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Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

29 Aug

A storm is was brewing. With cabin fever hitting me hard, I found myself baking and eating all weekend long. Would the power go out? Would we really be stuck inside all day long waiting for the hurricane to destroy Manhattan before our very own eyes? Alas, I think I slept through the worst of the storm. It was not a terribly destructive storm. On the good side, I was prepared with these salted chocolate chip cookies and some homemade peach pie (recipe from Joy) with vanilla ice cream just to be sure we were well-desserted.

Every person has his/her own preference for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. A lot of the differences in baking depend on the temperature of the dough before it goes in the oven. Cold dough works best in my experience. If you are looking for a more soft and cake-like texture reminiscent of an old-school Toll House chocolate chip cookie, you might also be interested in these classic chocolate chip cookies.

I made the dough for these salted chocolate chip cookies at the beginning of the week and have slowly been baking the cookies off little by little. Just as they came out of the oven, I sprinkled a few flecks of sea salt over the top of the cookies. That salty sweet combo…it always gets me. (See: cocoa brownies with sea salt)

Make. Bake. Dunk. Eat. Repeat. Enjoy.

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

from DavidLebovitz

makes about 2 dozen cookies, well, depending on how much raw dough you nibble on, and depending on how large you bake your cookies

If you are using unsalted butter, 4 ounces (8 tablespoons, or 115g) of butter has about 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon of salt in it.For the rest of us, you could simply swap out unsalted butter and add another 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt.4 ounces (115g) salted butter, at room temperature (I used unsalted butter)

2/3 cup packed (110g) dark or light brown sugar

1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup (180g) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or kosher salt (I used 1/2 t. sea salt and 1/2 t. kosher salt)

1 1/3 cups (200g) coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I just used chocolate chips)

optional: 1 cup toasted nuts, coarsely chopped

more sea salt, for sprinkling on top just after the cookies come out of the oven

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar just until smooth and creamy.

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. Stir the flour mixture into the beaten butter until combined, then mix in the chopped chocolate (including any chocolate dust) and the chopped nuts.

5. Cover and chill the batter until firm. (It’s preferable to let it rest overnight.)

6. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

7. Form the cookie dough into rounds about the size of a large unshelled walnut. Place the mounds evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets, and press down the tops to flatten them so they are no longer domed and the dough is even.

8. Bake the cookies for ten minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies look about set, but are not browned.

9. Remove from the oven and quickly tap the top of each with a spatula, then return to the oven for two to five more minutes, until the tops of the cookies are light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool.

Storage: The cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to five days in an airtight container. The dough can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for one or two months. Feel free to keep the dough and just bake off a few cookies at a time. Moderation, folks.

>Drool-Worthy: Alice Medrich’s Best Ever Cocoa Brownies

21 Apr

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So I am going to describe something and you are going to drool. Ready?

Browned butter cocoa brownies with walnuts, pecans, and chocolate chips mixed in, sprinkled with flaky sea salt, and baked until a cracked in all-the-right-places top develops. Fudgey, moist, rich perfection. The sinfully sweet balance of gooey and chewy, of salty savory dark and sweet. Oh, and this is a one-pot recipe. And you don’t have to clean the baking pan after baking.


How’d I do?

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter
Adapted from The Cilantropist, originally from Bon Appetit, February 2011, recipe by Alice Medrich

***My adaptions are in bold


 1 1/4 stick unsalted butter (10 tbsps) cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 teaspoons water
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup pecans (I used a mix of pecans and walnuts), chopped
~1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Extra sea salt for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, and line the inside of an 8×8 square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving 2-inch overhangs and pressing the foil tightly to the sides of the pan. (If you like spray the aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray, though I didn’t find this necessary.)

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, stirring often. The butter will first melt, then foam, then form more clear bubbles. Once the butter has only bubbles (and no foam) and there are browned bits at the bottom of the pan, remove the butter from the heat. Stir in the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, salt, and 2 teaspoons water. Let the mixture sit for about 4-5 minutes to cool, then mix in the eggs one at a time, beating quickly after each addition. Once the chocolate mixture looks relatively smooth, mix in the flour, and then beat well for a few minutes. Mix in the chopped nuts, and transfer to the prepared pan, smoothing the top before baking.


Bake for about 30 minutes or more, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean – if there is still a tiny bit of moist batter at the very bottom that is ok. Remove the brownies from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack. Once cool, remove the brownies from the pan using the aluminum foil overhangs; then pull the aluminum foil away from the brownies and cut them into 16 square pieces. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container.

>Demo: Flourless Chocolate Cakes + Homemade Whipped Cream

3 Mar

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6 cakes, over 150 samples, and a 30 minute demo in front of a large room of UC Berkeley students. The Cal Cooking Club.

I arrive a bit flushed from my hectic walk over. My skin is damp with a few drops of sweat, leaving my glasses to slip down my nose every few seconds. Alas, I made it through my demo without burning down the building and spilling chocolate on my blouse.



Flourless chocolate cake. This dessert makes it on the menu at work very often. It is just a simple, comforting, chocolatey delight. And it is such a great base for experimentation and dressing up the plate: Rosemary caramel sauce anyone? Creme fraiche with candied orange peel? Brandied cherry and slivered almonds? Pine nuts, whipped cream, and olive oil (a favorite of mine!)?! The possibilities are endless with this simple base. It could even be fun experimenting with different chocolates-I usually use bittersweet, but I would love to see what you can do with semisweet, dark, even milk chocolate!



Please. If you like to cook, if you like to bake, if you like to eat, do it, enjoy it. Keep cooking. Cook with friends, with family, with strangers. Go into a restaurant and chop garlic all day. Throw dinner parties. Go to happy hours. Go out and try some new food that you would never think to make at home.

Go home and make flourless chocolate cake. You won’t regret it. I promise.

Flourless Chocolate Cake/Torte



(thanks, Kiri!)

9 oz. (about a heaping cup) Bittersweet Chocolate (at work I use Callebaut or Valrhona brand, but I am also a fan of Trader Joe’s chocolate as well as Ghiradelli)

9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

5 Egg Yolks

½ Cup Sugar

1 ½ Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

¼ Teaspoon Sea Salt

½ Teaspoon Vanilla

5 Egg Whites

In a bowl over a pot with barely simmering water, melt butter with chocolate. Let cool slightly.

In a mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks with sugar until very thick and pale (you can also do this by hand).

Meanwhile, add the cocoa powder (sift if lumpy) to the chocolate-butter mixture with sea salt and vanilla.

Fold beaten egg yolks into chocolate mixture.

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks, being careful not to overbeat. Your whites will looks white and thick (you’ve gone to far if you start to see curdled chunks). Fold into chocolate mixture and pour into a parchment-lined 9” round pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F until edges are slightly puffed and cracked, and middle is set but just slightly jiggly, about 30 minutes. Let cool (cake will fall slightly). Cut into slices with a hot wet knife (I’ve heard floss works, too!).

May be wrapped well and refrigerated for several days. Serve at room temperature.

Suggested servings: with whipped cream, caramel sauce, or a personal favorite olive oil and whipped cream. Or add chopped toasted nuts (hazelnuts, pine-nuts…).

Homemade Whipped Cream


1-2 cups heavy whipping cream

about 4 Tablespoons sugar

In an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whip your cream until thickened and to your liking. Add the sugar and stir for another 10-15 seconds.

Serve atop flourless chocolate cake!



Thank you to Cal Cooking Club for this wonderful opportunity!

>Valentine’s Day Dessert to Die For

13 Feb

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Brownie Pudding. Amazing. Make it. Eat it. Love it. With your lover, with your loved ones, or just with your lovely self!

Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet

21 Jan

Oh yes, this dripping cone of chocolate heaven is SORBET. No cream, no milk, no egg yolks…but no skimping on the rich chocolate flavor. Oh no, no skimping. This is as pure as a frozen chocolate treat can get. Joanne Chang, the owner of a popular Boston bakery called Flour is responsible for this bittersweet chocolate sorbet recipe. She describes the taste perfectly: “It tastes like a frozen deep, dark chocolate bar.” Oh, lordy I couldn’t describe it better myself!

I was just in New York and discovered that there are some REALLY GOOD hot chocolates to drink out there. Like REALLY REALLY GOOD, especially when you dip a pretzel croissant into your hot chocolate. This sorbet tastes like the dark hot chocolates that I was drinking just a few weeks ago, but frozen.

I had some organic vegan ice cream cones on-hand that I used to make red velvet cupcake cones a short while ago, and these cones were a great way to enjoy this bittersweet chocolate sorbet.

I very much enjoy the process of making ice cream. I like the whole heat the milk, temper in the egg yolks, and pour into cold cream thing. But with this sorbet, I get to do the make a nice caramel, add some cocoa powder, and pour everything over chopped chocolate thing. I like this, too.

Chang provides a nice food-science explanation for using caramelized sugar instead of pure sugar in her bittersweet chocolate sorbet recipe:

“…caramelize the sugar before combining it with the sorbet base. Because there is no cream or milk in this recipe, it is a challenge to create a smooth, creamy texture. Caramelizing the sugar means you can use more sugar than you would normally (since straight sugar is pure sweet and the sweetness of the caramelized sugar is offset by its characteristic bitterness). The extra sugar-disguised-as-caramel helps to lower the freezing point of the sorbet base, which means it won’t freeze solid. The result is a creamier, softer, not-icy treat.”


Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet

from Joanne Chang’s book, Flour

makes about 1 quart

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

3 1/2 cups (840 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

4 ounces (114 grams) bittersweet chocolate (60-70 % cacao), finely chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Put the sugar in the bottom of a medium saucepan. Add 1/2 cup (120 grams) of the water and gently swirl the pan to moisten the sugar. Place the pan over high heat and leave it undisturbed until the contents come to a rolling boil. Then continue to boil rapidly without moving the pan until the sugar syrup starts to caramelize. This will take 3 to 4 minutes: the sugar syrup will boil furiously, then as it thickens it will boil more languidly, and then you will see some of the syrup start to color and darken around the edge of the pan.

When you see color in the pan, gently swirl it in a circular motion so the sugar caramelizes evenly, and then keep swirling gently until the caramel is a medium golden brown. Turn down the heat to low and slowly and carefully add the remaining 3 cups (720 grams) water. Be careful, because it will sputter and spatter when it hits the caramel. The caramel will harden at the bottom of the pan; turn up the heat to high, bring the mixture back to a boil, and whisk for a few minutes until the caramel fully dissolves. Then whisk in the cocoa powder until fully dissolved.

Place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the hot caramelized liquid over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute, then whisk gently until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a container, and whisk in the vanilla and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until cold.

Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Sorbet can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 week.

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