Receta Foodie Film Festival: Happy Noir Year
The Foodie Film Festival continues. Today we go retro, with a film noir classic from my archives. In this short film a band of would-be holiday merry makers hit the town in search of the legendary haunts of old Hollywood. But Hollywood is not the place it once was. Our little group of misfits soon find that the food and nightlife of the tinsel town of their dreams no longer exisits, so they must rely on their own skills in the kitchen if they hope to recreate the tasty treats of a bygone time.
In keeping with that theme I also have a recipe from that era. They are a little cookie known at that time as Dandies. They are from the menu of The Brown Derby restaurant. It's a melt in your mouth cookie. It's not too sweet and was typically served with ice cream back during the Golden Age of Cinema.
By today's standards it's a rather plain little cookie. Delicious, but simple in every regard. Still, it's easy to imagine the likes of Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth or Gary Copper dropping into the Derby on Hollywood Boulevard to enjoy these slightly sweet, but very buttery little cookies as they glammed it up after a hard day at the studio.
So please join me and my own brand of movie stars in a night on the town in Old Hollywood. Roll film... and action!
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1 1⁄2 lb butter
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 1 pn salt
- 1 3⁄4 c flour (half soft and half cake)
- 1 pt cream
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Cream the sugar and butter together in an electric stand mixer until light and fluffy. Turn the speed to low and add the flour and cream alternately in 3 additions each. Turn the mixer to high and beat for about 30 seconds. Speed is essential in this operation.
Fill a pastry bag equipped with a #5 star tip with some of the batter. Pipe it onto a parchment-lined sheets into 2-inch mounds set about 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes in the oven rotating the pans half way through.
Remove the tray from the oven. Let the cookies cool somewhat then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.