Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Who the hell am I, to show up after four years and to post again?

A lazy bum, that's who, but hey, when you make a new cookie and actually remember to take a photo of it, blog you must.

There is a baking competition at work, and I also wanted to pass some cookies along to a group I work with, so I said "let's try these out." I had them bookmarked from the Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2014 issue, and it has been a while since I actually baked a new cookie. (by the way, did you read Christopher Kimball is leaving ATK/CI? They've filmed the upcoming season, but it's like I'm losing one of my favorite parts of my weekend. I hope the company can keep it up after he's gone.)

(Life Pro Tip: Check your local library's online offerings. My local library offers a lot of great magazines available for free through the Zinio app. I can read Food Network, Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart Living, Bon Appetit and Saveur. I promptly ended by Bon Appetit sub when it was added.)

I made the first batch a little large - I can't measure to save my life - so for Christmas, I would like a #30 cookie scoop.  Using a tablespoon to scoop a dough that's kind of sticky is not easy. I also took one picture and no glamour shots.

My notes about this recipe:
1. it tastes like a brownie in cookie form.
2. it is so rich.
3. literally, it's my brownie recipe in cookie form.
4. wearing gloves when forming the balls help.
5. I really like powdered sugar and really doused the balls in them.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Yields 22, or if you're like me and terrible at measurements, 11 huge cookies and 7 normal sized ones.
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's, that's what I have on hand.)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I use Ghiradelli's, because I'm from California)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup powdered sugar 

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  I personally didn't do this until the 10 minute resting part, to try to keep my kitchen from turning into a sauna.

2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Combine the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Combine the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a small bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 3 minutes. (it only took me about 2 minutes. Chop the chocolate into really small bits to accelerate the melting process.)

4. Whisk the chocolate/butter mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Fold in the flour mixture until no dry streaks remain. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.

5. Place the granulated sugar and powdered sugar in separate shallow bowls. Working with 2 tablespoons dough (or a medium cookie scoop) at a time, roll into balls. Drop dough balls into granulated sugar and roll to coat. Transfer dough balls to powdered sugar and roll to coat evenly. Evenly space the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets.  CI recommends 11 cookies per sheet, in rows of 4-3-4.  I didn't dome the cookies - I slightly flattened them, because I do that.

6. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cool completely on the sheet before serving.

The cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If they last.

Dried Cranberry-White Chocolate-Oatmeal Cookies.

The holidays may be coming to an end, but that doesn't mean holiday related baking has to - just make these cookies!  I found the recipe on a forum I frequent, and I had to make them right away when I saw how well they baked up.

Using Crisco instead of butter is always a concern to me - I love butter - but this came out great in that the cookies didn't spread.  Butter is fine, just be aware the cookies may spread a little more than in my pictured ones.

These are great "Santa" cookies also, if you want to plan ahead for next year.  The recipe is very similar to many oatmeal raisin cookies, if you don't have Craisins on hand.

Lotsa Cookies

Dried Cranberry-White Chocolate-Oatmeal Cookies
Yields about 30-36 cookies, depending on how big of a cookie you like.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2.5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup Crisco (shortening)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, use 1 teaspoon of vinegar in a 1/3 cup measure, and then fill to top with milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1.5 cups dried cranberries (Craisins) (I bought one bag with six smaller single serving bags, which came out to approximately 1.5 cups)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips (Ghiradelli recommended!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.

1.  In one mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda.

2.  In a second bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and shortening.  Cream until fluffy.

3.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.

4.  Gradually add in flour mixture.

5.  Stir in oats, craisins, and white chocolate.

6.  Place golf ball sized portions of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment.  Flatten slightly.

7.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Leave on sheets to cool for about 5 minutes, then move to racks to finish cooling.

 

All lined up in perfect little rows...

Enjoy your last taste of the holidays.

 

So thick and dense, but so good.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I confess.  I don't really like chocolate chip cookies.

They're usually too sweet, the chocolate doesn't taste very good, they wind up rock hard the next day, name it, I'll find an excuse.

However, this is probably the recipe I make an exception, although I still limit my intake since there's only so much chocolate I can handle at one time.  I love how soft the cookies remain, even after three to four days.  The ingredients are so simple, and the recipe is so easy.

My final musing:  use Ghiradelli chocolate chips.  They do not harden like a certain yellow bag after a few days - they stay deliciously soft.  They also taste so much better than the yellow bag.

My absolute final musing:  I'm not sure how I messed up the recipe this time - I think the butter may have been too soft.  My cookies spread a lot more than I expected.  At first I thought maybe it was my butter (I used Trader Joe's) but I doubt the water content of the TJ's butter is that different from Safeway butter.

My utterly final final musing:  You can edit the sugar to 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar but I like the "deeper" taste of more brown sugar.

My James Brown style finale musing: I used eggs from Clover Stornetta Farms, which is a great "local" farm.  I'm really starting to get into more organic, local, sustainable vegetables, fruit and dairy.  Next, I would like to get their butter.  Support your local, family owned dairy farm.  I like to pretend my Ghiradelli chocolate chips are made in CA, but at least they are headquartered here.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Martha Stewart
Yield:  about 3 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda, set aside.

3.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter with both sugars, beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.

4.  Reduce speed to low.  Add salt, vanilla, and eggs.  Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute.  Add flour mixture, mix until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

5.  Drop by the heaping tablespoon onto baking sheets.  Bake until brown around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool on the baking sheets 1-2 minutes (I let them sit for about five.)  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

6.  Store in an airtight container between layers of parchment for up to one week.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a confession to make.

I'm not a big fan of chocolate chip cookies.  Actually, chocolate in general.  Most of the time, it's too sweet and I can only handle so much sweet at a time.  Ideally I like my sweet to be balanced with something else, which may be why I like Reese's Pieces so much.  Or I'm just weird.

I do love baking any kind of cookie out there though, and I do have a go-to chocolate chip recipe - Martha Stewart's Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from her Cookie book.  A deliciously simple recipe that stayed soft and perfect for days after.  I didn't think any recipe could top that one.

Well America's Test Kitchen just had to go and up the ante, didn't they.  Last season they featured an improved chocolate chip cookie recipe that took the flavor up a notch from their previous cookie recipe - browned butter.

Browned butter cookies, cooling on a rack.

Browning butter infuses more flavor into the cookie, giving it a nutty, almost toffee like flavor.  Mmm flavor.  But the first time I browned the butter, I kept it on the stove too long, trying to get the butter as deep brown as possible, and I burned the butter.  Woe is me.  The second time around, I was extremely vigilant about the browning, and took it off the stove earlier.  Also, please use a 10 inch skillet.  I couldn't find a 10 inch skillet (or I was too lazy to clean one) in my stainless steel pan collection, so I used an 8 inch skillet.  It took longer to brown the butter.

You must use a stainless steel or other light colored pan to brown the butter.  Nonstick pans tend to be dark, so you won't see the butter browning, but you definitely will smell it... when it's burned.

Also, do NOT skip the rest/whisk part of the recipe!  It really thickens up the butter/sugar/egg mixture, and it is so unique compared to any other cookie recipe I've ever baked.

Gorgeous cookies.

The verdict?  Mr. Unoriginal Chef liked the different taste, but he couldn't give me an answer as to which one was better.  My testers at work couldn't give me a definitive answer other than "OMNOMNOM COOKIE." I liked the flavor, liked how the cookie remained soft the next day, and liked that I worked with melted butter instead of creaming butter (one less appliance to clean!)  It's really a toss up between which recipe I would use as my go-to recipe, but this one is definitely a contender.

Find out for yourself.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies from America's Test Kitchen, Season 10.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (10 ounces in a 12 ounce bag, roughly)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted. (optional) 

Directions:
1.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Make sure the rack is in the middle.  Line a baking sheet with parchment.

2.  Whisk together baking soda and flour, set aside.

3.  Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat until melted, about 2 minutes.  Continue cooking, swirling the pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 1 to 3 minutes.  It will burn VERY quickly, so watch closely!

4.  Remove skillet from heat and transfer butter to a heatproof bowl.  (My Pyrex bowl worked fine.)  Stir the remaining four tablespoons of butter into the hot butter and stir until melted.

5.  Add brown and granulated sugar, salt and vanilla to the butter.  (I highly advise measuring out the sugar before hand if possible.)  Whisk until fully incorporated.

6.  Add egg and egg yolk to the mixture.  Whisk mixture until smooth and no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds.  Let the mixture stand for three minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds.  Repeat the stand and whisk procedure twice.  The mixture will be thick, smooth, and shiny.

7.  Add the flour to the mixture and stir to combine, about one minute.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using and stir to incorporate and make sure there are no flour pockets (check the bottom!)

8.  ATK recommends making 3 tablespoon sized cookies, or use a #24 cookie scoop.  I used a tablespoon to scoop and formed it with my fingers.

9.  Bake cookies one tray at a time for 9-10 minutes (smaller cookies) or 10 to 14 minutes (larger cookies.)  Halfway through, rotate the cookie sheet.  Cookies are done when they are golden brown and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft.

10.  Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack to cool, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.  (I had to do this, I needed the baking sheet to make another batch!)

Cookies cooling on the sheet... reflecting on their existence in another pot.

ATK's recipe says to cool completely before serving, but I love warm, out of the oven cookies.  I may have yoinked a cookie off this sheet after it cooled to the touch.

Almond Cookies

Ahhh almond cookies.  My memories of almond cookies come from a pink box from the Golden Phoenix Bakery (I think that's what they're called... don't quote me.  It's a pink box!) that were always such a delicious, crumbly treat. 

A food blog I follow daily is Food Gal by Carolyn Jung, who used to be the Food Writer at the SJ Mercury News.  She posted a recipe the other day for New Years - a roasted chicken with soy and whiskey.  I usually do not cook with alcohol, but as I salivated over her roast chicken picture, I noticed a link to almond cookie recipes.

AWESOME!

I had a New Year's event coming up with a group I joined at work and we were to bring desserts.  Awesomer!  I could bring these cookies!

When I first glanced at the recipe, I was terrified of the word "shortening."  I hated the idea of having to buy another type of "fat" to make a batch of cookies.  Unlike beautiful butter, I can't use it in other recipes easily, or spread it on toast in a pinch.  However, after reading the results of the two types of cookies, I went with the shortening recipe since it achieved the type of cookie I wanted - fluffy.

Ok fine, not fluffy.  I'm not a perfect baker.

The cookies didn't zoom me back to my childhood - no crazy preservatives - but the taste was consistent with a great crumble.  There's something about almond extract that has that lingering aftertaste... but everyone at the event LOVED the cookies, so I think they may make a return appearance in the future.

I was initally concerned that this recipe didn't contain salt, but it wasn't needed.  The almond extract seriously takes care of everything.

Almond Cookies from Food Gal, from Blonder and Low's "Every Grain of Rice"

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening (or lard) (ew)  You can purchase shortening in packs of three sticks, which is definitely preferable if you don't use shortening often.  You can use the other sticks in pie dough ... or to make these cookies again.
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract (it's VERY strong!)
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 36 blanched almonds

Directions:

1.  Blanch your almonds!  Unless you purchase blanched almonds, almonds come with their skin still on (which is probably where most of the fiber of the almond comes from.)  I use Blue Diamond all natural almonds, as nothing is added to them - preferable for baking.  To blanch, boil water in a pot.  When the water comes to a boil, throw the almonds in and let it boil for 1 minute, and no more than 1 minute, 30 seconds.  (Anything longer than this, and the almond starts to cook.)  Remove from the heat and drain.  Rinse with cold water immediately! 

The almond should look shriveled.  You can easily peel the skin away, or pinch in one corner and the almond will pop right out, although it's very likely the almond will pop out across your kitchen, under your fridge.  Not like I have any experience...

Blot dry with paper towels once you remove the skin, and allow to rest on the paper towels.

2.  Preheat your oven to 375.

3.  In your mixer, cream together shortening and sugar until fluffy.  The nice thing about shortening is you don't have to bring it to room temperature, so you can start working with it right away.

4.  Add the egg, minus one tablespoon.  You will use this egg later as an egg wash on the cookies.

5.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts.  Mix until well combined.

6.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Add to the creamed mixture in no more than three additions and stir until just mixed together.  The dough will seem crumbly but when you squeeze it together, it holds up.

7.  Form 32-36 one inch diameter balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment.  Press one blanched almond into the middle of the ball, and brush with the reserved egg. 

Awaiting a trip to the oven...

8.  Bake 12-15 minutes (I did it for 13 minutes.)  I always let my cookies cool on the sheet first and then I remove it to a rack after five minutes to cool.

My cookie still wound up flat - I have no idea why - but they were still delicious beyond belief.  And gobbled up quickly.