Chocolate Chip Cookies—The Classic Tollhouse

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This is the recipe that came from the bag of Nestle’s Toll House morsels back in the late 1950’s, which is how long my sister and I have been baking them. They are probably almost everyone’s favorite cookie, especially when warm from the oven. I have tried various permutations over a period of many years—with nuts, with raisins and chips, with oatmeal, with Craisins, with white chocolate, with mint chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, toffee bits, and chocolate chunks, to name a few—but for me, the classic is, without a doubt, superior to everything else I have tried.


I still whip up a batch, from time to time, when we are having a dairy meal because I would not dream of making them with anything but sweet butter. In fact, when Saul was stationed at the naval air station in Albany, Georgia, in the late sixties, I opened a tub of sweet butter and found it to be as white as snow. I was staying at the new apartment of friends Peter and Mary who had just married (Saul gave away the bride at the wedding in the synagogue in Albany because her family was in Corpus Cristi, Texas, and could not attend). I thought the Piggly Wiggly had mistakenly put vegetable shortening in the butter container because all the butter I had ever seen had been some shade of yellow. Mary couldn’t understand my consternation as she was used to seeing white butter in the South. It was the best, freshest butter I ever tasted and made the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. Currently, my favorite chocolate chips are the semi-sweet ones from Trader Joe’s. I have experimented with flour as well. King Arthur Flour, which makes wonderful cakes, makes horrible cookies. Since that fiasco, I only buy unbleached Ceresota or Hecker’s Flour for baking.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 12 oz. chocolate chips
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/2 tsp. water
• 2 large or extra-large eggs

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

With electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and water.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Add flour mixture and mix well.

Stir in the chips.

Drop by tablespoons full (I use a 1-1/2-inch diameter ice cream scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes in conventional oven, or 7 to 9 minutes in a convection oven.

Makes approximately 100.

Chocolate Cracks

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These cookies are really easy to make, freeze beautifully, and have been part of our family’s annual homemade cookie assortment for as many years as I can remember. They are really notable for their dark, glossy, crackled appearance and crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside texture.

Chocolate Cracks

• 3 cups, sifted all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 12 oz. chocolate chips
• 2 large or extra-large eggs

Adjust oven rack 1/3 down from top of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with baking parchment.

Combine sugar, butter and water in saucepan. Cook on medium heat, stirring, until butter melts.

Stir in chocolate chips until partly melted. Remove from heat and keep stirring until completely melted. Pour into large bowl of electric mixer. Let stand 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Beat eggs into chocolate mixture one at a time on high.

Turn speed to low; gradually add sifted dry ingredients, beating only until mixture is smooth and blended.

Let stand 10 minutes or more until dough  is cool enough to handle.

Using a small 1 to 1-1/4-inch ice-cream scoop, scoop quantities of dough and place balls about 2 inches apart on the parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until tops are dry but not firm.  Do not overbake. Cool on wire racks.

These freeze well, layered between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Mini Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

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My sister Adele and I have been making these appealing little cupcakes for about 35 years. At one time, they were as ubiquitous as chocolate chip cookies. Turning out hundreds of them was a short afternoon’s work when we were catering together, and they were an integral part of every beautiful and colorful assorted mini dessert tray that we offered. They are yummy, self-contained, and sturdy little bites that freeze beautifully and have that yin and yang quality that attracts the eye.

Mini Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 1  cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp. plain white vinegar
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Topping

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 6 oz. chocolate chips

Line mini cupcake pans with decorative paper mini cupcake liners.

Mix first five ingredients with electric mixer.

Add next four ingredients and mix well.

Fill mini cupcake papers half full.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add egg, sugar, and salt, and continue beating until creamy, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally.

On lowest speed or by hand, beat in chocolate chips.

Top each cupcake with a teaspoon-full of the creamy mixture.

Bake at 350°F. for 15-20 minutes.

While still slightly warm, remove from pans using a small offset spatula.

These freeze beautifully in an airtight container.

Makes about 5 dozen mini cupcakes.

Cinnamon Almond Bar Cookies

These easy-to-make bar cookies are buttery, crisp, and sturdy enough to hold up well in the cookie packages that our family makes each year. They freeze beautifully, layered between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container. Since many of our assortment contain chocolate, something that is not particularly desirable in my little branch of the family tree, these pretty bars are all the more satisfying with their rich, nutty, chewy, lemon-glazed goodness.

Cinnamon Almond Bar Cookies

• 6 ounces (1-3/4 cups) thinly sliced  blanched almonds, frozen
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 tsps. cinnamon
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 2 cups sifted, all-purpose flour

Lemon Glaze

• 1  cup confectioners  sugar
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp. boiling water
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

For Cookies:
Adjust rack to center of oven and preheat to 300°F.

Butter a 10-1/2 x 15-1/2 x 1-inch jelly roll pan.

Put almonds into a plastic sandwich bag and squeeze and press with your hands to break the nuts into coarse pieces. Set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the cinnamon and sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg yolk, reserving the white.

On low speed, gradually add flour, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula and beating only until thoroughly mixed.

Distribute large spoonfuls of the dough over the bottom of the buttered pan. Use the back of the spoon to spread it evenly. Cover it with a large sheet of waxed paper and press down on the paper with your hands to make a smooth, even layer, or use a straight-sided glass as a rolling pin to roll over the paper. Remove the waxed paper.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg white only until is is foamy and slightly thickened. Pour over the layer of dough, and with a pastry brush, spread it to cover the top of the dough.

Using your fingertips, sprinkle the crushed almonds evenly over the egg white. Cover again with waxed paper. With the straight-sided glass, roll over the paper to press the almonds into the dough and then remove the waxed paper.

Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

A minute or so before  removing the pan from the oven, prepare the following glaze:


Glaze
Place the sugar, butter, water, and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix with a rubber spatula until completely smooth. The glaze should be the consistency of heavy cream.

When you remove the pan from the oven, drizzle the glaze unevenly in a thin stream over the top of the cake. It will form a shiny, transparent glaze.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes; the cake will still be warm. With a small, sharp knife, cut around the sides to release and then cut the cake into eighths. With a wide metal spatula, transfer each piece to a cutting board and cut each eighth into quarters. Transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

After several hours, when glaze has set and hardened, freeze, if desired, between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container. Makes 32.

30 Cookie Recipes and Other Gift Foods

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Each year, for many years now, my family has collaborated on a cookie gift package project. Each of us makes a number of them, and we get together one night to eat pizza and wrap up somewhere between 60 and 100 packages, which we then divide up for our families to distribute as gifts. As far as I know, there has never been a comprehensive list, and the variety of cookies has varied over the years as we discard some of the old recipes and add new ones. This past year, for a number of reasons, we decided to forgo the cookies in favor of chocolate rum cakes. At the last minute, I decided to try baking them on my own and I am happy to say that I was able to turn out 25 of them in the spare time I had during the last two weeks before the holiday season began. I was able to surprise the family and we had a pizza and cookie wrapping night as always.


The future of this family tradition is in jeopardy. I do not know if our generation will ever be able to do this again. My granddaughters love making cookies as much as I do, so for the sake of our family’s cookie tradition, I have compiled a list and will try to make sure that, eventually, all the recipes can be found on this blog. I hope that future generations will enjoy them as much as we and our friends have.

1. Chocolate Revel Bars
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Lemon Bars
4. Snickerdoodles
5. Gingerbread Teddy Bears
6. Mango Tea Cakes
7. Cashew Tartlets
8. Mini Pecan Pies
9. Toffee Squares
10. Lime Cornmeal Cookies
11. Coffee Pretzels
12. Cream Cheese Frills
13. Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes
14. Mini Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
15. Chanukah Sugar Cookies
16. Walnut Sandwich Cookies
17. Chocolate Cracks
18. Finnish Xmas Stars
19. Meltaways
20. Oatmeal White Chippers
21. Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
22. Peanut Butter Pinwheels
23. Peanut Butter Cookies
24. Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
25. Cinnamon Almond Cookies
26. Lemon Cheese Logs
27. Maids of Honor
28. Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecakes
29. Chocolate Candy Cane Rings
30. Checkerboard Cookies

In addition to these cookies, other items that have been included on the gift plates in past years have been an assortment of dessert breads:

1. Date Bread
2. Strawberry Bread
3. Zucchini Bread
4. Pumpkin Bread
5. Vermont Apple Raisin Bread
6. Peachy Pecan Bread
7. Apricot Bread
8. Chocolate Banana Bread

And a cheese ball.

Hungarian Jelly Donuts—Farsangi Fánk

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At our cousin Fagie’s shiva, which was partially observed during Chanukah this year, Saul and his cousin, Bobby, had a discussion about Bobby’s search for an authentic recipe for the donuts that his mother, of blessed memory, used to make at Chanukah time called Fánk. Bobby had not been successful at locating a working recipe, but Saul found a promising one on the net. During our family Chanukah party this year, I only had time to make the sour cream/baking soda-type, hole-in-the middle, fried sufganiyot that our family has been making for many years. Saul was really hankering for the yeasty, rolled-out and fried, filled ones. At the last minute, our granddaughter, Sami, came to celebrate New Year’s Eve with us, and she couldn’t wait to try the new recipe so that she could satisfy her grandfather’s craving.


The original recipe is by Amy Konkoly, but I found that I needed to add an additional cup of flour to make the dough manageable for rolling out. We made about forty strawberry jam-filled donuts and four of us (our son included) ate about half of them, still warm, while watching television and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. They were so wonderful that I may never make the other type again.

Hungarian Jelly Donuts—Farsangi Fánk

• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar (I use organic)
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 extra-large egg
• 4 cups flour, divided
• 2-1/2  tsp. dry yeast (1 packet)
• peanut oil for frying
• granulated or powdered sugar for coating
• 3-4 cups fruit jam or jelly of your choice

In a microwave-safe container, heat the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt until the temperature reaches 120-130 degrees F.

In a large electric mixer bowl, slowly mix together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. Add the heated milk mixture and blend with the mixer on medium speed to moisten the flour and yeast.

Then, add the egg and beat on high speed with an electric mixer for 3 minutes.

Using a dough hook attachment, or by hand with a wooden spoon, add the remaining flour. Slightly more or slightly less flour may be used to get a dough that can be handled but is not too stiff. The trick to making very light fánk is not too much flour.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 1-2 minutes until the dough springs back slightly.

Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Allow dough to raise in a warm, draft-free spot for one hour until double in size.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and roll with floured rolling pin to approximately 3/8 inches thick. Cut circles close together with a floured donut cutter or a drinking glass. Collect  scraps and re-roll until all the dough has been used. Transfer circles to a lightly floured tray.

Cover with a linen towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes until slightly raised.

Heat 2-3 inches of oil in a deep fryer or heavy kettle to 375°F. and slide the donuts in carefully. Fry several donuts at a time for 2-3 minutes, turning as they become golden brown and puff up. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

While still warm, dip in granulated or powdered sugar and inject centers with jam piped in with a pastry bag fitted with a long injection-type decorating tip.

Best served freshly made and still warm.

Do not freeze or refrigerate. Makes about 40.

Etrog-Honey Jelly

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I grew up not knowing anything about the fruit called in Hebrew, “etrog,” in Yiddish, “esrog,” or in English, “citron.” I suppose it is the closest thing that any religion I know about has to a sacred fruit. Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood in the Logan section of North Philadelphia, I lived just three houses away from a very famous dynastic rabbi, Tolner Rebbe Moshe Tzvi Twersky. My family was totally secular. My very first memories of the holiday of Sukkot, during which this fruit plays a major role in the rituals, is of followers of the Rebbe coming out of their services in the tiny synagogue carrying the lulav, a combination of palm, willow, and myrtle branches. The accompanying etrog, of which I was never aware, was probably hidden away in a box which did not attract my attention. 

During my childhood, a few neighbors built plywood sukkot, beneath the back stairs of our row homes, that were accessible from their basement doors. They were a mystery to me, and I distinctly remember surreptitiously hanging out one evening, listening to the beautifully-sung prayers, and sounds of dinner being served, inside the sukkah of Cantor Naftali Unger and his family, who lived down the block on the other side of our wide driveway. His beautiful blonde little girl, Shoshana, was a year or two younger than I.

My first real introduction to the etrog was probably as a young married woman, attending Sukkot services for the first time with my husband and toddler-age daughter. I was absolutely intoxicated with the fragrance when I first encountered it, and so enthralled with the whole ritual when I learned about it that I insisted that we build our own sukkah the following year… and every year thereafter.

A superstition about the etrog is that a pregnant woman who bites off the end, or pitom, after the holiday, will give birth to a boy. Worked for me! The pitom must be intact all during the holiday for the ritual, or the etrog is rendered unkosher. Beautiful boxes are available to house and care for the etrog during the holiday, and ours was purchased in Israel on one of our trips there. The etrog never rots, so when I have only one, I save it in the box and have a collection of mummified ones from previous years. The dried up ones still have a trace of that intoxicating odor. It is a fruit that clings to the tree and will dry up, if not picked, hanging on to its branch. Many years ago, I decided to collect everyone’s fruit after the holiday, and turn them into jelly. Whatever flavor and fragrance is in the fruit is almost entirely in the yellow peel. The inside is full of pith and seeds and yields very little juice, so I supplement whatever juice I can get with fresh-squeezed lemon juice. I was very pleased with the results. This year, I remembered to ask about them, and the ritual director, Warren, saved almost a dozen of them for me from which I made a double batch of jelly.

Etrog-Honey Jelly

• 2-1/2 cups honey
• 3/4 cup fresh etrog and lemon juice, strained of all pulp
• 1 Tbsp., or more, grated etrog rind
• 1/2 bottle, or one pouch, liquid fruit pectin (3 ounces)

Finely grate the rind from as many etrogim as you can obtain (you should have at least two).

Squeeze as much juice from them as possible. There is not much juice inside, so add fresh-squeezed lemon juice to equal the 3/4 cup.

Combine honey, etrog/lemon juice and grated rind in a large, heavy-bottomed pot.

Stir over moderate heat until mixture reaches a full boil. Add pectin and bring again to a full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for one minute.

Remove from heat and continue to stir for three minutes.

Seal in hot sterilized canning jars.

Makes about 3 pints.