Today my husband asked if we could make some cookies together for the coming week. We very much enjoyed the ones I made last week because they were so versatile. Sometimes we ate them quickly on the way to university as breakfast (not healthy I know :p), sometimes we took them along as dessert for lunch and sometimes it was simply enjoyable to sit down with a cup of tea and a nice cookie. There is something comforting about having self baked cookies at home, can’t really explain why.
This time I tried out a recipe from allrecipes.com (Steven’s Chocolate Chip Cookies). I altered it slightly to fit my tastes (I prefer less sugar in general, more vanilla extract and less chocolate chips) and the result was very good. Still I used about 100g more chocolate chips than last week and whilst the cookie is perfect for people who are really fond of chocolate, it was a little too much for me. I’ll reduce the amount to 150g next time. Also I think that I’ll try to chop up some quality semisweet chocolate (70%+) instead of using ready-made chocolate chips.
Last week’s recipe is my favourite so far, not only because there were less chocolate morsels but because the cookie itself had a nicer texture, was less crunchy and the flavour felt cleaner. Have fun trying this out and if you’ve got a perfect cookie recipe, please share
Ingredients
225g butter (soft)
110g brown sugar
100g white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
160g all-purpose flour
150g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
150g chocolate chips (white, milk or semisweet, or mixed)
1 cup chopped walnuts
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Preparation
Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flours, salt and baking soda). Mix them and put aside.
In a medium bowl whisk the soft butter along with the different sugars until you get a creamy texture. Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
Stir in the dry ingredients from before and mix everything well. Fold in the nuts and the chocolate chips.
Lay out a baking tray with an ungreased baking sheet. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough on the sheet making rows with enough space for each cookie to expand.
Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes - until golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
“Does the perfect cookie really exist?” A truly existential question if you ask me. A good cookie can save your life. No really. For instance, imagine you walk home through the rain, a car splashes you with water, your socks get all soggy and when you come home you realize that your neighbour decided to use the loudest electric screwdriver he could find to assemble his new IKEA shelf. Basically you got two possibilities: grab a frying pan and run after your neighbour (who is at least one foot taller than you) or follow the seducing smell of freshly baked cookies and forget all your troubles. See? A cookie can cheer you up in any situation!
So what are the characteristics of a perfect cookie? Well, that’s the problem: everyone likes their cookie differently To me the perfect cookie has a soft texture, a color between dark beige and light brown, a fragrant smell of butter and vanilla and once you decide to devour it, there must be the flavour of deep dark chocolate chips rounded up by the not too sweet aroma of brown sugar and the earthy flavour of chopped nuts.
Am I dreaming? Oh well, guess I am. Or not, because I think I managed to find a recipe that comes veeeeery close to what I call a perfect cookie. Try it out on your very own quest to the perfect cookie and tell me how it went!
(Recipe adapted from the authentic Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 pound (250g) butter
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
150g chocolate chips/morsels (or chopped chocolate - you can use white, milk or dark chocolate, or a mix)
125g chopped walnuts (you can use any nuts you like)
2 Tbsp of milk (only add this if you like your cookies soft)
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Preparation
Put the butter in a little saucepan and make it melt over low-medium temperature.
Meanwhile combine both flours, baking soda and salt.
Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl.
Add eggs - one at a time - beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Add the milk (if you are using any) and beat well.
Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
Refrigerate the dough for an hour or two.
Preheat your oven at 180 °C approximately. Make a few tests with your oven to be sure you’ve got the optimal temperature. This strongly differs depending on the oven you got… and temperature matters a lot for cookies.
Lay out a baking tray with ungreased baking sheet.
Depending on which size you like your cookies to have, drop a spoonful of the dough on the baking sheet. Repeat until you got the sheet covered with several rows. Be careful to let about 10 cm of space around each cookie.
Bake for 9-11 minutes until they are golden brown. Let stand for about 2 minutes and remove them from the tray. If you make small cookies you’ll get about 4 batches out of this recipe.
Enjoy and if you have a “perfect” recipe for cookies, please share
To me the perfect cookie has a soft texture, a color between dark beige and light brown, a fragrant smell of butter and vanilla and once you decide to devour it, there must be the flavour of deep dark chocolate chips rounded up by the not too sweet aroma of brown sugar and the earthy flavour of chopped nuts.
