Homemade Oreos and New Cookbooks!

This is may be the only time you will see these two particular cookbooks paired together:

Gail and I picked up these very differently but equally spectacular cookbooks for ourselves. First up is Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. Charcuterie is considered a great jumping off point and a must-own for people who are interested in curing their own meats at home. Though I do not own a smoker(yet), I plan to start with the easier recipes and work my way through the book over many many years. I am a sucker for a good Charcuterie plate and look forward to honing my skills over the years to come.

Next up is local baking superstar Joanne Chang's Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe. Joanne is Pastry Chef/Owner of Boston based Flour Bakery + Cafe and co-owner with husband Christopher Myers of Boston's Myers + Chang an Asian inspired restaurant which has a devoted following.

We picked up Flour at our neighborhood independent bookstore where Joanne was signing copies and passing out samples of some delicious baked goods. She was incredibly personable, gracious, and down to earth. It was great to meet her, and even better to take home her cookbook:

I'm looking forward to attempting her infamous sticky buns which beat out Chef Bobby Flay in an episode of his food network show Throwdown.

Much to my delight Gail decided to crack open Flour on Wednesday afternoon and decided to recreate the recipe for homemade Oreos. The results were spectacular:

The above photo is not from the cookbook, but from the plate of homemade Oreos we ended up with. I had some extremely happy co-workers on Thursday morning! The cookies were met with nothing but praise.

Be sure to check out Joanne Chang's recent post abut baking on the Atlantic Food page. She even includes a few recipes!