Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

When it comes to baking, everyone has to start somewhere. Boxed cakes and brownies are easy, but they are like training wheels -- at some point, you have to lose the box and make it from scratch. And just like learning to ride a bike, you might fall off several times (or in this case forget to add key ingredients), but when you combine sugar and butter, you can rarely get too far off course.

My friend Heather (the one I visited in London) came to visit me for New Year's Eve. Now, I have experienced many a celebratory night (read: boozing 'til the wee hours of the morning) and breakfast the next day is always a challenge. When all you want to do is either (a) sleep or (b) recount the previous night's escapades, feeding the folks who crashed on your couch is a bit of a chore. So this NYE, I vowed to do it differently. I was not going to make the same mistake. Breakfast was going to be made beforehand. Enter cinnamon chocolate chip coffee cake (or as I fondly call this, the Quint C).

Heather arrived at about 5pm on NYE and I immediately put her to work. I was busy making caramel corn for the party we were having, and I gave her a coffee cake recipe and told her to go for it. And then came the confession: she had never baked anything from scratch before!

Does this sound familiar? Are you, dear reader, someone who looks at the mouthwatering photos on this blog but you yourself have never tried your hand at making something delicious from scratch? Well, as Linda wrote, I am not big on new year's resolutions, but if I could do one thing, it would be to remove your training wheels and get YOU into the kitchen. You'll thank me later.

To her surprise (and to her credit!), Heather did an amazing job with this coffee cake. It was a big hit on new year's day. It is dense and cinnamon-y with an almost secret layer of chocolate chips in the middle and topped with more...mmm. She kept warning everyone before they tried the coffee cake that it might be bad because it was her first time making anything like it. But she had nothing to fear -- it was really, really good. I may just have created a baker out of her :)

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

from (surprise, surprise) Smitten Kitchen

• 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 eggs, separated (which, if you are new to baking like my dear friend H, means putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz. sour cream
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 12 oz. chocolate chips (i always spring for the good ones. they make a difference!)
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar, then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla.
3. Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder together into another bowl.
4. Alternating, add sour cream and then the dry ingredients into butter/sugar/egg mixture.
5. Beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.
6. Mix last 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon together in a separate, small dish.
7. In a greased 9″x13″ pan, pour in half of the cake batter.
8. Sprinkle the top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and half of the chocolate chips.
9. Pour remaining batter on top, sprinkling the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.
10. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Obsessions: the homemade version

I think there comes a time in any amateur chef/baker's life where they eat something delicious and then think: I wonder if I can make this myself? This has happens to me a lot, but I rarely ever think about actually doing it. Until an obsession happens.

Working in downtown SF, I am surrounded by Specialtys Bakery. My office frequently calls on Specialtys to cater meetings and events. While they have delicious salads and sandwiches, the real draw of Specialtys is their cookies. And not just any cookies: wheat germ chocolate chip cookies. Sounds weird right? But no...it should sound delicious.


These cookies are no small obsession. They are crumbly, chocolatey, and loaded with butter (in true Specialtys style) to offset any potential health benefits from the oats. There is always a race among my coworkers to get this cookie out of the assortment. We often end up splitting it many ways, so everyone can have a bit. And every time, I think - wow this is so good...can I make a cookie like it?

Challenge accepted.

I found a "reverse-engineered" recipe online and so it began. It was my intention to make a test batch this weekend for a pre-football game picnic, but the test turned out so well, that I just had to share it with you!


There is certainly something about homemade cookies. Like Linda wrote, the perfect homemade cookie is a challenge that we bakers all face. Warm, crunchy, delicious, and dare I even say...healthy?

This cookie just might be it. With a mere 1/2 cup of butter (SO unlike a Specialtys cookie), 2/3 cup of sugar, and we'll ignore the delicious chocolate chips, these puppies are smack full of good-for-you things. Things I would have never thought to put in a cookie!! Things like: whole oats, ground flax seed, and wheat germ. Are those even allowed in a cookie? Cookies are supposed to come with some remorse, right? But this is a cookie that you might just feel good about eating: guilt-free.


Homemade Specialtys Wheat Germ Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Dick Koz

• 3/4 c. old fashioned whole rolled oats
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. ground flax seeds (I used Bob's Red Mill Organic flaxseed meal, which can be found at most grocery stores)
  
• 1/2 c. raw wheat germ (again, Bob's Red Mill wheat germ)
  
• 1/2 c. sweetened coconut flakes
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1/3 c. granulated sugar
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. mini chocolate chips (you can use regular chocolate chips, but to be true to Specialtys, I used the mini version!)
  
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Mix oats and flour in a medium bowl. Add baking soda and salt and whisk until mixed in. Whisk in wheat germ, flax and coconut. (I actually forgot to add the coconut at this step, and mixed it in at the end with the chocolate chips...but they still turned out well)

Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until fluffy. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy.
With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and walnut pieces using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Chill the dough in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (Or as long as you can stand... if you haven't noticed already, I am an impatient baker, and I let the cookie dough chill for about 30 minutes...)
In the meantime, preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a baking sheet (I highly recommend using a Silpat for cookies)

Shape the dough into balls about 2-3 tablespoonfuls per cookie. Place at least 1 inch apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
Bake cookies, until firm around the edges and golden on top, about 12 minutes. Remove baking sheets from the oven immediately and cool the cookies for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks with a spatula to cool.

catch up cookies

Oh, it has been quiet here for the past week, but behind the curtains, the stage hands have been manic. Life crises have been had, big important questions asked (if not answered) and yes, cookies baked. I actually cooked a lot over long weekend, but the work week came on with the vengeance of a needy child, needing specifically about 15 hours a day. I am exhausted.

It seems like forever ago that I made these - last Wednesday for a friend's going away dinner. I wanted to make something simple that I could easily carry. Sometimes I find myself riding the bus carrying a baking pan full of cupcakes carefully covered in foil so as not to muss the frosting...and fending off stares like 'What, you don't do this?' Cookies fit the easy carry/conceal bill much better.

Cookies also fall into another theme of this blog. My half of this blog could be called 'Linda faces her fears, one culinary challenge at a time.' Chocolate chip cookies are so simple, but I've never been successful making them, and somewhere along the way, I stopped trying. Valiant, I know. I've done the Tollhouse recipe, an Ina Garten recipe, a Betty Crocker recipe...and none have turned out the right taste or texture (the Ina was especially a let down). I started to think a perfect, home-made cookie was a myth. But, since July of 2008, a much heralded New York Times recipe has been making its way around foodies and food blogs, and hype has been raised. There are now so many iterations of these cookies, and the results seem to be generally good (if not allegedly phenomenal.) So more than a full year after the fact, I flagged down the band wagon, and humbly climbed on.

The 'big idea' : David Leite, the author, researched the origins, variations and secrets of this institutional cookie and the people who made/make it. He finds the perfect cookie should be crunchy around the outer edge, chewy in the center, and have a noticeable ring of transition between the two. To achieve this, the cookies must be large (5 inches!). He also recommends fancy dark chocolate, because it stands to reason that good chocolate will make a good chocolate chip cookie. There is also the juxtaposition of salty and sweet, and David's recipe calls for a sprinkle of salt over the cookies before baking. And lastly, and most interestingly, he recommends that the cookie dough should be allowed to rest for 36 hours before baking. I should know more about this since I majored in chemistry, but apparently it has something to do with letting all the flavors come together, something about the egg....



Here's my take on these guys. I didn't think I could bring myself to bake a five inch cookie. I chickened out. I didn't have fancy chocolate, but I did have many bags of organic semi-sweet chips, so I used those. I used plenty of salt in the dough, but I straight up forgot to sprinkle sea salt before baking. Whoops. BUT, I did manage to leave the dough alone for first 24 hours, then 36. And, for the first time, I produced a cookie worth writing home about.

I shaped each cookie as a 1/4 cup. They came out about 3 inches across, and I could discern the three textures mentioned in the article. They were best the day they were baked, as the centers were incredibly chewy. I also underbaked them a lot more than I thought necessary, and they came out perfect. I randomly had some caramel left over in my fridge, so for one batch, I filled the centers of the cookies with a chunk of caramel, which melted into a thin layer while baking (you can see a little leaking out in the one above). That was pretty yummy.

I'm really not sure how integral the resting period was as opposed to this simply being a great recipe, but I'm sold. It might seem fussy, but actually, it makes the process a little easier. I made the dough one night, and that didn't take very long. Then the next night, I baked them, ten minutes a batch. I feel pretty good about myself, one more thing under my belt. Will surely be making these again.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour (I used all purpose)
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour (I randomly had bread flour, so I did use it here)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar (I used 1 1/2 cups brown, slightly less than one cup white)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (I used regular chips. Shrug.)
Sea salt. (Whoops.)

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

My notes on step 4: I make 1/4 cup mounds, made three inch cookies, baked for about 11 minutes per batch, and cooled minimally on the pan before transferring to the rack. I found that the bottoms continued to brown on the pan after being removed from the oven, so transferring earlier will just make for a chewier cookie. All a matter of opinion.