From early in my childhood, I have loved cookies. I remember sharing a glass of milk and chocolate covered Graham crackers with my father, a musician, when he came home from a "gig" at 2, 3, or 4 o'clock in the morning, Competing with my brother to see who could "steal' more Toll House cookies that my mother was baking or coming home from school to get some "Zebra" cookies, with swirls of chocolate and white dough or sugar "thumb - print" cookies, made with a thumb indentation in the middle that was filled with various jams that my mother made. In my later years , Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pat Lemay's shortbread were among my favorites.When I started working at Mumford's Culinary Center, I tasted several of Debbie Mumford's cookies. Debbie is a CIA trained Pastry Chef, the Chef co - owner of Mumford's and, in 2017, was voted "Outstanding Pastry Chef" by The Garden State Culinary Society's awards committee. Two of her cookies have been added to my 'favorite" cookie list; the Macadamia Toffee Chip and the Amazing Chocolate. Debbie has allowed me to print her recipes and has provided some short comments about how the cookie were derived or named. The recipes and the stories are presented below.
MACADAMIA TOFFEE CHIP COOKIES
" I am not sure where the original cookie recipe came from but I had an assistant and her husband was coming for lunch so we asked him to pick up some (plain) toffee chips to use in baking them.. He came with CHOCOLATE COVERED toffee pieces. We used them in our recipe and it was so good that we have used them ever since. This is how in this recipe was derived." DM
INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 C butter, room temperature
1 C sugar
2/3 C light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C cake flour
2 C AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp, salt
2 C milk chocolate toffee chips
2 1/2 C macadamia nuts, chopped into large pieces
PROCEDURE
Heat over to 350 F. (300 F if using a convention oven)
1) Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy with no sugar crystals still visible.
2) Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating the first before adding the second. Incorporate the second.
3) Add vanilla, then dry ingredients, slowly, and mix until all combined.
4) Add toffee chips and nuts until incorporated and distributed throughout the dough.
*Scoop or spoon onto baking sheets and bake until lightly brown, 20 - 25 minutes. Remove and cool before serving.
THE AMAZING CHOCOLATE COOKIE
"The Amazing Chocolate Cookie recipe came from "who knows", but the name came from an apprentice that I was working with who said "These are amazing.";
hence the name." DM
INGREDIENTS
2/3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 oz.(6 tbsp) unsalted butter
6 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1 lb semi - sweet chocolate, chopped
5 eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 Csugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb milk chocolate, chopped
PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 350 F. (300 if using a convection oven)
1) Mix flour, baking powder and salt
2) Melt unsweetened , semi - sweet chocolate and butter, mix
3) Whip eggs and sugar to until pale in color
4) Fold chocolate mixture with egg mixture
5) Add vanilla
6) Fold in flour mixture
7) Fold in milk chocolate
* Scoop or spoon onto baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.
These cookies break easily so allow them to cool completely before removing from baking sheet.
* Debbie makes these cookies in large size, 3 inches in diameter. You will have to adjust the size of your scoops or spoonfuls to give cookies of the size you desire.
