
Yes I know, you are saying to yourself “oh no another one of those posts”. Just a reminder though: I do scour the interwebs searching for the best recipes evar. You see the blog title up there…go ahead and look, I’ll wait. We good? Now we’re seeing eye to eye. I have tried multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes. Even #43 from Cooks Illustrated “now with more browned butter”. Well there were only 2 that really made the cut but this one is by far the best ever (the other will come later)! It comes from a guy that I think knows his chocolate, Jaque Torres. I used to watch him on PBS make his chocolate goodies. Yeah this one has made the rounds on the internet but I figured I would remind you of all its tasty goodness.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Courtesy The New York Times and Jacques Torres
- 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 c. (10 ounces) light brown sugar
- 1 c. plus 2 T. (8 ounces) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 2 c. minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
- 1 2/3 c. (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
- 1 1/4 t. baking soda
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1 1/2 t. coarse salt
- 1 1/4 lbs. bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, I recommend Ghirardelli Chips, (originally the recipe asked for chocolate fèves, if you have them good job but I am a normal human being that shops at normal grocery stores)
- Sea salt. I like the Costco Sea Salt Grinder unless you got some Fleur de Sel.
Directions
- Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
- Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or if you are like me and hate the mess of parchment, lightly spray it with cooking oil spray. Set aside.
- Scoop 2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of small golf balls) onto baking sheet, Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 16-19 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 5 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

These cookies are some of the best cookies I have ever had. Every year around the holidays I make these. It’s sad I wait that long during the year because these cookies are really awesome. If you like snickerdoodles you will love these.
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Holy crap these are good. They are a little bit of work but they are totally worth it. My wife found these at My Kitchen Cafe and I have to give her mad props for a great find. I have made them quite a few times. Next time I make them I am going to try them with frozen raspberries, I feel they are that versatile. Enjoy!
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To me banana bread was something that someone else brought over to the house or gave us for a gift. For some reason my mom didn’t ever make quick breads such as banana bread or zucchini bread (at least I don’t remember her making them). Thus the quick bread was somewhat of a mystery to me and so i thought it was hard to make them. Although I found out later that these elusive breads were insanely easy to make, especially with the help of a good Kitchenaid mixer.
It’s not very often that there are old bananas at my house. We love ourselves some bananas, but when there are I like to make banana bread. I stumbled upon this recipe in my journeys through the recipes interwebs and it has become my defacto recipe for banana bread.
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My Wife’s Dad makes some mean breakfasts. He is always making pancakes, waffles or some other goodness. I tried replicating them but he’s the kind of guy that doesn’t measure, its all by feel and sight and for me that doesn’t cut it when it comes to “baking”. My attempts to replicate his biscuits were always in vain. So I decided to search for a recipe I could call my own, but I had one main criteria: It had to be made with butter.
A lot of recipes I found were made with shortening. To me shortening is tasteless and gross. If I want to bake something I want it to have some flavor. What about butter flavored shortening you might ask? Well its the same stuff as above but with fake butter flavor, and that’s not tastyliciousness. Finally I found this one on Epicurious.com and I must say everyone at my house is in love, even the Wife.
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Some much nicer photos are coming your way soon. I just pulled the trigger on a Canon EOS Rebel T1i
. An actual real camera. I am really excited to bring nicer, much more professional pictures of my tastylicious food to you.
Oh and I guess I will take pictures of my beautiful ladies too.


Maybe its not really famous but I am going to make it that way. This is the sandwich dreams are made of. I remember when my wife and I were dating when she would visit me at the pizza place where I worked: High Desert Pizza in Ivins Utah. She would come and I would treat her to this tasty sandwich. We both fell in love at first bite. It took me a little while to remember all the toppings but ultimately I did. I must say thank heavens for that.
Now you have to start off with the Focaccia Bread from this post. Some very tasty bread. We like it fresh out of the oven, but 1-2 day old is fine as well. This is a hot sandwich so it doesn’t matter.
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I was looking for a good focaccia bread recipe to go with my High Desert Pizza Focaccia Sandwich, but never found what i was looking for. That is until I found this recipe. I am pretty particular when it comes to recipes and the focaccia bread recipes I found in the past just didn’t sit well with me for one reason or another. I even tried one from Michael Chiarello from the Food Network and to tell you the truth it wasn’t good at all.
Oh by the way I went and bought a rosemary bush for $4.50 at Lowes. Way cheaper than the package you would buy at the grocery store and its pretty much a never ending supply. I wouldn’t omit the rosemary if I were you.
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I have ported this over from my portfolio website but i wanted to share it here as well. This will be the main place I do recipe related things from now on.
This recipe was linked from my other website to multiple places including Serious Eats and
My father-in-law is the breakfast master but there has always been a problem, his recipes are in his head. This includes measurements of ingredients. This is a predicament when someone like me wants to make his recipes. Although I have recently learned that his waffle recipe is an actual recipe with real world measurements. These waffles are far and away the BEST WAFFLES EVER!! I mean crispy on the outside, kind of chewy on the inside, yet light. Not heavy. MMMM soooo good.And the recipe was right in front of my nose the whole time. Without further ado:
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