Polenta. I can’t say cookies come to mind when I think of it. Whatever you say, Martha.
It felt good to bake again. I went almost 3 weeks! I’ll never do that again.
This one required a piping bag, which I’ve had bad luck with. Here it goes!
Step 1: Gather ingredients: flour, butter, polenta, vanilla, salt, lemon zest, egg + egg yolk, sugar.
The recipe calls for Italian polenta, or yellow cornmeal. I went to the store and asked where to find polenta. They told me it was in a tube (like sausage), but when I found those, they were pre-cooked and flavored. I wandered over to the bulk section and found Italian polenta there! It is clearly not the same consistency as the tube stuff, so I hope it’s right.
Step 2: Whisk together flour, polenta, and salt.
I couldn’t find my whisk anywhere! Luckily I have this KitchenAid attachment. #snob
Step 3: Beat butter and sugar.
Step 4: Add vanilla.
Step 5: Add eggs.
Step 6: Add flour mixture.
Easy enough! Now comes the scary part.
Step 7: Transfer dough to a piping bag.
I had some bad experiences with my IKEA set, so I went to Michael’s and bought a new Wilton bag and set of tips. Now I feel like I need to practice and become a pro decorator. (Carrie, I’m looking at you.)
Martha showed me this trick. You put a little dough down on all the corners of your parchment to keep it down while you pipe and while it bakes.
Step 8: Pipe dough into 3-inch S shapes.
Ow, ow, ow, this dough is way too thick for the star tip I had on the bag. It hurt my hands.
I switched to this larger tip, but was afraid the star would look weird.
Oh, this is much better!
It was still difficult! That dough was thick!
These are ugly.
Step 9: Chill for 30 minutes, then bake for 15-18 mins.
Shit. Some burnt!
The next batch was better, phew!
Yields: 36
I got: 45
Start time: 8:30
End time: 11:05 (2 hours, 35 mins)
Martha’s estimated time: 1 hour, 10 mins
What did I learn?
- Piping is still hard, but it can be fun.
- Piping is going to require a lot of practice.
What do I need to learn?
- Why did some overcook and others didn’t?
- Why don’t mine have the star texture like Martha’s? Was it the tip I used?
I made myself an “N” too.
Martha described these as crunchy, and they are. Not like any cookie I’ve had before. I think you should try them, though. They’re not too sweet (none of her cookies really are), and pretty fun.
Nate Makes Cookies 
They’re tasty. And it was fun watching you struggle with the piping bag
I love that you want to pipe! These cookies sound pretty cool.
Yours look different because you used the french tip (lots of tiny points) and she used a large open star. May have made it a little more difficult to pipe but otherwise the only difference is the look of it.
When you come to CA we will decorate some cookies together, k? 🙂
These were certainly crunchy and a little grainy but not in a bad way. You also inspired me to get polenta bread from Eugene City Balery for dinner. It was great.