The Chocolate Chip Cookie Debates

For a little chocolate chip introduced in 1939, there sure is a lot of activity around it, even after all these years.  And why not?  They are the icon of American cookies.  Over the years, everyone has made their own variation on the recipe and they all proclaim to be the best.  Really.  And truly, is there anything quite like that original recipe and those original chips in the iconic yellow bag?  I'll be the first to admit that I love the Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chips.  They are a little bigger and melt so smooth. And years of experimenting have told me that the milk chips and any addition of butterscotch is a bad idea.  I made a browned butter version for Secret Recipe Club once, as a giant cookie, the picture is below.  It was delicious, but not the "best".  I am always adding whole wheat flour and oatmeal to up the nutrition factor, but they aren't really a Tollhouse.

Back in the 80's, I worked for Procter & Gamble, and sold Crisco.  At one time it was the #1 selling item in the American grocery store.  Hard to believe right?  Especially at a time when obesity was not an epidemic.  I think it represents a time when the American housewife cooked dinner for her family every night.  No super-size fries, no liters of soda, no convenience size everything.  But, I digress.  The Crisco version of chocolate chip cookie produces a very soft and fluffy cookie.  Tasteless, however.  Nothing tastes like real butter.

So over the holiday break, Nic made chocolate chip cookies.  They were so fluffy, and didn't taste like a traditional Tollhouse.  He followed the recipe, and everyone wondered how this happened.  Where were those flat and crispy/chewy cookies?  I have decided that he must have overbeat the dough after adding the eggs.  An easy mistake when you use a stand mixer.  So of course I had to remake them and show him how it's done!

I decided to make Spago's recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  It makes more, has a little higher ratio of brown sugar, more butter, but the chip amount is the same.  Just 12 oz.  That wouldn't work at all.  I just happened to have a small amount of unsweetened chips from Guittard.  Now before you go "eww", let it be known, these chips are amazing.  They have no sugar, but are edible just the way they are.  They taste like CHOCOLATE!  And then I decided to swap out the brown sugar for muscovado sugar at the suggestion of a customer.  That I probably won't do again, it just doesn't taste like brown sugar.  But let me tell you, these cookies were fantastic!  I believe it was the higher ratio of butter to flour, more brown sugar than white, and definitely the addition of the unsweetened chips.  Here's the recipe as I made them:

Chocolate Chip Cookies 
adapted from Spago Chocolate

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup Muscovado sugar (use light brown sugar)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces Giradelli Chips (semisweet or bittersweet)
6 ounces Guittard unsweetened chips

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla and incorporate well.  Add eggs and mix until blended.  Add flour, soda and salt and mix until just combined.  Fold in chips.

Bake at 350 on parchment paper for about 9 minutes.  Move trays around halfway through baking to ensure they are evenly baked.  Cool on rack.  YUM!  So, what are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

The Cobbler's Kids Brownies

You know the saying, "The cobbler's kids have no shoes". He was too busy with his real customers. We all know a good cobbler would do a little bartering and get his kids shoes. Maybe not custom made for them, but shoes, none the less. My family lives this saying. The food blogger mom, who makes hundreds of cookies, but is sometimes too tired to cook real food, or, gasp, has no sweets in the house for them. What? No rejects? Not one cookie in the freezer, (which holds hundreds), can be given to a sugar craving family member? Well, no. Get over it. I have a million cookbooks, bake something. I admit, I usually have a box of Duncan Hines on hand for these types of melt downs, but I was unarmed when Mr. Sad Face started rummaging (that chaos in the pantry is my order!), looking for brownie mix. I diverted his man-handling my numerous types of flour, by agreeing to bake him brownies.

If there was a Duncan Hines lurking in the pantry, anyone in my family would just bake them up. I usually do a little doctoring, adding sour cream, chocolate chips, nuts whatever is on hand. But I had no easy mix today. So naturally, when I grabbed the box of Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Wafers, I knew I would never actually follow their recipe on the back of the box. If I baked the Guittard brownie recipe with orange zest, cranberries and almonds, I would be a happy baker. My family would feel betrayed. There are a few things I am not allowed to "fancy up". There are links to some of my favorite ingredients that you may not be familiar with, things I like to use and write about. So here's what I did.

Cobbler's Brownies (adapted from E. Guittard)
1 1# box E. Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Wafers
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup buttermilk
4 large eggs, room temperature
1⅓ cups sugar
1 Tablespoon Trablit
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla paste
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup pecans (I love Landgraf Pecans from Oklahoma)

Preheat oven to 325° (I set to 315° because I use convection). Spray a 9X13 pan.
Heat chocolate, butter and buttermilk in double boiler until melted and well mixed. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Add vanilla paste, Trablit and salt. Mix and add melted chocolate and mix thoroughly. Add the flour and mix until combined. Mix in pecans and put into prepared pan and bake about 25-30 minutes. The top will be shiny with a thin crust on it. The soft center will solidify as it cools. Whatever you do, do not over bake these. What a waste of a pound of chocolate that would be! Cool a good 2 hours before cutting. They are delicious cold!You can look at it this way. The cobbler uses only the finest materials (ingredients) for his paying customers to maintain his high standards. So when he breaks down and makes those shoes for his kids(brownies in my case) he uses those top-shelf ingredients. Just so they know, they may feel like they are not the number one priority, but in fact they are the reason for everything we do, including just breathing. So, what are you waiting for? Get in there and bake.

Ooh La La...Bouchons!

Wow. It's so hot, it sizzles. Articles in the Times, both LA and NY, responsible friends sending them to me asking, "Can YOU Bouchon?" I explore our own food section every week and had never come across the bouchon, it had to be on the wire, why not in our paper? Maybe it wasn't Southern, wasn't fried, required special equipment, whatever, but I know lots of people who would love to eat these, and a few may possibly go to the effort of baking them from scratch. And then at Williams Sonoma, the mix. Horrors. I know the mix is good, it is Williams Sonoma for Pete's sake. But the question was, could I, possibly bouchon?
Bouchon is French for cork, and the finished cake should resemble one. It is the brainchild of Thomas Keller, the genius behind French Laundry in the California Wine Country. Bouchon is the name of the bakery and he started it primarily to bake bread for his restaurants. I guess one day he decided he needed a signature bouchon dessert. I'm guessing, but it would make a sweet story. These little cork cakes are pretty hard to describe in writing, but have quickly turned legendary.
First the molds. We sell a silicone mold at the store that bakes 12 at a time, but Lori, the sweet sis she is, sent me the recipe from the LA Times and bought me the real French molds at Sur La Table.
The fluted are by far prettier, but proved to be unworthy. More on that later. They are really called timbale molds and are about 3 oz.
The recipe from the LA Times is pretty easy and straightforward. The batter can be made and then chilled if you can't bake all the "corks" at one time. But beware, one taste of that batter and Whoa! it is killer. I used my bittersweet Guittard chocolate, (only about 6 pounds to go), and of course Pernigotti Cocoa. I also used some aged vanilla from Nielsen Massey that was a gift from a friend. 10 year old vanilla is wonderful and more fragrant than you can imagine. After I mixed up the batter, I divided it between 2 disposable pastry bags.
The theory was that each bag would have to fill 6 timbales. The recipe said to butter and flour the molds, but I decided to spray them with Bak-klene. It is great stuff and washes off with soapy water. I baked them at 350 convection for about 22 minutes. They smelled fabulous and were super shiny on top. A few had cooked over and formed a sort of crust. I cooled them as directed, and the basic ones slid right out and looked oh, so cork like. The fluted, well, not so successful in the release, and you can't really see the design with that dark chocolate. Next time, 2 batches of 6 with the solid molds. A dusting of powdered sugar, and wow! I CAN bouchon, they look just like Keller's. So, now YOU bouchon, get in there and cook!

Adapted from Bouchon by Thomas Keller

3/4 cup (3 1/2 ounces) flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, melted and just slightly warm

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, such as 55% Valrhona, chopped into pieces the size of chocolate chips

Butter and flour for the timbale molds

Powdered sugar

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.

2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the eggs and sugar on medium speed until thick and pale in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.

3. With the mixer on low speed, add about one-third of the dry ingredients, then one-third of the butter, and continue alternating with the remaining flour and butter. Add the chocolate and continue to mix to combine. (The batter can be made up to this point and refrigerated, covered, for up to one day.)

4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 12 timbale molds. Set aside.

5. Put the timbale molds on a baking sheet. Place the batter in a pastry bag without a tip, or with a large plain tip, and fill each mold about two-thirds full. Bake the bouchons until the tops are shiny and set (like a brownie), and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out moist but clean (there may be some melted chocolate from the chopped chocolate), 20 to 25 minutes.

6. Transfer the bouchons to a cooling rack. After a couple of minutes, invert the molds and let the bouchons cool in the molds. Remove the molds and serve, or store until needed (the bouchons are best eaten the day they are baked).

7. To serve, invert the bouchons and dust them with powdered sugar. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Each of 12 servings: 453 calories; 5 grams protein; 46 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 30 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 113 mg. cholesterol; 116 mg. sodium.

Okay...I KNOW...pretend you didn't read it. 453 calories. YIKES! Are they worth it? Well, yes. The Williams Sonoma mix is about half the calories, but honestly, just not as rich as the real thing.