It’s baking season! What better time to connect with celebrity chef, cookbook author and tv personality Duff Goldman.
“There’s so much more baking that happens than other times of the year,” Goldman told The Journal. “It’s our time to shine!”
Goldman said that one of the best ways to get ready for the season is to make your dough ahead of time.
“You can make your cookie dough in July if you want to, throw it in the freezer [and] it’s ready to go,” he said. “Then when the holidays happen, you just pull all your dough out and bake it; you can have fresh baked cookies whenever you want, because cookies only take like 10 minutes.”
Goldman said that preparation and practice are key for any holiday baking.
“Don’t look at a recipe and … then start at step one with ingredient one, and then just kind of go through it,” he said. “Read the entire recipe, read all the ingredients, make sure that you have everything you need.” That includes equipment.
Nothing is more frustrating than being halfway through a recipe and then noticing you are missing an ingredient or tool.
“If you have the time, it usually behooves you to try to bake it once before you bake it for the big show,” Goldman said. “If everyone’s coming over for Hanukkah, if you’re going to make sufganiyot, make them once by yourself; make the mistakes and be like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s how you do it.’”
You will be confident in your ability to make them when the time comes.
Outside of his kitchen, Duff has been very busy. A few months ago Goldman, who is known for making ginormous cakes that come alive, started the Topanga Woodworks Etsy shop.
“ I built cakes that move, which got me into building toys,” Goldman said. “Working with wood, things don’t fall apart as much.”
Whatever Goldman builds, the creativity and craftsmanship is amazing.
He also just opened his first restaurant, Duff’s Deli + Market, in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Goldman, who is constantly working and traveling, saw the need to put a restaurant representing familiarity into an airport hub.
“As somebody who grew up in delis, [there’s something] centering that happens when you get a nice bowl of chicken soup or a pastrami sandwich or a brisket with tiger sauce on it and a Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda,” Goldman said. “It’s not the thing you expect to find at an airport, but it’s the thing you want in an airport.”
He added, “Travel can be stressful, and I find that [having] something good and yummy really helps; it’s nice.”
In addition to offering traditional – and delicious – deli fare and Duff’s Charm City signature cakes jars, Goldman’s mom’s chopped barbecue brisket sandwich is also on the menu.
“ Every Jewish kid says [their] mom makes the best brisket in the world,” he said. “My mom truly does make the best brisket in the world, and I can say that because I’m a chef; I’m very objective about this.”
But when it comes to chicken soup, however, Goldman’s wins every time.
And then there’s desserts.
One of his favorite recipes is his great-grandmother’s Russian tea cakes; it’s what he baked the first time he spent the holidays with his then-girlfriend’s – now wife’s – family. They do a big, competitive cookie swap every year; the pressure was on.
“I [knew] if I showed up with anything less than absolute solid gold, they’re all going to be like, ‘That dude’s on TV for baking, and that’s what he brought; I don’t know about this guy,’” Goldman said. “So I made [these] and they’re pretty stellar; people ate them and they were like, ‘Okay, he’s all right.’”
He now makes and brings this recipe every year. It’s super-easy.
“You make the dough in the food processor,” Goldman said. “You’ve got to use brown butter … You put the butter in a pot, you turn it on medium low and let it cook until the butter starts to turn brown and smell amazing.
“Then you take that butter – and you’ve got to scrape all the brown bits out, because that’s where the flavor is – you scrape that into a little container, you put it in the fridge, it becomes solid and then that’s the butter you use in the cookies.”
The full recipe for Duff’s Russian tea cakes is below.
Goldman admits to one adjustment.
“My great-grandmother used pecans in hers, but I use walnuts,” he said. “I made it mine and I’m sure when my daughter starts making it, she’s going to make it hers and that’s okay.”
Learn more at Duff.com, check out Topanga Woodworks on Etsy and subscribe to @Duff-Stuff on YouTube.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Russian Tea Cakes
Ingredients
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups (20 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cups (6 ounces) sifted powdered sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 Tbsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cups toasted walnuts, finely chopped
Directions
First, brown the butter: Place the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat to cook. Check it after about 7 minutes; it should be a medium-brown color, not too light but not too burnt.
Once it reaches that color, take it off the heat and let it cool. Refrigerate to continue to cool for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper.
Add the cold browned butter, flour, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract and cinnamon to a food processor; process until light and fluffy. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the walnuts and mix with a rubber spatula until combined.
Using a small ice cream scoop, portion 24 mounds of the dough onto your prepared sheet pans, spacing them 2 inches apart. Place in the freezer to cool for 15 minutes.
Bake until the cookies are firm and smell nutty and toasty, 15 to 18 minutes. Rotate the pans 180 degrees halfway through baking.
Meanwhile, place additional powdered sugar in another large bowl.
Once the cookies are out of the oven, let cool for exactly 6 minutes 30 seconds then toss in the powdered sugar. Enjoy!
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
