You may have seen him walking around the hall. Tall, dark hair, and sometimes carrying a reusable grocery bag filled with goodies, whether it be cookies or a classic New York Cheesecake. His name is Amir Mahmoud. Many teachers and students know him for his academic skills and delectable baked goods. When I interviewed him on Wednesday, he had a container of chocolate and white-chocolate chip cookies which I scarfed down after we finished our interview. Just last week, he gave me a slice of ube cheesecake. I never thought ube, a purple yam, could be used for cheesecake, and it took me by surprise when I realized how good it was. I remember in my sophomore year, Amir gave me a slice of New York Cheesecake with a graham cracker crust. I’d never had cheesecake before then, at least homemade, so I did not know what to expect. I was blown away by how good a yam could taste in a sweet dessert, considering yams are used for savory dishes most of the time. Below is the interview I conducted with Amir to hear about his love of baking.
Shannon Raneri: Why do you love baking so much?
Amir Mahmoud: My mother’s always baked when she was growing up and since I’m gluten-free, it’s just something I do. I can just bake and that’s why I do it.
SR: Why do you bake cheesecake so much? [You do cookies as well.] They’re good, obviously, but I feel like you do cheesecake more.
AM: My mother likes cheesecake, it’s kind of that… Sometimes I don’t even have some. And other people like it too!
In our interview, Amir said that he likes baking for other people because “it makes them happy.” Aside from cheesecake (his favorite is a classic New York Cheesecake with a graham cracker crust), Amir also likes to bake cookies, especially chocolate chip, because they are “really simple and quick.” Alesja Merama, a fellow senior, has also had the pleasure of receiving baked goods that Amir would hand out in class. She says, “Amir is the best baker that I know. I absolutely love when hands out the cookies. They’re so perfectly sweet and so soft to bite into, it’s my favorite [baked good] that he brings to school. He has a great hand at baking and I think it’s very sweet and kind of him to go out of his way to do this for the students.”
Some of us are lucky and have Amir in our classes where he hands out his latest baked treat. If you see him walking in the hallway with a bag, maybe, just maybe, you too can have a bite of pure goodness.
Amir’s favorite cookies are chocolate chip. He was nice enough to give me the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s “The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook” to share with you:
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8 ounces (1¾ cups) ATK (America’s Test Kitchen) Gluten-Free Flour Blend (page 13)*
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1 teaspoon baking soda
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½ teaspoon xanthan gum
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½ teaspoon salt
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8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
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5¼ ounces (¾ cup packed) light brown sugar
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2⅓ ounces (½ cup) granulated sugar
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1 large egg
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2 tablespoons milk
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1 tablespoon vanilla extract
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7½ ounces (1¼ cups) semisweet chocolate chips
- Whisk flour blend, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside. Whisk melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in large bowl until well combined and smooth. Whisk in egg, milk, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth. Stir in flour mixture with rubber spatula and mix until soft, homogeneous dough forms. Fold in chocolate chips. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 30 minutes. (Dough will be sticky and soft.)
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using 2 soupspoons and working with about 1½ tablespoons of dough at a time, portion dough and space 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
- Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cookies are best eaten on day they are baked, but they can be cooled and placed immediately in airtight container and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
Enjoy!
*You can easily substitute for any flour using a 1:1 ratio!
