Hilarious that only a few days ago I was harping on about being in the autumn spirit and now here I am, giving you whiplash with the seasonality (of lack thereof) of my recipes. Nevertheless, today I bring you late ‘summer’ (playing it fast and loose with that term), tomatoes and the white whale of UK supermarkets, British strawbs, in October. Gadzooks! :D
One of my favourite creators Charlotte Michelle recently hosted a tomato party; an exceptional idea all round, IMO. One of the incredible sounding things she made in preparation for it was Melissa Clarkes Tomato Vanilla Jam. Naturally I haven’t been able to get it off my mind ever since, and I actually laid awake for hours a couple nights ago wondering if and how I could somehow shoehorn it into a cookie.
My unusual cookie flavours have never sold particularly well on my bakery menu, much to my dismay, and one of the main reasons I have started sharing recipes over here is that I can be experimental and develop the things that I would really want to eat without having to worry whether anyone else wants to eat them. Here, my hope is that I can put them out into the ether, and they will find their home in the heart of those with tastes as unique as mine, of that I am sure!
I set out doing some research on tomato in desserts. I found Yotam Ottolenghis tomato and almond tart, which led me to deciding on the base of this cookie, an almond brown butter number. Now tomato and mascarpone is of course a match made in heaven but I didn’t want this cookie to give Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce, ( no offence, Lloyd), so I have sweetened the frosting with icing sugar - not too much though - brightened it with lemon and added enough salt to stop it being cloying. The result is a silky smooth, just-sweet-enough cloud of frosting, atop which perches out star of the show.
ain’t she a beaut?
My tomato jam is a riff on Melissas, however I have added orange zest because I adore orange and almonds paired together, and my brain is always trying to balance brightness with fat. I also chose to add a handful of strawberries, partly to make this jam a touch more familiar, and party because finding British strawberries in Asda in October felt like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The jam is still decidedly tomato forward, but the strawberries help to keep it from erring on the side of vegetal, even with all that honey and sugar. My favourite thing about this cookie is just how incredibly it becomes the sum of its parts. Each element stands well alone but tasting everything together stood in my kitchen was one of those fleeting, sublime moments where everything just aligned. I’m rarely at a loss for words but I was just then.
It’s ended up being part cookie, part bastardised cheesecake, part amuse bouche; at home both on a dessert menu and served at cocktail hour, and to be quite honest I’m pretty thrilled with it all round. The tomatoes lose all of their vegetal tang and are honestly akin to the compote on top of a cheesecake.
I chose to garnish mine with flaked almonds and good olive oil, but I think it would be equally as good with a chiffonade of fresh basil and a crack of black pep.
Do let me know if you try them.
Love, Rubes xx
Brown Butter Almond Cookies with Sweet Mascarpone & Tomato-Strawberry Jam
Yield: 11 large cookies (around 80g each)
600g tomato jam (approx)
350g mascarpone frosting
Oven temperature: 170°C conventional (150° fan)
Baking time: 12 - 14 minutes
Chilling time: 45-60 mins total
A note before starting: I recommend making the jam in advance. It needs time to reduce properly (90 mins!) and cool completely before being used. The butter needs to be cooled to semi solid also, which takes some time. You can also prepare the frosting ahead of time and refrigerate it until you’re ready to assemble the cookies :)
Equipment:
Digital kitchen scales
Chopping board and sharp knife
Fine grater or microplane (for citrus zest)
Citrus juicer (tbh I used my hands :D)
Large, heavy bottomed saucepan (for the jam)
Large sauté or saucepan (for browning the butter)
Heatproof jug or bowl (for cooling the browned butter)
Large mixing bowls
Electric hand mixer or hand whisk
Rubber spatula
Measuring spoons
Clean, airtight jars or containers (for the jam)
Piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (if you don’t have one you can of course just spoon the frosting onto your cookies!)
2oz cookie scoop (or scales for portioning 80g balls)
Baking trays (I recommend light coloured)
Baking parchment
Wire cooling rack
Tablespoon (for creating the little wells in the frosting)
Tomato, Strawberry, Honey & Vanilla Jam
Makes approx 600g, depending on reduction.
I used a mix of different colours and types of tomatoes - including yellow for extra sweetness - but if you only have one type, use those!
Ingredients
410g large ripe salad tomatoes, diced (skin on is fine)
410g vine cherry tomatoes, halved (skin on is fine)
140g ripe strawberries, hulled
210g granulated sugar
240g runny honey
20ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp balsamic vinegar
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 large orange
1 vanilla pod, split and deseeded (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste)
Pinch of fine sea salt
Method
Prepare your fruit. Core and roughly dice the salad tomatoes, halve the cherry tomatoes and hull and quarter the strawberries.
Combine the ingredients. Add strawberries and tomatoes to a large, heavy bottomed saucepan along with the granulated sugar, honey, lemon juice, vanilla seeds and pod (or vanilla bean paste) and salt.
Begin cooking. Place the saucepan over a medium heat and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer uncovered for around 90 minutes, stirring regularly towards the end so the jam doesn’t catch.
Finish the jam. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and orange zest during the final few minutes of cooking.
Check the consistency. You should be able to drag a spoon through the jam and leave a trail that slowly fills back in. The mixture should be reduced by around 2/3rds, viscous, but still pourable.
Cool and refrigerate. Remove the vanilla pod, if using, transfer the jam to clean, heatproof containers and allow it to cool before refrigerating. The jam will thicken further as it chills.
A little note: The tomatoes and strawberries will vary considerably in water content, so use the finished consistency rather than the cooking time as your guide. We’re looking for something thick enough to sit comfortably on top of the mascarpone frosting without running down the sides of the cookie and making a mess!
Mascarpone & Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
170g full fat cream cheese, room temp and soft (I used Philadelphia)
170g full fat mascarpone, room temp and soft
35g icing sugar
5g vanilla bean paste
½ tsp lemon zest
½ tsp fine sea salt
Method
Add the cream cheese and mascarpone to a mixing bowl and beat with a rubber spatula until smooth.
Add the icing sugar, vanilla bean paste, lemon zest and salt. Beat again until smooth and fully incorporated. Avoid overmixing, as mascarpone can become grainy or split.
Prepare for piping. Spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and refrigerate until needed. If you are not going to be piping the frosting just cover it with cling film and leave in the bowl, refrigerated, until ready to use.
A little note: This frosting contains considerably less sugar than a traditional cream cheese frosting. It’s deliberately only lightly sweetened to balance the richness of the brown butter cookie and the sweetness of the jam.
Brown Butter Almond Cookies
Ingredients & Baker’s Percentages
The combined weight of the plain flour and almond flour (310g) represents 100%. Bakers percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
250g browned and reconstituted unsalted butter (brown 250g, add back enough water to bring back to 250g post browning) - 80%
125g light brown sugar - 40%
125g granulated sugar - 40%
1 large egg, room temp - 16%
5ml vanilla extract - 2%
280g plain flour - 90%
30g almond flour - 10%
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda - 1%
½ tsp fine salt - 1%
30g flaked almonds — 10%
Method
Brown the butter. Add 250g unsalted butter to a saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook, stirring regularly, until the milk solids have turned golden brown and the butter smells nutty and toasted, around 10-15 mins. Transfer immediately to a heatproof bowl atop a tared digital scale, scraping in all those lovely browned milk solids. Immediately add back enough water to bring it back to 250g. Set aside to cool until it’s no longer liquid, but is still very soft and loose. You’re looking for something resembling the texture of mashed potato: soft enough to mix easily, but no longer runny. Don’t use the butter while it’s still hot or completely melted. Mine was 27°C.
Cream the butter and sugars. Add the light brown sugar and granulated sugar to a mixing bowl with the cooled brown butter. Using an electric hand mixer (or a little elbow grease and a hand whisk!), beat until the mixture is fairly smooth, creamy and well combined, around 45 seconds. You’re not looking to incorporate lots of air.
Add the egg and vanilla. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
Add the flour, almond flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt to a medium bowl and give it a whisk to combine. Using a rubber spatula, fold everything together until the flour is almost completely incorporated, being careful not to overmix.
Add the almonds. Fold through the flaked almonds until they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough and no dry patches remain.
First chill. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes. This short rest allows the butter to firm up slightly, making the dough much easier to scoop and portion.
Portion the cookies. Using a 2oz cookie scoop, or spoon, scoop the dough and portion into 80g balls, weighing them for consistency. Place them on a lined baking tray or into a suitable container.
Second chill. Refrigerate the portioned dough for at least 30-45 minutes before baking. This allows the butter to firm up and the flour to hydrate, helping to control the spread of the cookies during baking. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Bake. Arrange the cookies on a parchment lined baking tray, leaving plenty of space between each one to allow for spreading. My large 30x40cm tray fits 3-4 cookies on at a time. Bake for around 14 minutes - though start checking them at 10-12 - or until the edges are golden brown and set but the centres are still slightly soft. They’ll continue to firm up as they cool. Give them a sharp tap on the counter when they come out, this will deflate them a little, giving us a nice flat top for piping onto later.
Cool completely. Leave the cookies on their baking tray for 10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assembly & Finishing
You’ll need
Completely cooled brown butter almond cookies
Chilled mascarpone cream cheese frosting
Chilled tomato and strawberry jam
Optional garnishes:
Lightly toasted flaked almonds and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil (my choice)
A little finely grated orange zest
Finely chiffonaded fresh basil and freshly cracked black pepper
Method
Make sure the cookies are completely cool. This is very important! Even a slightly warm cookie will soften the frosting and cause it to lose its shape, so don’t be tempted to decorate them still warm!
Pipe the frosting. Take your prepared piping bag or your bowl of frosting from the fridge and pipe or spoon a generous round of mascarpone cream cheese frosting onto the top of each cookie, leaving a little of the golden cookie visible around the edges.
Create a well. Using the back of a tablespoon, gently press into the centre of the frosting to create a small divot. This will give the jam somewhere to sit without spilling over the sides. If you need to, use very light covering of oil on the back of the spoon to stop it sticking.
Add the jam. Spoon a little of the chilled tomato and strawberry jam into the centre of each cookie, around a tablespoon or so.
Finish. Garnish however you fancy. My preference would be a few lightly toasted flaked almonds and a tiny drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, but a little orange zest works beautifully too (feel free to do both!). For something a little more unusual, try finely chiffonaded basil and a crack of black pepper.
Serve. These are best assembled shortly before serving for the greatest contrast between the buttery cookie, creamy frosting and sticky jam. Keep any assembled cookies refrigerated and bring them out shortly before eating.
Storage & Make Ahead Notes
Jam: Prepare in advance and keep refrigerated in a clean, airtight container. This is not a tested shelf stable canning recipe, so it shouldn’t be stored at room temperature. Freeze portions if keeping it longer.
Frosting: Prepare up to a day ahead and refrigerate in the piping bag until ready to use.
Cookie dough: The portioned dough can be refrigerated before baking, or frozen for future batches. If baking from frozen, take the cookies out of the freezer whilst the oven is preheating and let them come a little more to room temp. They may need a min or two longer so keep an eye on the first batch!
Baked cookies: Store the undecorated cookies in an airtight container once completely cool. Decorate as you need. If frosted, refrigerate.