Holiday Winner #2: Chocolate Chip Cookies
So chocolate chip cookies aren't exactly a holiday tradition, but if I had a nickel for every time I was asked for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe...I could lose the day job and teach cooking classes for a living.
What do I consider chocolate chip perfection? Flat, thin, crispy yet yielding, buttery and just salty enough. Something I could wrap around a nice ball of ice cream, squish down, and keep in the freezer as homemade ice cream sandwiches for times when I'm locked out of my house and my neighbor lets me in and I want to say thank you in my unique way, which happens more regularly than I'd like to admit.
Though I love it like it were my own, this recipe was submitted by Robyn Shapiro, and is the recipient of the second Holiday Recipe Contest Wooden Spoon t-shirt. Shirts off to you, Sugarplum.
Robyn, with her sister and mother were students in my Tech 1 and 2 series this year. This is the first time I've had three family members in a class together, and I tell you it warms the bottom of my deepest pasta pot to consider the impact our time together will have on family feasts for generations come.
There will be roast chicken and roast beef, there will be tomato sauce and pesto, though I know there won't be any kugel, as the family kicked up a tsimmes when I offered a tofu kugel. Both a conceptual and executional shonda, I realize, but a sincere effort to make a pareve side for my beloved brisket. You gotta love students who are as forthright about the foods they love as those they'll never make again.
Though mom was attentive in class, I knew that she had been cooking for longer than I'd been alive, and could probably teach the class as well as I. Sure, there's always something to learn from a good instructor, but let's make no mistake, this woman had been making spreadsheets to organize her Passovers for decades. I know this because she emailed them to me. No kidding.
There was another reason the girls were taking the class, though I don't know that they acknowledged this out loud. Jennifer was engaged, Robyn was married, and this might just be the last time that the women of the family would just enjoy a series of Wednesdays to themselves before children and grandchildren arrived on the scene.
I wanted to suspend time for them, the way one commemorates an event like a bar mitzvah with an album or a wedding with a video. At this very moment, they were planning the homes they'd be creating and the family recipes they'd be sharing. They were in this classroom kitchen for the last time before they scattered to build their own units, like the tiny spiders at the end of Charlotte's web.
Fast forward a couple of years:
"Jennifer, do you remember how we did those banana fritters we did in cooking class? I loved them."
"Robyn, I'm busy nursing Joshua right now, I can't talk. I think they had sesame seeds or something on them"
"Gross. I don't think so. I'm calling Mom."
"Whatever."
Mom will of course have the recipe and be able to email it, fax it or use telepathy to send it to her daughters PDA post haste. It'll be Mom that gets to watch Joshua when they take Miriam and Deborah in for their doctor's appointments, and she'll be the one in the kitchen, teaching him how to make homemade gnocchi, or risotto, like any good Jewish grandmother.
This woman spawned two lovely daughters who truly enjoy spending time together (and with their mother!). I know that she will ever so quietly and discreetly pass her kitchen savvy (and spreadsheets) on to the next generation. I look forward to playing in the kitchen with the coming family members; I can only imagine how Mom must feel.
-----
Coleman's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 3 dozen cookies
1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1. Mix flour, granulated sugar, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Place butter and brown sugar in a bowl and beat to combine (beaters are good, or some arm power). Add vanilla and egg…beat until homogeneous.
2. Slowly add dry mixture and beat until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips and stir mix by hand until incorporated. Roll entire batch of dough into tablespoon-sized balls (I like using a mini-ice cream scoop for this: efficient consistency.) Refrigerate at least 30 minutes; if chilling over 1 hour transfer to sealable bag (the dough may be held like this several days or frozen for a month or more).
3. When ready to bake: Preheat oven to 325 °F. Place cookie dough balls on cookies trays about 2-3" apart place in oven for 15 to 17 minutes, depending on size.
What do I consider chocolate chip perfection? Flat, thin, crispy yet yielding, buttery and just salty enough. Something I could wrap around a nice ball of ice cream, squish down, and keep in the freezer as homemade ice cream sandwiches for times when I'm locked out of my house and my neighbor lets me in and I want to say thank you in my unique way, which happens more regularly than I'd like to admit.
Though I love it like it were my own, this recipe was submitted by Robyn Shapiro, and is the recipient of the second Holiday Recipe Contest Wooden Spoon t-shirt. Shirts off to you, Sugarplum.
Robyn, with her sister and mother were students in my Tech 1 and 2 series this year. This is the first time I've had three family members in a class together, and I tell you it warms the bottom of my deepest pasta pot to consider the impact our time together will have on family feasts for generations come.
There will be roast chicken and roast beef, there will be tomato sauce and pesto, though I know there won't be any kugel, as the family kicked up a tsimmes when I offered a tofu kugel. Both a conceptual and executional shonda, I realize, but a sincere effort to make a pareve side for my beloved brisket. You gotta love students who are as forthright about the foods they love as those they'll never make again.
Though mom was attentive in class, I knew that she had been cooking for longer than I'd been alive, and could probably teach the class as well as I. Sure, there's always something to learn from a good instructor, but let's make no mistake, this woman had been making spreadsheets to organize her Passovers for decades. I know this because she emailed them to me. No kidding.
There was another reason the girls were taking the class, though I don't know that they acknowledged this out loud. Jennifer was engaged, Robyn was married, and this might just be the last time that the women of the family would just enjoy a series of Wednesdays to themselves before children and grandchildren arrived on the scene.
I wanted to suspend time for them, the way one commemorates an event like a bar mitzvah with an album or a wedding with a video. At this very moment, they were planning the homes they'd be creating and the family recipes they'd be sharing. They were in this classroom kitchen for the last time before they scattered to build their own units, like the tiny spiders at the end of Charlotte's web.
Fast forward a couple of years:
"Jennifer, do you remember how we did those banana fritters we did in cooking class? I loved them."
"Robyn, I'm busy nursing Joshua right now, I can't talk. I think they had sesame seeds or something on them"
"Gross. I don't think so. I'm calling Mom."
"Whatever."
Mom will of course have the recipe and be able to email it, fax it or use telepathy to send it to her daughters PDA post haste. It'll be Mom that gets to watch Joshua when they take Miriam and Deborah in for their doctor's appointments, and she'll be the one in the kitchen, teaching him how to make homemade gnocchi, or risotto, like any good Jewish grandmother.
This woman spawned two lovely daughters who truly enjoy spending time together (and with their mother!). I know that she will ever so quietly and discreetly pass her kitchen savvy (and spreadsheets) on to the next generation. I look forward to playing in the kitchen with the coming family members; I can only imagine how Mom must feel.
-----
Coleman's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 3 dozen cookies
1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1. Mix flour, granulated sugar, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Place butter and brown sugar in a bowl and beat to combine (beaters are good, or some arm power). Add vanilla and egg…beat until homogeneous.
2. Slowly add dry mixture and beat until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips and stir mix by hand until incorporated. Roll entire batch of dough into tablespoon-sized balls (I like using a mini-ice cream scoop for this: efficient consistency.) Refrigerate at least 30 minutes; if chilling over 1 hour transfer to sealable bag (the dough may be held like this several days or frozen for a month or more).
3. When ready to bake: Preheat oven to 325 °F. Place cookie dough balls on cookies trays about 2-3" apart place in oven for 15 to 17 minutes, depending on size.
posted by Allison Fishman Task at 4:46 PM
1 Comments:
Your classes were truly inspiring! Right after Passover, I went to Tuscany on a cooking and biking trip with my 2 best friends. The 3 of us had been to Italy 36 years ago (when we were in college) and for many years have been talking about doing a return trip. We finally made it and had the best time. The cooking classes were taught by 2 chefs who run the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Florence. We had a blast! And to think it all started in your cooking class.
Gloria (Mom)
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