chocolate chip cookies

five cookies, originally uploaded by doesinheadlights.

Here's a shot of the chocolate chip cookies I made for work tomorrow (I am in a training session and thought they would be a nice treat). I should, but I don't, have a special chocolate chip recipe that I use all the time. Instead, I use whatever one is on hand at the time--one pulled from a cookbook, a blog or the back of a bag of chocolate chips. I do follow a few rules though, regardless of the recipe:

1. Always use good chocolate.
2. Never bake chocolate chip cookies in an oven hotter than 350.
3. Room temperature butter, no exceptions.
4. Salted butter and/or extra salt in the recipe.
5. Beat the butter and sugar senseless--that's the true meaning of "creaming" them.
6. Always consider doubling the vanilla.

These cookies (made from the JOC recipe, if you're curious, with the above modifications) came out with crisp exteriors and chewy exteriors. If I drank much milk, I'd be tempted to break out a glass.

make this biscotti today: chocolate pistachio biscotti

I have never made biscotti before. This was the first time, and it was awesomely delicious. Everyone always gripes about how complicated Martha Stewart's recipes are but this was not too bad at all, the only trouble I had was slicing up the biscotti before their second spin in the oven, and to be honest, I fear the knife I used was not quite sharp enough. You could easily substitute other nuts for the pistachios but really, they taste so excellent with the chocolate and they're such a pretty green color I can't see why you would. I toasted the nuts beforehand because always do, but doing so is not required by the recipe. Here, I make two "loaves" so that the biscotti fit easily into a lunch bag, but feel free to make one large one if you'd prefer the more traditional shape.

chocolate pistachio biscotti
adapted from martha stewart's cookies.

2 cups ap flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons salted butter (I omitted the salt since I only had this on hand), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (could use semisweet, I had bitter on hand)

Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet.

In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt if you are using unsalted butter. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until nice and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the flour mixture, in two parts. The dough will be very stiff. Stir or fold in the pistachios and chocolate chips by hand, until just combined.

Split the dough into two logs, place them onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into flattened logs, roughly eight by three inches in measurement. Bake for 25-35 minutes until slightly firm. Remove from the oven, drop the temperature to 300, and set the biscotti to cool for 5-10 minutes. Patience will be rewarded so give them plenty of time to firm up before slicing. Then use a sharp, serrated knife and cut on the diagonal to make one inch thick slices. Bake (or "dry out"), cut side down, until crisp but a bit soft toward the center. Martha Stewart said about eight minutes, it took me closer to twenty. Use your eyes. Cool completely before eating.

moving sucks out your soul

My absence here in the last fifteen days might suggest that I have decided to quit being housewifely. Not so. Over the first two weeks of summer I have done more baking, cleaning, cooking, and the like than I have in the last several months. The trouble is, I was also finishing up final exams and papers while moving home. My dorm was (and will be in the floor) a fourth floor walk up and I cannot seem to live without my muffin tins, stationary, or a few dozen hundred books, so I had a lot of stuff to move, and oops, now I am making excuses, which seems like poor etiquette. I am starting a new job on Tuesday, but one of my goals for the summer is to keep up with the blog pretty much daily, especially as there is nothing I love to do more when I have the full home kitchen at my disposal than make cookies.

In penance, I offer up the recipe for incredibly chocolate-y cookies that I made three weeks ago. These are so rich and chewy that I think they're the perfect thing for when brownie batter cravings. I kept aside 5-6 for NH and put the rest out on the dining room table for my sorority sisters, and they were gone very quickly. They're a simple variation of a peanut butter and chocolate confection I saw on Baking Bites, but since NH doesn't like peanut butter at all I do not bake with it much. You can check out the original recipe here.

Oh, I picked up Martha Stewart's relatively recent Cookies at Costco today. I am going to make the chocolate pistachio biscotti after I post this.

toasted almond chocolate chunk ridiculously chocolate-y cookies

1/2-1 cup whole almonds
2 cups ap flour
2/3 cup good cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350.

Chop almonds coarsely (you can buy them pre-chopped but I can't account for the quality of chopped nuts and they're more expensive anyhow). Toast the nuts in a dry pan over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until they smell delicious. Keep turning them and make sure they don't burn. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, mix up flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until nice and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly. Fold in chocolate chunks and cooled, toasted almond. Drop nicely rounded tablespoons of dough on a lined cookie sheet, allowing plenty of room for spread. Bake cookies for about ten minutes, or until they appear relatively set. Watch carefully, it can be hard to see if chocolate burns. The cookies will need some time to cook before they can be removed from the sheet.

Yields about forty cookies.

i swear i'm still alive: weekend preview

Just as soon as I pass my last midterm (the cruel person who decided one class needed two midterms in one semester is beyond me and deserves none of this weekend's bounty), I have a long list of treats I plan to prepare. I even missed Top Chef last night.

Today will finally be the day of the meyer lemons.

Saturday will feature sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies, whipped up for an event I'm holding.

Sunday, chocolate croissant bread pudding, from a Gale Gand recipe, for the brunch being hosted at my house.

Monday will be the day of the pear crisp, as I imagine some of you poll takers expected I was lying about actually making it.

Get excited.

poll: you tell me what to do, and i'll do it

Then, I'll post about it.

Please take a second to select an option, or even better, to suggest a recipe or even a concept (who doesn't love a challenge?) in the comments. I'll be on spring break (although I'll still post) next week so I won't bake whatever you guys pick until the week of the 24th.

success: pistachio shortbread

If you life with me--and at least a few of you do--you might have noticed my obsession with pistachios this week. It started mostly out of forgetfulness, as in, I forgot how much I liked pistachios and then I ate some and promptly remembered. Pistachios are delicious, work really well in many desserts (they complement cherries, and chocolate, although the three together are kind of gross).

I had a lot of fun making shortbread last week, and decided to play around with the proportions and the flavors. These cookies are super decadent and tasty, although I wouldn't make them if you're not fond of pistachios, since they're loaded with that flavor. If I ever invest in an ice cream maker, I think an extra rich chocolate ice cream would be amazing with either some of these crumbled into it, or frozen chunks of the (conveniently eggless) dough mixed into it. For a gift, each heart (or square, flower, or star) could be dipped into dark chocolate. The done cookies are nice, pale pistachio green. You could dye them a deeper green, but I'd respect you less.

If I made these again, I would consider toasting the nuts first. Does anyone have any experience with toasting pistachios?

pistachio shortbread

12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar or confectioner's sugar (I pulsed the regular sugar with the vanilla in my magic bullet)
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 cup raw, unsalted pistachios, divided
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 325. Beat the butter until nice and fluffy. Beat in the sugar and vanilla thoroughly; you definitely want "light and fluffy". Pulse 1/4 cup of the pistachios in a magic bullet, blender or food processor until it's a nice, even, fine consistency, something like bread crumbs. Add the pistachio meal and almond extract to the butter and sugar and beat until uniform. Add the flour, one quarter cup at a time, until the dough almost forms a ball. Chop the last 1/4 cup of pistachios roughly and stir into the dough. Press into a square or similar shape of uniform thickness, I went for less than 1/2 inch. Pierce the dough throughout with a fork to prevent bubbling. Bake for twenty to thirty minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Cut with a knife or cookie cutters while the shortbread is still warm. Cool before storing.

For me, this recipe yielded 12 2-inch-ish hearts and a ton of "trimmings".

ginger vanilla bean shortbread cookies

I made these after reading this post over at Brownie Points. It's an old post but I happen to love ginger and I'd never made shortbread, so I decided to give it a whirl. I made some smallish modifications to the original recipe, so I've written up my version below. I used the vanilla beans largely because I was out of vanilla extract, but I like the speckled appearance of vanilla-bean baked goods. I didn't do the lemon curd, since I was just looking for a simple procrastination project. I think if I made these again I would try and pump up the ginger by adding some ground ginger to the ginger-sugar mixture. I'd also cut down the salt.

ginger vanilla bean shortbread cookies

1/3 cup crystallized ginger
1/3 cup white sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor or similar (I used my magic bullet because I don't keep a food processor at school), whir up the crystallized ginger and white sugar until you have a fluffy powder. In a small or medium mixing bowl, beat the butter with a mixer until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean scrapings and ginger-sugar mixture to the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Now add the flour and salt and mix until dough forms. Since I used a hand mixer, the dough never really formed a ball, but it worked out fine anyway. Put the mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet or other shallow pan and press into a rectangle of even thickness, about 1/2 inch (or your desired thickness). Use a fork to pierce holes all over to avoid bubbling. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light brown around the edges and set. If you'd like shapes, cut them out while the shortbread is still warm. I cut mine into 1-1 1/2-inch bars while it was still nice and warm. Cool before packaging.

Yields about 20 1-1 1/2-inch bars.

chewy chocolate chip cookies

The other night NH and I had Italian food for dinner (I think we could have cooked better ourselves) but our waitress was so distracted that we decided to skip dessert and coffee and leave. We had just seen a movie (The Orphanage, worth it) and were a little tired so we settled up and started the arduous journey home. Once there, I offered to bake some cookies, which are always a satisfying dessert and are so easy to make. NH said he wouldn't ask me to make him cookies, but he wouldn't say no to them either--very cute. We settled on chocolate chip (CCCs) because, in the interest of experiment, I often make all different types and neglect the chocolate chip/peanut butter/oatmeal cookies that are the favorites of NH and my parents.

Of course, in the interest of experiment, I decided not to work from my favorite recipe, but to try something new. This one appealed, not just because chewiness is high on my list of essential CCC qualities, but also because the recipe calls for melted butter, which was excellent because all of the butter I had on hand at the time was frozen.

NH was supposed to relax and watch TV while I baked, but he ended up running two separate errands (first to get milk, then to buy me a There Will Be Blood poster from the semi-sketchy dude who sells the kind of posters usually seen on bus stops on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store). Then he offered to help me stir in the flour (I stupidly worked with a slightly too shallow bowl and the hand mixer would have created a flour explosion). A fair amount of flour landed on the counter anyway, but NH is good in the kitchen, I swear. I am supremely thankful for his help.

The cookies were effortless, as in they're really, really easy to make. The only downside is that they take forever in the oven compared to other cookies, but the deliciousness is worth the time. The recipe yielded fifteen huge cookies, about the size of the ones at say, Starbucks, but ninety times as delicious because the molasses flavor from the brown sugar is spot on and they don't have a disproportionate amount of chocolate to cookie (I may rant on that at another time). NH really loves those cookies with M+Ms in them, and I think I would adapt this recipe to make those for him. They really did stay soft for days.

Thanks to Nicole at Baking Bites, who shares many fabulous recipes for cookies as well as other delicious baked treats.

a handful of goals

1 - Hand write a thank you note for every gift or thoughtful favor (easiest to do by sitting down on Saturday mornings after kickboxing and doing all at once).

2 - Cook dinner at least three times every week.

3 - Never leave house in leggings again (more on this in next entry).

4 - Senior cookie breaks, every two weeks (more on this sometime).


Currently Making: Peanut Butter Cookies (Joy of Baking)


Today's Perfect for Vacuuming:


That color. That bow. Every time I see these I reconsider that career in investment banking. Or marrying rich.

P caught these on Oprah today (that's where the image is from) so I'm not quite sure where you could get them if yellow satin Louboutin slingbacks fit into your discretionary budget.