The Best Chocolate-Chip Cookies

After our last trip to the Napa Valley, I went on a cookbook-buying spree and purchased several Thomas Keller volumes. I am lucky enough to have dined at The French Laundry and at Bouchon and was so excited to learn something from the master who had spawned those restaurants. Though I've not yet eaten at Ad Hoc, Keller's family-style restaurant in Yountville, the idea of it intrigued me enough to also buy Ad Hoc at Home: Family-Style Recipes. 



What I appreciate and respect so much about Thomas Keller in all of his books is that he explains everything precisely in the ideal way it should be done. He doesn't include notes about how to take shortcuts. He doesn't suggest that you can create any of the dishes in any of these books in 30 minutes or less. He is saying, if you want to take the time to cook right, I'll tell you how to do it. And he has faith that you can if you just try. Which I love and respect, even as I look at some of the sections of his instructions, and think, yeah, right, I can't/won't do that part. While I've only begun to delve into actually cooking with the three books of his I own, I have loved reading through them all and learning from them.

So when I came across the Ad Hoc recipe for chocolate-chip cookies, which he, Thomas Keller, calls "arguably the best cookie ever," I thought, these must be worth a try. 

And I'm so glad I tried them. These cookies are as close to perfect as I've ever had. Chocolate-chip cookies are so common that they mean a million different things to a million different people. I don't know when I last bothered to make any. These are perfectly chewy in the middle and inside, and just a little crispy around the edges. They are completely addicting and delicious. There are several things about them that stood out to me as different from the norm in a chocolate-chip-cookie recipe, which, collectively, I can only assume make all the difference.

First, he calls for cold butter cut into small pieces. I have always, in any recipe for chocolate-chip cookies, or for any cookies for that matter, used softened butter, and have chided myself when my butter didn't seem properly soft enough but I trudged ahead with the cookie making anyway. I have not looked up the science of this (don't tell my husband), but I think the cold butter may be partly responsible for the beautiful texture and body of the finished cookies. Keller has you beat half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth, then add the sugars and the rest of the butter and beat until it's all well combined. And it works just great. I've made one other variety of cookie since first trying this recipe and I used the same cold-diced-butter technique and I think it paid off.

Second, it calls for one whole teaspoon of salt. That strikes me as more than most recipes. I can taste the difference. You need some salt with your chocolate chips for this most ordinary of sweets to be its most divine. And with seasoning, as with everything else, he is all about doing it exactly right.  

Third, he calls for two different chocolates, "one sweeter, one with a more complex bittersweet balance." Okay, sure. Although that wouldn't stop me from making these if I only had one kind of chocolate on hand. But also in regard to the chocolate, he has you chop the chocolate into chip-sized pieces (rather than simply using ready-made "chips"), which just feels like a special touch. It's nice having some especially large chocolate chunks to come across in your cookies, and not having them all be predictably uniform. Keller also directs you to sift the chocolate after you chop it to "remove any tiny fragments to give the cookies a cleaner look." I have skipped this step each time I've made these because I couldn't be bothered to be that fussy and I don't mind my cookies a little "unclean" due to some extra chocolate dust. 

Lastly, he taught me that cookies are done when they are no longer shiny. I find this such a useful tidbit and don't know how I hadn't come across it until now. Rather than having my cookies be underdone or overdone, I can cook them pretty perfectly by just checking on this shininess factor after they've had their approximate time in the oven. Very useful. 

Chocolate-Chip Cookies
from Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller

2 1/3 C plus 1 T flour
3/4 t baking soda
1 t kosher salt
10 oz. chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces (Keller recommends 5 oz. 55% chocolate and 5 oz. 70-72% to have one sweeter chocolate and one with "more complex bittersweet balance. I used half Baker's bittersweet and half Baker's semi-sweet.)
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 C packed dark brown sugar
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth. Add both sugars and remaining butter, and beat until well combined, then beat for a few minutes, until mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is incorporated before adding the next, and scraping the bowl as needed. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the chocolate.

Dough or shaped cookies can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Freeze shaped cookies on baking sheets until firm, then transfer to freezer containers. (Defrost frozen cookies overnight in the refrigerator before baking.)

Using about 2 tablespoons per cookie, shape dough into balls. Arrange 8 cookies on each pan, leaving about 2 inches between them. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, rotating pan halfway through baking.

Cool cookies on pans for about 2 minutes to firm up a bit, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Repeat to bake remaining cookies. Makes about 30 3-inch cookies.

Morano Gelato

I first had gelato as an adult. How I lived that long without knowing the pleasures of this stuff, I don't know. When we went to Italy four years ago, we sampled lots of authentic gelato multiple times a day to sustain us in the Italian summer heat, the best we found being in Rome.



We are now lucky enough to have a truly stellar gelateria right here in Hanover, New Hampshire. On Morano Gelato's web site and in the store is the following information about what gelato is: "Gelato is Italian ice cream...dense, smooth, creamy, and flavorful...Gelato is much lower in butterfat than American ice cream. Gelato is denser than American ice cream. Gelato is served at a warmer temperature than American ice cream." The lower butterfat has the result that instead of having the fat coat your tongue as in ice cream, you truly taste the flavor of the gelato even more than you taste the same flavor in ice cream. The warmer temperature contributes to a more intense taste as well. So raspberry gelato tastes like raspberries; mango gelato tastes like mangoes; grapefruit gelato tastes like grapefruit; dark chocolate gelato has an unadulterated, intense chocolate flavor.

We first had Upper-Valley-native Morgan Morano's gelato in the fall of 2010 when she was selling a few flavors all by herself from a cart in the back corner of Rosey Jekes coffee shop (a favorite local cafe that has since closed). The next thing we knew-- the following spring-- she had upgraded to a skinny, attractive store-front space just a couple of doors north of the Nugget Movie Theatre on Main Street. It was a delight to see the crowd milling about, waiting in line and eating their gelato out on the sidewalk any time you went through town. In the past year, she has expanded her gelato shop once again into the adjoining space and at least tripled the size, now with more seating. She also has framed large photographs of the gelato-making process displayed on the wall of the new space for our enlightenment, from chopping the chocolate and squeezing the lemons through to the presentation you see in the case.

The owner learned to make gelato in Italy and she makes it every day on site. If you go when they open at 11:30 (and I won't say how many times we've waited for them to unlock the door at 11:30), she doesn't have every single flavor upstairs in the case yet because she is still making it, just like the traditional gelato shops in Italy. Also, if you go near closing, they have sold out of some flavors and you have fewer options. No complaints, though; I've never had a flavor I haven't absolutely loved. The flavors are based on the season, and unlike so many restaurants these days that say they "use local ingredients whenever possible" or some similar phrase that sounds good but really means nothing, she really does create her authentic, small batches of gelato using seasonal flavors and local ingredients as much as possible. Her dairy products are from McNamara Dairy in Plainfield, New Hampshire, the Italian sandwiches she now sells are made on King Arthur bread from Norwich, Vermont (and they are so simple and tasty-- the staff warms them and oils the bread when you order them), and you won't find blueberry gelato in the winter-- though you will find grapefruit and citrus cream, and when we visited today in late March, maple.

Her product seems unchanged from when she started in the cart at the back of the coffee shop. There are some flavors she seems to always have-- milk chocolate, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio, sweet milk, chocolate chip. Then there are the sometimes treats like coconut and banana and caramel and, best of all, salted caramel (made with Red Kite Candy out of Thetford, Vermont). Her fruit flavors follow the seasons-- strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, fall raspberry, melon.

It's exciting to see someone running an independent business making a great product and being so successful. The gelato shop has brought so much business that a long-time coffee shop up the street has tried to tap into the gelato market as well. No comment on their foray.

In addition to gelato, there is an item on the menu we never had in Italy called an affogato. It is espresso (or, in the winter months, you may choose cioccolata calda, thick, thick, rich Italian hot chocolate) brewed on top of your choice of gelato. The gelato cools the delicious espresso just a bit, the espresso warms the gelato, they swirl together beautifully and it is just heavenly. We've been known to have our dishes of gelato and then go back to the counter and order affogatos for dessert. The most recent time we did this, our son proved just a little too clever for me, in response to my telling him I was getting some coffee, asking, "Mommy, why are you scooping your coffee, I wonder?"


 

Willem likes the chocolate. He also likes banana and strawberry and melon and hazelnut and what he once called "'stachio," and any other flavor he has tried. I like to think he knows good food when he meets it.

Morano Gelato has been called the best gelato in New England by Yankee Magazine, the best gelato in America by Forbes magazine, among many other accolades. We love that it causes us to go into "town" (and encourage anyone visiting us to do so) and support our local businesses-- gelato and otherwise-- much more often than we used to. You would be seriously remiss to visit Hanover, New Hampshire and not get this gelato.

Sweet and Salty Fudge Bars

We gave my cousin in college a cookie-of-the-month gift for Christmas last year, and this was what we chose for the last (and best) installment. I love the crumbly crust with the contrast of the salty, nutty, cool ganache topping. Because we were behind in our deliveries of this gift, he was finished with his college term and we gave this last installment in person. Lucky for us, he was kind enough to share a few from the tin. It's a delicious bar cookie for anybody who craves that salty, sweet, chocolatey combination.  

Sweet and Salty Fudge Bars 
from Martha Stewart Living, June 2011
 
27 store-bought chocolate wafer cookies
1 T + 1 1/2 t sugar
table salt
6 T + 4 T butter, divided
1 lb. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 C whole milk (or any)
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 C toasted, finely chopped walnuts
coarse salt

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 9 x 13" dish and line with parchment, leaving a 2-in. overhang on the long sides. Spray parchment.

Pulse wafers in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl. Add sugar and a pinch of table salt. Melt and stir in 6 T butter. Press into bottom of dish. Bake for 10 minutes.

Heat chocolate, condensed milk, milk, 4 T butter, and a pinch of table salt in double boiler over simmering water, stirring, until melted. Stir in vanilla.

Pour chocolate mixture over baked cookie layer, smoothing top. Sprinkle walnuts and coarse salt over the top, pressing slightly to adhere. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Remove from dish using parchment to lift, and transfer to a cutting board; remove parchment. Cut crosswise into 6 2-in.-wide stripes. Cut each strip crosswise into 3 equal bars, then cut each bar in half on the diagonal to make 36 triangles. Refrigerate bars to store. 

Juicy, Thin, Stove-Top Burgers

I have been to a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant once, last summer, and I've remembered that tasty burger. I loved that I got to choose exactly what I wanted on it-- tomato slices, lettuce, raw onion, cheese, ketchup and mustard. And I liked getting to watch them put it together efficiently but with care (no burgers half off the buns, tomato slices were prettily laid out, slightly overlapping), in plain sight according to my order. It felt like slightly classy fast food, if that's possible. I also liked that, like most fast-food burgers I guess, it was thin (you could choose a double decker or something, but I did not). I like them thin because a fat burger can be so filling, and I like to reserve some height for all those good accompaniments.

When I used to make burgers, I never used to have a good gauge of how large or how thick to make a burger and they often weren't quite right, like this time which I can't live down:

(To be fair, that was also my first attempt at a homemade bun, so shouldn't I get some points for that at least??)

Then I read this formula for making thin, fast-food-style burgers at home. I like finally having a clear recipe for how long to cook burgers. You cook the first side, flip, then add cheese and cook the second side-- for less time, at slightly less heat. It makes sense. The cheese is perfectly melted and one with the meat, and it yields a perfectly cooked, juicy burger every time. We don't eat burgers much, but when we do, I'm sold on them made like this now. I like the beef we get and with these focaccia buns I've been finding (haven't managed to keep up the bun-making habit, I'm afraid), it's reminiscent of the McDonald's cheeseburger of my childhood, but better in every way. We like to serve burgers with french-fry-like roasted potatoes or other roasted veggies and/or salad. Makes four burgers.

Stuffing his little face with his half a burger.

Cheeseburgers
adapted from Martha Stewart Living, August 2012

Burgers:
1 1/4 lb. ground beef
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 slices cheese (cheddar for us)

Extras:
4 buns/rolls
diced white onion
thinly sliced dill pickles
shredded lettuce
tomato slices
mustard, ketchup

Divide beef into four mounds and evenly place on a piece of plastic wrap. Put another piece of plastic on top. With a rolling pin, roll into 5 1/2" patties, about 1/3" thick. Season both sides of patties with salt and pepper. (Do ahead and place stacked between squares of wax paper in the fridge.)

Heat a griddle or two skillets over medium high. Cook patties, pressing with a spatula, 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, flip, and top with cheese. Cook 2 minutes.

Toast cut sides of rolls on griddle until edges just start to brown, about 1 minute.

Place burgers in rolls and serve with extras on the side for everyone to top as they like.

Roasted Vegetables, and the Importance of Salt

Roasted onion, red potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots

A chef ended his speech at my brother-in-law and sister's culinary school graduation six years ago with the words, "and for God's sake, season your food!" I've always remembered his talk about seasoning, and have been beginning to understand the importance of seasoning ever since.  I think so many home cooks don't use salt or don't use enough of it because we are aware that salt is something of which we are supposed to watch our intake. Processed foods have so much salt (and sugar) that if you eat processed foods you can very quickly max out your quota of salt and sugar. However, if you make and season your own food, you will be using a fraction of the amount in processed foods.

Roasted red onion, garlic, carrots, butternut squash, and red potatoes

Other chefs in cookbooks that try to teach talk about the importance of seasoning well and tasting as you go and being sure to use the right amount of salt. In The French Laundry Cookbook, Thomas Keller writes, "The ability to salt food properly is the single most important skill in cooking...Salt opens up flavors, makes them sparkle. But if you taste salt in a dish, it's too salty...Pepper, on the other hand, should be used only in certain cases for specific tastes." I try to remember that when deciding whether to salt and pepper something I'm cooking or just to salt it. (Something else that is delicious with just oil and salt and no pepper is arugula-- top with shaved Parmesan and pine nuts if you have them. Arugula is so peppery on its own, it doesn't need any pepper added to it.) 

Roasted halved fingerling potatoes-- slightly crispy and delicious, I think they're better than french fries

Roasting vegetables, which I do multiple times a week, to accompany anything, always makes me fully appreciate how important using the right amount of salt is, as it is so delicious-- yet salt is the only ingredient aside from the vegetables themselves and oil. Roasting is a great way to tame and enjoy almost any vegetable you have around.

Leftover roasted potatoes are delicious eaten cold on a salad, and any leftover roasted vegetables are great chopped up in an omelet, on a pizza, on rice with a fried egg, tossed with pasta and cheese...  Having leftover roasted vegetables in the fridge means the seed of another great meal.

Cherry tomatoes, summer squash, onion. Before I learned how divine just oil and salt was for roasted vegetables, I used to sprinkle some rosemary or other herbs.

Purple potatoes, summer squash, onion, parsley

• vegetables (any one or a combination of: potatoes, squash, onions, carrots, chard, green beans, corn, tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli...), chopped to fairly uniform size for even cooking
• olive oil
• coarse salt

Put vegetables in roasting pan (or rimmed baking sheet, or brownie pan-- just make sure there is enough space that the vegetables can spread out and won't be steaming on top of each other). Save more tender vegetables (such as chard leaves or corn kernels or tomatoes) to add a little later into the cooking time, as they will not take as long.

Drizzle with oil and sprinkle fairly generously with coarse salt. I like to do the salting by hand. Toss well, making sure all vegetables are coated. Roast in oven at 400 (or 425, or 450; I usually do 400) for 30 minutes or more. Check every so often and toss vegetables with a spatula, adding a bit more oil if they are beginning to stick. 

Remove from oven when vegetables are starting to brown.