Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I've made (and eaten) more chocolate chip cookies in my lifetime than is morally acceptable. During a summer spent assisting in a pastry kitchen in Manhattan, it was my primary task to produce the salad-plate sized stunners (their signature item) for the daily line out the door. It was only in this grueling repetition that I gained confidence in two facts:

First, that letting dough rest for 24-72 hours contributes to a VAST improvement in cookie quality. For a genius breakdown of all the scientific reasons for this (and every other cookie element) consult this beautiful amalgam of baking science. 

Secondly, that you are entirely in control of where your cookie falls on the many sided taste and texture spectrum: chewy<>crispy, thick<>thin, cakey<>doughy, salty<>sweet, and perhaps the most debated: how much chocolate is too much? This recipe is for my perfect chocolate chip cookie, which is to say one with a dense structure, a crisped caramelized edge, a slightly doughy center, a hearty dose of flaky sea salt and a modest amount of chocolate. The humble cookie is a playground for contrast and I happen to think the gargantuan shingles of chocolate that are trending these days drown out the subtle, buttery delicacy of a really incredible dough. 

So there you have it. Make these cookies on a day where self-restraint is high, stick them in the fridge for a day or four and then watch (and smell) as they bake their way through the miracle of the Maillard Reaction.

Ingredients

• 8oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp good vanilla extract 
• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips 
• Maldon sea salt (optional garnish)

Method

Source: Adapted from "Seven Spoons" by Tara O'Brady

1. Melt your butter very slowly on a low flame until no solids remain, but before it bubbles.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well and set aside
3. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and both sugars. Whisk to combine until the sugar has broken down and the mixture is smooth. Then, add your eggs one at a time, whisking well to combine. Lastly, add your vanilla and give it one last whisk. 
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and, using a spatula, gently fold until the flour begins to disappear. Stop before it disappears completely, add your chocolate chips and then give it a few more stirs.
5. Lay out a large sheet of wax paper on your counter top, plop the mound of cookie dough into the center of the sheet and use the wax paper to wrap it like a log. No need to fuss here--it's nothing but a storage method. Once you have the log, twirl the ends (like a tootsie pop) and plop the whole thing into a large ziplock bag and into the fridge until you're ready to bake. (24 hours minimum, 72 max before moving to the freezer for later use)
6. When ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 360 degrees F and line your baking sheets with parchment. Pull off balls of dough and roll into balls of your desired size. I find the sweet spot for size is about 3.5oz of dough, wielding finished cookies the size of CD's, but they work just as well in smaller format. 
7. Line up your dough balls on your parchment-lined baking sheet and very gently (with only the heel of your palm) give each one a little smush. You want the surface to remain flat, but the entire mound to become more of an plateau, less of a ball. Sprinkle some crystals of maldon sea salt atop the raw dough and bake for 10-12 minutes-- and remember, cookies will continue to bake from residual heat once removed from the oven, so always err on the side of under-done. 

Love Bait (Chocolate) Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Normally I'm not the sort to insinuate that a one can cook their way into a relationship, but this bundt is far from the creamed jello molds of a fifties edition "How To Catch a Man" home-ec book. It's bold, naughty, decadent, sinfully moist and scarcely able to hold in its bountiful crumb (see above evidence). The batter is dominated by high-quality dark chocolate, laced with espresso and tenderized by a hearty dose of buttermilk. A hint of bitterness in the ganache glaze perfectly contradicts the sweet cake, and while this chocolate bomb is a strong independent woman who needs nothing to thrive; some real whipped cream and a few ripe raspberries certainly don't hurt. 

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 3 ounces (85 grams) high quality dark chocolate (65-72%)
• 1.5 cups strong, hot coffee
• 2.5 (500g) Sugar
• 2.5 cups (315g) Cake Flour*
• 1.5 cups (130g) high quality, unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 3 large eggs (at room temp)*
• 3/4 cup neutral oil (Grapeseed, Canola, Vegetable)
• 1.5 cups Buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla 

For the Ganache Glaze

• 3oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. and prep your pan with butter or cooking spray and a light dusting of flour. (This is one sticky cake, so get it good and greased)
2. Finely chop chocolate, set in a small bowl and pour the hot coffee on top. Let mixture stand, whisking occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
3. In a large bowl, sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat the eggs on medium-high until they go a darker yellow and thicken slightly (about 3 minutes).
5. Add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs one by one, beating until incorporated.
6. Add your dry mixture to the wet ingredients in two rounds, stirring until the clumps have only just disappeared. Be v. chill about this and don't over mix or you'll get tough cake!
7. Pour gently into your prepped bundt pan and toss that puppy in the oven for 60-70 minutes (start testing at 55) or until a cake tester/toothpick/sharp knife comes out clean. 
8. Once cake has cooled, set about making your glaze. Get your heavy cream nice and hot on the stove top and pour it over the 3oz of bittersweet chocolate. Give it a moment to do its melting and then start to whisk until all the chocolate has melted and the mixtures' gone a lovely homogeneous brown. Add the vanilla and your cubes of butter and continue stirring until butter is melted and the ganache is shiny and smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes (you want it thickened but still warm enough to pour).
9. Set your cooled cake on a cooling rack (so that the runoff ganache can drip off instead of puddling around the edges of the cake). Then, take a ladle (or large spoon) full of the ganache and move it slowly around the center line of the cake ring. As for those perfect streaks, the cake will do all the work for you--so long as you keep your pour steady, the ganache will naturally flood down the valleys in the sides of the cake, forming a lovely uniform pattern.  

Notes

• Cake will keep for 2-3 days (well covered of course)
• Though it produces a more tender crumb, if you don't have cake flour, you can definitely substitute sifted AP flour. It will still be delicious. 
• If you don't have an electric mixer, you can absolutely do the whisking of the eggs + wet ingredients with a little elbow grease, the old fashioned way.
• This batter would work just as well for a two-layer (9inch round) cake with the filling and frosting of your choice.