Easy Chocolate Chip cookie, and a prelude to a giveaway!

A food blog can never really be complete without at least one recipe of the 'perfect' chocolate chip cookie, or at least the journey to finding one. I was myself a bit surprised that the one that I had made many moons ago, was not posted yet on the blog. Partly because it wasn't that perfect soft, chewy, decadent, satisfying recipe that I had been on the lookout for. But it was a very very easy recipe . A simple one pot cookie recipe. I picked up this one from 'Two Peas and their pod' , who in turn had adapted it from the book 'The Weekend Baker'

One Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge in The Weekend Baker

Makes 26 cookies

8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces
½ cup (4 ounces/113 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (2 ½ ounces/71 grams) granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (6 ¾ ounces/191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces/170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips or if you are in Switzerland aka 'the-land-where-you-cant-buy-chocolate-chips', then a bar of chocolate broken into small chunks would be fine.

1 – Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners( eg. Silpat)

2 – Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 minutes.

3 – In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts, if using.

4 – Using a small ice-cream scoop (about 1 2/3 inches/4.25 cm in diameter) or 2 tablespoons, drop scant 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) apart. (At this point, the loaded cookie sheets can be slipped into the freezer until the cookies are frozen, about 1 hour. Then transfer the cookies to heavy-duty freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. To bake, remove from the freezer, arrange on lined cookie sheets, and leave on the counter to thaw slightly while the oven heats.)

5 – Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use a cooled sheet for the second batch until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 12 minutes. If these cookies are over baked, the won’t come out chewy. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Stay tuned for a giveaway in my next post!

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Back-art Challenge

Do not forget to enter for the $100 giveaway on this blog. Open internationally! Link available here!

A couple of days ago, I saw an ad for an online cake supplies store in Switzerland in my google ads. Now I know I shouldn't be clicking my own ads and lay claim on a few cents, but this was the first time I saw a much needed cake supply store based locally. back-art.ch is the name of the store and they have some wonderful baking equipment, moulds, colours and the whole paraphernalia! I contacted them and the wonderful Veronica proposed a challenge - a Bake Art challenge. She sent me some surprise items and asked me to use them all in one recipe.

I waited a couple of days, and there it was in my post - a box of goodies from back-art.ch

What did I find in there? Fondant, cookie cutters and some beautiful peach shimmer. It was lovely - just had a bit of a hitch. The cookie cutters were in the shape of buddha and an elephant. I scratched my head to come up with an idea for a cake using the two. I asked my hubby for ideas - Darling, where would you find an elephant and buddha together? He thought and said "In your blog" Haha..very funny i said.

That didn't help at all!

Veronica again came to my rescue - "Think cookies à la Peggy Porschen". But of course! I can make any shape and size of cookies and still pile them all together - it still is one recipe :-)

So there it was. My homemade cookies as buddha and elephant. Hope you like it.

I made cookie dough with the recipe below, covered buddha with fondant, and made royal icing for the polka dotted cloth on the elephant. Here are the recipes, and thank you back-art.ch for challenging my decoration skills!

What would you all have created if you were presented with this challenge. Let me know!

For the cookie dough

3 cups (390 grams) flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softene

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Icing

1 and about 2/3 cup softed powdered/icing sugar

1 egg white/15 g meringue powder*
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

* I would much rather prefer the merigue powder since we are not cooking the egg whites. Try to it and if not, pasteurized eggs would be fine too.

For the cookies:

In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mix (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Work quickly as the dough starts to warm up as you work with it and will tend to crumble apart. You could also place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.

Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Get creative and frost with icing.

Let the frosting dry before storing/serving.

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Orange, Almond and Fennel cookies

Our vacation was almost 2 weeks ago, and I am already hoping we had another one! You know the first thing I did the day I returned to work? There were some 1500 e-mails staring at me, and my colleagues had already given me a low down on the umpteen number of items waiting for my attention! I looked for the holiday calender, and counted the number of days to the next long weekend! :-)
We were spoilt my our moms and grandmoms! I was off my usual "Eat healthy" ramble, and made sure I ate everything that is deep-fried, unhealthy and fatty. As long it tasted great, I was fine!

So coming home was a bit of a wake-up. These cookies are a healthy version - it uses whole wheat flour, and some oil. Here is the recipe - inspired from Sunita's post



2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tblsp of ground almonds
1 tsp of ground fennel seeds
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tblsp of orange zest
5 tblsp of sunflower or vegetable oil
5 tblsp of icing sugar
1/2 C of milk

Some slivered almonds, and fennel seeds for topping.
Mix together the flour, soda, almonds, icing sugar, orange zest, powdered fennel with your fingers until they resemble fine crumbs.
Mix together the milk and oil. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and tip in the milk mixture.
Fold in quickly, with a rubber spatula or fingertips, till just mixed.
Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg c and line a baking tray.
With slightly damp hands, make 25 balls of the dough and arrange them on the tray, a little apart from each other. Flatten the balls a little with the fingertips and press an almond sliver on top. I placed fennel seeds as well - to kind of make a face, but a lot of them fell off :-(
Place the tray in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 22-25 minutes or till the tops are light golden.
Cool on the tray for a couple of seconds and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Reminder - The DMBLGIT for February 2010 is currently on. Please send me your entries Share

Walkers!

Are you a complete cookie junkie like me? Every weekend when I go grocery shopping, while walking past the cookies and cakes aisle, I always tell myself - no I wouldn't pick up these biscuits - they are tasty yes, but I already have a stash at home!. And we know, nothing beats the satisfaction of baking your own cookies and serving them warm with your afternoon tea or coffee. And I always have my qualms about some of the ready-to- eat store bought items - like the kind of fat used, the amount used , and I'm always looking for the taste plus nutrition factor.

But then there are days that are exceptions - like when I pick up packs of the best biscuits ever made - The Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread. Seriously, these biscuits are divine! And like all things going 'whole'- what with whole wheat pasta, whole wheat 'white' flour, whole wheat tortillas, can butter biscuits be far behind?

So when I saw 'Digestive' butter biscuits, and that too from Walkers, there was no way I was going to pick up just one. These are made with oats, wheat, honey and butter. Trust me you all - try these and I bet you'd thank me for that. Sure it has more butter than I would put in 10 batches of cookies, but you know what - Who cares? These are 'digestive' right? Lol...


So here is how it's made..hehe..just kidding..

Go grab a pack or two. There are some amazing versions. I can't quite recommend one or two..if I start quoting my favourite, it'll probably be all that they have - but definitely try the Shortbread, these Digestive ones, Raspberry and White Chocolate, Belgian Chocolate...oh..I could go on and on. Better visit here for more. And no, Walkers are NOT sponsoring this article (sigh..)

P.S. - It's almost mid-night as I write this, but just looking at the pictures of these beauties has made me pining for them all over again...and there go another couple of them in my hungry tummy!

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Italian Almond biscotti

Do not forget to enter for the $100 giveaway on this blog. Open internationally! Link available here!

On a good day if you ask me what would I like with my coffee - it would probably be a healthy little cookie like an oatmeal and whole wheat kind, or one with arrowroot, maybe a macaron, or a biscotti. But of course there are days when I sit eating up an entire package of a peanut butter or chocolate chip cookie and not offer it to anyone..lol!
Of all these healthy variety, I have to say - macarons and biscotti are my favourite. Simply because you can play around so much with the flavours and colours and it just tastes great!
These cookies are from Italy and 'biscotti' just means cookie in Italian. These are baked twice giving them a long shelf life. Usually the Italians would dunk it in their dessert wine and eat, but of course, coffee and tea are also its wonderful companions! Here is how I made it.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated white sugar. I know some people add 1 cup, but I think 3/4 gives just the right sweetness for me.
1 cup almonds, toasted in the oven for about 8-10 minutes at 350 F
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I use vanilla sugar coz we don't get vanilla extract here easily!)
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract. This is what gives the biscotti their signature almond-y smell..love it!


Coarsely chop the toasted almonds. Snack on a couple maybe - they taste so good!
Combine the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Add in this mixture to the dry ingredients slowly and stir. You could use your electric mixture for this. Add in the chopped almonds and the remaining egg mixture so that you get it to form a dough. Shape the dough into 2 logs about 10x2". Bake it on a 350 oven for about 40 minutes. Then take it out of the oven, let it cool so you can work with it- about 8-10 minutes, and cut them at a diagonal so that you get that classic biscotti shape. Lay these biscuits flat and bake for about 10 minutes again per side, or if you can make it to stand, then just once would be fine.
Allow it to cool a bit before you pop it into your mouth :)

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