Category: Cookies

Bite Size Desserts

Thin, Crispy, Gooey, Chocolate Chip Cookies-Get It On, Bang a Pan

Thin, Crispy, Gooey, Chocolate Chip Cookies-Get It On, Bang a Pan

I have been a slouch when it comes to holiday cookies this year. LUCKY FOR ME, Jamie is home and baking up a storm…I get the difficult task of eating and posting about whatever deliciousness she has baked up.

I had all this planned of course.  My copy of Sarah Kiefer’s 100 Cookies finally arrived which I then strategically left on the kitchen island in full view. Heh, heh, heh.  The book is a beauty both in content and style.

She took the bait. Flipping through the book, Jamie landed on the Neopolitan Cookies exclaimed “so making these”.   I kept nodding enthusiastically with every cookie she mentioned.  We loved the Neapolitans, buttery, chewy,  flavored with vanilla, strawberry, and cocoa.  These are definitely going in the rotation.  The Smores Bars were labor-intensive but worth the effort. Imagine a blondie base, coated with chocolate and topped with a layer of toasty homemade marshmallow fluff.

Despite the many CCC recipes we have, her Chocolate Chip Cookies and the pan banging technique proved irresistible.  All we can say is make room for this bad boy in your chocolate chip cookie file, it’s that good.  The cookies are thin, crisp-edged yet soft in the center.  They’re dotted with chopped dark chocolate bits and finished with a sprinkle of Fleur de Sel.  The dough is sweet so don’t skip the Fleur de sel and definitely use dark chocolate for balance.

You should be running to your kitchen now to make these.

Pan-banging

No, not headbanging which is what I have been doing all year, it’s been that kinda year.  I first came across pan-banging in Sarabeth’s Bakery cookbook (a beautiful cookbook)  Sarabeth’s Kitchen is a New York institution known for their breakfasts, jams, and baked goods.  Her version of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Clouds, calls for rapping the pan on the oven rack with a couple of minutes left in baking.  This causes the cookies to deflate and develop their signature cracks.  I adopted this rapping the pan for several of my drop cookie recipes including the Oatmeal Apricot Cookies from Dahlia Bakery.  Love the way cracks and crevices look in drop cookies.

Sarah takes it to a whole new level, by repeatedly banging the pan in 2-minute intervals, you get these super cool circular ridges that look like a tree’s age rings.  The cookies bake thin and flat, they spread quite a bit, so plan on about 5 cookies per baking sheet.

So take your 2020 aggressions out by making these pan banging chocolate chip cookies and end up with beastly cookies. Win-win.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (100 Cookies)

From 100 Cookies Thin and Crispy, Ridged Chocolate Chip Cookies
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate chip cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 hours 14 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (284 grams) Gold Medal AP Flour will give you better ridges
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ pound unsalted butter (227 grams) 2 sticks, room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300 grams)
  • ¼ cup brown sugar (55 grams) dark brown preferred
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (170 grams) about 60 percent cacao solids, chopped into coarse pieces, bits and shards. We used TJ's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate
  • Fleur de sel or Maldon Salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
  • In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium until creamy about 1 minute. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla and 2 tablespoons water, and mix on low to combine. Add the flour mixture, and mix on low until combined. Add the chocolate and mix on low into the batter. (At this point, the dough can be refrigerated for several hours or overnight.)
  • Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Form the dough into 2.5 ounce (~70 gram) balls (#24 ice cream scoop 1/3 cup each). Place 4-5 balls an equal distance apart on pan.
  • Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake 7 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the center. Lift the baking sheet and let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down. (This will feel wrong, but trust me.) Bang it down, if necessary, to make the center fall.
  • After the cookies puff up again, 2 minutes later, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times, every 2 minutes, to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake 13 to 14 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out, and the edges are golden brown, but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
  • Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and sprinkle with Fleur de sel or Maldon salt. Let cool10-15 minutes before removing the cookies from the pan.
  • Repeat with remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

We used a #24 ice cream scoop, ~2.5 ounces and baked for 14 minutes.  The original recipe calls for 3 ounces of dough and bake for 15-16 minutes. 
You can use King Arthur Flour (higher protein) but it may not develop as many ridges. 
I would recommend weighing ingredients, esp flour, for accuracy.
Ah-mazing Toffee Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

Ah-mazing Toffee Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on one of my favorite blogs, Ipso Fatto, are a couple of sweets she tried from Food & Wine’s article,  The Bake Sale Returns to Its Political Roots. In the current climate, this is right up my alley, political activism through food.  A win-win.  Her photos and reviews of goodies from the article had me running to my kitchen to get busy and bake.

First up were these fabulous cookies from State Bird Provision in San Francisco.  I guarantee they will be a hit at any bake sale or socially distanced gathering. The cookies have a crispy edge, are slightly chewy in the middle, and are a flavor and texture party in your mouth. The apricots provide tartness to balance out the sweetness of the milk chocolate and toffee. The toffee not only adds to the buttery flavor but a wonderful crunch. So good.  It’s been a while since a cookie has really wowed me.  It was worth the wait.

One of my favorite farmers market stops is Sunblest Orchards.  Their beautiful plums and peaches are now distant summer memories, but in their place are jeweled tone dried fruits and a variety of delicious preserves and sauces.  I picked up dried apricots, peaches, and their Apricot Habanero Ketchup, so yummy it has replaced my regular ketchup at home.  This past weekend they also had persimmons, fresh and dried-yum.  Autumn definitely has an upside.  Their apricots were perfect in these cookies.

Initially, I was happy that this recipe only makes half a batch of cookies.  But they disappeared so fast I wished I had doubled it!

A couple of swap-a-roos

I didn’t have toffee bits but I did have SKOR bars so I chopped up the bars and used a smidge less milk chocolate in the cookies, NBD.  A stash of milk chocolate chips was in the pantry so taking the path of least resistance, I subbed them for chopping chocolate.  A good trade-off.  The dough can be baked immediately but I like to chill the dough. The flavors have a chance to develop (especially the butter flavor) if the dough rests awhile and the cookies tend not to spread as much.  Personal preference.  I baked the cookies for about 16 minutes (chilled dough) rotating them in the middle of the baking time.  They will brown pretty quickly so start checking at 13 minutes.

I really enjoyed these cookies and intend to make them again soon.  Hope you’ll try them too.  Next…from the same article, a luscious Almond Plum Cake before plums are done for the season.

Toffee-Apricot Oat Cookies

A delicious buttery, crisp-chewy cookie that has it all, sweet, tart and chocolatey.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Toffee Apricot Oat Cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 16 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter 4 ounces, softened
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour about 4 1/4 ounces
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2/3 cup uncooked old-fashioned regular rolled oats about 2 ounces
  • 1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate feelin' lazy ? Use chips
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped toffee can substitute chopped Heath or Skor candy bars
  • 1/3 cup dried apricots about 2 ounces, finely chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F with oven racks in top third and lower third of oven.
  • Combine butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium speed until light and creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add egg, salt and vanilla, beat until combined.
  • Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl. With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture beating until just combined, about 30 seconds. Stir in oats, chocolate, toffee, and apricots. You can use the dough immediately or cover with plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment, using a 1 3/4-inch scoop, arrange balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons each) onto baking sheet, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven until cookies are lightly browned, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating pan after 8 minutes. To create cracks in cookies, after rotating pan, rap pan on the oven rack. This causes the cookie to deflate and create ridges on the cookie. Optional.
  • Let cookies cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
  • Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Notes

These lacy cookies are studded with tart dried apricot, salty-sweet chunks of toffee, and sweet milk chocolate for the perfect combination of flavors and textures. Be sure to rotate the pans during baking to ensure evenly baked, perfectly crisp-chewy cookies.
Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies-Take Two

Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies-Take Two

The search continues for a thin, crispy chocolate chip cookie just like my grandmother use to make.  My first try was a Tate’s Chocolate Chip Cookie facsimile by that guru of American desserts, Stella Parks.  While absolutely scrumptious-buttery, caramelized, slightly chewy in the middle with crispy edges, they just weren’t my grandma’s cookies. So…

I took a different tack

I googled, buttery, crispy, thin cookies, leaving out the chocolate chips.  Surfing the Pinterest pics that popped up, I came across a photo for Crisp Almond Cookies from Chocolate, Chocolate, and More.  It looked promising.  The cookies were thin with golden edges and a light, flat, center.  They looked a whole lot like my Pau Pau’s cookies but without the chocolate.

So I made the recipe for Crisp Almond Cookies and added mini chocolate chips to the dough.  The recipe is straight forward, classic cookie making protocol.  Cream the butter and sugar, add eggs, dry ingredients, nuts and finally fold in chocolate.  Tips for this particular recipe include soft butter (not melting) and room temperature eggs since you want the cookies to spread.  Once again I used a tablespoon ice cream scoop to portion out the dough leaving 2-3 inches between each scoop.

The Grandma Test

These cookies looked a lot more like my grandma’s cookies.  These were crisper than Stella’s and buttery, without the caramelization.  (My test group actually LOVED the caramel flavors of the Stella Park cookies) I think the inclusion of almonds lightened the cookie and make it less chewy and a touch crisper, again more like Grandma’s.  I liked them a lot, definitely getting closer to ground zero for Pau Pau’s cookie.  I will try it with walnuts next time since that is the nut she used in her recipe. I don’t think it will change the texture but may add that characteristic walnut flavor.  The use of baking powder instead of baking soda also reduces browning.  It didn’t make these cookies cakey, which you might expect.

I arbitrarily added 1 cup of mini-chips to the dough.  I didn’t want to overwhelm the cookies with chocolate.  I ended up with more than 3 chips a cookie but I think Grandma would be okay with a bit more chocolate.  I would not put more chocolate.  In fact, I might decrease the amount to 3/4 cup in the spirit of her cookies.  You could substitute a good quality chocolate sprinkle instead, a suggestion from my kid- the Sprinkle Cookie King.  The recipe makes quite a few cookies but luckily you can easily half the recipe.

Crisp Almond Cookies with Chocolate Chips

I took a recipe for Crisp Almond Cookies and added Chocolate Chips! Buttery, crisp with a hit of chocolate, a delicious combination.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Crisp Almond Cookies with Chocolate Chips
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups butter softened (337 g) (salted butter)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar 200 g
  • 1 cup granulated sugar 200 g
  • 2 large eggs room temp
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 10 ml
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 280 g Use a moderate protein flour like Gold Medal
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder 4 g
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt 0.7 g If using unsalted butter increase salt to 1/2 teaspoon
  • 1 cup finely chopped almonds 112 g
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips sub good quality chocolate sprinkles

Instructions

  • Cream together butter and sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
  • Add in eggs and vanilla and beat again.
  • Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to dough, one third at a time until all added. Stir in almonds.
  • Fold in chocolate chips
  • Using a small cookie scoop (1 tablespoon), place dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet three inches apart (these cookies spread.) Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 8-9 minutes. Until edges turn golden. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe is easily halved.  If you are looking for a crisp almond cookie, buttery and sweet, just leave out the chips!

The search continues…but we are headed in the right direction.

Thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies, In Search of Grandma’s Cookie

Thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies, In Search of Grandma’s Cookie

My grandmother, who we called Pau Pau, was the classic iron fist in the velvet glove.  She was outspoken and strong-willed, bossy, pragmatic, the protector of her family.  

Not gonna lie. She was kind of scary.  I see where my mom gets her strength, her willfulness, and her disciplinarian streak.  When my brother and I got in trouble, it was mom we answered to, not dad, Mr. Marshmallow.  

This isn’t surprising about my grandmother. After all, you have to pretty tough to be a new bride, leave your family, get on a boat (pregnant), and travel thousands of miles to a place where you don’t speak the language and nobody knows your name.

She Was a Bad Ass

My mom next to Pau Pau and Auntie Jessie on Granpa’s lap, four more kids followed.

It was a tough life, six kids, my grandfather working different jobs-farmer, grocery store clerk, restaurant worker, and moonshine maker.  Ultimately, they settled in Chinatown and Pau Pau ran a sewing factory, all the kids pitched in and worked the factory.  She employed other Chinese women struggling to make ends meet and care for their families.  Her six kids grew up to serve in the military, become business owners, a chemist at Stanford, an elementary school teacher, and the first Chinese woman real estate broker in the City. 

Ours is the story of the immigrant dream of America

Growing up we spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house in Chinatown. We usually migrated to the dining room while she cooked up a storm in the kitchen.  In one corner of the dining room was a memorial to my grandfather complete with his picture, incense, banners to ward off spirits, and dishes of food. Food is such an integral part of life, like so many Asian parents, feeding us was her way of showing that she cared for and loved us.  She cooked mainly Chinese food.  Two exceptions, both sweets, were fruitcake (amazingly good, no one used her fruitcake for a doorstop) and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Pau Pau’s Chocolate Chip Cookies were thin, crispy, and buttery.  I could eat a zillion of them, I’m sure I tried.  She always kept a tin of cookies on her dining table to tempt everyone that visited. 

I remember watching her make cookies.  She flattened each ball of dough and carefully placed 3 chocolate chips on each cookie then finished with a sprinkle finely chopped walnuts. When I asked her for the recipe she rummaged through her cabinet, pulled out a package of Nestle’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, and tossed it to me.  I was incredulous, no way were her cookies the same as the Nestle’s Toll House Cookies.  Years later I asked my Aunt if she had Pau Pau’s recipe, nope, but she did recall Grandma would melt chicken fat if she didn’t have enough butter.  

So armed with bits and pieces of info, I set out to replicate those darn cookies.  I found a recipe on Serious Eats by Stella Parks for “Thin, Crispy CCC, just like Tate’s (never had em).  They were buttery, caramelized, sweet, but only the very edges were crispy while the center was a bit chewy.  Not the cookies of my childhood.  Disappointed I threw the cookies in a Tupperware and left them on the table.

My kids inhaled them.  In fact, my nieces, my moms’ coffee group (which met practicing COVID guidelines) loved these cookies.  It’s all about expectations.  I wanted crisp, buttery, light, and just a couple of chips just like Grandma’s.  

But if I didn’t compare these to the cookies of my childhood, they’re really darn good.  The best analogy, thanks to my kid is as follows.  It’s like you’re going crazy looking for your lost keys…and you find your lost wallet.  Yay!  But damn it, you still haven’t found your keys.  

Here are my notes and the recipe for Stella Park’s Thin, Crispy, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Make them soon. 

The recipe calls for a moderate protein flour like Gold Medal AP Flour.  Do not use King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill both of which have a higher protein content.  It will throw off the texture and the spread.  Stella’s recipes are tested with Gold Medal, readily available, and easy to find, that is unless there is a pandemic.  I tried these with White Lily, a low protein Southern flour.  The cookies were soft and barely held their shape.  My kids liked them (lifetime members of the ooey-gooey cookie club), I thought they were too soft.  I used GM for the second batch, the extra protein provided needed structure and crispness, a winner.

Make the dough in a food processor which Stella says is key. Place dry ingredients into the processor and whirl to combine.

Pulse butter into the dry mix until crumbly, add chips, and process 1-2 short pulses.  Pour the dough into a bowl and add egg and vanilla, knead until it comes together. Put the soft dough in the fridge to firm it up so it is easier to scoop.  With a tablespoon scoop, I measured out over 60 cookies, more than the expected yield.  The cookies took 10-11 minutes to bake to a deep rich caramel brown.

The search continues for Grandma’s cookies but I will gladly make another batch of these.

Thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Stella Parks version of Tate's thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Crispy, buttery studded with chips, delicious and easy to make!
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate chip cookies, Crispy, stella parks, tates, thin
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces med protein all-purpose flour such as Gold Medal blue label or Whole Foods 365 blue label (about 1 3/4 cup, spooned; 225g)
  • 8 ounces light brown sugar not dark brown (about 1 cup, firmly packed; 225g)
  • 3 1/2 ounces raw cane sugar not white (about 1/2 cup; 100g)
  • 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 8g or table salt, use about half as much by volume or the same weight
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons 8g baking soda 8g
  • 8 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 16 tablespoons; 225g)
  • 8 ounces assorted chocolate chips preferably no darker than 70%, see note (about 1 1/3 cups; 225g)
  • 1 large egg straight from the fridge, well beaten (1 3/4 ounces; 50g)
  • 1/2 ounce vanilla extract about 1 tablespoon; 15g

Instructions

  • Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, light brown sugar, raw cane sugar, salt, and baking soda. Process until well-combined; add cold butter and pulse to form a dry and powdery mix; comparable results cannot be produced by hand or with a stand mixer. Add chocolate chips and pulse once or twice to combine.* Chill to make it easier to handle dough.
  • Transfer the cookie "mix" to a large bowl; add egg and vanilla, stir well; the mixture will seem alarmingly crumbly and dry at this stage. Once the wet ingredients have been absorbed, knead mixture by hand until it comes together like classic soft dough.
  • Divide into about 56 portions with a 1-tablespoon scoop. If you like, these can be transferred to a zipper-lock bag and refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months; soften to about 68°F (20°C) before baking.
  • Arrange portions on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan (do not use a silicone mat), leaving about 2 or 3 inches between cookies to account for spread. Bake until thin and golden brown, with an even color from edge to center, about 16 minutes (check earlier). I used a tablespoon scoop, yield over 60 cookies that took 10-11 minutes to bake.
  • Cool cookies directly on the baking sheet until room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container and continue cooling an hour more; the cookies will not be fully crisped until then. At cool room temperature, the cookies will keep at least six weeks in an airtight container.

Notes

*The mixture can be refrigerated up to one week in an airtight container or used immediately in the next step.

Sprinkles Instead of Sparklers (Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies)

Sprinkles Instead of Sparklers (Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies)

Happy July Fourth

Despite the current turmoil we pause to celebrate us, the United States of America.  A time to reflect on what this holiday means to each of us.  For me, this country offered a way out of chaos, opportunity and hope for my father and I am the direct recipient of his escape and struggles.  I am forever grateful and cognizant of that fact and if not for this country my family’s trajectory would have been far different.

And yet it is painfully obvious we have much work to do in order to create a more perfect union where all men and women are created equal.  How do we ensure that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is along the same road for each and everyone of us.

Proud to be an American

Since Election Day November 2016 I have felt a sense of obligation to my family, my kids and my country.  I marched, attended rallies, canvassed, I needed to be more invested in our political process to effect change.  When you are comfortable living your life it is easy to become complacent about what is happening around you.  You wake up one morning and realize the crap has hit the fan while you were living your life.  If you dislike politics or no matter what side of the political divide you fall on-human decency, kindness, and compassion knows no party and we can all work towards a kinder, more inclusive nation.  Above all I would like the definition of being American to include compassion, empathy, decency, equality.

I Still Want to Celebrate

COVID-19 and the state of our nation means a much more subdued celebration of July 4th in our house.  We are grilling hot dogs and making a delicious white bean stew  (my twist on Frank and Beans) to mark the holiday.  Dessert will be colorful Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies, also known as Sugar Saucers.  I found the recipe on Serious Eats, a favorite go-to site for me.  Reminiscent of the cookies found in Italian-American bakeries, they are light, with a cakey center and crisp edges laced with vanilla flavor.  The sprinkles provide a nice crunch to the cookies.  I think of the sprinkles as edible sparklers and fireworks-yummy, safe ones.  I should have used red, white and blue sprinkles, but could not find any, maybe next year.

Before flour is added

The dough includes oil and butter creamed with a combination of sugar and powdered sugar.  The recipe states to beat until light and fluffy but it is pretty soft almost liquid in consistency, don’t worry too much about fluffy.  The dough will still be soft after adding the flour mixture. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

After flour is added

I used my handy dandy ice cream scoop to portion out the dough which I then shaped into balls.  Use a 2 tablespoon scoop for smaller cookies and drop the balls into the sprinkles.  The baking time was about 12 minutes for smaller cookies.

The hot dogs are ready as is the white bean stew.  As we enjoy our 4th of July dinner we’ll be watching Hamilton.  A good way to celebrate our country and reflect on what it means to be an American.

Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies

A vanilla flavored sugar cookie with crisp edges and a tender cake-like center. The perfect celebration cookie made festive with colorful sprinkles.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (10 ounces) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • About 1 cup rainbow sprinkles can use pearl sugar, sparkling crystals, orchocolate sprinkles

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, oil, sugar, and confectioners sugar until light, about 3 minutes. The batter will be on the soft, wet side.
  • Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be very soft but wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Fill a shallow bowl with sprinkles of choice. Use a 1-ounce cookie scoop (or a rounded tablespoon) to form cookies into balls. Roll each ball in sprinkles to cover and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
  • Bake until cookies are golden at the edges, about 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

These cookies can be made larger, up to 4 ounces.  Adjust baking time accordingly, estimated 20 minutes to bake for larger cookies.
 

Candy or Cookie? You Be the Judge (Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle)

Candy or Cookie? You Be the Judge (Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle)

Hello? Why didn’t someone tell me it was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day…a couple of days ago? Yep, I missed it. Well, I almost missed it. As I was doing my late-night perusal of Instagram, what should pop up on my feed? A luscious-looking pic of chocolate chip cookies with the banner shouting out “Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!”.

WHAAT?

Damn it. If I had just gone to sleep instead of taking that last look at my feed. So there I was at midnight, guilted into making chocolate chip cookies. I envisioned myself staying up another couple of hours, baking off sheets of cookies one at a time (yes, I can’t bring myself to bake two sheets at once). UGH.

Then I remembered a recipe I had been wanting to try from Shauna Sever’s Midwest Made. Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle. It starts with melted butter, yay, no waiting for butter to come to room temp. The batter can be made in one bowl with a wooden spoon (ok, and a whisk), the finished dough is then spread on a baking sheet and popped in the oven. ONE SHEET, that’s it.

I Am So Making Them

Surprisingly, the recipe calls for granulated sugar and no eggs. I double-checked the recipe, yep, no eggs, and no brown sugar. Hmmm, interesting, I apprehensively plowed on.  It also started with melted butter, yay, no creaming.

I gathered the dry ingredients as the butter cooled and got out my 12×17 sided cookie sheet (classic 1/2 sheet pan).  Added sugar to the cooled melted butter and beat until it formed a loose paste.  Poured in the flour and vanilla, stirred to combine and followed with the toasted nuts (don’t skip toasting, 5-6 minutes in a 350-degree oven) and chocolate.

Not Gonna Lie

The worse part was spreading the dough in the pan.  Don’t do what I did, which was plop all the dough in the center of the sheet pan.  Spread it out a little so it is easier to cover the pan.  You want the dough to be as even and thin as possible.  The dough will be approximately the same thickness as the chips.  I used Guittard’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate (ginormous) chips but almost any chip would work in this cookie, bittersweet, milk chocolate, or a combination.  Likewise, walnuts would work in place of pecans.

The cookie baked in 22 minutes.  Be extra vigilant towards the end as they brown pretty quickly.  The recipe does not have brown sugar and calls for only granulated sugar.  It’s important to bake it to nice toasty brown which results in a crisp, toffee flavored cookie.  It’s addictive.  Crunchy cookie base, oozy chocolate, and toasted nuts.  It straddles the line between cookie and candy, another winner from Shauna Sever.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

Is it a cookie? Is it a candy? You decide! Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle is delicious.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 9 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 cups (256 g) all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
  • 1 cup (170 g) chopped pecans lightly toasted, can sub walnuts
  • 1 cup (170 g) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips 60% cacao

Instructions

  • Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350°F Have ready a 12 x 17-inch rimmed baking sheet. You do not need to grease or cover with parchment.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and vanilla. Add the sugar and salt and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens and appears pastelike. Switch to a wooden spoon or spatula and mix in the flour. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.
  • Press the mixture into the ungreased pan in a thin, even layer (use the chocolate chips as your height barometer—try to get them in as close to a single layer as possible throughout the dough, and you’ll have the right thickness). Alternatively, spread the dough in the pan, scatter chocolate chips and nuts on top and press into dough, leaing someexposed on top.
  • Bake for 23 to 25 minutes (start checking at 20 minutes), or until light golden brown and the edges a bit darker than the center (mine were pretty uniformly brown ), rotate the pan 180 degrees every 7 to 8 minutes during baking. Let cool completely before breaking into irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Very Good, Very Inn, The DoubleTree Cookie

Very Good, Very Inn, The DoubleTree Cookie

I LOVE my Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  I have been using it for years, folks who try them have asked for the recipe to which I give the standard “if I give it to you I will have to kill you” line, jk.  Although I did finally give in and post my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which you can find here.  Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I won’t try other CCC recipes, on the contrary, I can’t resist trying new ones.  In fact, one of my favorites is the Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies from David Lebovitz, the Tahini paste adds both taste and texture, it’s really yummy.

During the COVID crisis, Hilton Hotels has generously released the recipe for their famous DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Their signature cookies are doled out at check-in.  Everyone clamors over these cookies, who doesn’t like a warm cookie with oozy melted chocolate?  Yeah, I don’t see any hands going up.  They are delicious-warm, gooey, crispy edges, chock full of nuts and chocolate, perfect with an ice-cold glass of milk, a cup of coffee, or by themselves.

Thank you, Hilton and DoubleTree for sharing

So, of course, I baked a batch.  I noticed that the recipe is very similar to my recipe.  Coincidence? I think, heck yeah.  Interestingly, the recipe includes a bit of lemon juice (to help cookies rise?) and a dash of cinnamon.

I followed the recipe EXACTLY, well, except for the chocolate chips, I didn’t have any Nestle’s so I used Guittard Semi-sweet Chocolate wafers, chopped (could explain why hubby thought they were too chocolatey) and also pecans, a trade-off since I was NOT going to go to the market just for walnuts.  Baking in the time of a pandemic.

Light and fluffy (2 minutes)

This is a pretty classic how-to cookie-making directions.  The recipe is explicit regarding the length of time to cream the butter and sugar.  It makes a BIG difference in the final texture of your cookies.  I bake a lot of cookies and I am still nervous about how they will turn out.  So many variables-the temperature of the butter, how to cream the butter and sugar, kind of flour, and how much flour is added…I could go on but just thinking about it is making me anxious!  Serious Eats has a fantastic primer on Cookie Science, WELL WORTH the read.

The smartest thing I can say is to FOLLOW the directions if you want the cookies to turn out like the original.  Cream that butter and sugar for the two minutes the recipe calls for.  Start with butter that is not too hard or soft, the scientist in me says take your butter’s temp, it should be around 60-65 degrees.  Don’t bring your eggs to room temp before adding them to your batter.  Creaming the butter and sugar causes heat and warms the butter.  You don’t want it to melt, you worked too hard creating air pockets in the dough that translates to a “light” tender cookie. Adding the cold egg will help keep the temperature from increasing and melting the butter-it’s a good thing.

After adding the dry ingredients

Once you add the dry ingredients, continue to stir until you don’t see any flour. Make sure to scrape down your bowl.  Another note, if the author of the recipe calls for a specific brand of flour, take that into account.  I use King Arthur Flour, but a lot of recipes are tested using Gold Medal due to its availability (Example-Stella Parks and her Peanut Butter Cookies ). This will affect your cookie due to the protein content of the flour.  I’m guessing I could have taken a smidge of flour out of this recipe for a softer, gooier cookie.   Don’t overbeat as this will develop the gluten leading to a tough cookie.  You wanna be a tough cookie, not make a tough cookie.

Portion out the dough as directed into 3 tablespoons balls.   Use an ice cream scoop for this (#24), you will not only get the right size and thickness cookie but nice “purdy” round cookies.  The volume of dough definitely influences the cookie spread.

Like crevices in your cookies?  About 3-4 minutes before the cookies are finished baking, rap the cookie sheet on the wire oven rack.  This will cause the cookie to deflate and give it that craggy, uneven look.  Yep, known as the pan-banging method.

Stoked, my new cookie box, courtesy of the hubster and his woodworking talents

I marvel at how bakeries can churn out cookies on a daily basis, not by how they are so delicious but how they are so consistently the same.  I’m hoping some of these tips will help.  My favorite bakery in Los Gatos (currently closed due to COVID) is Icing on the Cake they make fabulous cookies.  I will be the first in line when they reopen, their cookies are so good, so consistent.

Now go bake!

DoubleTree Signature Cookie Recipe

Yes, THOSE, Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies. Why everyone stays at Doubletrees.
Course cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chips, Doubletree Inn
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings 26 cookies

Ingredients

The Fat & Sugar Mix

  • ½ pound butter, unsalted softened (2 sticks)
  • ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup packed light brown sugar

The Wet Stuff

  • 2 large eggs cold
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

The Dry Stuff

  • 2 ¼ cups flour
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats old-fashioned or quick, NOT instant
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Pinch cinnamon about 1/8 tsp

The Finish, The Bling

  • 2 2/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips Nestle Tollhouse
  • 1 3/4 cups chopped walnuts sub pecans or nit of choice

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 300°F.
  • Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Will be light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice, blending with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until light and ribbon-like, scraping down bowl.
  • With mixer on low speed, add flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, blending for about 45 seconds. Don’t overmix.
  • Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
  • Portion dough with a scoop (about 3 tablespoons) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart. (#24 ice cream scoop)
  • Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and center is still soft.
  • Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 1 hour.

Notes

Cook’s note: You can freeze the unbaked cookies, and there’s no need to thaw. Preheat oven to 300°F and place frozen cookies on parchment paper-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden brown and center is still soft.

I Tried To Buy Some Flour, They Said No, No, No (Not Your Mama’s Rice Krispy Treats)

I Tried To Buy Some Flour, They Said No, No, No (Not Your Mama’s Rice Krispy Treats)

Day 2 of Shelter in Place.  I receive a text from a friend that the supermarkets are a little calmer than yesterday.  That’s my cue to head to the market to pick up a few items.  Nope, not gonna go crazy, just need a few staples like flour, yeast, butter, and milk.  Since we will be “cocooning” I wanted to do some baking.  Sounds like a plan, right?

Apparently, everyone else wants to too.

Not a bag of flour of any kind on any shelf in the 3 grocery stores I tried.  Wow.  I’m dumbfounded.  I couldn’t find yeast either.  I feel like we are in pioneer living mode.  All good, time to improvise.

So I grab the next best thing, a bag of marshmallows.  I have Rice Krispies at home, just got more butter, and maybe I’ll make them happy Rice Krispies with some sprinkles.  A little bit of fun and cheeriness to offset our Coronavirus blues.

I know what you are thinking…oh please, a recipe for Rice Krispy Treats?

Not just Rice Krispy Treats.  Nope, not the “look on the side of the cereal box recipe” but Smitten Kitchen’s version which a friend from Tennessee renamed “Damn good, Double Buttah R-aah-ce Krispy Treats”.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. In the 3jamigos archives find it here.

Like the Big Fig Newton….here’s the hard part BROWN BUTTER  This added step elevates Snap, Crackle and Pop’s version to a whole new level.  That…and oh, twice the amount of butter.  Just trying to be transparent folks.

Melt butter over medium heat, keep an eye on it.  The butter will foam and as it gets hotter the milk particles will brown.  Keep a close eye so it doesn’t burn and stir constantly.

Look at those nice brown bits that are just flavor bombs!  So delicious!

I added happy sprinkles but sadly, they melted.  My advice is to wait until you pour the mixture into the pan to shape and cool, then go crazy scattering sprinkles on top.

BRAG ALERT!

Upside to shelter at home…Hubby just made me a cookie box to transport goodies to friends and family functions after we get through this!  So excited, box has a sliding lid and dividers for different kinds of cookies. Hmmm,not my birthday but I’ll take it.

Stay safe, stay healthy!

In a Peanut Pickle with these Cookies (Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies)

In a Peanut Pickle with these Cookies (Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies)

I have mentioned this before, when it comes to cookies we are a divided family.  Shortbread cookies are my favorite, crumbly, buttery, crisp, not too sweet, perfect with tea or coffee.

My family disagrees.  Hubs and kids prefer chewy cookies.  While Hubs favors oatmeal cookies (like his Good Cookies), Jorge, freshly back from a year in Korea, will remind me (almost daily) that I have yet to make his favorite chocolate sprinkle cookies or even CCC.  All classic kid cookies-chewy, sweet and deliciously dunkable in an ice-cold glass of milk.

So, much to Jordan’s chagrin, the cookies that came out of the oven the other day were the Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies, a slice and bake that is much more similar to shortbread.  I found the recipe in the LA Times (a boss cooking section, the reason I maintain a subscription) a few years ago.  The winner of their holiday cookie contest, it immediately went on my gotta make Cookie Bucket List.  It is delicious, buttery, crisp, not quite as dense as shortbread, and filled with peanut umami.  The cookies contain both peanut butter and finely chopped peanuts, a double nut hit.  Mr. Planter would be proud.  The bittersweet chocolate gives it an adult twist, a not too sweet hit of chocolate, yum.

I knew it was a winner when Jorge unconsciously kept eating the cookies all the while complaining about not liking peanut butter or crisp, short cookies and still asking “When are you going to make Sprinkle Cookies?” as he polished off the last one.

Necessity is the mother of invention and quite often, a good thing.  Stashed in the pantry, a jar of honey roasted peanuts that subbed for the salted peanuts I did not have.  To offset the sweetness from the honey, I sprinkled the cookies with Fleur de Sel before popping them in the oven.

The peanut butter, sugar, and butter are beaten until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and combine, don’t overbeat.  Fold in the nuts and chopped chocolate.  The dough is very soft, transfer the dough to wax paper or parchment and shape into a log.  Place in the fridge and chill thoroughly.  Use a sharp knife or a serrated knife to cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices.  I rotated the dough while slicing to keep the cookies round.  If the dough crumbles, just smoosh it back together. Sprinkle the slices with Fleur de Sel and sanding sugar.

If you wanted to make a kid friendlier cookie, you can use semi-sweet or even milk chocolate for the bittersweet chocolate.  If you like peanuts, you are going to love these cookies.

Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup 1 stick cold butter
  • 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup finely chopped roasted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts
  • 1 cup finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
  • Fleur de Sel for sprinkling
  • Sanding Sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
  • Beat the butter until creamy in a stand mixer. Beat in the peanut butter until blended. Beat in the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
  • Beat the egg and vanilla into the sugar mixture until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Stir in chopped peanuts and chocolate until evenly incorporated.
  • Divide the dough in half. Shape it into two logs about 9 inches long and wrap each log in plastic wrap, waxed paper. Twist ends to seal. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.
  • Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the logs and cut into one-fourth-inch-thick slices. The dough is soft so rotate while slicing. If dough crumbles due to peanuts or chocolate just press it together to reshape.
  • Place the slices on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake 10 to 13 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.
  • Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Notes

Each cookie: 66 calories; 1 gram protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 5 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 7 mg. cholesterol; 38 mg. sodium.