Tom and I dine out a fair amount, but there are always so many new restaurants opening in D.C. that it's difficult to keep up. Plus, once we find a place we like, we tend to go there again and again. One restaurant that we've visited a few times lately is The Dabney, which we love for its cozy atmosphere, the warm service, and the consistent food worthy of its Michelin Star. The menu there changes frequently, but there are a few items we enjoy on every visit.
One is what we affectionately refer to as "the catfish slider," a feathery soft seeded sweet potato roll with delicately fried catfish and tartar sauce. If you told me I had to make my entire meal out of catfish sliders, I wouldn't mind in the least. And we always look forward to the bread service, which includes a small glass jar filled with addictive whipped sweet sorghum butter. In the same vein, after our meal, our bill is always delivered with two bite-sized gingersnap-like sorghum cookies. I love those cookies and they always leave me wanting more. (A server once confided to us that since the restaurant doesn't keep any of the sorghum cookies or sorghum butter left over at the end of service, she has occasionally enjoyed a tiny sandwich of two sorghum cookies filled with sorghum butter after closing. The very thought is making my mouth water.)
As I was nibbling on my post-dinner sorghum cookie at The Dabney a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that I had a jar of sorghum syrup at home and that I should try to make my own sorghum cookies. I found a recipe for "Ginger Sorghum Cookies" in Cookie Love by Mindy Segal. Segal notes that sorghum syrup has a more rounded sweetness and is lighter than molasses, and that she often uses sorghum in recipes in place of molasses.
The recipe is straightforward but you have to plan ahead because the dough needs to be chilled overnight. To make the batter, you beat room temperature butter with dark brown sugar until light; add an egg, vanilla, and sorghum syrup; and mix in all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, grated fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and freshly ground black pepper). After an overnight chill, I used a #40 scoop to portion the dough and rolled each ball of dough in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon before baking; I got 25 cookies from a batch.
The cookies baked up perfectly round with large cracks on top. When I pulled them out of the oven after 13 minutes, the centers looked wet and undercooked -- but the edges were already quite dark, so I didn't want to chance letting them bake any longer. I tried a cookie soon after baking and it had a very crisp exterior around the edges and a soft center. The following morning I ate another cookie and it was completely soft all the way through. As time went on, the cookies got chewier and chewier; you could bend the cookies without breaking them. Regardless of the texture, the cookies were delicious. The ginger-spice flavor was warm and smooth, but interesting and complex. I had some leftover Kansas City Vanilla Ice Cream from the Baked Brown Cows I had made the week before, and these cookies were perfection paired with ice cream -- they make awesome ice cream sandwiches.
I wasn't able to taste one of my cookies side-by-side against the ones from The Dabney, but to the best of my recollection, the cookies at the restaurant are soft and the flavor of my homemade version is pretty darn close. I asked Tom to give me some advance notice the next time he makes a reservation there so that I can have some homemade cookies ready and stuffed in my purse for a direct comparison. But I don't need a taste test to know that these cookies are worth making again and again.
Recipe: "Ginger Sorghum Cookies" from Cookie Love by Mindy Segal, recipe available here.
Previous Posts:
One is what we affectionately refer to as "the catfish slider," a feathery soft seeded sweet potato roll with delicately fried catfish and tartar sauce. If you told me I had to make my entire meal out of catfish sliders, I wouldn't mind in the least. And we always look forward to the bread service, which includes a small glass jar filled with addictive whipped sweet sorghum butter. In the same vein, after our meal, our bill is always delivered with two bite-sized gingersnap-like sorghum cookies. I love those cookies and they always leave me wanting more. (A server once confided to us that since the restaurant doesn't keep any of the sorghum cookies or sorghum butter left over at the end of service, she has occasionally enjoyed a tiny sandwich of two sorghum cookies filled with sorghum butter after closing. The very thought is making my mouth water.)
As I was nibbling on my post-dinner sorghum cookie at The Dabney a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that I had a jar of sorghum syrup at home and that I should try to make my own sorghum cookies. I found a recipe for "Ginger Sorghum Cookies" in Cookie Love by Mindy Segal. Segal notes that sorghum syrup has a more rounded sweetness and is lighter than molasses, and that she often uses sorghum in recipes in place of molasses.
The recipe is straightforward but you have to plan ahead because the dough needs to be chilled overnight. To make the batter, you beat room temperature butter with dark brown sugar until light; add an egg, vanilla, and sorghum syrup; and mix in all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, grated fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and freshly ground black pepper). After an overnight chill, I used a #40 scoop to portion the dough and rolled each ball of dough in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon before baking; I got 25 cookies from a batch.
I wasn't able to taste one of my cookies side-by-side against the ones from The Dabney, but to the best of my recollection, the cookies at the restaurant are soft and the flavor of my homemade version is pretty darn close. I asked Tom to give me some advance notice the next time he makes a reservation there so that I can have some homemade cookies ready and stuffed in my purse for a direct comparison. But I don't need a taste test to know that these cookies are worth making again and again.
Recipe: "Ginger Sorghum Cookies" from Cookie Love by Mindy Segal, recipe available here.
Previous Posts:
- "Good Enough for the Ivy League: Princeton Gingersnaps," November 21, 2016.
- "A Simple Cookie that Sparkles and Shines: Swedish Spice Cookies," August 27, 2015.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Gingersnaps with Lemon Sugar," January 18, 2015.
- "The Means to a Delicious End: Gingersnaps and Sweet Potato Tart," December 18, 2014.
- "Cracks that Shine and Sparkle: Ginger Cracks," May 24, 2013.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Joe Froggers (Ginger Rum Molasses Cookies)," October 21, 2012.
- "This Cookie Can't Be Too Thin or Too Rich: Milk's Molasses Cookies," February 5, 2012.
- "Hello Gorgeous! [Molasses Crinkles]," September 25, 2008.
Comments