Cookies and Cheesecake

For my review session yesterday, I made cookies for my students. I more-or-less followed this recipe, although I did not chill the dough at all. Instead, the very moist dough I plopped onto parchment-lined cookie sheets by the Tablespoon. I also over-worked the flour and eggs a bit, because I made a single batch, and then decided to double it. The cookies were tasty, and not quite as crisp as they'd be with less beating and more chilling.

The recipe is a standard one. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Combine wet ingredients in standing mixer with paddle, and then add dry to wet. Dry ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves

Wet ingredients:

• 8 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest, lemon extract, or orange extract

My boyfriend had an end-of-term party for one of his classes, and wanted to bring something showy but not too difficult. "Theo, will you bake me a cheesecake?" he asked sweetly. This one is from Betty Crocker's Best of Baking, which he had got me for Christmas.

Preheat oven 275°. Grease a springform pan, the bottom lined with parchment. In double boiler, or otherwise, melt and allow to cool slightly

• 8 oz dark chocolate chips.

In a standing mixer, beat together

• 16 oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 3 eggs
• the chocolate,

adding ingredients one-by-one in the order listed, and scraping down the bowl each time. Pour into prepared pan, and bake 75 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature uncovered, then cover and cool in the refrigerator at least three hours.

Because I had accidentally added two Tbsps flour and then worked the batter too much, my cheesecake puffed up in the oven and then deflated, developing a large crack. Ah, well.

Pour over cheesecake a sauce made in double boiler from

• 6 oz white chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

melted but not boiled, and allowed to cool at least two hours before use. Decorate cake with strawberries and shaved chocolate.