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detected in baked goods, it is better to buy aluminum-free baking powder. Rumford’s is my preferred brand.
    There are recipes that use both baking soda and baking powder. The soda acts to neutralize the acid ingredients, providing a small amount of the leavening in the process, while the baking powder does the bulk of the work.
    MILK
    All ingredients for cookie dough should be at room temperature for the most efficient mixing. Milk is no exception. Let the measured milk stand at room temperature for about an hour so it loses its chill, or place the measuring cup in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. Or microwave it in a microwave-safe container on low (20 percent power) in 10-second periods, stirring after each increment, until the milk is tepid.
    W HOLE MILK , which contains fat, is the best choice for cookie dough. The cookies could be tough if reduced, low-, or nonfat milk is used instead.
    SALT
    Without a little salt in the batter, cookies can taste flat. This is especially true of chocolate cookies. In cookie dough, salt is used sparingly as a flavor enhancer and is not a prominent taste itself, so the most important factor is how easily the salt dissolves. (This isn’t the case in savory cooking, where coarse salt can be purposely used to add texture to a dish.) Fine sea salt, which has a clean, neutral flavor, is my first choice, but plain table salt will also work well. Kosher salt is too coarse and its large crystals don’t dissolve well. If you only have coarse salt in your kitchen, grind it first in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle before using in baking.
    CHOCOLATE AND COCOA
    One of the world’s most beloved foods, for all its ubiquity, chocolate is a fairly complex subject. U NSWEETENED CHOCOLATE is cacao beans that have been roasted, ground, molded, and cooled. Professionals sometimes call it “chocolate liquor.” It contains no sugar.
    S EMISWEET OR BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE is chocolate liquor that has been sweetened to some degree. The USDA doesn’t have a specific standard for semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, and only has a category for dark chocolate, meaning any chocolate with a minimum of 35 percent cacao. This is fairly meaningless, because no producers make chocolate with such low cacao content. The average cacao content in semisweet chocolate is around 55 percent, with the remaining contents being sugar, the emulsifier lecithin, and vanilla (or the artificial alternative, vanillin). However, one brand’s semisweet can be another’s bittersweet. Many chocolate brands now state the cacao percentage on the label. If it isn’t listed, you can assume that it isn’t above 62 percent. I use Callebaut semisweet chocolate, which is easily found in bulk at many natural food stores and supermarkets, for my “house chocolate.” Trader Joe’s also carries excellent, reasonably priced Belgian bulk chocolate.
    H IGH-PERCENTAGE CHOCOLATE has a larger proportion of cacao, which naturally gives it a deeper chocolate flavor. If you like a bitter note to your eating chocolate, you will like high-percentage chocolate. But it can make trouble in baking. The cacao content can wreak havoc with a recipe, as the proportions of sugar and other ingredients (such as the fat supplied by cocoa butter in the chocolate) are thrown off. This is especially true of ganache, a combination of heavy cream and chocolate, which depends on a precise balance of butterfat and cocoa butter for its success. For this reason, I recommend chocolate with a cacao content of no higher than 62 percent.
    M ILK CHOCOLATE is sweeter than semisweet chocolate and has been flavored with dried milk solids. W HITE CHOCOLATE contains no cacao at all; in fact the best brands are basically sweetened cocoa butter flavored with vanilla. Both of these chocolates are delicate and can scorch easily, so melt them with an extra measure of caution.
    C HOCOLATE CHIPS are processed with an additional amount of lecithin to keep them from melting too