Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

…but definitely not mine. 

I buy cookbooks based on reviews as well as the pictures.  I like to see the finished product.  That’s probably the reason why most of my photos show the end result and not how I got there.   What irks me is when you see the picture, you follow recipe and what you end up with looks nothing like what’s in the cookbook.  This happened with the chocolate chip cookies I made following the Baked recipe and now, with the recipe I followed in the Baking cookbook (minus the nuts).  The cookies in the photo weren’t thick, but they weren’t flat either.  And I knew they were going to have a softer texture rather than chewy (the amount of white sugar was higher than brown sugar), which was fine. I’m looking for a cookie I can call my favorite, so I’m trying lots of different recipes. 

I should have just passed on by as soon as I saw these words: “They are Toll House cookies’ kin, but I think my nips, tucks, tweaks and variations on the classic recipe make them their own kind of wonderful.” I am not a fan of the Toll House cookie. They just don’t get my vote for favorite. 

scanned from Baking, From My Home to Yours

My cookies looked nothing like the ones in the book. They were flat and thin.  I even let a batch chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes and those still didn’t look anything like hers.  I was so dissapointed.  Ugh.  The flavor was ok.  More buttery than chocolatey, but I didn’t put in my usual 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules.  That always seems to add more flavor to my cookies. I also took half the chocolate chips and chopped them up a bit.  1) Because I like to integrate the chocolate into the dough, rather than just putting the chips in there and 2) because I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and those are larger than the normal size chocolate chips.  I love biting into the part of the cookie where those chips are because I get this wonderful burst of bittersweet chocolate and it tastes sooo good. 

My in-laws were dropping MC off at the house around the time I baked these, so they left here with a dozen.    They don’t care what kind of chocolate chip cookie it is.  They’ll eat it.

I usually make half batches when I try out new recipes, but for some reason I made the entire recipe.  I ended up baking two dozen and froze the rest of the dough.  We’ll see if those turn out any better.

Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: Approximately 3 ½ dozen
Adapted from Baking, From My Home to Yours
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ pound butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.

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

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the baking sheet and lay them about 2 inches apart from each other.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center. Allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, and then carefully transfer them to rack to cool.

Notes:
The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen. You can freeze individual balls of dough on a lined baking sheet and then bag them when they’re solid. There is no need to defrost the dough before baking. Just add another minute or two to the baking time.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

I think summer is my favorite season for fruit. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and especially watermelon. I could probably eat an entire watermelon on my own.  Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. There’s a watermelon festival every year where hubby grew up and the last time we went they gave out free watermelon. I barely made it through the ginormous piece they gave us. But man was it good. Cold and crisp and juicy. Mmmm. I just totally gave myself an awesome idea for a drink! I’ll let you know if it pans out.

You’d think this post was going to be about watermelons, but alas, it is about blueberries. I know, I know, I’ve already given you blueberry pancakes, blueberry sauce, blueberry banana oatmeal pancakes, dos berry muffins and blueberry crumblies. But, I can’t help it. I am a lover of the blueberry.

I perused through my meager collection of cookbooks and landed on Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake in the Baking book. You know, maybe I should just join Tuesdays with Dorie. I’m slowly making my way through this book anyway. Ok, so I’ve only made two other things from the book, but somehow I keep drifting back to it.

Anyway, despite the fact that I did not follow the instructions properly, the cake itself was pretty good. It did end up being a little dry, but I think I overbaked it.  It was a lot better with a scoop of ice cream on top. 

 

The thing is, I was trying to give hubby some alone time by having MC bake with me.  He loves to stir things up (quite literally), scoop things out, turn on my stand mixer, you know, normal things an almost three year old would love to do.  Hubby had a LONG day, the day before.  The boys (Hubby, MC, BIL, BIL’s son – 4 and Nephew – 12) all went to Hurricane Harbor.  Long story short, Hubby has decided that no one gets to go until they are at least five years old and the children can not outnumber the adults.  I’m so glad I stayed home with GB. 

Things didn’t quite work out in the kitchen.  I really want my children to cook and bake with me in the kitchen, so I’m trying to learn to relinquish a little control and order, but it’s not easy.  I ended up scolding MC for something and he ran off to daddy.  Granted, this is currently a normal occurrence – one parent scolds him and he runs to or cries for the other one.  What I’m trying to say here is, I didn’t read the instructions as carefully as I normally do and my crumb cake didn’t have any “crumbs” on top.  I was supposed to refrigerate it with the nuts, but I forgot to put the nuts in, so they ended up getting sprinkled on top, and I forgot to refrigerate it until I was halfway through assembling the batter.  The “crumbs” never firmed up and didn’t get cold like they should have, which is why my “crumb cake” just turned into a cake with a crunchy top.

Blueberry Crumb Cake
Yield: 9 squares
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours
Printable Recipe

Crumb Ingredients:
5 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup pecans, chopped

Cake Ingredients:
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
2 cups + 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet; set aside.

Put all crumb ingredients, except the nuts, in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic against the surface. Refrigerate until needed.

Using your fingertips, toss the blueberries and 2 teaspoons of flour together in a small bowl, just to coat the berries; set aside.

Whisk together the remaining 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sugar and butter and beat on medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one and beat for about 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients). You will have a thick creamy batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the refrigerator and break it into pieces. Scatter the crumbs over the batter, pressing them down ever so slightly.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool until it is warm or reaches room temperature.

Red, White & Blue Cupcakes For U(SA)

…and for ME!  Happy Almost Birthday to me! Two more days, till I turn double 3.

I told hubby that I was going to make my own birthday (cup)cake this year.  He asked me if I wanted him to make the cake.  I said, uh, no, that’s ok.    We’ve got a good thing going, let’s not change it…you know, I cook, he does the yard work.  Heehee. 

Anywho, ever since I saw the rainbow cakes making their way around the blogosphere, I wanted to give them a try.  I thought, what better time to try, than for Independence Day, with a red, white & blue theme.  I just needed to find the right cake recipe. 

I’ve read alot of good things about Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake and I have her Baking book, so I took a peek.  She uses lemon as a flavor component; not something I wanted in my birthday (cup)cake.  Don’t get me wrong, I like lemon, but I wanted just a classic white birthday cake flavor.  I decided to go ahead and use her recipe and sub in some vanilla.

I was very pleased with the texture of these cupcakes.  It’s exactly what I think of when I think birthday cake.  The colors turned out pretty good too.  Just beware, you have to use a lot of red just to get this particular shade. What kinda sucked was that my colors didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped or expected.  I spooned in the red, the white then the blue batter.  As you can see the blue fell into the midle of the cupcake.  Oh well.  It still tasted good.

This frosting is one of my favs…and I don’t usually like frosting (I’m a whipped cream frosting kind of girl).  One thing to keep in mind; about halfway through the red & blue started fading so I had to re-stripe the bag.  It probably would have been wiser of me to use a new bag, but I’m lazy and stingy frugal.    The colors started blending together a bit after the second striping, so I’d definitely recommend starting fresh with a new bag. 

Red, White & Blue Cupcakes with Red, White Chocolate & Blue Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: 18 cupcakes
Cake adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours (Perfect Party Cake)
Frosting from The Essential Baker
Printable Recipe

Cupcake Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups milk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ pound butter
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Red & blue icing colors

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake tins with paper liners; set aside.

Sift (or whisk) together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk the milk and egg whites.

In the mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light in color; about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Add ½ of the milk/egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Add ½ of the remaining flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk/egg mixture and beat until homogeneous (as Dorie puts it). Then add the rest of the flour mixture and beat the batter until it’s mixed thoroughly.

Separate the batter into 3 small bowls. Set aside one of the bowls of batter (white). In another one, mix in some red icing color until you get the color you want. In the last bowl, mix in some blue icing color until you get the color you want. (Use the “mixing color in icing” technique.)

Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners in whatever order you choose. I put red on the bottom, white in the middle, then blue on top (my blue fell into the middle of the cupcake anyway). You could even swirl them for a tie-dye effect.

Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Frosting Ingredients:
8 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

Red & blue icing colors

Directions:
Melt white chocolate in the microwave. Heat the chocolate in 30 second intervals and stir in-between each round.

Beat the cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy; about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the sugar in 3 stages. Stop occasionally and scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat together until thoroughly blended. Add the melted white chocolate and blend together completely.

To get the red, white & blue colors use the “brush striping” technique.

Aren’t you glad to see a post about something other than cookies??? Five of the last 10 posts were cookie related! Step away from the cookies, Susan!

Hope everyone has a fun, but safe 4th of July!