Raisin Butter Tarts and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night my sister and I had a Christmas baking session. I’d brought a copy of Anna Olson’s Back to Baking to try out, and after consulting Anna’s recipe for Raisin Butter Tarts (page 100), my sister declared that she wanted to follow it instead of the recipe she already had. My baking choice was Anna’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 18), made with her Basic Brown Sugar Cookie Dough (page 17, or see below!).

For the butter tarts, we had to use regular margarine instead of unsalted butter because that’s what we had on hand. We also had a package of pre-made tart shells that we used instead of making our own dough. (Sorry Anna! Time wasn’t completely on our side!) However, instead of these two “departures” we followed the recipe exactly, and we decided that the resulting tarts were pretty much the best we’d ever tasted.

For the chocolate chip cookies, we also had to substitute regular margarine for unsalted butter. And, because I wanted tidy, round, evenly shaped cookies (go figure: I’m an editor), we rolled out the dough into a log and sliced it instead of dropping spoonfuls of it onto the baking tray. The cookies were simple, chocolaty bliss: a classic that turned out perfectly.

We were using a convection oven, to handle multiple baking trays, and Anna’s notes (page 8) on using this type of oven were really helpful.

Thanks, Anna!

—Theresa Best

Basic Brown Sugar Cookie Dough

• Makes enough dough for 2 to 3 dozen cookies •

foundation recipe

This cookie dough is the base for the favourites of the drop cookies: Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Molasses, and Peanut Butter. After a couple of batches, you’ll likely have these proportions memorized and be able to whip off a batch of cookies with your eyes closed. Before making any of the cookies for which this dough serves as a base, read the specific cookie recipe itself to see if additions need to be made to this basic dough recipe.

½ cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup (125 mL) packed light brown sugar

¼ cup (60 mL) sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

1¼ cups (310 mL) all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp (30 mL) cornstarch

½ tsp (2 mL) baking soda

½ tsp (2 mL) salt

Cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until fluffy.

Beat in the egg and then the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and stir until evenly blended.

Follow instructions to make Chocolate Chip (page 18), Oatmeal Raisin (page 20), Molasses (page 20), or Peanut Butter (page 22).

Notes from Anna’s kitchen

1. The cornstarch is the secret to this dough. Regardless of which cookie variation you choose to make with this recipe, the cookies stay soft in the centre and are delectably tender.

2. Ever run out of brown sugar? You can re-create light brown sugar by using granulated sugar and adding 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of fancy molasses to a recipe for every 1 cup (250 mL) of brown sugar called for. The molasses creates the taste and the moisture that the brown sugar would add to a recipe.