For August 12

Last week was all Martha, this week is all Sherry Yard, the pastry chef at Spago Beverly Hills:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Butterscotch Cookies

both from Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking

I am a big fan of this book, and I think both of these are repeats. I know that the chocolate chip cookies are, and although I thought the Butterscotch cookies were a newbie, seeing them cook they looked very familiar.

The chocolate chip cookies are good - crisp. (Apparently Wolfgang Puck likes his chocolate chip cookies crisp.) I like a little chewier than this, but these are still wonderful. These use hand-chopped chocolate instead of store-bought chips, and they end up looking beautiful as a result - almost marbled! No nuts, very simple ingredients. They are great dipped in milk!

The butterscotch cookies are very similar to the chocolate chip cookies in technique and ingredients, with a few key exceptions (like no chocolate). This uses dark brown sugar (and I use a great dark brown sugar, not the standard stuff) and butter to get the butterscotch flavor. There are not a lot of ingredients other than those - some flour, some eggs, a little vanilla, salt, and that's about it. After making the dough, you chill it, but this one never got firm - after 24 hours, it was still a mess to work with! It must be the amount of butter. Anyway, after "slicing" them (good luck), you sprinkle them with demerara sugar before baking. Very simple, very pure flavors.

Enjoy!