Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [115]
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Yes. Worth it.
Cost comparison: Homemade: $0.16 per ounce. Nabisco: $0.18 per ounce.
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
FILLING
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1⅔ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of kosher salt
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and chocolate and beat well. Add the egg and beat some more.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda and pour anything that remains in the sifter into the bowl and whisk to combine. Stir this into the chocolate mixture. It will look like a mistake—a tacky, fudgy brown mess. Don’t worry. Let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature to firm up.
3. Transfer the dough to a piece of waxed paper. Now you’re going to try to ease the dough into a long log—about 22 inches long and 1¾ inches in diameter. The dough is sticky, but if you briskly and lightly roll it back and forth on the waxed paper, you will end up with a log. If the chocolatey dough starts to stick to the paper, transfer it to a new piece of waxed paper. Once you have a log of dough, try to make it as smooth and even as you can. After all, you are trying to replicate cookies made by a machine. Refrigerate the waxed paper–covered log of dough for a few hours, or overnight, until very firm.
4. Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Cut the dough into scant ¼-inch slices. Place them on the cookie sheet. They can be as close as ¼ inch apart, so pack them on there.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until they’re cakey but firm when you press with the tip of your finger. Cool completely on a rack.
6. To make the filling: Beat all the ingredients together until perfectly smooth. Spread onto the cooled cookies, about 2 teaspoons per cookie. Store the cookies at room temperature in a cookie tin for up to 5 days.
Makes 2 to 3 dozen
RICE PUDDING
Rice pudding is so dowdy and old-fashioned it seems like something you should make at home. But I can’t make a rice pudding better than Kozy Shack. I’ve tried Mexican rice puddings and French rice puddings, baked rice puddings, and stovetop rice puddings. Kozy Shack is, to my taste, always creamier, more ethereal, altogether superior. The ingredient list is more than acceptable: milk, rice, sugar, eggs, salt, natural flavors. I give up. They win.
Make it or buy it? Buy it.
BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING
Traditional butterscotch contains no Scotch, but I tried adding a teaspoon to my pudding, inspired by a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. It’s a genius touch. That wee dram of smoky liquor cuts the sweetness and brings the flavor of this dessert into focus. The pudding is satiny and complex. Jell-O brand butterscotch pudding mix contains no Scotch, of course, but also no butter. It does find room for disodium phosphate and yellow dyes 5 and 6.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Moderate. Cooking eggs on the stovetop is always a gamble.
Cost comparison: Jell-O pudding prepared from the box: $1.22 per cup. Homemade: $0.66 per cup.
2¼ cups milk
¾ cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
¼ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Scotch or bourbon
1. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. Remove from the heat.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the cream, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until well blended.
3. Pour a splash of hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in the remainder