has also received raves from Japanese Vogue, People magazine and the Los Angeles Times. While her biggest issue continues to be delivering a hand-made high quality product at a reasonable price, her dream is to turn Platine into a nationwide brand. In the meantime, she just developed a new cookie in honor of her niece "the Cho-la-la" -- a chocolate thumbprint cookie filled with gianduja and sprinkled with Hawaiian pink salt. Next, will be an homage, no doubt, to her son Jackson, who is just one year old. Lucky kid.

And now that Thomas Keller has opened Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills, Jamie Cantor has become a friendly competitor to her beloved former boss.

www.platinecookies.com

Cookies While You Sleep

As promised, more holiday cookies.  The first one, curiously called "Cookies While You Sleep," lets the nighttime do its magic.  Put glossy heaps of wet meringue into the oven before bedtime and in the morning you will wake up to dreamy crisp meringues.  The ultra-white mounds crackle in your mouth and then melt like snow.  Made with egg whites (save the yolks for another style of cookie), sugar, and miniature chocolate chips, these are truly child's play with fun visual cues along the way. Visual cue #1 -- the egg whites (beaten with a bit of salt) are whipped until they hold their shape and get stiff and glossy.  Visual cue #2:  It should look like Marshmallow Fluff.  Mounded onto parchment-lined baking sheets, put them in a hot oven and then immediately turn the oven...off!   Go to bed. In the morning, eat one or two of these cookies and begin the next recipe:  Nutella Sandwich Cookies.  The ubiquitous chocolate-hazelnut spread (that comes in a jar) flavors both the batter and serves as the filling for the sandwich.  This is a four-ingredient cookie that makes milk an imperative.  Have a little patience when cutting the warm cookies in half, sandwich-style, through the equator.  Use a large serrated knife and go slow. These cookies taste even better the next day (if they last that long)...and the next...as the cookie "crumb" (the texture) softens.

And here's a crazy idea I invented using frozen wonton skins.  Not sure what possessed me to slather them with melted butter and shower them with cinnamon-sugar. Baked for 7 minutes, they become crisp and tasty as can be and serve a variety of purposes.  They are great as is, served with a cup of green tea.  They are wonderful for dipping into a pint of slightly melted ice cream.  Stacked with layers of ripe fresh fruit and honey, they become trendy "napoleons."  Most fun of all is to have your guests guess how they're made.  No one ever does.  Most surprising of all is...they're healthy!  Only 33 calories per cookie.  And you can make them with olive oil instead of butter.  They last a long time and look really cool in a glassine bag tied up with holiday ribbons.

'Tis the season.

Cookies While You Sleep (from Kids Cook 1-2-3) 3 extra-large egg whites 7/8 cup sugar 1 heaping cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Beat the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer until they begin to thicken.  Add a pinch of salt and gradually add the sugar. Beat for several minutes, until the mixture holds its shape and is stiff and glossy.  Continue beating several minutes until it is very thick.  Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment.  Gently fold the chocolate chips into the batter.  Drop by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheets.  Place in the oven on the middle rack and close the door. Immediately turn the oven off.  Leave the door closed until morning.  Makes about 28

Nutella Sandwich Cookies 13-ounce jar Nutella 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 1 extra-large egg 1-1/4 cups self-rising cake flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.  Beat together 1/4 cup of the Nutella, the butter, and egg.  Slowly add the flour until a wet dough forms.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently, adding more flour if necessary; the dough will be sticky.  Divide the dough into 18 pieces and roll each into a perfect ball, flouring your hands as you go.  Place several inches apart on the baking sheet.  Bake 12 minutes until firm.  Cool 10 minutes on the sheet.  Using a serrated knife, split each cookie in half horizontally.  Spread each bottom half with 1 heaping teaspoon of Nutella.  Replace the tops, pressing lightly.  Makes 18

Cinnamon-Sugar Crisps You can keep these super simple by brushing them with melted butter and sprinkling them with cinnamon-sugar.  I have deepened their flavor with some five-spice powder and sesame seeds.  You can find wonton wrappers in Asian food markets; they are generally frozen.

1/4 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder 24 square wonton wrappers 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1/3 cup sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and five-spice powder.  Place 12 wontons on each of 2 ungreased baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, brush each with melted butter.  Sprinkle heavily with the sugar mixture and then with the sesame seeds.  Press the seeds in lightly.  Bake for 7 minutes until golden and crispy; cool.  Makes 24