Tag Archives: baking

Cooking

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The world loves its chocolate chip cookies, and that makes them immensely difficult to bake. By buying from bakeries built on the backbones of their basics, we consume so many magnificent cookies. Our palates and preferences become particular. Prickly. 

Consider the precise chemical nature of baking. This is why, more than any other baked good, you can find endless variations of CC cookies with fractional ingredients and precise timings. People recommend specific brands of ingredients, and bakeries sometimes get their chocolate chips custom made specifically for their cookies.

I’ve read lots of articles about the science of chocolate chip cookies, like by the Times/Jacques Torres and Serious Eats/Kenji Lopez-Alt and NPR, but I just started with  the Times’s recipe. It’s good. My roommate has snapchats to prove it.

This is the smallest batch that I can bake as it calls for one large egg (I can’t switch egg sizes lest it ruin my other recipes). All ingredients were from Trader Joe’s except for Domino’s sugar and Diamond Crystal salt.

 

Edit 5/25/20 visit here my lengthy presentation, which includes an updated recipe. Edit: 5/15/18 another version, this time from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of the Food Lab. Edit 2/16/18 I am now better at making aesthetically more pleasing cookies, and this is now the only cookie recipe I make. Ignore the rest.

Kenji Chocolate Chip Cookies

Redacted. These are the cookies that I exclusively make now, but please find my current recipe here. I wrote more about cookies, sorry!

NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Cream 1.25 stick room-temp butter, 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar until very light.
  • Add 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix well.
  • Add 1.75 cup AP flour, 5/8 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp kosher salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in 1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate disks.
  • Spoon into ~18 golf-sized balls. Cover with plastic, refrigerate for 24-72 hours. No less.
  • Place onto parchment-lined baking tray. Sprinkle lightly with flaked sea salt.
  • Bake at 350 F for 17-20 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes, until it solidifies enough to eat warm.

By the way, this makes new recipe #52 for the year. Primary mission accomplished!!

Edit 5/27 yet another cookie, this time inspired by the massive scone-like cookies that Levain Bakery on West 74th sells. Recipe from modernhoney.com. Not for the faint of heart.

Levain-like Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Beat 1 stick butter, cold and cut into cubes (scone-style), into 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
  • Add 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla and mix fairly well.
  • Combine 1.5 cups AP flour (or sub half with cake flour), 1/2 tsp cornstarch, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda. Add. Mix until almost combined.
  • Add 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup walnut quarters/pieces.
  • Divide into 6 giant balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more.
  • Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, until light brown. Don’t overbake. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Edit 6/4: working off this recipe, although the Nutella did not melt as expected. I think I was using an old jar where the top half with disproportionate palm oil had already been scooped off. Still yummy though.

Nutella-stuffed CC Cookies.

  • Beforehand, spoon out ~16 1 tsp dollops of refrigerated Nutella onto a sheet. Freeze.
  • Brown 1 stick butter by swirling constantly over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add 1 tbsp cold water. Chill in fridge for about 20 minutes.
  • Cream 1 egg, 3/8 cup sugar, 3/4 tsp vanilla until very light.
  • Add cooled brown butter and 3/8 cup dark brown sugar. Mix to just combine.
  • Combine 1 cup + 2 tbsp AP flour, 3/8 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, then add. Mix until almost combined.
  • Mix in 1 cup chocolate chips until just combined. Refrigerate for 2-72 hours.
  • Spoon out about 1.5 tbsp dough. Roll into a ball. Flatten very thinly. Wrap around frozen nutella balls. Make sure nutella is not protruding. Gently flatten, edges of dough up, with palm onto cookie sheet. Chill again if needed.
  • Bake at 350 F until edges are golden brown, about 10 to 13 minutes. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Let cool.
Cooking

Milk Bread

This is akin to the bread you find in Chinese bakeries. They’re often stuffed with fillings such as custard, red bean, or cha siu, or topped with crusts to make those Hong Kong style pineapple buns (foreshadowing!!!) but as this is my second time ever working with yeast, I’m starting small with just plain loaves.

Recipe from thewoksoflife.com, as always.

Milk Bread

  • Combine 2/3 cup heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 egg, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 cup AP flour, 3+ cups bread flour, 1 tbsp yeast (1 packet), 1.5 tsp salt. Knead for like 20 minutes.
  • Proof for 1 hour, until grows 1.5x. (cover bowl with damp towel, place in warm spot)
  • Punch down, knead a little to rid of air bubbles.
  • Divide into 8-12 rolls/knots. Place into greased pans. (e.g. 3 rolls in a 9×5 pan, 5 knots scattered in a 9×13 pan).
  • Proof for 1 hour.
  • Brush with egg wash: 1 egg, 1 tsp water.
  • Bake at 35 F for 23-25 minutes, until golden brown.
  • Brush with syrup: 1 tsp sugar in ~1 tsp hot water.
Cooking

Challah

First time baking with yeast? Obviously, the best first bread to bake is a Jewish ceremonial braided egg bread. It’s so strange to leave a small lump of dough in a sealed bowl, come back two hours later, and find it’s warm and grown to double the size. It’s alive!!

attack of the challah dough

I’ve also never really braided anything. Well, unless you count sutures, lol.

Informed by many recipes and braiding videos around the internet, prominently thekitchn.com. 

 

Challah

  • 1 packet (2.5 tsp) yeast, sprinkle over 1 cup lukewarm water and pinch sugar. Let stand until frothy.
  • Combine 4.5 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar (or honey), 2 tsp salt.
  • In a well in center, add 2 eggs, 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup neutral oil (or 1/2 stick butter), activated yeast. Mix until shaggy.
  • Take out, knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary (ended up using ~1/2 cup more flour)
  • Place in oiled bowl, cover, place somewhere warm, let rise for 2 hours to double size.
  • Cut into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each into 1-inch thick ropes.
  • Pinch together at top. Cross outer strands, start with top one. Braid: Take outside strand and bring it to middle, then bring second strand on opposite side to outside to replace it. Mirror process on other side. Repeat until end. Pinch ends and tuck under loaf. Plump loaf.
  • Place on parchment on baking sheet. Sprinkle with flour, cover with cloth. Let rise for 1 hour.
  • Brush with most of the egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp water.
  • Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. Rotate pan halfway through, brush emerging crevices with egg . Bake until deeply browned and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Cool until warm.