Tuesday, February 16, 2010

TWD—My (Dorie’s) Best Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cheesecake Hearts

I made these cookies about three weeks ago.  This photo is nice and yummy.

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Oh, whoops, wrong photo.  Still, pretty darn cute.  Back to the cookies.

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I love chocolate chip cookies, maybe even most of all treats I could eat.  For the two cups of flour, I measured 9 ounces.  I creamed the butter, then added the 2/3 cup brown sugar and creamed that.  I couldn’t believe there wasn’t more sugar to the one cup of butter.  I looked at the recipe at least three times.  Didn’t see the 1 cup granulated sugar every time.  Well, then I did finally see it in time to add to the creamed butter, but sure freaked me out for a minute thinking there wasn’t more sugar in the cookies.

I made one batch of the cookies and thought these were really flat, spread-out and a bit greasy.  (Not my favorite kind of ccc.)

Added a little extra baking powder to the rest of the dough and chilled it until the next morning.

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Still flatter than I wanted.  But even though these are not my kind of chocolate chips cookies, they were pretty good and they certainly all got eaten (not all by me!)  I liked the taste and texture the finely chopped pecans gave them.  One thing, besides that they were a little too flat and a bit greasy that bothered me about them is their shape.  You know, I used a cookie scoop, so all the balls of dough were nice and round, but the cookies kept coming out like this--

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I call them amoeba cookies.  I thought this was a great pick because I’m really surprised I hadn’t made Dorie’s CCC’s yet as I’m out to try as many chocolate chip cookies as I can!  Thanks to Kait from Kait's Plate for this week’s pick.  You can find the recipe on her blog.

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I’ve still been up to my eyeballs in getting our house ready to put on the market.  My mom and I have worked so hard the last two weeks with dejunking (holy cow, what a project!!!) and cleaning.  We are having the entire house recarpeted and almost all of it repainted.  Our home does not look like our home.  Sigh!  But we know it’s all good.  We’ll be moving to Utah sometime—not exactly sure when---May, June, July???  We’re planning to get the kids through the scho0l year, but with the house going on the market next week, if we get a good offer on it, we’ll do whatever it takes, which may possibly include renting an apartment for a few months.  Who knows.  I can hardly see past it all being clean up and ready.  Now I know it sounds like we must have had the messiest house ever.  Nope.  But what a job this has been.  I’ve told Kevin I NEVER want to move again.  I’m also trying very hard not to think about the fact that we are leaving this home and this place (Kansas!) and we will miss our friends here terribly.  Sigh.

I have NO idea how we would have gotten so much done with the house if my mom had not been here.  I’m not sure what I’ll do when she goes back home on Wednesday.  She’s ready to go back to her quiet (boring ;) life with just my dad, but we have sure loved having her here and her help with the house and organizing and dejunking and being with the kids last weekend while Kevin and I went to Utah and having someone to cook with and talk to has been awesome.  Thank you, Mommy!

You can also blame her (jk!) for my being gone from the blogging world so much.  She hasn’t let me bake like I normally would.  She’s such a slave driver!  Just kidding.  We would be up a creek if she hadn’t been here to keep me going!  But I am missing blogging and checking out all my favorite blogs!  Please know that if I have missed your blogs lately and haven’t been able to stop by!  I won’t even tell you how FULL my reader is right now.  Sigh.

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Parker and his crazy hair (and crazy self) during spirit week at school (or whatever it’s called) last week!

For Valentine’s Day, I made the boys, including Kevin, as well as my mom, cheesecake for dessert.  Just a simple, easy one that I found at Joy of Baking.  It’s really cheesecake squares, but I loved that that made them easy and they baked in 20 minutes.  Can’t beat that.  Instead of cutting them in to squares, since it was Valentine’s Day, I cut them in to hearts.  Then I topped them with everyone’s favorite, cherry pie filling.

Then I hurried and snapped a quick, horrible picture in bad lighting.  But the cheesecake hearts were delicious.

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I really need to get a light box and learn a little food photography! 

Check out the recipe at Joy of Baking.  Surprise, I followed the recipe exactly… I think. ;)

36 comments:

Lisa Ernst said...

I always enjoy your latest Dorrie recipe, even though they are sometimes (more often than not?) a bit of a let down. I'm sure the cookies were good, but I agree they don't look like the best. I know you have made many a fabulous batch of CCCs! I still love the NY Times cookie recipe the most. Maybe someone has come up with an even better one since then, who knows?

vibi said...

Boy, those look crazy chewy, moist and soft... mmmm... I thought mine were just the opposite.

Very well done, Katrina! But then again... you have a crowd cheering for you all the time, reminding you... you make everything well!

Leslie said...

Moving. SUCKS! We are thinking of putting our house on the market and I am dreading it!

Hindy said...

Your cookies look great. I made the peanut butter variation and they were not as flat.

Tia said...

sounds like a lot of people were a little let down by this recipe, but hey - live and learn. and none went to waste :)

Megan said...

I'm so excited - we'll practically be neighbors!

My cookies were shaped the exact same way - and a bit greasy, too. Not my favorite either. No loss though, we'll just move onto the next one!

Mimi said...

These were not my favorite cookie, I agree they were good, but not my favorite.
Moving is such a pain, exciting maybe, but the work involved in selling/buying, planing and packing is incredible. Thanks for the up date on your move.
Mimi

Eliana said...

The cheesecake and the cookies look superb. But not better than those cute little boys :)

noble pig said...

You are going through exactly what I did last year, except we kept our house in California...it's just sitting there empty. I think we'll go there in the summer for a little vacation!

chocolatechic said...

Your cookies look great.


I'm gonna be making them in about 20 minutes and posting them tomorrow.

Bella Baker said...

sounds like a lot of people got flat cookies! Mine weren't flat at all. I refrigerated my dough, maybe that helped. I'm glad they were still enjoyed by everyone! Good luck with the dejunking...its one of those projects that doesnt feel satisfying until its been completed!

Anonymous said...

We are getting our house ready, too. But we aren't moving across the country...hopefully, about 3-4 miles away. but is is SUCH a process. I want to hire someone else to dejunk!
I didn't get a chance to comment but I loved last week's post with the throwdown!! what a fun idea. good luck with the house.

Gourmified said...

You know, I vamped up my recipe with coconut and toasted almond chunks. it was DELICIOUS! I used milk chocolate chips and should have used the bittersweet like Dorie suggested. I think it would have been less sugary sweet. I still think my Mom's recipe is the BEST, but this is a close 2nd..maybe because I'm a coconut and almond fan most of all!!

mike said...

2-1 ratio of butter/sugar = flat. :) Good, but flat! They look wonderful Katrina - I actually liked the flat, chewy version... and I'm sure your boys didn't turn them down either! Nicely done!

Flourchild said...

Im glad you liked the cookies..sorry they came out flatter then you wanted. I think they look fine!

CookiePie said...

Any chocolate chip cookie is ok with me! ANd I love you cheesecake hearts!

Good luck with the house sale! We just did that - it is a job and a half. So happy you have your mom there to help. All the best!!

Mary said...

I think your photograph of the stack of cookies is lovely! I thought they were too thin too, but yummy. I added pecans too and thought they added a great texture and flavour.

Melissa said...

Love the pictures of your kids! And you hit it right on - they're amoeba cookies!! :-)

Unknown said...

These weren't my favorite either. My husband gladly ate them, but we definitely prefer thicker, more chewy cookies. Nice job finding time to make them despite everything you have going on!

Paula said...

I can't believe you are still cooking and taking pictures with all that you have going on. You are an amazing woman!

Shandy said...

A home is filled with treasures, memories, mementos and everything else that creates a home. I can not even imagine trying to clean out a whole house, while having young boys in school and worrying about having the whole house recarpeted and repainted. That whole scenario is A LOT of work! You will look back on this and be amazed at yourselves.

You definitely tried to make this recipe work. I tried Dorie's ingredient twist and added chunky peanut butter and deleted 1/4 cup of butter so spreading didn't happen. The recipe calls for a LOT of butter. Your CCC's do look delicious =)

Jules Someone said...

Too flat for me as well. Ah well.

Lisa said...

Great read! Now..what better than chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake? You always hit the spot with eveyrthing you bake. They look delicious, and love the photo of Parker lol

Max and Deborah said...

Wow moving is quite the project. I am glad mom is there to help!!! I hope your home sells quickly! the first 6 weeks are the most productive. My suggestion, you gotta have curb appeal!!! To make people want to come into your cute home. I wish you the best. Good Luck!!

Leslie said...

I think your cookies look fine, though that odd shape is puzzling. I went in a different direction this week as I had made Dorie's cookies before and wasn't head over heels with them.

Having your mom help is an incredible blessing. Moving is so stressful!

Megan said...

The pictures of the cookies and the cheesecake look yummy but I like the picture of the boys best of all. Cheesecake is a close second though. LOL
God bless mothers! Good luck with the sale of the house.

Anonymous said...

I was worried about how flat mine were, but I liked them.

Good luck with the move! I can't imagine packing up our whole household - that would be quite a job!

Liz said...

I've missed your blogs and comments, but am so glad you're kicking butt in the house cleaning department! I agree--as written, these were flatty mcflattersons. I added extra flour which really helped. Oh well, even a bad ccc is still pretty tasty!

Kayte said...

I am slow getting around this week, and I always save yours for last because I have to see everything you make and oh and ah over the kiddie photos. The photos of the kids are always so adorable, I enjoy them so much, and guess what, the move to Utah won't matter a bit, right, b/c you will still be posting! I cannot imagine getting a house ready to sell with four little ones around...Kudos to you on that alone! We are going to downsize when the boys are off in a year and a half and I am already dreading that process of sorting through everything. Yikes. 20 years of "oh, just put it in the attic and we will figure out later what we are going to do with it" is not a hot prospect for a good time. Your cookies look wonderful, they were a big hit here as the guys like crispy and crunchy a whole lot. I, however, and you knew this was coming, am really drooling over the heart cakes with the cherries on top...oh my those are calling my name!

Teanna said...

Hahaha ameoba cookies! Hysterical! They look great, and I always enjoy the photos of your gorgeous family!

TeaLady said...

Love the heart cheese cake.

Not a fan of flat cookies, but these were tasty.

Good luck with the move. ALWAYS a fun time....

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

Mine spread like crazy too. Not my favorite either but still pretty good. :) Good luck with the move! That is such a pain to keep the house up.

Maria said...

I am always on the look out for the best ccc. Dorie's are good, but too thin for me:) I can't wait til you are in Utah, sell that house already and get out here:) Are you going to Blogher food?

Tia said...

i love those heaerts!

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