Thomas Keller Oreos with White Chocolate Ganache

This quarter was the quarter that I needed. I finally feel like I'm enjoying life again, for the first time in at least 4 years. I learned a lot about who I am, what makes me happy, and what I want out of life. I am so incredibly thankful for that. I realized that cooking and baking will be my "forever" hobbies. I still haven't found anything hobby-wise that has given me such excitement.

I decided to continue my quest for easy Thomas Keller recipes. This weekend was supposed to be spent studying for a final on Tues... hm. I'm around 20% done... but the night is still young. I found a recipe for Thomas Keller Oreos. It was simple, and I had everything, so I whipped it up quickly. It was delicious! The recipe was straight forward, there was no egg, this was a classic shortbread, made amazing with the cocoa powder. I paired it with white chocolate ganache that I made in the microwave. I eyeballed some cream and white chocolate chips, I think the chips heated a little too much, but oh well, it was a great pairing with the deep chocolatey flavor of the cookies. The only thing I would change is to reduce the salt and baking soda. I think I need to use finer salt in cookie recipes now, the sea salt just doesn't dissolve as well in the cookies. Although I love the flavor of chocolate and salt, this just didn't work out well. I have so dough left over, i think i'm going to try to freehand some tooth shaped cookies next week... we'll see. I'm still trying to find a cute tooth shaped cookie cutter.... The ones I've found have been too big.. :/

Recipe : 

Makes 12 cookie sandwiches ( depends on how thin you rolled it out... I rolled mine out a little too thin :( ) I cut the recipe into a third .. didn't want to use up 15 tbsps of butter! 

http://tastyplanner.com/recipes/bouchon-bakery-tko-thomas-keller-oreo-cookies

1/2 cup with 1 tbsp AP flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tsp dark cocoa powder

a small pinch of baking soda

1/4 tsp table salt 

5 tbsp unsalted butter cut into cubes  (ROOM TEMPERATURE)

1. Preheat oven at 350 , in a large bowl place in the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, mix in a stand mixer on low until mixed together. 

2. Add in butter, and mix until combined (it takes about a minute or 2... be patient it will come together without your help!) 

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the dough until it's 1/8 inch thick. Stamp it out and place onto a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes ( depends on your size)