Thursday, April 03, 2008

BAKING SPREE!

I have been on a baking spree for the last couple weeks or so (although, baking has been a part of me for most of my life--I've always been the cookie maker in my family.)  I have been enjoying reading other baker's blogs online and looking at recipes.  Maybe I'm enjoying looking at recipes and pictures so much because I can't eat them right now (my diet).  I have also been loving looking at cookbooks.  Cookies seem to intrigue me the most for some reason.  

In my search, I have baked many recipes over the last few weeks.  (My family is SO lucky!)  Who knew there were SO many different variations on the chocolate chip cookie.  The number of different recipes are endless.  The one I tried today is from Food Network's recent Ultimate Recipe Showdown.  It is called Radical Rob's Chocolate Chip Cookie.  Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup baker's sugar (superfine)  although I used regular sugar 
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter
3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag (2 cups) milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix sugars until well combined. Melt butter in the microwave and add to sugar mixture. Stir until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs and stir until well mixed. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined and NO MORE! The dough will be stiff. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Stir until just combined. Avoid any extra stirring to avoid tough cookies. Line cookie sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop dough onto sheets with a small ice cream scoop. Flatten the dough slightly with your hand and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges and tops of cookies are just turning brown. Cool on wire racks.

 

These cookies are really yummy!

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Why three pictures?  I just wanted to show you what a great job Kevin does taking pictures.  You see, I tried to take some pictures of the cookies while he was at work and they all looked horrible.  How about I stick with cookie making and he stays the photographer.   Today I also made up a recipe using puffed rice cereal and some Honey Smacks cereal.  I made them like rice crispies with melted marshmallows, and I added some broken up pieces of graham crackers some non-melted marshmallows and some chocolate chips, thus making them S'mores Treats.  They are good, but a little dry.  Next time I would up the amount of marshmallow and/or cut the amount of cereal. 

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On a different note, could there possibly be any hair on a baby more cute than this?---Sam was not a happy camper at the time, but darn his hair is just SO cute with the little curls out to the side, reminds me of Scottie, his was the same way, except I think he even had a little more and it was a bit more curly.  We got his first haircut at about 16 months and I just can't cut this baby Sammie's hair (granted he just turned one, but some people think I should cut his hair now.)  These pictures don't even quite do him justice so you can see his curls.   

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2 comments:

Amy Franklin said...

Treeni-Thank you so much for letting me know about the typo in the recipe!! I am going to have to make then again. Yours look awesome. I have been to the cookie madness site--from your blog, actually. That is where I saw the link to his recipe. I wish I could bake a batch of cookies every day, but that would be torture for me. Yesterday I made 3 batches of muffins and cinnamon rolls (with leftover pizza dough). YUM!

familywithfivekids said...

Those cookies look delicious! You are making my hungry.