Linda's Double Chocolate Cookies

by Michelle

   I have a confession to make. Until last week, I haven't made cookies in years. So many years, in fact, I can't recall the last batch of cookies that I baked. This lapse in cookie baking is due to my daughter, Maddie. Once Maddie was old enough to bake, cookies were her thing. If our family and friends wanted cookies, Maddie happily obliged their cravings. Maddie makes excellent cakes, too. Me? I continued on with the fussier side of baking, making delicious pie crusts and triple chocolate meringues. But now that Maddie's away at college, if I want cookies, it's up to me to make them.

   I was invited recently to a photography event and the hostess asked for all the attendees to contribute to a potluck meal. I adore chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted to shake things up a bit and that's when my mind began wandering through the halls of time to recall other superb cookies from my bygone cookie baking days. It didn't take long for me to fondly recall my sister Linda baking up batches of cookies when my daughter was small and we all lived together for a brief time in 2001 before our world got permanently turned upside down after September 11th. This browniesque cookie is our favorite from that time. 

  The recipe is adapted from a Baker's chocolate recipe called Death by Chocolate Cookies. Linda changed the recipe a bit, which she always seemed to do, based upon her years spent as a pastry chef in the Santa Ynez Valley. The recipe couldn't be easier. All the kitchen equipment you need is a large glass bowl, a whisk, some measuring utensils, a couple cookie sheets and an oven and your on your way to producing an excellent batch of cookies. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Linda's Double Chocolate Cookies

Spectacular Chocolate-Covered Strawberries—The Power of Love and Happy Valentine's Day from the Salvation Sisters

by Linda

"It don't take money, and it don't take fame
don't take no credit card to ride this train
Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel
you won't feel nothin' till you feel
you feel the power, that's the power of love"
~Huey Lewis and The News

   There is a special reason that I am quoting Huey Lewis and The News in case you were wondering. I recently transferred to a new Whole Foods Market® location this past December, where I am meeting lots of new people—team members and customers. One of my most recent acquaintances, is my new friend, Caren, whose sister married Huey in 1983. Huey Lewis and the News had a huge hit in 1985 with the song Power of Love that was featured in the mega-hit movie Back to Future. I have always been very fond of the well-crafted pop tune, because it is not only catchy and upbeat, but the lyrics are profound. Whenever I hear it (which is surprisingly often at work on the ever-popular with our team members and customers 80's channel) I am reminded that love—real love—is in fact a very powerful thing.

My new friend, Caren, who is a Customer Service Professional extraordinaire!
She absolutely showers our customers with love each day. It is amazing to witness.

   We sisters have a big love for Valentine's Day. Over the years we have celebrated Valentine's Day with lovers, friends, our kids—alone even—and I don't think any one of the three of us has ever felt that this is a day made exclusively for romance. In my personal universe, I have transformed the celebration of this day into an appreciation of love at large. 

   Agape is a Greek term that was developed in the Christian theology as the love of God or Christ for humankind. I heart-ily believe that this kind of love is a concept worth contemplating for an entire day at least once per year—that elusive yet all encompassing and unconditional kind of love, that is a rare and extremely difficult to practice—but still worth imagining, striving toward and promoting. It is good, I think, to take time to send up an offering of heartfelt thanks for all the love given and received in a world so full of pain and suffering. It is is also worth contemplating how to be a positive force for good in one's life and community. I am of the opinion that our world and everyone in it most definitely needs all the love that we can create.

   So it's settled then—let's celebrate love! Bring on the cards, flowers, phone calls and the bubbly, and send love from your heart out into the world. Be extravagant with your acts of kindness, with your voice and your smile, and most definitely—spend all your kisses.

She told me that she was buying flowers for her teacher.

   Spectaclular Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Baker and cake decorator extraordinaire, Suzette @ #mylove_mypassion on Instagram, 
dips long-stemmed strawberries into white chocolate and crushed chocolate
sandwich cookies at Whole Foods Market on Valentine's Day last year.

   At Whole Foods Market when Valentine's Day rolls around, you will find us dipping strawberries round the clock. Our chocolate-covered strawberries have become the Valentine's favorite treat over the years, and our bakers and decorators prep for this holiday like it is the Super Bowl of Love.

Equipment:
1/2 Sheet pans or a cookies sheets
Parchment paper or foil
Bowls for melting the chocolates
A pastry bag and piping tube for striping or a thick-ply plastic bag—for instructions click here.

Ingredients:
Ripe strawberries—long-stemmed strawberries look beautiful, but regular strawberries will work just as well.
Good quality chocolate or white chocolate for dipping. Any kind of chocolate bar will work well. Choose among your favorites—dark, bittersweet, semi-sweet, etc.
Chocolate for striping—any will work, and does not even need to be contrasting.

Ingredients for dipping—small chocolate curls (can be made easily with your vegetable peeler) chopped nuts, toasted coconut, crushed cookies or sprinkles—allow your imagination to be your guide.

Procedure:
Depending on how many strawberries you will make you will need about six ounces of your main dipping chocolate for every one pound of strawberries, and about three ounces of the contrasting chocolate. This is an amount is a loose guide. You may want to make some strawberries with dark chocolate and then do the reverse and dip in white chocolate, so make sure that you purchase adequate amounts of chocolate. 

1. The strawberries should be prepped first. They need to be clean, room temperature and perfectly dry. Note: Chocolate and water are not best friends.
2. Melt your chocolate in a small vessel that will keep the chocolate as deep as possible in order to aid dunking. You can do this in a micro-wave or over a double boiler.
3. Dip your strawberries in the melted chocolate, and then roll them in crushed items when still wet. If not rolling in crushed items, dunk and place on a parchment or foil covered sheet pan or cookie sheet. When chocolate is set (a brief chilling in the refrigerator can speed up the time) re-dunk the tip in a contrasting chocolate or apply melted striping chocolate for the final detailing. I prefer mine served at room temperature. They can sit out of refrigeration for an entire day.

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Praline Tart and Memories of My Life as a Pastry Chef—Gluten-Free Tart Version Included

by Linda

"If baking is any labor at all, it's a labor of love. A love that gets passed down from generation to generation." ~ Regina Brett

Maddie's 18th birthday dessert request—Chocolate Macadamia Nut Praline Tart

   In 1990 I was busy working as the pastry chef for The Los Olivos Grand Hotel, a small and elegant establishment on Grand Avenue in Los Olivos, California. I look back now with mostly fond memories of the job. In spite of the long hours, low pay and working on every weekend and holiday—the job offered much in the way of creativity—which I enjoyed immensely. From the time I was just a girl, I have always loved to bake.

   Luckily, the executive chef of the hotel restaurant allowed me complete freedom to bake and make whatever I desired as long as the customers loved my creations (which happily they did), and consequently she did not interfere with my menu selections. The hotel had a beautiful kitchen which I was told that Julia Child had a hand in designing, and I had my own private work station that included a large Hobart mixer, and small Kitchen Aid mixer, a Robot Coupe food processor, a large wooden table for working bread dough, my own sink with a large stainless work surface attached, double convection ovens, a cold marble surface on top of a low cold case for working pastry dough, chocolate and plating desserts, a microwave and a large free standing refrigerated case with shelves that held all of my components and completed desserts that required refrigeration. I worked on the opposite side of the cooks who worked the line (there was a freestanding wall dividing us), so while I had my own separate area, I still interacted with the rest of the kitchen's chefs and waitstaff. It was there that I best learned the intricate and chaotic dance that is performed each shift, during which the kitchen staff and the waitstaff are conjoined in a frantic back of the house effort in order to smoothly pull off the high-end dining experience going on in the front of the house. I enjoyed the camaraderie borne of stress and having a common goal that was shared among the cooks and the servers, and I am still friends to this very day with a few people that I worked with at that time—you know who you are—much love from me.

   As said "pastry chef" for the hotel's restaurant (I have no formal training, but have been baking most of my life), I was responsible for producing almost entirely by myself, every loaf of bread used for making sandwiches and filling the bread baskets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition many varieties of bread, I also baked all of the  hamburger buns, dinner rolls, muffins and cookies that were eaten on a daily basis. I also made all the offerings on the dessert tray which changed daily and seasonally, and all of the special occasion cakes for birthdays and weddings. Everything was created from scratch using the best ingredients. It wasn't long before restaurant patrons were asking to buy loaves of bread to take home with them at ten dollars a pop (a staggering figure to me back then). My Orange Wheat and Nut Bread was one of the varieties that I would sell if we had extra. It amazed me that customers were even happy to take home loaves that had been frozen if there wasn't fresh bread available, and so I did my best to have a stash available in the freezer.

   I had never done production baking before working at the hotel, and I learned a great deal in my three years there about the practicalities involved and time management skills needed in order to serve a busy restaurant that served breakfast, lunch and dinner, provided a buffet on Sundays and also hosted special events like banquets and weddings. The Santa Ynez Valley is home to a number of celebrities who dined at the restaurant and who became ardent fans of my baked goods, so I most definitely did some cooking for the stars. I was told that Steven Seagal would regularly come by in those days to order one of my Brownie à la Mode with Fudge Sauce dessert plates and teasingly gave instructions to the waitstaff to not let Kelly LeBrock, to whom he was married at the time, know about his sweets bingeing since he was supposed to be on a diet for an upcoming film. James Garner would call ahead to make sure that his favorite chocolate chip cookies would be waiting when he arrived fresh from the oven (I wish I would have gotten to take the order personally—he was one of my favorite actors because he reminded us so much of our Papa), and Fess Parker and his wife Marcy asked to meet me on one occasion because they loved my desserts—they ate at the hotel often and later bought the property. It was at this little hotel where guests attending Elizabeth Taylor's wedding to Larry Fortensky stayed in 1991, because it was near Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch where the ceremony took place.

    Over the course of my years baking at the hotel, certain items became standards, and our regular customers were disappointed if they were not on the menu. Among these desserts were my Favorite Cheesecake, the Best All American Apple Pie, Old Fashioned Berry Crisp and the much clamored for Chocolate Pecan Praline Tart. At the hotel I used pecans instead of Macadamia nuts because Macadamias were so expensive, and they can be substituted here if you wish (just about any nut of your choice will work perfectly well).

Maddie invites her cousin, Jordan, to help her blow out her
candles—his birthday was the day before hers.

   I left the hotel to accept a position as chef/manager of a bakery café in Solvang that was just down the street from where I lived, and I worked there until I left cooking professionally behind—but it is with nostalgia that I look back on those years when I was called "The Mistress of Spice and Everything Nice" in the Los Angeles Times after a food critic came to stay for a weekend.

   In just a week I will be flying to Arizona where our family is gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving, my son, Jordan's, thirtysomething birthday and my niece Maddie's (frequently the ever patient and good-natured model in our blog posts) eighteenth birthday, Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Years all in the span of ten days. Maddie isn't really a cake person, just like our dad, and so Michelle and I will be making the Chocolate Macadamia Nut Praline Tart for her party. It will be a trip down memory lane for me—I haven't made the tart for at least twenty years. I am looking forward to introducing it to this generation of our kids while we celebrate birthdays, and the passing of this year and the beginning of a new one. Should they want to make a special dessert in the near future or twenty years from now, for the generations of our family yet unborn, they will be able to find the recipe here, in our family's virtual recipe box.

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Praline Tart

Salvation Sisters' Best Desserts 2010—2014 and Why We Blog

The Memory Keepers by Linda
Photos by Michelle and Linda

"Ohana means family, and family means that no one gets left behind or forgotten." 
                                                ~ from the movie Lilo and Stitch

From left to right and top to bottom—click on the title to link to the recipe: 
Cowtown Chocolate Cake with Ganache Icing, Banana Cream Pie, Steamed Persimmon Pudding, The World's Best Coffee Cake, Maraschino Party Cake, Rose-Scented Raspberry Tea Cake, Ooiest Gooiest Chocolatiest Fudgiest Brownies, Linda's Favorite Cheesecake, Fruit-Filled Italian Rum Cake

      It's hard to believe that we sisters have been blogging for nearly five years now. Originally we had the goal of publishing one post per week, and we have certainly fallen short of that ambition—but that's what goals are for, right? No one's life or livelihood was at stake here, we simply wanted to compile a collection of our best-loved family dishes and tell the story of our lives and family. We felt that others could relate, because let's face it, everyone is slogging through the same sh*t in their own everyday lives. Additionally, our intention was for our blog to be the family resource for the generations to come when they wanted to know about the food and the history of our family, and we hoped that others would relate to our stories and recipes and be inspired to cook and bake.

From left to right and top to bottom—click on the title to link to the recipe:
Chocolate-Prune Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Salted Caramel Sauce, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, Plum Tart, Root Beer Marble Ice Cream, Amaretto Mousse with Raspberry Sauce, Pumpkin-Apple Spice Cake with Dulce de Leche Glaze, Apple Crostata, "The Total Woman" Creamy Rice Pudding, GF Angel Food Cake

   Eating is one of the most fundamental things we do as humans other than breathing. We are compelled to nourish ourselves and others whether we want to or not. One must feed oneself—it is a fact that I often wonder about. Personally, I believe in a supreme power or energy, and I wonder why we are designed physically in such a way that we must feed ourselves or die. It seems so very extreme to me.

   When Michelle suggested creating a blog in early 2010 (I really didn't know much about the blogoshere at that time), I was taken aback. It was just a few months after a devastating family tragedy, and I could not conceive of what would happen in the ensuing years. In fact at that time, I could hardly fathom getting out of bed in the morning and living through the following week, much less imagining myself five years down the road. And yet here we are—about to begin our sixth year of blogging.

Banana Cream Pie, Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows, Linda's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fun making Linda's The Best All American Apple Pie updated with
Michelle's Absolutely Delicious All-Butter Pie Crust which is gluten-free and gum-free.

   This blog started as an experiment at the urging of Michelle—and Juliette and I went along for the ride. I was numb, just trying to figure out one day to the next after the death of my son, Joshua, who died in Afghanistan in January of 2009. A few months later, Michelle and her daughter Maddie came to California to live with me on a mission of mercy. I look back now almost six years later, and know without a doubt that their combined presence pushed me back into the land of the living. Grief is like that—it can take you down for the count. Luckily, the love of my family pulled me through that very dark time with much sacrifice on their part—but that's what true love is all about.

From left to right and top to bottom—click on the title to link to the recipe: 
Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows, Nana's Homemade Fudge, Kahlua Spiked Tofu Chocolate Mousse, Our Family's Sugar Cookies, Triple Chocolate Meringue Cookies, Delectable Lemon Cake, Vanilla and Chocolate Pudding, Pecan Tassies, Chocolate Silk French Pie

   So please enjoy this compendium of our desserts up to now. While I personally am trying my darndest to leave refined sugar behind, I also recognize that desserts are the traditional way we as a culture celebrate special occasions and mark holidays. I had no idea in 2010 that I would choose to go gluten-free and Paleo two years later, but I have discovered that I feel much better following those diets. My journey along the way is recorded for posterity. I also try and recognize that there is room for almost everything in moderation, and I refuse to be the family killjoy. For example, the recipe for our family's Maraschino Party Cake has been baked by our family for at least the past seventy years. In the spirit of these changing times, for our recipes beginning in 2012, there is a gluten-free version for everything. This year I plan to start experimenting with Paleo desserts, so you will be seeing more contributions from me using no refined sugar.
   Whatever your personal dietary choices are, we wish you time spent with your loved ones in the kitchen cooking, and then sharing your creations together to celebrate the mundane as well as special occasions, because we know this for a fact—the memories carry over from one generation to another. Sharing your love with good food lives on.

From left to right and top to bottom—click on the title to link to the recipe:
Fresh Peach Ice Cream with Amaretto Affogato, Wilkins Family Lemon Ice Cream and
Really Excellent Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream

Linda's Creamy,Yummy and Paleo-Friendly Coconut Oil Hot Chocolate for Weight Loss (Vitamix Method) and Her Thoughts on Gluten-Free vs Paleo Diets

by Linda

'Tis a lesson you should heed:

Try, try, try again.

If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try, try again. ~ William Edward Hickson

My new and very much improved (properly emulsified) Coconut Oil Hot Chocolate.
Delicious by anyone's standards.

As anyone knows who has spent a good deal of time cooking, much of the process is about experimentation. The same is true for me with my diet.
   When I try a recipe for the first time—often the subsequent times that I make it, I will choose alterations to improve the results. Such is the case with my previous Sugar-Free Coconut Hot Chocolate recipe that we published a couple of years ago, and such is the case with my ever changing thoughts on nutrition and diet to help me fight the battle of the bulge and stay healthy.
   In January of 2012, armed with new knowledge and the moral support of my friend and co-worker at the time, Misty, of Healthy Transisitons, I embarked on a gluten-free Paleo template diet. In four months I had lost 50 pounds, and I wasn't even going to the gym.
That's the good news. Not only did I lose weight, but the life-long asthma that all of us sisters have struggled with since we were babies improved dramatically for me. In the fall of that year just a few months later, the Sistercation of 2012 occurred. This was when Juliette, Michelle and I met up here in Sonoma County for our annual sisters' get together. During the days we spent enjoying ourselves, we talked at length about diet and my going gluten-free while we weren't at the beach or having dance party and cocktail time in my backyard.

Dance party in my backyard during Sistercation of 2012.

   Juliette is an expert at making wild yeast and long fermentation sourdough. She owns the regionally-recognized bakery—Guadalupe Baking Company in Bisbee, Arizona. During our visit, Juliette argued that I should be able to include wild yeast sourdough in my diet because there is accumulating evidence that the long cold fermentation process literally eats up the gluten. I read a blog post on Cheeseslave that Juliette sent me that made me consider reintroducing this artisan product back into my diet. According to what I read, when tested, the gluten parts per million in wild yeast long ferment sourdough are below what the FDA requirement is to label a product gluten-free (however FDA regulations do not allow for anything containing wheat to be labeled "gluten-free"). Although I am not the master researcher that Michelle is, when I am on the track of new knowledge, I start digging into things. This is good and this is bad, because you can end up making yourself really confused, which I managed to do in this case.
   Since I was still really missing bread on my new diet, I was persuaded to give baking my own artisan sourdough a try if it meant I could have delicious bread back in my life. Juliette had brought her sourdough starter dehydrated powder with her from Arizona, and she got the starter rehydrated and going for me here in California in the week she was at my house on vacation. When the girls were gone—with my new starter bubbling away—I set out to learn to make real sourdough. Not one to cautiously approach a new project, I enthusiastically threw myself into my new creative endeavor. I invested in brotforms, cambros, clay baking cloches, cast iron bread bakers, baguette pans, a lame, a good digital scale and a whole slew of other bread baking equipment that is needed to transform water, flour and salt into beautiful loaves of artisan sourdough.
   Michelle got into the act, too, and it wasn't long before the two of us were turning out gorgeous and really delicious boules, baguettes, rolls, bagels and pizza dough under the tutelage of the expert, Juliette. There were many telephone calls and emails between the three of us that were devoted to the subject. Michelle even won a blue ribbon at her local state fair that spring for her heavenly Guava-Coconut-Orange-Walnut Stuffed Baguette. The following photos are examples of the bread and pizza that Michelle and I began making:

                                                                                                                                                             

   But after about six months, not all was well for me in Sourdough Breadland.  The weight began to creep back on, and my asthma worsened, but I continued on baking bread in spite of these warning signs because not only do I really love eating bread, but now I really enjoyed the whole process of making and baking it as well. Bread is convenient (too busy to cook—you can always make a sandwich, right?), it is delicious, it is comforting, it is filling and it makes great gifts. I don't think anything smells quite as good as freshly baked bread just out of the oven. However, there is growing evidence to support that wheat isn't just addictive as in becoming habituated, but that it is actually an opiate that acts in our bodies to make us hungry.  William Davis, M.D., who is the author of Wheat Belly argues that:

"Wheat is addictive in the sense that it comes to dominate thoughts and behaviors. Wheat is addictive in the sense that, if you don’t have any for several hours, you start to get nervous, foggy, tremulous, and start desperately seeking out another “hit” of crackers, bagels, or bread, even if it’s the few stale 3-month old crackers at the bottom of the box. Wheat is addictive in the sense that there is a distinct withdrawal syndrome characterized by overwhelming fatigue, mental “fog,” inability to exercise, even depression that lasts several days, occasionally several weeks. Wheat is addictive in the sense that the withdrawal process can be provoked by administering an opiate-blocking drug such as naloxone or naltrexone. But the “high” of wheat is not like the high of heroine, morphine, or Oxycontin. This opiate, while it binds to the opiate receptors of the brain, doesn’t make us high. It makes us hungry."

 So it was with much sadness, lamentation and wailing on my part, I gave up wheat once more—fatter and wheezier—but much wiser. I have finally had to accept that I react to wheat, even if it is fermented, technically gluten-free and shaped with rice flour. In the following months I went back on a fairly strict gluten-free diet with only occasional indulgences, but I was still eating starch and sugar. I liked that gluten-free bun with my hamburger and my satisfying Duck Fat Oven Fries. There are some mighty tasty gluten-free cookies out there now in the marketplace. And guess what? The weight did not come off as it had before. Not even slowly. I found out that a gluten-free diet all by itself was not going to make the weight come off. Albeit that they are all gluten-free—sugar and gluten-free starch still make me fat.

Truly delicious—but my gluten-free Summer Pasta can't be part of my regular menu repertoire. I will be making it now now with Michelle's tasty and Paleo-friendly zucchini noodles.

   A month ago, I made the decision to return to the Paleo-template diet that Misty recommended to me in early 2012 when my excess weight dropped off rapidly. I am back to Misty's Coconut Milk, Whey Protein and Blueberry Smoothie for breakfast or my Coconut Oil Hot Chocolate, which I am now emulsifying properly in my Vitamix as a reader kindly pointed out that I should do in their comments about my previous post.
  Here is my slow to embrace realization—going gluten-free just doesn't cut it for weight loss for me. Going gluten-free is easy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's super easy. If one doesn't actually have Celiac Disease, there are an array of tasty gluten-free products in the present day marketplace to make the transition to a gluten-free diet a rather painless undertaking. Restaurants have caught on as well and are providing many gluten-free options. However, almost all of the "gluten-free" products replacing bread, pizza, cookies and desserts are loaded with starch and sugar which cause our blood sugar to elevate and we turn the excess calories into fat.
   I feel better in general on a gluten-free diet and my asthma is far less. I am able to take half the medication that I did previously, but I still remain overweight—so it's back to Paleo for me. Conversely, cutting out refined carbs—namely refined sugar and starches— at least for me, is very difficult. It requires real discipline and meal planning in my hectic life. I shouldn't complain being that I don't even have kids at home complaining about what I am putting in their lunch box or what I am preparing for dinner. I am back to making my Paleo breakfast, packing a Paleo lunch, and I have Nom Nom Paleo sitting out in my cookbook holder for inspiration for dinners. I had the great pleasure of meeting the authors of that book, Michelle Tam and Henry Fong, a few months back. They were on a summer book tour, and stopped in the Whole Foods Market® where I work to sign books and say hello. They were kind enough to share my blog post for my Honey Simple Syrup recipe on their Facebook page.

Henry Fong and Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo at Whole Foods Market San Rafael.

   I am happy to report that although I am still craving starch and sugar, I have lost ten pounds in a month. I have noticed that the cravings are subsiding as the days pass, and my energy is increasing. I also notice that I am once again less hungry, but I do need to eat my meals on time because in general, I do not snack.
   We sisters are going to be having another Sistercation in the first week of December, and my goal is too have lost 25 pounds by then. I will most likely join in our holiday celebration by eating the delicious food that Michelle is already planning, and I will also most likely be eating some amazing sourdough bread—but only for a week. When I come home it will be back to strictly Paleo for me. And this time I have added insurance to get back on track quickly—this year I am already back at the gym lifting weights and doing some yoga, too.

Linda's Creamy, Yummy and Paleo-Friendly Coconut Oil Hot Chocolate for Weight Loss (Vitamix Method)

Triple Chocolate Meringue Cookies—Third Time's the Charm

by Michelle

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

                                                                                            ~Albert Einstein

   I have an ongoing fantasy in my life. It's the one in which I dream of being the proprietress of a gourmet specialty foods shop. The type of place that serves seasonal, fresh fare: gorgeous salads with homemade dressings, tantalizing soups served with tartine, savory egg quiches formed in individual tart pans, single serving pizzas (for breakfast and lunch) made on artisinal wild yeast sourdough crust, and of course, perfect desserts that dazzle the eye in the pastry case. The bistro would be open for breakfast and lunch and perhaps afternoon tea (or for me, Café au lait instead of tea). Since I am dreaming, I can also add in a specialty cheese case and house-made charcuterie. I might as well make my own pickles and fermented items, too. Would you like homemade sauerkraut on your pastrami sandwich? Yes, please.
  Then filtering through the sunlit daydream is the reality: food spoilage, employee turnover, vendors, plugged plumbing, a broken oven, fickle customers, payroll, bills, debt, theft, marketing plans, and balance sheets. The list goes on. Plus, after a long day in the kitchen, I am reminded by my aching feet (from standing constantly), and dry hands (from washing continuously) that cooking and/or baking for a living is no joke. It's really hard work. Much harder physically than my chosen profession selling technology services to industrial companies. And, yes, I am aware that if I should choose to go down this path one day, I should work on the business, and not in the business.

My first attempt at making over-sized chocolate meringue cookies.

The cocoa weighed down the whipped egg whites and produced a runny mixture.

  Every once in awhile, while brushing the troubling realities of a food business aside, I pick-up the thread of the dream once more, especially when I browse through the pages of cookbooks written by Rose Carrarini of Rose Bakery in Paris, and Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi of the multiple Ottolenghi establishments located throughout London, or watch a movie such at It's Complicated where Meryl Streep is the sophisticated owner of a beautiful bakery located in Santa Barbara, one of my favorite places on earth. Meryl and Steve Martin make some pretty amazing croissants during a scene in the movie. The film was released in 2009 and I am still coveting the pastry press used to make the chocolate stuffed croissants.
   If you will, picture me tucked into bed one night, reading light on, trying to make myself drowsy by slowly turning the pages of the Otollenghi cookbook while metaphorically devouring the beautiful photographs and using my right-brain to imagine how the delicious sounding recipes might taste. (Try saying Otollenghi five times fast... that'll make you want to snuff the light and go to sleep.) I finally crossed into the dessert section towards the end of the book and instantly became fully alert (now that's counter productive to the sleepy-time routine) when I saw a photo of the absolutely gorgeous Pistachio and Rose Water Meringues and then on the following page the dramatic billowing fluffs called Cinnamon and Hazelnut Meringues.
   When I say meringues, let me confide in you that these particular globes of sugar and egg white awesomeness are like no other meringue cookies I have seen before. These cookies are paving their own way to stardom; all they need is an agent. In his best-selling book, Yotam writes, "If you ask someone if they've heard of Ottolenghi, the answer is often, "Yes, I know, it's the place with the meringues."" All it took was two photos to convince me that what Yotam wrote was true.

The sugar is spread on a parchment lined baking sheet 
before being transferred to the oven.

The hot sugar is ready to be added to the frothy egg whites.

   Ottolenghi's method is based upon adding hot sugar to the egg whites and then beating the heck out of the mixture. I can't imagine doing this by hand and I don't recommend it. You'll definitely need a stand mixer to succeed with this recipe. Being an unabashed chocolate lover, I desperately wanted a chocolate meringue cookie recipe. But, unfortunately, there wasn't one to be found in the book, nor any of the other Ottolenghi authored books, nor on-line. I checked the internet when I discovered Ottolenghi writes a column for The Guardian, a newspaper distributed in the U.K. (I can be absolutely relentless when it comes to research.)
   Similar to my experience with uncovering how to bake a Cathy's Rum Cake, it was once again up to me to figure out by trial and error how to produce a chocolate meringue cookie using Ottolenghi's method as a springboard. As the saying goes, third time's the charm. That's how many attempts it took to get this recipe right. I should be thankful. Three is not so many times at bat in the big "baking picture", especially if one reads Cook's Illustrated and contemplates what their recipe testers endure to get recipes to a publishable state.

The best way to measure the egg whites is to use a scale.

Cold eggs are easier to separate and room temperature whites whip up fluffier.

   I was so excited to prepare my chocolate recipe for the first time. I was confident it was going to be a success. I could tell that the egg and sugar mixture was runnier than it should be, but I thought maybe the meringues might puff significantly while baking. Wishful thinking. The cookies were flat, but still surprisingly good. But, I couldn't get over the fact that I had not produced fluffy, cloud-like pillows of meringue. I debated over whether to throw the finished meringues in the trash but in the end I relented to my daughter who asked if she could take the meringues to school and share with her friends. Color me surprised when the next day I received the following text from my daughter:

  So, bake more cookies I did. The only change I made was to beat the egg whites at a higher speed. I foolishly repeated adding the cocoa powder in the last two minutes of beating. Because I didn't really change anything, I should not have been surprised to get the same result as before. After further contemplation, it finally hit me that the fat in the cocoa powder was deflating the beautiful whipped egg whites. It seems silly really—I was scrupulously cleaning my mixer bowl and whisk with a juicy lemon slice to remove any invisible specs of fat from the bowl and yet I was introducing fat into the mix via the unsweetened cocoa. One tablespoon of cocoa (5 grams) contains a half gram of fat. In other words, enough fat to completely change the final consistency of the mixture from stiff and fluffy to soft and runny. Once the egg whites and sugar have finished whipping, you can add the flavorings or your choice. At Ottolenghi, the meringues are often dipped in pulverized praline or finely minced nuts, such as bright green pistachios.
   For the third try I completely finished whipping the egg whites to the proper stiff and fluffy consistency. Then, and only then, did I mix in the vanilla extract while the machine was still cranking away. After I turned off the machine and removed the bowl to the counter, I used a light hand to fold in the cocoa. I preferred leaving streaks of cocoa through the mix, and then I added the chocolate chips. One of Maddie's guy friends said that the addition of chocolate chips was genius. While I am generally opposed to people throwing the word genius around willy-nilly, when it was applied to me, well... I willingly and gladly accepted the label. 'Cause really, the chocolate chips added to the mix is genius; a moment of inspiration. I also liked liberally decorating the tops with ground cocoa nibs for a more beautiful presentation, plus the nibs are pretty tasty.

The crust is dry, but yields easily to the bite and the inside is gooey like a homemade marshmallow.

Triple Chocolate Meringue Cookies