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The Stew [Of Cookies, Dots and Chicken]

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

COOKIE CONVERSATION

As a field training specialist for Mrs. Fields Cookies, Rachel Crump Matheus is responsible for training all franchisees and corporate team members in baking practices so that the company's products are delivered consistently in every store.

In other words, she's the company's baking expert, training up to 100 people a year to work in the 390 franchise outlets in the United States.

"I'm one of the lucky souls who has the coolest job in the world," she told me during a recent Table Conversations podcast.

The Mrs. Fields chain gets its name from Debbi Fields, who opened the first store in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1977. With Mother's Day looming, I wanted to chat with Matheus to see if she could impart some cookie-baking tips for those of us who might want to try making our own cookies for Mom before breaking down to buy one of those tire-size cookie cakes the franchises sell.

Matheus started me off with advice from Mrs. Fields herself.

"One of the things Debbi always said about baking cookies is that you bake low and slow," she says.

Fields opted to bake her cookies at 275 degrees instead of the standard 350 degrees.

"That really helps with the cookie cake process because it allows that heat to get all the way to the center of the cookie without drying the edges so much," Matheus says.

Other tips:

•Always start out with cold butter. It allows you to get a little creamier texture out of your butter and sugar combination.

•Keeping your dough as cold as possible throughout your baking process will give you a more even bake on your cookies.

•Add room-temperature eggs to the butter-sugar mixture to give the cookies a velvety texture. It also gives you that crispy edge and soft middle.

"That gives you something for everyone," Matheus says. "If you like crispy, you've got that first bite with some crisp to it. If you like the soft, it's still soft in the center. It gives you that perfect combination of soft and crisp at the same time."

•Always use the best quality ingredients.

"We use butter in our cookies," she says. "It doesn't give us the longest shelf life on our cookies, but it sure does give us the best flavor, the best coloration, and it's consistent every time."

•Refrigerate your dough between baking. Give it about 10 minutes in the fridge so there's an even temperature from the outside of the dough into the center. When you put it into the oven, it bakes evenly, and you don't get dark spots or have one side crunchy and the other side soft and doughy.

I asked Matheus something I had always wondered: Why does every cookie cake, no matter where you buy it, seem to feature icing with almost identical handwriting?

She told me that decorators almost always write on the cookies in cursive script to match the cursive in the Mrs. Fields logo. For beginners, there are stencils to follow until they get the hang of it.

"We try to go for something that has a similar feeling to it so that you know who it came from and who did it for you," she explains.

The toughest word to spell in icing on a cookie cake: Congratulations.

"To get it centered, you have to start all the way to the left," she says. "It's so long, you'll get all the way to the right."

To listen to the rest of the interview, go online to my blog, The Stew, at TBO.com, keyword: Stew. Look for the podcast list on the left side of the screen.

You also can subscribe for free to the Table Conversations podcasts on iTunes or Feedburner.com.

ONE DOT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

We heard a lot of nice feedback on last week's cover story on Braille Works, the Seffner company that prints Braille and large-print menus.

Kathy Kremplewski sent a nice note thanking us for writing about the topic.

"I teach schoolchildren of all ages that are blind and visually impaired (two of which use Braille), and it is always encouraging to read about Braille in the media," Kremplewski wrote. "The list of restaurants that have Braille menus is very helpful."

Then she pointed out a slight problem with the headline on the cover, which was intended to read "Finger Food" in Braille dots. Apparently, one dot was forgotten, changing one letter from "n" to "d."

"What was written with what we call simulated Braille on the front page of Flavor actually says 'fidger food' instead of 'finger food,'" she wrote.

Oops.

Reader Rob Jacobson also was kind enough to gently point out the error by e-mail.

I FEEL LIKE CHICKEN TONIGHT

Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat writer Roy Cummings had a fun Q&A last week with Aqib Talib, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2008 first-round draft pick.

"What scares you?" Cummings asked.

"Animals, period. Dogs, dragonflies; I don't like no kind of animals," Talib said. "I don't like lizards, gators, none of that."

Later in the interview, he was asked, "What's your favorite food?" The reply: "Chinese food - Sesame Chicken."

To recap: Chicken can be alternately scary and delicious.

For more of the latter than the former, you can find a recipe for Honey Sesame Chicken on my blog, The Stew. It's based on a recipe sent to us in 2003 by reader Gretchen Fiery of Tampa.

It shall hereafter be known as Chicken Talib.

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