honey mango cookies • thank you sweetness

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Dear Baking,

Thank you.

I’m grateful that I have you and I consider myself fortunate that our paths have crossed. Without you…well, without you I honestly think I would still be alright. Things would be pleasant and manageable. I presume that in another life I would’ve found “someone” else. Maybe drawing. Maybe pottery. Maybe kickboxing…??

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But no, I found you and I’m thankful for that every day.

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Because when we’re together, it’s really just you and I…in perfect harmony. Well sometimes, we’re not so harmonious after all. But we work through it all in an elegant manner and we make a lovely couple…don’t you think?

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The irritating thoughts and potential problems I might encounter may still be present, but really…when I’m with you, a high degree of calmness and serenity takes over. You are my other best buddy. Thank you for scooping me up from below when I was/am feeling down and thank you for making the merry times even merrier!

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Thank you for bringing sweetness to my life and for also making it possible for me to feel creative while writing/creating recipes such as the one I developed today.

Honey mango cookies!!!!

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Hypothesis: 

 – I only have 1 mango in the fruit basket. 1 mango will probably not be enough to make a distinctive mango flavor for the 24 oz of cookie dough I will make. I will try it anyways…

– honey, sugar, caramelized mango  = yum yummms.

– adding caramel to the cookie dough, will add nice flavor and moisture to the dough, making it easier to pipe.

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Materials/Ingredients:

2 mangos (I used one, but my hypothesis proved to be true. One mango was not enough to flavor the dough and make it have a strong mango flavor. Either use 2 mangos or cut the quantity of ingredients by half. I think that will work better).

4 oz granulated sugar

4 oz butter

4 oz vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz flour

honey

additional granulated sugar for finish

Procedure/Recipe:

1. Dice mangos very finely.

2.  Make a dry caramel with the 4 oz of sugar:

a) Add a layer of sugar into a shallow pot/pan on high heat.

b) Smoosh sugar with a silicon spatula and begin to add more sugar slowly as sugar begins to melt and caramelize.

c) Continue to smoosh sugar until caramel is smooth.

* Be sure that your spatula is heat proof!! Mine wasn’t so I had to start over. Fail. If your spatula isn’t heat proof, a wooden spoon will work just fine.

3. Add finely diced mango to caramel and stir vigorously until the sizzling stops. Cook on low-medium heat until mango softens and cooks all the way through. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Meanwhile, cream butter, vegetable oil, and sugar in a mixer.

5.  Add vanilla and continue mixing until all ingredients are well blended.

6.  Add flour and salt and turn mixer to low speed as soon as dry ingredients are blended well into mixture. Be sure to scrape sides of bowl down when necessary.

7. Add caramelized mango to dough, being sure that all the liquid caramel becomes incorporated as well. Continue mixing until all ingredients are well mixed.

8. Place dough into piping bag that has a # 5 star tip. Begin piping logs that are about 2″ long on a sheet tray that has been covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle logs with granulated sugar.

You can also pipe stars that are about 1″–1.25 ” in diameter. After piping stars, gently poke the center with a rod.

9. Refrigerate/freeze cookies for 10-15 minutes, just until they are chill and firm.

10. Bake at 350 F for about 13-14 minutes, until cookies have a nice golden color. Rotate baking sheet midway baking time.

11. Allow cookies to cool and pipe honey into the indentation of the star cookies to fill up the space completely.

Enjoy!

 Observations:

– Superb rich, crispy, and sweet shortbread cookie.

– It has a complex sweetness that you couldn’t achieve by just adding granulated sugar to the dough. Three types of sweetners (granulated sugar, honey, and caramel from cooking the magos) + caramelized mangos are responsible for creating such a sweet wonder.

– I made my dough with 1 mango and like I mentioned before, the mango flavor was not as prominent as it could’ve been. That’s why I think that adding one more finely diced mango will work beautifully. 2 mangos total!

Results/Conclusion: Somehow I still have a few more cookies left. Yeaaaah…I’m about to change that. These cookies are just so flavorful!!

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