Recipe Notes: Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

23 May 2018

Recipe from The Perfect Cookie, America's Test Kitchen, 2017, p. 29; recipe also available online.

Chocolate Chip cookies have always been a favorite. I have tried many different recipes over the years and I have a few favorites. In my new-ish cookbook, The Perfect Cookie, I found a recipe I hadn't tried that aims for a thin, crispy cookie. I like the standard size and texture just fine, but I have also had thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies that I enjoyed. It would be great if I had a good recipe that I could use to make them at home.

This is one of the easier cookies to make. The ingredient list is relatively short and the technique is simple. Flour, baking soda, and salt were whisked together in a bowl then set aside. In a stand mixer, melted butter was mixed with sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup. To this mixture an egg yolk, some milk, and vanilla extract were incorporated. The dry ingredients were then blended with the wet and finally the chocolate chips were added. I used a #60 portioning scoop (about 1 tablespoon) to drop the dough onto baking sheets before baking them at 375°. After just an hour in the kitchen I had three dozen cookies.

I made this recipe twice because the first time I over baked them. The recipe suggests 12 minutes but while thin and crispy these cookies were too dark. The same was true for a batch I baked for 10 minutes. The second time I made these (after eating my way through the first batch, couldn't let them go to waste) I reduced the baking time to 9 minutes. This solved the over baking problem but now the cookies were not crispy. The flavor was not as good as other recipes I have come to rely on, the texture wasn't special, and they seemed a little short on chocolate chips. Several people, commenting on the online recipe, reported having similar problems. If you haven't guessed already, these were disappointing so I doubt I'll be making them again.

Recipe Notes: Pot Roast

5 May 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, November 2010

Every once in a while I need to cook a big hunk of beef. I haven't had pot roast in a while (I remember fondly my mother's pot roast) and I looked forward to the fall-apart tender, juicy, beefy beef served with flavorful gravy and vegetables. I started using the recipe for "Classic Pot Roast with Root Vegetables" but I got a late start. As I realized it would be closer to bed time than dinner time before it was finished,  I switched to "Make-Ahead Classic Pot Roast". The recipes are essentially the same, but the latter omits the vegetables and leaves several steps to day 2.

A 3.1-pound boneless chuck roast (the recipe specified at least 3.5 pounds, but the store had none this large) was split at the natural seam, trimmed of hard fat, salted, and left to rest at room temperature for an hour. Butter was melted in a Dutch oven. Sliced onions were cooked in the hot butter then carrots and celery were added. Finally, the braising liquid was completed with garlic, beef broth, red wine, tomato paste, bay, and thyme. The beef was rolled, tied, and placed into the Dutch oven. This was covered and placed into a 300° oven until the beef was tender. From the start of the process it took over 5 hours to finish cooking the roast. The roasts were placed into a large bowl. The bay and thyme were removed and fat was skimmed from the braising liquid. Beef broth was added so the total amount of liquid was three cups. This was added to the bowl with the cooked vegetables, covered, and refrigerated overnight.

Preparing the roasts to serve the next day took 1 hour. The roasts were sliced, placed in an 8x8-inch baking dish, covered with foil, and heated for about 45 minutes in a 325° oven. The liquid and cooked vegetables were processed in a blender until smooth. The mixture was simmered on the stove. Chopped fresh thyme and vinegar were added to complete the gravy.

I got what I wanted, tender beef with lots of flavorful gravy. It made for a wonderful dinner and many wonderful dinners and lunches was we worked our way through the leftovers. The gravy had a strong onion flavor, which is okay, but perhaps a little too strong. I may have added too much onion at the outset. The meat was a tad dry, perhaps an outcome of the two-step cooking process. Alas, we had to miss out on the root vegetables braised with the meat this time.

Recipe Notes: Pan-seared Pork Tenderloin Steaks

2 May 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2018

One of our favorite cuts of pork is the tenderloin. Looking back in the blog I find several posts about pork tenderloin dinners and several different recipes, all enjoyed. Pork tenderloin is readily available and can be prepared relatively quickly. This recipe, from a recent edition of Cook's Illustrated magazine, emulates sous vide cooking which leads to perfectly cooked, tender, juicy steaks. Can it be done in an oven rather than a constant temperature water bath?

Using the "for two" version of the recipe from the web site, I started with one pork tenderloin. As it weighed almost 1.5 pounds, and the recipe specified 1 pound, I cut it into three steaks rather than two. These were pounded into 1-inch thick steaks, seasoned, and placed in a 275° oven until the internal temperature was around 140°, about 45 minutes. They were removed from the oven, rested on paper towels for ten minutes to dry the surface, then seared in a hot skillet. After a 5 minute rest they were sliced and served. Total preparation time for dinner was 70 minutes.

The steaks were very good! They were juicy, tender, and well seasoned. We got three dinners out of the one tenderloin. To prepare the leftovers the steaks were reheated in a low oven, about 200°. They were still tender and juicy, especially the largest piece which was a little under done to start with. This is a simple way to prepare a favorite cut of meat, another winner!

Recipe Notes: Coffee Cake with Pecan-Cinnamon Streusel

25 April 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2018

I don't recall ever making a coffee cake, perhaps because I don't drink coffee? Nonetheless, I do enjoy having baked goods for breakfast and I didn't see why a coffee cake couldn't be eaten after dinner as a dessert as well as for breakfast.

The streusel topping and batter for this cake each came together quickly in a food processor. First the streusel was made with toasted pecans, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, butter, and water. I toasted the pecans in a small skillet on the stove and, unfortunately, over-toasted (a.k.a. burnt) them. The topping was set aside and the batter was made from flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Note these were not all just dumped together in the processor but rather added following a sequence described in the recipe. In particular, the butter was added to the flour before adding the wet ingredients to help ensure tenderness. The batter was poured into a greased and floured springform pan, the streusel was sprinkled on top, and the cake baked in a 350° oven. From starting to removing the cake from the oven was 1 hour, 40 minutes.

I took the cake to a meeting with friends for dessert and received generally positive feedback. I personally thought it was a little bland for a dessert cake. It had a good, firm but tender texture, was not too sweet, and had a gentle cinnamon flavor. I had feared the burnt pecans would add bitter notes to the cake but these were not apparent. I had the leftover cake for breakfast where I thought it worked better and I enjoyed it more than I had when it was served for dessert.

Recipe Notes: Potato-Dill Sandwich Bread

23 April 2018

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 102

I generally have a sandwich for lunch so I have been trying different sandwich bread recipes from Bread Illustrated. I have found some recipes that I will use regularly (e.g. Japanese milk bread, anadama bread, light rye) and others that I will probably not return to (e.g. no knead brioche, American sandwich bread). Continuing this journey, I tried a recipe for potato-dill sandwich bread with hopes that the dill flavor would complement some of my favorite sandwich fillings.

The method for making this bread was reminiscent of the potato burger bun recipe that I use regularly for slider and hot dog buns. A russet potato was boiled, processed through a ricer, and mixed with butter. Once it had cooled it was added to a mixture of flour, yeast, and salt by hand, literally, you use your hand to mix the mashed potato with the flour mixture. Using a stand mixer, some of the potato cooking liquid was slowly added to the flour mixture then kneaded. Finally, minced fresh dill was added to the dough. This was left to rise until doubled, formed into a loaf, left to rise again, and then baked. The total time was four hours, much of it hands off.

The resulting bread is good, good for all sorts of sandwiches, though the crumb was a little chewy. I found the dill flavor to be very subtle and easily masked by the stronger flavors of the sandwich filling. Thus while this is a good bread I don't think it has a particular purpose or a unique character which would fill a niche in my sandwich universe.

Recipe Notes: Indoor Pulled Chicken with Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce

22 April 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2018

When I have made pulled chicken sandwiches I enjoyed them greatly. Looking back at my blog post describing the preparation reveals the amount of work and time involved in this recipe. Bone-in chicken leg quarters were smoked on the grill for several hours. After it cooled the meat was pulled off of the bones by hand and then shredded with a combination of forks and the food processor before being mixed with a flavorful barbecue sauce. I was happy to see an indoor version that promised to be faster and easier, but would it taste good?

A braising liquid—consisting of chicken broth, molasses, sugar, liquid smoke, unflavored gelatin, and salt—was heated to boiling in a Dutch oven on the stove. Two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs were added and simmered until the chicken was tender, about 35 minutes. The recipe recommended using tongs to shred the chicken, an improvement over the fork method. However, I found this to be clumsy, too, so I tried something I had read about. The cooked chicken was put into the stand mixer with the beater attachment. Mixing for 1-2 minutes on low did a great job of shredding the chicken! A no-cook barbecue sauce was made with ketchup, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, Sriracha, salt, and pepper. The meat was heated with some of the sauce and some of the reserved cooking liquid and served on slider-sized potato buns. Preparation time: 75 minutes.

So, it was much easier and faster to make the pulled chicken indoors, but was it as good? I don't remember the previous recipe well enough to compare, but the indoor pulled chicken sandwiches were excellent! They had a great texture and flavor. The sauce had just the right amount of heat along with the smoky/sweet flavors. I can't see going back to the outdoor method to make pulled chicken. Recipes for two other sauces were included ("Lexington Vinegar" and "South Carolina Mustard") and these might be worth trying some time. The leftovers were excellent, too, prepared by mixing some of the barbecue sauce with the chicken and re-heating it in the microwave.