BakeLab's Cookie Equation: Art + Science = YUM!!

Close your eyes for a second. Think about the last time you made cookies. Or cake. Or brownies. Imagine yourself assembling the ingredients – creaming the butter and sugar, sifting the flour, incorporating the vanilla and mixing in chocolate chunks. As you eat a spoonful of your magical cookie dough elixir – no doubt closing your eyes and exhaling a satisfied "mmmmmm" – you know that these cookies are going to be great. Maybe they'll even change the landscape of cookie-dom, filling your house with the irresistible aroma of melting butter, caramelizing sugar and ooey-gooey chocolate along the way.

What happens next? Your precious cookies are baking right along. All is going according to plan until you take them out of the oven. The cookies aren't the fluffy, moist, chewy morsels you've dreamed of. Instead they're tough, dry and deflated. A little bit like your spirit.

Blah...flat, dry cookies.

It's okay. We've all been there. But thankfully after this past weekend, I'll never have to go to that dark place again. How is that possible, you ask? Because I was fortunate enough to spend some time at LA's Bakelab, an art-meets-science-meets-baking haven founded by an artist, a molecular gastronomist and a pastry chef. Except in this case, they're all the same person: Kristin Feuer, Bakelab's pastry chef and owner. And thanks to Kristin's generosity, all our cookies can be fantastic from here on out. Keep reading for her enlightening tips and tricks.

Kristin working her magic inside the Bakelab

So why was I there? Celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, of course! I accepted an invitation to celebrate a day devoted to the granddaddy of cookies with Kristin and her partner in cookie crime, Jill. Celebrate we did, tasting our way through a variety of Bakelab's "Big & Chewy" lemon, ginger molasses and peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies and the bakery's latest creation, iced oatmeal cookies.

Bakelab's "Big & Chewy" sugar-coated Peanut Butter cookies (cut into quarters).

Bakelab's original Chocolate Chip cookie, cut into quarters.

Bakelab's latest creation: iced oatmeal cookies.

Kristin and her partner, Jill, are not only meant-to-be Bakerella's (the Baker's clog definitely fits), they're effusive, warm and live and breathe all things flour and sugar. Learning from previous stints at Providence and Clementine, Kristin's modern interpretations of signature desserts – from pink coconut snowballs to homemade S'mores to root beer float cupcakes – reflect her passion for modern art and baking. Her "lab" produces custom cookies, cakes, cupcakes and bars that achieve a retro feel without being cliche, featuring clean lines, simplicity and a respect for the details. Her talents as a graphic artist and photographer shine through on Bakelab's website (filled with her very own sketches), custom aprons, button-down shirts and edible, custom fondant stamps decorating cakes and cookies.

Clockwise from top left: Jill & Kristin in Bakelab's shirts & aprons; Bakelab's signature concentric ring cake design; chocolate & vanilla snowballs; Devil's food cupcake with edible fondant stamp.

But back to the cookies. Kristin's cookies are like none I've ever tasted. After loading a small plate full of samples and pouring an ice cold glass of organic low-fat milk (hey, something had to be low-fat that day!), I sank my teeth into the "Big & Chewy" Ginger Molasses cookie.

Oh.My.God.

At first glance it was a pretty thick cookie, so I immediately anticipated a somewhat tough bite. I couldn't have been more wrong. It was so light, so fluffy and so moist in the center with such an intense gingery-molasses flavor, I just couldn't believe my taste buds. So I took another bite. And another. It just kept getting better.

My Bakelab "sampler" platter.

The same thing happened with each and every cookie. The other "Big & Chewy's" include Lemon Sugar and Peanut Butter. Rolled in sugar not one, but TWO times to ensure a crackly, crunchy crust, both flavors were incredible; easily the best I've ever had. Then came the Iced Oatmeal, new on Bakelab's menu for Father's Day. Age-old Mother's Oatmeal cookies have officially been shamed.

Bakelab's Father's Day Cookie Box

Before we all suffered the inevitable sugar crash and burn, Kristin took us into the kitchen to demonstrate her technique for making and baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Listen up; in Kristin's words, these are the tips that the back of the chocolate chip bag doesn't tell you. While she says "I have a deep, intimate relationship with my cookies. I know what they're doing in the oven," not all of us are that lucky. So if you want to change your cookie-baking destiny and never suffer another flat, burned or tough cookie again, these tips are for you.

Clockwise from top left: Chocolate chip, ginger molasses, oatmeal raisin and lemon sugar cookies.

1. Creaming the Butter and Sugar: Don't cream them any longer than about 1 1/2 minutes (even though the chocolate chip bags tell you to cream for 3 minutes). Too much air from over-creaming equals a flat cookie. Kristin looks for when it starts to get smooth and creamed.

2. Incorporating Vanilla and Eggs: Add the vanilla before the eggs. The snottiness (I know, gross but true) of the eggs sticks to everything and prevents the vanilla from adhering to the butter and cream. Fat needs flavor, but if you add the eggs first, the vanilla flavor won't properly incorporate into the butter (aka fat).

3. Beating the Dough: Beat the dough for a quick "one, two" count just beyond the point where the flour is incorporated. You'll make a little more gluten (aka structure) that results in plumper cookies.

4. Aging the Dough: Just as bread dough develops flavor as it rises, chilling the dough overnight allows subtle nutty and toffee characteristics to develop. You can pre-portion the dough in scoops, freeze them and store them in a Ziploc freezer bag or Tupperware container for a few months.

5. Baking the Dough: Baking the dough when it's frozen allows the protein in the flour to set up before the fat melts out, yielding a very plump cookie. In other words, it's basically a race to the finish between the flour and the butter. The butter wants to melt and flatten out the cookie, while the flour wants to set up the cookie's structural integrity. When dough is baked at room temperature, the butter wins and flattens out the cookies. The flour doesn't have a chance. When baked from frozen, the butter and flour work in harmony.

6. Removing the Cookies: Pull the cookies from the oven when there is still a pale circle of dough in the center of the cookie. It will keep cooking on the sheet pan even when out of the oven, so you'll get a nice caramelized edge and wonderfully soft center.

La Scala's Famous Leon's Chopped Salad

It's been two weeks since we got back from Italy and we still haven't had an Italian meal. We were so full from amazing cheese, meat, wine and pasta that all we wanted was a salad. Anything with crisp, cold greens and light dressing.

Enter La Scala's Original Leon's Chopped Salad. La Scala has been one of my favorite LA restaurants since I was in high school. Only God knows how many Leon's Chopped Salads I've consumed (it's easily more than 100). Just namedrop "Leon's Original Chopped" to any Angeleno within 10 miles of Beverly Hills or Brentwood and the response will be, "Oh.My.God. I LOVE that salad!"

La Scala Beverly Hills location

So what's so magical about La Scala's Leon's salad? It's just so light, crisp and...uncomplicated. There's nothing fancy about it. Nothing pretentious. It's just lettuce, salami, mozzarella cheese, marinated garbanzo beans and one Kalamata olive on top. The famous "Leon" dressing is tart yet light, full of red vinegar and what I can only imagine is some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Not a salami fan? No worries. La Scala has catered to every Angeleno low-carb diet in town. You can get chopped tuna, turkey, or my personal favorite, hot grilled chicken (also chopped) on top. They grill the chicken to order and the heat is a great contrast to the chilled salad.

Leon's Original Chopped Salad

(apologies for the bad photo; the lighting was very dim)

While I would love nothing more than to go to La Scala every day of my life and get this salad, at a minimum of $10 per half salad, La Scala has made a pretty penny off of me in my lifetime. That said, I decided to recreate the salad at home and save lots of dough. I try to do this with many of my favorite restaurant meals; it's not only fun and a money-saver, it's a great way to experiment and test your kitchen chops (pun intended). Leon's dressing was a tough one but I think I've cracked the code. I've also added a few personal touches along the way, so feel free to ignore them if you're a Leon's purist.

I finely chopped lettuce, salami, basil, turkey, shallot and Parmesan cheese. I rinsed and added whole garbanzo beans and cracked some fresh pepper over the mixture. Then I whisked together two tablespoons red wine vinegar and one tablespoon of light champagne salad dressing and poured it on top. Toss the salad and you've got a plate full of chopped deliciousness! It's a fantastic hot weather meal or light dinner; I can't wait to ditch the turkey and salami and try it with a grilled (and chopped) chicken cutlet on top. I've made it three days in a row and Bryan even gave me the seal of approval.

My version of Leon's Original Chopped Salad.

I guess now it's Christie's Original Chopped Salad!

These are TINY bowls of red wine vinegar & champagne dressing.

The result: My version of Leon's Original Chopped Salad!

My Dream Come True: An Italian Truffle Hunt

Bryan and I partook in an incredible activity while we were in the Italian wine/olive oil countryside of Umbria: a truffle hunt! We were set up with an appointment to meet Severio Bianconi (see photo below, on the right), owner of Tartufo Bianconi, a small company selling black and white whole truffles and truffle products (think pate, polenta, reduced balsamic truffle creme, raw acacia truffle honey, etc.) to local chefs and restaurants. So we drove to Citerna, a tiny medieval town with 200 full-time residents and met JeanPierre (dressed in camo below), an official truffler hunter and his prized truffle hound, Asia.

From left: JeanPierre, Asia, the owner of truffle reserve, his dog Sandy, & Severio Bianconi.

For over an hour, we let the dogs loose and they immediately caught scent of truffle after truffle. They would start to dig furiously and we've have to catch up with them before the dug too far and ate, yes ATE, the truffle. These dogs are incredible smart, but given the chance, they're even smarter: they're eating that prized funghi. The hunters taught Bryan and I how to dig out the truffles and after that, we became the hunters. We followed the dogs and found truffle after truffle growing under the oak and hazelnuts trees. We dug each one out, hiking through the preserve. At one point I make the mistake of looking too closely into the piles of leaves underfoot and realized that they were absolutely teeming with spiders. Hundreds of them. Big ones, too. I am no friend of spiders, big or small, and it took a lot for me not to run screaming from the preserve. But I kept my cool and focused on the once-in-a-lifetime task at hand: unearthing some of Italy's best truffles. It was incredible.

JeanPierre checking out Asia & Sandy's truffle spotting.

Jean Pierre showed us how to dig out the truffle w/o damaging it.

There they are! White truffles!

And black truffles! What beauties...

If you can believe it, the afternoon got even better as we took our bounty back to Severio's home and met with his wife Gabriella, who took us through a five-course truffle cooking class. We prepared truffle polenta with cream sauce, truffle souffle with mini crostinis, homemade pasta with truffles, cheese drizzled with truffle honey, chicken topped with reduced balsamic truffle creme, truffle mashed potatoes (a light potato flake mixture) and finally, a farmhouse cake (sans truffles). We ate dinner with the Bianconi family, practicing our Italian along the way while they practiced their English. It was amazing and true to European form, we relaxed at the dinner table, sipping wine and eating for over three hours. It was a magical day. Truly a culinary dream come true.

Our truffle bounty: we "hunted" all these truffles!

The Bianconi's family kitchen.

Here's the prep. Check out our work:

Shaving black truffles into olive oil & garlic. I never wanted to stop.

Bryan loved the wood-burning oven. Check out the glowing window.

Truffle polenta, before being baked.

Shaved black truffles in olive oil, warmed in a copper pan. Wow, the aroma...

Truffle Souffle. So delicious, crispy edges and all.

Homemade pasta, soon to be topped with my shaved black truffles.

Chicken cutlets filled with cheese and truffle pate, rolled and boiled.

And finally, our meal. So incredible. Severio opened some of his family's Greccheto wine (white table wine served anytime throughout the day, similar to Sauvignon Blanc), a Chianti and a sweet dessert wine he made himself, Vin Santo. He opened the red wine to demonstrate his strict rule that you should absolutely NEVER drink red wine with truffle dishes. In his opinion, the tannins overpower the truffles. After trying it, we had to agree.

Truffle souffle with bruschetta and truffled crostini.

Truffle polenta in black truffle creme sauce.

Fresh pasta with shaved black truffle & Umbrian olive oil.

Stuffed chicken with truffle potatoes & balsamic truffle creme drizzle.

The only non-truffle dish: warm farmhouse cake with crunchy sugar crystals.

Overall it was a day we'll never forget. Gabriella even gave us a book with some of her recipes in it. A huge thanks to the truffle hunters and the Bianconi family for their hospitality, expertise and culinary prowess.

The Italian Farmers Market

In Rome, our hotel was right on this wonderful piazza called Campo de Fiori. In the mornings it was a bustling farmers market, with white umbrella'd stalls filled with produce straight from outlying Roman farms. The tomatoes, artichokes, zucchini, strawberries and blood oranges were practically screaming at you, their vibrant colors and aromas permeating the air as we walked by. On our first morning in Rome, we walked through the Campo and I could barely get by a stall of tomatoes without shooting a round of 20 photos. I've never seen tomatoes so plump, so bright, so red...all without hormones or pesticides. They tasted even better...sweet, slightly acidic and juicy, juicy, juicy!

Here are a few photos from our first morning at the Campo de Fiori farmers market. In addition to the produce there was a fresh fish stand, a truffle stand and flower stands that were just gorgeous. Sadly we weren't able to buy anything because we didn't have a kitchen, but these photos are one day going to be blown up, framed and hung in our future kitchen. I can't wait.

Just a tiny portion of the stalls at Campo de Fiori

Artichokes

Roma tomatoes

Zucchini, blossoms and all!

Tomatoes...ahhhh, the tomatoes.

Sicilian blood oranges

Strawberries

Fresh fish stand

Pate al Tartufata (Truffle pate)

Beautiful selection of flowers

My Husband & Gelato: A Love Story

While we were in Italy, I suspected that my husband was cheating on me. He watched what he ate, exercised more and got a twinkle in his eye every time he spotted her. I have to admit; she was cool, smooth, had a great sense of style as well as the admiration of men (and women!) everywhere. Not to mention, she was on every corner, practically taunting me. Just who grabbed my husband's heart and threatened our relationship?

MS. GELATO.

It's rare that Bryan falls so head over heels in love with a food. In Italy, it became such an obsession that I started documenting the experience, dubbing it "Bryan & Gelato: A Love Story." I don't have to do much more explaining; you can see his obsession in my photos below. Look into his eyes; they have a certain je ne sais qoui to them.

Giotti gelato in Roma

In Venezia, patiently waiting his turn.

In Venezia...success!

In Venezia again, in St. Mark's Square.

Waiting...again...in Firenze

I have to admit, Firenze's gelato is GOR-GEOUS.

In front of Firenze's Medici Tower.

I'm staring at Firenze's Duomo. He's getting gelato.

What kind of animal turns his back to the Duomo???

In a tiny medieval town, Spello.

In an even tinier medieval town, Norcia.

Delirious from volcano-related flight cancellations.

He survived off gelato alone the last three days of our trip.

On the Amalfi coast in Positano. I got a cannoli with Sorrento lemon filling.

In Positano again, from a spinning gelato machine.

THE END. :)