Cook’s Illustrated’s Perfect Cookies

Recipes go into the Test Kitchen (which publishes Cook’s Illustrated) and reappear as runway models of their former selves. Inefficiencies, widely accepted rumors of what works, weird unnecessary steps, and disproportionate ingredients are trimmed, firmly reprimanded, frisked, or tugged into place.

Their recipe for chocolate chip cookies is full of just these alterations, challenging everyone’s favorite back o’ the box recipe by Toll House. Lighter on the flour, more and darker brown sugar, higher oven temperature, one less egg white…everything focused with undivided attention upon creating the chewiest cookie possible, with flavors of toffee, butterscotch, and serious butter love hiding inside.

The result speaks for itself. In your mouth. While you debate eating three in a row.

You can get their detailed recipe to add to your repertoire (do) right here, and here’s a visual guide to the key elements.

This post is my entry into Cook’s Illustrated delightful blogging contest. Read more about it right here, and see the other contestants here, here, here.

UPDATE: E&D won! Joe and I get to visit the Test Kitchen next week! You can see the top finalists here, I love the judges’ comments. In true Test Kitchen fashion, they took the contest seriously and gave great commentary on what they liked. So fun to participate with all the other bloggers. Read about our visit to the Test Kitchen right here!

The ol’ One-Two Cranberry Punch

Is it unfair that I have waited until the day before Thanksgiving to casually mention to you the one recipe that could actually transform your day tomorrow? Unjust, that just when you were settling in with a whiskey sour in one hand, and three books in the other that I suggest you go back to the grocery store and find these five ingredients? Perhaps.

I recently read that NPR effectively reaches a much greater audience than FOX News. A delightful fact to share at your next cocktail party, and when I heard that I thought of this recipe and wondered how many people have Pepto-Bismoled their family’s holiday with this pink mash. I doubled the recipe and it still took me only ten minutes to put together. Here it is frozen, as it will stay tonight, but tomorrow it will slowly defrost until there are just icy shards mixed in with the bits of fresh cranberries, specks of horseradish and onion, all deliciously creamed together with sour cream and sugar. Wow!

Here’s the recipe, copied directly from the pages of NPR (I make both of the recipes on that linked page—the other one is for fans of vinegary-ginger-garlic cranberry delights).

• 2 cups whole raw cranberries, washed
• 1 small onion
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar (“red is a bit milder than white”)

Instructions

Grind the raw berries and onion together; I use a food processor for this, and you have to be careful to keep it choppy, not pureed. The cranberry and onions should be in sliver form.

Add everything else and mix.

Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. (“It should still have some little icy slivers left.”)

The relish will be thick, creamy and shocking pink.

Makes 1 1/2 pints. I double it because people literally heap it onto 1/4 of their plate, and it’s a must on day-after sandwiches.