Hence this part of the blog — cooking through the entire book (now complete).
Eventually it seemed like a good idea to get a French version of the book to see if the many recipe errors were there as well, or if I simply had translations errors that were introduced when converting to imperial measurements for the America version. I received my copy of Repas de famille last week, and by and large, those errors are still there. Not all, but enough to leave me scratching my head. Maybe a few more posts on that.
The Cookies
Comparing the two books, there is serious oddness in how both the recipes are scaled — theoretically –by ONE FIFTH from 100 to 20 cookies. Some of the ingredients in the French version come down by 1:10, some by 1:5, and some that don’t make any sense at all. This pretty much parallels that same acid trip scaling that the English (American) version suffers from.
So let’s just not scale it down, and go right to the 100 cookie version — that smaller version is too weird to decipher — besides, everyone likes 100 cookies, right?
So, looking at the French version, and comparing it to the American version, only the quantity of dark chocolate has been screwed up in the metric-to-imperial measurements: the quantity of dark chocolate is listed in the American version at 1.1 pounds, where it should be 1.8 pounds (825grams). The callout for the white and dark pieces is actually translated correctly. It’s not really relevant here, since the error lies deeper.
This is where I think the serious error occurred: in the recipe there are two chocolate callouts: one for the dark, and one for dark and white pieces. The recipe, however, tells you to take two-thirds of the dark for melting, and add the rest with the white. There is no mention of simply using the 225 grams of “white and dark pieces” called out in the ingredients. The amount of chocolate has then, in all likelihood, been inadvertently upped by one third or so.
Let’s back up and say that the TOTAL amount of chocolate called for is 825 grams, and that there is possibly 150 grams of white chocolate in the mix (see the picture). So now you have roughly 750 grams of dark chocolate, 150 of white. If you take one third of the 750 grams of dark chocolate and roughly chop that with the white, you melt the 500 grams with the butter and put the remaining 250 grams with the white for folding in later.
The only other thing is that the five-spice mixture and instant coffee in both recipes is called out at 1 c. à. c. (translates directly to 1 tsp. or 5ml). That seemed stupid since the instant coffee must act as some sort of binder [[2016 Edit: Bullshit — it was just for flavor]], so I upped both to 1 c. à. s. (translates to 1 Tbl. or 15 ml).
It worked.
Unlike the other failed attempts, the frozen mixture pulled away cleanly from the parchment paper (that you wrapped it in for freezing), and after baking for 10 minutes at 350º — they looked like the picture as well. COOL THEM OFF as fast as you can. They kicked ass.
Mystery solved, here are the proportions for 100 from the French version (and my corrections to the chocolate quantities). Also, freeze the dough overnight, it needs it.
Vanilla bean: 1
Eggs: 5
Sugar: 400g
Butter: 85g
Dark Chocolate 75% ( I used 72%): 750g
White Chocolate: 150g
Flour: 85g
Five-Spice powder: 1TABLEspoon
Instant coffe: 1 TABLEspoon