Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I have really struggled trying to figure out how to write this post. What I really want to say is “OMG! THESE ARE THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES EVER!!” But I feel like most every chocolate chip cookie recipe you see says that. Up until this recipe, I thought I had found the best recipe. It was back in my early days of blogging, right around the time the NY Times posted a recipe involving multiple flours, specific chocolate disks, and most importantly the step of letting the dough “rest” in the fridge. The main part I took away from that was the resting. It really does make a world of difference.
I’ve made a handful of chocolate chip cookies on this blog. Everything from Alton Brown’s The Chewy (good but too greasy), Soft & Chewy from Martha Stewart Cookies Cookbook (too puffy), and my previous favorite adapted from Smitten Kitchen. But something began to happen with my previous favorite. I had multiple cookie fails in a row. So, in search of a new recipe I went. I didn’t have to look too far to find a recipe I wanted to try. Our wonderful realtor got us (ok, me) the Williams Sonoma Baking Book as a closing gift. She knew me pretty well I guess you could say!
This is the recipe from that book, doubled (because as written it didn’t make nearly as many cookies!), with the added step of letting the dough rest 24 hours. And holy cow, these cookies really & truly are the BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! They are better than the previous favorite, even when they turned out right! I like to bake these using either my smallest cookie scoop, or my medium cookie scoop. However I will say, when you use the medium scoop they turn out even better because they are thicker! I’ve made many many batches of these. It’s funny I was never in a rush to photograph them, because I knew I’d be making another batch again soon! Often, once the dough has rested and been scooped into balls, I only bake 1 cookie sheet. The rest of the balls I freeze, for on-demand baking later on. To do this, just set them on a cookie sheet as close as you can get without them touching. Then stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or so. Transfer the dough balls to a freezer safe ziplock bag and return them to the freezer. You never know when that chocolate chip cookie craving will hit!
These cookies have the perfect texture, and amazing flavor. They stay soft & gooey on the inside, but have a slight crunch on the outside. I’m usually not that much of a nut fan, but the second time I made these I decided to go ahead and toss them in. I’m so glad I did, because the toasted walnuts really do add depth and flavor to this cookie. I chop them pretty small, and toast them just until they begin to release a nutty aroma. I like to use chocolate chunks in this recipe, as opposed to chips, because Nathan & I both like a big gooey burst of chocolate in our cookies. I sprinkled these with a bit of fleur de sel, but it didn’t add as much to the cookie as I thought it would, so that’s just an option.
I hope I’ve convinced you to give these cookies a shot. I know I’ve tried many different chocolate chip cookies, and these are definitely my favorite, fail-proof recipe. I would love to know what you think! Let me know if you try them!
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Chocolate Chip Cookies
I doubled the original recipe, but didn't double the amount of nuts. To me, this keeps the cookies from being overly nutty, and yields a larger number of cookies. I can't even begin to tell you how many though, because between the bites of dough we sneak, and how fast these cookies get eaten, I'm never able to get a good count!
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
fleur de sel (optional, for sprinkling on cookies before baking)
Directions:
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and continue beating until the mixture smooth and sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until blended, occasionally stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended. Add the chocolate chunks and walnuts, if using, mixing or stirring until blended. Press plastic wrap onto the dough, and refrigerate 24 hours.
Once 24 hours have passed, preheat the oven to 350. Using a cookie scoop, or dampened hands, shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. (Optional: You can sprinkl the cookie dough balls with fleur de sel, for a bit of salty flavor) Bake the cookies until golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes (or 8-9 minutes if using a smaller scoop). Let the cookies cool briefly on the pans on wire racks before transferring them to the racks to cool completely.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Y’all, every time I begin to type the word pumpkin, it ends up pumpking. Then I backspace the g. Seriously, every time.
As you know, if you’ve followed my blog, pumpkin really is king around here. From savory, to sipping, to sweets, I can’t get my hands on enough pumpkin in the fall. Now, let me be the first to say, we’re barely into the beginning of September, and it’s been blazing hot here in Nashville. So I’m not quite craving the fall foods just yet, but trying to squeeze out the last bit of goodness from summer (corn on the cob, watermelon, okra, etc). However, due to the wonders of Pinterest, lots of autumnal treats & decorations have been getting pinned since at least mid-July! Heck, even I’m guilty of some pumpkin pinning of my own.
I’ve been on the receiving end of pumpkin pins on pinterest (try saying THAT one 3x fast!), as the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles I made in my inaugural year of blogging have been getting a lot of hits from Pinterest lately. When I went back to reread the old post, the first thing that I cringed at was the photos! Eeek! They were done with my point & shoot. While they aren’t awful, they are quite up my current standards. Those little balls of pumpkin, white chocolate, graham cracker, & cream cheese goodness deserve better! And while I would normally hold off on posting pumpkin stuff this early, by golly you got to give the people what they want! And the people want pumpkin! *cue crowd cheers*
So head on over to the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffle post to get the recipe, and happy pinning! (PS. If you have no idea what Pinterest is, and want an invite, just fill out my contact form and I’ll invite as many people as I can.) Or if you’re interested in more pumpkin goodies, check my pumpkin tag to see ALL pumpkin related things in my blog. Here’s just a sampling of some of the things I’ve made & enjoyed!
Turkey Bean Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin White Chocolate Blondies
Pumpkin Scones
White Chocolate Ice Cream with Spiced Pumpkin Swirl
Pumpkin Spice Latte Martini
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I need to be better about posting dinner recipes. After all, those are the kind I seek out most frequently. It’s just usually at dinner time I’m in a huge rush, or I think I’ve lost the light, Nathan’s starving, wah wah wah. As soon as I mentally concocted this flavor combo, I knew I’d want to put it on the blog. I’ve been inspired to get a little more creative with our pizza toppings after two recent visits to Porta Via here in Nashville. If I’m going to eat pizza, I want the real freaking deal. Porta Via has really great pizza, and really great gelato!
On to this dish… Rather than make my own pizza dough, I kept this super easy, by using dough I purchased at Trader Joe’s. I roasted some eggplant, and chopped up a large jalapeno, both veggies from my CSA box. Then I tossed on some sliced & slightly roasted jalapeno chicken sausages (also from Trader Joe’s), and soft & creamy goat cheese. I loved the combination of the spicy jalapeno & chicken sausage when paired with the goat cheese & mild eggplant. To give it extra kick, sprinkle on some red pepper flakes!
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Spicy Eggplant Goat Cheese Pizza
Feel free to use this as more of a flavor guide. Top your pizza with the amount of each ingredient you'd like. I ended up not needing all of the toppings I had prepared.
Ingredients:
1 ball of pizza dough
flour for dusting & rolling out the dough
1 small eggplant
1 jalapeno
2 chicken sausage links (I used the jalapeno variety)
1/4 cup marinara sauce
1/4-1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
1 oz goat cheese
cornmeal (optional)
olive oil (optional)
italian seasoning (optional)
cracked pepper (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Slice eggplant thinly (about 1/4"), then quarter the slices. Arrange on a baking sheet, toss with olive oil, and sprinkle with cracked pepper. Roast about 15 minutes, turning halfway though. While eggplant is roasting, slice jalapeno in half, remove seeds, and slice thinly. Set aside. Slice chicken sausages, and roast about 5-7 minutes, remove right as they begin to turn golden.
When eggplant & chicken sausage are done roasting, put your pizza stone in the oven (if you're using one), and turn the heat up as high as you can get it. Let the stone warm up. I take this time to assemble my ingredients into an assembly line so I can prepare the pizza as quick as possible.
Meanwhile, dust your work surface with flour and roll out your dough. When stone is ready, remove from the oven, sprinkle with cornmeal (optional), and transfer dough to the stone. If you'd like, brush the edge of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with italian seasoning.. This is just optional, but I think it helps create a delicious golden crust. Next spread on the marinara sauce, followed by the mozzarella cheese, eggplant, chicken sausage, & jalapeno. Dollop on the goat cheese, and finish with a sprinkle of cracked pepper & red pepper flakes. Transfer pizza stone back to the oven, and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden, and finished.
One of the other things that inspired this pizza, was a special delivery I’d just gotten. The wonderful people I met at BlogHerFood ’11 from Barilla Pasta introduced me to their new pasta sauce. They were nice enough to send a few jars to me to sample. While they created this line of sauce intended to “hug pasta” (their words!), I decided to crack open a jar and spread it on my pizza! I can’t wait to explore more recipes to share with you in the future! On that note, I’ll go ahead and let you know, I’m not being paid by them, only provided with some of their new sauces to sample. 🙂
Monday, August 22, 2011
It’s pretty evident I love cocktails. But I don’t often talk about how much Nathan & I love trying new beers. He’s definitely a bigger beer enthusiast than I am, but I do love a good craft beer too. One of our favorite Nashville experiences was the time we went to the Yazoo taproom, had some pints, and went on a tour of the brewery. (This was back when they were in Marathon Village, not in their new Gulch location.) Yazoo is Nashville’s own brewery, started in 2003. All the people who work at the taproom are super friendly, cool people, and we’ve always loved going there. Nathan is a fan of their Pale Ale, and I prefer their Hefeweizen.
One recent Friday afternoon, when my duties at work were done for the day, I opened up my Google Reader to check out the blogs I follow. Jen, over at Beantown Baker, has been doing a really cool series called “Friday Faves” where she asks some of her favorite bloggers to guest post. As soon as I saw the post that Cupcake Project posted for Hefeweizen Cupcakes, I knew I was making them as soon as I got home! *Note: I thought I had all the ingredients on hand, but I didn’t notice the malted milk powder. And after a quick trip to the grocery, I still couldn’t locate any malted milk powder. Luckily dry milk powder was a perfectly suitable substitute.
This recipe made exactly 9 cupcakes for me. I love a recipe with a small yield! Even with that small of an amount, I still knew we would need to share them. So I tweeted to all the Yazoo people on twitter (I think there’s about 3 of them) to see if they wanted them, and sure enough they did! Nathan was in need of a growler refill anyways, so we loaded up some cupcakes and headed over to the taproom to share. I’m kind of a shy person, and I felt a little silly walking in with my cupcakes, but these were definitely well received! In fact, I kind of felt bad only bringing four.
Now, just a word of advice, these are most definitely a beer-lovers cupcake! NOT FOR CHILDREN. (duh) And not for people who don’t like beer. The wheat flavor of the beer really shines through in the cupcake and the glaze. These had a great texture, really spongy & moist. I was worried the glaze would be too runny, but it actually had a pretty thick consistency. It added an extra sweetness to cap it off. I loved these cupcakes, and Nathan definitely gave them two thumbs up!
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Hefeweizen Cupcakes
Yield: 9 cupcakes
Ingredients:
CUPCAKES:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
zest of one large lemon or 2 small lemons
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Hefeweizen or other wheat beer
GLAZE:
1/2 cup malted milk powder *dry milk powder is an acceptable substitute*
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup hefeweizen or other wheat beer
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
CUPCAKES:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually mix in the sugar.
Mix in baking powder, baking soda, vegetable oil, zest, and milk. Mix in half of the flour. Mix in the beer. Mix in the other half of the flour.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when lightly touched.
GLAZE:
In a double boiler, combine all the ingredients except for the butter and sugar. Melt the mixture, stirring continuously until it's thick - about 12 minutes.
Strain the mixture to remove lumps. Cool completely.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix the cooled malt mixture with the butter. Mix in the powdered sugar. The end result should be a thick and sticky glaze.
Spread onto cooled cupcakes.
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