Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Disney Diner

Chocolate Chip Cookies - made March 25, 2018, modified from The Disney Diner

Chalk this up as a good chocolate chip cookie recipe but mine didn’t look anything like the picture from the original blog I got it from. My dough was a bit soft but I made it as the recipe instructed so not sure what happened.

This is a slight variation on the typical chocolate chip cookie in that it uses powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. Since powdered sugar is more refined than granulated sugar, I expected a bit more spread and sweetness. Which I got. But this was still a good cookie.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Milk chocolate chunks or chips or semisweet, your choice

1. Cream together butter, brown sugar and powdered sugar. Beat in egg, water and vanilla. Add flour, salt and baking soda, mixing until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips or chunks.
2. Portion into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze several hours or overnight.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake the cookies at 400 degrees for 2 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until edges are brown and middles are no longer raw. Do not overbake.
4. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Bakery Review: Jane the Bakery, San Francisco, CA

Jane the Bakery - visited March 24, 2018

One of my favorite things to do is to discover and try out new bakeries, whether I’m at home or traveling. It’s even better if I can walk there and burn off some calories before and after I consume whatever the “new” bakery has to offer.

I have a whole list of bakeries in San Francisco I want to try but I have to limit myself to 1 or 2 at a time because I know I can’t eat all the things. For this particular trip, my first stop was Jane the Bakery. It had appeared on a list of “best bakeries” and “top bakeries” and “must-try bakeries” in San Francisco and that’s pretty much all I need to put it on my list.

It had the added advantage of being just over a mile and a half from the Powell St BART station so it was a good chance to get my steps in before I downed the expected hefty calories. Granted, part of that walk took me through the Tenderloin but it was daylight on a weekend and it was fine. Thankfully the rain had also cleared up and most of the walk was in nice weather, not too hot, not too cold.

There are three locations for Jane’s and this one on Geary Blvd used to be an old KFC. I might not have thought of it if I hadn’t known beforehand but when I got there, I could see the KFC skeletons. The customer area was a bit small and narrow. There was a line just outside the door when I arrived late morning and the line folded into itself as it wound from the center cash register to along the display cases to double onto itself closer to the window and out the front doors. I hadn’t expected a line or a crowd but it didn’t take too long and the wait gave me some time to peruse the offerings and take pictures.

It's always hard to decide what to get at a new bakery. There are always so many choices and much as I’d like to, no matter how loose (or not) my waistband is, I know I could never eat everything I want to. No point in eating myself sick. Plus this was my first stop of two so I had to pace myself.

I ended up getting the Nutella Brioche and a hefty slice of the banana bread. Now, I rarely buy someone else’s banana bread since I like the recipe I have and can make a good banana bread on my own. But I wanted something easy to eat on the walk and I didn’t feel like having a cookie (although those looked good too). But contrary to that practical advice, I accepted it for the banana bread but completely ignored it for the Nutella Brioche. Because that was hard to eat on the run (or walk) yet I bought it anyway.

Similar to the Nutella Brioche I had from Jean PhilippePatisserie in Las Vegas, this was a brioche bun stuffed with Nutella. The brioche itself was quite good, not too heavy, not too rich (to me) and it had some kind of crumbly topping which made it messy to eat while walking. I’m sure birds followed me, picking up the Hansel-and-Gretel trail I was leaving behind me as I walked to the next bakery on my list. Did I mentioned this was stuffed with Nutella? As in a good, HUGE dollop of Nutella inside. No dainty filling here but enough Nutella that it oozed out and I almost lost half of it on the sidewalk because I hadn’t expected the waterfall pouring forth. No complaints here.

In hindsight, I should probably have saved the Nutella brioche to eat at home but I was hungry and that was what I was hungry for so I ate it while walking and kept on trucking. It did fill me up enough that I ended up not eating the banana bread until I got home. Go figure.

The banana bread was also good. It was similar in flavor to the banana bread I made although not as sweet. But it was more sturdy than mine. Not tough or dry but not overly moist either. It had good texture and if you like banana bread, this is a good option.

Nutella Brioche

Next time I go back, I probably want to try some of the Jane the Bakery breads or their brunch croissant. Those looked good too.

Banana Bread

Nutella Dream Cake

Nutella Dream Cake - made March 11, 2018, modified from Cleobuttera

My obsession and preference for feuilletine continues. I had to order a second container of the stuff to try out this recipe. At first I was skeptical of making the cake layers. The base was a cake mix and you know how judgy I am about grocery store box cake mixes. But there were enough added ingredients to it that I figured my snobby taste buds could deal.

Second moment of pause is when I baked these for only 20 minutes and the toothpick test came out almost completely clean. Did I overbake them? Were they going to be dry? Ugh. But thankfully, my paranoia was unfounded. In fact, I discovered the cake came out pretty well, was moist, had a good crumb and was appropriately chocolaty.

I simplified my version of the cake from the original blog several ways. I used the Nutella-feuilletine layer as the bottom layer as directed although I didn’t see the need to freeze it since it set just fine at room temperature. But I only used two of the three cake layers for the rest of the cake as I didn’t want the cake to be too tall. A towering cake looks impressive but once you start cutting it, things can go south really fast (ask me how I know). I didn’t cut each layer in half either but just went with them as is. That’s because more layers mean more frosting between the layers and I want more cake, not more frosting.

I also omitted the Nutella sauce. Instead, I frosted the feuilletine layer with straight Nutella then used the Nutella frosting as the filling between the cake layers and the overall cake. I also frosted the third layer and presented that as just a plain cake.

Despite all my simplifications, this was a really, really good cake. As in, when I brought it into work, I got a lot of compliments on it, getting stopped in the hall, people cursing me for ruining their diets (yeah, I’m that coworker), others sneaking in a second piece. I liked the contrast of the crunchy feuilletine layer on the bottom, the Nutella and chocolate combination of soft cake and I even liked the frosting. It was a bit too soft to use to pipe decorations (I tried and the results were disastrous) so I simply used it just as frosting and gave up on any fancy decorations.

Nutella Crunch Layer
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon Nutella
2 1/2 cups (7 5/8 ounces) feuilletine

Cake
1 15.25-ounce box chocolate cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups water
1 cup sour cream

Nutella Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups Nutella
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (4 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup Nutella

1. Make the Nutella Crunch Layer: Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper then spray with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the chocolate chips and butter; melt over a double boiler set over hot water.
3. Stir in the Nutella until well combined. Add in the feuilletine and gently stir into the Nutella mixture to coat.
4. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Cover with plastic wrap then chill in the freezer until set and a firm layer, at least 30 minutes. Keep chilled until ready to assemble cake.
5. Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Line three 8-inch cake pans with parchment rounds and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
7. In a large bowl, whisk together the cake mix, flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt until well combined.
8. Add in the eggs, vanilla, oil, water and sour cream. Beat at low speed until all ingredients are combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl to keep even-textured. Beat for 1 minute longer.
9. Divide batter equally between prepared cake pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
10. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto a plate, peel off the parchment paper and reinvert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Make the frosting: in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt chocolates.
12. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add in the cream cheese and beat until smooth and well combined, about 1 minute.
13. Add in the Nutella and mix until completely incorporated. Add in the melted chocolate and mix until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a cool place until ready to use.
14. Assemble the cake: take the Nutella crunch layer out of the freezer, remove plastic wrap and parchment and place in the middle of a cake board or large cake plate.
15. Frost the crunch layer with a thin layer of the 1/2 cup Nutella. 
16. Place the first cake layer over crunch later. Top with 1/2 cup of the Nutella frosting.
17. Repeat with remaining layers. Frost entire cake with remaining Nutella frosting.

Vanilla Bread Pudding

Vanilla Bread Pudding - made March 4, 2018, modified from Recipe Tips

Bread pudding is one of those desserts that may not be very photogenic but tastes better than it looks. Not that it looks bad, necessarily, but it just looks humble. Unassuming even. But it’s a tasty dessert. That is, if you like French toast on steroids. Because that’s what a good bread pudding is.

For this one, I went plain vanilla. Mostly because I had milk I wanted to use up and not much else to flavor the bread pudding with. No mashed bananas, no caramelized apples, no toasted pecans. Fortunately, this vanilla bread pudding is still freaking delicious.

The only downside is bread pudding in any flavor is a heavy dessert. So maximize the caloric enjoyment and have bread pudding at its peak: when it’s still lukewarm so that the custard has had time to firm up and isn’t too mushy but the top still has some crunch from baking. Bread pudding is often serve chilled but that takes out the crunchy crust factor. I like the best of all worlds by having it still lukewarm and I’ve softened the top crusty part with a warm vanilla glaze. Worth that extra workout in the gym.

6 cups cubed challah (1 full-size loaf)
3 cups whole milk
6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons milk or more until of thin, pourable consistency

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13" casserole.
2. Combine milk and butter in saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Whisk smooth.
3. Combine sugar, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon. Temper in milk, a ladleful at a time, whisking until mixture is combined,
4. Place a single layer of cubed bread in casserole dish. Pour milk-custard mixture, covering bread completely. Add another layer of bread and alternately pour custard over bread, layering until all bread cubes have been added. Cover with remaining custard mixture, ensuring mixture has soaked through all bread pieces.
5. Let sit for 10 to 20 minutes then place in preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until center is set. Cool to lukewarm.
6. Make glaze: whisk together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and combined. Pour over lukewarm bread pudding, cut and serve.