There I was, in Paris, where, in addition to thinking about millefeuilles and macarons, I had cookies on the brain. Joshua and I had been talking several times a day about getting CookieBar up and running and all I could think about where cookies and more cookies. And I don’t know what it was that sparked this idea – Linzer cookies (a favorite of mine since childhood), Pierre Herme’s cherry cake with streusel, a craving for something crunchy – but I woke my husband, Michael, in the middle of the night to tell him about it, mostly because I was excited and in no small measure so that if I forgot it, he’d remember (yes, yes, I should keep a pad near the bed or switch on my phone’s voice recorder).
The cookie started as a sable topped with a lot of streusel (much as it pains me to think this, maybe too much streusel). I made nut streusel and then I made plain streusel and then, when I knew the cookies were terrific, I started adding things to the streusel. It wasn’t until my third or fourth go-round that I realized that what I really wanted was a third layer and that layer would be jam. And so, Jammers, a new collection, is in the works.
We’ll have two kinds of Jammers at CookieBar – Strawberry-Raspberry and Lemon-Pear-Pineapple – and both will use Sarabeth’s terrific jams. In fact, Sarabeth is debuting her Lemony Pear-Preserves on our Jammers. (For those of you who have Sarabeth’s book, the recipe for the preserves is in it!)
I’ve got more Jammers dancing around in my brain, so stay tuned.
We’re also going to have the first of what will be a growing collection of Broundies, brownies and blondies baked in our signature rings. The first will be Chewy, Chunky Blondies. I love the way they look and, of course, I’m crazy about the way they taste.
I’ll keep you posted on CookieBar news all this week as we prepare to open. In the meantime, here are two fun links:
Both of those links have the menu for CookieBar 2011 and I’ll be telling you more about the cookies during the week. But just to answer the question Joshua and I get most often:
Yes, we’ll have World Peace Cookies.
Last year, one of the greatest pleasures of CookieBar was meeting so many of you. Hope to see you again this year and to meet more of you if you’re in town.