Cheaper to buy or to make?

Jennifer Reese writes an article for Slate that documents whether it is cheaper to buy or to make certain pantry staples like bagels, cream cheese, and jam. (Plus a shout-out to Alton Brown...can't go wrong!)

Brown Sugar Cookies

These are also known as the Coma Cookies...diabetics need not apply! The recipe comes from the March 2007 issue of Cook's Illustrated, and it's always been a big hit for gifts, bake sales, and just a little dessert now and again. It's also another great pantry standby because all the ingredients are things I commonly keep on hand--plus, they're really easy and fun to make!

The brown sugar combines with the browned butter for a rich, caramel-like flavor. I tend to go for a chewier cookie, so I add an extra few tablespoons of melted (not browned, since some moisture is lost in browning) butter.

Ingredients:

• 14 tbs unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)(I add the remainder of the second stick of butter for a chewier cookie)
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (about 1 3/4 ounces)
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

Hardware

• stainless steel saucepan or skillet
• 2 cookie sheets
• parchment paper (although aluminum foil does in a pinch)
• heatproof bowl
• medium to large mixing bowl
• spatula
• shallow dish or pie pan

Instructions

1. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 (6 for chewy cookies) tablespoons butter into hot butter to melt; set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. In shallow baking dish or pie plate, mix granulated sugar and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, until well combined; set aside. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Add remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and salt to bowl with cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula; add egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. Divide dough into 24 portions, each about 2 tablespoons, rolling between hands into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Working in batches, toss balls in reserved sugar mixture to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart, 12 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but it will take 3 batches.)
5. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned and still puffy and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone; see photo below), 12 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.
6. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes; using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.
   

Diner-Style French Toast

Alton Brown and America's Test Kitchen aren't always right. Well, mostly they are, but I vividly recall my father saying as he watched Alton Brown spatchcock a duck, "That's really interesting. I can't imagine ever wanting to actually do that, but it's interesting."

He had a point. Some recipes from ATK or Alton Brown seem, if not unnecessarily complicated, perhaps trying to accomplish something beyond the basic--admirable in some cases, but in the case of french toast, it's not what I'm looking for.

I've been making french toast since I was in the single digits, and it's still what I will order in a restaurant if I'm there for a weekend brunch. I've always been frustrated when I made my version, because it didn't look--or taste--like the french toast I got at a diner. I knew that part of it was the bread--thin slices of wheat bread, while great for sandwiches, were not, I knew, what the diner was making their french toast out of. The wheat bread I had made a very tough, dry french toast--diner french toast was thicker, and stayed moist but not soggy on the inside, while the outside got brown with eggy goodness.

The answer I eventually worked out was Texas Toast, available for about $2.75/loaf at Trader Joe's. Regular white sandwich bread (like the Farmhouse-style from Pepperidge Farm) will do if there is no TJ's nearby. A slice of Texas Toast is about 3/4 of an inch wide, compared to 1/2 of an inch for regular sandwich bread. This helps the toast stay moist on the inside.

I tried both Cook's Illustrated and Alton Brown's recipes for french toast. They were good, but a) they were overly complicated--CI's in particular requires 8 different ingredients, including whole milk, which I don't typically keep on hand--and b) the flavor they made was classic, rich, and French-inspired. I want diner, not petit dejeuner. So here is my adapted version, which borrows a couple ideas but definitely looks more like something a lady named Muriel might hand you on a bleary Sunday morning.

Ingredients

• 3 slices Texas Toast
• 1/2 cup of milk (I use 2% because it's what I have)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/2 tbs of butter

Hardware

• nonstick frying pan/skillet
• pie plate or other receptacle for egg mixure (microwave safe)
• whisk or fork for beating eggs

Directions

1. Beat eggs and milk together. Add butter to mixture in small pieces, and microwave mixture (up to 1 minute) until butter melts. (Keep a close eye on this and stir if necessary so the egg doesn't cook, just warms. Microwaves differ, and I've had some unpleasant surprises.)
   
2. Add vanilla to egg mixture, and stir to combine.
3. Let each piece of bread soak in egg mixture, 30-60 seconds each side, and then set aside to rest on a plate while the skillet heats over a medium flame. (A drop of water put in the skillet should boil quickly, but not skitter all over the surface of the skillet.)
4. Fry the pieces of toast until brown on both sides, about 3 min per side. (You can choose to put butter in the skillet to truly "fry" the french toast, but with a good, heavy non-stick skillet, I've never actually found that necessary in order to brown.)
5. Let finished toast slices wait in a 250 degree oven while you finish the remaining slices. The slices can stay in the oven up to 45 minutes, if preparing for a crowd.
6. Serve with butter and icing sugar, maple syrup, or fresh fruit as desired.

Spaghetti with Balsamic Tomatoes

This is something I put together the other day out of (almost) pantry-only ingredients; in any case, the ingredients are ones I tend to keep on hand. (If fresh basil isn't immediately available, then dried might be an option. You'll lose a certain amount of "brightness" in the final product and some eye appeal, but the balsamic vinegar has a fair amount of brightness to begin with.)

Depending on the balsamic vinegar you have, adding brown sugar to the braising tomatoes may not be necessary. The vinegar I use for this recipe is cheap--it comes in a half-gallon jug, really watery and pungent--which is why reducing it to this extent, which thickens it and reduces the harshness, is preferable to trying it straight. There's really no reason to use good-quality balsamic vinegar here, though; it would be a terrible waste.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 12-oz can of whole tomatoes (those packed in juice are preferable to those in puree)
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 2 tbs + 2 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tbs brown sugar (optional)
  
• 2 tbs fresh basil chiffonade
• pinch kosher salt
• pepper to taste

Directions

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. (I usually cook pasta 1-2 minutes less than the directions indicate to avoid mushy pasta.)
   
2. Drain can of tomatoes in a colander. Remove seeds, stems, and cores from the whole tomatoes where possible. (With very small or young tomatoes, the cores may not be woody and will not need to be removed.)
   
3. Heat 2 tbs olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium high heat until shimmering.
   
4. Saute the drained tomatoes in the skillet, breaking them up with a spatula until they are roughly chopped.
5. Add balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes and cook until the vinegar is reduced into the tomatoes. You may add the brown sugar here if you wish, as well as salt, if necessary.
6. Set the tomatoes aside, clean the pan, and add 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat.
7. Saute garlic until golden with a pinch of kosher salt, then add to the tomato mixture
   
8. Toss the pasta with the tomatoes and garlic; add the fresh basil and top with freshly grated parmesan.
   

Mini-post: Blueberry Pancakes

I made blueberry pancakes today--pics to come soon--and they were pretty much my best attempt yet. In place of buttermilk, I use regular milk that has been curdled and thickened with lemon juice. To prevent overmixing, I beat the egg(s) in the "buttermilk" and added the liquids to the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar). This way, only a few stirs to combine finishes off the mixture. Today's pancakes were the fluffiest, most tender ones I've ever had. What do you know...Alton Brown proved right yet again!

Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider

I picked up this apple corer and slicer a few days before Christmas, on a rare trip to Williams Sonoma. (If it weren't next to Barnes & Noble I'd probably never go there.) The Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider cores and slices an apple into either 8 or 16 slices.

As I've previously mentioned, I make a lot of apple pie during the holidays. So anything that makes it easier is appreciated. So how well does it work? Well, here's my review.

Pros: There's no doubt it's easier to make it through four pounds of apples than with a knife. By the time I get to the last apple when working with a knife, my fingers are tired, wet, and stinging from the acids and the sugars in the apple juice, and I'm usually afraid that I will cut myself. This gadget is faster--I can get through the same number of apples in about a third of the time--easier, and saves the fingers. The "dial" device which allows you to switch from 8 to 16 slices consists of two rotating wheels with sharp metal spokes used to divide the apple into segments, and the mechanism is easy to use and sturdy. The rubberized handles are comfortable and much less likely to bruise the hands than all-metal models of apple slicers I have seen.

Cons: The manufacturer recommends handwashing the slicer, which is inconvenient, as the dial device can get tiny pieces of apple stuck in its hub. In order to remove them, you must reach past the sharpened metal slicers. (A toothpick might be a better solution than that rough-and-ready method.) The other main drawback lies in the fact that apples are not always perfectly round, with the core running straight down the center of the apple. This can lead to no stable surface on the bottom of the apple, making the consistent downward pressure used to divide the apple a chancy business. (Since I peel my apples first, which makes them slippery, I had a few apple projectiles shooting around the kitchen before I learned to slice a flat surface into the bottom of an apple.)

Summary: Much easier than a knife, and with some practice, I will be working through piles of apples in nothing flat. Cleanup could be easier, and there's more of a learning curve than I expected, but on the whole, worth it. 4 out of 5.

Price: $19.95 + S&H at Williams Sonoma's online store. I paid about $13 (sale price) at Willams Sonoma in Hingham, MA.

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UPDATE: Cook's Illustrated reviewed apple slicers, including this model, in their September 2009 issue. Click here for an updated post and link to the CI review.

Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Here's a constant problem for a wannabe gourmet on a grad student's budget...getting good quality ingredients for affordable prices. It takes a fair amount of research, both online and the boots-on-the-ground kind. It also takes an ability to prioritize...for which products does getting the premium version actually make a difference?

One of those products where money frequently does equal quality is extra virgin olive oil. (Although not always, as certain fraudsters have recently proved. Also check out the full New Yorker article on fraud in the olive oil industry.) I've had some really bad experiences trying to cheap out on olive oil (the kind you drizzle, not the kind you cook with. The latter is a place you can go cheap.) So I've been looking for an extra virgin that was good quality, but not too rich for my blood. Say, nothing over $15-$16 a bottle.

Cook's Illustrated gave top marks in 2008 to Columela, and several other taste tests in magazines rated Columela at least near the top, so I decided to give it a try. $18 bucks for a half-liter bottle was still a little too expensive for me, though, no matter how good.

Fortunately, Boston is a foodie haven, which means that there are lots of stores that carry a range of premium brands at a high rate of turnover. This means that if you shop around, you can luck out. I ran into the bolder version of CI's winner, Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil, at the Whole Foods near Washington Square in Brookline, for a mere $13.99 (on sale from its regular price of $14.99). Most online retailers seem to price it at around $15. (That is, of course, without shipping costs.)

It's buttery and very slightly sweet, but still sharp, peppery, with just the right amount of "green" flavor to it. It tastes like it's an actual agricultural product; really worth a savor.

And, you can savor the price, too.

UPDATE: Recently found Artesano at $9.99 for a 500 mL bottle at Marty's Liquors in Allston, across from the Harvard Ave. T stop. If you've never been to Marty's, it's not your typical college town liquor store. They have a great deli, specialty gourmet foods, an aisle full of microbrews, and a wine selection (complete with an ask-an-expert desk) that will take you from the $7 vin de table to the $200/case vintage Bordeaux. Where else in Allston can you pick up a six pack and a block of Gruyère in a single stop?

Update May 2010: Sadly, Marty's Liquors in Allston closed last year.  I've been to their Newton, MA location, and the prices are as much as half again what I used to pay in Allston. I now buy this olive oil wherever I can find it. Salumeria Italiana in the North End carries it in stock regularly. (For some other options for inexpensive-yet-good olive oils, check out my recent extra virgin olive oil tasting featuring Columela Artesano.)