Posts tagged ‘chocolate chip cookies’

May 25

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Not Re-Inventing The Wheel And A Garden

Chocolate chip cookies are iconic, delicious and probably the most made cookie in the US. There are probably as many recipes as there are cookies made, well maybe not but close. I have a couple of recipes that I like to use and they always produce a great cookie. The other day I got an email from King Arthur flour, The Bakers Catalog disecting, demystifying and decoding the chocolate chip cookie.

It is actually a great article with suggestions for different types of cookies from chewy and soft to crisp and crunchy. I decided that I would make her favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and see what all the hype is about. I was a little put off that it contains some shortening, mind you I have nothing against vegetable shortening but really like my cookies made using only butter for the most part. This uses butter and shortening. The method is also very different,creaming the butter straight from the fridge (love not having to bring to room temp) with shortening, vinegar, baking soda, sugars and vanilla.

The cookies are really fantastic crispy edges with a soft middle. You know that the butter is there but using some shortening gives the cookies a wonderful texture. All in all a really good recipe that I will add to my favorites and will be making again.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe by PJ Hamel for King Arthur Flour

2/3 cup light brown sugar packed

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup, 1 stick, 8 tbs or 4 oz butter straight from the refrigerator

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3/4 tsp salt or 1/2 tsp if you used salted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp apple cider or white vinegar

1 large egg

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups chocolate chunks or chips (I mixed milk and dark chocolate)

In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment mix the butter, sugars, shortening, salt, vanilla. baking soda, and vinegar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and contine mixing until combined. Add the flour and mix gently only until the flour is incorporated into the wet ingredients. Remove bowl from stand and mix in chocolate by hand. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour before baking. Pre heat oven to 375 degree’s while dough chills and line baking sheet with parchment or silpat.

Scoop onto baking sheet using a 1 1/4 inch scoop placing each ball about 2 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes edges will be golden brown.

In closing I wanted to share photo’s of the garden which right now is in full bloom. The flowers are just beautiful and I have hundreds of beautiful fragrant roses, peonies and the annuals that I bought. I am also very excited that my tomato plants are doing well and already have those yellow blossoms.

Dec 20

39 Comments

Chocolate Chip Granola Cookies- Cookies For Christmas

Chocolate Chip Granola Cookies

These cookies were just posted on Butter Basil And Breadcrumbs, my good friend Prudy’s totally delicious blog, they were a guest post from yours truly, I liked them so much I decided to put them in my gift baskets this year. They are crunchy, chewy, chocolatey downright delicious. I always put a chocolate chip cookie in my gift boxes because they are really a classic and adding the granola takes them to a new level. I used my homemade granola, it contains lots of nuts, coconut, maple syrup, coconut oil all good stuff and I make it super crispy. Forgive me for being redundant but had to include this cookie in my holiday repertoire. Note: I changed the recipe a bit after posting on Prudy’s site. reduced the butter by 1 tbs and increased the flour, I think it really depends on the granola that you use my latest batch must have had more coconut oil and the cookies spread a bit too much. You judge make a test cookie which is how I saw it spread. After adding the additional 2 tbs of flour they came out perfectly.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature (I use salted)
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups + 2 tbs flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1½ (heaping)cups granola (recipe here) Use your favorite or try mine. Your choice
3 oz milk chocolate cut into pieces
3 oz dark chocolate cut into pieces

Instructions

Cream butter and brown sugar until creamy, add egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated and the mixture is fluffy.
With mixer on low add the sifted flour, baking soda and salt, beat just until combined, add the granola and chocolate and again mix just until it is combined.
I like to wrap the dough in plastic wrap or parchment put in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for at least an hour but its even better overnight.
Remember: If you refrigerate overnight let sit at room temperature before baking(a half hour on the counter will do it). You can also freeze cookie dough, wrap well and place in zip lock freezer bags and store until ready to use. Let thaw in refrigerator about 2 days before you will be making the cookies.
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Place scoops of the dough (I used a 1½ tbs ice cream scoop) on silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on rack.
Note: the granola I used had pecans in it. If your granola doesn’t contain nuts you can add to the cookie dough unless you have a nut allergy.

Jan 20

43 Comments

Super Sized Chocolate Chip Cookies

Super Sized Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these amazing cookies and I have to share it with you, they are REALLY good. There are no eggs, no processed sugar, no butter or vegetable oil in them, virtuous, definitely, but oh so scrumptious. I follow Brandi’s blog The Healthy Flavor and am amazed at the fabulous recipes she comes up with. They are healthful, vegan and really really good!

The fat in these cookies comes from roasted pecan butter, it’s super simple to whip up, and is in my opinion is what makes them so wonderful. The list of ingredients is minimal, whole wheat pastry flour,cornstarch, maple syrup as the sweetener, chocolate, baking soda and powder, sea salt and vanilla. Thats it, simple, healthful and they come together in a flash. Full disclosure, I didn’t have whole wheat pastry flour so I used whole wheat flour with 2 tbs of AP flour, I also decided to use some of the chocolate in my pantry that really needed to be used so I combined, dark chocolate, dark chocolate with peanut butter and milk chocolate. To make this vegan don’t do as I did just use vegan dark chocolate. Enjoy these cookies with a nice cold glass of milk (I had almond milk) and they are especially good slightly warm. Visit Brandi’s blog and try her recipes, you will love them as much as I do. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful recipe and allowing me to post it on my blog.

Recipe courtesy of Brandi, The Healthy Flavor:

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted pecan butter. Pecan butter is creamier and oilier than other nut butters, so I wouldn’t recommend subbing anything. I made them with peanut butter and the taste was good, but they were more dry and didn’t hold together as well)

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (depending on how much you added when you make the pecan butter, this may need to be adjusted)

1/2-3/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips plus extra to stick on the top if desired

Tip: The key to getting these as chunky and thick is to follow the exact steps. You must chill the dough first and also only divide the dough into 12 cookies. If you make more than that, they won’t be as fluffy.

Directions:

After making the roasted pecan butter, make sure to measure 1 cup in case you made more than that in the food processor. Add it to a bowl with the syrup and vanilla. Stir until well combined. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk very well. Make sure there are no lumps. Stir the chocolate chips into the flour mixture. Now add the flour into the wet ingredients a small amount at a time, stirring until just combined. Put the bowl into the fridge for 20 minutes to chill only.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Depending on how creamy you pulsed your pecan butter, your batter may be a bit crumbly. If so, just press the dough together roughly with your hands by large spoonfuls. Divide the dough into 12-14 cookies only, if you want them thick and fluffy. I added a few extra chocolate chips on top of the cookies too. Do NOT flatten or spread out the dough, leave it piled high. They should bake high and fluffy as in the pictures. I made 3 batches and they all turned out fabulously fluffy. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown around the edges. Mine was perfect just after 11 minutes. Do not over bake!

Cool 10 minutes and transfer to cool completely on a cooling rack before handling…if you can contain yourself! After they have cooled, place them on a papertowel to drain any extra pecan butter.