Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Like....Pizza?

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

Available at Amazon.com

Time: Approx. 1 hr 30 min

Ease: 4

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: 9

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

In New Jersey, pizza is a big deal.  Everyone has a favorite...and everyone swears their favorite is the best.  The passion is so powerful that people take to the streets to fight for the honor of their favorite slice.  There is one viewpoint Jersians all can agree on: only Jersey can do pizza right. 

Chocolate chip cookies are like pizza...but I think this issue might be a national battle.  It's the cookie of choice for most.  It's the one you search for in the assortment of cookies Aunt Martha gives you at Christmastime.  Every little housewife has a staple chocolate chip cookie recipe she goes to whether it is the one on the bag of chocolate chips or her great-great-great grandmother's.  

I'm convinced you can't ruin a chocolate chip cookie.  Sure, the presentation can suffer sometimes---Can someone tell me why all during my high school and college years my cookies always turned out flat as pancakes?  Or why I never can seem to get the distance between cookies right in the pan and they end up cooking into one another?---but usually any combination of butter + sugar + chocolate is going to equal heaven.

That said, I think I've stumbled on the absolute best combination of these ingredients.

The first time I made these cookies, I didn't find them as thrilling as when I recently began making them again.  My major downfall was that I went against my usual goodie-two-shoes-follow-every-single-step-of-the-recipe behavior when I saw that each cookie was supposed to be a quarter cup of batter smashed on the pan.

A quarter cup?  Good God...that's a lot of batter in one cookie.

The ingredients were exactly the same, but something about changing the size of the cookies, I swear, made them not as delightful.

And yes, that is salt sprinkled on top of them.  Aside from the complete perfection these cookies are, it is one of the first things people ask me between chews, "Do I taste a hint of....salt?"  Sometimes they think it is sugar sprinkled on top, but as soon as they bite into the cookie they marvel at the genius of the slightest sprinkle of sea salt.*

*I use Hawaiian sea salt that my friend, Danielle, gave me.  I'm a little addicted to it and scared what I might do when I run out.

Making the cookies isn't the difficult part, it's figuring out how to get them on the pan!  With using a quarter cup of batter per cookie, you can imagine the limited number of cookies that can be baked per pan.  I use half size sheet pans--but still can only get six cookies to fit.  I have been contemplating getting the full size pans just for these cookies, but that seems a bit drastic.

Although I'm sure I have done crazier things.

These cookies get the kind of reaction that chocolate chip cookies deserve.  My recommendation is to go out and get yourself a copy of The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook today--you'll be happy you did, I might, just might, have a few more of their recipes to rate and share with you.* 

*Note: I get no kick back from recommending this cookbook.  If only I did.  That would be great.

I don't want to brag, but, I'm pretty sure I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world now.

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Recipe: Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Source: The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook*

Time: 1 hr 5 min

Ease: 2

Taste: 4

Leftover Value: 7

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain!

*Note: I could not find their recipe online.  Here are two similar recipes:

http://www.savorysimple.net/lavender-shortbread-cookies/

http://joythebaker.com/2011/10/lavender-shortbread-cookies/

I have always heard good things about lavender.  So many good things, that once upon a time when my Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook was new, I instantly marked the recipe for Lavender Shortbread down as a 'must make'.  

What initially kept me from baking these cookies was the price of lavender.  I scoured the internet, knowing I probably wasn't going to find it at the local supermarket, only to discover it was going to cost me $3.99 plus the obnoxious price of shipping and handling.

I was on the lookout for it, and finally found it at Savory Spice Shop in Princeton.  If you enjoy unique and hard to find spices, this is the place to go.  There must have been twenty varieties of salt.  Even Hubby was lost in the different spice rubs and BBQ items they had to offer.  

I didn't realize until later that I paid the same amount I would have paid had I ordered my lavender online.  Of course, I didn't have to pay shipping and handling, and maybe it's just me, but I prefer to buy things in person.  I want to pick from the back, inspect it, walk around with it, commit to it.

Having never tasted lavender before, I was a little confused at the smell.  It didn't relate to my nose as being something that was going to give my cookie the addictive delicious quality I hoped for.

Naturally, I pressed on ignoring my nose.

While the shortbread quality of these cookies was perfect, the lavender took away from the buttery delight that is shortbread.  I equated the taste of the lavender to thyme.  Thyme, for some reason, is a seasoning I have never enjoyed too much.  I want to like it, but I just don't have a palate for it.  I know several cooks have tried to become clever and incorporate thyme into cakes and custards, but for me, it should remain in savory dishes and rubs for chickens.

These were definitely the type of cookie that I had to warn tasters of its uniqueness ahead of time.  It went like this, "I brought a delicious chocolate cake, and, um, yeah, I have these cookies here.  They have lavender in them, so if you want to try them...I'll just warn you that they taste more on the herbal side...like thyme."