Cookie Madness

We’re spending the holiday with family in CT and let me tell you, getting from the New York airport to Fairfield County last night wasn’t easy. See, traffic was a little backed up due to weather.

I don’t want to re-hash the experience, but hats off to Tri-State Area drivers. I don’t know how you do it.

Anyway, we made it safely to our first hotel and have spent a lovely day with the family. We even went to Stew Leonard’s which was about as relaxing as that traffic from last night, but hey - it’s a holiday and everyone here is grilling and enjoying the (finally) good weather.  Have a July 4!

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Our favorite TV shows are between seasons, so Todd & I took drastic measures and bought Showtime. We watched a whole season of Tudors, cried when it was done, then turned to Nurse Jackie and Dexter which are both very good. Still, I miss Wisteria Lane and am looking forward to the new season of Desperate Housewives. My favorite houswife is Bree, but I like Gaby too. This cookie isn’t from Gaby, but rather Eva Longoria who likes to cook and last I heard, was opening a restaurant in L.A.. I really don’t know anything about that, but this cookie caught my eye because it calls for soaked anise seeds and cinnamon sticks. Sounds interesting.

Eva Longoria’s pan de polvo

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Years ago, my next door neighbor Lacey bought feather boas, white gloves and plastic jewelry so she could play tea party with her nieces who visit every summer. This past week her sweet niece, Lauren came to town and she and Fuzz have become fast friends. Lacey’s threw the girls a tea party. As a contribution, I made a batch of these. They’re rich, but won’t soil the white gloves.

White Chip Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

1 stick (4 oz/114 grams) cool butter, cut up (I used cold butter)
1/2 cup (110 grams) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (96 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) salt
3/4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup white chocolate chips (or more!)
1/2 cup macadamia nuts – lightly salted
2/3 cup dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using high speed of a stand mixer paddle or a hand-held electric mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy and smooth. Beat in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat for a full 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat for about 30 seconds. Beat in the vanilla.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture, followed by the oats, white chips, nuts and cherries. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies appear set – these don’t get very brown. Remove from sheet and cool on a rack.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

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I read somewhere that Thomas Keller likes Progresso Lentil Soup. I’m not sure it’s true and I’m betting they don’t serve it at The French Laundry, but whenever I heat up a bowl of Progresso lentil soup I tell everyone I’m making a Thomas Keller dish. See, based on the skill level required for The French Laundry cookbook, canned lentil soup might be as close as I get. Or so I thought until today when I read about “Ad Hoc at Home”. It’s TK’s newest book and it’s geared for home cooks. It even has a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and yes, I’ve already tried it even though I don’t have the new book.  Thanks “Foodgal” for posting the Thomas Keller Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

This recipe looks interesting on paper It calls for dark brown sugar, two kinds of chocolate and starts with cold butter which usually gives cookies rounded edges and a great texture. Also, it lacks vanilla. I’ve heard people say that leaving out the vanilla gives the cookies a “purer” flavor. Hmmmm. Maybe. I loves me some vanilla, but I left it out and followed the recipe as written.

The dough was very stiff, but the cookies still baked up kind of flat and the chocolate (Green & Black’s 70%) melted into big pools. I like how easily good chocolate melts when I’m using it in brownies and I love Green & Black’s, but I don’t like when it puddles up in chocolate chunk cookies. I also wonder if maybe the butterfat content of the chocolate played a part in the cookie’s lack of thickness. To test, I made a cookie with chocolate chips and no G&B and it did come out slightly thicker.

Another thing I tried was throwing more flour into the remaining dough. Thinking I’d err on the side of too much flour just for experiment’s sake, I add more to the remaining dough. The cookies with the extra flour were slightly thicker and better, so I think TK must use around140 grams per cup rather than 135 grams per cup. Then again, I don’t know. But next time I’d scoop the flour and pack it a tiny bit more than I did or I’d weigh a good 140 grams per cup.

Either way, the cookies are really good and I’m looking forward to buying the book. Oh, and finding molasses sugar! I’d never even heard of that until today. I thought brown sugar was molasses sugar but there’s another one.

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I met a new friend on Twitter the other day — AJ from The Disney Food Blog. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Disney Food Blog and was *very* happy to see this. If you are a Disney fan, it’s definitely worth a bookmark.

The Disney Food Blog

Also, if you happen to be traveling to Disney between June 23 and August 28, you need to know about the Wishes Dessert Party.

Not that anyone asked, but my favorite restaurant is California Grill followed closely by the Japanese hibachi place in Epcot. Someday we’re going to try Victoria & Albert’s, but we’ve been saying that for the past 10 years.

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