Browsing: Pine

Welcome toClubhouse Eats, where we celebrate the game’s most delectable food and drink. Hope you brought your appetite.

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I tend to be picky when it comes to cookies. They’re often too crunchy for my taste, so I usually steer clear of them in favor of other treats like brownies or cake.

But I simply couldn’t resist the enticing platter of cookies that greeted my late-September arrival to Pine Canyon, a luxury master-planned community and private club located just minutes outside of downtown Flagstaff in Arizona. There were several varieties to choose from, artfully arranged. So on a whim, I decided to sample one. Wow. It was perfect, with a light crunch, toothsome chewiness, and an excellent chocolate chip ratio.

As someone who has botched my fair share of cookie batches while baking with my kids, I was intrigued. How exactly did Pine Canyon’s chefs achieve this exemplary result? Luckily for me (and you!), they’ve graciously shared the keys.

According to Pine Canyon pastry chef Sierra Proctor, the club’s cookies are a signature offering that have been served since the club’s opening more than two decades ago.

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“After a round of golf or a midday workout, members have come to expect this sweet bit of comfort that feels like home,” she said.

And what is it exactly that sets the cookies apart? According to Proctor, it’s both an ingredient and a preparation method.

“What makes the cookies special is twofold,” she said. “The use of brown butter, which adds a deep, nutty flavor, and the technique of chilling the dough overnight, which keeps the cookies thick and chewy.”

Making brown butter is a simple process:

First, Proctor said, melt the butter slowly in a light-colored pan. Watch for it to foam and the milk solids to turn a golden brown. (As a bonus, your kitchen will be filled with a rich, nutty aroma.)

Next, pour all of the butter, including the browned bits, into a bowl to cool. At that point, you can combine it with the rest of the cookie ingredients. Check out the full Pine Canyon cookie recipe below.

Pine Canyon’s Signature Brown Butter Cookies

Ingredients

-6 oz butter, browned, cooled, and softened
-4 oz granulated sugar
-4 oz brown sugar
-1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature
-0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
-8.5 oz bread flour
-0.5 tsp salt
-0.5 tsp baking soda
-8 oz mix-ins of choice (chocolate chips, nuts, etc.)

Directions:

Cream together brown butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

Gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

Fold in chocolate chips or other mix-ins by hand.

Roll the dough into balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 4 inches apart.

Chill overnight.

Bake at 325°F for 5 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for an additional 5 minutes, until golden with crisp edges and a gooey center.

To the list of life’s great certainties — death, taxes, my block-slice under pressure — we might add this: Pine Valley’s position in the rankings.

Since 1985, when GOLF first tallied ballots for its Top 100 Courses in the World, the famed New Jersey club has held firmly to the No. 1 spot. The votes, in fact, have been something of a landslide, with the nearest contenders not especially close. This Wednesday, when GOLF releases its newest ranking, it will take a shocker on the scale of Y.E. Yang over Tiger Woods for Pine Valley to be supplanted.

Enter Jim Wagner, our guest on the latest Destination Golf podcast. If you follow course design, you know the name. Wagner is the longtime design partner of Gil Hanse. He’s a shaper’s shaper, and a deeply thoughtful architect whose work, with Hanse, ranges from original courses such as Ohoopee Match Club and Castle Stuart to restorations at Los Angeles Country Club, Fishers Island, Sleepy Hollow and beyond. And with a new Top 100 about to drop, his perspective on what makes a world-class course couldn’t be more timely.

So what does a guy like that think is the best course in the world?

Not Pine Valley.

Wagner acknowledges the place is extraordinary but if you pinned him down for a vote, he’d likely lean toward Merion. Part of what fascinates him about Merion is how much was accomplished on such a compact parcel. And that’s the natural bridge to another course he holds in high regard: Kingston Heath in Australia, built on relatively flat terrain and a small site that demanded an entirely different kind of creativity.

On the podcast, Wagner talks about how the routing at Kingston Heath reflects a special imagination, different from what it took to conjure compelling golf from the dramatic landforms that underpin Pine Valley. The constraints were different, he says, and so was the artistry required to make the course sing.

That’s only a sampling of where the conversation goes. In the full conversation, Wagner ranges widely, touching on everything from the Grateful Dead to the importance of thinking in three dimensions when you’re sketching out golf holes. He also offers candid takes on other big-name courses. Spoiler alert: he’s not exactly bullish on Bethpage Black as it stands.

You can listen to the full episode below and can hear more from Wagner on Pine Valley in the video above.