Bakery-Style Cookies: Some Patience Required

If you've been online at all during the past year or so, then I'd be willing to bet that you've seen at least three different bloggers posting about the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. When you read through the accompanying article, you can't help but want to drive to your nearest bakery for a gigantic cookie. After seeing so many posts about these cookies, I finally broke down and made them myself!

The recipe states the yield as 18 large cookies, but I ended up with 19, even though I weighed out my scoops using my kitchen scale. I also couldn't find any chocolate wafers, so I chose to use two bags of Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips instead and loved the results.

I found the cookies to be super sweet, but they got some positive reviews from everyone who got one! They really are giant- almost as big as my hand- but don't let that stop you! You can always share (or save the other half for later ;) ). As for the long wait time? It's a very long 24 hours, but definitely worth the wait!

Here's the recipe...now go out and bake these!

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

yield: about 18 very large cookies

time: 45 minutes (per batch), plus 24-hr chill time

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks, at least 60 percent cacao content*

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin. (and a tall glass of milk!)

*As I mentioned above, I used two 10-ounce bags of Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips, and I loved the way they turned out.


original source: article and recipe

My favorite cookie.

I love chocolate chip cookies. I don't make them very often, because when I do, I'm liable to make myself sick from eating half of the dough as well as half of whatever actually lives to see the oven. It's a problem-- for my waistline, anyway.

It seems like there's always a bakesale going on in the music building at school. Last week, the percussion studio was having a bakesale, and I bought a delicious brownie one day and a gorgeous (and tasty!) cake pop on another. This week, it's Phi Mu Alpha, also known as Sinfonia. They are an all-male music fraternity. But let's get back to the real story here.

This morning, their bakesale started, and I felt like supporting them, and having a treat to celebrate my last 7:30 class of the week. But mostly I just wanted a treat. The table held some unidentified truffle-looking blobs, some saran-wrapped pieces of red velvet cake, cookie-dough swirled brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. I think we can all figure out what I bought.

As I was walking away, I eagerly opened the bag and broke my cookie open, where I found an Oreo lodged in the middle. I was totally ok with that, but not after I took my first bite. I think it's safe to say that the men of Phi Mu Alpha made the treats themselves. :( The cookie was hard and tasted like it had been made at least a week in advance and not stored well. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it!

They made a good effort, and the Oreo inside was a good idea (especially if judging by it's apparent popularity on Pinterest, thanks to Picky Palate). It just wasn't working for me.

So, I did what any reasonable and slightly hormonal 20-year-old would do. I went home and made my own dang cookies!

I used my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which happens to be a slightly adapted version of the one that you find on the bag of Nestle chocolate chips. And instead of just making a normal batch of cookies, I decided to change things up, so I made 6 big cookies, 8 Oreo-stuffed cookies, and used the rest of the dough to make normal-sized cookies.

For the giant cookies, I scooped out the dough using my ice-cream scoop and baked them for about 18 minutes. Look at how big that is! I think they're comparable to the bakery down the street from me that makes the BEST gigantic chocolate chip cookies. I also got a little cray and sprinkled some sea salt on the cookies before putting them in the oven.

For the Oreo-stuffed cookies, I followed Picky Palate's instructions. I put a scoop (normal-sized) of cookie dough on the top and bottom of an Oreo, and sealed it up! These took about 14 minutes to bake in my oven.

Oh, man. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with all of these cookies yet, but I'm sure I'll find something. :) I guess I really shouldn't leave you hanging though, so here's my go-to recipe!


My Favorite Chocolate-Chip Cookies
adapted from Nestle


1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of Crisco shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) bag of Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips (or more if desired!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter, shortening, sugars, and vanilla extract in a large bowl (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer) until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well-combined after each addition.
4. In a separate small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir it together to evenly distribute everything.
5. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat until combined.
6. Add the chocolate chips, and either fold them in with a spatula or give them another spin in the mixer.
7. Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper, allowing them room to spread a little as they bake.
8. Bake cookies for about 8-12 minutes, or until golden. Keep an eye on them! Sometimes ovens can be ornery.
9. After they come out of the oven, let cookies stand on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then remove them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
10. Store in your favorite cookie jar or storage container, if they stick around that long! :)

Enjoy!

Looking Up

First, an update:

Today was actually a pretty good day. So far, there have been no tears, and I'm hoping to keep it that way. I'm glad to say that although my situation and burden hasn't been miraculously removed from me, God has been growing me every day. Things are happening in tiny increments, but I'm just glad to be climbing up out of that pit.

I realized today that it has been exactly four weeks since I had that doctor's appointment. Four weeks since my future changed. Four weeks since I was forced to start letting go of my plans and start listening for God's. My sense of time and date has been (and still is) off, so I am incredibly dependent on my calendar, my watch and alarms, and my lists. The first two weeks, I know I was a zombie. I probably couldn't tell you what I did during that time period. I know I must have done stuff, I just wasn't paying any attention. At the beginning of last week, I feel like I finally started to move forward. I finally had a big ol' cry-fest on the phone with Mitch while I proceeded to tell him everything I'd kept bottled up while I was hiding from the world. We got to have a real talk about it, something we didn't get to do before I came back to school. I started baking again. I started taking better care of my body, and caring about the food that I was putting into it. Instead of hollering at God and waiting for Him to fix everything, I dove into the Scriptures. And I am so glad that I did.

Here's some of the verses that I've been meditating on recently:

Habakkuk 3:18

Proverbs 19:21

Romans 8:26

Luke 22:42

Colossians 3:3

I'm not totally 100% yet, but I am making progress. Some days are harder than others, and I have no idea why. There's not necessarily that triggers the tears, they just invite themselves to the party.

Like I mentioned above, I have gotten back to baking. I made two batches of brownies, and I thought that I had met my baking nemesis. Good news, though! They weren't failures! (I was so preoccupied with having them turn out well that I forgot to take a picture, though. Oops.)

I also made The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. I was so excited with the way that they turned out, and I think I fell in love with the icing. So, to the dismay of my waistline, I am now trying to think of what else I could put that delicious glaze on. Cakes? Streusel muffins? I'm started to get excited!

Unfortunately, I need to really buckle down and focus on school now. Educational Psychology test in the morning, and a whole mess of things to do after that! I'll see you back here for Thankful Thursday, but for now, here's my current favorite Bible verse (aka today's favorite):

Psalm 103:17 "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him."

Sunny Days

Today was amazing, and it was nothing short of a miracle. Today, I felt almost like myself. I honestly have not felt this good in 20 days. There was no real reason for it that I could find.

First, I didn't completely dread getting out of bed. I might even have slept through most of the night- not sure about that, though. I distinctly remember being up quite a few times.

And then, I was around people...and I handled it surprisingly well. I didn't go running off to the bathroom to hide. I still didn't look anyone in the eye, but it's a start.

I didn't hide out all day. After I went to Target to return some faulty Pyrex, I chose to go over to Wal-Mart and see if they had any that I liked to replace the set I just returned. And you know what? It was pretty crowded. But I was ok. I even went around the whole store and didn't feel like I needed to escape.

And I actually got schoolwork done! And laundry! And everything got folded and put away, too! I started losing steam before I got around to unpacking and cleaning everything, but that'll get taken care of in time.

I had so much more energy today than I've had in 20 days. I even went for a run and did a short workout with free-weights to use some of the energy. I felt more like myself than I have in awhile.

Just to show you how much like myself I was today, let me show you a few things: 

My shiny new(to me) mixer. Isn't it gorgeous? I finally felt like using it!

 And yes. Feeling like myself also means having a desire to be in the kitchen.

Confession time: It was a box mix. But I did make the frosting from scratch! And anyway, it's all about starting back somewhere.

I'm still diving into the Word and spending huge chunks of time in prayer. I'm not anywhere near healed yet, but maybe this is a start. I know that I have wonderful people who are praying for me, and that might be part of the difference. After all, Matthew 18:20 says For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. How awesome is that?

Still clinging to His promise.

Snickerdoodle Days of Summer

Lately, I've picked up a new hobby of constantly thinking about crafting, baking, and recipes in general. I don't know if this is because I'll be moving into my apartment in a few months or if I'm finally realizing how cool these things are.

One of my current obsessions is cupcake and cookie recipes. I've started following some blogs, and there is just so much cool stuff! Last night, I finally broke down and baked up a storm. My sister and I had the house to ourselves, so we did what any teenagers would do...we took over the kitchen!

The first experiment of the night was a batch of snickerdoodle cupcakes topped with snickerdoodle cookies. I got the idea and recipes from that link, but we used a different icing recipe, which I'll post when we get around to it.

The cupcakes went together pretty uneventfully. My part of the process went off without a hitch.

Valerie ran into some trouble with spooning out our cupcakes, though. Let's just say that some of them weren't very pretty.

The pretty ones turned out well, though.

As soon as we had those on the cooling rack, we moved onto the cookies. Once again, they were easy enough to make.

 There was no cinnamon in the cookies, so I made sure to roll them in plenty of the cinnamon sugar. I like my snickerdoodles to have a good kick to them.

Cheesin' while scooping out the dough.

And here are our pretty cookies! Val made up the frosting while I started on the blueberry muffins. Before I get any further, let me warn you: these muffins are usually done after about 15 minutes, instead of 20. They always come out really light and they don't look like they're done. But as i learned the hard way, if they're starting to get golden on top, they're probably burning, too. 

I made a batch of regular ones, and then I made a second batch and added the zest of two lemons. I don't think there was enough lemon in it, though...next time, I'll add more. Maybe experiment with a larger amount of lemon juice?

 Here's the icing recipe that we used:

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 cups margarine, softened

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter at medium speed of an electric mixer; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add milk; beat until spreading consistency, then stir in vanilla. Yields about 3 cups.

What Val's doing here is piping icing onto the cupcake, topping it with a cookie, and then topping it off with another dollop of icing. (Actually, in this picture, she's messing around with the extra cookies.) Then, we sprinkled some of the cinnamon sugar left over from the cookies onto the iced cupcakes.

 And, here we are! These Snickerdoodles are ready to eat.

And the muffins don't look too bad, either!

All in all, I'd say it was a fun night. Probably a diet-blowing night, but still a fun one.