Category Archives: baking

The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

01/09/2019 Nichole

I’ll go ahead and warn you: This is one of those Let Me Tell You a Story posts where I type and type and type about something and then finally get to the recipe from the post title. So if you’re just here for the recipe? Click here.

It’s not a long story, though. I promise. Here goes.

The Great British Baking Show Bake-Along that I’ve been participating in on Facebook has started up again, and the first challenge is Regional Biscuits. The instructions are to make a dozen perfectly identical cookies that have a recognizably regional flavor and that have a personal meaning to the baker. I don’t know that there’s a regional cookie from my area, though, and I know I can’t get my Aunt Judy’s rugelach to look anything even close to identical (and possibly not even edible).

So I decided to go with the all-American chocolate chip cookie.

Fortunately for me, my friend April sent her chocolate chip cookie recipe out with her holiday cards this year. It was boldly titled “The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.” My first thought was “Oh, that’s a sweet idea,” and my second thought was, “Wow, April, that’s a pretty big flex. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

But it was Christmas and so I didn’t try it for a few weeks. I made my first batch last week, and I am happy to report that she was not overstating things. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. They have a ridiculous chip-to-cookie ratio, and they’re somehow crisp and chewy all at the same time.

I’m not sure why I was surprised that they’re perfect, though. April is a scientist, and I’m positive this recipe went through lots of testing under rigorous conditions before she committed to it.

The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
courtesy of April Bauer

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter (10oz)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (8oz)
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (10oz)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups bread flour, approximately 20oz
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chunks
Maldon sea salt

Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is homogenous. Add vanilla.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt.

Add flour mixture to the prepared butter/sugar mixture. Beat together until homogenous. Stir in the chocolate chips. (This takes some effort. Twenty ounces is a LOT of chocolate chips.)

Cover and chill dough at least 4 hours and up to 4 days.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper approximately 2 inches apart. Sprinkle each dough ball with a few crystals of Maldon sea salt flakes.

Bake until edges are golden brown, approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely, if you can stand the wait.

baking

This week on the Great British Baking Show challenge

11/02/2018 Nichole

It was caramel week on the Great British Baking Show challenge I’m doing on Facebook, and the organizer chose Millionaire Bars as our bake du jour. I made a peanut butter shortbread and a coconut caramel with semi-sweet chocolate.

Friends, Paul Hollywood would be greatly disappointed in my Millionaire Bars.

The shortbread was too thick and the caramel was too squishy. I wish I’d put a little flaked sea salt on the top, because they are Wonkarificly sweet.

But they are delicious.

I’d like to smash them up and sprinkle them over some vanilla ice cream.

baking, menu plan Monday, recipes

Of course I’m calling them David S Pumpkins muffins. Any questions?

10/01/2018 Nichole

It is decorative gourd season, mighty friendlies, and I got my October off to a properly spooky start by walking straight into a dangling spider in the garage this morning. Later this evening Rockford will be figuring out where we put all of the Halloween decor when we moved in some 10 months ago, and then we will commence with the spookyfication of hearth and home.

In further autumnal news, today I made some pumpkin muffins with a lot of chocolate chips and every fall-evoking spice in the cabinet. They were delicious, and they tasted like break-apart chocolate oranges because I also put an orange’s worth of zest in them.

The children, naturally, did not care for them.

David S Pumpkins Muffins
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
zest of one orange
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pop paper liners into a muffin pan.

Mix sugar, maple syrup, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, zest and salt. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20.

And here, friends, is what we’ll be having for dinner this week.

Monday: Chili: I made chili for a church thing yesterday, and I far overestimated how much I’d need. So the “spare chili,” as Pete calls it, will be appearing on our table this evening.

Tuesday: Meatball soup: I used to make Rachael Ray recipes all the time, and then I just stopped for no particular reason. Rachael fatigue, I guess. But lately I’ve been very enthusiastic about soup and meatballs — because I am about to turn 40 and that’s what happens, kids — and when I googled “meatball soup” this popped up.

Wednesday: KFC?: I don’t know. These busy Wednesday nights are wearing on me.

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner: Maybe I’ll let the kids make their own eggs this week.

Friday: Tacos: Poppy is volunteering at a fundraiser for a friend’s non-profit, but the rest of us will be at home eating tacos.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.