Dorie Greenspan’s Sour Cream Everything Seed Knots

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This article was published 24/12/2016 (3553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From the cookbook author and James Beard Foundation Award winner, the knot used to form these cookies bakes into a shape that’s altogether different. The “everything’” mix is made of poppy and sesame seeds, onion flakes, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

These cookies are best the day they are made.

Adapted from Dorie’s Cookies, by Dorie Greenspan (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016).

Sour Cream Everything Seed Knots

Makes 60 cookies

Ingredients
For the sour cream puff dough:
7 g (21/4 teaspoons or 1 packet) rapid or regular active dry yeast
56 g (60 ml or 1/4 cup) warm water
442 g (975 ml or 31/2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
7.5 ml (11/2 tsp) fine sea salt
226 g (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
180 g (180 ml or 3/4 cup) full-fat sour cream

For the everything seed mix:
40 g (60 ml or 1/4 cup) sesame seeds (white, black or a mix)
36g (60 ml or 1/4 cup) poppy seeds
30 ml (2 tbsp) dried onion flakes
15 ml (1 tbsp) granulated garlic (garlic powder)
12.5 ml (21/2 tsp) kosher salt or 15 ml (1 tbsp) fleur de sel
10 ml (2 tsp) freshly ground black pepper

For the sour cream puff dough:

Stir the yeast into the water and let the mixture stand at room temperature for about five minutes, until creamy. The yeast might not bubble, but that’s fine.

Combine the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to blend. Scatter over the pieces of cold butter and pulse in long (about 10-second) spurts until the flour looks grainy.

Whisk together the egg and sour cream in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir in the yeast, then add this mixture to the processor a bit at a time, pulsing after each addition. Then pulse until everything comes together and you’ve got a moist dough.

Scrape out the dough and use your hands to knead it briefly and lightly, forming it into two balls of equal size. Place the balls in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

For the everything seed mix:

Combine all ingredients in a jar or plastic storage container and stir. Shake or stir well before each use.

For the knots:

Clear a large rolling space and have a ruler on hand. Sprinkle the work surface lightly with flour and more generously with some of the seed mix.

Remove one of the dough balls from the refrigerator and place it on the seeds. Sprinkle some seeds and a bit of flour over the dough and roll it until it’s 40 centimetres (16 inches) long and 20 cm (eight in) wide, lifting it from time to time to make sure it’s not sticking, and sprinkling the work surface with flour and seeds as needed. (It’s hard to be exact, but the closer you can come to these measurements and to having the dough be twice as long as it is wide, the more evenly it will puff in the oven.)

With a short end toward you, fold the dough in thirds, as you would a business letter (lift the bottom third of the dough over so the edges meet). Give the dough a quarter turn so that the long side that looks like the pages of a book is on your right. This is the basic technique for this dough and the one you’ll repeat, always turning the dough in the same direction.

If your room is hot and/or the dough is soft and you think you’ll have trouble rolling it, slide it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and pop it into the refrigerator or freezer for 15 minutes. Also, if the dough gets soft and seems to tear as you roll it, patch it as best you can, sprinkling the tear with flour, and give it a chill before carrying on.

Roll, fold and turn the dough two more times, always rolling it out on seeds, sprinkling seeds on top of the dough and using just as much flour as you need to keep things moving. When you have completed three rolls, folds and turns, chill the dough until you’re ready to bake it (or up to two hours).

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 190 C (375 F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Sprinkle more seeds (and flour, if needed) on the work surface and the dough and roll it out once more into a 40×20-cm (16×8-inch) rectangle. Using a bench scraper, pizza wheel or sharp knife (being careful not to mar your counter), cut the dough in half lengthwise from top to bottom and then crosswise into 2.5-cm (1-inch) wide bands.

Cut a lengthwise slit in the middle of each band, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch of solid dough at each end. To make the knot, loop each end about three quarters of the way through the slit — don’t tug on the ends and don’t pull the ends all the way through the slit (do that, and you’ll turn the dough inside out). When the dough is properly knotted, it will have a bump where it is folded on itself and it might have a few twists, which are nice. Place the knots on the baking sheets, leaving a generous inch between them.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back after eight minutes, or until the knots are puffed and golden brown. Transfer the baking sheets to racks and allow the knots to rest for three minutes or so, then carefully lift them onto the racks and cool to just warm or room temperature.

Repeat, using second ball of dough.

— The Washington Post