Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's talk about what stirs your pot.
What stirs your pot?  What rattles your cage?  What kills your buzz? What annoys you? (An endless array of idioms may be???)
For me, movies like 'Nights in Rodanthe' - they made me all excited with Richard Gere and Diane Lane... and then when I finally got around to seeing it?  Zip. Nothing. Nada.  What about rain on the day you planned a beach picnic - grrrrrrrr~!!!!!  Talk to any Aucklander and they'll know what I'm talking about.  How about when people cancel on you when you've been looking forward to seeing them all week.  Bastards!  >:-[
I'm not trying to entice you to the dark side of negativity, I'm just trying to transition into talking about my cookies.  My chocolate chip cookies...... :)

I had one of those days.  Y'know, one of those days when you need someone, something, some song to make you feel better?  Well, I was having one of those days so, I decided to bake me some chocolate chip cookies.  I have about a million chocolate chip cookie recipes and, yes, I do plan to try aaaall of'em.  But that wasn't the day to trial a recipe.  No.  I wanted a foolproof recipe that would sweeten up my cloudy day.  So, I used the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know - The Nestle Tollhouse recipe.  Yea Yea Yeah~~~ baby~~~
Can anything go wrong when you've got chocolate chip cookies?  I don't think so~  :)

The Recipe

BTW, the myth about chilling the dough?  Not a myth.  I believe in it.  Use these chocolate chip cookies to try this out and you'll know what I mean.  I put'em in the fridge overnight.  You can freeze the dough, too.  Just transfer them to the fridge a few hours before you plan to bake them.  They'll be as crispy as fresh bed of autumn leaves and goo-hoo-hooey on the inside. Enjoy.  :)

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Every week, I have this routine.  It is this:  After church, I would go to a petrol station (that's gas station in the American language).  There's this petrol station near my church that I can earn reward points from and also where I can get an amazing white chocolate macadamia nut cookie.  Sometimes I'll go a little later in the day and their cookie won't be as fresh as I'd like but it still manages to kill it every week.  But today, I thought I'd break out of that habit.  I baked my own cookies.  Yeah baby~  That's what it's all about, right?

As always, there were some choices but I thought my first attempt would be the recipe from allrecipes.com.  Even on that site, I had many to choose from.  I went with the one that looked the most promising with over 200 reviews rating it 4.5 stars out of 5.  That's a pretty good grade, wouldn't you say?

This is a very delicate and light cookie.  I also liked that it didn't overpower me with its sweetness.
Next time I will try chilling the dough before popping them in the oven.  :)

White Chocolate Macadamie Nut Cookies

Allrecipes.com

• 1 C butter softened (225g) room temp (I used salted but you'd probably use unsalted)
  
• 3/4 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 2 eggs room temp
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1tsp of vanilla and no almond extract)
  
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (I skipped this cuz I used salted butter)
• 1 C coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (I used about 130g which was perfect)
• 1 C coarsely chopped white chocolate (of course...I used whittaker's)

1. Preheat oven to 350deg F (175 deg C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until smooth using an electric mixer or a stand mixer.  
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla and almond extract.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Do not overmix.
5. Fold in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate.
6. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  (I made a big ball of about 1 1/2 inch drops)
7. Bake for 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  (I baked for 11 minutes and watched the bottom of the cookie which turned golden brown.  The dome of the cookies were very pale and inflated.  The deflate as they cool)
8. Cool on pan for a few minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.
9. I made 28 cookies.  :)
   

Double Chocolate Cookies

So. I was thinking about how I could introduce these cookies to you. I thought may be something poetic like - if heaven existed on earth, it'd be these cookies. Or something more tangible like if Brad Pitt were a cookie, he'd be these (even though for me comparing them to John Krasinski or Jimmy Fallon would be more accurate). But I couldn't make up my mind so I'm just gonna say it straight: These cookies are a-mazing. I think my taste buds were surprised at such level of goodness. They're still in shock. Really. Let me put it this way. Think of the best chocolate chip cookie you've ever had. You thinkin' about the gooey, chewy cookie? The one that makes your mouth water just picturing it? I can confidently tell you that these cookies will take that cookie down any day of the week.
Have I convinced you yet?

This is Martha Stewart's recipe and I have to say, the lady knows her stuff.
A note about the dough. Although, I always try the dough before I pop my baking in the oven, I've never been a 'lick-the-bowl' kinda gal. I usually let the raw dough on my mixing bowl or whatever get washed away in the sink. But this dough - my goodness - I couldn't stop eating it!
It is velvety and shiny and quite irresistible.



























Double Chocolate Cookies
Martha Stewart.com
Makes about 3 dozen (I made 2 dozen - but I made mine pretty big)

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used sweetened - which made the cookies turn out a tad bit sweet but it was still mind-blowingly awesome so I think it's safe to use whichever)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt (I skipped this cuz I used salted butter)
• 1/2 lb good-quality milk chocolate, 4oz coarsely chopped and 4 oz cut into 1/4 inch chunks (I used Whittaker's creamy milk chocolate and used 250g which is a bit more than the recipe calls for - if you can get your hands on Whittaker's USE THEM!)
• 1/2 (1 stick, 113 g) unsalted butter (I used salted)
• 1 1/2C sugar (I used caster)
• 2 large eggs - room temp
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg F/162 deg C.
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
3. Melt 4 oz coarsely chopped chocolate with butter in a small heatproof bowl set over simmering water. Let cool slightly (I cooled it to lukewarm - close to room temp)
4. Put chocolate mixture sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until well combined. (I used a hand-mixer)
5. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in flour until just combined. Fold in chocolate chunks
6. Using a 1 1/2 ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment0lined baking sheets. Leave 2 inch space between cookies.
7. Bake until the surface cracks - about 15 minutes. (I baked for 13 minutes in my oven). The cookies will be very soft to the touch and a little bit inflated when you take them out. It will deflate as you cool them on the pan. Let cool on pan for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
8. Can be stored airtight container at room temp up to 3 days.