Tag: Butter

Flip-flopping Brown Sugar Cookies

February 22, 2012February 2, 2017

The other night, it was late, and Jonah and I decided on a whim to make some cookies. We figured we’d just make something we’d already made before, so we got out the recipe for the nutmeg maple butter cookies because they were so good. After we started creaming the butter and sugar for half the recipe (we didn’t want that many cookies) we realized “OH NO these cookies are supposed to refrigerate for 2 hours!” At this point it was already about 10:30 and we were not up for that. So we pulled up another recipe that I’d been looking at: Brown Sugar Cookies from Joy the Baker. So what were once nutmeg maple butter cookies became brown sugar cookies, with 1/2 cup of brown sugar replaced by granulated sugar. Jonah said we should call them flip-flopping cookies (he also inserted the name of a certain GOP candidate, but I’m not about to start getting political on my blog). Oh well. You can’t win them all. The cookies were still good. Not amazing, but a good solid cookie. The little bits of ground ginger and cinnamon add a nice touch. I’m going to give you the correct recipe instead of our version.

Brown Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Instructions

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. While that’s happening, combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger – in another bowl, mix thoroughly, and set aside. When the butter and sugar are nice and creamy, add the egg and vanilla and mix them in well. Now add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix on a low speed until it’s well combined. Now the recipe says to cover and refrigerate for half an hour. We didn’t do that. Maybe we should have. Whatever.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (while you’re “refrigerating your dough”… ha). Grease your cookie sheet or line with parchment paper, and drop the cookie dough by the Tablespoon onto the sheet. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until they’re just starting to brown around the edges. Take them out of the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes on the hot cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.

Thomas Keller’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 2, 2012February 1, 2017

You know how everyone is always on the hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie? When I was younger, our family friend Anita was known for making the best chocolate chip cookies around. Whenever we went over to her house we (my sisters and I) were excited because we knew we would get those delicious cookies. Despite staying close to her family, I do not have her cookie recipe… Odd.

Anyway, the other day I felt like baking (strange, huh?) and Jonah requested classic chocolate chip. I wanted to do a variation, like those thyme and sea salt chocolate chunk cookies I made a while back. But after having no luck finding anything before heading to the store, I remembered Thomas Keller having a recipe for chocolate chip cookies in the Ad Hoc cookbook. I figured, “Hey, that guy kind of knows what he’s doing,” so I pulled out the recipe and went to the store.

I will tell you now that these are possibly the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had (besides Anita’s). You know the great debate: Crunchy or chewy? These are perfectly both. They are crispy on the edges (thanks to our old friend, butter) and chewy and soft in the middle. Oh my goodness. And they spread out when they bake, so they’re pretty big, which makes you feel like you’re really getting a good portion of cookie when you eat one. And if one seems large enough to be satisfying, you would think it’d be easier to not eat like 10 of them. But it’s not. You just get more full.

Side note: Jonah bought me these wonderful baking sheets for Christmas. The brand is Chicago Metallic; they came in a package with two pans and a cooling rack. These pans need no liner or greasing. Nothing EVER sticks to them (knock on wood). They are heavy duty with a wire around the edge so they don’t warp, and industrial-kitchen sized. I love them. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for new pans.

Thomas Keller’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups plus 1 Tbl all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (think 55%), cut into chip sized pieces (about 1 1/4 cups)
5 oz. dark chocolate (think 70-72%), cut into chip sized pieces (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 sticks cold unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar (preferably dark)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or just grease them a little bit).

Ok, sorry. Now, sift the flour and baking soda into a medium bowl, and stir in the salt. Usually if a recipe says to sift flour, I ignore it, but I had a lot of time on my hands, and hey, I’m not gonna ignore Thomas Keller. I would say that it made a difference. Put the chips of chocolate you’ve cut in a fine mesh basket strainer to get out all the “chocolate dust.”

Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat half of the butter (1 stick that has been cut up into small pieces) until it’s smooth and creamy. Now add the sugars and the rest of the butter (also cut into small pieces) and beat until well combined and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between them. Be sure during all of this to be scraping down the sides of the bowl to get everything well-incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients and mix them in.

Thoroughly fold in the chocolate chips. It’s a little tricky because the dough is really thick, but stick with it, it’s worth it. You wouldn’t want those cookies from the bottom of the bowl to not have any chocolate in them, would you? No. No you would not. At this point you can wrap the dough up and refrigerate it for up to 5 days or freeze it for 2 weeks. But I just don’t understand, you’ve gotten this far, why would you not just make the damn cookies at this point?

If you’re continuing on, take about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll into a ball, and place it on the cookie sheet. You only want to put about 8 on a sheet because these suckers need their space. They spread out for real. Leave 2 inches between each ball of dough. Bake for 12 minutes, turning the cookie sheet halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the pan for a couple minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way (if you can wait that long). Enjoy with a glass of cold milk.

Dad’s Cheesecake

January 10, 2012January 31, 2017

This past Friday was Jonah’s birthday. A while back he told me that he really likes cheesecake, and I immediately thought of my dad’s insanely delicious cheesecake recipe. He has made this cheesecake for some big events over the years (I seem to remember him making like 7 for my older sister’s bat mitzvah). I swear it is the creamiest cheesecake I’ve ever had. I had never made it myself before, so I was a little nervous. I just wanted to do everything right!

Also, you should know that in our family, this recipe is pretty top secret. When I told my dad I was putting it on the blog, he may have been a little hesitant. He said “No! We have to make people beg for it! Pine after it!” So the fact that I’m just giving it to you for free is a sign of how much I love you. And that it’s so good that I want to share it with the world. It’s so good that if everyone ate it, it may bring us world peace.

Cheesecake

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust

1 7/8 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tbl sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling and Assembly

2 ½ pounds cream cheese
1 ½ cups sugar
2 Tbl flour
1/8 tsp salt
5 whole eggs + 2 extra egg yolks
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Graham Cracker Crust

Ok, let’s start with the crust. I just picked up a box of graham cracker crumbs and got the recipe off the side of the box. In my family we like a bit of a thicker crust, so I multiplied the recipe by 1.5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar and crumbs in a bowl, add the melted butter. Mix in the butter thoroughly. Pack the mixture into a spring form pan, pressing firmly into the bottom and up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes, and allow to cool before filling.

Cheesecake Filling and Assembly

Once the crust is out of the oven, turn up the heat to 475 degrees. Have the cheese at room temperature. Beat it in an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Now add in the sugar, flour, salt, and the 5 eggs, one at a time. Beat in the egg yolks, cream, and vanilla until very smooth.

Pour the cheese mixture into the spring form pan slowly. Bake in a preheated 475 oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 225 and bake 1 hour longer. Turn off the heat, crack open the oven door and let cake settle in oven for 15 minutes (or longer… I did probably about 30 minutes just because I was running around doing other stuff). When you crack the oven open, run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake, between the crust and pan, so that when you remove the sides of the spring form it’s easier.

Remove from the oven and cool for at least 4 hours before removing sides of spring form. It’s best to put it in the fridge so it can really settle. If you’re going to leave it overnight (like I did), be sure to cover it so it doesn’t get dried out or anything like that. The crust crumbled a lot when serving, but it’s all good because this stuff is so delicious that no one will care. It’s moist and creamy and very rich. Bon appetit!

Revisiting Pie Dough

January 8, 2012January 31, 2017

I know I’ve already posted my pie dough recipe, but I recently made another batch and took more pictures. I thought this might be helpful for first-timers so they have a better idea of what each stage looks like. Hopefully this is helpful!

Pie Dough

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening (I like to use vegetable, Crisco)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3-5 Tbl ice water

Instructions

In a food processor, combine flour and salt. Then add shortening all at once, but in pieces, pulse. Do the same with the butter (cut it into pieces, add, and pulse). After pulsing in the butter and shortening, your mixture should have the appearance of rough sand. Drizzle the ice water, 2 tablespoons at a time, over the mixture and pulse. Stop adding water when your dough comes together in the processor and looks something like this. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a large ball. Cut it in half. The less you handle the dough in these next couple steps, the better. Less handling means more flakiness. Gently form each chunk of dough into a disc, about 1 inch thick (roughly, it doesn’t really matter). Wrap the discs in saran wrap (or wax paper) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

After the dough has been refrigerated, you can remove it and roll it out. Like I said before, I like to roll it out on the saran wrap it was wrapped in so that I can use that to help flip it into the pie dish. As you can see, this recipe makes enough dough for one covered pie or two uncovered pies. Enjoy!