Side by Side Chocolate Chip Cookies (or High Five Cookies)

Chocolate Chip Cookies are a common addition to any dessert table, but they're also an almost guaranteed success.  Who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie?  Especially when it's just slightly under baked, and oh so soft and chewy.  If you want to bring Chocolate Chip cookies to your cookie exchange or to your family's holiday gathering, but want a unique twist to wow your cookie-loving friends, then keep maybe this is the right recipe for you.  This is basically one chocolate chip cookie dough, split into two - One half is left as a standard chocolate chip cookie, and the other half gets a healthy dose of Cocoa Powder to make it a double chocolate chip cookie.  Then, you sit the two doughs Side by Side on the cookie pan before baking.  Daniel wanted to call these "High Five" cookies because the two doughs do a high five before being placed onto the pan.  I just love the mental image I get when I imagine two chocolate chip cookie dough balls doing a high five and then jumping onto a cookie sheet.  :)


I've made recipes from this great little cookbook before, but I think it deserves a revisiting.  The original chocolate chip cookie recipe this is based off of is from Little Old Lady Recipes.  It really is such a charming little book.  Tried and true recipes from grandmothers are included alongside delightful portraits photos of grandmas.  I made some adaptations and have included these below.

Side by Side Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Little Old Lady Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temp

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Then, add baking soda, and salt.  Add 1 cup of the flour and mix until just incorporated.  Remove half of the dough from the bowl, and set aside.  In the electric mixer, add the remaining 2 tablespoons flour and half of the chocolate chips.  Mix until just incorporated, then drop by the tablespoon onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Now, add the reserved half of the dough back into the stand mixer bowl.  Add the cocoa powder and the remaining chocolate chips.  Drop by the tablespoon onto the cookie sheet so that each standard chocolate chip cookie dough ball has a double chocolate chip cookie dough ball beside it.  With your finger, make the two dough balls touch.  Bake for 8 - 12 minutes or until cookies begin to brown at the edges.  Remove to rack to cool.  

Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies

A while back, I was catching up on my blog reading and came across Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies on My Tasty Treasures.  It caught my eye because Daniel is a lover of vanilla, so I bookmarked to make in the near future.  That night, I was flipping through one of my mother in laws magazines as saw the same recipe in an ad for McCormick's vanilla extract.  I took it as a sign and made them that night.  SO glad I did because it is hands down, my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made to date...  soft and chewy and full of vanilla with just the right amount of salt in it so that you could taste it but it wasn't overpowering.  They stayed fairly thick and didn't spread out too much.  The recipe made quite a large batch but um... they didn't stick around that long.


Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies from My Tasty Treasures
Ingredients:

3¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

1⅓ cups butter, softened

1¼ cups granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars in large bowl on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

2. Drop by rounded tablespoons (I used a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until barely beginning to brown at the edges. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

Bouchon Bakery's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Three years ago today, July 9th, a chocolate chip cookie obsession swept the nation after the New York Times posted the famed Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  The big deal was: 1) Chilling it for 24 hours makes all the difference and 2) A small sprinkle of sea salt on top takes it up a notch from your standard chocolate chip cookie.  I made them, and I loved them.  But it made me think, sometimes, a seemingly small adjustment to a standard recipe can be intriguing enough to make people want to bake it and try.  Case in point: On May 12th, the husband was answering some emails in the morning while watching the Today Show when Thomas Keller, of Bouchon Bakery was on the show making chocolate chip cookies.  He introduced his unique technique: Adding a tablespoon of molasses while you're creaming the butter and sugar.  He says it is the key to the richness, moistness, and texture of his chocolate chip cookies. Whattttt???  I do not love molasses, at all, but since it is only 1 Tablespoon and it is really used for texture, not flavor, I needed to give this a try.  Let me just tell you... I do love the texture of these cookies.  The molasses flavor is not detectable in the final product, and the inside of the cookies is so nice and soft and chewy.  Whether or not they are better than the famous NY Times cookie, I will not know until I do a side-by-side taste test (or maybe that it just an excuse to make more cookies).  

Thomas Keller's Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted slightly from Bouchon Bakery as seen on Today Show
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon Molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all purpose flour
1 - 2 cups chocolate chips


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter for 30 seconds.  Scrape down the bowl and continue to beat for 2 minutes.  
While that is beating, in a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside.  
Add the sugar and molasses and beat on medium 2 minutes and scrape the bowl.  Beat for 4 more minutes, scraping the bowl half way through.  
Reduce mixer speed to low.  In a glass measuring cup or separate small bowl, whisk eggs to beat.  Then pour the eggs slowly into the butter sugar mixture.  Once fully incorporated, return mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes.  
Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients.  When combined, add chocolate chips.  Stir only to incorporate, don't overmix.  
Scoop on to a parchment lined baking sheet using a 1.5 T scoop.  Bake 12 - 18 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.

Brown Butter Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

In my opinion, a chewy, soft chocolate chip cookie beats a crunchy chocolate chip cookie any day.  I love dry, crumbly cookies like shortbread, but when it comes to Chocolate Chip Cookies, they just need to be tender.  
When I first made these cookies, I baked up about half of the batter, and froze the rest.  The first batch came out over-baked them so they were too crunchy for my liking.  But the delicious toffee-like smell of the browned butter and the coffee aroma from the espresso powder was too tempting, and I had to try again for a soft, chewy cookie.  The second batch I baked up were made straight from frozen.  I adjusted the baking time and this time they came out perfect.  They had a slight crunch to the exterior, but gave way to a perfect, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie center.  The browned butter adds a nice complex flavor to these cookies, but the espresso flavor is too subtle to really notice in the final product... but that didn't stop us from quickly eating up the whole batch.  

Brown Butter Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Healthy. Delicious.
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 Tbsp espresso powder
1 tablespoon water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch fine sea salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, room temp
3/4 cup chocolate chips/chunks: (I used half Milk Chocolate Chips, and half chunks I created by chopping up a block of Callebaut dark chocolate)


Directions:
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
Place butter in a small saucepan on medium heat.  Stir occasionally until melted.  Continue cooking until the butter foams up a bit at the top and then turns a golden brown color - at this point it will have a slightly nutty aroma (around 5 minutes).  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a small bowl, combine the butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Beat in the egg.
In a small glass measuring cup, microwave the 1 Tbsp water until it boils (only takes a very short time!).  Then, add the espresso powder and stir.  Add to the butter mixture.
Gently mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Add the chocolate chips.  [(My dough was very dry.  I pressed it together into a log (about 2 - 2.5 inches in diamter), rolled it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 30 min to an hour.  After chilling, it was stiff enough to be sliced and hand-shaped into half inch thick cookies.  At this point, you could bake right away (but you'd have to decrease the baking time or you will over bake them!!)  however, I suggest you freeze the dough mounds until firm before baking.)]
Preheat to 365.  Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet.  If baking from frozen, bake 11-13 minutes or until edges look set and centers still look slightly moist.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the pan, and then remove to cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack.  
Yields about 20-25 cookies.

Double Chocolate Cookies

There are some recipes that I find while browsing online and immediately bookmark with the intentions of making one day.  Sometimes these stayed bookmarked for months and months, probably even years (since I never clear out my bookmark list).  I seem to think that some day I will actually get around to making these.  However, every now and then I find a recipe and make it within a day.  This was one of those recipes, and I must have a baking sixth sense about these things because these cookies were absolutely delicious.  I might even have to make them again in a day or two since they're all gone and the thought of that makes me quite sad.  

These have everything you could want in a cookie: quick, easy to put together.  chocolatey, but not too chocolatey.  thick, not flat or thin.  soft and moist, not crispy.  They taste like the combination of a brownie, a cookie, and chocolat cake.  I think you should probably make these... now.

Double Chocolate Cookies, adapted from Annie's Eats' version of Levain Bakery's cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup hershey's special dark chocolate chis

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 and line baking sheets with silicone baking mats.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fit with the paddle attachment, beat the two sticks of butter until light and fluffy.  With the mixer on low, gradually add the sugar.  When all sugar is incorporated and mixer is light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time.  Scrape down the bowl with a spatula.  Add in the cocoa powder and mix until incorporated.  Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined, don't overbeat.  Fold in the chocolate chips briefly.  

Using an electric scale, divide the dough into 2 ounce dough balls.  Drop lumps of dough on to the prepared cookie sheets about two inches apart.  Flatten balls of dough very slightly with your palm or the bottom of a glass.  Bake 13-15 minutes or until no longer wet looking.  Let cool on the baking sheet 5-10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today, we went to a lovely local outdoor market with our Smart Baker goods -  the aprons, towels and cupcake and dessert towers.  It wound up pretty cold and rainy and after a few hours it was postponed until tomorrow.  So we'll give it another go then!  But for now, we are home drinking hot chocolate and eating these Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies to warm up while we fill some custom apron orders for the holidays.  


These cookies are delicious with just a hint of nuttiness from the Nutella.  The nutella is very subtle and doesn't make the cookies too chocolately.  Daniel, the not-such-a-chocolate-lover, loved them and didn't know there was nutella in it until I told him.  


Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Kirbie's Cravings
Ingredients:
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 C unsalted butter
1/2 C sugar
heaping 1/2 C light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C nutella 
1/2 C chocolate chips


Preheat to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter together with the sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined.
Gradually add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. 
Add in the nutella and mix until just incorporated. Add in the chocolate chips.
Using a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoops, place heaping scoops onto the prepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake about 7 - 12 minutes.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Cookies On Demand

There are two reasons I'm calling these chocolate chip cookies "Cookies on Demand".  

1- The recipe doesn't require softened butter.  So no waiting for butter to come to room temperature, you can use it straight out of the fridge.

2- I prepared the recipe, rolled the dough into balls and baked a few to have that night.  Then I froze the rest of the dough balls on a cookie sheet until they were hard, and placed them in airtight container where they stayed until I had a cookie craving.  Want a cookie?  Just grab two (because no one can eat just one fresh baked cookie) out of your freezer, pop it on a cookie sheet and bake it up.

These cookies have a nice sturdy, crispy exterior and a perfect chewy interior.  They don't flatten out all the way while baking and have a little bit of thickness to them.  Pretty close to perfect if you ask me.

Cookies on Demand, adapted from The Ultimate Stand Mixer Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

makes about 25-30 cookies

11.25 ounces all purpose flour (about 2.5 cups)

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp fine sea salt

8 ounces unsalted butter, cold

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3/4 c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 C white chocolate chips

1 C hershey's dark chocolate chips

Preheat to 400 F. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cold butter.  Add both sugars and continue to beat for 4-5 minutes on medium.

In a separate bowl, mix eggs with vanilla.  Very slowly (over about 4-5 minutes) add this to the butter mixture.  

Stir in the dry ingredients by hand.  Lastly add in the chocolate chips.

Shape the dough by the mounded tablespoon.  

--If you are making them right away, place dough balls on a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet and bake for about 6-9 minutes, or until edges are golden brown but still pale in the center.  Allow to sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on the cooling rack.  

--If you are making them to freeze them and have On Demand, lay out the dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer until completely firm.  When hard, place in an airtight container until ready to bake.  If baked from frozen, bake at 400 F, but for 8-10 minutes.

Chocolate Mint Cookies with Fresh Mint Leaves

I have always hated mint and chocolate together.  I've just never understood the combination.  After Eight mints disgusted me and York Peppermint patties had no appeal.  Don't even get me started on Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, blegh.  I didn't even like anything that had been close to mint.  If my cookies were in a cookie jar that had previously held a mint cookie without being thoroughly disinfected, I wanted no part of it.  It had already absorbed some of the aroma of that sneaky infectious mint.  


Yes, very strong feelings for an herb.  So it was very surprising to me when I recently started craving Thin Mints.  I don't even know if I've ever had one, but suddenly I wanted one.  Strange.  So I went out and bought a fresh Mint plant and put it in our small little herb garden next to our beloved sage and basil.  When it got big enough, I made these.  They're like soft Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies with the added flavor of fresh Mint.  Apparently, I like Chocolate and Mint together now.  If you try these cookies, you just might, too.





Chocolate Mint Cookies with Fresh Mint Leaves
1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 sticks butter, room temperature, softened
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 1/2 packed tablespoons Fresh Mint, chopped fine
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 C dark chocolate chunks or chips


Preheat the oven to 375 F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.  
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg and mix until smooth.  
Stir in the finely chopped mint leaves.  
Add the dry ingredients in two steps, scraping down the bowl after each addition.  Mix until just combined, don't over mix.
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.  
Scoop by the rounded tablespoon onto parchment lined cookie sheets.  Leave a good amount of space, at least 2 inches between cookie dough balls because these may spread a bit.  
Bake about 8-9 minutes, removing from the oven when the cookies appear just set.  For a soft cookie, make sure to not over-bake.  







psst!  Don't forget!  They're just one more day left to enter my give-away for Free Dove Ice Cream!  See details here.  

Ice Cream Cookie Cups

Have you ever prepared a chocolate chip cookie recipe that came out as flat as a pancake? I'm talking so thin, when you hold it up you can see patches of light coming through. I have recently and I was quite disappointed because I thought they were going to be nice and soft and chewy. Instead, they came out wafer thin. I didn't even bother taking pictures of them. We ate about 3 or 4 of them before throwing away the whole lot of them. The problem was, when I prepared the recipe, I only baked half of it. The rest I stuffed into a freezer bag and popped in the freezer for another night when we had the craving for fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies. Since the cookies weren't that great, the bag just sat there in the freezer taking up room for a few weeks. Until I had an idea...

What if I baked them in a cupcake tin? Maybe the shape of the cupcake tin would stop them from spreading out all over the cookie sheet. It would retain its shape and stay a little thicker. Right?


Right. It turned out to be quite a nice little dessert creation.


As they cooled, they sank a little in the middle - making a perfect cookie cup for a scoop of ice cream!







For the cookie recipe, I used Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Toronto Star (via The Canadian Baker). The reviews of the recipe were great, so I was expecting a really good cookie. Maybe I did something wrong, because mine were not so. I'll have to give this recipe another shot, but I have another Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe using Vanilla Pudding that I want to try too!

Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Canadian Baker
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
102 g box instant vanilla pudding mix (or if you have a larger box, weigh it out on a scale)
2 tbsp cold
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp each: baking powder, baking soda
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I went crazy with my Chips and used Chocolate Rocks, Hershey's Special Dark Chips & Toffee Bits)

Preheat to 350. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until creamy. Stir in pudding mix and milk. Add eggs and vanilla. Next, add the flour, baking powder and soda. Stir until batter is smooth. Stir in your choice of chips.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough on non-stick cookie sheets. Bake about 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 10 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm always up for trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe. So when our craving for cookies came the other night, I went in search of a recipe that sounded quick and easy. That's where these cookies from Cookie Madness. They're made with Olive Oil instead of butter (perfect, no waiting for butter to soften!) and can be done in one-bowl (easy clean-up!). Anna of Cookie Madness called the "Thick dense and hearty" cookies, "No-brainers" that Sounds perfect to me! I prepared the recipe entirely in the food processor because I was feeling particularly lazy and wanted to get as few things dirty as possible.

I only slightly changed the recipe, but I will post my changes below... Be sure to check out Anna's original post of the cookies HERE.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies Makes about 14 - 17 cookies.
Ingredients:
*2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
*1/3 cup Olive oil
*1 tsp vanilla
*1 large egg
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*a heading 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
*1 cup AP flour
*1/2 cup oats (old fashioned or quick) – ground in the food processor
*2 heaping tblspns jumbo bittersweet chocolate chips
*2 heading tblspns hershey's special dark chocolate chunks Anna's recipe called for: "2-3 oz (56-85 grams) dark chocolate, cut into chunks" but I always like to cut back on the chocolate in chocolate chip cookies because Dan isn't a big fan... plus I wanted to use a mix of dark chocolate (my fave) and bittersweet (Dan's fave) so thanks to my super-handy-dandy APRON I converted 1 oz to Two Tablespoons... and used: Two heaping tablespoons of each type of chocolate in my recipe... a little over one ounce of each.
*2 heaping tablespoons pecans (I scaled this back a bit too as we're not huge nut people)



Preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
Grind the oats up in the food processor using the steel chopping blade. When chopped to the desired fine-ness (is that a word?) put in a small bowl. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to the oats and mix to combine. Set aside.
Mix together the brown sugar, oil, vanilla and egg in the food processor using the dough blade. Add in the flour/oats mixture and blend until combined. Add the chocolate chips and nuts and stir with a spoon.
Using a 1 tablespoons cookie scoop, place dough onto cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. When baked on the silicone mats, these didn't spread or flatten very much - they spread a little bit more so on the parchment but not considerably. Bake for 11-14 minutes. Cookies are done when edges are slightly golden.



The results? A super duper fast and easy recipe that yielded really great results (I mean, they were all gone in 3). A great recipe when you're really craving homemade cookies, you want 'em FAST, and you're feeling lazy. :)

Oreo Cookie Cookies; Snickerdoodles; & Soft Sugar Cookies

If I didn't keep this blog, there would be no way I'd remember which recipes I've made. I wouldn't be able to re-make anything if it were a big hit because I wouldn't be able to find the recipe I made it from. I have about a gajillion bookmarked on the computer, and I'd never be able to remember which one it was. That was the original reason I started this blog - to keep track of all the things I've made - along with pictures to remind me, and a short little commentary about how it came out. Of course I have a few tried and true recipes that I have written on recipe cards, but even then, those sometimes get lost or dirty and the bloggy is a great fall back. In fact, I think I have temporarily misplaced my handwritten recipe card from a hundred years ago for one of my absolute favorite recipes, and if it weren't for me having posted it on the blog it might have been lost forever... which in this recipe's case would have been a great tragedy. Does anyone else out there rely on their blog in this way? That is one of my favorite things about having this little hobby. It's like a baking diary. It makes me feel a little bit organized, even though when it comes to making things in the kitchen, that really couldn't be farther from the truth :)

I made these cookies quite a few weeks ago (well before Christmas) so I am impressed with myself for not having lost the recipe by now! All of them were made from recipes by fellow bloggers. With each recipe, I put links to the lovely blog from which I borrowed the recipe. The first is Giant Oreo Cookie Cookies - using chopped up, ground oreo's as an ingredients. I found it on Sugar Cooking, and knew immediately I'd have to make it for us oreo lovers. One response to this cookie was, "Now this is a cookie!" These were a big hit... the oreo is a subtle but delicious addition to a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. The only real changes I made were the crush the cookies more finely than just rough chunks, reduce the amount of oreos, and lessen amount of chocolate chips.



Giant Oreo Cookie Cookies adapted from Sugar Cooking
the recipe states it makes about 20-30 cookies, but using 1/4 of dough, i only got about 12 - 14 of them!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, and set aside to cool slightly
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
15 oreos, ground

Preheat to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
Add in the crushed oreos. Beat on low to incorporate.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 14 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


Close up! You can see the dark flecks of oreo - Yum...


The second cookie recipe is based on Snickerdoodle Blossoms from 3 B's, adapted from Keeper Worthy Recipes & Lick the Bowl Good.

I made them as cookies, on a cookie sheet instead of doing them in the muffin tins... but I wish I had done the muffin idea! This recipe was so good I will definitely try them again and make them into a cute mini muffin shape next time. I swapped out the hershey kisses and opted instead for Chocolate Covered Brownie Dough Bites...yummm. I used the brownie bites in some and made others just as plain ol' snickerdoodles. Mine baked out kind of flat... they spread a lot and flattened out. But they were still incredibly SOFT and delish. A definite would-make-again.



Snickerdoodle Not-So-Blossoms from Snickerdoodle Blossoms of 3 B's, adapted from Keeper Worthy Recipes & Lick the Bowl Good.
makes about 4 dozen
Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, soft
1 egg, room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
48 chocolate candies of your choice (chocolate kisses, chocolate covered brownie dough, etc)
For the cinnamon sugar:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Preheat 375 F.
Combine 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar and butter in large mixer bowl. Beat on medium until creamy. Add egg, vanilla and salt and beat until mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking soda. Beat until well mixed.

Refrigerate about 1 hour, or until firm enough to shape into 1 inch balls. Work fast before they get soft! Combine the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough balls in cinnamon sugar.
Place 2 inches apart onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until very lightly golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. (OOPS - I added my chocolate candy to the center of the cookie BEFORE baking. But I think either way they would have spread out flat.) Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely on a wire rack.

And FINALLY, the last cookie recipe is for Soft Sugar Cookies. These were by far the softest sugar cookies I have ever made. And possibly even my favorite sugar cookie I've ever prepared. They maintained their height nicely without spreading too much. My only beef is that the dough is thin and even after a little chilling (which the recipe doesn't call for) is hard to roll into a ball to roll in the sugar. But non-stick spraying a cookie scooper helped a lot with this process. I saw these on Delish Blog, which they adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, 2006. The only change I made was to add some turbinado sugar to the granulated sugar used for rolling the dough balls in for some extra crunch. They came out perfectly SUPER-SOFT on the inside, with a sugary crust on the outside. Definitely would make these again!!



Softest Sugar Cookies from Delish Blog, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, 2006.
makes about 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
extra granulated sugar mixed with some turbinado sugar for rolling

Preheat to 350 F. Mixed 1/2 cup of the sugar with some turbinado sugar in a small bowl for coating. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside. Beat butter and rest of the sugar (1 1/2 cups) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, until combined, only about 30 seconds. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture until just combined. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes. Line cookie sheets with parchment. Using wet hands, roll 2 Tablespoons of dough into balls, then roll in sugar to coat. Place balls on sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Very slightly flatten cookies with a flat surface (the bottom of a glass, measuring cup, spatula, etc).
Bake cookies until edges are set and just barely beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 10-12 minutes. To keep these soft, you DON'T want to overbake them! Leave cookies on baking sheet after removing from oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Rice Krispies Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recently while shopping we saw one of those enormous more-than-family-sized boxes of Rice Krispies cereal and decided that we should get it... with only two people and a shih tzu at home, we must have thought it was a good idea at the time to buy 700 LBS of the same kind of cereal for some reason. I think Daniel said this would force me to make his favorite rice krispy treats more often (the mexican vanilla ones... though if we made them often enough to get rid of the box, Daniel's love for the treats would quickly fade into totally-over-it-ness). So when I saw this recipe for cookies with rice krispies in it, I bookmarked it immediately knowing I'd be able to use up some of our supply of the cereal. The original recipe is from Imperial Sugar's website, and it was adapted on Cookie Madness here. I made some more changes to the recipe.



Rice Krispy Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Imperial Sugar and Cookie Madness
makes about 24 cookies
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 heaping cup Rice Krispies cereal

Preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together. Add the vanilla and egg, mixing just until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together to mix. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir until almost blended. Add the chips and cereal and stir until mixed.
Drop by tablespoons, spacing 2 ½ inches apart, onto cookies sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly golden brown around edges.

The cookies came out great. The crunchy from the cereal mixes really well with the chocolate chips. And it really was a cinch to put together - very quick! Would definitely make these again! (Maybe a good Christmas cookie?)

Sweet Melissa Sundays #11: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can never pass up an opportunity to make Chocolate Chip Cookies. Especially when life is at its most hectic, a fresh batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies just seems to do the trick to make everything right again.

So when the poll on the Sweet Melissa Sundays blog group decided we would make Melissa Murphy's recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies, my heart leaped. No 5 step recipe, no chilling overnight, no fussing with yeast. Just plain ol', heart-warmin', comfort food Chocolate Chip Cookies. Nice.

Everything went just right. I subbed in Dry Roasted Peanuts for the Toasted Almonds in the recipe (hey, it SAID in the book I could use any nuts I want! :), and used half semi-sweet, half milk chocolate Chips... and baked away. Then... when my oven beeped announcing its preheating was done... and my cookie lumps were sitting on their parchment lined sheets waiting to be baked... I spotted that egg sitting on the counter top. Hm, what's THAT doing there?

Oh, right. It's supposed to be in my cookies. SIGHHHHH.

I didn't know how they would come out, but I dumped my dough balls back into a bowl, cracked open that lonely, forgotten egg and mixed it together. I plopped out dough blobs onto my parchment and baked em up...

Much to my surprise... they came out PERFECT. Delicious! The dry roasted nuts gave off a subtle but distinct nutty flavor, the hint of milk chocolate gave it some added sweetness, and the TASTE of the cookie was terrific.. a slight caramelly-tone, brown-sugary yumness. Though we aren't big on nuts in our cookies, these were totally delicious.



Check out the other bloggers' version of Melissa's Cookies! And also check out the main page for the Sweet Melissa Sundays blog group -- Melissa HERSELF made an appearance! How cool is that?!

The Great Cookie Experiment & 2 year bloggiversary!

Today is my Two year bloggiversary! Hard to believe, it has flown by. I initially started blogging all my baking adventures to be able to keep track of the recipe's I've made more easily - so that when I wanted to make something again, I could look back in my Bloggity Archives, see the pictures to remind me which recipe it is, find the recipe there, and any feedback I included in my post that I received from the recipe by taste testers. Ice Cream Before Dinner has turned into much more than a blog of recipe storage. As I am sure all of you feel, it is a great way to connect with other baking enthusiasts. I went from snapping photos documentary-style, just to get a picture, to building my own little light box to attempt to take nicer pictures. I've come a long way from baking just my favorite, tried-and-true recipes, to making things far outside of my comfort-zone. So thank you to anyone who might read this little old thing, and thank you for taking the time out to make comments. I really appreciate every single one :)

I decided I had to do something special for my bloggiversary. Should I make a fancy 3 tiered cake, painstakingly decorated with fondant and gum paste? Try a complicated new recipe the likes of which I have never tried before? Mmmm, No. I decided I'd go the Classic Route. I know in the past few months, ever since the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie article came out there has been a lot of discussion about WHO MAKES THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE, but I decided that it needed to be revisited.... for the most part because I've never tried the NY Times Recipe, or many of the other recipes others claim to be "The Best". I wanted to taste test them myself and decide for myself! (And also, because someone did Daniel a favor at work, and as payment, he promised them chocolate chip cookies). so THE GREAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE EXPERIMENT was born!!!

The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment
I selected THREE different chocolate chip cookie recipes that I found many other bloggers called "their favorite" or "THE BEST". To be fair, I altered the recipes a wee bit. I used the same type of chocolate in all of them, made the same size cookies, and refrigerated all of them for the same amount of time (regardless of whether the original recipe called for chilling or not). This way, all of the recipes would have fair chance of winning - so no one's opinions would be altered by "i like dark chocolate better than semisweet," etc. Then, I also decided to do each recipe TWO WAYS: one batch with sea salt, one batch without sea salt.

The Contenders:
1. Adapted from Jacques Torres, as seen in the New York Times: Click here for article & original recipe.
2. Adapted from "The Chewy" from Alton Brown: click here for original recipe.
3. Adapted from "The Great Book of Chocolate" by David Lebovitz: click here for an adaptation of the original recipe

Chilling time: 36 hours.
Chocolate Chips: Semisweet chocolate chips





MY ADAPTATIONS OF THE RECIPES:

The New York Times cookie:
(original recipe)
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 2/3 C bread flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
2 1/2 sticks butter, unsalted, softened
1 1/4 C light brown sugar
1 C + 2 Tblspn white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp madagascar or mexican vanilla
16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Extra Sea Salt

Sift the flours, baking soda and powder, and salt together in a bowl, and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 5 min. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract, and reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined - don't overmix. Drop in chocolate chips and stir a little more just to incorporate. Place dough in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
After 36 hours, preheat to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment. Scoop dough balls (about 2 tablespoons each) and place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. For half of the cookies, sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Bake until golden brown and still soft - about 13 - 20 minutes (depending on your cookie size). Place cookie sheet on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove cookies to cool directly on wire rack until cool.


The Chewy:
(original recipe)
1 stick of butter, unsalted, softened
1 1/8 C bread flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 C granulated sugar
1/2 C + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
A little less than 1 large egg. (I know, I'm weird. Lightly beat it and use about 3/4 of it in the recipe)
1 tablespoon whole milk
3/4 Tsp madagascar or mexican vanilla
1 C semisweet chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a saucepan set on low heat. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together & set aside. Pour the melted butter in a mixing bowl. Add the sugars, and then cream the butter & sugars together. Add the egg, the milk and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Stir in the chips.
Chill the dough in the frig for 36 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat to 375. Scoop 2-Tablespoon amounts of dough onto parchment lined sheet, Sprinkle sea salt on half of the dough balls, and bake for about 12 - 18 minutes (again, depends on your cookie size) or until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes on the cookie pan, then remove cookies to cool directly on wire rack until cool.


The David Lebovitz Cookie:
(an adaptation of the original recipe; David Lebovitz's blog; & where to buy The Great Book of Chocolate)
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 large egg
1 tsp madagascar or mexican vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 C flour
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/3 C semisweet chocolate chips

Cream the cold butter and the sugar together. When mixed and smooth, add in the egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. When incorporated, add the flour and stir by hand. Add the chips and stir just until mixed in. Chill in refrigerator for 36 hours.
When ready to bake, make 2-Tablespoon sized balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Press tops down slightly. Sprinkle sea salt on half of the dough balls. Bake for about 16 - 22 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to rack to cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then remove cookie to cool directly on rack.


Taste testers were all given:


RESULTS:

Ok, this is a tough one. Everyone preferred different cookies. But one thing was a hands down decision: The cookies WITH sea salt were preferred over those without. Mm Yummy. I think I liked the David Lebovitz cookies the best. One taste tester agreed. Two others liked the NY Times. One liked the Chewy. Another liked the texture of The Chewy the best, but the flavor of The New York times and David Lebovitz better. One did NOT like the chewy's flavor (I think that taste tester might not like Brown Sugar taste). SO THE CONCLUSION: All of these chocolate chip cookie recipes are total winners. I know, such a lame answer, right? Each of the recipes had their strong points: The Chewy was really nice and soft and chewy. And the flavor of the Lebovitz and Torres recipes really were delicious. I'd make ALL of these recipes again. My own personal faves: Probably the Lebovitz with the Torres coming in at a close, close, close second place.