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Best Christmas Cookie Ever! Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers and a review of "Dorie’s Cookies"

Best Christmas Cookie Ever! Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers and a review of "Dorie’s Cookies"
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Not too long ago, I suggested that if you made only one baked good this season, it should be the over-the-top delicious Apple Pie Bar found at https://chewingthefat.us.com/2016/12/if-you-bake-nothing-else-this-season.html.  “Not so fast,” the Baker in our house protested. “If ever there was a cookie to be baked this season, Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers should be the one.”  I am not one to argue.  I’d given Andrew Ms. Greenspan’s latest cookbook “Dorie’s Cookies” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2016) for his birthday.   But he’d already made her remarkable Beurre et Sel Jammers which we published in our story about this year’s Hampton Classic Horse Show.  We both decided that this was well worth repeating and also a great opportunity to tell you about Dorie’s latest book.

Dorie Greenspan is a big player in our kitchen.  Aside from her baking books which now number 10 and counting,  her “Around My French Table” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2010) is an indispensable resource for me.  Now “Dorie’s Cookies” will undoubtedly join the short list of cookbooks we can’t live without.  It’s a definitive guide from a baker whose professed love for cookies is obvious from page 1.  There’s a 22 page section of “techniques, ingredients and gear”.  And then there are the over 300 recipes for every imaginable kind of cookie.  From bars to cocktail cookies, there are page after page of beautifully photographed cookies.   There are sweet cookies and savories. There are even over 40 pages of “Cookie Go Alongs and Basics”. These recipes run from Vanilla Marshmallows to Use it for Everything Struesel.    This is the most comprehensive Cookie Guide we’ve ever seen.  Its thoroughness is no surprise.  Ms. Greenspan is not given to scrimping on words or instructions.  To read one of her recipes is to imagine her next to you in the kitchen egging you on in minute detail.  Our Beurre et Sel Jammers are no exception.  They are also part of a collection of 16 variations running 52 pages in length in “Dorie’s Cookies”.

Any cookie this good requires a little effort but the result is so worthwhile, I bet you will bake these time and time again.  There’s a cookie dough to make and a streusel to top it with.  It also requires muffin tins and a two inch cookie cutter.  But the good news is the dough and streusel can be made in advance and nowhere does Ms. Greenspan suggest making your own jam.  Jammers also keep very well—for at least a couple of days.  Here is the recipe.



2 thoughts on “Best Christmas Cookie Ever! Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers and a review of "Dorie’s Cookies"”

  • I own some of those rolling pin measurement rings. With the 1/4" ring in place, there is no way that I can roll the dough to the thin-ness as indicated in the photos nor arrive at 34 servings. Are you sure it shouldn't be 1/8" thickness?

  • Dear Mr. Francis. Thank you so much for writing. I do appreciate your taking the time to do so. I went back to Ms. Greenspan's original recipe and discovered her yield was in fact 30 cookies and not 34. I have adjusted the yield in the recipe. I also consulted my family baker and he informs me that the thickness of the dough can range from 1/8' to 1/4 inch which I have also adjusted in the recipe. Thank you so much for keeping Chewing the Fat honest. And please let us know if you like the finished Jammers.

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