Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2 sticks butter, soften
3/4 c dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 c white sugar
1 package french vanilla instant pudding
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 c sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 c chocolate chips --I used bittersweet baking chips
1 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In mixer beat on medium speed butter, sugars, pudding and vanilla until blended. Add eggs and mix well. Add flour and soda in small batches until all incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans by hand. Press into a well greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely. Cut into 24 bars and ENJOY!

*** For cookies *** Drop dough onto cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 minutes, or until golden brown in color. Cool on a wire rack. ENJOY!

In short: I love his recipe for Old-Fashioned Speckled Chocolate Cake, but I needed an easier way to make it repeatedly; so, I wrote this guide and, it came out so well, I offer it to you for your use.

A Perfect Chocolate Cake in 128 Easy Steps

John Salt, a senior simulation engineer for General Dynamics, liked it so much he presented it to the Operational Research Society in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"Operational Research ("OR"), also known as Operations Research or Management Science looks at an organization's operations and uses mathematical or computer models, or other analytical approaches, to find better ways of doing them."

I rewrote the directions in a verb-centric format: Mix...Pour...Stir...Fold.

1. As plated with chocolate ganache and toasted almonds.

In the guide you will find find.

1. a checklist with 128 step-by-step instructions.
2. a 23-page flow chart

3. a shopping list

4. a prep list

The checklist is all you need, but use the flowchart if you want to experience the power of visual instruction in baking.

2. A huge slice, enough to keep you awake for days.

3. From above, sprinkled with chopped chocolate.

4. A cake slicer, an integral tool.

6. Frosting!

Addenda.

1. My copy of Death By Chocolate uses volume measures (cups, tablespoons), but bakers (including me) always use mass (grams). You can use either, but I cannot vouch for your success if you use measuring cups. If you don't own a scale, please buy one. They are inexpensive. In fact, you'll pay more for the chocolate in some of these cakes than for a scale. Look for one that has a capacity of at least 5 kilograms (11 pounds). It should measure in 1 gram increments, not 5. If you buy a lesser scale, you'll find yourself in math hell, having to divide and conquer because your copper pot is too heavy for the scale...or the soup needs 10 quarts of stock and your scale won't scale that high. I own two Salter scales, Model 5008 (buy) and Model 5007 (buy).

2. Barefoot Contessa impersonation: "A chocolate cake is only as good as the chocolate it's made with, so buy a good-quality chocolate." I used Scharffenberger, bittersweet.

3. You've seen perfectly horizontal cake layers before and you ask, "How do they do that!" They use an inexpensive tool called a cake slicer, a difficult item to find. Try a kitchen store or bakery supply if you can't find one online. Please avoid serrated cake slicers like this.

References.

1. Desaulniers, Marcel. Death By Chocolate. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.

2. Beranbaum, Rose. The Cake Bible. New York: W. Morrow, 1988.

3. Beranbaum, Rose. The Pie and Pastry Bible. New York: Scribner, 1998.

4. Beranbaum, Rose. The Bread Bible. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

I don't make a lot of brownies. Usually, when it's time for a portable dessert I stick with cookies. Brownies are frequently just too dense for me to eat. However, when she who must be obeyed tells me that I need to make brownies, I usually acquiesce.

This recipe actually hails from Sunday night as we decided to go out for pizza last night (I need to blame my coworkers as we were talking about a particularly good pizza yesterday; the draw was too much for me once I got home). I honestly had forgotten how easy brownies really are to make (what's the point of the brownie mixes anyway? the only part that could be conceivably hard is melting the chocolate and you could even do that in a microwave if you so desired).

These brownies are not chocolate overload. In fact, they're the exact opposite. The chocolate flavor is intense (it is only bittersweet chocolate after all) but it's not overwhelming.

Bittersweet Brownies
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 cup butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a large rectangular brownie pan with aluminum foil (this makes the brownies easier to extract). You may want to grease the aluminum foil. I didn't and the brownies got somewhat stuck to the aluminum foil.
2. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and the butter.
3. Remove the double boiler from the water (i.e. take the top part off the pot), and whisk in the sugar.
4. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla extract and whisk vigorously.
5. Whisk in the salt and the flour.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared brownie pan and smooth out the surface with a spatula.
7. The recipe says to bake for 20 to 25 minutes. It took me closer to 30 to 35 minutes. Place a skewer into the center of the tray and the brownies are really done when it comes out cleanly.
8. Remove the aluminum foil from the tray and cut the brownies to whatever size you find appropriate. Turn the brownies upside down and then pull off the aluminum foil.

Makes a pan's worth of brownies