Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Written by Tad. Posted in Cookies

Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Summary:

I have been baking sourdough ever since the start of Covid. I have tried many recipes using sourdough discard, including cookie recipes, and have not been really pleased with any of them. That said, these are really good. I think Amy came up with a great combination to deal with the extra water contained in the discard. She browns the butter, which removes a lot of the water, and uses only the yolk of the egg. Chilling the dough and baking at a relatively high temperature and with convection makes them cook and brown quickly on the outside, while the inside is underdone. It really works. Don’t skip the chilling. I baked the second sheet after the balls had been sitting on the counter, waiting for the first batch to bake and they really did flatten out and were not as good as those that came from the chilled balls.

Recipe by:

Amy Bakes Bread

Yield:

16

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, 113 grams

¾ cup dark brown sugar, 185 grams

¼ cup granulated sugar, 60 grams

½ cup sourdough discard, 100 grams

1 egg yolk from a large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1⅓ cups all-purpose flour, 175 grams

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips

flaky sea salt if desired

Directions:

Amy Bakes Bread

  1. Brown Butter: Heat the butter in a pan or pot on the stove over medium heat. Swirl the butter around and stir every few minutes until little brown flecks are on the bottom of the pan and the butter smells nutty and delicious. Be careful not to overheat as it can burn the butter. Pour the brown butter along with all the little brown bits on the bottom of the pan into a medium sized bowl and let sit for 5 minutes or up to a couple hours to cool.
  2. Add the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl with the brown butter. Use a hand mixer and mix to combine.
  3. Mix in the egg yolk, sourdough discard and vanilla extract. Whip together with the mixer until the batter is cohesive and turns light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
  4. To a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and fluff together. Pour the flour mixture into the cookie mixture and mix together until just combined. Add chocolate chunks (or chips) and stir into the dough.
  5. Place the whole bowl into the freezer and chill the dough for 10-15 minutes. It is possible to bake these cookies right away, but they will not be quite as puffy and will spread a lot more than the chilled dough. You can also chill the dough in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or freeze the dough in small balls. Let the balls come back to “chilled” temperature before baking.
  6. Heat oven to 375 degrees, convection. Scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon balls and place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, 12 cookies per baking sheet. Sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt, if desired.
  7. Bake cookies at 375 degrees, convection for 7-8 minutes until cookies are puffed up and the edges are a little crispy. Let the cookies sit for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet to set up before removing. If your oven doesn’t have a convection setting, preheat oven for 20 minutes and bake cookies at 400 degrees for 8-9 minutes.

Cinnamon Toffee Cookies

Written by Tad. Posted in Cookies

Most home-made cookies end up kind of uneven and irregular, even if they are carefully formed with a scoop. There are a few cookies that I make where, if carefully scooped, they come out almost completely uniform in shape and appearance. Snickerdoodles and Taku Ginger Cookies come to mind. I can now add another cookie to that list, Christina Tosi’s Cinnamon Toffee Cookies, at least the way I made them. When she says “cinnamon,” she really means it. These have a tablespoon of cinnamon to less than two cups of flour so they are really cinnamony. The original recipe calls for butterscotch chips. I didn’t have any and don’t really care for them that much so I substituted the same weight of Skor toffee chips.

Recipe By:

Adapted from Christina Tosi at Momofuku Milk Bar

Yield:

24

Ingredients:

  cups flour
2 tablespoons nonfat milk powder
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ pound unsalted butter, super soft
  cups packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
11-ounce bag toffee chips *see note

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Coat the baking sheets with baking spray or parchment.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, milk powder, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula, mix the butter and brown sugar, flexing your muscles for about 2 minutes, until they are fully combined.

5. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined and fluffy, about 1 minute.

6. Stir the dry mixture into the butter-sugar mixture, mixing until just combined. Fold in the chips.

7. Scoop your dough into balls about 2 tablespoons in size and place them 2 to 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.

Note: I used 11 ounces of Skor toffee bits instead of the 11-ounce bag of butterscotch morsels in the original recipe.

Metal in the Eye

Written by Tad. Posted in Kooks

A 31-year-old woman came in with right eye pain, decreased vision and light sensitivity for eleven days. She had been pounding a screw driver with a hammer to try to open a lock. As she did so, a piece of metal broke off and hit her in the eye. She experienced a lot of pain and could see blood inside her eye. It was not clear why she had not sought care earlier or why she finally came in.

Her vision was decreased in the right eye and I could see a hole through the iris (colored part). An x-ray showed a large piece of metal (foreign body, in doctor talk) in the middle of her eye. I called an ophthalmologist and admitted her to the hospital so they could operate on her, take the metal out and deal with the developing infection.

A case like this brings up interesting questions about human behavior. I think pretty much everyone would look at their eyesight as being very important and something to be protected. It seems clear to me that someone pounding metal who gets a pain in the eye and can see blood inside the eye would immediately assume the eye had been injured by a hunk of flying metal. Putting this all together, I would also assume that most people would immediately seek medical care. Indeed, we see people all the time who have an injury of some kind and head immediately to the emergency department – even if it is something minor like a sprained ankle. 

So, why did this woman with pain and blood in her eye wait eleven days to come in for care? Most of the time, I don’t ask why an individual would make what seems like an unwise decision. Such questions might be perceived as being judgmental and would not change what I need to do for the patient. 

On those occasions when I have asked or the patient volunteered their reasons for a delay in coming in, they give reasons like this: fear of doctors, worry about the cost, having no ride, thinking it is going to get better or thinking it wasn’t really that bad. Such reasoning doesn’t always lead to bad decisions. If you have a cold or a minor sprained ankle, it is very unlikely there will be a bad outcome without medical care. But people use these same reasons to delay seeking care for serious illnesses like heart attacks, strokes, or a serious injury to the eye.

Speculoos-Stuffed Oreo Christmas Sprinkle Cookies

Written by Tad. Posted in Cookies

Here is what I said in my posting for Cookies and Cream Pudding Cookies about using Oreos in homemade cookies: I had a bit of a hard time trying these because it just doesn’t make any sense, really, to buy lousy cookies, crush them and put them in your home made cookies, which you hope will be delicious.

I was successful here but, next time, I will just try them with chocolate chips and see if they are as good.

If you don’t want them for Christmas, you can just roll them in large sugar crystals. (See below.)

Recipe By:

Good morning America

Yield:

12 large cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
1½ cups dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cup chopped Oreos (Keep cream centers.)
¾ cup speculoos
1 cup holiday sprinkles of your choice

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and toast for about 5 minutes until it turns brown and smells nutty. Pour the brown butter into a large bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes to cool (you can also refrigerate) before starting to make the dough.

2. To cooled butter, add granulated sugar and brown sugar. Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.

3. Beat in vanilla, yogurt, egg and egg yolk until well-combined.

4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift 1/3 of the dry ingredients at a time into the wet ingredients. Beat just until incorporated, then scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula between each addition. Make sure not to overmix.

5. Fold in Oreos just to incorporate.

6. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

7. Heat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

8. Using 2-tablespoon cookie scooper, scoop chilled dough and form into a bowl-shape.
 
Repeat with a second ball. Add 1 tablespoon of speculoos to the center of one of the bowls.

Cover speculoos with the second bowl-shaped cookie dough. Pinch the edges of the dough together around the stuffing. Seal tightly and roll into a ball.


9. Immediately roll the cookie dough ball into holiday sprinkles, completely covering the top and all of the sides. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

10. Place the stuffed and decorated cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets.

11. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown and evenly spread. Cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before devouring!

Here is one rolled in large sugar crystals, if you don’ t want them to have the Holiday spirit.

Oatmeal Cocoa Nib Cookies

Written by Tad. Posted in Cookies

 

Yield: 18

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa nibs

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

2. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

3. Stir in egg and vanilla.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa nibs.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in several additions until the flour is incorporated.

6. Portion out dough using a small scoop and place on the prepared sheet about 2 inches apart.

7. Bake 8 minutes or until the edges are just slightly browned. Transfer to a rack to let cool completely.

Salted Caramel Cookies

Written by Tad. Posted in Cookies

 

Recipe By: www.modernhoney.com

Summary:

Shari wanted to take cookies to Dennis and Ruth Packard, who are all loaded up to move back to Utah after being here for 50 years. She also wanted them to be simple to make because Hunter and Pippa were to help. These qualified in both ways. They are really just caramel sugar cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter, (lightly softened)
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
½ cup Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 Large Egg Yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
¼ cup High-Quality Caramel Sauce,  (plus more for drizzling on cookies)
2½ cups Flour
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
Sea Salt Flakes (optional to sprinkle on the top)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 390 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar for at least 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often.

3. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer. Stir in caramel.

4. Fold in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. If sprinkling sea salt flakes on the top of cookies, reduce salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

5. If possible, use a light-colored baking sheet. Roll cookies into light balls and place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-11 minutes or until lightly golden on the sides. Remove from the oven and let set up for several minutes.

6. Drizzle caramel all over each cookie before serving. If so desired, sprinkle with sea salt flakes.

Notes:

Use room temperature butter. I love to use dark brown sugar because it creates a richer, chewier cookie texture. The extra molasses helps to create that chewy texture. You can substitute regular golden brown sugar as well. Cream the mixture for at least 4 minutes with a mixer.
Stir in high-quality thick caramel. I like to use refrigerated caramel as it has a thicker consistency. The cookie dough calls for 1/4 cup but for extra caramel flavor, I suggest drizzling caramel on top of the baked cookies.
Bake just until edges starts to become a light golden brown color. I always suggest using these light-colored baking sheets. Once you remove from oven, sprinkle with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes for extra salty-sweet flavor.
Drizzle extra salted caramel all over the top of the cookies before serving.

Three Different Problems

Written by Tad. Posted in Kooks

Cat Feces

A 51-year-old man came in by ambulance. When I walked in the room, I immediately noted a foul smell. An Emergency Medical Technician student working with me that day took the patient’s vital signs and then started undressing him so he could be fully evaluated. 

When the student took the patient’s socks off, he noticed there was cat feces on the patient’s foot. So, it was clear where the foul smell was coming from. What wasn’t so clear is how the patient could have stepped in cat poop at home, smearing it on his foot and between his toes, and then put his socks on before calling the ambulance to come to the hospital. 

Hit Twice on the Freeway

This 34-year-old man was stopped in his car on the side of the freeway when he was struck from the rear by another car at unknown speed. He didn’t seem to have been injured in the crash so he got out of his car to see what was going on. While standing by his car,  he was knocked to the ground by another passing car. He was treated in the emergency department for abrasions, lacerations and a severely fractured ankle. 

Shot to Remove Your Memory

I told a lady I was giving her a “strong medicine to get rid of your inflammation.” She objected, thinking it would take away her memory because she confused “inflammation” with “information.”

Copyright © 2014 Bad Tad, MD