Dorie's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies: 2 ways.

Before I started this blog and started baking a lot, my knowledge of bakers was limited to those on television or Betty Crocker. I had never heard of Dorie Greenspan. How could I? She wasn't on the food network, right?

As I started reading other baking blogs, I started to come across her name... I'd see phrases like... "Another awesome Dorie recipe." or "I know this is like the 15th Dorie Recipe I've posted in as many days." I started wondering... who is this Dorie lady and why haven't I heard of her?

Eventually, I made her World Peace Cookies (which were really, really good)and her Chocolate Malted Cookies (which, were okay, but I'd like to make them again). I still didn't fully understand the buzz around her though. And then I happened to be in the car during rush hour one day and heard her segment on NPR (I think it was on all things considered, but don't quote me on that) and she was talking about Figgy Pudding (it was around Christmas, obviously). And her voice, her excitement, her knowledge, her chuckle... it all really mesmorized me and I said out loud to myself in the car. "I want to make Figgy Pudding, dammit!" I mean, seriously... who wants to make figgy pudding??? I had to get a Dorie cookbook. It's a pricy cookbook, though. So, it was kind of hard for me to just fork over the money for a cookbook (when I get so many of my recipes online these days).

Serendipitously, though, my friend Steph bought me Dorie's Baking: From My Home to Yours for my birthday! So, I've joined Tuesdays With Dorie and will be posting next Tuesday for the first time being a part of a blogging group!

So, Monday night, I decided to try out my first recipe using her actual cookbook. I decided to test her Chocolate Chip Cookies against my Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies. I decided to halve the recipe and then I split the recipe into two different kinds. One was your basic Chocolate Chip Cookies with Semi-Sweet and Milk Chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate, I know, I'm weird). And then I made the other half with Reese Pieces, Peanut Butter Chips, and M&Ms.

These cookies are good. Very good. But, not as good as my favorite cookies. These cookies come out a little flatter and crispier than my favorite cookies. My favorite cookies are nice and puffy. The flavor of these cookies is really good, though. I love the sugar blend in this cookie. It lends a rich, molasses-y type of flavor. Yum.

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies: A Dorie Greenspan Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 0z bittersweet chocolate or 2 cups of store bought chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped nuts

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth (about 1 minute). Add sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula mix in the chocolate and nuts.

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on baking sheet for one minute before transfering to a cooling rack.

Makes about 45 cookies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

416 people can't be wrong. Right? 416 rave reviews of a cookie recipe can only mean one thing: EXCELLENT COOKIE. When I saw these cookies on Anna's site Cookie Madness and I read the reviews of them on allrecipes.com I couldnt help but want to make them immediately. I actually went out that night and bought reese pieces so that I could make these cookies.

I took the suggestions of the reviewers on allrecipes.com and used half shortening/half butter and I also used half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar.

The cookies turned out good. But, they weren't like WOW these cookies are amazing (which was how most of the reviews were written). I felt like these cookies fell kind of flat. It's like, they weren't chocolatey enough and they certainly weren't peanut buttery enough.

Recipe

I need your help!!!

It's not often that I eat something purchased from a grocery store or even a bakery that knocks my socks off. I mean, I've been disappointed by so many crappy brownies and cupcakes, that I typically stay away from things that aren't homemade.

A baked goods snob? Yes. I am. I like homemade goodies. Where you can taste the real butter and sugar in it and not just some homogenized milk powdered crap or something.

But, last night I had an experience. Steph came over and pulled something out of her pocket that she prefaced with: "This is going to change your life."

She knows me well.

This is what she pulled out. A carton of "Praline and Cream Butterbars" from a company called Upper Crust Crumbs Dessert Company .

What is inside this carton is sheer joy. In bar form.To describe it... it's actually very similiar to the Low Country Bars in flavor. But, it has a very soft, moist crust. The bottom layer tastes like it's basically all butter with a tbsp of flour thrown in there to firm it up a bit. Seriously. Very buttery. The inside layer is very sweet and creamy, like an icing. And the top layer is a soft layer of praline topping.

I found something about it online and it referred to it as "a shortbread base with a buttercream filling and a topping."

I need a recipe for this. Bad. So, I'm asking for some help. Steph bought this at whole foods, but I'd like to try a recipe at home. I think I'll start with adapting the Low Country Bar a bit... using a ground up graham cracker crust, putting the icing in the center and then making a praline topping and I think that will come very close.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

I need a fix man. I need to be able to make these at home. Help a girl out.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: My favorite recipe.

It took a lot of recipes before I could dub a clear cut winner in this category. I've made Martha's, Mrs. Fields, Alton Browns, and a couple others, but this one... this one takes the cake (err... the cookie, I guess). This cookie is officially my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've blogged about it a few times, but just made another batch for my friend Jeff, who is recovering from surgery. I can easily say that this is the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside.

Previous posts about this recipe:
The first time I made them
The second time I made them

Inferior (but still tasty) chocolate chip cookie posts:
Mrs. Field's
Martha's

Birthday Cakes

So, Friday was my birthday. 28 this year. Crazy. It's going to be a good year, though. I can feel it! I always like even number years.

So, anyway, for my birthday this year, I toyed with the idea of my cake being something kind of extravagant. Like a hummingbird cake or a red velvet cake. But, in the end, I choose my old favorite... Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. From the box and the tub. How can something so simple taste so good? You'd think that slaving away on making a cake from scratch would produce a way more superior cake, but in my experience, it doesn't. Those boxed cakes are so moist. Yum. Thanks Mom, as always you make delicious and beautifully (avant garde-ish, I might go so far as saying) decorated cakes.

Well, anyway... it got me thinking about my first birthday cake (which I obviously don't remember, just seen pictures of it). It was a Raggedy Ann cake that my Aunt Loretta made. My cousin Steve was born on the exact same day, so he had a Raggedy Andy cake.

I wish you could see the detail on these cakes. Amazing. Check out the matching tablecloth, too.

Notice my brother and dad hamming it up for the camera, on my day. Hmph.

Somethings never change. Once a messy eater, always a messy eater.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Warning: This post is likely to contain lots of exclamation points. So many in fact, that your retinas might just burn right off, or if they don’t, you’ll be so annoyed with the overusage of the exclamation points, that you’ll totally blow my excitement off as me being “crazy.”

I’m an excitable person. Let’s just get that out of the way upfront. But, let me clarify. I’m not the type of person who jumps up and down, screams and shouts, and generally overreacts to things. (Well, okay, I do generally overreact to things, but dude… it doesn’t seem like I’m OVERreacting at the time, it just seems like I’m reacting, ya know?). But, Wednesday night, after making these cookies, I found myself precisely in that mode. Jumping up and down, squealing in sheer delight and pleasure over these cookies.

Seriously. Squealing like a 7 year old at a Hannah Montana concert. (As a side note, let me just take a moment here and say that I have no shame in admitting that a cookie can make me as happy as a 7 year old at a Hannah Montana concert. Nope, no shame whatsoever).

Ok, so let’s talk about this for a minute… Name some totally awesome things:

Brownies. Unicorns. Cookies. Cream Cheese Icing. Balloons. Daniel Craig.

End of list. I mean, those are the most awesome things in the world, no?

So, think about how happy you’d be if two of those things magically combined. Take for instance… Daniel Craig and Cream Cheese Icing! Holy crap! I think I need a moment to think about that for a second.

...

Okay, sorry. Now, What about Balloons and Unicorns? I mean. That’s some cool stuff, especially if the balloons were tied to the unicorn's horn. Pretty! Sadly, these two combos aren’t likely to happen to me (well, at least not this week), but…. I found a recipe that magically combined Cookies and Brownies into one beautiful concoction.

I found the recipe in that 500 cookies book that my mom bought me. The picture made the cookies look light and fudgy and crispy but chewy. But they actually came out thick and chewy and exactly like a brownie. These cookies are delicious!!!!!!!!!

Seriously. These cookies made me very, very happy. If you want to be happy and squeal and jump up and down in your kitchen. Make these cookies.

(I left the book at home today, so I'll post the recipe this weekend).

Coconut Macaroons

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the most polarizing sweet out there is coconut. Think about it, is anyone ever lukewarm about coconut? They usually either love it or they hate it. In my family, everyone loves it except my oldest brother, Mike. Whenever my mom made magic cookie bars, she had to leave one section of the pan a "coconut free zone" so that he'd get to enjoy them, too.

I love coconut. I love coconut cake, german chocolate cake, coconut candies, almond joys, mounds, etc... It's all good as far as I'm concerned.

About a month ago, I was invited to a friends Bunco party. One of the other ladies brought a delicious raspberry chocolate cheesecake. Sounds good, right? Well, it was! But, the best part was the crust! It was made from coconut macaroons!

Now, I'd never had coconut macaroons before, but hey... it's got coconut, it must be good, right? So, that piqued my interest in coconut macaroons and I found this recipe and decided to whip up a batch. They came together very easily, but... I have to say... I'm not a big fan. I mean, sure its coconutty and crispy and chewy both at the same time, but it's also pretty bland. I was very disappointed, even more so because I actually made a whole batch instead of trying to halve the recipe like I usually do (its too much of a nightmare to try to halve 3 egg whites). So, I threw about 5 of these away before I remembered the cheesecake crust and decided to save the rest and put in the freezer for the next time I'm making a cheesecake. Hopefully they'll keep in the freezer.

I dont know, maybe you're supposed to eat these with tea or coffee or something? Also, how adorable is my teacup and saucer???? They were a housewarming gift from my friend April!