Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everybody loves chocolate chip cookies. They are basic, homey, and make you feel like a kid again. They bring back memories of mom's or grandma's spoiling us with a chewy, buttery afternoon snack, with just the right amount of chocolate sprinkled in. They are amazing with milk, ice cream, or even lemonade. They make you smile when you open your lunchbox and see someone snuck one in when you weren't looking. As iconic as they are, surprisingly there are many people who are not satisfied with their own recipe.
To be quite honest, I have not really been satisfied with mine. They aren't disgusting, or anything, they just aren't that chewy. They are sort of crisp, which I have always blamed on the butter, but I absolutely refuse to make cookies with shortening. I figured there must be some other way. Cookies kind of intimidate me. I never feel like I am bringing my A-game when I make up a batch. Mine usually end up looking like a tuile, maybe worse. A paper-thin, crunchy mess that tastes good, but has the visual appeal of  shoo-fly-pie.
I have secretly borne this shame until now.
It wasn't until a friend of mine sent her feeble cry to the endless abyss of Facebook, asking if anyone had a chewy cookie recipe, that I decided it was time to figure this one out. I sat, staring in deliberation. As the foodie, I should be the first one supplying a recipe. My 'no-fail' chewy, chocolate chip cookie that I turn to in need. Instead I sat and watched as countless friends commented, stating that they, too, were looking for that perfect recipe.

I honestly don't believe there are perfect recipes, and variables always change things, but these cookies are pretty close. My husband said they were the best he has ever had (shocker...) and he gave them a 9.5. Why? Because he wants to leave room for improvement.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from Food Network)

Ingredients 2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar (dark brown is okay)
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together into a large bowl.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes (use the paddle attachment for a stand mixer). Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, about 12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip-Cranberry Pancakes with Flaxseed

I have been reading through Nigel Slater's book Tender, A cook and his vegetable patch.
Let me come back to that.

My husband and I, for a cheap date, like to go to bookseller stores and flip through books and magazines. Before you get your feather's ruffled, know that this is how I compile lists of books I like, and thereby wish to purchase, and recommend books to others. While I sit, drooling over cookbooks and critiquing the picture-less, he listens with half an ear and and looks at awkward family photos.
On one of these occasions, I had just finished going through another vegetable cookbook, disappointingly filled with disgusting-sounding cold soups, vegan sides and entrees (filled with processed meat and cheese substitutes), bland salads and fiber-laden desserts, when I told my husband, in a very frustrated manner, that there were no normal vegetable cookbooks. I should know. I have looked through a lot of them. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT.  The aforementioned list is what I frequently find. I told my husband that there are no vegetable cookbooks for people who are not vegetarians. I love vegetables. I try to prepare proper amounts of them for my family, and I would like a little variety, once in a while.

After having said this, my husband responded, "Write one." We soon left. The next time we were at the booksellers, I found it. Nigel's book. I flipped it open and literally, tears came to my eyes. Number one, he is a gardener. I love gardening. I love growing vegetables, and making things from them. A lot of gardening books do not tell you when to pick your product. You just sort of have to guess, or look it up on the Internet. Not Nigel's book. He tells you how to plant, when to plant, what bugs like your garden, when to pick, how to pick,  and most importantly, what to do with what you picked. I am reading through this vegetable cookbook like the tome of knowledge it is.

I absolutely adore British authors (Nigella Lawson is another favorite), and I always feel like my vocabulary has been widened after reading their books. One such recipe that is currently stuck in my mind is dredged and fried cauliflower with salsa verde. I don't even like cauliflower and that sounds pretty amazing. I just can't wait to try it. I have stocked my fridge with brussels sprouts and broccoli, in anticipation of the wondrous things I am going to try. His carrot cake with mascarpone frosting sounds delicious, and the roasted pork with plum sauce.
He gives you stacks of ways to make different veggies, just little ideas, and then complete recipes. Another thing: the entire book is categorized, alphabetically, by vegetable. Just wanted to let you know.

In other news, I made these pancakes and they are good. It seems like I can't make pancakes enough around here. Also, don't go overboard on the flaxseed. If your body is not used to it, you will be in pain.


Chocolate Chip-Cranberry Pancakes with Flaxseed

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home
 2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
2 cups buttermilk
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 Tablespoons ground flaxseed

1/2 cup semi-sweet morsels
1/2 cup dried cranberries


In a bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips and cranberries, and blend until smooth. Fold in chocolate semi sweet morsels and cranberries.

Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat until a few drops of water sprinkled on the surface evaporate quickly.
Pour 1/3 cup of batter onto greased skillet or griddle and heat for about 3 minutes per side, or until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake and the edges begin to dry out. Flip over, and cook for another minute or two.



http://verygoodrecipes.com/breakfasts-of-the-world-challenge

Oreo Chocolate-Chip Cookie Brownie

I wrote about half of a blog post yesterday. I am not sure how much longer I can do this eating healthy thing.... my husband and I were going for six weeks but I really miss baking, cooking, making chocolate chip pancakes and trying new desserts. I keep trying to tell myself I am gearing up for fall, and this is the perfect time to eat light anyway. Don't get me wrong, I like eating healthy, but I just don't like being this restricted. I usually eat fairly healthy, with a sprinkling of rich desserts and pastries. On that note, here is a recipe from my mom...she loves to taunt me with these recipes.

Oreo Chocolate-Chip Cookie Brownie

Another day….another dessert! I have a real hard time passing up an idea for a new yummy dessert! I was online the other day…minding my own business…not even LOOKING for any recipes. I was actually looking for ideas for my first granddaughters baby shower! Then up scrolls this pic… A 9x13” dish with the ingredients in the pan and these words below: “cookie dough then an Oreo then brownie mix on top.” There were no other instructions, like temperature and time in oven. No exact amounts! (I’m kind-of weird about that…I get real nervous when I have to ‘wing-it’) But I guess they figured if I’m serious enough..I’ll find a way!...and I did!

I bought a roll of pre-made cookie dough, a package of Oreos and a bagged brownie mix. The mixes both required a 350* oven…

1 package Oreos

1 prepared package brownie mix for an 8x8 pan

1 roll chocolate chip cookie dough

I decided to do individual desserts instead of a 9x13 pan because I was concerned the Oreos wouldn’t cut up very neatly when time to serve. So I used a muffin/cupcake pan and lined each with a paper baking cup.

I read on the cookie dough package that it was supposed to make 16 cookies, so I peeled off the entire plastic covering, leaving the cookie dough in a tube shape, cut the dough tube into four equal sections. Each section was then cut into four equal parts. I rolled them up just for ease of placing them in the paper cups and gently pushed them down to form the bottom ‘crust’. Each ball was approximately 1/8 cup, if you decide to make homemade cookie dough.

Next just place an Oreo into each cup, pressing it into place. Cover with 1/8 cup prepared brownie mix. (You may want to use slightly less if you don’t want them oozing over the top.)

Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 12 to 15 minutes. The edges will be firm, but the centers may still seem slightly gooey looking. Cool and eat. ENJOY!

Easy Morning

It feels like I haven't blogged in forever! I know it hasn't been that long, but it seems like it, and I am afraid you are going to have to put up with me being a bit wordy. I have so many things I want to write about...new recipes, old recipes, recipes I had forgotten about and recipes I really, really want to share. We have moved, and while we were getting settled into our new place we were without the Internet. So, instead of checking every body's facebook status or watching Netflix, I have been reading cookbooks and writing out recipes. I have a lot of recipes. Since we last talked I made a delicious chocolate cake, perfected my fried rice, made egg rolls, made lasagna for the first time, found all my long-lost recipes and saved them forever in cyberspace, tweaked a potato recipe, re-discovered a chicken recipe, convinced my 5-year old that he likes asparagus (FINALLY), made some amazing muffins...maybe I should stop there. I really wanted to write about this potato recipe, but I think the muffins should come first.
I really like muffins, along with just about any other food item, but I have discovered that a lot of muffin recipes are strange. The muffins are dry, horrible little things that should be given to the children to play with, not eaten with coffee to start a lovely spring day. Or, the recipe turns out ok, but calls for something I can't swap out without compromising the consistency, such as a juice or sour cream. And, I know it probably sounds funny but I usually don't have sour cream. It's not that I don't buy it, its just that it goes really fast. But, if I buy a lot we don't use it...you know how that is.

Anyway, this is another of those common items that I just can't seem to find a stand-by, basic recipe for. Until now. This is another one from the Art and Soul of Baking, a book I highly recommend. I use it weekly, if not more. Sometimes I look through this book and feel like I need to exercise.
There is a great muffin recipe in here, and you can make all sorts of substitutions. The muffins I made the other day were the suggested Lemon Raspberry. A lovely combination, and really just the tip of the iceberg. Lemon Blueberry, Poppy seed, Orange Cranberry, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter....you could make anything! The recipe uses butter, and you zest the lemon and infuse the melted butter with the zest. This allows the flavor to permeate all the batter, and you could get creative with the raspberry. I happened to have some frozen raspberries in my freezer, but I would think you could drop a bit of raspberry or blackberry jam into each muffin cup and swirl it with the batter, or just leave it as a jellied center. Dried cranberries, fresh cranberries, blueberries or any other fruit you like (think: dried apricot, dark chocolate and coconut...hmm...) I don't see why you couldn't mash up a banana or two and add that to the batter with a hand full of chopped walnuts. This is that recipe. Its the only muffin recipe I will ever use. I will make all my modifications on this one. I really love it. There is even a little bit about a streusel topping you can add (can?) so this is definitely a keeper.


Lemon Raspberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

For the muffins:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 stick butter
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 half-pint basket raspberries, or 1 1/4 cups frozen (do not thaw)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 and position an oven rack in the center. Line a muffin tin and lightly spray the top with cooking spray. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to blend thoroughly. Melt the butter in a medium glass dish in the microwave and add the lemon zest. Add the buttermilk and let the mixture sit for 1 or 2 minutes, or until the mixture is tepid. Add the eggs and vanilla, and whisk until well blended.
Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. Gently fold in the raspberries.
Divide the batter evenly between prepared muffin cups.

For the streusel:
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Combine in a bowl and sprinkle over muffin batter.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until inserted cake tester comes out clean. Transfer muffin tin to a rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes before lifting the muffins out. Transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Serve warm or hot.

Raindrops on roses...

On days when our house just can't seem to get warm I like to bake cookies. The oven is normally on for a few hours, and everybody, of course, is perfectly fine with the fact that the house is warm and there are fresh, homemade cookies to be found. I have tried a few different varieties, but cookies are one area that I don't really stray from the mainstays: chocolate chip, peanut butter, sugar, refrigerator (at Christmas) and every once in a while I will do something different, like peanut butter thumbprints (I know that isn't really different), or I will add different types of chocolate chips or perhaps toffee chips (divine!). Now, perhaps you noticed a very common cookie that I didn't include in that list, namely, oatmeal raisin. There is a reason for that. I am not was not terribly fond of oatmeal raisin cookies, and I have a very valid reason for that. Have you noticed that the raisins get this burned taste? Maybe you like that, but raisins are not my favorite to begin with, so then when they taste burned I pretty much have no desire to eat them. I like the cookie part of oatmeal cookies, so I have often considered altering the recipe slightly, i.e. omitting the raisins, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it.
Lately, though, I have been purchasing my rolled oats in bulk from a large warehouse store (read: Costco). I use it for a myriad of things I cook, from meatballs to butternut squash muffins, and rolled oats are better for you than instant oatmeal, so I try to fix that for breakfast about twice a week. Anyway. I have a lot, I mean a lot of oatmeal laying around, so I decided to look in my no-fail recipe book and make some oatmeal cookies from that recipe.
I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins, and added semi-sweet chocolate chips, just because chocolate is good in everything. Well, almost. They were awesome! The cookie is so soft and chewy, with a very buttery flavor accented with just the right amount of sweetness. We couldn't stop eating them. My Dad named them his new favorite cookie.

The next time I made them I used white chocolate instead of the semi-sweet, and that was also wonderful. A little on the sweet side, but if you are a sugar fiend like my sister you will really enjoy that.
The variations are virtually limitless. We like dried cranberries a lot. If you like dried apricots, that would be delicious with the white chocolate chips also. Just about any dried fruit would be great and you could put white, semi-sweet, milk chocolate or dark chips. Coconut, walnuts, pecans or almonds would be absolutely incredible!
I recommend making a double batch and sharing with your friends or the elderly in your neighborhood or church-they will love you for it!

Oatmeal Cookies
makes about 48 cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats or quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 or more baking sheets with vegetable-oil cooking spray or line with parchment paper or silpat.
Stir together the flour, baking soda, kosher salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
Stir together the eggs and vanilla in a small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until creamy and blended. Alternatively, use an electric hand mixer. Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture in two additions and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Reduce the speed to low, slowly add the dry ingredients, and beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Stir in the oatmeal, cranberries and chocolate chips.
Drop rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the edges of the cookies are golden and the centers are barely cooked, about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer the cookies to wire rack and let cool completely.

Do-Ahead:
Bake half the cookie dough, then wrap the rest in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for later baking. The dough keeps for 1 week in the refrigerator and 1 month frozen.