high-bar baking

Anyone else been listening to The Tortured Poets Department and trying to figure out which ones are any good? 

“Just me? Ok.” 😉

“Call the amateurs / and cut ‘em from the team,” y’all. We don’t mess around in my kitchen. 

Every since I read in South of Broad how Conroy’s character and his dad record with little stars each time they make a recipe, I’ve started doing that in my cookbooks. Just like his favourites in the story, this one of mine is on its way to having its own constellation in the top margin. Sarah’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie is one of those go-to pinch hitters. When I need cookies yesterday, this is the recipe I turn to. Stunningly perfect every time, they don’t require any resting. Hardly any effort and always guaranteed to please. 

Browning the butter is very important. There’s no reason, in a quick chocolate chip cookie, to use melted butter and not browned. I’ve seen it done, and it’s always a mistake. You’re already there — take it all the way. You need the flavour base. I use around 6 ounces of chocolate instead of 8, because at 8 I feel like you start to have more of a mass of chocolate loosely stitched together with dough and less of a cookie. These seemed really white to me when I was baking them, but it was at time and I didn’t want to over bake them (please don’t), so I pulled them. They were normal and fine; I think the white was just from context. Usually when I make CCCs they’ve been rested, and when they’ve rested they’re always darker. 

This recipe won honourable mention in my Great CCC Bracket of 2023. But more on that later. Nothing will ever be able to beat dough that’s sat in the fridge and melded for 72 hours, but sometimes there’s not time for that. You need good cookies for your kickball team and you just got back in town and your kitchen is a mess and your life feels like it’s in shambles. So easy cookies it is.

And guess what? Nobody cares. People are still impressed. Maybe that’s the mark of a pro. That which everyone else thinks is impressive, I think is a Tuesday night. I have the easy stuff dialed in, and I focus my energy on the more complicated challenges. Moving up to the bigger leagues. 

I suppose it might be time to start graduating out of the minors in other aspects of my life, too. But for now… not triple As, but triple Cs.