Snicker at me. Please.

I made these cookies for my improv group who wigged out on how much they liked them. These are hefty cookies, and thank god I kept a few at home because the group ate them up. One group member stated that they are like a cookie form of cinnamon toast crunch. I say that is true, but they are even better. Although now I want to crumble them into a bowl with milk.

I am going to ply you with more comedy whiz-nit for a minute, but stay tuned for some thoughts on Snickerdoodles, as a thing, below.

My improv team of which I speak and I strive to make people laugh a lot, at least once a week. I am always doing comedy. I can tell you confidently that whether it is a sitcom or Shakespeare, comedy is harder. Than anything. Why did I hate it when people laughed at me as a kid? It’s all I want now.

I intend to inspire a wee bit of laughter and/or tears this weekend:

I am rather terrified, as my story may be too serious for this crowd? It is sort of sad and funny. Screw it. It’s gonna be great. Come see the show! Even if I suck, the Hello Giggles shows at UCB always rock. Tickets here. Woot!

Now for what I had to say about Snickerdoodles. I noticed in the last year or two lots of people making any old recipe, adding cinnamon and calling it a Snickerdoodle-flavored. Someone even wrote on their blog that the only difference between Snickerdoodles and sugar cookies was the cinnamon. WRONG! SO WRONG! A Snickerdoodle has a very, very specific taste that comes largely from the introduction of an acid, usually in the form of cream of tartar. So there.

I like a good good biting flavor in a cookie. And a good biting wit.

That was lame. Oh, well. Make cookies, come see me and laugh, and all shall be well my pretties.

Snickerdoodles adapted from Baking Illustrated
2 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. Sugar
3/4 c. unsalted butter
1/4 c. shortening
2 eggs
3 Tbsp. Sugar mixed with Tbsp. Cinnamon

Heat yer oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking trays with parchment. Parchment is perfection. Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Cream the butter, sugar and shortening at medium speed until well combined. Add the eggy-weggs and beat until mixed in. Add the dry ingredients and beat in at low speed. Take big tablespoons of dough and make 1 1/2 ing balls. Roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Put them quite far apart on the tray. These be big cookies. Bake 8-10 minutes rotating halfway. Cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to totally cool.

Sticky

Sticky situation, when you make something as a gift and there is something wrong with it. See number two.

Two things I learned in the last week:

1) Just when you have given up on something, that is when it comes back. I had not gotten assigned a review from Blackboard Eats in forever (despite writing a month or so ago to remind them of my presence on their roster of reviewers) and decided that either my last review must have been horrible or that they had found more writers whom they liked better. Then out of nowhere they sent me to Sage which I reviewed here. Seriously the best vegan food ever. Go to Echo Park and indulge.

2) Pull your hair back in the kitchen. I made a new gingerbread recipe to give a friend for Christmas. I put a bit of the batter in a single muffin tin so I would be able to try it. I gave the gingerbread to my luckylucky friend. Later on, I tasted the muffin. Hot diggity, Cook’s Illustrated is the best. So I waited to hear what my friend thought.

He thought it was pretty good except one of my hairs was in it. Humiliation.
What the hell kind of Christmas present is that?

Pull your hair back in the kitchen.

3) Apparently I am intriguing and/or amusing enough to merit a Liebster award! The delightful super-runner-ridiculously-smart (she’s on her way to being a doctor) Nadiya nominated me. I gots me some facts (11) to give, some questions (11) to answer and some questions (11) to ask (surprise!) eleven other bloggers. It is a narcissists dream, I tell ya. Skip to past the recipe for all the Liebster lovin’.

For those of you who just want some sticky sweets, get cleaned up and get yer bake on.

This is the best gingerbread I’ve ever made and I shall love it forevah and evah cross my heart and secure my hairnet.

Gingerbread from Baking Illustrated (adapted jut a tad from Cook’s Illustrated)

2 1/4 c. Sifted flour
2 Tbsp. buttermilk powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. Dutch-processed cocoa powder
8 Tbsp. butter-melted and cooled to room temp
3/4 c. Molasses(not the robust or blackstrap type)
3/4 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Water
1/2 c. Almond milk
1 egg
Heat the oven to 350 F.
Whisk flour, buttermilk powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cocoa together.
In another bowl beat butter, molasses, sugar, water, almond milk, and egg on low speed one minute.
Add to dry ingredients and beat on medium for a couple of minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl to get all the flour in. But don’t get carried away, you don’t want a ton of air whipped into this.
Spray a 9-inch square pan (I first lines mine with nonstick foil) with nonstick spray. I deeply fear sticking. Pour batter in. Even out with a spatula. Bake around 40 minutes. You want the top to spring back a bit when you lovingly touch it, and the sides should be pulling away. Take out. Cool as much or little as ye please.

Liebster time!

11 Random Facts
1) I wrote a play about breasts called FLAT: a play about small breasts and everything else that’s great in life.
2) I go hiking at night-the Sierra Club leads these arse-kicking hikes through Griffith Park that are perfect for vampires like me.
3) When I was 14 I hung out with satanist vampire wanna-be’s nearly twice my age. Stupid move on everyone’s part, but I’ve got stories to tell.
4) I have a bionic arm. The white stuff is metal:

5) I used to draw all the time. In college I even took classes at the art school part of Wash U but between studio time drawing and rehearsal/class time for acting I ran out of time and frankly, creative energy
6) I love animals. I wanted to be a vet up until I was maybe 14 and changed my plan to acting.
7) I was a C-section baby
8) I am a hard-core minimalist when it comes to furniture and decor. There is nothing more beautiful than empty space. I don’t like owning too much stuff, although I hang on to clothes because I never know when I’ll need something for a role or audition.
9) I don’t love kale (I prefer Swiss chard) and I think agave syrup is no good. No good at all. Give me some friggin’ corn syrup.
10) I played and performed taiko drums with a group in St. Louis. Taiko drums are the large, thundering Japanese drums. Here is me doing it! We got hired to play all over the Midwest, actually. If you want to see them, contact them here.
11) I am getting really into wine and cocktail mixing but I hate being drunk and avoid it much as I can. I don’t mind getting relaxed yeah, I really hate feeling drunk

And now my answers to Nadiya’s questions. I’d list the questions but based on my answers I am going hope y’all can figure them out.
1) Number one thing I love about having my blog is probably when I can be really funny or maybe it’s that I am much more experimental than unused to be. No, it’s the laughter thing.
2) My relatives do know about my blog.
3) If I could change one thing about the world it would be that we’d follow the golden rule more and treat others the way we want to be treated.
4) My favorite song is…geez, I don’t know. Something by Nine Inch Nails, if I really had to pick. Or Bach’s cello suite number one in G major.
5) If I could learn another language it would be Japanese, I started classes in it in college but remember nothing. Heh, I could talk to my agent in his original language then think it is a beautiful language though and I’d like to visit Japan…
6) …which brings me to my dream destination: Japan. Of places I’ve never been I want to go there-of places I’ve been though I really want to go back to Paris.
7) The craziest thing I’ve ever done was probably the weird eating/exercising behavior I had when I was all eating disordered and stuff.
8) My favorite subject in school was probably art class. No, Spanish class. No, art.
9) I never cheated on a test.
10) My favorite hot beverage is a cup of coffee at Meshuggah in St. Louis. They hand make each cup, basically giving you an Americano: espresso and hot water.
11) If safety were no an issue a pet snow tiger would be lovely.

My nominated bloggers-who I am not sure if even read my blog but we shall see…and guys, if quizzes aren’t your thang, feel free to skip and take my nomination as an expression of my admiration for what you do:)
1) Sabrina at Miboso. Full of good life stuff from one of the most caring and lovely humans I have the privilege of knowing.
2) Joy the Baker who I am positive doesn’t read my blog but if you don’t read her already, you should.
3) Shin’s Vegan Lovin’
Even if you aren’t vegan, she makes awesome vegan bento that are too cute in all the right ways. Go ooh and ah at the adorable creations.
4) Eden who writes Eden Eats Everything. She is so funny and probably too cool to be reading this, but I’d love to know her answers.
5) Ellie, one of the sisters who write Boots n Burbs. You never know what little bit of awesome-ousity they’ll be posting from music to vocabulary to clothing.
6) Melissa at Melissa Was Here. She’s a model. Tells it like it is.
7) Ameena at Fancy That, Fancy This who chronicles her life in a way that you can’t stop reading. Ameena, if you are too busy or find this a pain in the arse to do, no sweat-I can only imagine how wickedly busy life as a working mom is. But the offer to take part is yours if you like.
8) Kelly at Foodie Fiasco. So clever you wouldn’t believe she’s 15.
9) Averie who writes Averie Cooks. Great recipes!
10) Either one or both of the Spoon Fork Bacon girls. Their
photography is smashing.
11) Eleanor who founded this site with me and now writes the interesting and informative Vicinity Blog. Go read it and contemplate her genius. She’s my fwife so of course I want to know what she’s thinking. Although I know her busy life so Eleanor of you don’t wanna do it, no sweat.

Now the questions, many of which have possibly been asked before:
1) What is your favorite office supply? For instance, are you a post-it abuser or is the three-hole punch more your style? Do tell.
2) If forced to wear one color forever what would it be?
3) Favorite adult beverage-you can give both a summer and winter one if you want, because I know the season affects choices. Kelly (or any bloggers who don’t drink)you can tell me a non-adult drink or if you like the virgin types of alcoholic drink you enjoy.
4) Do you root, root, root, for any team or love any sport? Did you play it?
5) Do you keep your nails or toes polished? How and by who?
6) Write me a four sentence short story.
7) Do you prefer shoes, socks, slippers or bare feet?
8) Have any phobias?
9) What do you geek out about? Comics? Cooking? Movies? Chemistry? Inquiring minds want to know.
10) Were you an only child? Or if you had siblings, how many and where do you fall in the line-up?
11) What is the best thing about and/or favorite place to go where you live?

Phew, that was exhausting. I’m spent. I’m going to eat some more Christmas cookies now.

I never fake it

BEFORE we get to the fake meat, two things:
1) Last night was a veritable orgy of my pie, wine, friendship and massive celebration at City Sip as we watched Obama win! I am so happy that we get him for the next four years.
2) I am excited to share that I was featured on a vegan blog. Shin’s Vegan Lovin’ is friggin’ adorable. Her vegan bento boxes will make you swoon. Not faint. Swoon. Her post featuring moi is found here.
So in honor of her, and her delightful vegan eats

You get a B

I don’t get B’s. I’m anal, dammit.
That’s anal with an A.
I get A’s.

In high school, the teacher of my A-earning, type-A calculus class gave us all “mid-semester grades” supposedly to tell us how we were doing. I think it was B+’s he gave us.

We all flipped the fuck out for the next 24 hours. Next day in class he told us he did that because we were all so neurotic and stressed and he hoped we would realize there are more important things in life.

Weirdo.

It didn’t work. We just badgered him to assure us we were not in fact getting B+’s.

I will give you B’s you want. Four B’s in fact, because I am a generous soul.

I giving you Banana Bread and Beer Bread.

But this blog entry BETTER get an A.

I made the banana bread for a friend’s birthday. Lucky him.
Banana bread(slightly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)
1 1/2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Wheat bran
10 Tbsp. Sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 mashed bananas
1/4 c. Plain yogurt(I used Greek)
2 eggs beaten a little
3 Tbsp. melted butter, cooled
3 heaping Tbsp. applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 oz. dark chocolate, grated(I used a Dove bar)
Put oven rack in lower-middle and preheat to 350. Line a 9×5 pan with nonstick foil and spray.
Mix flour, bran, baking soda and salt. Mix in chocolate.
In another bowl mix everything else. Fold mixtures together but don’t over-mix! Lest thy bread be squat and whatever the opposite of tender is. Blanking on the word I want.
Put it in yer pan and bake until the venerable kitchen toothpick comes out clean. Depending in your oven this may take more or less time.

Now loaf deux:

I made Beer Bread because my improv amigos left a ton of beer in my fridge. I hate beer. No one brought wine, alas. So bread seemed like a good way to get rid of at least one bottle…at least there were no PBR’s.

I didn’t love this, honestly because it was a bit too beer-y. I put butter on it and it grew on me. And if you do like beer, you’ll like this…
Beer Bread(from 75th Anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking by Irma S Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups beer( I used Sam Adams Octoberfest-Joy specifies not using a stout), room temp(Joy says cold or room temp, just not flat)
Heat up yer oven. 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix everything but the beer. If you like beer sneak a sip or two first. If you don’t, hold your nose and hope the nasty beery-ness cooks off. Sip wine instead.
Fold in beer until moistened but don’t overstir. Put in a greased 8×4 pan and bake until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean, 30-ish minutes.

What’s your favorite quick bread?

Friends don’t let friends buy their own cake…or do they?!

Disclaimer: I started writing this post before Alice’s birthday. I promised her a birthday dessert then fell down on the task because I was shooting a short that weekend an couldn’t make it to the home party-I did make it to the dinner but that was at Cafe Gratitude and Alice was looking forward to the vegan desserts and told me not to worry about bringing a cake.
Alice has parties, because she is that awesome and requires more than one event to see all her friends. It’s true.
So I’m a jerk who fell down on the cake task for her.
But before that when I wasn’t working I held onto(and when time permits will continue to hold on to) the belief that no one should buy their own cake.
And now the post I wrote before I became a total hypocrite:

“omg! The restaurant closed. Stress! Gotta go buy a cake!”
Oh noooooo you didn’t! No one should buy their own cake. Really. I can maybe entertain the idea of making my own but…
When my darling Rebecca’s venue for her birthday fell through I had to stop her in her Gelson’s-bound trax.

Normally they’d be tracks, but Rebecca is a hottie so she makes trax.

Trax to Oldfield’s, a west side bar I think is just smashing.

A slightly less blown out shot(Oldfield’s was dark!):

True story about this cake. I was a bit surprised that Mz. Trax requested a vanilla cake with white frosting. So…vanilla.
But vanilla in all it’s simplicity can be perfection so I turned to the masters of perfection, Cook’s Illustrated for a recipe.
But I wanted to make it somewhat special and told Rebecca she was getting a pink cake,
So I buy my happy lil’ multipack of food coloring at the store.
At home I open it and someone had filched the container of red.
Of all the packages, of all the colors they took red out of the package I picked.

Somewhere in LA an ass was eating red velvet, I bet. Evil. Pure evil.

I decided yellow was probably Trax-y Lady’s next pick and made a yellow cake. Pink candles though. I do try.

White Cake with Butter Frosting from Baking Illustrated(halved recipe)
1 c. + 2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 c. Almond milk, room temp
3 egg whites, room temp
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
14 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp.baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter(I used half-fat cause…that’s what I had), softened but cool

Frosting:
1/3 c. Butter, soft but cool
1 1/3 c. Powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla almond milk
For the cake:
Mix egg whites, almond milk and extracts in a 2-cup measuring cup(not necessary, but helpful for the part where you add it to other mixtures in increments). Beat butter into flour, sugar, salt and baking powder until it is crumbly, then beat in all but 1/4 cups of the milk mix. Then beat in the rest. Bake in a 9 inch tin at 350 for about 20-30 minutes-when a toothpick comes out clean it’s done.
For the frosting: Just beat it(beat it!) and spread it. Yah.

Performance anxiety, or getting grindy

Could not decide which would be the better title for this post.

Performance anxiety is the stress I feel cooking in public.

Teach people how to make pie crust? Ten times scarier than doing a play. Even a play I wrote.

Hence why when my darling Alice wanted me to teach pie making at her new home, I chickened out of doing the crust in front of everyone and was ok with making something new. It was an un-vetted recipe so if it turned out poorly…not my fault!

Shouldn’t be scared, Alice and Crosby are not scary:

But I was. Scared, I mean. Try as I might to be scary I just get people telling me I’m “cute” and “sweet”.

So I made my crust in advance for fear of failing when in front of everyone.

I also was scared because we had to make a lot of recipe changes-whole un-blanched almonds instead of blanched and slivered, brown sugar instead of white, no vanilla extract…plus we added in blueberries and were topping with strawberries.
See my suspicion?

Alice and Crosby told me there were certain details I HAD to include in this post. The fact that we were tackling a bottle of champagne at the time was not one of these details but I wanted you to be aware.

As for things the girls wantsd me to mention?
“getting grindy”

Getting grindy is what we did with our nuts:

That took far more finagling than you might imagine.

Thing #2 I was told to relate to you: Alice learned what tamping was. Not sure why this was deemed important but it seemed to be pertinent to this post at that champagne hour.

The verdict on the product? Tasty. Very tasty but now I want to make it without all the substitutions…

Almond-we’re-not-nut-racists-so-who-cares-how-blanched-and-white-they-are Pie(adapted from Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated)
Pie crust: click here
Filling:
Blueberries to taste
1 cup whole almonds
A really good food processor
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
Pinch or so salt
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 egg and 1 egg white, whisked
6 Tbsp. butter
Blend the almonds and sugar in food processor until roughly chopped. Don’t believe the instructions if it tells you to use the blunt edged blade. Won’t work. Please don’t be mad at me if this somehow ruins your processor-all I can tell you is ours turned out ok.
Drizzle in almond extract and eggs bit by but, blending in between adding.
Add butter and blend up.
Put blueberries in pie shell. Spread almond mixture over. Bake at 350 about 45 minutes.
Drink champagne and toast to your friend’s success and new home whilst waiting.

Vodka. Crust. No, really, what more DO you want?

Well, I guess some of you would like a tasty pie filling. There is that.

I know I just recently gave you a word-y nerd post. Piedenfroid. Can I stay educational and give you a little science in this post?
It is about pie.
You are either a crust or a filling person. I am crust. Not only that but I now must tell you gourmands it’s all about the flour, Crisco and salt crust.
I wanted to give the flour/vodka/butter/Crisco/sugar/salt crust from Cook’s Illustrated a go though. Plus I had my brand new factory refurbished Kitchenaid food processor to put to work.
Ok, oops I was going to get science-y.
Sheesh. Science-y? Come on Clifford.
Scientific.
Pie crust texture and taste is a delicate balance. A lot of folks want an all butter crust for the taste. All crisco makes for a divinely flaky crust. The solution is often a mix of the two.
What up with the vodka? It’s a way to add moisture so you have a supple dough to roll, but that will evaporate during baking without developing gluten. Vodka has no taste so it’s as good as using water. Except better. Gluten is another thing that makes crust a wee but too sturdy.
Now don’t get me wrong. This crust was a dream to roll out. Putty in my hands. And it did taste good. But it was just not pie-crusty so much as cookie-y to me. You may prefer that. I do not. It ain’t right or wrong. Just a matter of preference. I hate to tell you to make something without butter or vodka.
By all means put butter on a piece of baked leftover shortening crust and do a shot. Get yer vodka and butter in. Those are important for your health.
I will stick with my butterless, sugarless shortening crust-though next time i may try using vodka.
Cheers!
What kind of crust do you dig?

My Crust(adapted from Betty Crocker)
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
up to 1/4 cup cold water
Use a fork to toss together flour and salt. Add shortening and use fork to cut it in. Just press down and break up the shortening, o’er and o’er again until it starts to look like peas. One tablespoon at a time toss in water until the dough will stick together. Form into a disk, brush both sides with flour, dust more on a piece of parchment and place disk in center. Put another piece of parchment on top and roll out.

Some like it hot

Not me. I like many things cold. Especially coffee. Not only is cold-brewed delicious but it saves energy too. No plugging in the coffee maker or boiling H2O for a French press. And it sounds sort of sexy to say “Ah yes, well I only cold-brew”. If I were a superhipster I’d brew beer but I hate beer, so I will be a subversive hipster, and cold-brew coffee. Which really makes me an ultra-non-hip-hipster. Sorry, I’ve had hipsters on the brain ever since acting in this
Just to prove how un-hip hip I am, here is the view from my balcony:

See? I don’t live in Eagle Rock. Not a hipster. And surely hipsters don’t drink their coffee from glasses like that, garnished with a cinnamon stick.
Ok, I’ll shut up about the hipsters and tell you about the coffee. What I do is the result of reading and experimenting with recipes from several different sources including Food and Wine Magazine, Pioneer Woman, and Cook’s Illustrated, then adding my own touch of cinnamon. To make what I did, grind up a couple of cups of coffee beans(I used a french roast), add two to four times the number of cups of coffee you ground in water, depending on how strong you like your coffee. So two cups of grounds would be 4-8 cups of water. Stir it up. Add a cinnamon stick. Cover and let sit about 16 hours. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth set in a colander into a container. I strained into my coffee pot. Rinse grounds off cinnamon stick and add to the strained coffee. As the days go by the cinnamon flavor will intensify. Refrigerate. If you brew it stronger, cold-brew makes a terrific Vietnamese iced coffee treat when you add some condensed sweetened milk and almond milk. Ahhhh.
Sip whenever you like. Feel really cool. But not as cool as your cold coffee. Ice cold, baby. Ice, ice baby. Vanilla-oh god stop me now.

cherry pie. that is all.

Growing up I often made my dad a cherry pie for his late August birthday. He liked that over cake. Birthday pie? Getting edgy there, papa.
Since moving from the midwest to LA I’ve missed this excuse for summer pie making.
As luck would have it both for me and the recipient, I had a request here in LA for cherry pie for an early September birthday. Nice coincidence. Well done, universe.
I decided to get equally daring. You wager birthday pie? I’ll take that and add trying a new recipe to the pot. Read it and weep. Actually hopefully we eat it and both win.
But then again, cooking from Baking Illustrated, by those perfectionist freaks at Cook’s Illustrated is hardly taking a risk.
All the same I was nervous.
Normally I am a shortening pie crust girl. All the way. But the Baking Illustrated crust called for a mix of butter and shortening, salt and…sugar? I put in 1 1/2 tablespoons instead of their 2. One thing I love about baking is that it is part chemistry and part instinct. Normally I ignore instinct and follow Cook’s Illustrated recipes to a T because they are so well tested but I just don’t think pie crust should be sweet.

Don’t get me wrong-if you are a butter pie crust lover this crust is the penultimate. It is balanced, buttery, understated-ly sweet, and A DREAM to roll out. Plus it is lithe, supple, easy-going, not sticky. I’d date this crust.

I think I simply prefer the slightly salty taste of my shortening crusts better. Which is shocking considering butter is like my best friend. Except for being fattier and less talkative.
I want to give butter another chance in crust. In the future I think I’ll try this recipe leaving out the sugar and adding a tad more salt than the teaspoon Cook’s Illustrated calls for.
As for the filling, the one thing they are exacting on, and right about, was going the extra mile to get jarred Morello cherries. Not only are they more beautiful than the canned ones I normally use, they also taste better. This meant having to brave the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s. I want to like TJ’s. Really I do. But their parking, produce, and aisle traffic suck. And I can never find everything I want there. I think I am the only person I know who just can’t get with that store. I am so not hip.
Normally I’ve made cherry pies with tapioca as the thickener but Cook’s Illustrated uses cornstarch. Cornstarch made the pie awfully thick. Maybe it is nostalgia but I think its nice to have a bit of ooze to a fruit pie.
They do use the almond extract in the filling. Gotta have that. But they also use some cinnamon. The plot thickens! I tasted once I mixed it all up and added a dash of the secret ingredient I add to my Thanksgiving pies. You either have to be awesome or named Eleanor for me to give up that secret.
The verdict is that this pie was not bad, but not the best. I’m gonna have to redeem myself as master pie maker…
Questions for you:
What sort of pie crust do you prefer?
Do you like(love?) Trader Joes?
Do you have secret, or trademark ingredients you use?

THE BEST

Whether you prefer chocolate chip cookies in the dough form i.e. my favorite way, aka the correct way, or as baked cookies, nothing improves on the Nestle Toll House recipe. I’ve been making it since I was a little one. I could make it in my sleep, probably. Which is good because I am unlikely to have a package of the Nestle chocolate chips to reference for the recipe on the back. Sorry, Toll House-lovahs, but I am a Ghiradelli Bittersweet 60% Cacao Baking Chips girl.
I’m am not alone in my praise for this recipe. Even my most favorite-est baking nerds on earth, the Cook’s Illustrated crew, agree. From their Baking Illustrated: “Toll House cookies are the American cookie jar standard. As such, they serve as the springboard for all other versions of the chocolate chip cookie.” So if you are after something different you might need a different recipe, but these cookies are the ultimate basic cookie.
And the dough. Oh, the delicious dough. I get a bit crazy just thinking about the dough this recipe creates.
If you do decide to fight nature and bake these(as I was forced to do since other folks were to consume them) the one tip I do not think that Nestle will tell you is to chill your dough a bit before spooning it out and baking it, unless you prefer your cookies ultra-thin.
There are many ways to jazz up this basic cookie, if perfection occasionally bores you. Try adding a package of pistachio pudding mix(which thankfully for me has few actual nuts in it) with flour-then you have green perfection. You can leave the chips out, spread and bake in a 9×13 pan, then sprinkle the chips on when you take it out of the oven. The chips melt and you can spread them like frosting. Mix it up. Add peanut butter chips. Add butterscotch chips. Just don’t add nuts. Nuts should be banned from cookies. Like coconut they ruin many desserts. In my humble opinion.
Enough.
Here’s your perfect cookie:
Chocolate Chip Cookies(ala Nestle Tollhouse)
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs(use pasteurized eggs if you are eating it as dough)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt.
Your favorite chocolate chip
1)Cream butter and sugars. I often do this by hand. Screw washing beaters. Sample this pure butter/sugar paste and but try to stop yourself from eating it all.
2)Add in eggs and vanilla. Its gonna look sort of gross and curdled. Deal with it.
3)Gradually add in flour, which you have sifted with the baking soda and salt.
4)Stir in chips.
5)Put in fridge
6)Heat oven to 350 degrees.
6)Just keep an eye on them and take them out when they look done. If you’ve decided to go that route. You are welcome to stop at step 5. And really, I would.