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It's 2013 and I'm still searching for the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Happy 2013! And as you can read, I am still in search of the BEST chocolate chip cookie. I'm just a plain dessert person at heart. You can serve up any of the fanciest desserts around and it will never pique my interest quicker than a chocolate chip cookie. Kind of like the dog in UP!...squirrel.

We were getting ready to make dinner for our New Year's Eve gathering when I needed a dessert. I'll admit, I was lazy, I knew Jeff would want a "fruit" dessert, like a pie or tart. I didn't want to make the dough...etc, etc. So, I made the executive decision to make, my favorite, chocolate chip cookies.

I couldn't make the ones we make all the time, Andria's Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are excellent but I needed to be a bit more creative. That was when I went into my Pinterest account and began the search. I found this new recipe on "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies" board. Pictures speak louder than words and I went with "the best ever chocolate chip cookies" by Dishing the Divine.

I checked out the recipe and figured this would be so easy, melt butter, mix with sugar, eggs and vanilla, add dry ingredients, and chop some bittersweet chocolate. In 5 minutes, I had the chocolate chip cookie dough together and ready to measure.

The dough needed 30 minutes in the freezer which was perfect as I was finishing the last of the Lobster (lob-stah for you New Englanders) Cakes. At that point, my son, Brian, came in slightly frantic, "I need to bring a dessert to that New Year's Eve Party tonight", and it was 6 PM. Never fear, I doubled the recipe, plenty of cookies to be had. 

Once they were partially frozen, I placed them on cookie sheets and into a 400 dgree oven for 7 minutes, then 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes. They came out beautiful, golden brown and crackly. I had 10 for my guests and two dozen went out the door with Brian. After dinner we enjoyed coffee and chocolate chip cookies with coffee and vanilla ice cream, PERFECT. These cookies had a great crunch with a caramel chewiness. The bittersweet chocolate is such a great balance for a sweet cookie. I will say, these were probably one of the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have made in a while. Reports from Brian's party ended with, "and there were none left." I will add these to my "Giant Cookies" list, too, because no one can ever have enough giant cookies.

I look forward to this next year, delving into the next culinary adventure. My prediction is that you will see us incorporate even more of our garden produce into our recipes and trying to once again simplify the process and of, course, search for more chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Do you have a BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie? We'd love to hear about it! 

Ingredients for the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies (slightly altered)

2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt 
3/4 cup of butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 - 2 cups of chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chips and chopped them)

Preparation

1. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla and stir until creamy.
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Stir in the chocolate.
4. Drop the dough 1/4 cup at a time on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400.

5. Place approximately 6 cookies per cookie sheet as they will spread.
6. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Without opening the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350.
7. Bake an additional 7-9 minutes or until the edges look golden brown.
8. Let rest on pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Written by Tricia White

Giant Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips, Raisins and Almonds

I didn't think I would be making any more giant cookies before Thanksgiving.

BUT, Jeff's daughter, Kate, came over and found an old recipe of mine and decided to take on the challenge. I can't even imagine where I might have gotten this recipe because it's on my giant index cards and they are at least 20+ years old. I remember making them when I was selling cookies out of my house as Danielle B's Goodies. It was a cookie I made a few times but it never caught on because everyone loved Nannie's Oatmeal Cookies. It seemed like I was duplicating the process.

This cookie has a nice combination of butter and sugar along with the right mix of oatmeal, raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, coconut and spices. These cookies are crunchy with a hint of caramel and sugary sweetness. I love that there is a touch of cinnamon which gives the oatmeal cookie that traditional flavor and feel.

As I increase my giant cookie recipe numbers, I'm looking forward to creating a few of these larger treats as holiday gifts. I tend to go overboard when giving cookies and sometimes people don't want too many sweets lingering at their home. A few large cookies can be enjoyed in two ways

1. Oh, I can't eat this whole cookie, I'll just have half.

2. That was so good, I'll just eat the other half.

How do I know? It happened at a recent staff meeting, everyone had half and no one left the other half. Perfect sized gift for the holidays!

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter
1-1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1-1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2-1/2 cups of oatmeal (not instant)
1 cup of almonds (sliced or chopped)
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of raisins
1/2 cup of sweetened coconut

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars until creamy (about 2 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until well incorporated. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and mix together by hand until blended. Stir in the oatmeal, chocolate chips, raisins, almonds and coconut.

3. Using an ice cream scoop, place four scoops of cookie dough per tray. Slightly flatten the dough to resemble a disk.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, turning the trays once during the cooking time. Remove when slightly golden brown and the tops are no longer wet. Remove from trays and place on cookie racks to cool. Makes 18-24 cookies.

Enjoy!

Giant Chocolate Cookies with Symphony Bars and Pecans

What started out as another giant cookie recipe, took on an ingredient accident and ended with an amazing product!

I was making cookies for a function at work and needed giant cookies. Giant because that is my theme heading into the holidays, I've got about 5 giant cookie recipes on my list so far (go to Giant Cookies in the recipe section). I found this recipe at Epicurious and they were called Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies.

I started off, not reading the entire recipe and jumped the gun with some ingredients. Instead of a full storyline, I'll bullet what I did...

1. I chose to use bittersweet chocolate VS semi-sweet chocolate. I really love the bittersweet taste when a cookie has quite a bit of sugar.

2. I started out with too much butter, but I played around with the dry ingredients and adjusted the flour.

3. I used some dark brown sugar in place of all light brown sugar because you get a bit of chewiness with the crunchy edges of the cookie.

4. I use kosher salt when baking cookies, it gives that sweet-salty flavor which enhances the cookie.

5. I added Symphony Bars and Pecans - because they seemed like a perfect complement for the cookies. 

So, I give you Giant Chocolate Cookies with Symphony Bars and Pecans and they are AWESOME! I love to watch people as they break the cookie in half (because it's too big) and then dive back in for the second half because they were SO GOOD! These cookies are chewy and crunchy, rich and chocolaty yet not too sweet. People have been asking for this recipe...quicker than most.

Try this recipe before the holidays set in and start looking at great treats you can give as gifts. I always say, the best way to a person's heart is through their stomach. Enough said!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 (10 ounce) bags of Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips (16 ounces is about 1 2/3 bags)
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups (packed) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (4.25 ounce) milk chocolate Symphony Bar with Toffee Bits and Almonds, chopped
1 cup of chopped pecans

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking power) in a medium sized bowl and put aside.

Place Ghiradelli chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water and stir until melted. Allow to cool to luke warm.

In a large bowl, add eggs and sugars and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes, until slightly thick and gooey.

Add melted chocolate to the mixture and beat until uniform, add vanilla. Mix together until incorporated.

Stir in dry ingredients, once mixed thoroughly, add chopped milk chocolate and pecans.

Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment. Use an ice cream scoop to place dough on the tray. Flatten slightly. Press the cookie to a 1 inch disk. Bake 3 to a tray.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the center is slightly puffed and the cookie is crackly.

Move to cookie rack and allow to cool. Makes 14-16 cookies.

 

Giant Peanut Butter Cookies with Dark and Milk Chocolate Chips

I have been on a giant cookie kick. It started with the Giant Ginger Cookies I made last week.

It was fun making large cookies since they have a different texture which brings a bit of a different flavor. They are more crunchy and chewy together. Tough to describe, but eat individual cookies and then eat a giant cookie...more cookie...more flavor.

I took out my peanut butter cookie recipe from Peanut Butter Blossoms and didn't think it had the power for a giant cookie. I searched the web and came up with two recommendations for the Magnolia Bakery Peanut Butter Cookies. I decided to mix it up with dark brown and light brown sugar, as well as a few Reese's mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups and milk chocolate chips. Add an ice cream scoop and demerara sugar and you have Giant Peanut Butter Cookies with Dark and Milk Chocolate Chips.

These cookies were amazingly delicious. Loaded with peanut butter and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! The demerara sugar made them sweet and extra crunchy yet the cookie was thick enough to be chewy. As much as I froze a few for later this week, they are walking out of here much faster than I thought. They were in everyone's lunch today and I've seen them disappear into lunch bags for tomorrow.

Over the next few weeks I will be making a few more giant cookies because I'd like to offer something fun and different for the 12 Cookies of Christmas and I have a funny feeling they will be GIANT!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of chunky style peanut butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoon of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 12 ounce package of Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips
15 mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups (chopped into sixths)
1 cup of milk chocolate chips

Bowl of demerara sugar (raw sugar) for dipping cookies (about 1 cup)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. See aside.

3. Cream butter and sugars, when completely blended add the chunky peanut butter.

4. Once the peanut butter is incorporated, add the eggs and vanilla.

5. Mix half the flour mixture into the batter. Add the milk, mix until well blended and then add the rest of the flour mixture.

6. Stir in the peanut butter cups with the dark and milk chocolate chips.

7. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the dough and release scoop into a bowl of sugar. I use the demerara sugar because of the large granules.

8. Roll the ball until completely covered with sugar. Place on the cookie sheet and flatten to a 1/2 inch thickness.

9. Place up to three cookies on one cookie sheet.

10. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden with cracks on the top. bang cookie sheet on counter to allow the cookie to flatten. Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from tray to cookie rack. Makes 24 giant peanut butter cookies.

This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen and The Singleton in the Kitchen.

Giant Ginger Cookies

 

(Beware: Objects appear smaller than they are.)

It seems like I haven't made some new desserts in a while. The truth is I have, I just haven't posted my articles as often as I would like. It's time to start enjoying the desserts AND sharing the recipes with my wonderful friends and followers.

I have been looking at quite a few cookie recipes lately with the holidays creeping up on us. I will be having a new list of the 12 Cookies for Christmas and I know that they will never replace the original list from 2009 The 12 Cookies of Christmas. I like to offer new cookie recipes each season so that you can find your family's favorites. I'm also thinking of doing a cookie swap which could get me some great family favorites from my friends.

When I started, I was looking for a good hermit cookie recipe. The results weren't great so I think I need to go digging into some old recipe books. I was looking for a hermit recipe with coffee as one of the ingredients. I came across a few, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I did come across this ginger cookie recipe on Martha Stewart's website and thought this could be fun since these cookies were about 5 inches in diameter when they were finished baking. I don't normally make large cookies like these but truthfully, this is where you get a different flavor and texture. I also liked that there was pepper in the recipe. I love ginger, but the thought of additional heat to the cookie using pepper was interesting.

I adapted Martha's Giant Ginger Cookies by adding a bit more ginger and molasses and changed up the salt and sugar. I like the saltiness of kosher salt (vs. table salt) because when you bite into something sweet, you get that salty-sweet flavor. I love to use demerara sugar for rolling cookies. It is raw sugar which has larger, light brown crystals. It looks great and gives the cookies an extra crunchiness.

I mixed the batter and placed the dough in the freezer. It gave me enough time to make a batch of my favorite cookies, Andria's Chocolate Chip Cookie. I cut the dough into 16ths and they were rolled and in the oven with four cookies per cookie sheet.

Some friends and family tried them and absolutely loved them. They were chewy and crispy. The best was after they ate the cookie and said, "I can still taste the spiciness of the ginger", which was probably helped by the pepper. We enjoyed them as a mid-morning snack with pumpkin spiced coffee. What better way to enjoy a giant cookie that was just DELICIOUS!

Think warm, think GIANT ginger cookies!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 rounded tablespoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon of ground white pepper
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated white sugar, plus 1/3 cup of demerara sugar for coating
1/3 cup of molasses
1 large egg

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
 
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice, and pepper.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Flatten into a round disk, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 20 minutes.
3. Cut disc to create quarters, cut quarters in half, cut eighths in half (you will have a perfectly cut pie shape with 16 pieces.). Roll into 16 balls.
4. Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl. Roll balls in sugar to coat; place at least 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten into 3-inch rounds. Sprinkle with sugar remaining in bowl.
5. Bake until brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes 16 large cookies.

Sarabeth's Chocolate Clouds

 

Over the past year, both Jeff and I have had a wonderful time cooking and baking many delicious recipes from famed chefs and food magazines. At Christmas time, Jeff purchase Dorie Greenspan's "around my french table" which we have been religiously cooking from. See Scallops with Carmel-Orange Sauce and Spinach Bacon Quiche.

As I began to do more investigating into Dorie Greenspan, I realized she was connected with David Lebovitz, an American pastry chef living in Paris, who I follow on Facebook and Twitter. I featured his Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies that are (hands down) the best chocolate chip cookies.

Somehow, in the midst of this, I came across Sarabeth Levine, The Goddess of Bakedom. (Don't you just love her title!). She is a pastry chef and founder of Sarabeth's Restaurants. I have been eagerly following her as I love some of the recipes she has showcased. I also asked Jeff to buy me her new cookbook, Sarabeth's Bakery, From My Hands to Yours. I'm looking forward to making a few more of her recipes as she has quite a few hands-on pictures which many of the early reviews have praised. The recipe I came across was the Chocolate Cloud Cookies. They were golden brown and crackly. (They also had a cute little story about Little Miss Muffet.)

The cookies started with toasting some sliced almonds which made the house smell delightful. Almonds have become my "new" favorite food, especially the sea salt almonds. The rest of the recipe blended quickly with the help of our new mixer (Kitchen Aid). Amazing how easy it is to add ingredients and let the machine do the rest. I know that the pictures I have posted don't do the cookies justice, but these are BIG cookies. When you make them, you use an ice cream scoop to place the dough on the cookie sheet. They expand to about 5-6 inches across. They look like bakery cookies.

The chocolate clouds tasted ABSOLUTELY delicious! Crunchy, chewy, buttery, chocolate...did I miss anything? As my tasters- family and friends -were licking their fingers, they asked if there was any toffee in the cookie. I suppose I could say yes as there is butter, brown sugar and almonds in the mix.

If you live in New England, it is down-pouring on the last Friday of February vacation. This is a great afternoon project that will surely put a smile on those receiving these yummy treats. They have two options: 1.they can share this cookie with someone else or 2. enjoy it on their own because no matter how big the cookie...it's only one!

CHOCOLATE CLOUDS
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

BAKERS NOTE: Place the dough about 3 inches apart on the half-sheet pans—they spread.

1 1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into ½-inch cubes
¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups (8 ounces) toasted sliced almonds
2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips
 
1. Position the racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 3 half-sheet pans with parchment paper. Rub the sugar and brown sugar together through a coarse wire-mesh wire sieve into a medium bowl; set aside. Beat the butter in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar mixture, then the vanilla. Beat, occasionally scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl, until the mixture is pale yellow and light textured, about 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the eggs.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer speed on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing just until each addition is incorporated. Add the almonds and chocolate chips and mix just until combined. Empty the dough onto the work surface, and use your hands to thoroughly distribute the almonds and chocolate chips in the dough.
3. Using a 2-inch-diameter ice-cream scoop, portion the batter onto the prepared pans. Using the heel of your palm, slightly flatten each ball of dough. Bake two of the pans with the cookies, switching the position of the pans from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through baking, until the cookies are evenly golden brown,15 to 18 minutes. During the last 3 minutes, rap each pan on the rack. The cookies will deflate and their signature cracks will appear on the tops. Repeat with the third pan. Cool on the pans. (Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.)