Musical pairing – Call Me Irresponsible, Michael Buble‘
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In an effort to broaden my baking skills, I’m now following along with more than 400 bakers in the blogging community to participate in Tuesdays With Dorie, which you can read about here. I’ve requested to join the group and be added to their list, but it’s not clear if they’re accepting new members so I’m just jumping in – I’ll be muddling my way through ‘Baking, From My Home to Yours‘, by Dorie Greenspan, baker extraordinaire!
Now about that cookie . . . If you give The Professor a cookie, you know from previous posts, he’s a happy camper, but give him this Chocolate Chip cookie . . . well, then he loves me forever; he’d love me forever even without the cookie but hey, it’s Fat Tuesday and I’m not giving him up for Lent!
What I really like about this particular recipe is that Dorie recommends purchasing a high quality chocolate bar and ‘chipping’ it yourself into various sizes before mixing them in by hand once the dough is all together. The cookie ends up with great texture as well as loads and loads of chocolate – far more than your typical 12 ounce bag. I had a bar of 61% Valrhona chocolate on hand so that’s what I used. And here I must confess that I’ve never been a fan of the semi-sweet chips in the yellow bag – and I know I’m gonna get comments for that one . . . but if I have an opportunity to redeem myself at all, I do like Ghiradelli chips and have used them from time to time, so I’m not a total snob, right? . . . ok, maybe just a little??? But in my humble opinion, the Valrhona chocolate send these cookies into another stratosphere – so if you can swing it, I highly recommend getting your hands on some.
I took one of Dorie’s variations and added coconut to the cookies giving them the taste of one of my favorite candy bars – Almond Joy – and Oh Boy! Dark, sinfully decadent, crispy edges with a chewy-soft center and melty-oozy chocolate in each and every bite. Repeat after me – ‘one for you, two for me; one for you, three for me’ . . . they are just soooo good. Resist the temptation to make these super-sized as they will spread too much and you’ll end up with a much thinner cookie (not that I tried it or anything). And if you find that you’re butter is overly soft creating a softer batter, just pop the dough into the freezer for about 15 minutes before baking. One more tweak I added was just a smidgen of Fleur de Sel on top of each cookie before baking; please don’t use regular or kosher salt as this will only result in a very salty cookie. Simply put: You. Must. Make.
Sigh . . . someday I hope to meet Dorie in person . . . but I think I’d faint from excitement!
By the way, you’ll have to zip over to Kait’s Plate, for this week’s recipe.
What’s your favorite cookie?
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Whatever it takes to get people to make cookies – I’m kinda shameless that way! And thanks for taking the time to stop by!
Ok, so now I’m going to have to make cookies today! Yummy!! I love your blog by the way!!
Funny you should mention the ‘radish’ Carol, as that was exactly why I chose to place that first photo where I did, so that people would see it as a tulip and not a radish! But I’ve also succeeded in getting you to look further, no? And yes, my excitement about meeting Dorie would be in that realm!
so Debra….on first glance of the cookie pic I thought Oh My Gosh – why would you put a radish on this plate of the most wonderful cookies ever….but then I looked closer : ) And….would you be as excited to meet Dorie as you were before you met the Gaithers??
Melissa ~ Valrhona is usually found in a food specialty store like Sur la Table; it can be ordered online as well but be prepared as it is pricey so I use it when I want something special! The Ghiradelli chips are more accessible (look for them in your regular grocery store), much cheaper and IMHO, far superior in taste than the yellow bag. Ghiradelli will do nicely in these, or any other chocolate recipe. Scharffen Berger is another high quality chocolate – and by high quality I mean that there is more cacao in the chocolate and less ‘filler’.
And where do I get a hold of that special chocolate you are talking about?