Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a craze for cookies and making cookies. Right after university exams and before Christmas, I'd make three or four types of cookies. My dad said it's because after studying and writing exams, holidays were anti-climax and so I would bake to not be bored. I just kinda thought it was for sentimental reasons when my mom liked to bake for the Holidays so I was recreating that. Or simple I loved cookies that I wanted to eat them. Mine friends used to call me Cookie Monster cos I would be willing to be late for class just to buy a cookie (from Cookies by George).

Anyways, I stopped baking cookies so regularly because I experienced baking other things and really enjoyed making those other things eg bread and cakes.

Today I wanted to send some baking by mail as a gift to my brother for his birthday. Cookies were the easiest to send so decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookies from my favourite book.



I made their chocolate chip cookies before and thought it was good but too sweet. I decided to try again to see how it taste.

First I mixed flour, salt and baking soda.



Then in another bowl I mixed melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar. I reduced the white sugar by 1/4 cup.

The recipe said that the trick to successful chewy cookie is melted butter. The cool thing about America Test Kitchen is that they test ideas and recipes in order to give the best baking or cooking advice!!!

Again, I don't like how butter is measured by sticks in this book. I don't use sticks or tablespoon when measuring my butter!!!

Anyways, I also added vanilla extract. The vanilla extract I used was a vanilla bean infused vodka.
See the vanilla pods?



Put all the ingredients together.


Then mix until it becomes thick which takes about 1 to 2 minute.




Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and mix for 30 seconds.




Then add flour and mix for 30 seconds again.



Then add chocolate chip. I should have used semi-sweet but instead I used milk chocolate chips. I like milk chocolate more but was worried it might be too sweet so wanted to use semi-sweet. However had no choice because Urban Fare sold a big bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips for $5.99 and a small bag of milk chocolate for $3.99 and I only had $5 with me. So had to buy milk chocolate chips.

This recipe instructs that you roll 2 tablespoon of dough into a ball. Their rationale is that the edge of the cookie will be smooth and even. I personally prefer dropped cookies rather than rolled so next time, I'll just drop the dough onto the baking sheet.



After baking, let it sit on the pan for 10minutes.



Then enjoy eating or let it cool on a wire rack.



Final Thoughts:
The cookies were crispy outside and moist/chewy inside. The chocolate chips were slightly melted. Yum-mee!!!

They were really good cookies. I would still reduce sugar a little more because it's still a little too sweet for me but would make it again!!

This is a recipe you have to share because it uses a lot of butter. I guess butter is necessary to make the cookie crispy.

The book stated is if you want to freshen your cookies to make it crisp, put it in the oven for about 3 minutes.

Well, gonna enjoy my cookies!! Mmmmmmm...

Shrewsbury Cakes

I borrowed a cookbook by Richard Sax called Classic Home Desserts. It interested me because I like old recipes from pioneers and Victorian Era. I find their food very interesting both from survival perspective (pioneers and homesteaders) and extravagance (Victorian house management).

This book is quite extensive. I wouldn't say the recipes are the original recipes from way back when. Rather they are recipes that have been modernized and from hotels or chefs that the author has tried the dishes and begged for their recipes. This book has won the Beard Award, if it means anything to you.

Past bakings

So, I've decided to go through some pics and add them here. In this post, I'll be showing pics of past baking.

Fruit tart

So this is a French fruit tart. It was actually very good, though I'm still working on my pastry skills. It seems like my pastry is rather still and not as flakey as I would like it to be. However the custard was excellent. I will try to make it again but maybe a small one. I'm going to have to keep working on my pastry because I've made it a couple of times and they are hard. Any suggestions to make it flakey?

I love Arnott's Tim Tam

One of my favourite cookies is Arnott's Tim Tams. My parents got a couple packs while they went to a wedding in Australia. Apparently there are different flavours. Well they just gave me the regular one and man, was I happy.

Here's a picture of the package:

Like I tweeted, one cup of tea and one Tim Tam makes a perfect way to end the day.