best recipe – Houghton STAR

Just a few years ago, I had never baked anything from scratch without my mom directing each step. But I discovered that I could appreciate baking when I came to college. It is the best way I have found to relax and de-stress.

My Sunday afternoons are typically spent baking. It is not unusual for me to show up to class with a plate of cookies still warm from the oven. People will not be at my house long before I offer them something I have recently made. The ultimate reason that I love baking is how it connects me to people. Food has a unique power to bring people together. More than anything else, I love to share everything that I make with others. For me, the best way to express that I care about people is by giving them something that I have made.

I enjoy baking because it’s more methodical and precise than cooking. There are “rules” in baking. These rules do not take creativity out of baking, though. I like to tweak, and create, recipes using what I know about the science behind baking. Here are a few tips I have learned to keep cookies soft and chewy, as opposed to crunchy and crispy:

Cookies should have more brown sugar than white sugar. The molasses in brown sugar keeps them soft.
Egg yolks keep cookies soft, while egg whites get crispy. That is the reason why some recipes call for an extra egg yolk.
Cornstarch keeps cookies soft.
Chill your dough for at least an hour before baking. This is my least favorite part, because who wants to wait for their cookies? But chilling the dough prevents spreading when the cookies are baked.
Take cookies out of the oven before they look completely done. They continue to bake and set on the hot cookie sheet even when they are out of the oven.

M&M Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
¼ cup cornstarch
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
12-ounce bag of M&Ms

Beat the butter and sugars until well combined using a mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt until just combined with a wooden spoon. Add M&Ms.

Chill the dough (overnight is best).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll cookies to desired size and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

For those who know me well, it is no secret that I love Mexican food. I was raised in Southern California, where you could usually find one or more small taco shops on every commercial block.
I also grew up with my grandfather, who was born in Baja California and spent all of his life between Ensenada, San Diego, and Los Angeles. He was famous for his taco parties and we usually had some sort of Mexican fare when we gathered for holidays as a family.

While it is almost impossible to tell that I am of Mexican descent from looking at me (the other three-quarters of my lineage is Norwegian and a mix of Western European roots), the food that I ate growing up has become a strong part of the way that I connect to my sense of home and family while living so far from my birthplace. I have a penchant for acquiring Mexican and Latin cookbooks (we have over 40 at home at the moment!) and have invested a lot of time in my kitchen in pursuit of learning how to make some of my favorite dishes.

One of my favorite aspects of Mexican cooking is making salsas. There are endless varieties. They can be simple or highly involved in preparation, can range from mild to devastatingly hot, and serve to give anything routine from beans and rice to more substantial fare like tamales or chilaquiles (one of my favorite ways to use leftover tortillas) an extra level of nuance, contrast and complexity. Changing the type of salsa you add to a dish can vastly change its flavor and gives the cook a limitless variety of options in changing the flavor profile of your food.

Below is one of my favorite salsas that I make on a regular basis at home. It also happens to be one of the easiest. If you would like to try the salsa before making it, samples will be available while supplies last in the Student Life office on Monday. Do remember that the quality of your ingredients will always directly affect the way your salsa turns out. Make sure everything is fresh, if you can help it!

Ingredients:
8 oz. (1/2 pound) fresh tomatillos, quartered. They look like green tomatoes, have a papery husk around them, and can be found in many grocery stores (Wegmans, the Cuba Giant, Tops are all local options—even the Co-op had them over the summer).
2 tbs white onion
1 clove garlic
1 ½ tsp course kosher salt or ¾ teaspoons table salt
Pinch of fresh ground pepper (pre-ground, if you must)
½ cup fresh cilantro
¼ to 1 whole habanero pepper, depending on your tolerance for heat. Jalapenos are easier to find and can be substituted, but do change the flavor of the final salsa quite a bit.
Juice from ¼ of a lime (optional)
2 whole allspice berries

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a blender (tomatillos should be placed at the bottom) and blend until smooth. The tomatillos may take a moment or two to catch in the blades, but don’t add water! Just wait until everything is blended together. Pour into a bowl and enjoy with chips or on some good Mexican food!