lovesgenoise's Reviews
2 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 2Sort by: Title 
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Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
By Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito, Tina Rupp
Stewart, Tabori & Chang - 2008
These cookies might be an all-time favorite for those who enjoy a little extra salt in desserts. They rate a perfect 5 for texture, baking up crispy on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. They also rate a perfect 5 for the level of sweetness- even with the sugar sprinkle on top and milk chocolate chips, the sugar seemed about the right balance with the peanut butter and salt (not too sweet).
The flavor is good, but the reason I rated the overall cookie four stars instead of five is that they are a little too salty for me and have a slight bitter aftertaste.
There is a lot of baking soda in these. It seems like cookie recipes often use larger amounts of baking soda to facilitate browning, and I suspect that the soda might also help create the lovely texture, keeping these from setting until they have spread into a thin, crispy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside cookie. If I make these again I'll start with a small batch and use less baking soda, in hopes of reducing the saltiness and eliminating the bitter aftertaste.
I liked these better the day after baking, when all the flavors had had a chance to blend and mellow a bit.
For those who weigh ingredients, this book uses 139g as the weight of a cup of AP flour (I learned this from RLB's baking forum, where a member had been in contact with one of the authors).
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The Baked Brownie : page 117
These were quite good! A couple of notes: first, the recipe calls for chocolate that contains 60-72% cocoa solids. I used 70% chocolate and for me, they were almost too sweet (though I still managed to eat quite a few). Next time I'll use 72% chocolate. Chocolate from the lower end of that range would make sweeter brownies. With the 70% chocolate they were sweet enough that there was no edge of bitterness, even though they contain brown sugar, dark chocolate and coffee.
The second note is that these are quite wet and fudgy in texture and stick to the pan if they're a little underbaked. I liked them baked to an internal temp of 185-190F.
For those who weigh ingredients, this book uses 139g as the weight of a cup of AP flour.
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