David Lebovitz is one of my favorite pastry chefs because he writes the most precise recipes and has exquisite taste. He was the pastry chef at Chez Panisse for many years and has written a couple of excellent cookbooks. His recipes always work and taste wonderful. This cookie is no exception.

This recipe comes from Bon Appetit and I have an admission: I didn’t follow the recipe. Instead of cooking the 3 flavors of chocolate in 3 separate bowls over simmering water, I microwaved them. Perhaps they wanted the cream cheese batter to be firmer, so it would plop on the top, instead of run, more like camouflage. (I’ve never studied camouflage design, so I’m not sure what it looks like in detail.) Of course I could have waited until the batter firmed up a little or microwaved it less, but I think that my end result looks pretty damn good.

I thought everyone had either made or tasted this recipe so I was hesitant to teach it to a recent class. But when I needed something quick and easy to fill in a time gap, I decided to go for it and make them. I was surprised that not one person was familiar with the recipe and they were all really excited to try them.

I don’t think I’ve made any cookie in my lifetime as much as I’ve made these.

Everyone who knows me knows I’d rather come up with a new recipe than repeat an old one. But these cookies are the rare exception. I make them every time I need to bring cookies anywhere and the reason is easy: everyone who tastes them, loves them.

These are the world’s easiest brownies, bar none. You only need 3 ingredients—a jar of Nutella, 5 eggs and 1 cup of flour. Plus, after you’ve finished combining the ingredients, you have only one dirty bowl and a mixer to wash (I use my electric hand mixer.)

One of my favorite pastry chefs just wrote a cookie book that if you like to bake, you’ll want to get. It is called Craving Cookies by Helen S. Fletcher. Her website is pastrieslikeapro.com. Her book has more how-to tips and photos than any cook book I’ve seen in a long time. That is because Helen and her husband, a retired photographer, wrote, styled and photographed everything.

If recipes could be a ball game, these are a home run. I hadn’t made them in years when I decided to make them for a brunch class I was teaching for high schoolers in LA.

I call these make-your-own biscotti, because once you’ve made the basic batter, you can flavor it as you wish and stir in any additions you like.

Oftentimes the simplest cookies are the best. These are the easiest ever. No mixer. No butter to bring to room temperature and only 6 ingredients. I make them often to bring to neighbors and store in the freezer for whenever I need a pick-up.

My reason for choosing to blog these cookies is because the one ingredient that people haven’t gone crazy about hoarding (at last near me in Northern CA) is eggs——and chocolate chips and cocoa powder are hopefully in your pantry.