Witty in the City

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Witty

As much as I love eating cookies, I’m not the best at baking them. I have a folder of photos on my computer of recipes that just weren’t worth sharing with you, and a decent portion of those show sad looking cookies. For some reason, my cookies never spread like they’re supposed to, regardless of the recipe I follow. To remedy this chronic shortcoming, I took a cooking class on the science behind making cookies, and I learned a whole lot. Although I have not yet applied my newfound knowledge to the cookie recipes that have eluded me in the past, I did come away with an excellent recipe for chocolate chip cookies. We experimented with a bunch of different variations, but working in some browned butter improved the standard chocolate chip cookie for me.

Some of the chocolate chip cookies we experimented with in class, starting at the top left and going clockwise were: classic, all white sugar, all brown sugar, 20% more flour, all egg yolk, and double egg. As you might guess from the picture, some of these were tastier than others.

To make my ideal cookie, begin by browning 1 stick of butter. Add the butter to a small pot or pan over medium heat, and let the butter melt. The butter will begin bubbling, and you will see the white milk solids in the butter rise to the top. Then, the milk solids will fall to the bottom of the pan and begin to brown. You will usually first notice the browning around the edges of the pan, and as soon as you do, remove the pan from the heat, and swirl it. The remaining milk solids will brown rapidly. Set the butter aside to cool slightly.

While the butter cools, weigh out 2.75 ounces (78 grams) of white sugar and 2.75 ounces of dark brown sugar. Add the sugars to a mixing bowl. Preheat your oven (to 350° F in a convection oven or 375º F in a non-convection oven).

Pour the butter and all of its brown bits (it should be cool enough that it doesn’t melt the sugar) into the bowl and beat it together with the sugar very well. Once the butter and sugar are evenly combined, crack in 1 egg, and pour in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat the ingredients until they are completely combined, scraping down the bowl if necessary.

In a separate bowl, weigh out 5.08 ounces (144 grams) of flour. Into the flour, stir 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. In two additions, stir the flour into the butter and sugar mixture. Once it is combined, stir in 5 ounces (142 grams) of chocolate chips. The cookie dough should be scoopable, so if it is too loose, put it into the fridge for 10 minutes or so to firm up.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and use a 2 tablespoon scoop to scoop out the cookies. Space the cookies about 2 inches apart to allow them room to spread. I got 19 cookies out of this batch.

Bake the cookies for approximately 12 minutes, rotating the pan around half-way through, until they are golden brown around the edges. Let the cookies cool before eating them. These are crisp around the edges and slightly chewy in the center.

The browned butter flavor is detectable but not overpowering, especially when compared to a cookie made with normal butter. It just has a little something extra. I love how flat these cookies get, quite different from the mound-like cookies I normally end up with. Such a success in my book!

Shopping list:

Butter- 1 stick
White sugar- 2.75 ounces
Dark brown sugar- 2.75 ounces
Egg- 1
Vanilla extract- 1/2 teaspoon
Flour- 5.08 ounces (144 grams)
Baking soda- 1/2 teaspoon
Salt- 1/2 teaspoon
Chocolate chips- 5 ounces

Savory Buckwheat Crêpes

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Witty

Stereotypically, one of the best parts of living in Paris was getting to frequent the crêpe stands. Most of my crêpes were eaten late-night, on the way home from the bars. I’d sometimes snag a nutella-banana crêpe on Rue Mouffetard, but the savory crêpes around Odéon were the best. We visited a few sit-down crêpe restaurants as well, where all of the crêpes were served plated rather than folded and held by hand. The biggest difference between sweet and savory crêpes is the batter, and it makes me crazy when restaurants here at home wrap savory ingredients in a non-Buckwheat crêpe. I have been making a lot of savory crêpes at home recently, and once you get the hang of the technique, it’s deliciously easy to eat them all the time.

Crêpe batter is NOTHING to be intimidated of. To make it, weigh out 3 ounces of all-purpose flour and 1 ounce of buckwheat flour. Set the flour aside.

Into a blender, crack 2 eggs. Then, pour in 1.5 cups of milk and 1.5 tablespoons of melted butter. Add in a pinch of salt. Put the lid on the blender, and combine those ingredients. Remove the center of the blender’s lid, and with the blender running, slowly add in the flours. Turn the blender off once the batter is smooth.

It’s easiest to get perfectly round crêpes using a crêpe pan. I like using a well-seasoned steel crêpe pan. It should be flat on the bottom with angled sides. The clear division between the bottom and the sides keeps the crêpe batter in a defined circle. A normal frying pan would let the batter run up higher, but you can certainly use one if it’s all you have.

Heat your pan over medium heat. Before pouring the batter in for each crêpe, lightly brush the pan with vegetable oil. Pick up the pan in one hand, and then use a ladle to pour in just enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan. As soon as the batter hits the pan, use your wrist to rotate the pan around to spread the batter in a circle. Your pan should be at a temperature so that the batter begins to set as soon as it hits the pan, but it shouldn’t cook so quickly that it forms bubbles and isn’t able to spread.

Return the pan to the heat, and once the crêpe looks dry, run a flat rubber spatula around the edges of the crêpe. Stick the spatula under the crêpe, and flip it over. You could use your fingers to flip the crêpe, but I mess it up almost every time that way. The spatula is much easier. Let the crêpe cook for about 30 seconds on the second side, just until it begins to brown. Transfer the crêpe to a sheet of wax paper. Continue making crêpes, remembering to brush the pan with oil before each one. To make crêpes even faster, you can get into a great rhythm and work two pans at once!

Once you have a stack of crêpes, you can either begin filling and eating them immediately, or you can wrap them well in wax paper and tin foil and freeze them. Crêpes defrost quickly and beautifully. It has been great keeping them on hand for a quick breakfast or a fun way to use up leftovers. I’ve filled them with mozzarella cheese, chicken, basil, and tomatoes- warmed a crêpe piled with the ingredients on a pan, folded it up, and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar. Amazing!

Breakfast crêpes are also really delicious. To make them, sweat some diced onion and minced garlic in a pan. Pour in whisked eggs, and scramble them. Remove the eggs from the pan, wipe the pan out, and set in a crêpe with its more golden side facing down (the golden side should end up showing for a prettier presentation). Lower the heat. Sprinkle cheese over half of the crêpe, making sure to get cheese over the edges. One crêpe stand in Paris would sprinkle a ton of swiss cheese over the edge of the crêpe, and it would get brown and crispy and stand up like a beautiful fan. It was my favorite part. Top the cheese with the scrambled egg, and season it with salt and pepper. Top the eggs with something fresh and crunchy, like pea shoots.

Once the cheese starts to melt, fold over the empty half of the crêpe. Allow the bottom of the crêpe to continue crisping. If you’d like, you can fold the crêpe in half again, which makes it easier to eat by hand. If you plan on eating it plated, you can play around with whatever folding technique looks prettiest to you. I LOVE these crêpes. Go forth, make them, and have a wonderful Bastille Day!

Shopping list:

All-purpose flour- 3 ounces
Buckwheat flour- 1 ounce
Eggs- 2
Milk- 1.5 cups
Butter- 1.5 tablespoons
Salt- Pinch
Oil for pan

Stella the Lotus Flower

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Witty

After 9 years in DC, we are still finding fun things to do. The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are well worth a visit and serve as another reminder of how easy it is to enjoy nature within the city limits. We took Stella over there on a surprisingly mild summer day to walk around the expansive marshland, admire the lily pads, and sniff out some wildlife. She wasted no time making herself at home- rolling around in the mud and sporting a dirty streak on her face. I was surprised by the grand scale of the lily pads. Plenty of them were taller than I was, and the ones resting on the water’s surface were large enough to serve as a pool float.

The lotus flowers were stunning. So many of them were open and in bloom. Newly opened buds were hot pink, and ones that had been in bloom for a while were more white. The flowers were also gigantic and had big, yellow seed pods right in their centers. The flowers swayed happily in the breeze, but I didn’t notice any flowery smell coming from them.

There was a wide variety of lily pads at the gardens. There were these smaller, hot pink ones as well as some white ones. The taller flowers were definitely our favorites though.

Stella was curious about all of the new things she was encountering and spotted a severed lotus flower floating in the water. She was very suspicious of it, so David fished it out for her to inspect more closely.

David was more incredulous about the lotus seed pods. The bright yellow ones seemed waxy and fake, and the green ones that lost their leaves appeared bug-like.

On a related note, lotus roots are edible, but I’ve never cooked with one. Here’s a picture of one garnishing a cocktail (at Buddha Bar on my last night living in Paris…sniff).

Stella encountered her first frogs on this visit, but they were only heard and not seen. Her ears did not know what to make of those sounds, and I thought she was going to twist her head right off.

Stella also sniffed out her first turtle! Not this one though- it was smaller and nestled in the grass. She circled it cautiously, jumping back like she was in imminent danger, until David stepped in to scoop up the turtle and set it down closer to the water for an easy escape. It scurried away quickly (for a turtle) and fell down a hole.

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