Zoë Bakes Cookies

In her 10th cookbook, author and baker extrordinaire Zoë (Neal) François ’85 serves up spectacular cookie recipes that are rich with practical tips and deep personal history

When Zoë (Neal) François ’85 started working on her latest cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, she thought she knew exactly what she was in for. This was not, after all, her first batch of cookies. The pastry chef and star of her own Magnolia Network cooking show had already authored nine bestselling cookbooks. Her plan was straightforward: Develop the best cookie recipes she could—delicious and foolproof—write them up, photograph them, and deliver her publisher a beautiful book.

She knew she wanted to include a few of her grandmothers’ recipes in a chapter about holiday cookies, so she reached out to her mother, father, and aunt, hoping to fact-check some of her memories. Those conversations turned out to be a revelation. Over the course of the three years the book was in development, Zoë learned family stories she’d never heard before—stories that went back generations.

“I realized these recipes were not just about holidays,” Zoë says, speaking on Zoom from her home kitchen in Minneapolis, recognizable now to legions of fans. “They were about these people and what they brought to my life through recipes and how that formed me as a person. I learned so much about my heritage and family story—about all these women who are in my DNA.”

Zoë Bakes Cookies launched in September at number 7 on the New York Times Bestseller List. It offers 75 cookie and bar recipes grouped and organized around important people, places, and themes from Zoë’s own colorful life. It’s part rich personal history, part practical recipe guide.

“It was a fascinating journey for me,” says Zoë. “I thought I knew exactly what this book was going to be, and it became something entirely different. And honestly, it’s the book that is most me, and that makes me a little nervous. I mean, I really put myself and my family into this.”

From Commune to Cookie Cart

Zoë had a famously peripatetic upbringing, including life on a commune that her father founded in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. After attending 14 schools, she finally got the soft landing she needed as a junior at Williston.

“They were some of the most profound years of my life, and there were only two of them! It really changed everything for me,” Zoë says. “I came from such a wild childhood, and Williston was a very secure place. Lots of boundaries.”

Her baking career took root soon after at the University of Vermont, when a class assignment required her to draw up a mock business plan. She chose a cookie cart that would sell fresh-baked cookies to passersby on Church Street, an outdoor mall in Burlington. Eager to make spending money, she decided to turn her fantasy into a reality. Graham, her boyfriend-now-husband, built the cart for her.

Chapters in Zoë Bakes Cookies include “The Vermont Commune,” “Zoë’s Cookie Cart,” and “State Fair and Other Favorites”—a tribute to her adopted state of Minnesota. The soul of the book, though, are the stories about the women in her family—her grandmothers, aunts, great-grandmothers, and great-great-grandmothers who all baked before her.

Cookies in Her DNA

“Granny Neal’s Christmas Cookie Tin” honors her formidable paternal grandmother, who was of Norwegian descent and—like so many women of her generation—a devotee of Betty Crocker. In addition to Granny’s recipes for ginger snaps, espresso shortbread, and coconut bars, Zoë includes cookies that honor their shared Scandinavian heritage, like krumkake and almond spritz cookies.

“There were always two things on the table when we came into Granny Neal’s living room on Christmas,” Zoë writes. “A full set of Norman Rockwell books—as if to instruct us on how that holiday was meant to look—and tins of homemade Christmas cookies.” The tins were on every table and in every room. Zoë, who was growing up on carob chips and raisins at the commune, was transported.

“Bubbe Berkowitz’s Cookies,” a chapter featuring recipes for Jewish delicacies like mandelbrot, hamantaschen, and rugelach, pays homage to Zoë’s maternal grandmother, Sarah. While researching the book, Zoë discovered that Sarah’s own grandmother, Shaindel Siro, lived in a Jewish ghetto in Kiev, where she baked sweets in her home kitchen to bring in extra income.

By the eve of the Russian Revolution, though, Shaindel was in a dire situation. Her husband had been killed in a pogrom, and she was desperate to get her children out. Her fearless teen daughter Sonny began secretly filching flour, sugar, and salt from the kitchen cupboards to sell to the Russian soldiers in nearby camps. Once she had saved enough money for the fare, she shipped her older sister Zelda off to New York City, where she got a job baking in a restaurant. One by one, the whole family made it out. Settling down in Brooklyn, Shaindel started selling sweets again from her new apartment. Zoë was born to bake.

Ask For The Stories

Zoë does not have an assistant, preferring to develop recipes alone in the quiet of her home kitchen with her two poodles at her feet. She also styled and photographed all the cookies in the book herself, all the while keeping up with fans online. Or at least she tried to: She has 429,000 followers on Instagram alone.

At a virtual prelaunch event in August, hundreds of fans logged in to watch Zoë bake madeleines and to ask their questions. Graham, who works as a director for a technology company, cheered her on from behind the camera. As she pulled a hot tray from the oven, more questions came rolling into the chat every few seconds: “How different is almond meal from almond flour?” “Where did you purchase the wooden board on your island?” “Do you have a new show we can watch?”

Zoë still exudes all the enthusiasm of that college student behind the cookie cart. She has a mile-wide smile and springs around her kitchen like she’s on her toes. Somehow, for an hour, she managed to answer dozens of questions, make a batch of golden madeleines start to finish, and talk about her family history. Holding a spread from the Bubbe Berkowitz chapter up to the camera, she explained that as a young woman she asked her grandmother to write down her family’s cookie recipes. It never occurred to Zoë, though, how fortuitous that was until she started interviewing her mother for the cookie book. Her great-great-grandmother, Shaindel, could not read or write.

“When I asked my grandmother to write them down, it was the first time they were ever on paper,” she told the rapt audience. “They had been told verbally from one generation to the next. And if I hadn’t asked for those recipes, they’d be gone. I learned from this book to write these things down, to ask the questions, to ask for these stories.”

Zoë’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite cookie from the 1980s has evolved over time as I’ve ramped up my skills and perfected my tips and techniques. This version is my perfect chocolate chip cookie. The beauty of this recipe is that it is meant to change according to your mood. I’ve even changed it since it appeared on my TV show and blog. It’s the perfect example of how fluid baking can be, which is exactly what makes it so fun and exciting.

Baker’s Note: My husband likes a cookie with more dough and fewer pools of chocolate, so I make some with less chocolate for him and then dump the rest in for me. You can adjust to how much you like.

Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 ²⁄³cups / 320 grams all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup / 170 grams unsalted butter,
  at room temperature
• ¼ cup shortening
• 1 cup / 200 grams granulated sugar
• 1 ½ cups / 300 grams lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 8 to 12 ounces / 225 to 340 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped in largish chunks (about ¼ inch / 6 mm)
• Flaky sea salt for finishing

Directions

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, shortening, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed until incorporated. Mix in the chopped chocolate pieces. You may need to give the bowl a couple of swipes with a rubber spatula at the end to make sure the chocolate is evenly distributed.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough using a #20 (3-tablespoon) portion scoop onto the baking sheet. You can make the cookies larger or smaller, but it will affect the baking time.
• Refrigerate the dough balls for at least 30 minutes; but if you have the time, they improve if you let them sit for 24 to 26 hours. After they are chilled, you can bake them or freeze the dough balls for baking later.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Evenly space six chilled cookie balls on the prepared sheet and sprinkle them with flaky salt. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and slightly puffed. Repeat with as many batches as you need.
• Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet, until you can move them without them falling apart, about 5 minutes. Then move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.