Flour's chocolate chunk cookies

To me, chocolate chip cookies equal comfort baking and eating.  They're easy to make and delicious to eat so there's a big payoff.  So when I have some free time, I often get the notion to make a batch.  I like to make the dough, let it sit a day or so in the fridge, and bake some up to enjoy with my fellas.  I usually freeze a few to have on standby but they rarely last more than a week or two in the freezer.

Flour's recipe has chunks of dark chocolate as well as bits of milk chocolate that add a deeper caramel flavor to the cookies

Like brownies and oatmeal cookies, I've met many a delicious chocolate chip cookie.  I have my favorite go-to recipes but it's fun to try a different version every once in a while.  There may not be a whole lot of differences among chocolate chip cookie recipes but some little nuance or twist in a recipe can make a difference.

In this case, I thought of the chocolate chunk cookie recipe from Flour Bakery.  I've made a few great recipes from the first cookbook (these milk chocolate hazelnut cookies are incredible, and then there were those surprisingly-easy homemade Oreos).  When we visited the bakery in Boston, we had one of their chocolate chip cookies made with TCHO chocolate.  I'm not sure if it was the TCHO chocolate that made the difference but it was really delicious.  With that memory in mind, I went ahead and gave the chocolate chip/chunk cookie recipe a try.

You have the basics of the classic chocolate chip cookie here: butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, chocolate, you know the drill.  The nuances in this particular recipe is the use of some bread flour (which might very well make you think of those thoroughly-talked-about Jacque Torres/New York Times chocolate chip cookies) for extra substance and chew, as well as a little milk chocolate thrown in with the dark.

As a child, all I knew was milk chocolate.  In recent years, my taste preference has definitely gone over to the dark side.  It'd been the same way for my husband but recently, he and the little guy have renewed their affinity for milk chocolate and I have to say that it has its place in many desserts and even works better in some cases than dark chocolate.  In this particular instance, the smaller bits of milk chocolate are a great partner to the larger chunks of dark chocolate.  It adds a caramel flavor and sweetness to the background of these cookies that I was a big fan of.  

You know...I have to say that I've yet to be able to mimic that bakery-style chocolate chip cookie texture that I love.  I'm talking about the hefty ones that are super crusty and firm yet also chewy and melding at the same time.  The home versions are just not quite that extreme somehow.  I keep thinking it has something to do with professional versus home ovens but I'm not sure.  All I know is that at home, I get wonderful oven-fresh cookies and I can do myself the favor of using the best ingredients I can find.  That's especially true when it comes to the chocolate. Use good stuff and what you like to eat because you can taste it in chocolate chip/chunk cookies.  In this case, a darker chocolate (higher % cacao, say 60%-70%) works really well as it contrasts with the smaller bits of sweeter milk chocolate within. 

So while these cookies I made at home aren't precisely the one we bought and ate from Flour Bakery (I didn't notice any milk chocolate at the time), they were certainly delicious.  Crisp and dark at the corners, soft in the center, my favorite thing about them was the flavor - the caramel-butterscotch undertones against the chunks of melty dark chocolate.  Chilling the dough at least overnight, or for a few days, in the refrigerator to develop the flavor and color is a very good thing to do.

Homemade Oreos (via Flour Bakery)

A couple of weeks ago, when we took a brief road trip to Boston, I made sure we finally visited Flour Bakery.  I've wanted to go for a long time, after hearing so much about it and baking a few things from the first book that I really enjoyed (like these divine milk chocolate hazelnut cookies).  So my husband put it on the itinerary and it worked out perfectly because after visiting the MIT museum in Cambridge, we walked about a block over to one of Flour's 4 locations for lunch.

Replicating Flour Bakery's homemade oreo cookies, filled with vanilla bean cream

Judging by the serious crowd and lines when we walked in, I had a feeling it was going to be good.  I quickly got on line while my fellas somehow nabbed a few seats at the counter.  I ordered lunch and picked out a few sweets that I thought we'd like to try.  

A filled bakery case makes me so happy and I wanted to get one of everything but managed to restrain myself.  One thing I saw right away that I knew my son would want was the "Oreo" cookie. The little one is a big fan of the Oreo.

At Flour Bakery: their homemade Oreos (in the center of the photo), tinted for Easter.  I got the green mint for my son (other colors were vanilla-flavored)

After ordering and waiting another 20 minutes or so for our food, I can tell you it was worth it.  The salad and sandwiches were fresh and tasty, and the chocolate chip cookie and slice of hazelnut-almond dacquoise that we had were so good.  Their baked goods are real treats, made with real ingredients, done right and packed with flavor and texture.  My little guy adored his oreo cookie.  I stole a bite and it was really good - the cookie was very chocolaty for a change.  So seeing that gleam in the little one's eye and the adoration he had for that cookie, I wanted to make it for him myself back home.  I remembered the recipe in the book but what I didn't realize was how surprisingly easy it is.

I love the beginnings of a baking project that involves chocolate!

I fully expected these to be a pain to make but that's not the case. The cookies themselves are actually made by simple, old-fashioned, mixing - you might need a few bowls but no stand mixer even necessary at this step.  Once the dough comes together, you let it sit an hour, roll it into a log, and let it chill to firm up before slicing and baking.  

The filling is a simple vanilla cream mixed in the stand mixer.  If you want to, you could even do it by hand but that's a bit too hands-on for me!  I decided to use vanilla beans instead of extract, and you could easily switch up the flavor by adding, say, peppermint extract, or color it using food coloring if you're in the mood.  The great thing is both the cookies and the filling can be made in advance.

Vanilla bean cream filling for the homemade oreos

Personally, I like these cookies a whole lot just plain.  They are so good - crisp (not super crunchy) and full of dark cocoa flavor with a hint of salt.  They remind me of world peace cookies.  But for kids, like my son, you can't go without the cream filling!

Your house will smell intoxicating as these cookies bake.  They are really good, just plain.

My son, and my husband, were happy with this baking session inspired by our visit to Flour Bakery.  I had fun making them and learned that sandwich cookies like these can be relatively easy to make. And I really love making and eating something at home that conjures up a memory.  When I see/make/eat these homemade oreos, I'll think of our short spring break road trip - the one we took after the winter that we thought would never end!

Banana bread with toasted walnuts

I have to tell you, this is not the best looking banana bread that I ever made.  I didn't have very high hopes for it when it came out of the oven, looking super dark and sagging in the middle.  But as we all know, it's what's "inside" that matters and luckily, the taste far surpassed its appearance.  This banana bread is seriously moist and the flavor of the toasted walnuts really pops.

I never really thought I'd be so interested in banana-related recipes.  But my husband has always enjoyed them and my eyes were opened by some wonderful recipes I found including these fabulous banana muffins and that seriously-addicting banana bread with chocolate, just to name two.  So this recipe I'm trying today is "Flour's Famous Banana Bread", from the cookbook of Flour Bakery in Boston.  Aside from the bananas, this bread relies on canola oil and crème fraîche for moisture while the toasted walnuts contribute a key flavor.  And I place an emphasis on toasted since that makes a huge difference in the final result.

The process of putting this banana bread batter together is a little different from what I'm used to.  It's not simply a matter of mixing dry and wet ingredients together like you'd generally expect when it comes to muffin and quick-bread recipes.  In this case, you use the stand mixer and start by whipping the sugar and eggs together for a good five minutes to aerate the batter and go from there.  So in a way, it's more like mixing a cake batter, which helps explains the moist, cake-like texture of this banana bread.  The batter is quite liquid and as you can see, it came out quite golden (alright, just plain dark!) but I think that browning gave it a good caramelized flavor.

Now the down side, of course, is it takes a little more time/work to put this batter together versus some other banana bread recipes.  I thought the bread's flavor was very similar to my favorite banana muffin recipe, which is more of a quick mix and doesn't require the stand mixer.  If I were to pick, I'd more likely go with that banana muffin recipe versus this one given the similar taste, better appearance, and ease (I'm just being honest here), but if I find myself with some extra crème fraîche, I'd certainly think of this recipe because that caramelized flavor and moistness is quite nice.

Milk chocolate hazelnut cookies

Oh, the insanity!  Before we proceed on to our regularly scheduled post below, I'd like to mention that we're living through another few days of insanity again.  As Claire Huxtable (from the Cosby show) would say: "let the record show" that not more than two months after Hurricane Irene hit us in the Northeast, we experienced a snow storm right before Halloween (yes, in October!), leaving us with plenty of downed trees/tree limbs and major power outages in the New Jersey area.  Schools closed for five days, more than wiping out the 4 alloted snow days in one fell swoop, and neighborhood trick or treating was canceled.  We consider ourselves very lucky for only losing power for about 30 hours.  Ironically, our neighbors who have lived here for decades can't remember having power outages.  It leaves you scratching your head and wondering what's going on these days.  I really hope this is not a sign of a long winter to come. 

Now...back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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Making those delicious hazelnut shortbread cookies recently reminded me of how much I love hazelnuts.  And chocolate and hazelnuts are a magical combination, in my opinion.  I love chocolate with gianduja (I'm not even sure how to pronounce it but it's hazelnut paste) and things like nutella.  During college when I worked part-time in midtown Manhattan, there was an eatery across the street from the office that carried these small Cadbury milk chocolate bars with whole hazelnuts.  I never could resist those purple Cadbury bar wrappers and the ones with whole hazelnuts where I could literally feel the lumps of hazelnuts in my hand always wound up in my hand and at the cash register with me.  It's probably a good thing those particular chocolate bars are hard to find.  I used to eat a bar (I figured they were "small" at about 3-4 inches long, maybe an inch wide) in one sitting.  

So with that in mind, I had to try this recipe for milk chocolate hazelnut cookies from Boston's Flour Bakery.  These were really good, like a warm Mrs. Fields cookie you'd get at the mall (and that's a compliment).  Ground hazelnuts in the cookie dough give the cookies extra chew (and we love chewy cookies over here) while the larger pieces of chopped hazelnut provide crunch and drive home the hazelnut flavor.  The milk chocolate is sweet but balanced by the relatively mild (not too sweet but still nicely caramelized) cookie dough.  My family and I loved these...even the little one who insists he does not like nuts was a big fan.

These cookies are a bit more work since it involves toasting some hazelnuts (I couldn't find blanched hazelnuts so I toasted and rubbed off as much of the skin as possible), grinding some of them finely, and chopping the rest.  You also need to plan a bit in advance since the dough needs to rest in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before baking.  But the good news is you can keep the dough in the refrigerator for up to a week and bake some off fresh when you want it.  I choose to make these small but it wouldn't be a bad idea to follow the recipe and go the heftier route since they do spread when baking and come out on the thin side.  I prefer having more as opposed to one giant cookie. 

So if you like the combination of chocolate and hazelnut, I recommend giving these a try.