Pretzel-Crusted Chicken

Monica Cheng August 17, 2015

As promised, a chicken recipe for y'all! Just a couple months ago, I'd never heard of such thing as mustard-pretzel breaded chicken, but now that I know how incredibly easy it is to make and how delicious it is, you can bet I'll be making this again. It's a no-fuss recipe any college student could use in his/her cooking repertoire. (Also a great dish for family meals!)

In fact, there's no cooking involved. All you gotta do is get some chicken, sprinkle with some salt & pepper, joyfully smash some pretzels in a bag, dip the chicken strips, coat with pretzel, and pop in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes. And voila!

Many thanks to Carl for sharing this yummy family recipe! I had a blast photographing this for Spoon. Check out his recipe on NU Spoon.

Enjoy!
Monica

P.S. Any kind of pretzel will do (the easier to crush, the better). We used rods because that was the only kind of pretzel we were able to get our hands on at the time.

Mmmm pretzels (:

Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake

Caroline Zhang July 22, 2015

I used to read these murder mysteries by Meg Cabot about the trials and travails of one Heather Wells, a college dorm administrator turned unofficial private detective who solves the murders of several of her snotty undergrads. According to the author, the series' fictional college was partly inspired by her own experience working at an NYU dorm for several years. One gets the impression it was hardly a dream job.

All of which is to say that it seems rather strange that my own house administrator at school (incidentally also named Heather) appears to quite like the hectic job of dealing with some four hundred undergrads. Not only does she seem quite happy that none of us have been pushed down elevator shafts or found beheaded in the kitchen, but she is somehow always incredibly warm and enthusiastic, despite the crazy hours she works. I've bumped into her on a Saturday afternoon pulling tray after tray of cupcakes out of the oven for an open house (in the sketchy dorm kitchen I always complain about, no less!)

We occasionally get emails from Heather with the subject line "You Snooze You Lose" and a picture of the homemade baked goods sitting in her office that are up for grabs. She had out lemon ricotta cookies one day, tangy and dense and good enough to almost make you think that spring was finally going come to Boston.

She condescended to share some of her favorite ricotta recipes with me, and food blogger that I am, I did some experimentation with them. This pound cake recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis (I'm kind of sentimental about Giada--the pie plate I used for my first pie was from her) and is a twist on the classic pound cake, adding ricotta and citrus. I swapped the butter for vegetable oil, to make the cake slightly lighter and to let the flavor of ricotta shine through, and reduced the amount of baking powder by a lot. The original amount called for was way too much, and a lot of the recipe reviews complained that the cake either spilled over or sunk when it was taken out of the oven. (Oh, and I made it a one-bowl recipe, because that's how many mixing bowls I own in college).

It's always exciting to get recipe recommendations from people and see how they turn out; this cake is flavorful and dense, sweet and slightly tart. In addition to feeding hungry college students, it's perfect for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or a casual dessert. It's a classic cake and a great lemon loaf recipe, a necessary addition in any baker's repertoire. (Thanks, Starbucks).

Enjoy!
Caroline

Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe
Yields: one 9-inch loaf cake, about 8 servings
Loosely Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
For the Cake
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups whole milk ricotta
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups cake flour

For the Lemon Glaze
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest, plus more for sprinkling

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with vegetable oil.

Beat together the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, and ricotta until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and salt.

Fold in the baking powder and cake flour. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Make the glaze. Mix together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and zest. The glaze should be thick and fall into the bowl in ribbons. If too thin, add more powdered sugar; if too thick, add more lemon juice.

Pour the glaze over the cooled pound cake. Sprinkle additional lemon zest if desired.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Caroline Zhang July 6, 2015

Dear Mrs. Wakefield,

I must admit that I feel a little sheepish adding another chocolate chip cookie recipe to the world's ever-growing collection, presuming to be the new "best" recipe. I wonder, do you think it's funny, how many people out there have tried to improve on your original Tollhouse recipe? Are you rolling your eyes at all of us who can't seem to leave well enough alone?

As a caveat, I must say that I haven't judiciously tested all the other "best" cookies on the Internet before carefully calculating and assembling my own. This recipe is just what I think is the best, made up of all the things I look for in the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

I always go through a series of mental calculations as I decide if a chocolate chip cookie is worth going for. In no particular order, here are the things I look for in a perfect cookie:

The Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: Most of us agree that the primary purpose of a chocolate chip cookie is to serve as a vehicle for getting chocolate into our mouths. The saddest cookie-eating experience is one in which you bite into a chocolate chip cookie without tasting any chocolate. Any good chocolate chip cookie must have huge chunks of chocolate in every mouthful.

The Type of Chocolate: Now, as much as I love your recipe with the Tollhouse chocolate chips, my favorite chocolate chip cookies don't actually have chocolate chips. I want them to have big-ass pools of chocolate that flood into your mouth as you bit into them. Chocolate chips are too waxy, too small, and just aren't melt-y and chocolate-y enough. And none of this milk chocolate nonsense; the chocolate should be dark and robust, flavoring each bite.

The Dough: I'm also quite picky about the actual cookie dough, which must be delicious in its own right and must balance the chocolate. I look for a darker color dough, flecked with stray chocolate shavings. It should have plenty of brown sugar and vanilla, which translates to a more complex, caramel-like flavor, as well as a little bit of salt to keep it from being sickly sweet. Pale, anemic dough is always a bit of a turn-off for me.

Texture: And of course, the perennial chewy/crispy debate. Personally, I like my cookies to be crispy just along the outer edge, and very chewy and gooey in the middle. While I think the 6-inch bakery cookies are little over-the top, I do think they need to be on the larger size in order to achieve these two texture qualities.

So here's the resulting recipe, my personal "best" cookie. It's humble, no fuss, no fancy flours or imported chocolate chips (seriously, NY Times cookies, why would you call for low-gluten cake flour and high-gluten bread flour, only to mix them and create the equivalent of all-purpose flour?) While I do recommend giving the dough time in the fridge, they taste just fine if you pop them straight in the oven. Because, let's be honest, who plans a chocolate chip cookie craving 24 hours in advance?

Since you were a baker, Mrs. Wakefield, I'm sure you know that we all like to experiment, and change and perfect. My recipe is not drastically different from other recipes out there, but it tweaks them just so, to make my perfect cookie.

Caroline

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click here for the printable recipe
Heavily Adapted from The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields about 15 three-inch cookies

Ingredients
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
12 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions
Beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

Beat in the salt and baking soda. Fold in the flour, followed by the chopped chocolate.
Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour, or up to 24 hours While you can skip this step and bake the dough immediately, the dough will be easier to handle and the cookies will have an improved texture if you refrigerate it first.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drop scoops of about 2 tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about 4 inches apart. Sprinkle the cookies with sea salt, if desired.

Bake the cookies for about 12-13 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.

Let cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack and cool for another 10 minutes or so. Serve and eat warm.

Chilled Cucumber Soup

Monica Cheng June 22, 2015

Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it? You might have wondered which wormhole in this universe I may have dropped into, but rest assured the events of my life from our last conversation on Buckeye Brownies till now have not been nearly so dramatic or revolutionary in the fourth dimensional time-space sense (I might have just watched Interstellar...plus, physics is cool).

Mostly, it's been a series of mini mid-college-life-existential crises, like who-am-I (when brainstorming for the med school personal statement) and what-am-I-doing-with-my-life (maybe I want to do a fellowship?!) and a whole boatload of other premed-y concerns, and then a few months later (as in, last week), I completed junior year aaaand *deep breath* — it's summer.

I do have an exciting development to share — this past spring quarter, I joined Spoon Magazine at Northwestern University as a photographer and boy is it tons of fun. Basically, Spoon is a food magazine featuring simple and delectable recipes and food tips catered toward college students. It's totally hip and stellar and drool-worthy. You should see for yourself.

This recipe, in fact, is one I photographed for Spoon and it appeared in the print issue! How it went down — Carl and I were paired up on this chilled cucumber soup assignment (his brilliant idea). He cooked—or rather, simply threw on the ingredients together in a blender—while I photographed and kept thinking to myself how incredible it was that cucumber soup can be so photogenic. It was so much fun.

So a couple weeks later, we did another dish together (hint: chicken crusted with...pretzel?!).

This cucumber soup is good stuff — chilled and a perfect way to welcome the summer. Never mind that we might have added a bit too much lemon the time that we made it...The recipe below is adjusted for that.

Happy summer!
Monica

CHILLED CUCUMBER SOUP

"As temperatures rise, we crave entrees that can cool us down. If you're bored with gazpacho but still want a refreshing spring dish, this chilled cucumber and dill soup is the perfect solution." --Carl Pieri

Difficulty level: Easy | Yields: 4 servings

What
5 medium cucumbers, seeds removed, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh dill
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 parsley
Salt & pepper, to taste

How
Place cucumbers, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, dill, olive oil, and parsley in blender and blend until smooth.

Leave in refrigerator until sufficiently chilled, around 30 - 45 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with fancy olive olive swirls, extra cherry tomatoes, and parsley if so desired.