Thursday, April 15, 2010

Catching Up (Again): For April 8

Last week I didn't end up putting up a post on the cookies, so I will do a quick "make-up" post now. Andrew Bodhi-Heart was not working on Wednesday night, and we once again shared baking duties - this time, each of us made one of the two items. It is nice to only have to be responsible for one item - it is like a mini-holiday! Anyway, here was the lineup:

From Bodhi-Heart: Butterscotch Cookies, from Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking
From Dharma-Joy: Brownies, from Elisabeth Prueitt & Chad Robertson, Tartine

Bodhi-Heart decided he wanted to make a butterscotch something, and so we went browsing cookbooks to find a something that was butterscotch. "Butterscotch" as a confectionery is based on the combination of brown sugar and butter that are cooked together to that that familiar (and to me, nasty) butterscotch flavor. But in baking the same term is used for items that rely heavily on brown sugar and butter, and so it is with the recipe Bodhi-Heart ended up making. The recipe is fairly straightforward, and relies on the quality of the ingredients to really work well; there is a lot of subtlety to them. The flavors in this recipe definitely developed after a day or so, and Bodhi-Heart says that they were best when dipped in coffee. Hmmm...I thought they were yummy on their own.

The brownies continued my long-term effort in looking for exquisite brownies, and my short-term effort in cooking my way through portions of the "Tartine" cookbook. This is the cookbook from a noted bakery in San Francisco, and the recipes have all been really great. These brownies did not disappoint! The proportions guarantee a hyper-dense, fudgy brownie, so if you like the cake-like versions, look elsewhere. There was a lot of chocolate and eggs, and not much flour in these puppies. I think the flavors on these also developed over time. Highly recommended.

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