Seven Tips and Tricks For These Fantastic Cookies

 I posted the link to this recipe on Facebook a couple of weeks ago (if they ask for a login, it's free to sign up or you can go to the Ivory Hut) and apparently inspired EVERYBODY I know to make them.  No joke.  At least ten people have told me that in the time since they first saw this recipe they've made these cookies.  Why not?  I made them sound irresistible... and well, they are irresistible.

I've heard that some people did not have quite as fantastic a time with this recipe as I did.  Some have said that the cookies tasted good but looked weird.  Others have said that they didn't quite get the toffee flavor that comes with the nuttiness of the melted butter.  I'm hoping to address some of those concerns in this blog post.
 

Perhaps they were a little less meticulous.  Maybe the instructions were a little unclear for their taste.  I bake a lot (a LOT) and I very rarely do I actually tweak recipes... at least on the first go 'round.  I do, however, make mental notes about things I would change next time or ways I wish the instructions were clearer.  Part of why I am such a big fan of the Test Kitchen is they tend to be pretty explicit about the way to do things.  When they say to combine sugar and butter until fluffy, there's three pictures that show you what underwhipped, overwhipped, and perfectly whipped look like.  When they says sautee until the vegetables are soft, they tell you it'll take about three minutes.  This friends, is amazing.  Especially when you've never done some of this stuff before and you have no idea how soft is soft enough or how whipped is whipped enough.  I am always second guessing myself and wondering if I've done it right and it's so reassuring when there's pictures or some sort of way to know that I have.

I think that's where some have stumbled with this cookie recipe.  It's where I myself was second guessing myself because some things are just so unfamiliar.  How do you know when the butter is brown enough?  What exactly does nutty smell like?  Is it okay that some of the butter is burning and creating browned bits in my butter?  Do I really need to make them 3 tablespoons big because that sounds ginormous?
 

Here are the answers to your questions and some thoughts to questions you probably didn't think to ask.  To be quite frank, when I was making this recipe I was pretty sure after the butter part that I'd screwed it up because of the dark color of my butter and the little burned bits that had resulted from me trying to get the butter so brown.  But I found that the longer I let it brown, the nuttier it smelled and it wasn't creating a burnt smell, so I just let it go.  Then after I combined the brown sugar in the browned butter I tasted it to make sure it wasn't yucky, or I would've started over.  It tasted delicious and like toffee, so I decided to proceed.  Sometimes experimentation isn't such a bad thing.

Without further ado.  Here are some thoughts that will helpfully put your mind at ease as you hit milestones in the process of making this recipe.

1.  BRING your butter to room temperature or at least let it sit out for a little bit so it's not refrigerator cold or frozen.  This is a standard practice for cookie making, and even though the recipe doesn't say to and you end up melting the butter anyway, I wouldn't abandon it here.  I accidentally melted all of the butter (which didn't ruin the recipe, but next time I will pay closer attention to the instructions) so I didn't have this problem, but a friend mentioned that she was using frozen butter and it took a long time to melt in the hot butter and brought down the temperature of the melted butter so it didn't quite carmelize the sugars when they were added to it.  Because you do want the hot butter to break down the sugars, make sure your reserved 1/4 cup of butter is of an easily meltable temperature when you're adding it to the hot butter.

2.  DON'T be scared of the brownness of the butter or of the little burned bits in the brown butter.  The dark brown nutty goodness of the butter is what lends to the toffee flavor.  Believe me.  The little burned bits will get lost in the brown sugar mixture and your cookies won't look weird.  Mine didn't!

3.  BE GENTLE when you're combining the flour mixture with the liquid mixture.  When you're stirring and resting you want it to be rather vigorous because the process is partially getting the mixture to cool down so it doesn't cook the eggs, and partially getting the eggs and the butter to combine.  When you're combining the flour you want to be gentle in folding in the flour because the gentle touch will put air into the batter which will make your cookies fluffier and less flat/dense.  At least I think that's the purpose.  It's why you do it with cakes, I'm sure it's the same here :)

4.  DON'T skimp on the size of the cookies.  They give you a specific size for a reason.  Any smaller and they won't spread out as much or be as chewy on the inside.  The beauty of these cookies is the crunchy crust and chewy inside.  Don't rob them of that.  I actually bought a #24 size ice cream scoop for the purpose of cookie making and it makes it that much easier.  Seriously, scoop, plop, voila!

5.  DON'T be afraid of slightly underbaking your cookies.  If you cookies tear apart with no gooey in the middle when the come hot out of the oven, they're probably perfectly cooked and will be amazing that first day or two.  However, the gooey in the middle when they're hot is what makes the chewy in the middle hours later when the cookies are no longer warm.  All I'm saying is they'll continue to cook while they're cooling down, so they don't need to look perfect or be perfect when they come out of the oven.

6.  DON'T grease your pan.  It will increase the spreading.  Use the parchment paper to prevent stickage to your pans.  I didn't have parchment paper so I used tin foil.  Still worked like a charm.

7.  DO double the recipe.  So much work and love are put into these cookies and the result is only 16-18 cookies!  Doubling the recipe requires minimal extra work and leaves you with plenty of cookies to share!

So Good You Can't Have Just One

There are few things I feel this way about.  Pringles are one of them.  Cookies usually aren't another.  I love to bake, but I rarely consume more than one serving of whatever I bake.  Ironic, since I normally make large quantities of baked goods (for example, tonight I doubled a recipe)... but it's almost always to share.  I find that I find the most joy in the actual baking process and tasting is just to make sure I'm not giving away something that tastes gross.  This is especially true when it comes to cookies.  I can't resist a single hot-out-of-the-oven-gooey-goodness cookie, but I don't normally want more than just one.  More than that, I normally don't eat raw cookie dough.  It drives me CRAZY when others try to stick their spoons, or even worse, fingers (gross) into my cookie dough and try to eat it and I don't do it myself. 

Except tonight.  There was something irresistible about this cookie dough and the cookies themselves.  Perhaps it was the nutty aroma (how do you even know if it's "nutty"?  I think I know the smell but I'm never sure until someone states that it is) of browned butter (who knew that butter, when browned, would smell nutty).  Perhaps it was the tempting pictures that Ivory Hut posted earlier today.  Maybe it was simply that this recipe was so entirely different from any type of chocolate chip cookie that I've ever made that I just HAD to know what the raw cookie dough tasted like.  FOR SURE it was the sweet carmely taste that resulted from cups of sugar in that hot browned butter that made me eat not one, but two and a half cookies tonight.  And probably about four tomorrow.  Just a guess.  What is was is irrelevant.  What it is is important.  It is AMAZING.  Hands down the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had.  Better than the regular Test Kitchen recipe (which is saying something because I usually swear by TK recipes - although it must be said that this is one too), better than a Specialty's cookie, and not even close to the Tollhouse recipe on the back of the bag.

I wish I had pictures for you, but alas my brother was the one taking pictures and so they are therefore floating around on his computer.  It's okay, the amount of butter I melted this evening would probably deter you from making this recipe... and you NEED to make this recipe.

I don't see the point of typing the entire thing out when I can just link you to Ivory Hut's recipe, which is a wonderfully summarized version of what Cooks Illustrated put together.

Friends, your chocolate chip cookie cravings will never be the same after you've had these.

Registries, oh Registries

I was updating my registry at Crate&Barrel today and I noticed they have a contest going on.

I'm not usually much of a contest-enterer, but for whatever reason I couldn't resist this one.

Sooooo... I hate asking this because I feel slightly awkward and embarrassed doing so, but I would love it if you, dear reader, would vote for T and I so that we can win the Ultimate Wedding contest at Crate&Barrel.  You can vote here: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/31040

Thank you in advance :D

When Life Gives You Lemons

... make lemonade.  Or so the saying goes.  But that's speaking of metaphorical lemons.  What happens when your aunt gives you lemons?  Lots and lots and lots of real, literal, bright yellow lemons from her tree that seems to produce them in abundance?  If you're Christine (me), you start furiously Googling lemon everything.  Lemon cake (Smitten Kitchen has a lemon poppyseed cake that looks divine), lemon cookies, lemon bars, lemon tarts.  You name it, I looked for it.  The only problem was I had tons of lemons and was trying to avoid going to the grocery store to buy supplies.  You see, I have a ton of stuff at home already.  Stuff a plenty for cookies, cakes, and everything in between.  So why is it then that lemony treats require so many extras.  Who has poppy seeds laying around their house?  Who has the time to create a glaze for these cookies?  Not me.  So, being the lazy baker that I sometimes I am, I eliminated recipe after recipe in the search for something delicious that could be made with ingredients I already have.

That, my friends, is how I found it.  A lemon pound cake recipe that will forever be my lemon pound cake recipe.  Are you that kind of person?  The kind of person who finds a recipe they love and then stops searching for others?  I've never been a "grass is greener" kind of girl, so I think I'll call it a day.  Unless you can find me something yummier and easier, this my friends, will be the lemon dessert that beckons me when those 234823 lemons get dropped off at my house by my aunt.

It goes a little something like this...

It's called Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake by Epicurious, except that title is deceiving because I didn't use sour cream at all.  So I'm just shortening the title to Lemon Pound Cake, lest I have to awkwardly call it Plain Whole Fat Yogurt and Lemon Pound Cake.

Start by zesting those lemons.  I normally do this first, because it takes the most work and I like to prep things before I get started, lest I get distracted and forget something.

I think it's kind of random that I chose to use a yellow bowl with the lemons, but it's what I had on hand.  Oh well.  Look at how selflessly those lemons gave me their zest.

 

Then you've got to cut and squeeze those lemons to get out all of their juicy goodness.  I'm telling you, my aunt produces some super lemons.  The zest is super lemony and fragrant and the lemons themselves are FULL of juice.  Next time I get a bunch, I'll share them with you so you can make this recipe too :)

As an aside, this is why I registered for a lemon squeezer.  Because juicing 12-13 lemons by hand = super tired sad hands.

 

This recipe should be called "heart attack with lemon" cake.  This is the two sticks of butter with three cups of sugar.  This is before the six eggs.

I decided to alter the recipe and make little bundts since they are what I had on hand.  Look at my mom's cute little bundt pan, buttered and floured and ready to go.

There is my brother with his Harry Potter glasses, pretending to help.

Filled and ready to jump into a warm oven...

I know you're not supposed to open a hot oven while something's baking (because you easily lose heat in the oven when you open the door, which could mar your baked good), but I saw these through the window and couln't resist.  They rose much more than I thought they would.

All the rising meant the little holes at the bottom were covered.  Oh well, they turned out gorgeously, don't you think?

Perfect for sharing.  Not for eating all by yourself.

And here is the recipe:

Lemon Pound Cake, adapted from Epicurious.com:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs, room temperature
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (I used a little more, just because I wanted to be sure that the lemon flavor came through)
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 cup full fat plain yogurt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Grease mini bundt pan. Dust pan with cake flour; tap out excess flour - I used PAM baking spray with flour.  Worked like a charm and is so much easier and less messy than using butter/shortening and flour.


Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl.

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes (it seems like a long time, but it takes this long for the softened butter and sugar to really come together).

Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition (with so many eggs and such a great potential for shells, I cracked all six eggs into a bowl and then slid them into the mixer one by one, yolk with some white by yolk with some white.  It's not an exact science, but it sure beats trying to dig egg shell out of your batter).

Beat in lemon juice and peel. Using rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in yogurt.  Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes.  Carefully turn cake right side up on rack and cool completely.  (If you're using a full-size bundt pan, the baking time will be considerably longer - more in the range of 1 hour and 30 minutes, like the original recipe says.  Because I was making smaller cakes I cut the baking time to 25 minutes and then checked the cakes every 3 minutes to see how they were coming along.  I found that 30-35 minutes gave a perfectly golden crust and deliciously moist cake).

Enjoy!

They Say You'll Just Know

When you've fallen in love... When the timing is right...  When you've found "the dress."  Is it so wrong to then also believe that I'll just know when I've tasted it - my wedding cake?  I know that in the grand scheme of life it's one of the smaller priorities.  People remember how touching your ceremony was, how the best man made them both laugh and cringe, and the people they saw at your wedding.  They'll even remember how beautiful the bride was when she entered through the church's doors or how misty eyed her groom was when he caught his first glimpse of her.  People rarely remember the food (unless it's bad), much less the cake.  So then, why has it become such an important thing to us?

Because we've built our relationship on cake... or more generally dessert.  On embracing the small sweet moments together over something as simple and delicious as a slice of cake.  I love to bake, and our first non-camp encounter involved us collaborating on dessert - I brought brownies and he brought ice cream.  Our first date found us having dessert not once, but twice.  Cupcakes at Ghirardelli Square and gelato in the Sunset district.  On our second date he promised me cake and when he told the waiter we'd pass on dessert, the "what?!" that slipped out of my mouth was unmistakable.  It's silly but true, our hearts were won through our stomachs.  Well, among other things.

So then, it is important to both of us that the cake that we present to our guests at our wedding is one that we enjoy.  I'm coming to realize that as much as they say the day is about the bride, really it is not.  If it was, she wouldn't be the one planning it.  Certainly I will be the center of attention on my wedding day (whether I like it or not).  All eyes will be on me as I walk down the aisle.  People will ooh and ahh over my dress and I'll feel every bit the bride in it.  But at the end of the day, I am (along with my fiance and our parents) throwing a party for 300+ people.  I want them to enjoy themselves.  To not feel as if they've intruded on one of the most intimate moments of my life, but rather that they've been invited to celebrate in it.  It's every bit about them as it is about me.  They are the ones who have helped us become who we are and encouraged us on the journey to this place.  They will be there to celebrate us, and we will be there to show them our love, affection, and thanks for the years they've walked this road with us... and then to invite them along as we start a new path together.

To that end, I want the very best for my guests.  I've only gone to two tastings so far, but I think T and I have found "the cake(s)."  It's hard to believe, but our first cake tasting was love at first bite.  Make no mistake, we're still going on other cake tasting endeavors (who passes up their one opportunity to try lots of free cake?), but I think we've found "it."  I wont spoil the surprise (even though I'm so in love with these cakes I've already told everybody who's asked about how the tastings went about them), but I will show you the pictures from our first two tastings.

The first one was with Sugar Butter Flour in Sunnyvale.  DEEEELISHous.  Moist, dense, perfectly crumby, flavorful cake.  Just the way I like it.  I don't like my cake too heavy, but I certainly don't like it too light either.  This cake was just right.  Some of the flavors were the kind of flavors that make you think "who in the world gets a wedding cake of that flavor (e.g. banana walnut?!)?" and some made T and I wish there were more than just the small sampling they gave us.  This was hands down my favorite (of the two bakeries) because it was my kind of cake.  And to top it off, they had a sample cake out that was exactly what I want my decorated cake to look like.  Hmm... I think it won't be long before we book with them :)

The second was Satura Cakes in Palo Alto.  The cake tasting experience was less enjoyable for a couple of reasons.  First, I felt really rushed.  We had an appointment and I felt like she sped us through the cakes and asked us a couple of questions without letting us really discuss it amongst ourselves.  Sugar Butter Flour was not that way at all.  The baker let us keep sampling and gave us the chance to dialogue through what we were thinking and what we liked/disliked about certain cakes.  Second, it just wasn't my kind of cake.  Satura is an Asian bakery, so it's Asian cake.  Fresh cream (which is much less sweet than buttercream) and fluffy cake.  Yummy in it's own right, but not my favorite type of cake, much less my dream wedding cake.  Unless T was holding back after our cake tasting, I think it's safe to say that this is probably a dessert place we'll hit for a snack but not for our wedding cake.  Their mango passionfruit cake is just too yummy to not try again :)

Their cake may not have been my favorite, but I was still one happy girl taking home leftovers :)

Sorry this post was kind of spazzy and a mesh of serious with cake.  It seems weird, but that's pretty much my relationship with my fiance in a nutshell.  Spazzy + Serious + Cake

Going to the Chapel...

I'm getting married!  (Okay, so that's kind of old news, it's been just over two months now... but I'm a slow blogger)

More importantly, I'm going cake tasting this weekend!  (Okay, just kidding about the "more importantly."  I do indeed believe getting married is the more important of the two!)

In all seriousness, I'm very excited to go taste cake.  Woohoo!

Cookies Turned Cake

Snickerdoodles are probably among my favorite type of cookies.  They're light, fluffy in the middle with crisp edges, sweet with a slight tang, and cinammony goodness.  It's no wonder they're among the cookies I find myself making most often.  I crave them more often than I do chocolate chip, and that's saying something.  I'm probably a cookie person just as much as I am a cupcake person, so it was a happy day in my heart when I came across the Snickerdoodle cupcake recipe.  Hello merging of two things I love.

These cupcakes don't have the same bite that a snickerdoodle cookie does (I wonder if it's because the chemical reaction of cream and tartar and baking powder would cause my cake to not rise?), but it does have that same delicious cinnamon sugar light cookie flavor.  I baked these for Kim's birthday but sadly she missed our gathering.  Hopefully the ones I sent her way got there and she enjoyed them!

 It's sad.  I always forget to take pictures of half of the process.  Either I take pictures while making the cake and forget to take pictures of the finished product or I forget to take pictures of the process and only have pictures of the finished product.  Either way, go make these scrumptious little cupcakes as a new year's treat :D

Oh well... I topped these bad boys with a little bit of whipped cream.  Frosting just seemed too heavy for their light cinnamon flavor.

Make these.  You'll love them.