Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Best Pastry Assistant Ever - and Really Good Chocolate Chip Cookies


I have been having fun with two things in the kitchen lately 1. experimenting with great chocolate chip cookie recipes, and 2. having H want to help cook. Almost every day when I get home from work, H will tell me, "I'm going to get my apron and help you cook, Dada!" She'll put her apron on, I'll set her on the counter and she'll "help" me cook. It has been a lot of fun for us. Plus, there's the added bonus of H learning more and more about food and cooking. She has always had a great palate - last week, I gave her some Pecorino on her pasta and she told me, "Dada, this tastes like goat cheese." Technically it's sheep's milk, but she knew it wasn't cow's milk cheese. And as young as nine months she used to eat pasta with pesto, sausage, and feta that we put through the food mill.


So it came as no surprise that she would easily jump into some Chocolate Chip Cookie adventures. I have of course read all about the CCC recipe from the NY Times that everyone is blogging about. I will get around to that eventually, but it requires resting the dough for up to 36 hours, and I just didn't have that kind of time: our friends had just had their baby girl and we wanted to bring these cookies over as a fun welcome later that day. So I scoured some of my favorite blogs and found a reference on David Lebovitz's blog to a post on 101 Cookbooks where Heidi made David's cookies (recipe). So I gave David Lebovitz's cookies a try, omitting the walnuts this time (because I really have to be in the mood for walnuts, and I didn't have any in the house).

The recipe is quick and easy, and fantastic. We have made them several times already and everyone has really enjoyed them. They are very chocolatey (I recommend using a good quality dark chocolate chip) and will probably be even better with the walnuts which we'll include next time. They are bordering on too chocolatey for R and I think the walnuts will be a great balance.

H and I will tackle the NY Times recipe next and we'll post our comparison. In the meantime, I'm going to keep enjoying the fact that H wants to cook with her Dada.

4 comments:

Danielle said...

You guys are cute! I love when chocolate chip cookies have a slightly salty dough. Having never made them, I assume (get ready for it) this comes from salt? So, should I try this one? Is it do-able by CCC novices?

Ethan said...

Totally do-able. Quite straightforward in fact. Part of the NY Times recipe I mentioned is a sprinkle of fluer de sel right before baking. I also like the salty hit in my sweets (mmmmm, salted butter caramel ice cream). Give this one a shot, then try the NY Times version.

Lacey said...

well! I'm a new reader and new DB (that's where I found your blog). I have four nieces/nephews, so I can agree with you that cooking with kids is so fun. I love to help them learn about the foods we make. Great blog!

happy eating.

Deb said...

H is just like her parents...such good food tastes! I'll have to try this CCC recipe. I was just craving some the other day. Hope you are all well ;)