cups or grams? Chocolate Chunk Cookies v.3.0

Background. I received a kitchen scale over the holidays. I've been wanting one since receiving Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook, which usually lists ingredients with both weight and volume measurements. Most notably, however, the bread recipes requiring bread sponge are based in weight and after awhile, eye-balling bread sponge seemed to get more and more inaccurate.

So last night, I decided to give my kitchen scale a try. Why experiment with one variable when one can experiment with two? Previous studies have suggested that chocolate chip cookies are best when the dough has time to sit. See previous series of experiments including time test part one and recipe test part two (Torres recipe). The current study built upon previous experience but instead, used Joanne Chang's recipe for chocolate chunk cookies. Those who know me will be proud of me--I barely made any adjustments this first time around. The only piece I changed was chocolate chunk ratios out of practicality / what I had on hand. Yes, I actually followed directions. Shocking.

Methods.
1 c butter (2 sticks)
3/4c (150g) sugar
3/4c (165g) light brown sugar (I used dark, because I can't read directions)
2 eggs
1/2t vanilla extract (skipped because my fingers were too cold to open the bottle)
1c (140g) all purpose flour
1 c (150g) bread flour
1t baking soda
1/2t kosher salt (I used sea salt)
Chocolate--(Original recipe calls for 9 ounces/255g semisweet chocolate / about 1.5c chopped and 2.5oz/70g milk chocolate, chopped / about 1/2 c.) I didn't have this on hand and instead, used 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, put it on the kitchen scale, and added ghiradelli chocolate chips until the weight ended up at 255+70g. Then I chopped the chocolate up.

Results.

Good texture. Better after dough has been out for 12h.

Discussion.

Next steps include adding more sea salt (and buy vanilla).
Try doing a combination of the Torres recipe and this one...

Addendum: 

Reduced baking time and baked at 325 instead. MUCH better.

Chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate

This collection could not have come out at a better time.
Quick chocolate desserts. What more could a girl ask for? http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/fast-chocolate-desserts?xid=DISH122812FastChocolateDesserts

Potatoes

It's the season for potatoes...latkes...mashed ptoatoes... all good things...

These came in my email today and they look so good, it's going to be painful to wait until I can make these...

Potato dishes

Cornmeal and artichoke-crusted Halibut

Background: It's been freezing lately and I decided to give in to ordering groceries online instead of walking and schlepping. On the bright side, I finally restocked on heavier items. On both the upside and downside, some products come differently than I imagined...One of those items was halibut. I guess I was expecting smaller, more manageable pieces when I ordered a pound of fish... Had I known I'd have a huge long piece of fish, skin attached, I would've also bought scallions and ginger to make an Asian style steamed fish.

I'd bought olives and artichokes in preparation for The Hurricane. Having lived in Florida through hurricane seasons enough times I realized that I'm better off buying foods I would enjoy eating if a hurricane were not to come...(or even if it were to come) than the standard ones people tend to buy but then dread to eat if a hurricane doesn't come by... Anyway, since I now had them on hand, I decided to get adventurous and make an artichoke and olive (think tapenade) breadcrumb topping for the aforementioned halibut and bake it... Never tried doing the American breadcrumb baked fish thing but since I was low on Asian ingredients, it seemed like the only option left...of course, I then realized I was out of usable breadcrumbs...  so the next best thing I had on hand was cornmeal...

Methods:
Melt butter in the microwave--I used about 1/4 to 1/2 stick (there were only ends of a few sticks left...) and stuck in the microwave for about 30 minutes.
Add cornmeal to bowl and mix until it forms a paste with the butter.
Add artichokes and olives...in my case I used two very large artichokes from a Trader Joe's can and three olives.
Chop it all up

Rinse fish and coat with flour.
Place in oiled 9x13 glass baking dish
Spread fish with cornmeal topping.
Bake at 350 until fish seems done. (Check standard measurements for how much fish you have poundage wise and heating time required)

Remove and serve with sliced avocado and lime juice

Results:
Delicious!