Sandy and I were going out east Christmas/Hanukkah eve day to attend a Christmas afternoon service with our fellow congregants from the North Fork Synagogue in Cutchogue.
If this first sentence is confusing to you, please feel free to comment and I can clarify.
Although Briermere was open this day, we apparently arrived to late for the pie and it was officially closed for the season. For that matter, every bakery had closed, including our new find in Jamesport....The Main Road Biscuit Company. Nuts...pun intended!
Just the day before, Sandy had coincidentally been looking at chocolate chip recipes on the computer and said simply..."It was meant to be". I looked at her questioningly and she said "just make some chocolate chip cookies".
Just as she said this we were passing an IGA supermarket in Southold and I asked "with nuts or
without"?
The next morning I got on the computer and, like many chefs do, researched recipes so I could figure out what ingredients seemed to fit my taste. Based on my yearly baking experience making thumbprint cookies with preserves and chocolate ganache every year for Thanksgiving, I had a pretty good idea how to choose my ingredients and gauge my proportions for cookies.
Most of the chocolate chip recipes I found contained the same and/or similar ingredients...give or take some butter...nothing specific on what vanilla to use...no mention of organic or non-organic...and nothing specific on the brand of flour to use.
What is not discussed with almost all recipes are the brand names of the ingredients used and, as a result, you are left to use any ingredient you choose. For me, the priority was as healthful as possible....thus the ingredients used are are here for you to see.
Price can dictate what you buy and sometimes location and timing can determine the final choice...as with me and the IGA semi-sweet chocolate chips. These chocolate bits actually 'looked' better, although the ingredients were basically the same as the others...ie...sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin and vanilla. Get this: they were on sale for $1.99 vs. $3.99 for Toll House or $5.69 for the well-regarded Ghirardelli. Since they all had basically the same ingredients, I went for the IGA. Either way, I'm not sure if the taste would have been different as the ingredients were virtually the same.
Another important question...pure vanilla extract vs. imitation vanilla extract? Let's put it this way, I've never use imitation as I believe a pure vanilla extract tastes the best for cookies and many other applications.
All recipes I read said use salt, however I chose not to use salt and relied on the small amount of sodium in my 'aluminum free' baking powder.
How about my number one pet peeve? Flour. Only UNbromated King Arthur for me and a guarantee of a better tasting and better for you end product!
One last point: I wanted to maximize the chocolate chip taste and used just a small amount of nuts for a subtle taste here and there.
I think you get the health thing by now...so let's get on with the recipe that turned out the best...yes, the best chocolate chip cookie I and our guests have ever eaten.
Ingredients
2- 4 oz. bars sweet unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 1/4 cups King Arthur flour
1/2 tsp. aluminum free baking powder (sprinkle & fork stir baking powder into the flour)
2 organic jumbo eggs (beaten)
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup organic light brown sugar
1/2 cup pure cane organic sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
No salt
Preparation
-Mix well with hand mixer both sugars into the butter...then add eggs...then add vanilla
-Add flour to mixture and mix well slowly
-Add nuts and chocolate chips and blend slowly until the nuts & chips appear to be spread out evenly. This step should last only about 10 seconds
-Refrigerate for about 30 minutes and then roll mixture into 1 1/4" size balls
-Place each one on a parchment paper lined baking sheet app. 2" apart.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until edges are almost golden. Turn baking sheet after the first 5 minutes and don't overcook.
Yum City!
-Yields approximately 30 cookies
As usual, PLEASE feel free to comment below. We would love to hear from any of you who have suggestions or an experience you wish to share
Mangia Baby!
Chef Bert
