Archives for August 2010
Such as a Simple Cookie.
14 August 2010 | chocolate, cookies, delicious, faithful readers, recipe, shameless self promotion | 11 Responses
I hear the phrase “the best thing I’ve ever eaten” thrown around, and ultimately, I call bullshit. I mean the notion of “the best” is a fake idea. With subject like food which is completely psychological, The best? Well how many tacos have you eaten, faithful readers? How many burgers have you consumed? Have you eaten enough chocolate chip cookies to definitively say that that is the best? The tradition of chocolate chip cookies is well documented, and who the fuck are you to say “this is the best.” Who the fuck am I for that matter?
As I re-read that last paragraph I realize that I to, am full of shit. Because you know what? Sometimes things are simply “the best.” Like my chocolate chip cookies. I know, I know. But they are. It’s like the old adage says: “if one person calls you a horse, tell them he’s crazy. If twenty people call you a horse, go buy a fucking saddle.” And so I have started to believe the hype about these little god dammits. We give them away for free at the restaurant, as part of out mignardises program, if you have dinner. I go through about three or four hundred a week. People come back in to purchase the cookies for a dollar a piece, not bad for a nineteen cent cookie.
The recipe is based upon a now classic by the famous Jacques Torres. I first tasted these years ago, brought to work for sampling by a very close friend of mine. The most important step in this recipe is the aging the dough. Jacques suggests between 24 and 36 hours, and up to 72. I imagine that this process would improve upon almost any cookie recipe, the flavor and texture improved by hydrating the flour. I have been told recently that even cake batters can stand to sit and hydrate for a while, a few hours in the fridge improving the quality remarkably. But that guy also boiled gelatin with a snarky look and kept his sugar and eggs mixed together in the fridge. These are things that i cannot bring myself to do, even if the pastry chef from Valrhona says I should.
I improve upon Jacques recipe in two simple ways. I substitute muscovado sugar for half of the amount of brown, and I use both semi-sweet and milk chocolate pistoles. Almost as important as the aging the dough is the selection of chocolate. Pistoles, disks, or feves are a must, as they create s sort of layering of chocolate unique to the texture of this recipe. Think you might want to skip the sprinkling of sea salt on top? Don’t. These are the best for a reason, and salt is part of that reason. I believe Jacques likes fluer de sel and I prefer Maldon’s but any quality, coarse sea salt would work. Also, batters of this nature always come together nicer when all your ingredients are at room temperature, even the eggs. A note on baking: I typically am baking these from frozen in a 300 degree convection oven. I like to pull them when they just puff up, and just barely start to brown on the edges. These are little guys too, maybe a tablespoon of dough. At that size they take about 12 minutes, with one rotation halfway through baking. If you make them bigger, they’re going to take longer. Our Chef at the restaurant enjoys the dough frozen, and I always smile when he grabs a handful. This recipe makes A LOT!! it’s a rim-rider in my 600 pro-series Kitchen Aid. You might want to cut it in half.
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Popcorn Ice Cream.
3 August 2010 | custard, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, recipe | 12 Responses
Does this look like barf to you? Does it remind you of that morning after close up you got of the contents of the toilet after that long night of too many PBRs and poor choices? Me too! But that’s not what it is. In fact, it’s popped popcorn infusing dairy product with its buttery goodness. Last year I had pretty good success with sweet corn ice cream in a blackberry float. The idea of a float on a summer dessert menu is always a welcome one to me, both refreshing and decadent if done right. So after several large bong hits and two bags of sour cream and onion potato chips I thought: “Dude…POPCORN…ICE CREAM!!”
To be honest, the process is quite easy and the results are quite rewarding. Sure, it takes three days. Sure it uses three bags of popcorn that you could have just eaten. But was Rome built in a day? Fuck no. Neither was a Raspberry Float. The frozen custard is smooth and creamy but toasty and buttery. It tastes just like it sounds. I decided to pair it with raspberries in the float, it just seemed natural, like raspberry cornbread. I wish the fucking thing sold better, I guess it just sounds too weird for people. Faithful readers know, though: I wouldn’t steer anyone wrong! I deal in delicious through and through people!! Now eat the shit!
Popcorn Ice Cream (makes a shit ton)
3 bags popcorn (no “light” bullshit. Use something that sounds bad for you.)
6 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
16 oz sugar
1 cup glucose powder (optional)
16 egg youlks
More half & half as needed
1. Pop two of the bags of popcorn and place in a large sauce pot. Add the half & half and heavy cream. Bring to a boil and cover, then kill the heat. Steep for thirty minutes.
2. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. Next day, pour the whole barfy mess into a chinoise and use the back of a ladle to push as much of the liquid through as possible.
3. Re-measure the cream and make up any difference with half & half. Pop the final bag of popcorn and place it in your large sauce pot. Add the popcorn milk and BTAB. Cover and kill the heat, Steep for thirty minutes.
4. Strain the dairy (use the ladle to push) again and re-measure. Make up any difference with half & half. Return to a pot and create a custard with the sugar and egg yolks. Review how to do this here, be sure to read the footnote.
5. Pour the custard into an airtight container and refrigerate over night to ripen the flavors.
6. Next day strain the custard again and spin it in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
You could serve this in a float, or simply in a bowl with berries and caramel corn. Have your friends over and surprise the living shit out of them with your culinary prowess. I promise, there will be no barfing.
