July's Cookie of the Month: Big Soft Chocolate Cookies

For awhile now I've been itching to make a straightforward chocolate cookie out of The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book. But my primary independent taste tester is way into chocolate chips. This month. . . no chips!


Unlike last month's Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies, a book called The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book is probably required by law to contain a recipe for Big Soft Chocolate Cookies. [BTW, check the comments to last month's post for the book's author's explanation for why he included Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies in the book . . . totally valid, and I kinda wish he explained it in the preamble to the recipe because I love that sort of insight into people's thought processes.]

These cookies were indeed soft and chocolate, as discussed more thoroughly below. But the directions say to just use a rounded tablespoonful. My cookies didn't spread much. So as originally written the recipe does not actually yield big cookies. They were certainly not big enough to make into ice cream sandwiches as recommended in the variations section at the end of the recipe (make perfect discs of ice cream by using a serrated knife to slice up a pint of ice cream in its container then just peal off the container bits . . . genius!). So I made a set of four cookies with double the amount of dough. One appears on the left in the picture above. It is just about the same diameter as a pint of ice cream. Perfect! Do take note that the recipe as written only yields about 20 cookies at the tablespoon size, which my baking confirmed. So if you're going to make BIG, soft, chocolate cookies you'll probably only get ten or fewer . . . only enough for five ice cream sandwiches.

Size aside, the flavor of these cookies was kinda muted, but that might be just my perception as I'm used to having big chunks of solid chocolate in my cookies. On the up side, they would be perfect with other stuff - like made into sandwich cookies of ice cream or peanut butter or pretty much anything, or in a bowl with some raspberry sorbet. Or maybe even add different flavored chips to them . . . like peanut butter or white chocolate or butterscotch. The chocolate is at a good level for pairing with other flavors without bowling them over. Of course my aforementioned independent taste tester said, "You know what these need? Chocolate chips." Argh!

But the softness is beyond compare. Such amazing texture. Not chewy. Not crumbly. Evenly soft from edges to center. Well, I haven't tested the supersized cookies yet, which will probably be a little softer in the middle than the edges . . . but they seem consistent to the touch. I'll update after the Great Ice Cream Sandwich experiment happens. These cookies have the best consistency of any cookie ever. If I could figure out how to translate that softness to every cookie I make, this whole experiment in making a cookie a month from this book will be SO worth it. Well, I get to eat cookies every month, and I discovered a new delectable way to use up frozen bananas, OK, it's already been worth it. But it will be even more worth it.

A tip on the procedure. After adding the melted chocolate to the dough, be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl. Even though everything was at the prescribed temperatures and my kitchen was pretty warm, I got a ring of hardened chocolate around my bowl about an inch below where the dough reached up the side of the bowl. If I hadn't compulsively scraped down the sides, I wouldn't have seen it. It took a little bit of elbow grease to scrape the chocolate back into the dough, but it darkened the dough noticeably, so it's totally worth the effort.

Big Soft Chocolate Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  
• 2 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 t baking soda
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 6 T unsalted butter, cool, cut into small pieces
  
• 1/4 C solid vegetable shortening
  
• 1 C packed dark brown sugar
  
• 1 large egg, room temperature
  
• 1 t vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 C milk (regular or low-fat, but not nonfat)
  

Procedure

1. Position the rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat; set aside

2. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl that fits quite snugly over a medium saucepan with about 1 inch of simmering water in it. Stir with a heat-safe rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until half the chocolate is melted, then remove the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

3. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Beat the butter and shortening in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, until softened and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar; continue beating at medium speed until pale brown, thick, but still somewhat grainy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then pour in the chocolate all at once and beat until smooth, about 1 minute at medium speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. Stir in half the prepared flour mixture just until you can see no white streaks in the batter. Stir in the milk until moderately smooth, then stir in the remainder of the flour just until uniform--there may still be small lumps in the soft, wet batter.

6. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls (or heaping two tablespoonfuls) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 8 minutes. Cookies will have rounded, bumpy tops. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and press the cookies lightly with a heat-safe spatula or a large serving spoon, flattening them a tad to create smoother, rounded tops. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cool the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
June's Cookie of the Month: Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Swaddle Fail

 

We lost power for 26 hours. It only ended up getting up to 81 degrees so we all did alright, but are very happy to have power back. We temporarily moved Dexter's sleeping quarters downstairs where it was a bit cooler. Dexter still seems like he was hot, though.

Furrday: Post-Vet Snuggle

Tuesday Augie and Izzy went to the vet for their annual check up. Augie is not a big fan.
So Augie demanded a snuggle session with the perpetrator of this atrocity: David.


Shake it off.

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CSA Basket 9

This week's basket contained Kale, Chard, Radishes, Green Beans, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Ambrosia Melon, Valencia Oranges, Carrots, Grapefruit, Avocado, Apricots, Peaches, Pluots and Grapes.

From Martha Rose Shulman's roundup of dishes using summer squash, I made a vat o' Sauteed Summer Squash With Red Pepper and Onion. My independent taste tester gave it high marks. I plan to use the leftovers to make Summer Squash Gratin.

I again used my KitchenAid FVSFGA Fruit/Vegetable Strainer and Food Grinder for Stand Mixers to strain roasted winter squash for baby food. All of this week's peaches, carrots, green beans, and some summer squash are meeting the same fate. I've got to come up with something else to do with the winter squash because I have about a month's worth of it frozen for baby food and if she eats any more she might turn orange due to excess vitamin A.

I made my last pie from the last basket's nectarines, peaches, and pluots. I tried grinding the tapioca with a mortar and pestle to no avail. Other than the spheres of unground tapioca it was fine. Certainly better than the cherry pie. But I'm totally over pie. Instead, I'm going to make a variation of Tomato, Zucchini, and Leek Galette with Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, which is arguably a rustic vegetable pie, but I'm not arguing.

For those of you who have not already heard me gush about it to no end, I did indeed milk a cow a week ago Tuesday night.
This is Guinevere. She lives at Amy's Farm. My friend Bridget owns 1/14th of her, which means she gets to milk her on Tuesday nights. This sort of system is called a cow share, which can either be a very convoluted way to evade the laws against selling raw milk or a way for someone to have a pet cow without the 24/7 commitment and a farm. I did take my turn milking Guinevere briefly, for which Bridget rewarded me with a half gallon of milk. Having just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, I am now thoroughly inspired to move on to cheeses that require rennet and possibly canning tomatoes. If you've run out of ideas for what to do with all of your summer squash, they've collected all the recipes from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in one convenient website. I am contemplating their Eggs in a Nest and Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies.

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CSA Basket 8

This weeks basket contained Chard, Tomato, Kale, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Green Beans, Nectarines, Peaches, Pluots, Lettuce, Carrots, Grapefruit, Valencia, Grapes, Cilantro, Lemons, and Cucumbers.


Any thoughts on what to do with grapefruit if you're not into eating it plain?

I used my brand new KitchenAid FVSFGA Fruit/Vegetable Strainer and Food Grinder for Stand Mixers to strain roasted winter squash for baby food. I've been pondering Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. The exciting part of the book is the recipes for toddlers, but the advice for first foods and making baby food at home is handy. And I feel like the best granola crunchy mom ever for serving my wee bairn local, organic food from my CSA basket. Between that and the cloth diapering, I feel totally justified leaving the air conditioning on more than strictly necessary . . . not really, I feel totally guilty about using electricity.

Anyway, from last weeks' summer squash I made Fettuccine with Zucchini which I had clipped from the Pairings column in the New York Times about a year ago for Mom, who was up to her ears in zucchini at the time. I never managed to send her the recipe, but it sure did come in handy. Using handmade fettuccine from Trader Joe's was the key. Of course, my better half would have preferred a big slab of chicken on top, which would have gone very nicely with it, but it wasn't necessary. This week I'm contemplating the options presented in Martha Rose Shulman's roundup of dishes using summer squash.

Thankfully, the cherry supply seems to have dried up. My third incarnation of cherry pie, as contemplated in my last CSA post, was the worst yet: medicinal flavored cherry filling, the liquid portion of which somehow seeped between the bottom crust and the pan to create a tough layer of burned fruit leather. But the top crust, which I got from Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman, (along with my new favorite phrase, "pate sucre") was a great success. So with this week's peaches and nectarines I shall again make a pie. Stay tuned for the outcome.

I did make a paneer of sorts from the raw milk Bridget brought. Just heated the milk for awhile, added some red wine vinegar, and strained it through a dish cloth overnight. Great on my morning bagel. Next week I'm planning to tag along while Bridget milks her cow. I'll try to take pictures.

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Grilled chicken

 

This is the chicken I grilled this week. I brined it in tequila, water, sugar, salt, lime juice, cumin, coriander, and mint (adapted from the "Cumin, Coriander, and Lime Brine" from Mastering the Grill: the Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim), then put on a rub (Meathead's "Memphis Dust") before grilling it on indirect heat for about half an hour, then direct heat for another ten minutes (fifteen for the drumsticks) until they got up to temp (170 deg F). In the last four minutes or so, I brushed on some lime honey-butter (adapted from the "Orange Honey-Butter Sauce", also from Mastering the Grill).

That probably sounds like a lot for grilled chicken. But first, it's not as bad as it might sound (I already had the rub, and putting the brine and sauce together are super easy), and second, look at that chicken! It was moist, flavorful, and whether you flavor it or not, I think the butter at the end really gave it a nice color and texture.

CSA Basket 7

Wednesday we received our 7th CSA basket, the first of the summer quarter. In it were Tomatoes, Chard, Turnips, Kale, Beans, Lettuce, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Radishes, Cucumbers, Dill, Grapefruit, Basil, Carrots, Apricots, Peaches, Cherries, and Pickling Cucumbers.

Following Mark Bittman's advice in his article 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling, I peeled the carrots, rolled them in some brown sugar, cumin, salt, and pepper and threw them on the grill alongside the turnips and radishes which I brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and skewered. All were fantastic! If I could through chard on the grill, I would.

Two weeks ago and this week I made pie from the stone fruits. My first round of pies followed the New York Times recipe for Twice-Baked Sour Cherry Pie. Well, mostly. I found organic pie crusts in the frozen section at Henry's, so the bottom crusts were store bought, but I followed the recipe for the top crust and the filling. Well, I substituted vodka for water in the crust recipe, which made it super crunchy awesome. Other than that I totally followed the recipe.

I made a cherry version and a peach and nectarine version that first round. The peach/nectarine tasted great. The crust on both was great. But the cherry filling just did not taste right to me. But my tapioca did not grind no matter how long I left it churning in the Cuisinart, so there were little spheres of tapioca in the filling. So for the second round I switch to corn starch instead of tapioca. No spheres. But the filling didn't really firm up like I'd prefer. And the cherry filling just didn't taste right to me again.

I have some cherry filling left over. I heard a bit on The Splendid Table today about jam that inspired me to try doctoring the cherry pie filling with a vanilla bean and vodka. I bought some Ketel One vodka at Trader Joe's strictly for vanilla extract production and pie crust making, so I've got plenty to spare for cherry pie doctoration.

P.S. Along with my CSA basket, Bridget brought me a quart of raw milk from her cow share. I'm going to try making paneer, which was also discussed on The Splendid Table today.

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CSA - Start of Summer

 

I got my first tomato this week! Also, (not pictured) there was eggplant. I selected a lot of kale as well. I wanted more kale chips for my incessant snacking needs and more peanut sauce kale. I used up the last of my canned tomatoes from last summer to make a eggplant/tomato/olive pasta sauce.

 

There was also radicchio this week and it was awesome. It's not as red and hard as store bought, but it had a nice bitterness and was perfect for our purposes. We had a salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, pecans and dried cranberries. Yummy.

 

The berries this week were outstanding. The extreme heat is good for something - the berries are sweet. I bought some peaches this week and some apricots last week - I don't know if they will have enough for the CSA share so I didn't want to miss out.

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About Victorian Genre Literature

Who can resist an era in which first aid for any trouble begins with a
shout of, "Brandy! For God's sake, bring her some brandy!"

"All the Dead are Vampires," by Michael Sims for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Flock of Sheep Follow Up

 

What to do with the 10 leftove egg yolks that resulted from making the sheep? I searched the web for yolk recipes and decided to make lemon curd and yellow cake.

 

I put the curd between the layers of the cake and then frosted the cake with buttercream icing. It turned out awesome. The cake was really flavorful and moist. The directions for the cake were different from what I'm used to. Most cakes I've made are the cream butter/sugar and then beat eggs and then stir in the dry ingredients alternating with dairy. This one has you mix all the dry ingredients together and beat in the butter. Then you add the eggs, and finally, the milk. I was concerned, but it came turned out great.

As a side note, between Bob's stomach bug and my dislike of the frosting on the sheep cupcakes, we actually ended up throwing some away because they were finally too stale for even Bob to eat once he was feeling better.

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CSA Basket 6

This week we received Beets, Chard, Cilantro, Basil, Cucumbers, Assorted Squash, Celery, Green Beans, Lettuce, Dill, Carrots, Cherries, Nectarines, Peaches, Grapefruit, Valencia Oranges, Minneola Oranges, and Kale.

June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes

As noted last month, I have not previously made a cupcake from the decorating centric section of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. This coincided nicely with our visit to fellow blogger Rebecca, a.k.a. The Cake Decoratrix Extraordinaire. But I went for cute over complicated in choosing Flock of Sheep Cupcakes for June's Cupcake of the Month.

The instructions for making the Flock of Sheep call for 12 White Cupcakes. The recipe for White Cupcakes yields 24, but if you halve the recipe it results in some unpretty quantities of ingredients. So we made a flock of 24.
Like last month, this cupcake calls for Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but unlike last month, no probably-destabilizing-strawberry-puree is involved, so it's much easier and less stressful. The above picture shows how thinly I frosted the cupcakes before applying additional decoration. If you make the full recipe of Swiss Meringue Buttercream, you'll have plenty for 24 cupcakes, so you should frost them more generously than this.
The instructions for making the sheep shapes are pretty vague. Rebecca did quite a few test runs before we settled on a head shape, which was not so much pear shaped as a puffy L lying on its back, or maybe a Smurf's boot. After all the sheep were decorated we had a flock off and declared the above pictured cupcake Top Sheep.

Our panel of independent taste testers universally approved of the cake portion of the cupcake. The cake was light, somewhere between a spongecake and angel food cake. The hassle of folding egg whites into the batter was deemed well worth it. Generally, the marshmallows were not a big hit. The big complaint was that the texture of the marshmallows takes away from the delicate texture of the cake and frosting. The Swiss Meringue Buttercream was sweeter than the Strawberry version thereof, but was still not sweet enough for some of our tasters (and they're way over six years old this time).

The Decoratrix thought it was interesting that Martha Stewart's Cupcakes generally relies on Swiss Meringue Buttercream for piping decorations as most cake decorators use a simple buttercream consisting of a two to one ratio of confectioner's sugar to unsalted butter (or vegetable shortening). While she appreciated the fact that the Swiss Meringue Buttercream does not harden, or "crust up," in the pastry bag, she found that it didn't take color nearly as well. The color seemed somewhat grainy. Also it took almost half a container of Wilton Gel Food Color to turn 1/4 cup Swiss Meringue Buttercream a very dark gray. Who knows how much it would have required to make a true black (though The Decoratrix insists that if you're really going for black, you would make a chocolate frosting, and tint that black . . . neat trick). We suspect Martha receives a kickback from Wilton to promote Swiss Meringue Buttercream as the frosting medium of choice as it would increase their food color sales considerably.

In addition to the great Martha Stewart/Wilton kickback controversy, the other negative to using Swiss Meringue Buttercream as your primary cake decorating medium, according to The Decoratrix, is that you can't control the consistency. With The Decoratrix's simple buttercream you can make it thinner for actually icing the cake so you don't tear up the cake surface. Then you can make a thicker batch for piping. Also, you don't need to have any eggs on hand to make The Decoratrix's frosting and it doesn't require heating or whisking, making it much more convenient to go from plain cake to masterpiece.

Flock of Sheep Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients:

• 12 White Cupcakes (see recipe below)
  
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream (see recipe below)
  
• Pink and black gel-paste food colors
  
• 2 cups (about 4 oz.) miniature marshmallows, each cut in half

Procedure:
1. Using gel-paste food colors, tint 1/4 cup buttercream pale pink and 1/4 cup black. Transfer tinted buttercream to pastry bags fitted with only couplers. Using an offset spatula, spread each cupcake with a smooth layer of untinted buttercream. Transfer remaining untinted buttercream to a pastry bag fitted with only a coupler.

2. Starting in the center of each cupcake, pipe a pear-shaped head with untinted buttercream, increasing pressure as you pull back. Switch to a small V-leaf tip (#352), and pipe ears. Pipe black eyes and a pale-pink nose and mouth using a fine plain tip (#1).

3. Place 3 marshmallow pieces on each sheep head, cut sides down. Working from the base of the head out, continue to cover each cupcake with halved marshmallows, cut sides down. Refrigerate 30 minutes to allow frosting to set. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 4 hours in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

White Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 C cake flour
  
• 1 1/2 T baking powder
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 1 T pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 C plus 2 T milk
  
• 1/2 C plus 6 T unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 1 3/4 C sugar
  
• 5 egg whites, room temperature
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir vanilla into milk.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until just combined after each.

3. In another bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (do not overmix). Fold one third of the egg whites into batter to lighten. Gently fold remaining whites in two batches.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Firmly tap the tins once on countertop to release any air bubbles. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream very loosely adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
  
• 1 C plus 2 T sugar
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 2 C (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoons, just barely room temperature
  
• 1 1/2 t pure vanilla extract
  

Procedure
1. Combine egg whites, sugar, and salt in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the bowl. Cook, whisking constantly by hand, until the mixture reaches 180 degrees and sugar has dissolved (the mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingertips).

2. Transfer the sugar/egg white mixture to the room-temperature bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl). The mixture should have doubled in volume and become thick and shiny. This might take about 10 minutes.

3. With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter 1/2 tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all of the butter has been added, slowly increase the mixer's speed every 10 seconds until you reach a medium-high speed. At this point, your frosting may appear to be a curdly soup (mine didn't, but I think that's due to waiting until the bowl was cool to the touch AND not taking my chopped up butter out of the fridge until sometime during step 2). Do not abandon hope. Continue whipping on medium-high speed. It should return to a lovely mayonnaise-like consistency. Once all butter has been thoroughly incorporated, whisk in vanilla.

4. Scrape down sides of bowl with a flexible spatula and switch to the paddle attachment. Continue beating on low speed until all air bubbles are eliminated, about 2 minutes. Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes

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June's Cookie of the Month: Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

This month's cookie was actually made in collaboration with all of this blog's authors as Gnomicon West traveled to Gnomicon East for, among other things, a baking fest. I asked Rebecca whether she had any preferences for which cookie recipe to bring, as flying with two cook books seemed excessive. Her only parameter: that it contain chocolate. That poses no challenge for The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book. I looked for a recipe that was simple, so we overwhelmed new parents could swing all this baking between feedings and diaper changes. More on how that worked out below the jump.

The preamble to the recipe very helpfully suggested buying a strong-flavored honey like wildflower, pine tree, oak tree, acacia, chestnut, or star thistle. Rebecca tracked down thistle honey at her local organic grocery store. It was light colored and very sweet. You could certainly smell the honey as these cookies baked.

Now, I thought I'd picked a very new-parent-friendly recipe, but I failed to note the instruction to allow the dough to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. At exactly the thirty minute mark both babies woke up and our intrepid new-mom bakers had to snap into action. So our dough rested for more like two hours. Must be nice to be that well-rested.

Like the Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies the original recipe instructs the baker to do some fussy stuff during the baking, which is more of a hassle for new moms than dough rest times. I'm not convinced the extra steps in either recipe make a significant difference, or at least a difference sufficient to outweigh the hassle. To test this theory, Rebecca followed the instruction to flatten the cookies with the back of a flatware spoon three quarters of the way through baking for one batch and then did not for the next batch. The only difference seemed to be that the flattened cookies looked messier as the chocolate chips got squished. In the pictures are two of each and I can hardly tell which are which. The instruction does say, "especially if they've begun to puff up." We noticed no puffing or spreading of any kind. Maybe due to the awesomeness of Rebecca's convection oven? Hard to say.

These cookies were closest in texture to the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. Significantly, they both lack eggs. Also, the honey flavor of the Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies was as subtle as that of the banana flavor of the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies and the butterscotch of the Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies. All three were made with Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips, which are awesome, but may overwhelm the more subtle background flavors. With that in mind, Rebecca modified the recipe by using only 1 1/2 cups of the Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips rather than the 3 cups of the original. I think you would not have tasted the honey at all if you used 3 cups.

We had a hard time trying to figure out why one would choose this recipe over the others. Despite its lack of eggs it's not vegan due to the butter and, well, more crucially, the honey. I suppose if you were one of those people who thought refined sugar was the devil's work, then honey is a nice substitute. Or if you just happen to find yourself jonesing for cookies but your pantry lacks eggs and sugar, this recipe could be your next fix. If you're looking for a recipe to make with kids or pregnant women with no danger of salmonella poisoning from raw eggs in the dough this recipe or the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies would do. Children under 1 year old aren't supposed to eat honey due to the risk of botulism, so that weighs in favor of the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. In the end we settled on the unsatisfying conclusion that Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough included this recipe because they had to fill a whole book with recipes for chocolate cookies and that's a lot of recipes. The verdict of the four taste testers who had all had the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies previously was in favor of the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies over the Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies. The verdict of the wise sage/taste tester who had not had the Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies previously was, "Better than no cookies at all."

Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1 C rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
  
• 1/2 t baking soda
  
• 1/2 t salt
  
• 1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  
• 1/2 C honey
  
• 1 t vanilla extract
  
• 1 1/2 C Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips
  

Procedure

1. Whisk the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until uniform.

2. Soften the butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, about 1 minute. Add the honey and vanilla; continue beating until thick and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the prepared flour mixture and beat at low speed just until a wet, soft dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate chips. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degrees (300 if you've got a rockin' convection oven).

4. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto two large, baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 1 inch apart. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and somewhat firm to the touch. Cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Cool the baking sheets for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Unifying Theory of the Slip into Truthiness

I know a post about something other than food and babies almost seems off topic for this blog these days, but I was listening to my local NPR station the other day and heard an interview with the authors of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. If you only have a few minutes, the interview is excellent. I haven't read the book, but plan to as soon as it comes to my local library or is released for the Kindle.

Meanwhile, I've downloaded the following books to my Kindle for our impending trip.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee, also found via an interview with Pat Morrison on KPCC.

Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs by Ellen Galinsky, with whom I thought I heard an interview on NPR, but actually I read about her over at this post on the Motherlode blog at the New York Times. Ahh, this post does have something to do with babies afterall. Satisfyingly topical, yes no?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, with whom I'm sure I heard a radio interview that I just cannot find because I was taken by her accent and her humility in the face of a successful book by a white woman about black women. And the sample was VERY compelling. Of course, the black woman who is the main character of the opening of the book is a nanny, so this is also on topic.

Also on topic, but not on my Kindle, are the following "real" books that I recently purchased and am working my way through:

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. I started this in Bloomington, Indiana, but there are not enough renewals available at the public library to get through this 896 page brick of awesomeness. I believe I checked it out after Alton Brown's book sung its praises.

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman.

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.

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CSA Basket 5

In this weeks basket we received assorted Lettuce, Avocado, Beets, Apples, Broccoli, Strawberries, Blood Oranges, Radish, Cucumber, Cherries, Apricots, Minneolas, Grapefruit, Basil, Sweet Pea Flowers, and Swiss Chard.

Due to impending vacation the vast majority of this produce went to our dog sitter extraordinaire. But I did whip up another Spicy Orange Salad, Moroccan Style with blood oranges and Minneolas, which make fine substitutes for the navel oranges recommended in the recipe, unlike grapefruit and/or Meyer lemon as lamented previously. We've made quite a bit of this Spicy Orange Salad recently to go with a very simplified version of Mark Bittman's Chickpea Tagine With Chicken and Apricots. The simplification: ignore all the directions, and instead throw ingredients into a crock pot and set it on low for about six hours. If you're a crock pot cooker, ahem Eartha, it's worth a try, especially served with the super quick orange salad and a bit of pita.

Bob does barbecue

I don't have cool pictures (barbecued meat is not nearly as photogenic as fresh produce or cookies.) But Sunday, I cooked up a six-pound pork shoulder (also amusingly known as pork butt).

And of course, after 10 hours of slow cooking (and letting it rest about half an hour), there's only one thing to do with a pork butt: shred it with your bare hands. There is no better way to feel like a caveman who provides succulent deliciousness to his family.

If, for some reason, you crave more details, they're at this link:
I pretty much followed Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's scheme - I've got a 3-burner gas grill, so I turned on one burner, and put soaked applewood chunks and hickory chips over it. I put the pork butt on the other end of the grill, and just let it go for 10 hours. I threw more wood on every half hour for the first 4 hours, and every hour after that.

I'd like a grill thermometer I had more confidence in (the cheap oven thermometer next to the meat showed about 50 degrees less than the one in the grill top), but the meat thermometer worked just like it should -- creeped up steadily, stalled for a little at 150, and then hit 190 at about 10 hours. At which point the bone was falling out and a fork turned easily.

Then it was time for my beastman impression. RAHR!

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May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was hoping to try something a little more off the beaten path this month, but my aforementioned monkey demanded something "normal" with chocolate chips.

The Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies are very, very normal. In fact, I could barely taste the butterscotch in them at all. My independent taste tester said the dough reminded him of the NYTCCCs' caramel flavor dough, which results from the long resting period. Another factor in the subtlety of the butterscotch flavor might have been that I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips. Had I used a basic Nestle Tollhouse chip or even a milk chocolate chip, I might be able to taste more of the butterscotch. Me, I prefer to be bowled over by my butterscotch, the way straight butterscotch chips taste. For what it's worth, the butterscotch flavor of the dough was more evident the next day.

According to the previously lauded handy little icon in the top corner of the recipe, the Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies are intended to be crunchy to hard. My independent taste tester said these cookies are his ideal texture - crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. So nowhere near hard. Which is cool with me, because I'm not a fan of hard cookies. The handy little icon also gives cakey as an option and I think I'd almost use that to describe my results here. But I'm wondering whether I did something wrong. Other indicia of wrongness include the following. The recipe says,

Flatten each ball slightly with your fingers just until the sides begin to crack.

I got no cracking. Just mushing. It goes on to say,

Use an oven mitt or a hot pad to hold on to the baking sheet, then give it two or three hard raps against the oven rack to make the cookies fall. Bake for about 1 more minute, or until the cookies are flat and crackly, but somewhat soft to the touch.

I did not notice any falling when I rapped my cookies and I would not describe my cookies as "flat and crackly." Undercooked? My oven thermometer always seems to register on the cool side of 350 - like closer to 300. Low humidity? I do live in the chaparral of Orange County. Oven and environment aside, could not allowing the butterscotch/butter mixture cool for 5 whole minutes cause softness?

There's a helpful note at the end of the recipe in the book that says something about not freaking out if your butterscotch/butter mixture turns to a big oily mess prior to the addition of the eggs as the eggs will help it all emulsify back together. This TOTALLY happened to me. It kinda gave me flashbacks to my Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream nightmare. But the eggs and continued beating on medium resolved the problem nicely.

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 C plus 2 T all-purpose flour
  
• 1 t baking soda
  
• 1 t salt
  
• 8 T (1 stick) cool, unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
  
• 11 oz. butterscotch chips
  
• 3/4 C packed light brown sugar
  
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 1 t vanilla extract
  
• 3 C semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
  

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together, set aside.

2. Place the butter pieces with the butterscotch chips in a large bowl; microwave on high for 20 seconds, stir well, then continue heating on high in 15 second increments until about three-quarters melted. Remove the bowl from the microwave and continue stirring until completely melted. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes. If the oil separates out of the melted butterscotch chips, all is not lost. The eggs added later will re-emulsify it as they're beaten in.

3. Beat the brown sugar into the melted butterscotch mixture, using and electric mixer at medium speed for about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first is fully incorporated before adding the second. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the vanilla until smooth. Turn off the mixer, add the flour mixture, then beat at low speed until just soft, crumbly pieces of dough form, not until the mixture gathers into a ball. The dough will be quite thick and oily. Finally beat in the chocolate chips at low speed, just until incorporated.

4. Roll by tablespoonfuls into 1 inch balls; place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly with your fingers just until the sides begin to crack.

5. Bake for 12 minutes. Use an oven mitt or a hot pad to hold on to the baking sheet, then give it two or three hard raps against the oven rack to make the cookies fall. Bake for about 1 more minute, or until the cookies are flat and crackly, but somewhat soft to the touch. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Cool the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

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