Several years ago, I bumped into a recipe in Gourmet magazine that called for baker’s ammonia. I was very curious about the use of this old-fashioned leavener in cookies. It seems that ammonium carbonate burns off during baking, making cookies super-crispy. And yes, while the cookies are baking, you have the lovely odor of ammonia in your kitchen. (This could explain why you don’t see this ingredient in most cookies.)
For years, I’ve kept an eye out for baker’s ammonia. I spotted it in the King Arthur Flour catalog. You guessed it. I bought some and am now on the hunt for ammonia cookie recipes.
Here is the recipe from Gourmet. When I serve these, I think I will skip the part about the ammonia in them.
Swedish Drommar Cookies
(Swedish Dream Cookies, Gourmet, December, 2000)
Makes about 5-6 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon crushed ammonium carbonate (also called baker’s ammonium)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Sift together flour and salt.
Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in ammonium carbonate and almond extract until combined well. Mix in flour mixture at low speed just until blended, then stir in coconut. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and arrange 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets.
Bake cookies in batches in upper third of oven until pale golden around edges, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.