Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #4 from Parsley Sage Sweet

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #4, made dough on February 24, 2017, adapted from Parsley Sage Sweet

Baking time just after middles are barely cooked

My saga to find a decent copycat of Levain Bakery's chocolate chocolate chip cookie continues. Although I'm finding that I need to space out the experiments a bit more than when I tried out chocolate chip cookie copycats. Mostly because I can't handle too much of the richness of the chocolate. At least if the cookie is done right. I need a longer break between getting my chocolate quotient. Which is fine because it does make me appreciate each new attempt a little more.

Took out a little sooner than normal

The good news is, while this still doesn't quite make it, it's closer than the others I've tried so far. Partly because I'm learning what to adapt and adjust/look for in a copycat recipe, especially regarding baking times, and partly because I think this recipe is genuinely closer.

What I learned with the previous attempts is, to replicate the Levain cookie with any accuracy, you can't make smooth cookie dough balls and bake as is. You either need to glop the dough mounds by hand and leave the rough, jagged exterior to bake as is or, if you make dough balls, break them in half and smush the rounded sides together to form the middle and leave the "broken halves" to form the outside, also garnering a more craggy appearance. That will help the craggy edges bake a little more and crisp up while the rest of the inner cookie remains fudgy dense.

Baked a little longer, cooled to just past lukewarm

For this recipe, you really need to underbake to get the fudgy texture. I tried a couple of baking times and the one that was the best at room temperature is when I took out the cookies even though the middles were just slightly still "wet looking". Usually I pounce and take them out a bare few seconds after the middles are no longer raw or shiny looking in the middle. For best results, I took these out a bare few seconds right before it seemed like they were past that stage. I don't have time estimates on the "perfect" time to take them out since all ovens are different plus it depends on how big you make your cookie mounds. But be sure to use a light-colored, thick baking sheet (USA pans are my favorite) and line with parchment paper.

Baked a little less time, cooled for several hours

This didn't maintain the crisp-crunchy exterior of a true Levain cookie but it's the closest one so far in terms of the dense interior. I'm starting to think a key component of that "crust" is to bake at high heat just long enough to set the outside but short enough to keep the inside fudgy, similar to baking bread where you have a crusty outside and a mealy inside. I care more about the inside but will keep experimenting with the outside.

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until well-blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Beat in cocoa powder.
2. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Divide dough into 4-ounce portions, cover and chill for several hours or overnight. 
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough portions. Bake 16-20 minutes or until middles are no longer raw and edges are set. Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on wire rack.

Brown Butter Toffee Cookies

Brown Butter Toffee Cookies - made dough February 21, 2017 from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

This was a more typical toffee cookie recipe that I had expected would turn out well. Or at least better than the Soft Toffee Cookies. And for the most part, it was fine. Brown sugar caramel overtones? Check. Not too sweet? Decent check. Plus you can't go wrong with browned butter. Ever.

However, I have to admit, this wasn't as good as the Toffee Crunch Cookies. This one was more like a typical chocolate chip cookie with toffee bits rather than an actual toffee cookie. It had a softer texture, not a crisp one. Surprisingly I liked the crisp texture from the Toffee Crunch Cookies because that suited the cooled, still-crunchy toffee bits when the cookies were at room temperature.

I made these smaller but they still spread to a uniform thinness that would actually be good as a sandwich cookie with nutella, caramel or cookie butter as a filling and sprinkled with more toffee bits on top of the filling before sandwiching with the second cookie. If you wanted to get a little fancy and surprise your eaters will both creamy and crunchy when they bite into the cookie.

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted and browned
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs
8 1.4-ounce Heath bars, chopped into 1/4" chunks

1. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar and salt. Add vanilla. Mix in warm brown butter and mix until sugar starts to dissolve. Add eggs and mix until combined. Add flour and baking soda; stir until just combined. Fold in toffee chunks.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or up to overnight. 
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden in color and tops start to look set, about 10 minutes.

Sour Cream Cake Doughnuts

Sour Cream Cake Doughnuts - made February 14, 2017, adapted from The Sweet and Simple Kitchen

I've always said I'm not a doughnut person. I have nothing against doughnuts but I don't love them enough to go to any extra effort to buy them and I don't really make them like I make brownies, cookies and cakes. I've even made pies more often than doughnuts and I rarely make pies. When Krispy Kreme first opened and doughnuts were such a huge thing, I got sucked in to try one just to see what the fuss was all about. It was good but I didn't see why people would line up for that or obsess about the "HOT" sign flashing. I mean, it was a doughnut.

Then, based on the recommendation of a coworker a few years ago, I tried Stan's Donuts. And, okay, wow, I could see why people liked doughnuts. I still wouldn't go out of my way for it (not really) but hey, it was a really good doughnut. Lately, as I took some time off between jobs, I'd taken to walking to my local library since I had the time and wanted the exercise. Stan's Donuts was across the street from my destination and I usually tacked on an additional walk to Target after the library so it didn't seem unreasonable to get a doughnut from Stan's in the midst of an 8-mile walk. Carbo-loading and all.

The original glazed doughnut, which Stan's loyal following lined up for and bought by the dozen(s) and inspired cult-like devotion (read their yelp reviews; they're hilarious), was as good as I remembered. Then, one day, I decided to try Stan's buttermilk doughnut. It's not as light as their yeasted original glazed and was more like a cake doughnut. But it was the best cake doughnut I'd ever had. Lightly glazed to add a bit of texture and sweetness, the doughnut itself wasn't very sweet. It wasn't bread-y or light-cake-y but had exactly the  right texture. My "I'm not that into doughnuts" mantra fell like a thud.

I started walking to the library and Target on the flimsiest of excuses just so I could buy a buttermilk doughnut from Stan's. Needless to say, I ate back every calorie I walked off. But it was worth it. So, of course, thinking I had awakened a hitherto latent love of doughnuts in my inner being, I decided to try out this recipe for Sour Cream Cake Doughnuts. I didn't expect it to be as good as Stan's (nothing ever is) but I could try, right?

Doughnuts are actually not that hard to make. They just take a little more time because you need to chill the dough, a bit more mess due to flouring and rolling out the dough, cutting out the doughnut shapes and you need to turn a blind eye to all the oil you'll be deep frying the doughnuts in. Stan's fries their doughnuts behind the counter for everyone to see so there would be no experiments with baking doughnuts here.

The recipe said to add lemon zest but I wasn't looking for a lemon doughnut but a plain doughnut so I left off the zest. I dutifully chilled the dough, rolled it out, cut out the requisite shapes (it's all about having fun with making doughnut holes) and fried with abandon. These were actually pretty easy to make. No messing about with yeast or waiting for a rise.

I dunked them in glaze and took a bite out of still-warm doughnut. So....first I'll say these weren't bad. If you like doughnuts, these are fine. Second I'll say, I remembered I'm not a doughnut person. These just weren't as good as Stan's Donuts and not worth the deep-fried calories to me. These didn't have the moist, fluffy but not too fluffy, cakey but not too cakey, tender texture of Stan's buttermilk doughnut. They didn't have the flavor of a Stan's doughnut. Actually, they didn't have much flavor at all. The glaze helped and that was fine but I couldn't get into the doughnut.

I'm glad I tried the recipe, if only to amend my previous mantra to something more accurate. I'm not a doughnut person but I'm a Stan's Donut person.

Sour Cream Cake Donuts
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup sour cream

Canola oil for frying

Vanilla icing
2 cups powdered sugar
enough whole milk to make a thin glaze (several tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; make a well in the center and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until pale and thick. Slowly add in the melted butter and beat until combined. Add half of the sour cream and beat to combine. Add the remaining sour cream and beat until smooth and just combined.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients and fold gently until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Spoon the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.
5. After chilling dough, heat a heavy-bottomed pot of about 2 inches of oil over medium heat to 350 degrees.
6. While your oil is heating up, lightly flour a cool work surface and turn out doughnut dough. Dust the top with flour and roll dough to about 1/2" thickness. Using a round cutter about 2 inches in diameter (or however large or small you want your doughnuts), cut out 12 doughnuts. Using a smaller round cutter, cut out the doughnut holes in the center of each doughnut. Roll any scraps and cut into doughnut holes; do not over-handle.
7. Once oil is 350 degrees, gently place 2-3 doughnuts at a time into the oil to fry. Flip after several minutes or when doughnuts are golden brown on the bottom. Continue frying until both sides are uniformly golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove doughnuts from fryer and let excess oil drip back into pan. Place cooked doughnuts on plates lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.
8. Make glaze but whisking together glaze ingredients. Dip warm doughnuts into glaze, let set slightly and dip again if you want a thicker glaze. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Below are pictures of the buttermilk doughnut from Stan's - my doughnut heaven.

Toffee Crunch Cookies

Toffee Crunch Cookies - made January 31, 2017 from Curiouser and Curiouser

After the Soft Toffee Cookie experiment, you'd think I'd lay off toffee cookies for awhile. Too sweet, remember? Do I listen to myself? Not really. Still had a bag of toffee bits to use, the one that was just straight toffee bits, not the one that was bits of milk chocolate toffee. I compensated by chopping up a toffee chocolate Cadbury milk bar slab I picked up last time I was running through Heathrow. Because London and chocolate....

Anyway, not only do I not listen to myself but I also went against instinct not to try this recipe because it only used granulated sugar for sweetening. In my experience, a cookie that only has granulated sugar typically ends up being too sweet. As opposed to also having brown sugar which would at least give you some caramel flavor, like a chocolate chip cookie. Did I listen to myself about that either? No.

The good news is listening to myself is overrated. Because the gamble paid off. This wasn't soft like the other toffee cookie but was crisp and crunchy in a good, chewy way. It wasn't too sweet (I've had sweeter) and was pretty good. Who knew?? The only thing I would suggest is to make these a little smaller than what I did. Normally I like to scoop out big cookie dough balls, at least the size of golf balls because I like thick, chubby cookies. But since these spread to uniform thinness, they made for large, thin cookies, something I normally don't like. But the taste and texture of these overcame my usual prejudice. I would make them into small dough balls to get normal-sized cookies.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (~8 1.4-ounce bars)

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add vanilla.
3. Add in the flour mixture until just combined then fold in the Heath Bar bits. Portion into dough balls slightly smaller than golf-ball size, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or freeze until ready to bake.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on sheet.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #3 from The Cultural Hall

Levain Bakery copycat #3 - Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - made January 31, 2017 from The Cultural Hall Podcast

First test bake

This is my next attempt at a Levain Bakery copycat for their chocolate chocolate chip cookie. Surprisingly, there aren't that many copycat recipes out there for the double chocolate cookie. Most copycat attempts have gone towards their original chocolate chip cookie. What I'm trying to recapture is both the crisp outside but, more importantly-to-me, their dense fudginess of the inside. I've made fudgy cookies before but the Levain fudginess is something else. It isn't just moist chocolate that has set. It's almost like a fudgy brownie in cookie form that married the best fudge. That's the best way I can describe it and what I'm seeking.

First test bake

First test bake

I'm not a scientist but I know enough about baking to believe that dense, fudgy texture is likely to come from less leavening, less beating or aeration of the cookie dough and enough flour to give it structure but not make it dry. I also wonder if some of the chocolate should come from melted baking chocolate rather than just cocoa powder but all of the copycat recipes I've found use cocoa so that's what I'm trying for now.

Second test bake

Second test bake

I baked 2 test cookies for this recipe at two different times on two different days. The first time, I think I baked it a minute longer than I should have. Not that it was overbaked or even fully baked but I wanted it more underbaked than it was. The texture was lighter than fudge, albeit not light enough to be considered cakey. The outside wasn't particularly crisp although there was a thin "crust" to it but not much of one. The first set of pictures shows that first bake.

The second time I didn't bake it as long and while the edges were set, the middles were just barely past "no longer raw" in the middle. Still a lighter-than-fudge texture when just barely lukewarm but when I ate the fully cooled cookie a couple of hours after baking, it had a more satisfyingly fudge-like texture. Still not as richly dense as the Levain original though. The drawback of waiting to complete coolness is while I could get closer to the inside texture, the outer crispness had softened and was gone. The taste was good but I haven't nailed the texture or outside yet. On to the next recipe.

Second test bake, just cooled to room temperature

Second test bake, a couple of hours after cooling completely

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks

1. Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy and well combined, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
3. Whisk together cocoa, bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks. Divide dough into 4-ounce portions. For a smooth exterior, roll into balls and form into thick discs. For a more ragged appearance like the original Levain Bakery cookie, roll into a ball, then separate into halves, "gluing" the halves together, smooth sides in, jagged edges out, by pressing together to adhere.  Cover, chill and refrigerate or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space cookies and bake for 16-18 minutes or until middles no longer look raw or shiny and edges are set. Cool completely.

Asian-Style Ribs

Asian-Style Ribs - made January 20, 2017 from Off the Shelf by Donna Hay

My mom is a great cook. And it's apparent when she makes ribs. I'm not even going to claim I made these because I didn't. But I'm going to put them up on my blog to capture the recipe in case anyone else wants to make amazingly flavorful ribs.

I don't know how she does it or what tricks she uses to have ribs, no matter which recipe she uses, come out so tender. She says she just bakes it long enough but I've tried that and ended up with chewy, stringy, dry meat on the bone. Hers are fork tender, moist and flavorful. Sigh. Let me assure you that cooking skills are not hereditary.

Fortunately, she shares what she makes with the rest of us so here you go - really good ribs with a simple marinade that imparts great flavor.

3 pounds pork spare ribs

Marinade
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or sherry
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 tablespoons sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the ribs into individual pieces.
2. Combine all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the ribs and toss to coat. Reserve the remaining marinade to brush over the ribs while cooking.
3. Place the ribs on a wire rack in a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then brush with the reserved marinade.
4. Bake for a further 20 minutes or until well browned and crisp (my mom baked them a little longer to get them more tender).

Baked Parmesan Sweet Potatoes

Baked Parmesan Sweet Potatoes - made January 24, 2017, modified from Lil Luna

I'm back with another sweet potato recipe because, you know, bag of sweet potatoes from Costco. And there are a million ways to make sweet potatoes. I've tried and tried and tried to make crispy sweet potato fries. Why aren't those efforts on my blog? Because they've failed. Spectacularly. I'm okay blogging my failures too but honestly, I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures. And yes, I've tried all the tricks from all the recipes that say "here's the secret to crispy sweet potato fries!" Um, no, I couldn't do it, not the cornstarch trick, not the soak or rinse or bathe in cold water trick or both cold water and cornstarch. You know when I gave up? When I freaking deep fried them and they still weren't crispy!!

Okay, deep breath. It's upsetting because you know I love sweet potato fries. But they mock me. Never mind. I now switch my attention to other ways to make sweet potatoes without going the crispy-fries route (mutter). Thankfully, I can pan fry and bake sweet potatoes with the best of them and these turned out to be delicious.

I did make a couple of modifications from the original recipe to fit what I had in my (Penzey's!!) spice drawer. I used paprika instead of Italian seasoning and sprinkled tarragon instead of parsley. (Hey, they were still bits of green.) They turned out beautifully. The pictures aren't very good but believe me, the sweet potatoes were. As long as I'm not making sweet potato fries, it's hard to go wrong with sweet potatoes.

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Tarragon or parsley (I used tarragon)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place garlic, oil, butter, salt, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning in a ziploc bag and mix well.
3. Add sweet potato cubes and shake until well coated.
4. Place cubes onto cookie sheet in single, even layer. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until fork tender.
5. Serve warm and sprinkled with dried parsley if desired.