Something very wonderful

and a very tender and comforting chocolate chip cookie

I returned home from four weeks in the UK to a very bouncy dog, two vaguely interested cats, piles of junk mail, some nasty looking bills and a light yellow padded envelope from my publisher.

Inside was a genuine, honest-to-goodness, real-like-the-kind-you-see-in-bookstores-that-other-people-have-written copy of my cookbook, The Secret Life of Chocolate Chip Cookies. This was a huge surprise and I was dumbstruck enough that my family even took notice.

I couldn’t be happier with how it looks, and I hope you all will consider buying a copy. Conveniently, today Barnes & Noble is doing a 25% discount on all pre-orders for their members (it’s easy to join), if you use the code PREORDER 25.*

To revel in this moment, I worked on a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, separate from the 60—count ‘em—60 brand new ones in my cookbook. The cookie is ultra-tender, yet chewy thanks to a non-traditional method of mixing and some less typical ingredients.

The technique: Reverse creaming, a technique made popular by Rose Levy Beranbaum, where the first step of making a cake is to mix dry ingredients together with butter instead of butter and sugar first being creamed together. The butter coats the flour in fat, which minimizes gluten development. The result is a flatter cookie with a tender texture and dense crumb. Also: Did I mention Rose wrote the introduction to my cookbook, which is available for pre-sale discount? Ah, yes, I perhaps I did.

Special ingredients: The recipe calls for bread flour and corn starch. Both have become frequent guest stars in my recipes. Bread flour, thanks to its higher protein content, adds chew, while even a small amount of corn starch helps make a cookie delicate.

Also: Brown sugar is the dominant sweetener, unlike, say, the Toll House recipe on the back of the yellow chocolate chip package, which calls for equal amounts of brown and white sugars. More brown sugar means more moisture and a caramel flavor, plus the cookies will still be soft a few days after baking.

The cookies are perfect for ice cream sandwiches, or if you’re less ambitious you can scoop some ice cream into a bowl and top it jauntily with a chocolate chip cookie. A cookie fascinator if you will. Now cookie’s ready for Ascot!

And speaking of Ascot and all things, I’ve been watching Outrageous to distract myself. Based on the lives of the five Mitford sisters in the years before and during the war in England, it’s delightful and sad and gobsmacking, as two of the sisters fall in love with fascists. Diana runs off with Oswald Moseley, leader of the British Union of Fascists and sister Unity, well she goes schoolgirl mad for none other than Hitler himself, who is quite receptive to the young, blonde cousin of the Churchills. It’s unnerving to watch these two women talk about their love affairs with these monsters in the oh-so jolliest and most lovely terms.

And for a quick watch, I saw this video on Insta this AM and it sort of made me chuckle. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a recommendation, but see for yourself. It makes its point.

heathergtv

A post shared by @heathergtv

In more good news:

The Secret Life of Cookies podcast is coming to this Substack next week, with a Very Special Guest.

Watch this space.

Okay, okay: cookies!

Tender Is The Chocolate Chip Cookie

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Tender is the Chocolate Chip Cookie

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

plan ahead: the dough should be refrigerated at least 2 hours before baking

What You’ll Need:

1 1/4 cup (150 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (120 grams) bread flour

1 teaspoon corn starch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt)

1 cup (213 grams) brown sugar

1/2 cup (99 grams) granulated white sugar

8 ounces (227 grams) butter, cool (not ice cold, not room temperature)

2 cups (340 grams) chocolate chips

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

What You’ll Do:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer on low speed, blend together the flours, corn starch, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and white sugar. Cut the butter into 32 pieces and add them to the flour mixture. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds, then gradually raise the speed to medium (gradually to avoid a giant POOF of flour up your nose) and mix for one minute. Add the chocolate chips and continue to blend on medium speed until the mixture begins to resemble wet sand. No chunks of butter should remain. Beat together the eggs with the vanilla extract, and with the mixer on medium-low speed, drizzle over the eggs. Raise the speed to medium and mix until the dough just comes together. Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours and up to three days. (If you don’t think you’ll be eating all the cookies now, you can roll the dough into 2-in/5-cm balls and freeze them, well-wrapped, for when you absolutely must have cookies right away.)

2. When it’s time to bake, heat the oven to 325°F/165°C. Roll the dough into 2-in/5-cm balls. Leave 3 inches (8 centimeters) between each cookies as they spread. I only bake 6 per standard-size baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown. Let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then place on cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

   What are you watching or reading these days? I’ve been reading a brilliant literary biography of Muriel Spark and the popular bestseller Butter. Of course. I mean, come for the title, stay for the compelling story and descriptions of Japanese food.

   *In the wacky new world of publishing, preorders really matter to big book purveyors like B&N, as it helps them decide whether a book is popular and how many they should stock, aka, buy and that is why us authors are always begging you to preorder our books. Popular presale books mean successful books. Thank you for your patience with this.

Norman.