best slice and bake cookies ever

Slice-and-bake cookies, to some people, are shorthand for lazy cooking and a Sandra Lee-esque approach to the kitchen. But these cookies, officially Mocha Latte bars, are head and shoulders above anything in the refrigerator aisle. I first made these during school last year, as an accompaniment to our creme brulees in a plated dessert unit. Their dense chocolate and slightly bitter mocha edge was a perfect foil for the silky cream of the brulee, but when I've made them since I've discovered that they stand very nicely on their own or with a cup of coffee or tea.

There is a little bit of work required before you get to the "slice and bake" part, but the recipe makes a lot of dough, which can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for several months. If you're planning to freeze it, I might slice it before freezing, but refrigerated dough can be cut and thrown straight into the oven. A log of refrigerated dough can travel well - I brought it on the subway to a friend's house and was feted as a hero when we enjoyed straight-out-of-the- oven cookies for dessert. It could also make a nice hostess or holiday gift for someone who loves baked goods but doesn't love the prep work.

I've made a few small changes to the original recipe - substituting a variety of chocolates for the gianduja, using Medaglia d'Oro powder - so my version appears below. enjoy!

Mocha Latte Bars (original recipe Vicki Wells, distributed at FCI)

250 grams butter (room temperature)

300 grams granulated sugar

1 egg and 1 yolk

1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla

325 grams all-purpose flour

115 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Dutch processed here)

1 tbsp. kosher salt

1 tbsp. baking powder

2 tbsp. Medaglio d'Oro espresso powder

4 1/2 c. chopped chocolate (I like a mix of white, milk and semisweet or bittersweet)

Sift the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cream the butter and granulated sugar until light and airy. Add the egg, then the yolk, mixing well to incorporate after each. Add the vanilla, slowly. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add dry ingredients, mix only until almost incorporated, then add chocolate in two or three batches. Separate the dough into two or three logs - these can be round, square, rectangular, or any other shape you like. Chill at least until firm (two or three hours), or up to a week.

When you're ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice your logs - I like these cookies between 1/4 and a 1/2 inch thick, and think a serrated or very sharp chef's knife works best - and arrange on parchment paper or a silpat on a cookie sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes, or until cookies look firm and matte.

Let cool (or not - they're great warm!) and enjoy. Great with a glass of milk.

martha saves the day

A certificate in pastry arts may not seem like the most useful education, but on occasion, a chef can be a real hero. A few weeks ago I got a panicked voice mail from my sister. "Liz," she said. "It's a baking emergency. I need your help." I called her back, did some phone triage, and determined that somewhere in her attempt to bake cookies for a friend, something had gone horribly wrong. I knew from the tone of her voice that it was bad, but I still wasn't quite prepared for the sight that met my eyes when I entered our kitchen 20 minutes later.

These cookies, ostensibly Toll House chocolate chip, were probably the saddest I'd ever seen - completely flat, burnished dark brown, so thin they were almost transparent. There was still some dough left, so I performed the very scientific experiment of tasting a spoonful. The taste was fine, but the texture seemed soft and a little greasy. I quizzed Laura - did she follow the recipe? did she add a leavener? did she add flour? The answers were all as they should be, but they didn't tally up to the final product. I made the executive decision to mix in some more flour and chuck the dough in the freezer while we made a new kind of cookie for her friend, who had failed his driving exam and was in need of culinary comfort.

Wanting something foolproof and brown sugar-less (Laura had used the last in her ill-fated previous attempt), I pulled out Martha Stewart's Cookies, which I got for my last birthday. Martha offered up Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies, which looked big and sweet enough to assuage most major life disasters. We must not have made our cookies quite as giant as Martha did, because we got about 50% more than the recipe suggested, but they turned out quite nicely. The slightly sticky dough baked into dark, crinkly rounds of chocolatey goodness, just the thing for soothing a friend's wounded ego or re-building confidence in the kitchen.

In case you were wondering about the disaster cookies, the rehabbed dough turned out just fine. Laura was able to bring a few of them to her friend, and for the first time in a while, I felt like a kitchen hero and stud of a sister. I think the moral of the story is: trust Martha to steer you straight. (Unless, of course, you're looking for a hot stock tip.)

Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies (adapted slightly from Martha Stewart's Cookies)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. vegetable shortening (or butter), melted and cooled

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar until light, soft, and aerated. Add melted shortening, mix thoroughly. Add egg, then vanilla, beating thoroughly after each. Mix until creamy.

Reduce mixer speed, then gradually add flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

Drop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Martha suggests using a 2 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, which holds about 1/4 c. of dough. Space the cookies about 4 inches apart (if making this size). Bake until edges are firm, 18-20 minutes, and let cool on sheets on wire rack.

cookies (according to me)

My family does care packages better than any other family I know. My freshman year of college, I was the only kid on my hall who received a customized copy of "The National Enquirer" with her pet's face posted over the "World's Fattest Cat!!!" picture. Another only-in-my-family winner was the CD labeled "We Love You, Liz" that contained only 17 tracks of my least favorite song. With no set list, so I had to listen to every track to find out exactly what was on it. (The song, in case you were wondering, is "Teen Angel." So tragically stupid.)

But the best care packages always involved food. I have a very clear memory of getting a large container of my mom's chocolate oatmeal cookies sophomore year, and sharing them with hall-mates only to become mired in a deep philosophical debate - were these cookies actually cookies? Some stubborn friends insisted that to be a cookie required spending time in an oven, making these no-bake goodies unworthy of the cookie title. But there's chocolate, and sugar, and butter, which makes them a cookie in my book.

Now that I have a classical pastry education, I feel free to unilaterally declare that these morsels of fudgy goodness, are in fact cookies. But whatever you call them, they're delicious - a winning combination of chocolate and peanut butter combined with the chunky solidity of oatmeal. They're also quick and easy to prepare, and require only one pot and one spoon. It's true that beauty is not among their many attributes, but I think once you taste them you won't mind one bit.

This latest batch is destined for a care package to my sister Kathleen at graduate school, but of course I saved a few for us here!

Chocolate Oatmeal Drop Cookies

3 c. sugar

3/4 c. cocoa

1 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

1 c. peanut butter

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

6 c. quick oatmeal

Bring the sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter to a rolling boil for one minute over medium to medium high heat. Remove from heat.

Add vanilla, peanut butter, and salt, stir still smooth.

Add oatmeal, stir to coat.

Drop with tablespoons onto waxed or parchment paper. Let cool.

Enjoy!

books and cookies - enough said

It was snowing this morning, and this afternoon I saw yellow daffodils in Central Park. Seriously, what is up with this crazy weather? I have always been a dedicated four season-er, but I am about ready to throw away my winter coat and move to Hawaii. Luckily, last night was just fine, so I made it to my first ever book signing weather delay-free and even 20 minutes early. Which was good, because Idlewild Books, an independent and travel bookstore near Union Square, is not a big place, and Molly Wizenberg, author of the blog Orangette and the new book "A Homemade Life," is a very popular person. By the time the reading started, it was standing room only.

Orangette was one of the first food blogs I ever read, and it remains among my favorites. At the time I discovered it I was working many hours a day on a cavernous, fluorescent trading floor, sitting slumped in a swivel chair and staring at a screen. Reading Orangette, with its stories of real food handmade with love and care, was like entering a wish-fulfillment fantasy, the perfect antidote to three meals a day eaten at my desk. It also helped get me back in the kitchen - so many of Molly's recipes sounded too good to not make, and they all seemed reasonable for a novice cook to attempt on her free weekends. Some of these recipes I've since adopted as staples in my own repertoire: her oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies and banana bread with cinnamon sugar gained a loyal following among my coworkers, while the warm chickpea salad is my favorite easy supper.

So when I read that Molly would be coming to New York on her book tour, I knew that I would go. And I'm really glad I did. Not only do I now have my first-ever autographed book, which is sitting proudly on my bookshelf, I also enjoyed hearing Molly speak and read from her book. (Which is wonderful, by the way. Just carry Kleenex, especially if you're reading it in public. I inadvertently read a very sad chapter on the subway on the way to school, which led to me sniffing loudly and wiping tears from my eyes as I stumbled through the Broadway-Lafayette station. Not the best way to start a school day.)

Good writers have the ability to take a feeling or an idea and wrap it up in an accessible package, to put a name on the ineffable. And occasionally when you read or hear their take on something, you think "yes! that is what I meant to say, but I didn't know how." Molly did this beautifully last night when she said that food is a tangible way of getting at intangible things. I think she's absolutely right, and I think that's why cooking for ourselves and others can be so satisfying. Food isn't just about what tastes good. It's also about memory and family and emotion, about who we are and who we have been and who we want to be.

One of the questions Molly fielded last night was to name her top five recipes from the blog. She cited broccoli soup and cabbage with hot sauce, celeri remoulade and David Leite's chocolate chip cookies from the New York Times.

These are all good, but for my money, the best recipe on there is the one I've made the most - the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It was the first recipe I made when I got a KitchenAid stand mixer last spring, and I've been known to make a triple batch for special occasions. The dough can be refrigerated for up to three days or frozen for longer, and the cookies can even be frozen after baking - they're surprisingly chewy and delicious straight from the freezer, especially in hot weather. The link to her recipe is above, I'll add only that I usually make it with 1/2 whole wheat flour, chopped-up dark chocolate bars can be a great substitute for semisweet chips, and letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for a day or two, a la David Leite, can yield some pretty delicious results. Hope you enjoy!

p.s. If you're ever in the vicinity of Union Square, definitely stop by Idlewild - it's a great store, with an interesting selection of books and a unique cataloguing method- travel books and literature are all arranged by destination, i.e. France. So you can find Colette sharing shelf space with the Michelin guide to Paris, or The Quiet American near Lonely Planet Vietnam. As an added bonus, there's a great wine store across the street called Bottlerocket Wines. Bottlerocket is worth a visit for two reasons: 1) it's organized into user-friendly thematic displays, and all the wines and spirits have helpful blurbs and a store rating. 2) It's owned by a Williams alum, who hosted an alumni tasting at the store earlier this year. So you can find the perfect wine with ease and support another Eph - a win-win situation!

snow day cookies

Walking outside in the sunshine yesterday, it's hard to believe that less than two weeks ago I was enjoying my first snow day in years! Growing up in Minnesota a snow day was a very rare treat. Minnesotans, hardy and accustomed to the worst winter weather, cancelled school only when it was too cold for schoolkids to wait outside for the bus. So I should have been delighted to get a snow day last Monday when New York was drowning under an unaccustomed March snowstorm. And I was happy to have a day off, I really was. But it's been an awfully long winter here in New York.

To make myself feel better about the prospect of wading through slush for the next week (snow in New York never STAYS snow, you see - it spends most of its life cycle as dirty slush, then dirty water) I made some oatmeal cookies, polished off a giant pile of homework, and watched at least eight hours of LOST, my new TV obsession.

These were not just any oatmeal cookies, mind you. They were the oatmeal cookies I'd been thinking about since our field trip to Baked. Crispy outside, chewy inside, they had just enough tart Montmorency cherries, creamy white chocolate, and toasted walnuts to make every bite interesting. These dried cherries, plump and tart, might be my favorite Costco purchase ever, a perfect example of how top-notch ingredients can elevate even a great recipe to the next level. The white chocolate, which I thought I remembered eating at the bakery, wasn't in the recipe from the cookbook, so I added it myself. (I made another batch this week to bring to tutoring, and tried semisweet chocolate - also very yummy.)

The cookies were delicious, and bringing a batch to share with my class the next day made me feel much better about wading through slushy streets to get there. They're good enough, in fact, to make any day feel like a day off - try a batch and see!

Oatmeal Cherry Nut Cookies (adapted from the Baked cookbook by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated is best, but ground can also be used. You can use a Microplane/citrus zester to grate nutmeg easily, and the whole spice can be found at most grocery stores)

1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1 c. unsalted butter, room temp.

1 1/4 c. dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 3/4 c. rolled oats

1 c. dried cherries

1/2 c. chopped toasted walnuts (350 F for 10-12 min. should toast nicely)

1/2 c. white chocolate chips

Combine flour, soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl and set aside

Cream butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium-high speed. Beat until smooth and butter lightens in color.

Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time. Add next egg only when previous is incorporated.

Add vanilla, beat 5 seconds.

Add half flour mixture, mix 15 seconds. Add remaining, beat just until incorporated.

Use spatula or wooden spoon to mix in oats, cherries, walnuts.

Cover and refrigerate at least two hours and up to three days.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat. Place rounded tbsp of dough on sheet. Bake 12-14 min, or just until cookies begin to brown, rotating after 6-7 min. Let cookies cool on pan for a few minutes, then move to wire rack to cool completely (if you leave them on the pan, the carryover heat will overbake them, and you will get crispy-crispy cookies instead of crispy-chewy cookies). Delicious hot or cooled!