Chocolate Chips!

I might have written about Chocolate Chip Cookies before, but I made a batch recently that reminded me why I love that little cookie so much. With cold milk - it's the best treat a kid, err, I mean a grown-up could have!


Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

 Ingredients
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream the shortening and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition - don't forget to scrape the side of the bowl! Add dry ingredients and mix well, but don't over mix. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Place large spoonfuls of the cookie dough mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden, remove, cool and enjoy!

Chopped! Or, how I got on TV

So, thanks to all the running around  I've been doing for the Bake-Off I found myself submitting my name and my passion for food via email to a television producer, filming an amateur version of Chopped! for Breville Toaster Ovens.


I was chosen as a contestant. And now I am the proud owner of this fancy toaster oven, which I am supposed to get used to because the premise of the clip I'll be in (yes, I am going to be on TV) demands for the use of this toaster oven. This weekend, I plan to bake my way into a reasonable sense of calm so when I am faced with 90 minutes, 4 mystery ingredients and no recipe cards to be seen, it'll be all good.

So, the first thing I decide to make, of course, is my chocolate chip cookies. Simple, classic and you know when you mess up the recipe.

From scratch, from memory - rattling off the ingredients, almost forgetting the baking powder. But in the end, they did come out pretty normal looking and they tasted like chocolate chip cookies should taste warm out of the oven - caramel-y, chocolate-y and perfect with a glass of milk.

Next on the agenda - Focaccia.

Fruits of My Labor

Good Ol' Chocolate Chip Cookies





My super lemon bars





Chocolate Orange Sugar cookies





And hopefully...the first iteration of my signature cookie...something old, and something new. If it get's picked up, I will share the recipe

Me Want Cookie!

Why do I bake? I think the reason is because I like to make people feel better. There is no denying the healing power of a brownie and just bringing baked goods to the office makes everyone a little less disgruntled.

I know everyone has a great recipe that they’ve conquered and made their own – mine is the chocolate chip cookie. It’s a variation on the Tollhouse® classic, but whenever I roll those babies out, they are gone before I can yell “Cookie!”

Seriously.

What makes mine special? I say what my friend’s husband says – that I make it with “lurve” and thus they are extra-good. Actually, it’s all in the technique.

To make a cookie that will stay chewy even after sitting in a container for several days (if they last that long) requires proper preparation.

The sugars and the fats need to be whipped till they nearly double in volume.

The dry ingredients need to be sifted together, separately from the wet ingredients.

Never underestimate the power of that ¼ tsp of salt – salt is a powerful preservative and it provides a balance in the flavor of the cookie.

Never over beat the eggs and butter – you’ll get a curdled mess

And when you mix the wet with the dry – don’t over do it. You want cookie dough, not spackling compound.

The actual baking of the cookie also lends to its texture.

Never over-bake. It’s better to leave off a few minutes and let the residual heat from the oven take care of the rest of the baking than to have burnt cookies.

If you’re like me and don’t have a fabulous convection oven, chances are that your oven has pockets of heat unevenly distributed. Rotate your cookie sheet so that you have a full-batch of evenly cooked cookies and not mush in front and charcoal in the back.

Remember – hot air rises. Don’t put your cookies on the top rack; always the middle rack.

If you follow the above, there’s a chance you’ll get a near-pristine batch. I still miss a few, but practice makes perfect!