"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie

Snow day #2! Yes, we got 2 blizzards in one week, each about 2 feet of snow. So, again, I headed to the kitchen to bake. I have seen the recipe for "The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie by Alton Brown on quite a few blogs and it is supposedly the best chocolate chip cookie recipe out there. I actually haven't baked chocolate chip cookies in a long time and these were awesome! I may want to try a couple of more recipes soon to compare....

Adapted from: "The Chewy" by Alton Brown (I found on www.FoodNetwork.com)

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour (I used all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. A dd the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Crumble Cake

Onto the second baking project of the snow day... I figured I'd try a coffee cake.

I couldn't help but think that chocolate chips would taste better in this recipe than raisins (which I didn't have anyway). So, I made half of the recipe just omitting the raisins and the second half of the cake sprinkled with semisweet chocolate chips. I must say, I liked it with the chips better! But when can I ever resist peanut butter and chocolate??

Adapted from: www.BakingBites.com

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 cup raisins (I omitted and topped off half of the cake with semisweet chocolate chips)
1 cup crunchy peanut butter, room temperature

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9-inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a hand mixer (or with a spoon, if you’re so motivated), beat in the softened butter until mixture resembles wet sand. Remove 3/4 cup of the mixture to a medium bowl and set aside. Add buttermilk and egg to the large bowl with the remaining flour mixture. Stir well, until no streaks of flour remain, then stir in raisins (if desired). Pour into prepared pan. Add peanut butter to medium bowl with remaining 3/4 cup flour mixture. Stir well and crumble (or drop in clumps, as the mixture will be thick) onto the cake batter in the pan. (Here is where I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of the cake, just half to try it out!) Bake for about 30 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Brownie Cookies

Snow day! Do you know what that means? I baked a few things! I tried to cut recipes in halves (or thirds...) so that I didn't have tons of baked good sitting out on my kitchen counter so that I would be tempted to eat all of them. These Brownie Cookies really did taste like brownies...except I think I did something wrong with the recipe! I'm not sure what, but the consistency of the batter was very watery. I added more flour but it didn't seem to be doing the trick. When I put the dough on the baking sheet, they spread out into large thin cookies before I even put them in the oven. They still tasted great but I'm sure that's not how they were supposed to be (maybe my calculations were wrong when cutting down the recipe?). After trying 6 cookies, I put the rest into my mini muffin pan. Now I had both Brownie Cookies and Brownie Bites!




Adapted from: http://www.annie-eats.com/



Yields: about 24-35 cookies

INGREDIENTS
466 g. dark chocolate, chopped (about 2 2/3 cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, heat the chocolate and butter until completely melted and smooth, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract; whisk until well combined. In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Stir together and set aside. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture and whisk until well combined. Mix in the dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Drop scoops of about 1½ tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, evenly spaced. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are firm on the outside and the dough has lost its sheen. Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets. Transfer to a wire rack when firmly set, and repeat with any remaining dough, if necessary.