For February 10

One week in, and already behind. Sigh. Oh, well.
Last week was another week of cooking out of my new cookbooks. I was not there for the talk (we went to see Kodo, the Japanese taiko group instead), but I saw the next day the paltry remains, so I guess people liked the cookies! Here is what they were:

Hazelnut Sticks, from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies, from David Lebovitz, Ready for Dessert

Alice Medrich kicks off her new book of cookie recipes with a series of "stick" recipes - basically you make a very simple dough, form it into a rectangle, refrigerate it, then slice it very thinly (around 1/6" thick, if you can do it - I got to 1/5", but the 1/6" was beyond me) into sticks which you then bake. She has a series of these recipes and they have the advantage of being easy AND look delicious! Certainly the hazelnut recipe was; she says that the tropical version (using coconut) is one of the highlights of the book, so I will circle back this way quickly.

I have mentioned David Lebovitz before, because I am a huge fan of his blog. David was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse, then he left and moved to Paris, where he now lives, writing cookbooks, leading culinary tours, and just being fabulous. Wow, how jealous am I! Anyway, his blog is a treat - beautiful photos, and wonderfully written - and I have made a number of his recipes before, and all were quite good. He just published his newest cookbook, Ready for Dessert, subtitled "My Best Recipes," and I am looking forward to cooking quite a bit out of it - although there are a lot of non-cookie recipes, so I will have to figure that part out. Anyway, I was browsing through it last week, saw his recipe for chocolate chip cookies and decided to add it to my repertoire. It is a good cookie, and has the advantage (like Sherry Yard's) of requiring you to form a log and refrigerate it before slicing it. This is helpful because it allows me to make the dough in advance, and then just slice and bake the cookies when needed. Since I have started going to the gym quite regularly and this has kinda messed up my schedule, it is very helpful to be able to break up the cookie enterprise into a multi-day affair with smaller bites each day.

Anyway, the chocolate chip cookies were good - not my favorite recipe, but a good variation on a traditional favorite. And, as I said, although I sent around 50 of them to the Center, only 2 made it to the next morning - so the audience approved!