Baking 101 w/ the resident expert…

Ali has become attached to my Cook’s magazine - Being analytically minded he likes how the articles go into detail about the how and why of different cooking techniques. This last weekend it was all about baking cookies….and he did (I did clean-up):

He takes such a scientific, perfectionist approach to baking that Martha Stewart appears relaxed next to him. I’m much more of a “dash of this - dash of that” type of a cook - I don’t bake either. So I don’t even really have the proper measuring tools (ask me how many times I had to run to the store for cooking gear during this episode of “driving Christina mad”:

To his credit - these turned out awesome - and here some facts that you may not have known. For example - Pre-made cookie mixes, be they frozen or boxed, do not contain brown sugar. Brown sugar is essential to a “chewy” cookie versus a “cake-like” cookie. Another thing about creating the perfect chewy cookie - You must melt the butter - not just soften it. Not only that - to increase the chewy value you must actually brown the butter while you are melting it. Bet you didn’t know that.

Cook’s magazine (aka America’s Test Kitchen) actually puts out 6 issues a year and it’s worth a subscription. Check out Amazon to order your magazines - they offer the best buy. You must belong to the Cook’s magazine website in order to access all of their stuff. I think that’s kind of lame to be honest because you have to buy a membership HOWEVER if it wasnt’ for how awesome and fool proof their stuff is I wouldn’t join. Well actually I didn’t but Ali did because he is that hooked. Imagine.