For June 4

Last week, we had a short sesshin begin on Thursday night, so there were no cookies. This week, I am going very early Thursday morning to Tassajara for a poetry workshop that begins on Thursday evening; however, while I will not be around to put out the cookies on Thursday, I (with a lot of help from Andrew) have baked them to leave behind. So for this Thursday, June 4:

Spago's Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking

Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies, from Alice Medrich, Pure Dessert

Both of these are repeats - and rightly so, because they are both delicious cookies! I am a big fan of Sherry Yard's chocolate chip cookies. They are a bit more crisp than my ideal chocolate chip cookie, but they are very good nevertheless. These are very interesting cookies - rather than use chocolate chips, I hand cut the bittersweet chocolate, so they have a very dramatic appearance, with these big blotches of chocolate on the face of the cookie.

Alice Medrich's cookies go in a completely different direction. These are from her Pure Dessert cookbook, in which she strips down recipes to their very basics to bring out the essential flavors. Here, the flavors are three: butter, buckwheat and cacao nibs. The cacao nibs and the buckwheat both have very earthy flavors, while the butter provides a counterbalance. I realized last night that I made these in October as a "leave behind" when we went to China - I guess I am fated never to be around when these cookies are actually served. But I brought some of them for our China pilgrims, and we savored them for the first few days of the trip. Tasting it now, it did bring back some associations with China.

It is interesting to have these two cookies together, because they are so different. The powerful chocolate and brown sugar flavors from the chocolate chip cookies, and their crunchy texture contrast starkly with the flavors and textures of the butter cookies.

I had originally thought I was going to make a cookie with hazelnut this week, maybe a chocolate and hazelnut combination. But since my schedule is messed up, I decided to fall back on a couple of tried and true recipes that both involved making the dough and then refrigerating it, so that I could make the dough on Monday night and then bake it on Tuesday. So maybe next week we will resume our hunt for the perfect chocolate and hazelnut cookie.

For May 21

Midnight Crinkles

Lemon Almond Biscotti

both from Dorie Greenspan, Baking:  From My Home to Yours

It is late, and I have to get up early tomorrow for a 7:30 meeting, so this is a short entry.  The midnight crinkles are a very simple cookie, but they have some cinnamon and cloves in them which is a bit of a surprise as you bit into them.  Next time I should add a bit of pepper to wake things up.  The lemon almond biscotti are interesting - the dough has a lot of baking powder in it, and it really slumped and expanded in the baking, so these are flatter than many biscotti I have made.  The recipe in Dorie's book is for almond biscotti, but I added the lemon to add a contrasting flavor.  These baked quite a while for the second bake - maybe too long - so I am still trying to see how the lemon and almond flavors develop.

I am probably not going to be at the Center tomorrow night - I have a hearing in San Diego at 4 - so I am dropping these off in the morning.  We'll see how it goes.

For May 7

Nibby Pecan Cookies, from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

West Tenth Street Brownies, from Nick Malgieri

This week I am doing one repeat recipe, and one from a completely new source.  The repeat is the Nibby Pecan Cookies.  I am a big fan of Alice Medrich - her recipes are usually very simple and rely on the quality of the ingredients rather than complicated techniques or ingredients.  I made this recipe back in the fall, and I am as happy with it now as I think I was then.  This is a recipe that is essentially a buttery sable that has cacao nibs and roasted pecans added for punch.  These two flavors are very complementary and make this a really nice cookie.  This recipe makes small-ish cookies, so the danger is that if you had a tray of them around, you would (could) just keep popping them into your mouth, one after another.  But we wouldn't do that - would we, Enduring-Vow?

Nick Malgieri is a prominent cookbook author and pastry chef.  I don't have any of his books (yet), but he is often referred to as being one of the more authoritative bakers in the U.S. today.  I was browsing through brownie recipes in another cookbook, and the author referred to his brownie recipe as one of the modern standards.  I don't know if this recipe is the one she was referring to, but let's hope so.  He has an online website, and this recipe is found there.  He says he calls these the West 10th Street Brownies because he found the recipe on a card on the street on West 10th St.  With a provenance like that, I hope they turn out OK!

For April 30

Chocolate Peppermint Squares, from The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion (and online)

Flo Braker's Pain d'amande Cookies, from David Lebovitz

Sensei Kodo Boyd has returned to ZCLA to visit for a few weeks, and in honor of her return I am making one of her favorite recipes (which also happens to be one of Andrew's), the chocolate peppermint squares.  While these are a holiday favorite, the chocolate-peppermint combination is hardly reserved for the month of December!  Anyway, it has felt a lot like December this week here in Los Angeles, with cold nights and days that have not made it out of the 60s.  Brrrrr!  I can hear the sympathy from my family back East from here....

The other recipe is a bit of an experiment.  These are a very, very crispy almond cookie.  You begin by making a batter/dough that you put into a loaf pan and refrigerate until it is very firm.  You are then supposed to remove it from the pan and slice it very, very thinly.  According to the recipe, it makes 80-90 cookies.  Well, it is a 9" loaf pan, and 90 cookies into 9" means 10 per inch.  Sadly, I am not as much of a perfectionist as you apparently need to be, since I was not up to slicing 1/10" slices consistently.  So we got fewer - probably around 60.  But they are tasty!  It is worth trying again, and next time I will be prepared.

For April 16

Apricot-Cherry Bars, from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

Roasted Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies, from BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher

That's the plan, anyway.  Due to a couple of snafus, the cookie dough is in the refrigerator tonight, to be baked in the early a.m.  But this is a very nice cookie dough - there is a substantial amount of roasted peans in this dough, and the flavor is great.  This is my first recipe from BakeWise, which was generally listed as one of the best baking books of 2008.  Shirley Corriher has a background as a chemist, and has a very scientific approach to baking.  The book has a lot of recipes, but is more about the science behind baking than anything.  But she is also from Georgia, and that shines through in many of her recipes.  Here, the ample amount of roasted pecans - a large percentage of which are ground into a meal and are just basically part of the flour base for the cookie - is a dead give-away that a Southern baker is at work.  I hope they bake up as tasty as the batter promises!

The apricot cherry bars are a continuation on my dried fruit theme.  Here, the recipe was for apricot bars, but there was a variation for cherry bars.  I decided to just combine them, so we have apricot-cherry bars.  These are a bit crumbly - unlike last week's recipe, which used something close to a pate sucree base, these are much more crumbly.  But the filling is nice.  If I had a lemon at hand, I think I would have added a bit of lemon zest at the end to give it a little treble note, the dried fruit puree needs a little acid to be set off against, but I didn't so I didn't, and we'll all survive.  Anyway, yum.

Next week, the Center is closed for spring recess, so no planned cookies.

For April 9

Very Chocolate Cookies, from David Lebovitz

Tangy-Chewy Fruit Nut Bars, from King Arthur Flour

Well, these are not kosher for Passover.  Sorry!  But neither recipe uses any eggs, if it is any consolation.

The chocolate cookies are interesting - they have a bit of a crumbly texture like shortbread.  They have cocoa powder, melted chocolate, hand cut chocolate chips and cacao nibs, so the "very" in the title is certainly appropriate!  These are small cookies, just a pop in the mouth and let the flavor explode variety.  They also each have a tiny bit of fleur de sel on top, so there is a sweet-salty thing going on.  Yum.  Betsy - these are for you!

The fruit-nut bars are round three of my exploration of the fruit-nut bar world.  People have been enjoying this change of pace, so onward and upwards and all that.  These are a completely different version than any of the previous ones - there is a pastry base, like a pate sucree, that is prebaked, and then the fruit/nut/sugar/butter mixture is spread on top and then baked again.  This week I have apricot, mango, apple, sour cherry, and raisins in my dried fruit mixture.  I bought some dried blueberries to add, but only found them on the counter too late!  Given the accumulation of dried fruit I have in my cupboard, I think we will be working through dried fruit-nut variants for a while, so I hope people like them.  They are really healthy - yeah, that's it, healthy.  Did I mention no eggs?

For April 2

Cheesecake Brownies, from David Lebovitz
Tea and Spice Bars, from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

I am going to be out of town for work this week, so I had to do my cooking early. I am continuing to browse through the recipes on David Lebovitz' excellent blog, this time with a cheesecake brownie. Yum. These are rich, so cut small pieces if you make the recipe!

Two weeks ago, I made a fruit and nut bar recipe that was very well received, so I am doing a different variation on that theme again this week. The tea and spice bars have a lot more dried fruit in them than they have either tea or spice, but they don't get credit in the title - chalk it up to a bad agent, I guess. Anyway, in this bar, the dried fruits (I used raisins, apricots, sour cherries and cranberries) are steeped in tea, and then pureed before being added to the mixture. So the bars don't have the identifiable fruit in them that the last ones did. Many similar ingredients, very different result. These look more like cakey bars, with a very simple glaze on top.

Enjoy!

For March 19

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Friendship Bars

both from David Lebovitz

David Lebovitz was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse for over 12 years.  He now lives in Paris (brat).  He has a wonderful, inspiring blog.  Anyway, this week I am making two recipes from the recipe list in his blog.  The chocolate hazelnut biscotti is an adaptation of his chocolate biscotti recipe - he calls for almonds, but I have had some hazelnuts in the house for a couple of weeks now, intending to use them in a recipe, so I have substituted hazelnut extract and hazelnuts instead of almonds in his recipe.

The Friendship Bars are a type of dried fruit and nut bar.  He calls for dates and apricots.  I have used a mixture of those, but with fewer dates and an addition of dried sour cherries and cranberries to add some additional flavors.

Astonishingly - and completely unintentionally on my part, I assure you - neither recipe calls for any added fat (butter, etc.)  So they are obviously healthy - yeah, that's it, healthy.

For March 12

Oatmeal Raisin Almond Cookies, from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

BLD Fudge Brownies, from the Los Angeles Times and BLD Restaurant

BLD is a wonderful restaurant on 3d Street here in Los Angeles.  It is the more casual sister to Grace.  Today's Los Angeles Times published the recipe for BLD's fudge brownie sundae; this is the fudge brownie part of the recipe.  It has to refrigerate overnight, so I haven't tried it yet, but the recipe is, uh, rather rich and intense.  Not a recipe for the chocolate lightweight!

The Magnolia Bakery is a famous bakery in NY.  This is an interesting twist on the usual oatmeal cookie recipe - it adds almond extract and toasted almonds to the dough.  Somehow it gives it a lighter flavor profile than the usual oatmeal raisin cookie.

For March 5

It is an act of pure faith that I am writing this now, before noon, on March 4. I made my batter and dough last night - both had to chill before baking - so, if everything goes right, and my oven complies (it has a malfunctioning control board that we are in the process of replacing, but it is not yet completed), here is the plan for tomorrow:

Madeleines (both plain and chocolate) from American Boulangerie by Rigo Pascal
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Spago Desserts by Mary Bergin

I am continuing my search for a madeleine recipe I am happy with. (Everyone else has seemed happy with the recipes so far, but I have been unhappy, except with the one from Sherry Yard's Secrets of Baking.) Pascal's recipe has all the same basic ingredients as the others, but uses a very different technique in making the batter, so I am very interested to see how it turns out. One of his variations called for taking a portion of the basic batter out and combining it with some cocoa (oh, and just a teeny more butter), giving you some chocolate and some plain madeleines as a result. Needless to say, I have opted for this approach. I may add some hazelnuts to the plain ones, we will have to see how I am feeling by the time we get to the baking. This recipe also uses European-style (organic) butter rather than American-style butter, so it will be interesting to see if the extra $3 was worth it.

Mary Bergin's cookbook, from her days as the pastry chef at Spago in Hollywood (before she left to become the chef at Spago in Las Vegas and Sherry Yard took over as pastry chef at Spago) has a series of wonderful cookie recipes. Her peanut butter cookie recipe is our hand's-down favorite. Unfortunately, for almost all of her cookie recipes, she calls for the dough to chill for several hours or overnight before baking, and my schedule does not really allow me to do this usually. (This week, a cancellation gave me a free Tuesday night I otherwise wouldn't have.) As a general rule, from what I have been reading recently, allowing a cookie dough to sit overnight results in much better cookies. It allows the fat in the butter to emulsify with the flour more thoroughly (or something like that). Anyway, bottom line, her recipes are great, I wish I could make them more often. This week, we've got one with three types of chocolate (cocoa powder, melted bittersweet chocolate in the batter, and then dark chocolate chips) and two types of peanuts (peanut butter in the batter plus 2 cups of roasted peanuts). Luckily for us, this cookbook has no nutritional information.

My copy of Mary Bergin's Spago Desserts is signed. It was given to me in December 1994 by a dear friend, Chris Kennedy, who was a partner at Irell & Manella, and the person who recruited me out of law school and managed to charm me into coming to LA when it was not on my radar. Chris died around 18 months ago, at only 57. I was thinking fondly of him while I was making the dough last night.