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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever. Yup. I'm not exaggerating. I usually don't even like chocolate chip cookies, but these just have a richer flavor since they're made by browning butter. Mmm.

Snow days really are not good when you are supposedly "on a diet," because I either end up eating all of the snacks in my house or baking even more goodies to get fat off of.

Here is the recipe, from Cook's Illustrated adapted by Baker's Royale.




Ingredients
1 ¾ c unbleached all purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
½ t baking soda
14 T unsalted butter (1 ¾ sticks)
½ c granulated sugar (3 ½ ounces)
½  c packed dark brown sugar (6 ounces)
¼ c moscovado sugar (2 ounces) - you can substitute this with any type of brown sugar
1 t table salt - if you use salted butter, omit this.
3 t vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ¼ c semi-sweet chocolate chips
¾ c of chopped nuts (optional)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Line two 18×12 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.
2. Whisk flour and baking soda.
3. Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat until melted about 2 minutes. Continue stirring for another 1-3 minutes until brown and there is a nutty aroma. Remove from heat. Pour heated butter through a sieve into a heat proof bowl. Stir in remaining butter until completely melted.
4. Add all three sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully combined. Add egg and egg yolk, whisk until mixture is smooth and no sugar lumps remains, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes then whisk for another 30 seconds.
5. Repeat step four 2 more times until mixture is thick and shiny.
6. Stir in flour until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts until combined.
7. Use an ice cream scoop to form cookies. Place dough 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
8. Bake cookies one tray at a time, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking. Bake until cookies are golden brown and still puffy. Approximately 10-14 minutes.

Monday, March 3, 2014

How to get rid of cake mix when you're tired of cake

My mom bought a box of orange cake mix a while ago (don't ask me why, I don't know why either), and it's been sitting in our pantry for quite a while. It snowed today, again, and I was bored so I decided to do something with it.

Here's a cookie recipe which you can use to get rid of cake mix! This was inspired by lemon drop cookies, so I'm not sure if this recipe would work with other cake mixes like chocolate or vanilla, but citrus-y flavors are definitely a go.




Cake Mix Citrus Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
1 box of citrus flavored cake mix
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp. flour
2 eggs
Small bowl of confectioners sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375, prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.
2. Pour out 1 box of cake mix into a medium-large bowl. If you're not too worried about wasting cake mix, take out 2 tbsp of the mix and replace it with 2 tbsp normal all purpose flour. This is to diminish the citrus-y flavor and make it a bit less pronounced- I found that without this modification, the cookies were almost TOO citrus-y. But if that's what you like, that's fine too!
3. Add 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of oil to the cake mix. Mix the ingredients together until cookie dough forms.
4. Roll up small balls of dough and drop into confectioners sugar. Coat with the sugar and place onto baking sheet, each cookie about 1-2'' apart.
5. Place baking sheet into oven and bake for 10 minutes. This varies depending on your oven so check the cookies regularly!