Restaurant Review: Dish Dash

Dish Dash - lunch on August 20, 2013

Every couple of months or so, I take my team out for lunch.  It's a chance for us to look up from the never-ending stream of spreadsheets and emails and talk to each other about topics other than work.  To get out of the office, relax and do that team bonding thing.  Oh and to eat good food and have dessert.

Inside Dish Dash Grill

We rotate the duty of scheduling the lunch and booking the restaurant but I think I've been slacking lately in having these so I took it on this time and asked for suggestions.  Someone suggested Dish Dash and meant their original location in Sunnyvale but I discovered they opened a new location that was closer to the office so that's where we went.

Hummus

I've never been to either location before and whenever someone hears I've never been to Dish Dash, invariably I get a "what, were you raised by wolves, you've never been to Dish Dash"? sort of reaction.  Every single person not only thought it was good but was baffled by someone who's never been there.  Honestly, it got to the point that I couldn't help my own eye roll and think "seriously, how good can this place be?" I usually find when something's hyped that much, that it rarely lives up to the propaganda. 2029 reviews on yelp adding up to a 4.5-star rating?  Really?

Okay, this is the part where I confess there was something in those 2029 reviews that averaged out to 4.5 stars. Yes, it was good.  We started off with hummus as an appetizer.  I didn't partake since I don't like hummus; they're made from chickpeas - cough, garbanzo beans, cough - so I passed.  But I did indulge in the flatbread that came with it for dipping into the hummus and I thought that was good.  Oddly enough, French fries were a menu option so I ordered that too.  Not that I had to have fries but it was so unexpected that I couldn't help but wonder what they'd be like.  I don't know much about Middle Eastern food but I assume French fries were not a regular part of their culinary offerings. The fries were good (hard to go wrong with anything deep-fried) but still a head scratcher for me as being on the menu.

French Fries

The kebabs, however, not only properly belonged on the menu but they were sublime.  I ordered the beef kebabs and they were chunky and tender.  Served on a bed of saffron jasmine rice, they were perfectly seasoned (but not spicy) and delicious.  I can understand the Dish Dash love on yelp.  Service was a tad bit slow but we were there at the height of the lunch rush so perhaps that was to be unexpected. I probably felt the timing crunch more acutely than normal because I was on call for a 1 pm meeting and we didn't get there until after 12.

Beef Kebabs

They also have vegetarian offerings and even if someone is leery of trying Middle Eastern food, there are enough "Americanized" offerings that it's a good choice even for people with cautious palates.  You might want to get there before noon though or go on a day when you have time for a more leisurely lunch.  Such was my rush that I didn't get to order dessert (insert lament here) so I have no commentary on that.  I will probably have to go back to Dish Dash and try a few different entrees before I join the incredulous "what, I can't believe you've never been to Dish Dash" crowd but based on the beef kebabs, that kind of research will be no hardship.  And next time, I'm getting dessert.

Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

Caramelized Sweet Potatoes - made August 27, 2013 from MarthaStewart.com

The food blogging world is much like the retail one in that it advances the season - you know, it's not even Halloween yet and the Christmas stuff is already up.  You can't find a winter coat in February but all the swimwear is on display. In food blogging, the goal is to get the seasonal stuff up before the season so people have time to find it, try it out, talk about it, blog their own version, etc. I mean, who makes heart-shaped baked goods in March or Easter baskets in June? I started noticing pumpkin baked goods on pinterest around the 4th of July that nearly freaked me out because I was still doing flag brownies.  I'm still writing up foodie places I've eaten at from August and I'm probably a good two weeks behind in posts about baked goods I've made.  So I'm typically perpetually behind.

But not this time - I'm ahead of the game with a Thanksgiving recipe, woot!  Okay, okay, it didn't start out being for fall or any holiday at all.  I was simply hankering for sweet potatoes last month and trying to talk myself out of buying some sweet potato fries which would in turn lead to a burger because you have to have something to go with the fries. To prevent myself from wandering down that path, I decided to buy sweet potatoes and make something with them. The funny thing is, I never used to like sweet potatoes at all.  I think the first time I had them was in mashed form and someone must've added a lot of sugar to them because all I could taste was over-sugared mush. No thanks.

My palate has evolved a little since then.  I still don't like mashed sweet potatoes but I do like them baked and, of course, fried.  For this experiment, I thought I'd try caramelizing them.  Yes, that would be adding sugar to sweet but I was really going for crunch as in, the sweet potatoes being caramelized in brown sugar would form a bit of a crunchy crust.  I've had them that way before (ironically it was on a tour of China and they were THE BEST I'VE EVER HAD) and they were stupendous.  I sniffed around on the web and came across this recipe from MarthaStewart.com. 

Martha usually knows her stuff and she wasn't wrong this time either.  I loved this recipe.  You can't taste the orange juice and I forgot to zest the orange to sprinkle on top of the caramelized sweet potatoes but they were good nonetheless.  They didn't really get crunchy but that could also be because I was afraid of cooking them too long and setting off my smoke alarm from burnt sugar (why yes, I do know what that's like).  But I did get some nice browning and caramelization before I took them off the burner.  The texture was just right, not overcooked or mushy and not undercooked or tough and I didn't think it was too sweet but just right.  I usually don't make any part of the Thanksgiving meal except for dessert but this year I think I'm going to shoehorn this in as a side dish. I'll take these over mashed potatoes any day.

2 tablespoons butter
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
3 ounces freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper
Zest of 1 orange

1. In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add potato wedges to the pan, and stir until coated with butter. Add 1 cup water and the orange juice; cover, and cook until potatoes are fork-tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove cover, reduce heat to medium, and continue cooking, tossing occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes more.
3. Combine sugars, and sprinkle over potatoes; toss until coated. Continue cooking until the sugar starts to caramelize and potatoes have a brown glaze, 5 to 6 minutes, tossing occasionally to prevent potatoes from burning. When caramelized sugar bubbles and browns around the edges, remove potatoes from pan. Season with salt and pepper, garnish with orange zest, and serve immediately.

Restaurant Review: Amarin Thai

Amarin Thai - lunch on August 22, 2013

Amarin Thai has three locations in the South Bay and the peninsula and, fortunately for me, one of those is within walking distance of my office.  I went here for lunch with a coworker when we both had time between meetings for the 10-minute walk. I prefer to walk here as they're in a small strip mall and parking is dicey during the busy lunch rush as they have to share the spots with other small eateries.  Walking is better.

This particular location is pretty humble as it's essentially a small room crowded with as many tables as they can fit in there.  I don't advise coming here with more than 4 people in your party as their largest tables only appear to fit four.  You can put tables together, of course, but seriously, this place is small.  The interior shot above was taken from the doorway and there are only 3-4 small tables to the left  that aren't in the picture.  Otherwise, there are also a few 2- or 4-top tables outside which can be utilized in good weather.

Like all places that cater to the business crowd at lunch, Amarin Thai has a lunch special menu along with their regular menu and they serve your order within a few minutes.  The longest I might have ever waited for an order was 7-8 minutes.  Each order comes with a cup of soup: a clear, spicy broth with chopped vegetables.  I almost always get the pad thai (of course), no bean sprouts with chicken and shrimp.  I'm a big fan of pad thai and Amarin Thai serves a good one.  Not quite as good as the one from my favorite Thai place (Krung Thai) but still decent.  It isn't fancy but if you want a quick lunch for $10, it's a good place to go.

Cashew Butter Cookies

Cashew Butter Cookies - made August 24, 2013 from Land O Lakes Cookies

I have certain prejudices when it comes to cookies.  The biggest one I've mentioned before is I don't like nuts in my cookies, especially in the thick, fat, chubby, chewy cookies I typically prefer.  Nuts are meant to be crisp and I don't like them in cookies because they steam and soften during baking.  Notable exceptions are macadamias as in white chocolate macadamia cookies or coconut macadamia cookies or other types of nuts (except walnuts) where they're part of a crisp cookie like almonds in the Lemon Chip Cookies or the Pecan Butter Shortbread or something like Mexican Wedding Cakes where the pecans are the star of the cookie.  I also don't mind nuts on top of cookies or brownies as long as they stay crisp and provide a texture contrast.

But every once in awhile, I try out a recipe that will challenge my prejudice, just in case it turns out so fantastically well that I'll be glad I kept an open mind. Hmm, this recipe didn't quite do that but for an unexpected reason.  It turns out I didn't mind the cashews in the cookies as I have a soft spot for cashews in my cookie-eating heart.  But I didn't like the honey.  I don't care for honey in sweets because I don't like the flavor of honey that much and most of the time, it's a little too sweet for me. I do like it in savory dishes, like when it's paired and offset with something salty like soy sauce.  But I've never been into baked goods like baklava because the honey makes it too sweet. These cookies weren't necessarily overly sweet but the honey flavor was definitely present so I didn't like these cookies as much as I had hoped.

However, I always maintain everyone's tastes are different so while I may not like something, it doesn't mean others won't like it.  I brought a plate of these to work and left them in our communal kitchen one morning.  A few hours later, I walked by and found this:

So someone must've liked them :).

¾ cup butter, softened

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup honey

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup chopped salted cashews

1.     Heat oven to 375˚F.  In large mixer bowl combine butter, sugar, honey and egg.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  Reduce speed to low.  Add all remaining ingredients except chopped cashews and cashew halves.  Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).

2.     By hand, stir in chopped cashews.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets; top each cookie with cashew half.  Bake for 6 to 9 minutes or until golden brown.

Restaurant Review: Pho 99

Pho 99 - lunch on August 18, 2013

This is another go-to place my parents and I lunch at after church on Sundays.  Similar to Li Zhou, it seems to be a small, independently-owned restaurant that doesn't have its own website so I'm linking to the yelp reviews.  The inside is simply furnished so don't expect fancy but they're clean and they're quick.

We like to get the fried Vietnamese spring rolls as an appetizer - they're 5 for $5.95 and come out fast, hot, crisp and just a little greasy.  I always blot with a paper napkin first then just enjoy them.

They do a good pho here if you're in the mood for hot soup that comes out almost as soon as you order it.  This particular Sunday I was more in the mood for an entree than soup so I ordered the grilled beef and shrimp rice plate.  The shrimp is rather sparse (you get 3) but the beef is tender and has good flavor. They also give you a fair amount of rice so it's a pretty good value for under $10.

As with most pho restaurants, they're fast, cheap and filling so they're the perfect place for a quick lunch.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Chickpea Cookies)

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made August 24, 2013 from Texan Erin

Let me start off by saying if I had titled these "Chickpea Cookies", you probably would've skipped this entry and kept on going. I would have too.  Chickpeas?  In cookies?  Heck, I had to google "chickpeas" and see exactly what they were.  Then I was even more turned off to discover they're just another name for garbanzo beans.  I have no love for garbanzo beans.  Just bad memories of my parents trying to make me eat them when I was a kid and me spitting them out into my napkin, excusing myself from the table on the pretext of having to go to the bathroom and flushing that napkinful of garbanzo beans down the toilet.  Ick.

So why on earth am I using chickpeas (less traumatizing for me to think of them as chickpeas instead of the garbanzo beans of my childhood) in something as sacrosanct as cookies?? If you've seen the picture of these from Texan Erin's blog, you'll understand why I felt compelled. Some people might want to try them because they're gluten-free, dairy free, and contain no white sugar. I made them because her picture of them looked so good. And a friend as good as dared me to make them.  So I did.

The only change I made from the original recipe is I used almond butter instead of natural peanut butter, mostly because I prefer almond butter and the recipe said it was okay to make the substitution.  So that's what my cookies came out darker than hers.  Otherwise, I followed the directions to the letter, including weighing out all my ingredients to the last gram.  I didn't want any excuses on this recipe and wanted to be able to judge it on its own merit, chickpeas and all.

Baked for 10 minutes

They actually turned out better than I expected.  As with the limited number of things I've made that are gluten-free, they're rather dense, soft and "fudgy".  There are no crisp edges to this one and I'd advise you to let  the cookies cool completely before tasting them or else they might be too gooey.  I baked the first batch for the 10 minutes directed in the recipe and it was a little too gooey.  I baked the second batch an extra 5 minutes with no discernible difference in taste and the texture was just as soft but not as gooey once it had cooled. I think these would be hard to overbake but you definitely don't want to underbake them either.  Taste-wise, you can't taste the chickpeas at all; it seems they just contribute to the texture and give the cookies some body.  The honey was also not prevalent which was good for me since I don't like the taste of honey.  I liked these cookies but I don't know if I could say I loved them.  If someone wanted something with no flour, no sugar and no dairy, this cookie is a good choice.  I don't know that I would add these to my holiday baking list but if I did need to bake for someone who's gluten free, I'm going with these cookies.

Baked for 15 minutes

1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter (don't use regular peanut butter) or almond butter, room temperature
¼ cup (80 grams) honey 
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
½ cup (90 grams) chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined.
2. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
3. With wet hands, form into 1½" balls. Place onto a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes (or up to 15 minutes). The dough balls will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven. They will not set like normal cookies.
5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 1 week.

Restaurant Review: Howie's Artisan Pizza

Howie's Artisan Pizza - dinner on August 16, 2013

I had never heard of Howie's Artisan Pizza before but the night I met my cousin and Vanilla King for dinner at Mayfield Bakery & Cafe, we passed by Howie's on our way to the Palo Alto Cream as Howie's was located in the same Town & Country Village just outside the Stanford campus.  They had a menu posted on the outside of the restaurant so we ventured a look.  Despite already being full from dinner and trying to save room for ice cream sandwiches for dessert, the menu looked mouth watering and we resolved to come back and try out Howie's.

Garlicky Prawns appetizer

I ended up trying it out first because when I met Lisa, one of my oldest friends from high school, for dinner last month, I suggested Howie's. Lisa was up for it and we have compatible eating tastes so it was easy to agree on Garlicky Prawns for the appetizer and we split the Baked Potato Pizza.  I don't have a picture of the inside of the restaurant because we never went in.  Howie's has outdoor seating and it was nice summer night with perfect weather so it was an easy choice to make to be seated outside.

Baked Potato Pizza

The Garlicky Prawns were delicious. As someone partial to shrimp, I really enjoyed them. It comes with garlic bread which can also be ordered as a separate appetizer but I'd go with the two-fer and get the prawns instead so you can have both.  The Baked Potato Pizza had scalloped potatoes, grueyere cheese and bacon.  It was also tasty although our choice of toppings was probably a bit more carbo-loading than I needed.  Potatoes aren't a typical pizza topping for me so I thought it would be interesting to try. Uh, tasted just like sliced potatoes on a pizza :). The crust was also good.  It wasn't as thick as Premier Pizza's but still a decent thickness with a crisp edge if you don't want to gorge on too much bread. Think of it almost like a perfect blend of flatbread and deep dish pizza.  It's got the crunch of flatbread pizza at the edges but also the satisfying chewiness of deep dish in the middle.

Price-wise, Howie's is inline with specialty, mom-and-pop places with good pizza so I didn't mind paying it. I'm always of the mindset that I'd rather pay a few extra bucks for good food made well than get the mass-produced cheap stuff which isn't very good or is only "okay". From their website, Howie's looks like they've been in business since late 2009 and, 4 years later, they appear to still be thriving by the crowd there on the Friday night we went.  It's also very family friendly (lots of kids in action) if you wanted to bring your family out for a good pizza night.

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough August 23, 2013, adapted from Crazy for Crust

Never let it be said I'll pass up trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Because I won't.  Especially when they're big cookies loaded with chocolate chips. And have brown butter.  And come from a food blogger whose taste seems so similar to my own and whose recipes I've tried before with much success.  This is no exception.  In fact, I'll even go so far as to say this may dislodge one of my previously favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies and take one of the top 2 spots for chocolate chip cookie greatness. It ranks right up there with Alton Brown's recipe in my book.

Actually, it might even have a slight edge over Alton's recipe although I may have to bake both and try them "side by side".  You know, just to be sure.  But for now, I'm going off of sensory memory.  My taste buds have excellent recall. Why do I like this particular cookie so much? Well, you all know my idea of an optimal chocolate chip cookie eating experience is to eat it warm, 10 minutes out of the oven.  Eat it too soon and it's more gooey than chewy, not to mention you burn your tongue (er, not that I would know or anything).  But give it 10 minutes to cool and the edges have had time to get a little crisp while the middle is still soft and the chocolate chips are still melt-y.  Yum.  But oftentimes, a good chocolate chip cookies 10 minutes out of the oven is only so-so once it's completely cool.  That's when I notice it's too sweet or the texture isn't quite so chewy at room temp or it stales too fast and less than a day later it's already dry.

This particular cookie was fantastic 10 minutes out of the oven but even better(!) once it had cooled. The taste held up as well as the texture.  I actually baked it a minute or two longer than Dorothy's original instructions because I preferred it a little more baked than gooey.  The only other thing I did differently was instead of mini chocolate chips, I chopped up a slab of milk chocolate into chunks and used that instead. So good. Like "extra miles on the treadmill worth it" good.

Just to show you how thick these cookies bake up, here's a comparison of one of the cookies against my iphone encased in its Otterbox - pretty chubby, eh? 

2 sticks butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract, optional (I left it out)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chunks)

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, about 6 minutes, until it becomes brown in color. It will foam, reduce, then foam again. Once it’s done cooking the foam is a light brown and it will dissipate after you remove it from the heat. Once it starts to brown, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn. Let sit for about 5 minutes to cool.
2. Pour into an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. While still hot, add both sugars and mix on low until combined. Let sit to cool for a few minutes.
3. While butter mixture is cooling, combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir and set aside.
4. Turn mixer (with butter mixture bowl attached) on low. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely. Mix in vanilla extract and almond extract (optional, but it adds great flavor). Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for at least 3 hours. (My alternative: I portioned the dough into generous-sized dough balls first, placed them in an upside-down plastic pie cover, covered them in plastic wrap then chilled them overnight.  This way you can bake them directly when you're ready.)
6. Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with parchment or silpat liners. If you didn't already portion your dough into dough balls, you may need to let the bowl of cookie dough sit at room temp for about 20 minutes before you can scoop it.
7. Scoop out 1/4 cup sized balls and place 6-8 on a sheet. They don’t spread a lot, but they’re BIG cookies.
8. Bake for about 11-12 minutes. They will be golden on the outside and still doughy on the inside. Let cool for 5 minutes, and then remove from pans to cool completely.

Eatery Review: Premier Pizza

Premier Pizza - lunch on July 31, 2013

I'm blogging out of order about the places where I've eaten but I didn't want to skip this one.  One of my coworkers and I went to get lunch near the office.  The main purpose of the trip (at least for me) was to go to Prolific Oven but since neither of us wanted to get lunch there, we opted for Premier Pizza instead.  Both are located in the same strip mall and we both had meetings until noon so we didn't arrive until the height of the lunch rush. 

Neither one of us had a lot of time for lunch since duty called back at the office but fortunately, Premier Pizza is quick.  You can order pizza by the slice of whatever is available at the time so there's no wait time for the pizza to bake.  This is also a good place to go to if you're hungry and on a budget.  One slice of pizza is $4.25 and the slices are huge!  It's literally a quarter of a pizza. For under $5, you can pretty much fill up for the rest of the day.  What I like about them is their crust; it's soft and thick crust but not too dense or hard. 

 

Premier Pizza also specializes in corporate catering and it's how I heard about them in the first place when my old company ordered in for lunch and I tried out their pizza.  They have four locations to serve the South Bay and Silicon Valley. They're a good option when you have to feed a lot of people at once and the different choices of toppings means you can easily accommodate both vegetarians and meat lovers alike.

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles - Baked Elements

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles - made dough August 18, 2013 from Baked Elements by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

It's September.  Not even the first day but the second.  Where did summer go?  Technically it still IS summer but let's face it, once it's Labor Day, summer's over.  Kids back in school?  I say break out the cookies for lunch boxes or after school snacks. Starting with these.

I love browned butter.  I have an almost Pavlovian response to it every time I read it as an ingredient in a recipe. I've made Brown Butter Snickerdoodles before but there's room in the universe and my blog for more than 1 version of it and anything from the "Baked" family of cookbooks has a good chance of being a winner.

I didn't even know there was a third Baked book out until a friend casually mentioned it.  You know my ears perked up and amazon was my destination before I drew my next breath.  Yup, sure enough, there it was: Baked Elements.  I think I must've lost a few minutes of conscious thought because the next thing you know, I was getting a confirmation email from amazon outlining the expected delivery date of my new baking book.  How'd that happen? I decided not to dwell on my lapse of consciousness it too closely but just rolled with it and waited for my book to arrive 2 days later (thank you, prime membership and free 2-day shipping).

I've made lots of snickerdoodles in my baking past.  I've even made lots of good snickerdoodles, modesty aside, and I know an 8-year-old Vanilla King who can attest to it.  But these are really, really good snickerdoodles. The browned butter gives them a decadent richness and I used fresh Vietnamese hoity-toity cinnamon from Sur La Table.  Snickerdoodle heaven.

Now you do have to chill these first but I do that with almost all cookies anyway.  The directions say to chill the bowl of cookie dough then when you're ready to bake, make them into dough balls and bake them.  I prefer to make them into dough balls first, depending on the softness of the dough.  If the dough is too soft, chill for 10-15 minutes then make them into dough balls and chill them for another 1 to 24 hours.  But don't chill them completely then make into dough balls.  Why?   Because it's much harder to portion out chilled dough than unchilled dough.  It's easier and faster to make them into dough balls then chill them.  Not to mention they'll chill a lot faster because they're now in individual dough balls instead of one mass of dough in a bowl.  And if you chill the whole bowl of dough, when you portion them into dough balls later, you sometimes have to thaw them a little to get the cookie dough malleable enough to be scooped out and then you just wasted/undid some of that chilling time.  I'm all for baking efficiency so I make the dough balls first then chill them.  If you're not going to bake these within a day of mixing the dough, just put the chilled dough balls into a freezer bag and store them in your freezer until you're ready to bake them.

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into ½” cubes

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon whole milk

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1. In a medium skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally until the foam subsides and the butter turns nut brown, 8 to 10 minutes.  Pour the brown butter through a strainer directly into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat the butter on medium-low speed to release the heat and bring it to room temperature, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and the salt.
3. In a small bowl, combine the eggs and milk and whisk lightly.
4. Once the butter is cooled, turn off the mixer, add 1 cup of the granulated sugar and the brown sugar and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again for a few seconds.  Turn the mixer to low and stream in the egg mixture.  Continue beating on medium speed until thoroughly combined, 30 to 45 seconds.
5. Add the flour mixture in three parts, beating after each addition for 10 to 15 seconds, or until just barely incorporated.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and gather dough into a mound in the middle.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 400⁰F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. In a wide-mouthed bowl, stir together the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of cinnamon until the mixture is uniform in color.
8. Using a small 2-tablespoon-size ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, scoop dough into balls and rolls the dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Place the cookies about 1 ½” apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the cookies are cracked and the fissures are set.
9. Set the pans on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes.  Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely.