A quest for the best chocolate chip cookies

If I had to choose, I would probably say that chocolate chip cookies are my favorite kind of cookie. I like them for their overall flavor, but I like them for their simplicity, too. Just some basic dough and chocolate. In fact, I've liked them for a long time. I think making chocolate chip cookies was probably my first foray into the world of baking. And because I was the youngest of eight, I grew up always tripling the recipe. That's just how things were done back then and how they should always be done, frankly.

When I lived in Poland, chocolate chip cookies kind of became my link to home. I made them often—even though I had to make my own brown sugar and chop up chocolate bars because chips hadn't made it there yet. When I would make them using vanilla powder in my weird gas oven, turning the dial to a number from 1-5 and guessing at the correct temperature, I would relish in the smell and taste of them and reminisce about America and large grocery stores with everything at your fingertips. I think it's safe to say that chocolate chip cookies and I are old friends.

But through all those years, I tried many different recipes, never really satisfied that I had the best one. When I was a kid, we had a pretty good recipe, but as I got older, I tasted other kinds and sort of refined my preferences. I didn't like cakey versions, but they shouldn't be too flat either. I like milk chocolate chips, but sometimes all milk chocolate can make the cookies too sweet. They should be soft and not overdone but slightly golden and not doughy inside.

I tried the recipe where you add a box of instant vanilla pudding, which is actually pretty good, but I stopped making these in an effort to cut down on processed, packaged foods. (Not that chocolate chip cookies are super healthy, but whatever. I was trying.) I also tried a fancy-pants version, where you refrigerate the dough and roll it and the chocolate chips in layers. I still make this one on occasion because it's different enough, but it's still not my top choice.

So when I came across another recipe (in the cookbook Chocolate Never Faileth) claiming to be a classic, I had to try it and see for myself. It's pretty basic and I've been told it's actually just the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, but the added flour is the main difference. Because of Utah's elevation or humidity level or whatever, I found we need some additional flour. The recipe calls for 3 cups, but after a couple tries, I found 3 1/3 does the trick around here and makes lovely shaped cookies. Without the extra 1/3 cup, they start to resemble pancakes with chocolate measles. Anyway, I liked this cookbook author's tips about how to find out how much flour you need wherever you are.

I also like more chocolate chips than the original recipe called for and the ratio of milk to semi, as found below. And to date, this is my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Behold . . .


CLASSIC CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 1/3 c. flour *
1 1/3 c. milk chocolate chips
2/3 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add the salt and soda. Gradually add the flour, starting with about 2 c., adding 1/2 c. at a time until the dough is no longer sticky and crumbs begin to form at the bottom of the bowl. You should be able to pinch the dough without getting any on your fingers. Add the chocolate chips; mix just enough to incorporate them. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 9-11 minutes. Take them out just when they're starting to get golden edges. They won't look completely baked.


Delicious. I get excited just thinking about them. Another thing I like to do with chocolate chip cookie dough is make these cookie sundae cups from Our Best Bites. You basically just bake some dough in a ramekin, but leave it a little soft, and then top it with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. YUM!

It's hot.

So I'm passing along some cool favorites, as of late:

This

and this

Try them. You will see.

Two recipes

I have made a couple of things lately that need to be shared. (And it's been way too long since I have posted about food. I've still been baking and cooking, but I guess I've just been too busy eating . . . )

The first recipe is Honey Strawberry freezer jam that I got from this site. I was on the lookout for a freezer jam recipe that used honey instead of sugar, and this one was easy and delicious. Big fan.

And in opposite news, I have already made these sugar-full Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cookies from this site two times in the past couple months, and they're a new favorite. They truly are a perfect soft and chewy blend of brownies and cookies, and I will support nearly anything that combines two of my favorite ingredients (PB and chocolate). The only change I made was adding WAY more peanut butter cups because I like more peanut butter to my chocolate. I added more PB chunks to the batter, and then I saved some to add once I got the dough on the cookie sheet.

Cookie Day 2012

Some people train for a marathon. Others train for a triathlon. But I train all year for Cookie Day. I hone my whisking skills, I fine tune my mixing "just until combined," and I become an expert at identifying "soft ball stage." (For the record, I burned the first batch of caramel and had to scrap it and start over. But the second batch deserves a medal.)

This year's selection, starting at the top-ish and going clockwise:

• Raspberry Shortbread Cookies
• Gumdrop Cookies (just like my grandmother used to make)
• Raspberry Macaroons
• Layered Caramel Candy (which is kind of a lame name for such a delicious treat; it's more like a homemade Snickers)
• Apricot and Black Raspberry Rugelach
• Homemade Caramel

 

I know what you're thinking. It does look almost identical to last year and the year before. But we had to include the favorites and add a couple new ones. And I'm glad we did. I'll totally be making the homemade snickers thing again. The day was a success and so fun. My stomach is very happy indeed.

A bite of spring

Anna and I made these Strawberry Lemon Bars the other day and they were delicious. It was like spring in your mouth. It was also a pretty kid-friendly recipe: not too many ingredients, lots of different techniques to keep things interesting (patting, stirring, juicing, grating), etc. The only hard part was waiting for the bars to chill for an hour before eating.

Strawberry Lemon Bars

ingredients

• 1
  cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4
  cup powdered sugar
• 1/2
  cup butter
• 2
  eggs
• 3/4
  cup granulated sugar
• 2
  teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel (set aside)
• 3
  tablespoons lemon juice
• 2
  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4
  teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3
  cup strawberry jelly
• 1
  teaspoon lemon juice
• 5
  whole fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered (or sliced) *

directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl stir together the 1 cup flour and the powdered sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (mixture will be dry). Press mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or just until golden.

2.Meanwhile, for filling, in a large bowl beat eggs, granulated sugar, the 3 tablespoons lemon juice, the 2 tablespoons flour, and the baking soda with an electric mixer on medium speed about 2 minutes or until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Stir in lemon peel. Pour filling over hot crust. Bake about 20 minutes more or until light brown around the edges and center is set. Transfer to wire rack; cool.

3.In a small saucepan heat jelly and the 1 teaspoon lemon juice just until jelly is melted; spoon over bars in pan, spreading evenly. Arrange berry quarters on top of bars so that each cut bar will have a berry on top. Cover; chill for 1 to 2 hours. Cut into bars.

* The fresh strawberries on top looked nice, but they were hard to hold and eat around. A thin slice might work better than a whole quarter. And they got kind of mushy by the next day, so if you're not planning on eating all of the bars all at once like Tubby Tubberson, I would maybe hold off on those.

Huevos Rancheros

Pretty much ever since this post and seeing the old lady name Wava, I have been thinking about making huevos rancheros. I read through a few recipes and finally decided to wing it this morning since Anna and I had the day off. I was so delighted by the outcome that I had to share. (And it was so nice to have something different.)

So here's what we did.

Totally Gringo Huevos Rancheros

1. Sauteed one chopped clove of garlic in a little butter, added a can of black beans that had been rinsed and maybe 1/3 c. chicken broth and let it heat through.
2. Fried two eggs.
3. Made a quesadilla with monterey jack cheese.
4. When the quesadilla was perfectly done, I cut it in half and topped each with some black beans, an egg, some salsa, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice.

Anyway, I thought it was delish. It was so fresh tasting and a nice flavor break from our regular breakfast foods.

Kid reaction: I wasn't sure what Anna would think about this. She's a pretty adventurous eater, but I know she doesn't love salsa, and black beans are sort of a maybe. So I gave her a quesadilla with some beans on the side and the egg. Strangely (or I guess probably not surprisingly—she is still a kid), she was sort of bothered that the quesadilla was made with "white" cheese instead of her regular cheddar, so she didn't love it plain. But I convinced her to try a bite with salsa and beans and cilantro and lime, and she LOVED it! It was the combination that really did it. She ate the rest and loved picking out each ingredient and making perfect bites, and she was thrilled about squeezing on more lime juice when she felt like it.

Tis the season . . .

. . . to be baking. I present to you the results of Cookie Day 2011:

(clockwise from the top: chocolate caramel thumbprint, raspberry shortbread, chocolate-caramel-peanut-butter-covered pretzel, a caramel, and apricot and black raspberry rugelach)

It sort of looks the same as last year, but that's because we have some returning favorites. Cookie Day would not be Cookie Day without the rugelach and the caramels.

It was a good day. It's always exhausting (I swear I was stirring that caramel for an hour), but it's also such a fun tradition. And there are more sweet treats on my list that I didn't even get to. We might need a Part 2 this year.

Normally a fan of anything sweet, Anna was feeling under the weather today and she wasn't really into eating nine pounds of sugar. But we did get an excellent quote out of her: Mid-hug, she said to Stephanie, "You know what the best kind of sweet is? Love and kindness."