Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I just arrived home in the District, fresh from a four-day seafood, BBQ, Fat Tire, and sunshine bender in Savannah, where Joey (time to give him some photo love) and I celebrated a birthday, food-laden and Southern style.  This means truffled macaroni and cheese, shrimp and grits, red rice, oodles of okra, tuna steak sandwiches, sweet tea galore, mashed sweet potatoes, wonderful coffee, and pretty wonderful people too.  A park every other block and ornateness that transfixes for hours, well when we weren't stuffing ourselves, swimming, bicycling, or (let's be honest) drinking, we were usually just walking around staring at the people and the houses. I think we both started to feel at home our last day there, which was an encouraging shame since we loved it (so quickly!) but had to leave (so soon!), and also a testament to how easily the city's charm and grit can really hook you.

Well and so then there are these cookies.  They have nothing to do with Savannah except that I made them right before we left and haven't stopped thinking about them either, so I guess they share bewitchment over the mind of a capricious 24-year-old.  I might even like these better than the all-famous Leite/New York Times recipe. The whole-wheat flour adds the best nutty flavor, and these are so shamefully buttery and perfectly salty--the texture is outstanding. I also cannot profess my love enough for the book from whence this recipe came, which has expanded my list of obsessions by eight new flours. Those plus a few cities in the South, and I'd say I have my daydreams all sorted out.

Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours

I halved the recipe and also halved the size of my cookies (from three tablespoons of dough to 1 1/2 tablespoons).  As you can see, they're plenty big that way.  I've included Kim's original amounts below, but a halved batch with smaller cookies yielded exactly 30.

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I used sea salt)

2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into half-inch pieces

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into quarter- and half-inch pieces

1.  Position racks in lower and upper thirds of oven.  Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Add any leftover grains that remain from the sifting.

3.  Combine the butter and sugars in a large bowl, beating on low speed with an electric mixer for two minutes, or until just blended.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition, then add the vanilla.  Then, add the flour mixture until barely combined.  Scrape sides and bottom of bowl using a rubber spatula.  Add the chocolate using the rubber spatula, and make sure it's evenly distributed.  Make sure all of the flour mixture is incorporated by using your hands to blend in any visible dry ingredients (Boyce asks you to do this on a lightly floured surface, but I found it worked great to just do this in the bowl).

4.  Scoop three-tablespoon mounds of dough (I did 1 1/2-tablespoon mounds) onto your prepared baking sheets, spacing them three inches apart.  Bake for eight to ten minutes, then rotate sheets from top to bottom and front to back, and bake for an additional eight to ten minutes, until evenly browned (I baked my cookies for 13 minutes total, since they were smaller).  Remove to wire racks and let cool.  Mine kept for three days, covered. 

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies and Radio CPR Record Sale

A little more than a year ago, I was lamenting the District (I was so misguided!) while proffering the Radio CPR Record Sale as a rare form of social recourse (I was so correct!), and this year the radical ladies (one in particular) who power the station were kind enough to let me contribute to the sale again.  Two veteran baked goods soldiers continued their history of wowing, but this year I also offered a new recipe of vegan granola bars with a plethora of nuts and sticky things keeping 'em together and some espresso chocolate shortbread cookies that are like a double shot of caffeine and awesome straight to your heart.

And really, the heart doctor business must be booming.  The past three weeks might have limped along on the chronicling front here, but there's butter/batter a'beating in my kitchen nearly every day. In spite of jam-packed days and a few spectacular failures, I've emerged from my sweltering kitchen armed with a handful of buttery, awesome recipes to share.  These espresso chocolate shortbread cookies are numero uno, and if you live and die for butter and coffee (me too!), you very much must make them. 

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan who says they make 32, but my method (madness?) made only 18

1 tablespoon instant espresso power

1 tablespoon boiling water

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup powdered sugar

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I guesstimated from a Ghiradelli bag and probably used closer to 5 ounces), finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt (Kari addition)

Additional powdered sugar for dusting, if you like

1.  Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water and set aside to cool to room temperature. 

2.  In a large bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar together on medium high for about three minutes, until very smooth and somewhat pale. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the speed to low and add the flour and salt, mixing only just until the flour disappears into the dough. Do not overwork the mixture. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a rubber spatula.

3.  Scoop the dough into a gallon-sized zipper-lock plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 9" x 10 1/2" rectangle that's 1/4" thick -- your rectangle should take up about half the bag.  Make sure the dough has even thickness throughout, seal, and the pop it flat into the fridge for at least two hours and up to two days.

4.  Position the racks to divide the oven in thirds and preheat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge, cut the plastic bag away, and, using a ruler to guide you, slice the dough in 1 1/2" squares. Space the cookie squares one inch apart on the sheets, and then make two sets of fork marks in each cookie, gently pressing the tines all the way through the dough until they hit they sheet.  Careful not to crumble the cookies when you do this step.

5.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating pans and switching from top to bottom halfway through. The cookies will not take on much color.  Remove from cookie sheets once you pull them from the oven, and allow to cool completely on racks. Dust with powdered sugar if you like. The cookies seem to get better with a day of rest, stored in an airtight container.

Best Peanut Butter Cookie Quest: Part One

You may have noticed that I'm capricious and that I get really "into" things for brief periods of time.  Awhile ago it was sewing.  Then photography.  Bikes for quite some time, but never long enough to hone any lasting expertise.  At one point it was the South, and this week it's Twitter, secret cafes, and Rickshaws.  I'm gearing up to be real into camping and web design, but in the meantime, I'm still all about baking—possibly my longest-running hobby—and therefore I have decided, as much as a noncommittal kid can, to undertake a quest for my personal favorite peanut butter cookie of all time.  Did I mention that the quest is going to be totally delicious?  Oh yes, absolutely yes.

This one here used to be my all-time favorite, but this time around I found the peanut butter flavor wasn't pronounced enough, partially because I think there might be too much butter, but also because the chocolate overpowered the peanut butter chips.  This is a peanut butter cookie recipe for a chocolate-lover, which I am, but which preference I will forego in favor of something more sincerely peanut buttery.  Stay posted:  If I don't suddenly decide to take up furniture design, I think constant baking energy could do us some sweet, sweet wonders.

Peanut Butter Cookies (makes 50 to 60 small cookies)

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter (I used hand-milled chunky, but apparently the fake shit works best)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 large egg at room temperature

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup peanut butter chips (I'd up to 3/4)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chips (I'd decrease to 1/4)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.  In a small bowl, mix flour baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, beat together butter and peanut butter on medium-high until light and fluffy, two to three minutes.  Add in sugars and beat until smooth.  Add egg and mix well.  Add milk and vanilla, and a little bit at a time, beat in flour mixture.  Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix in all of the chips.

3.  Put a couple tablespoons of sprinkling sugar on a plate, and by rounded teaspoonfulls, drop balls of cookie dough onto the sugar and roll them around until covered.  Place the balls onto your cookie sheets (mine were bare, but parchment paper never hurts), press down lightly with a fork, and toss 'em in the oven for ten to 12 minutes.  Do not overbake.  Leave cookies on sheets for one minute only, then remove to a cooling rack to let cool completely.  These are awesome after they've been sitting for about an hour, eaten in groups of five or six.

Best Sugar Cookies + Tooth and Nail Craft Fair

I am seriously relieved to learn that sugar cookies go really well with beer.  All this time I spent bemoaning (and well, celebrating too) the cold and the winter, and suddenly spring is here and it's warm as hell, and I didn't think I'd ever want to put anything sweet in my mouth ever again.  Okay yeah, the future tastes like summery pies and the Californian in me is practically throwing a tantrum for stone fruit tarts, but sweet sweets have been another story.  Then I came across this recipe that yields the most perfectly shortbready sugar cookie of all time, and while I sprinkled pepper on some, herbs on others, and topped a few with ground coffee, all variations went equally well with my spring beer of choice, which is most excellent because I can't imagine a day without a baked good or a spring day without a beer.

Well, and part of the reason I was feeling anti-supersweet is because I've been occupied with testing recipes over and over again for the past three weeks as preparation for selling baked goods at a craft fair. Hooray! DC's Bored of Trade arts collective threw the Tooth and Nail Craft Fair at the Velvet Lounge on Saturday, and it brought together all kinds of vendors, from Treasury Vintage and Smash Records to a DC comics collective and the makers of instruments crafted from salvaged wood and toys.  Cookies out of a suitcase and tartlets out of a library card catalogue, and the super supportive crowd still ate up all 107 of my baked goods.  It was an honor and a pleasure, and next time there will be sugar cookies too.

Lindsay Shere's Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated white sugar, plus a little extra for rolling

1 extra-large egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Fresh rosemary, cracked black pepper, finely ground coffee, or other toppings of your choice

1.  In a large bowl, cream the butter at high speed, about one minute.  Add the sugar and beat three to four minutes longer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.

2.  Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat a few more minutes, until light and fluffy again.  Slowly add the flour and salt, and mix at a low speed until the dough (thick by this point) comes together.  Shape the dough into two logs about 11/2 inches in diameter, roll the logs in sugar, then wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until firm.

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Once the dough is firm, slice it into quarter-inch-thick rounds, place them on the baking tray with about an inch of space between them, and besprinkle each with the topping of your choice.  Bake for ten to 12 minutes, until they're lightly browned on the bottom.  Let sit on the tray for one to two minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Molasses-Gingerbread Cupcakes with Coffee Icing

Forgive me for the unseasonably and unfairly long list of ingredients, but I promise these are totally worth it. You know the drill—punchy, no-bullshit flavors that I can't effectively persuade you into trying, partly because February is the longest month of all time and I'm completely exhausted, but mostly because: Molasses. Ginger. Coffee. Chocolate. There's not much else to say! So much love though, from my sometimes churlish kitchen to yours.

Gingerbread Cupcakes
Adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen Demasco

3/4 cup stout beer, such as Guinness
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly brewed coffee
3/4 cup dark molasses, such as Grandma's
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil
3 tablespoons Demerara sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Candied ginger, cut into thin strips, for topping

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Using two cupcake tins, line 18 cups with silicone or paper liners.

2.  In a large saucepan, bring the beer, coffee, and molasses to a gentle boil.  Whisk together to combine. Remove from the heat and whisk in the baking soda (it will bubble quite a bit); let the mixture sit for five minutes to cool.

3.  In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, oil, Demerara, and grated fresh ginger.  Whisk in the egg.  In another large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.  In three additions of each, alternately whisk the flour mixture and the beer mixture into the brown sugar mixture to combine.

4.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them about three-quarters of the way each.  Bake for 20 minutes without opening the oven.  Then, rotate the tins and bake until the cakes spring back to the touch or until a cake tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, about five minutes more. Invert the cupcakes onto a rack, turn them top up, and let cool completely.  Proceed to icing!

Coffee Icing
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (I used 3/4 cups, see below)
4 tablespoons coffee (I used two of coffee and also two of heavy cream)
1 tablespoon dark molasses
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.  I'm not too into the taste of confectioners' sugar, so I used half of what KD recommended and made mine more of a glaze than a thick icing. I accidentally brewed my coffee too strong too, so I used cream for half the liquid to temper the taste.  Add your sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk in the coffee (cream), molasses, and vanilla.  Add more sugar if you want to thicken it up, or more coffee or cream if you'd rather thin it out.

2.  Dip tops of cupcakes in the icing, top with strips of candied ginger, and let icing set for 30 minutes.  Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to three days.

P.S. I don't always redo my banner to match my most recent posting, just this once!