ANZAC Biscuits

I’ve been in New Zealand since September 2011, and I think this is the first traditional Kiwi recipe I’ve tried. Which is crazy, but I’ve enjoyed bringing American recipes here too much to try my hand at something everybody’s had before. Still, it is ANZAC Day, my third ANZAC Day here, so it’s time.

ANZAC Day, for those of you in other parts of the world, is a Kiwi and Australian holiday in honor of members of the Australian New Zealand Army Corps. It falls on the 25th of April, the date in 1915 when the ANZACs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Thousands died, and from 1916, ANZAC Day has been celebrated as a memorial for the fallen and a celebration of those still serving.

Compost Cookies

I’m a couple years late to the party on this one. The Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook came out in 2011, and everyone went crazy making all sorts of Crack Pies and Marshmallow Cornflake Cookies, and I ignored all of it. But eventually, at the prodding of a friend, I decided the Compost Cookies were worth a try. Potato chips, pretzels, and coffee in a chocolate chip cookie? I had to try it out.

I baked them for a camping trip a couple months ago and they went down a treat, but I couldn’t help feeling that the cookie batter itself could be better. So I made some tweaks and I think round two was great. They are ugly cookies, sure, but god are they tasty!

White Chocolate & Dulce De Leche Brownies

This, I’m sure, goes without saying, but I am not a professional blogger. I work in a bar, which is great for this project because my baking gets done before work, when I still have natural light, but not great because my hours are wildly variable and budgeting time for baking is sometimes a real challenge. This means I don’t generally have time to test things out in small batches or make multiple attempts at a recipe – I just have to throw things together and hope for the best. I’ve been pretty lucky with this technique so far – I’ve only made one thing that didn’t make the blog, and even that will be going up after some very minor fine-tuning. But I’m the first to admit that my Caramel Cookie Cake, for example, was far from what I was aiming for, and I was a bit worried these brownies would be in the same category.

But that was silly of me, because these are amazing. Rich, gooey, intensely sweet, with a strong taste of caramely dulce de leche and a subtler taste of white chocolate. It’s a great combo, and while I do think these should be eaten in very small doses, I also think they should be eaten by all of you. You will not regret it.

Bouchon Bakery Chocolate (Chip &) Chunk Cookies

Maybe it’s a little early in this blog to be posting duplicate recipes, but it’s my blog and that’s just how things are going to go around here. Besides, I take my chocolate chip cookies very seriously – if there’s a recipe out there better than my go-to, I need to know about it. So when I saw the Bouchon Bakery Chocolate Chip & Chunk Cookie recipe, I was intrigued. The reviews were glowing, the pictures were beautiful, and everyone seems to be obsessed with Bouchon Bakery. It’s a straightforward enough recipe, but different enough to be worth trying out.

I’ll just skip to the end here: I still like my lovely Jacques Torres chocolate cookie better. But these were tasty and interesting and I’m glad I gave them a go. The main difference between them and any other chocolate chip cookie is the molasses. There’s not much, just over a teaspoon, but it comes through really nicely. The touch of bitterness is a welcome twist on the classic, and I think for some people this could be an instant new favorite.