Oui, Chef

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Chocolate

Bittersweet Chocolate, Cardamom and Orange Cookies

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Chocolate-Cookie3

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

For those of you busy in your kitchens preparing for a house full of guests, here is a deep, dark and delicious chocolate cookie to add to your holiday spread.  My wife and I dreamed up these little lovelies for a Food52 contest a while back.  She called for the flavor profile of orange and cardamom, I added the fleur de sel topping, and our little baby was born…..aw, isn’t she cute!  Don’t you just want to squeeze her chubby chocolate cheeks?

All of us here at “Oui, Chef”, Grid, Arthas, Boris, Peyton, Muppet, and my wife and I, wish you all a fun, warm, and delicious holiday season.  Thanks so much for being part of our adventures, for all of your great feedback, and for your support and inspiration.  We all look forward to cooking with you again in the New Year!

Cheers – Steve and the Gang

Bittersweet Chocolate, Cardamom and Orange Cookies

by: Chris Brodie and Steve Dunn
yield:
Cooking ModePrint Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup hazelnut meal/flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate cut into chunks
  • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • Fleur de sel

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 ℉
  • Ready 2 sheet trays with silpats or parchment paper
  • Combine the 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate and 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate in the bowl of a double boiler and melt, let cool.
  • In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the cooled chocolate, vanilla, and orange zest, then the eggs, one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition.
  • Sift together the AP flour, baking soda, kosher salt, cocoa powder, cardamom, and the hazelnut meal/flour. Add to the bowl and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Add the bittersweet chunks and chips, mix to distribute.
  • Spoon the cookie dough by heaping teaspoons onto the prepared sheets, and place in the oven for about 14 minutes.
  • When done, remove the cookies from the oven and immediately sprinkle them with a large grained fleur de sel. Place on a rack to cool.
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Killer K-A Brownies

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I am generally more than a little skeptical of a chef (or a company’s) claims that a certain recipe will yield the “best” representation of a dish.  It is why I have always bristled a bit at Chris Kimball’s proclamations of such through his “Cook’s Illustrated” and  “America’s Test Kitchen” entities.  Now, before any of you who may be big fans of his go all apoplectic on me, I actually do the like the guy, and his publications and shows.  I frequently learn new and useful cooking “tips” when reading “Cooks Illustrated”, and have found many of his recipes over the years to be quite good.  I just don’t believe that anyone has a lock on the “best” iteration of any dish, largely because there is no single definition as to what constitutes the “best” of any kind of recipe.  My idea of a great Duck Confit is not likely the same as Thomas Keller’s, or Joel Robuchon’s, or Chris Kimball’s, or my wife’s for that matter.  Given the subjectivity of all of our likes and tastes, how could it be any other way?

That said, imagine the look of disdain that crossed my face when I unexpectedly came across a brownie recipe the other day entitled “The Best Fudge Brownies Ever”.

Oh really?

 

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M Cookies

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Imagine my surprise (and delight) as I slipped into the kitchen a few mornings ago and found my youngest step-daughter curled up in a comfy chair with a fist full of post-it tags in her right hand, and an open cookbook on her lap.  I asked her what she was up to, and she told me that she was “just looking for some fun stuff to cook.”

God be praised.

As I walked closer I could see that she hadn’t picked up one of the few “kid” oriented cookbooks that I had on the shelf, but rather the quite fabulous Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme .

Holy crap!

She had a wide grin on her face and that all too familiar glazed look in her eyes, which I recognized immediately as a sign of someone who had just been exposed to a healthy dose of really good food porn.  She quickly shoved the book in my face and rapidly started to flip the pages to show me all the recipes she wanted to try; the Triple Chocolate and Meringue Ice Cream Puffs, the Gâteau Saint-Honoré, and the Plaisir Sucré were her favorites….oh my.  To be sure, these are some of the more elaborate and complicated confections in the whole book. 

Merde!

As challenging as her choices were (especially for a 10 year old), I gotta say that I like the way she thinks.  She is definitely a ”go BIG, or go home” kinda girl.  No fussing about with a beginner’s cookbook for her, no sir.  If she was going to learn how to bake, then she wanted to have the world’s premiere pastry chef showing her the way…….ummm, that would be Pierre, not me.

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