Audra Lowe: Homemade treats are a wonderful holiday tradition but baking can actually take a bite of that busy day right? Well, Rihanna is in the kitchen with a famed New York Baker who has one recipe that you can use three different ways.
Baking is in Seth Greenberg’s blood. As a child, he remembers afternoons in his father’s New York City bakery.
Seth Greenberg: I used to stop by there on my way home starting elementary school. Bakers were very tolerant. They would let me come in and help and I would go back there and scale of ingredients for them and I’ve run the mixers.
Audra Lowe: Now, Seth is baking up his own goodies from his just desert by Seth Greenberg bakery in Westchester Country New York. He came to Better to give me a lesson in baking. First the dough—
Rihanna: It’s just a few simple ingredients, I love that.
Seth Greenberg: It is. It’s six ingredients and that’s all it really needs. And most really good baking, simpler is better.
Rihanna: We start with the butter and the sugar.
Seth Greenberg: And then you’re going to let that cream. And everybody asks, “Well, how long do your cream butter—? And the only answer is until it is ready.
Rihanna: Then it’s time to add the eggs.
Seth Greenberg: Do you want to get your hands dirty, or just going to watch?
Rihanna: I do, I want to. So, I’ll grab some eggs.
Seth Greenberg: Yes.
Rihanna: How many?
Seth Greenberg: Two eggs please. We’re going to put two whites in there and the two yolks in here.
Rihanna: Okay.
Seth Greenberg: Let’s do the easiest way. Since you have the eggs is you just use them to crack them with. Take it, back and forth a couple of times.
Rihanna: You make it look so easy.
Seth Greenberg: Well, it’s practice.
Rihanna: Add them one at a time and then the vanilla. Meanwhile, we mix the flour and the salt and then added that to the batter mixture.
Seth Greenberg: And now that our dough’s ready, we’ll bring it over to our work space where you have ample room to roll out and to shape your cookies and all those good things. Take your magic spoon, I bought the spoon simply because it has a rounded perfect diameter, I’ve never used that into it. Take it, dip it a little bit in the flour and now you’re going to make that deep, beautiful straight down hole right in the center of each cookie. Now, we’re going to take some jam. I use a little pastry bag with a number four decorating tool tucked in the bottom of it.
Rihanna: Stir the jam on up.
Seth Greenberg: Stir the jam up because you want to make sure it has no lumps, just fill the bag and yes, you can do this with a spoon but it takes you like five times as long. Give it a twist and then refill.
Rihanna: So, we preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
Seth Greenberg: Right and we’re just going to pop this in baking for about 15 minutes until they’re golden brown on top and the jam is bubbling and they should be ready.
Rihanna: Sounds good.
Seth Greenberg: And they go.
Rihanna: Well, these look great. Thank you Seth. We’re going to let this cool down for just a few minutes.
Seth Greenberg: Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll be ready to go.
Rihanna: Okay and when we come back, we’re going to make another holiday favorite with that same exact dough so you don’t want to go anywhere.
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