White chocolate. And, uh, wasabi.
Say what?
Yes, together in a cookie.
Leave it to Jen Laska and her husband Joe, founders of the Los Angeles-based Jen & Joe’s Cookie Dough to sneak the fiery green Japanese sushi condiment into a cookie.
Their cookie dough comes frozen in boxes that contain 12 portioned balls that need only to be baked off in an oven for about 11 minutes.
Recently, I had a chance to try this rather unusual sounding cookie made by Laska, who’s always loved to bake and even attended pastry school.
Made with enriched wheat flour, butter, milk, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, wasabi powder and horseradish, the dough balls look homemade. They’re not perfectly uniform, but a little misshapen with some being a little larger looking than others.
But they bake up fairly similar in size and roundness, with crisp edges and slightly chewy centers.
As for the wasabi? Don’t expect any tearing of the eyes or nasal blast. It’s extremely subtle. If you concentrate really, really hard while chewing, you might detect the merest mustardy twinge on the finish. I gave my husband a cookie to try, not telling him what was in it, and he didn’t detect the wasabi at all. That’s probably because the sweetness from the white chocolate chips, along with the fact that the cookies are rolled in sugar, tempers the wasabi greatly.
Each box is $5.99, and available at select Whole Foods and Safeway stores.
And for those who like their cookies a little more conventional, Jen & Joe’s also makes their dough in these flavors:Â Chocolate Chunk, Snickerdoodle, Chocolate Spice, Oatmeal Toffee and Lemon Drop.