Antoni Porowski Reveals The Surprising Hacks He Uses In The Kitchen
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
When Antoni Porowski was thinking about his favorite holiday cookies, Tan France almost immediately came to mind. His Queer Eye co-star loves everything about the holidays. “Tan’s known to decorate his Christmas tree the day after Halloween,” he says. So, naturally, Porowski’s favorite cookie during the holiday season is a recipe inspired by France himself.
“When we were filming [Queer Eye] in Kansas City, Tan brought these cookies to our Fajita Night that we would do every single week,” Porowski says. They were Ginger-Cardamom Cowboy Cookies, and they might not be the most traditional holiday treat, but the flavors are still festive and nostalgic.
The oat-based dough is studded with pecans and coconut for plenty of texture but still stays delightfully chewy. The warm, spicy notes of ground cardamom and the punch from candied ginger strike a chord similar to fresh gingerbread. And of course, there's chocolate, which Porowski says is “non-negotiable.”
“It's that perfect bite that just reminds me of my friendship with him,” he says. “I know that's cheesy, but I'm very sentimental when it comes to food.”
His favorite tips and tricks in the kitchen are old-school hacks passed down by his family. “My aunt Leslie taught me a hack to under-bake [the cookies] a little bit, because they tend to get crispy after a couple of days,” Porowski says.
Sometimes the most unconventional methods are the most effective. Another hack Antoni swears by is using sliced bread to keep cookies from drying out. “After a day or two, if you store them in a plastic container with a slice of white bread, it does wonders and it keeps them really nice and moist,” he says.
Porowski sees these ingenious ideas being used firsthand as the host of Easy-Bake Battle on Netflix. As a child, he was enamored with the idea of cooking with the toy oven: “I remember watching these commercials on Saturday mornings of this cute little oven and I thought it was so cool.”
On the show, contestants use the limited resources they have to make high-quality dishes, inspired by the inventiveness required to cook with the Easy-Bake Oven. Many of the competitors are moms who use old-school hacks to get a meal on the table.
“I was just shocked and amazed by the diversity of ideas that all these home cooks came up with,” he says. “It’s such a wonderful act of love.”
You can watch Easy-Bake Battle: The Home Cooking Competition on Netflix. And you can try Antoni's recipe for Ginger-Cardamom Cowboy Cookies and many more in our newest issue, Holiday Cookies.
You Might Also Like
