Basic Grilled Cheese, just the fact's ma'am.

Oh, the variations are all splendid. This time though, I wanted something basic. Give me some good cheese and some good bread. Melt that together with some butter to make it all toasty and crispy. That’s what I craved. Nick, over at Macheesmo, has made a few delicious variants, and I’ll undoubtedly eventually post a few variants of my own too. This time I stuck to the essence of bread and cheese–simple comfort food.

You could go with American white bread and a slice of individually wrapped yellow colored cheese. But that would be silly. Don’t be silly. Pick up some good quality sandwich bread–better still, get a good artisan-style loaf, like a French sourdough or an Italian loaf. And get some good cheese. I’d recommend a Gruyère, like Comté or Emmentaler, or a cheddar–please get a good cheddar though, something aged, with some tang and flavor. This time I picked up some Emmentaler. I like the mild grassy, earthy flavors that gruyere style cheese contributes; it pairs very nicely with the sour notes of a French loaf.

Toasty, warm, cheesy goodness.

The best trick to getting an evenly melted cheese is to shred it and pile it on. Don’t buy preshredded though, those are often dusted with a non-stick powder to keep it from clumping. That powder can affect the way the cheese melts and sometimes make it grainy. If you can’t shred it yourself, cut thin slices. The other thing I recommend is to butter and toast both sides of the bread–I love my butter.

Without varying drastically from the essentials, are there any variations you like? A slice of tomato perhaps? Mustard? I wanted to keep this basic this time, but let me know what you suggest!

No nonsense grilled cheese
It really couldn’t be simpler, but here is the “recipe” anyway.
Ingredients
Cheese (I used Emmentaller), shredded
butter, softened
sliced bread

Directions
1. Heat a heavy skilled over medium-high heat until hot. Meanwhile, butter both sides of bread.
2. Put bread into hot skillet (lower heat if needed so it doesn’t burn) and allow to toast for 30-90 seconds (it’s OK to peek under to check, just don’t play with it).
3. Flip one side over, pile cheese on top then put the other slice of bread on top (toasted sides should now be facing the cheese). Occasionally press gently on the sandwich and cook for another 1-2 minutes, flipping half way, until cheese is melted and sandwich is golden brown and toasty.
Cut diagonally and serve while still warm.

I made this a few times and the only variation I allowed myself was to put a thin layer of good Dijon mustard inside once.

Browned Butter, Brown Sugar Cookies

I’ve been thinking about using browned butter in a cookie dough for some time now and thought that making the simpler sugar cookie would be a great way to allow the flavor of the butter to shine. Well, allow the flavor of butter and brown sugar to shine. We’ve used browned butter before as part of a sauce with gnocchi and it contributed a lovely slightly nutty flavor. So making it was nothing terribly new. It’s not difficult to make, but it does require your attention. If you leave the stove unattended for even a moment, it somehow knows and tries it’s hardest to burn, but stand there and baby it for a few minutes and you will succeed every time.

These cookies come out like perfect tender disks of sweet goodness. The browned butter flavor gives this cookies a depth that many other butter cookies lack. Make these and people will comment on how good and tasty they are, I guarantee it.

Fresh out of the oven

My intent was to use a standard sugar cookie recipe and simply brown the butter before using it. As I was looking up various recipes, I saw that Cooks Illustrated had a much better method. They thought this through and combined the browned butter with brown sugar to make their cookies. The recipe below uses their technique.

Ingredients
14 Tbsps unsalted butter
1 3/4 ounces (about 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
14 ounces (about 2 cups) packed dark brown sugar
10.5 ounces (about 2 cups plus 2 Tbsps) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.
1. In a medium skillet, heat 10 tbsp butter over medium to med-high heat until melted. Once melted, continue to cool while whisking or swirling the pan for about 2 more minutes. You will know when you are done when the butter looks golden brown and smells nutty and fragrant. Transfer the butter to a large bowl and add the remaining 4 tbsp (cut up) to the liquefied butter. Stir once or twice and leave to melt into the butter about 15 minutes.

2. In a shallow bowl mix the granulated sugar (1/4 c) with an equal amount of the brown sugar (1/4 c or 1 3/4 oz). Rub together until it acquires the texture of wet sand. Set aside loosely covered.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

4. To the bowl with the cooling brown butter add the salt and the remaining brown sugar (about 1 3/4 cups). Mix with eggbeaters or in a stand mixer until until no sugar lumps remain. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until it all comes together (30-45 seconds). Scrape down bowl. Add the flour mixture from step 3 and mix until combined (about 1 minute). Scrape down and stir with spatula to make sure everything is mixed.

5. Make about 24 individual cookies (about 2 tbsps each). Roll each cookie into a ball with your hands and then toss them into the bowl of sugar to coat. Keeping the cookies lightly covered until you toss them will prevent them from drying out and help the sugar stick.

6. Place them onto parchment lined baking sheets, keeping about 2 inches between each cookie (they will spread). Bake until cookies are browned and slightly puffy, 12 to 14 minutes. Rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Be careful not to overbake, it is hard to judge doneness because the color change will be subtle. The best test is to press lightly about halfway between the edge and the center of the cookie. The outer crust will have just begun to set firmly, but you will still very easily be able to make an indentation. Allow the cookies to cool ON THE SHEET for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cooling on the sheet will keep the cookies slightly chewy, that’s as good thing.

Merguez, you see, is a type of spicy lamb sausage originally from the north of Africa (Morroco, Algeria…). It’s popular in Europe and often used in tagines or stews. Lamb is the common meat used in merguez, not the pork I ended up using. It is made with a range of spices, paprika is probably the most common one. The other item I couldn’t find was harissa. It is a spicy pepper paste/sauce. It’s would have been a great condiment to dollop a bit over the top of the served dish for some extra heat.

But let’s stop talking about what could have been and talk about what was. Even without the merguez and harissa I consider this dish a success. As a bonus, the dish was really cheap and easy, the most expensive ingredient was the sausage. A pound of lentils, a couple carrots and an onion don’t add up to much in the way of cost. Besides being ridiculously cheap, it was also very flavorful and simple to make. It wasn’t quite as easy as the toasted chickpea salad, but this dish should be easy enough for anyone.

Lentils and Sausage

Because I couldn’t find the sausage of the right flavor, I had to make do with adding the spices directly to the entire pot. I was so pleased with the results that even if I do eventually find merguez, I’d still put spices directly into the pot. Using a combination of beef and vegetable broth helped round out the flavors and the sun-dried tomatoes give an extra depth of flavor. I would not recommend substituting the broth out with water as that will dilute the flavor of the beans. You could probably replace the sun-dried tomatoes with a small can of diced ones, but if you can get the real thing, you won’t be disappointed.

Big pot of lentils and sausage

Lentils and Sausage
Ingredients
12 sun-dried tomatoes, not in oil
1/2-1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound sausage, preferably merguez, Spicy Italian will do, cut into 1/2 to 1 1/2 inch rounds
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp Spanish smoked paprika
1 tbsp turmeric
1 lb lentils
2 cups beef stock
2 cups vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Harissa, if you can find it

Directions
1. In a small bowl, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with the 1/2 to 1 cup boiling water (just enough to cover them all by a little bit, they will plump up and expand in the water). Set aside. Heat the oven to 300F.

2. In a large pot over med to med-high heat, add the oil and heat until it just shimmers. Add the sausage and sear until it has browned on all sides. Rotate the sausages after about 45-60 seconds, or whenever a light brown crust develops.

3. Remove the sausage and all but 1 or 2 tsps of the fat. Add the diced onion and carrot and sauté over medium heat until the onion just turns translucent, about 2-3 minutes. As this cooks remove the tomatoes from the water, keeping the water for use in the next step. Slice the tomatoes into thin strips. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and the spices to the pot, stir to mix everything together.

4. Add the beef and vegetable stocks and the reserved water used to soak the tomatoes. Add the sausage, leaving any of the drained fat behind. Bake, uncovered for 1 hour, until the lentils are tender and most of the liquid is gone (there will still be some in the pot, that is fine).

Variation Make it a soup by increasing the stocks by one cup each, for a total of at least two extra cups of liquid. Cook as normal and serve.

Wikipedia actually lists several possibly origins and meanings for the dish’s name. The most popular version seems to be that prostitues would make this dish to attract customers with it’s strong scent. That seems a bit suspect to me as a strong smelling prostitute would probably be one to avoid. Another popular theory was that the dish was so quick, easy, fast, and cheap that they could make it between customers without losing much business. Hmmm…. “quick, easy, fast, cheap” used in the same paragraph as the word “prostitutes”… Coincidence?

Should this really be called whore's pasta?

Whatever the source of the name, it does make for a very easily made, inexpensive dish. The ingredients are simple and very flavorful. I don’t know of many meals that pack quite the pungency of this one for as few ingredients as are used. If you are a fan of olives, flavorful sauces, and a little bit of heat, this sauce is for you.

While I’m talking about pungent ingredients, I feel the need to mention that I don’t understand why anchovies commonly get such a bad rap. They are packed with umami and pair fantastically with meats and vegetables. If you have never earnestly given anchovies a try, you really should. Anchovies or anchovy like things probably show up in more ingredients and dishes than you imagine.

Pasta Puttanesca

The preparation should take less time than it takes to bring a pot of water to boil and the noodles to cook. This is really quick people, go for it.

Pasta Puttanesca
Ingredients
4 garlic cloves, minced
table salt
1 lb spaghetti
2 tbsps olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
4 tsps minced anchovies (8-10 fillets)
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, drained, 1/2 cup juice reserved
3 tbsps capers, rinsed
2/3 cup Kalamata olives (or other black olives), pitted and chopped coarse

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, add the pasta. Cook until al dente.
2. While the water is heating/pasta is cooking in Step 1, heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Once hot add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and anchovies. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but nothing browns, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened, about 8 minutes.
3. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add the reserved tomato juice and toss once to mix. Add the contents of the skillet, capers, and olives to the pasta and toss to combine. Add more tomato juice if there is not enough liquid.

I made two variants of this dish over the past couple weeks, both were great, and both were impromptu. The first time I made this I had very little to work with, but when you gotta eat, you gotta eat. So I threw together what I had. A can of chickpeas, some pine nuts, some Parmesan cheese, and a few spices was all I used. Toast the chickpeas, toss with the ingredients and some lemon juice, salt, pepper, a dash of paprika, and olive oil. That’s it. Easy as pie. Actually, much easier than pie; Perhaps as easy as eating pie.

Simple Roast Chickpea Salad

About a week or so later I was in a similar situation except I had a shallot and couple tomatoes on hand. I diced those up, and did almost the same thing as before. This time I made a vinaigrette with the shallot and omitted the paprika.

Both versions are simple, quick, and easy to make, but I prefer the second version. The tomatoes add a bit of moisture and the shallot and vinaigrette add a bit more bite. It’s also quite healthy and, if you omit the Parm, vegetarian and vegan friendly! You can always make doughnuts if you want to clog your arteries.

A bit more complex than above, but it shouldn't take more time.

Toasted Chickpea Salad
Roasting the chickpeas is indeed optional, but it contributes a great nutty flavor. If you are short on time or don’t want to use your oven, you can skip that step.
Ingredients
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan
2 tbsps pine nuts
Variant 1
1 tsp paprika
Variant 2
1 small shallot, minced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar, (I like to use 2 tsps, but I like a vinegary mix)
3/4 tsp Dijon mustard

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. If using variant 2, whisk the minced shallot, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mustard in a bowl.
2. Toss the chickpeas with about 2 tsp olive oil then place them on a baking sheet and roast for 30-40 minutes. Shake the pan every 10-15 minutes to prevent scorching. They will be done when browned and toasted.
3. Regardless of the variant, or your own changes, just toss everything else in a bowl with the chickpeas.

Pork Sandwich

This is a great way to bring in the Spring season with some simple vegetables. I used zucchinis, you can add squash as well or any other soft spring vegetables. Serve it with the sauce and vegetables on a bed of rice. The leftovers are perfect for use in sandwiches. This simplicity of this dish belies the amazing flavor. Apart from the apready mentioned crème fraîche, vegetables and pork, thyme, a little garlic, salt, and pepper are all the remainder of the ingredients. Simple is good.

So Good

Not only are the ingredients straightforward, but the cooking process is simple too. It’s basically a two step process. The first step involves browning the tenderloin to boost the flavor. A minute or two in a hot skillet and you’re done. The second part is wrapping everything in a big sheet of parchment paper and baking it in the oven. That’s it. Not terrible difficult, and the parchment paper makes clean-up easy too.

As always, click for larger images…

Notice the little hole in the side of the paper to let excess steam escape.

Ta-da! All done.

Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins, silver skin removed, salted and peppered
4-5 zucchini, cut into medium disk slices
3 cloves garlic
fresh thyme (8-10 strands)
6 tablespoons crème fraîche

You will also need a large sheet of parchment paper.

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F with the rack set to the lower middle section.
2. Place the parchment paper in a baking dish and layer the paper with the cut zucchini. Add some salt and pepper to taste (I used about a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper).
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat (don’t use non-stick if you can help it, cast iron is great for this). Once hot, add two tablespoons canola oil. Sear the tenderloins, one at a time, to brown the exterior. It should take about 45-60 seconds a side to sear the meat. Place the browned tenderloins over the bed of zucchini.
4. Dollop the crème fraîche onto the tenderloins and place the springs of thyme over the meat/zucchini. Cut the garlic cloves in half and scatter them around the meat.
5. Fold the parchment paper over the dish and crimp the edges to seal. If you have a probe thermometer, insert it into the thick part of the tenderloin before sealing the parchment. A probe thermometer will ensure that the meat is cooked to the correct temperature and help guard against overcooking the meat. Leave a little hole in one side to allow the steam to vent.
6. Cook for about 45 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, USE IT! Set it for 160F in the thickest part of the meat.

Slice and Serve

It isn’t! If nobody questions Tyler Florence, Ina Garten, Emeril, and over 335,000 Google hits, you don’t get to question me when I do it! And you certainly can’t be surprised by my combination when cheddar cheese and apple pie shows up in chain restaurants.

Pear and Goat Cheese Triangles

Besides, my approach was more subtle than cheddar and apple pie. I wanted to make little appetizers of crisp phyllo dough around a pear, blue cheese and honey mixture. Fold these into triangles, then bake until the phyllo begins to brown and the cheese melts. You’ll be left with a very tasty appetizer. I have to say, I even impressed myself.

If you have never worked with phyllo dough before, it can seem to be a little intimidating. The dough is very thin and can dry easily. Don’t worry though, a gentle hand and some plastic wrap to cover any unused dough is the best solution. Work on a large counter with enough space so the dough can remain flat. Any dough not immediately in use should be covered to prevent to becoming brittle and hard to work with.

Pear and Goat Cheese Trianlges

Be sure to wrap it completely around the filling or the cheese will ooze out onto the parchment paper as it bakes–I had a few leaks the first time I made this. In the end I found the best method was to use a double-wide strip and fold the dough over itself before folding into triangles (like little paper footballs). See here (here for video) for some folding tips, it’s not difficult. You don’t have to tuck the dough into the last bit as you would with paper, simply use a tiny bit of water to stick it to itself.

Pear and Blue Cheese Triangles

Ingredients
A note about the quantity of cheese and pear: Once the pear is peeled, seeded, and diced, you should have about equal parts by weight of pear to cheese.
7 oz blue cheese
about 2 pears (about 7 oz) peeled, seeded, and diced
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice
phyllo dough

Directions
1. In a small pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the diced pear and cook until it begins to become tender, 2-3 minutes. Add the honey, cumin, and Chinese five-spice and cook for 3-4 more minutes, stirring often, until the pear is very soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Can be refrigerated overnight.
2. In a medium bowl, crumble/smush the cheese. Fold in the cooled pear mixture. Preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Cut a sheet of phyllo dough in half lengthwise. Cover the rest of the dough with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying. Depending on the width of the phyllo dough (and the size you wish to make your appetizers) you will have some leeway with how wide to cut the dough. Put about a heaping tablespoon of the pear-cheese mixture near the bottom corner of the strip. Fold the strip in half down the length of it. Then fold the dough diagonally into triangles (see the links above). Once you get to the end, wet your finger in some water, then trace your finger around the last bit of dough to moisten it. Fold this over the top of the rest and it should stick to itself.
4. Place each triangle onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Bake (without the plastic wrap) for 6-8 minutes, or until the dough browns and becomes crispy.

Pear and goat cheese trianlges.

Tomato Soup

My deep dish pizza recipe already cribbed from Cook’s Illustrated, so why stop on Tuesday. This is their version of a creamy–creamless–tomato soup, and boy did they nail it. It’s a smooth, thick soup that puts the tomato flavor front and center. The thickness comes not from cream, but from torn pieces of bread that disintegrate into the soup and are then further blended into it. Not entirely unheard of, but still clever. All this makes for a delicious, but still low-fat and low-calorie soup.

A quick note though, this may be a tomato soup, but this is not vegetarian. Cook’s Illustrated uses chicken stock create a richness and depth to the soup. Vegetable stock would work to make this vegetarian and vegan friendly. The only thing that would be missing is the gelatin normally found in small amounts in real chicken stock. Go nuts though, there probably isn’t much gelatin in the store bought stuff anyway—just another good reason to make your own.

Tomato Soup

Creamy –creamless– Tomato Soup
From Cook’s Illustrated. [http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=16872]
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 med garlic cloves, minced
Pinch hot red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
2 (28-oz) cans crushed tomatoes (muir glen organic with basil is my favorite)
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 large slices sandwich bread (get something good, tear off the crusts)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I don’t need to say it again, but homemade is best)
2 tbsps brandy (I don’t know why Cook’s Illustrated says it’s optional, it’s excellent)

Instructions
1. In a large pot over high heat, put in 2 tbsps olive oil. Add the onion and red pepper flakes, cook for 3 to 5 mins, stirring often, until the onion starts to get translucent. Add the garlic and bay leaf, cook for a minute more.
2. Add the tomatoes and their juice and mix well. Bring to a simmer. Tear the bread into chunks and stir it, and the sugar into the soup. Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until bread starts to disintegrate, about 5 mins. Remove bay leaf.
3. Blend in batches with 1 tbsp oil and process until soup is smooth. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the chicken broth and the brandy. Taste, add salt if needed.
4. Serve with cracked black pepper.

So good!

I’m a big fan of pizza and I’m really pleased by my standard pizza recipe. This deep dish dough is a little more difficult than a basic dough, but the pay-off is worth it. The dough doesn’t get soggy or crumble apart under the toppings. As I was eating this, I realized that this was almost taking the expression of “pizza pie” literally- it’s even baked in a standard pie pan! There are a few tricks that Cook’s Illustrated used to make this dough hold up to the sauces and ingredients piled onto the center. I’ll get into those techniques a bit later.

I know you can't tell, but under that delicious Parmesan topping is sausage and goat cheese. You'll have to click through at the bottom of the post see...

When it comes to choosing toppings for the deep dish pizza, my standard strategy of “less is more” doesn’t hold as true. A heavy dose of toppings, sauce, and cheese is almost required to fill this monster pie. Use anything you want, I suggest sausage and goat cheese, or spinach, onions, and ricotta.

Oh, and a note about making this recipe. I used a stand mixer to make the dough, so the methods reflect that. This could be done by hand, but why would I want to do that when I have my KitchenAid?

Ingredients
Recipe lightly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
Dough
3 1/4 cups (16 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) cornmeal (it calls for yellow cornmeal for color, I just used regular)
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 cups water (10 ounces), room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon plus 4 tablespoons olive oil

Slice of pie.

Toppings
Pizza 1
1/4 pound mozzarella cheese , shredded (about 1 cup)
1/2 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed, crumbled, browned
4 oz goat cheese
Pizza 2
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese , shredded (about 2 cups)
1 cup thawed, drained, frozen spinach
1 large onion, chopped (or better yet, caramelized!)
1/4 cup ricotta ricotta

Someone took my slice!

Instructions
First, make the dough.
1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the dough hook running on the lowest speed, add the water and melted butter and mix until fully combined–scrape down the sides as needed. Increase the speed to medium (#4). Allow to run until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bowl (almost 5 minutes). It should be fairly smooth and only slightly tacky.
2. Coat a large bowl with 1 tsp olive oil and transfer the dough to the bowl. Turn the dough ball once or twice to coat lightly with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise (room temp) until nearly doubled. [Dough can be held overnight if placed in the refrigerator.]

Butter coated dough.

3. Here is a fairly unique technique for pizza dough used by Cook’s Illustrated. This technique appears to me to be a bit unorthodox in the pizza world, but it works wondering in this case. Laminating the dough.
Remove the risen dough from the bowl and roll it out on a dry work surface into a large rectangle (approx 15×12 inches). Spread the softened butter over the dough using a silicone spatula (see above). Leave about 1/2-inch along edges unbuttered (this will allow the dough to seal again). Roll dough into a cylinder starting from the shorter side. Place seam-side down and gently flatten into an 18×4 rectangle (see below). Cut rectangle in half to make two 9×4 smaller rectangles. Set one of the halves aside for the moment and cover loosely with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Click for larger photos…

Roll the dough into a tight cylender.

Dough now flattened

4. Take the other half and fold into into thirds like business letter (the top folds about a third of the way down, then the bottom comes up to cover it). Pinch the seams together to seal it into a taught ball, don’t force the dough too much or it may tear (if this happens, don’t worry too much, it will still be fine). Repeat with remaining half.

Like a business letter! But don't mail this!

5. Place the two balls into oiled bowls and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in the refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes.

6. Oil two 9-inch round cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each. One at a time, roll out the dough balls to make 13-inch disks about 1/4 inch thick. The trick to transferring the dough into the pans without tearing is to loosely roll the dough over the rolling pin and gently unrolling it over the cake pan. Press the dough into the cake pan and 1 inch up the sides. If dough is tough and resists stretching, let it relax for at least 5 minutes before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough ball.

Roll out the dough...

Deep dish dough in the pan.

Building the Pizza
Deep dish pizzas are best built on a series of layers to allow the ingredients to settle out and fill the dough nicely. Both sets of ingredients should be treated the same (as well as any additions you want to contribute).
First, sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the dough. Then add any “toppings” such as spinach, sausage, cheeses to be mixed in, etc. For the ricotta pizza, I waited until the end to dollop over the top of the pizza, but I mixed in the goat cheese for the sausage & goat cheese pizza. Finally pour in the tomato sauce and sprinkle with any last minute additions–like Parmesan or ricotta to brown in the oven. (Just be aware that this will bake for a while and may dry some types of toppings.)

Baking the Pizza
Adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove pizza from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving

Pizza Sauce
I generally always use my sauce, but I was worried that in these sauce-heavy pizzas, the amount of red pepper flakes I usually use would be too much. Make this while waiting for the dough to rise.
Melt 2 Tbsps butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until the onion turns golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Stir in tomatoes and sugar and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering until the sauce is reduced to 2 1/2 cups (about 30 min). Before using, stir in shredded basil and oil, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza! Ta-da!

Cookies: Chewy, Thin, and Puffy.

Changes in brief

The modifications were kicked off with a dangerously chewy chocolate chip cookie. The important changes to the recipe were to use bread flour, melted butter, one egg plus one yolk, more brown sugar than white, and to chill the dough before baking. These changes allowed the cookies to stay moist and chewy.

The super thin cookies (a favorite of mine) developed both a pleasing crunch and a slight chew. This was achieved by using all-purpose flour, softened butter, one egg plus milk, and more white sugar than brown. These cookies were not refrigerated, which meant that they spread and ‘melted’ as they baked.

The puffy cookies were last. The distinction here was to use cake flour, shortening (not butter), two eggs, baking powder (instead of baking soda), and chilled dough (like the chewy cookies). These tweaks allow the cookies to rise and puff as it baked.

But whyyyyy? Sure, you just read the differences in the recipes, but what actually happens? What is the difference between the three kinds of flour? Why change from butter to shortening?

Settle down, settle down, all will be revealed…

Let’s take it in order…

Chewy

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• The most obvious change was to use bread flour. Bread flour is important because it has a higher protein content than other flours. The proteins, when mixed with water, form gluten. More gluten equals more chew. This is why bread is kneaded for before baking. It’s also why biscuits and muffins are generally just quickly combined instead of kneaded (ever seen a chewy biscuit? Neither have I).
• The butter is liquefied and milk is added. When the butter liquefies, the fat and water can easily separate. This means that the water in the butter (and the milk) bond with the proteins in the flour and form the gluten we just talked about.
• The recipe also called for a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar. The extra moisture and molasses in the brown sugar not only helps keep the cookies together as they bake, but also keeps the dough moist.
• Removing the egg white from one of the two eggs is important too. Have you ever seen a meringue? The main ingredient is, of course, egg whites. After it’s baked, the resulting dessert is dry and crispy. In the case of meringue, that’s a good thing; however, in chewy cookies-not so much. The removal of the egg white stops the cookie from drying out.
• The standard leavening of baking soda is unchanged in this recipe. The object is to provide the cookies with a little ‘give’, so when you bite into them they aren’t as hard as rocks. Baking soda is sufficient on it’s own to achieve this.
• Finally, the dough is chilled before baking. If you keep an eye on these cookies in the oven you notice minimal spreading. By the time the heat softens the chilled dough, the shape has already started to set.

Thin

Thin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

• All-purpose flour, which has a moderate amount of protein, was used in this recipe. AP flour is suitable for, well, all purposes. It can be kneaded into a bread dough, or it can be lightly stirred into a muffin mixture. When used in this recipe, the mixing incorporates the flour with the ingredients and forms some gluten, but not so much as to make it chewy. Even if gluten does form, there are a few more tricks to ensure it does not adversely affect the cookie.
• The butter is softened to room temperature, not turned it into a liquid. This means that the water in the butter doesn’t have as much time to bond with the proteins to form gluten.
• Only one egg was used, the second egg was replaced by a couple ounces of milk. Why remove an egg? Eggs set and puff when they are heated (soufflé, anyone?). Liquids… well… spread.
• Leavening is provided by the baking soda. This gives the cookies enough power to stay together and have a bit of chew, but not so much as to prevent them from spreading.
• In direct contrast to the chewy cookies, more white sugar is used than brown sugar. The lack of moisture and molasses normally found in brown sugar allows the cookies to spread as they bake, while the dry white sugar adds a crispier texture.
• Finally, this dough was scooped out and baked right after mixing. This room temperature, buttery dough beings to spread as soon as it is placed into the oven. By the time the dough sets, it has already spread into a thin (and might I add, delicious) cookie.

Puffy

Puffy chocolate chip cookies.

• Cake flour, not bread or AP, is used in this recipe. Cake flour has the lowest protein content of all the flours-meaning less gluten can develop-so these cookies have the least chew.
• Shortening is used instead of butter because it has a much higher melting point. This means that there is less spreading of the cookie as it bakes.
• Baking powder is used instead of baking soda. Baking powder has a more powerful leavening effect than baking soda due to the acids that react with liquids in the dough. The acidic baking powder releases carbon dioxide, which forces air into the dough. This is why these cookies develop that Chips Ahoy style crunch, and are so well suited for dunking.
• Lastly, the dough is chilled before baking. This same technique is used in the chewy cookies to help keep them mounded as they bake. If you watch the baking process, they spread out a bit first and, as the shortening starts to melt, the baking powder reacts, giving the cookies a lift half way through the baking process.

Now you know. Go forth and make chocolate chip cookies!