use real butter

…sucks unless you pay out the nose (and then it’s still not worth what you paid).

We are in a ski resort town tonight. I dragged Jeremy and dog out for the weekend to shoot the fall colors. It’s beautiful out here. There is nothing to report food-wise other than I cannot wait to get home to a decently prepared meal again.

One night during my pastry skills course, I was in a discussion with two other classmates over cookie recipes and how to achieve the proper texture at elevation. I’ve learned from Shan to try removing the leavening agent for my elevation and it seems to work well with most of the cakes I bake. He was passing by during our conversation and couldn’t help but interject, “freeze the dough”. I made a mental note to give it a try.

I used to bake a lot of cookies. It was easy in graduate school because I could bring in a double batch of cookies, set them in the office, and send the email out to the department. They’d be gone in a couple of hours. Graduate students are always hungry. I made cookies at least twice a week for stress relief and I fine tuned my recipes to the perfect texture - at sea level. When we moved to Colorado, I was disappointed with how many of my recipes had to be readjusted. I didn’t feel like wasting my time because I didn’t know where to start tweaking.

Since we’re hitting the road tomorrow, I thought Jeremy might like to nosh on some good old choco-crisp cookies. And I finally felt I could handle messing around with the recipe. I originally got this recipe from my ex-boyfriend’s mother. But… I didn’t like how buttery it was. It spread too thin and was on the overdone side, in my opinion. I modified it after we broke up, with a better cookie dough that had more body. *snicker* The key ingredient that most people are unable to pinpoint is cornflake crumbs. I find great satisfaction in smashing the cornflakes with a rolling pin.

add to the dough right after the chocolate chips

This time, I omitted the baking soda and tried baking a sheet of room temperature dough and a sheet of frozen dough (well, i popped the sheet into the freezer for 20 minutes).

testing… 1, 2, 3, testing…

What I found (and independently verified with Jeremy’s feedback) was that the frozen dough cookies had a superior texture: crispy outside and soft, chewy inside. The cookie had much better structure too. The regular dough cookies were more uniform, a little hard, and slightly dense. The taste was the same, although I think because I omitted the baking soda, I should have increased the salt a tad.

in search of the perfect cookie texture

Choco-crisp Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, large
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup corn flake crumbs
1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Oven: 325F. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time and then add vanilla and mix well. Add the flour, soda, and salt and mix. Then add the chocolate chips and cornflake crumbs. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Freeze the baking sheet for 20 minutes. Bake for 15-20 minutes (check for the bottoms to turn golden).

I’m not sure where I got my recipe for posole, but I know who introduced me to it. Jeremy is a native son of New Mexico (which is one of the 50 states and not a separate country as some US citizens might think). Despite being a white boy, he is particular about New Mexican food and scoffs at what Coloradoans try to pass off as Mexican food. I love Colorado, but damn it if these people don’t know how to cook…

Okay, so with the cooling temperatures and changing aspens comes my appetite for hot soups and stews - things I generally avoid during our warm months. Posole is incredibly simple and yet it produces such a satisfying and hearty meal. It is named for the star ingredient: hominy or posole. I use whole dried red New Mexican chile pods for this stew. I’ve substituted with other dried chiles before and I didn’t like them so much. So if you can get your hands on some New Mexican reds or bribe a friend in the state to send you some, it’s worth the trouble. I also like to add roasted Hatch green chiles (of New Mexico - see a pattern here?) at the end of the cooking.

crock pot or stove top, your choice

The whole recipe is fairly straightforward: dump most of the ingredients in a pot and cook for a long time. I add a few more annoying steps just because I prefer to defat the stew and skin my chiles. My extra steps mean that the stew takes at least a day to make. If you plan ahead, it’s really quite simple.

defat the broth after chilling

shredded pork

posole

add the defatted broth

After cooking the posole, I remove the red chiles and split them open with a sharp knife. I scrape all of the chile meat from the skins and chop it up very fine. Next, I remove the pork from the broth and pull off all of the meat, throwing away the bone and any fat or connective tissue. I shred the pork and set it in a tupperware in the fridge. Finally, I strain the broth and store it in a glass bowl for refrigeration. I store the remaining posole, garlic, and chiles in the same tupperware as the pork. When the broth is cooled (this I usually do overnight) there should be a soft layer of fat on top that you can easily remove and discard. After reuniting all of the stew ingredients in a large pot, you can heat it up and serve. I like to garnish with diced tomatoes and avocado. Jeremy likes to have a bowl of posole with a warm flour tortilla or two.

a satisfying bowl of posole

Posole

2 cans hominy, drained
1 1/2 lb lean pork shoulder
1 lime, juiced
4 dry red New Mexican chile pods, tops removed and seeded
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp oregano
3 tsp salt
4-6 roasted Hatch chiles, seeded, skinned, and diced
tomatoes, diced (optional)
avocado, diced (optional)

First method: Put pork, hominy, lime juice, and red chiles in a pot. Fill with enough water until all ingredients are covered. Bring to boil then cover. Simmer for 3 hours (add water as needed). Stir occasionally. Add garlic, oregano, salt, and green chiles. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Second method: Dump everything except the salt and green chiles in a crock pot. Set on high for 7 hours. Add salt and green chiles and let cook for another hour.

Both methods: Remove pork and shred it. Set aside. Remove red chile pods and slice open, scraping the meat from the skins. Discard skins. Chop the red chile meat into a paste and add to the pork. Strain the broth and add the solids to the pork and store in refrigerator. Store broth in glass bowl and refrigerate until fat solidifies. Remove fat, discard. Return the broth to the solid ingredients and reheat. Serve with diced tomatoes, avocado, and warm flour tortillas.