The Perfect Cookie

Chocolate Chip Cookies (modified slightly from the New York Times)

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, grated
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Stir all chocolate into dough using a wooden spoon. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. The original recipe recommends using 3 1/2 ounces of dough per cookie and baking six cookies per baking sheet, but I thought that made for an entirely too large cookie. So I dropped the dough by tablespoonfuls on to the prepared cookie sheet, then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and baked until golden brown, but still soft, 10-12 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 3-4 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.

COURTESY of THIS BLOG is where I found this recipe and picture. Because her picture is better than mine. But my batch of cookies truly turned out like hers and they taste amazing!! Brad took some to work and people had thought he had bought them.

Christmas Gift

So I know it is a little early to be posting about Christmas, but because I am , anxious/compulsive I have been working on my Christmas gifts as of recent. One of Brad's (my hubby's) favorite memories of his childhood is that he and his dad had matching aprons.

Sooooooo......
I made matching aprons for Brad and the boys!

Merry Christmas! a little early!

My Brother

So my brother Tommy had passed away on September 3, 2011 from
dilated cardiomyopathy . It was unexpected and is still a complete shock. So why am I posting about this on my blog which is intended for creative things? Because I made a collage that will be put into a shadow box with the dried rose petals from Tommy's funeral service. We need to remember our dead. And this shadow box will help me to do this!

"For their ^asalvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made ^bperfect."

~Doctrine and Covenants 128:15

Fall Time Favorite

I half this recipe and it makes eight mini loaves. Thank you to my sister-in-law Suzi Janda, this is the best banana bread I have ever had. So moist!

6 Bananas
4 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 C Sour Cream
4 C Sugar
4 Eggs Beaten
2 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 C Oil

Mix All together. Pour into 3 Lg pans or eight mini pans.
Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes.
Brown the top for first 20 minutes then TURN DOWN TEMP to 250*

***Bread freezes really well for later use***

Rolo Cookies

OMG!!!!! is how I feel about these cookies. Since my last pregnancy I have been craving cookies like crazy! These beauties continue to find their way into my cookie jar and then into my tummy.

Favorite snack....rolo cookie and a Diet Coke!

* I put my rolos on top at the end of the baking and not in the middle of the cookie like the recipe calls for. Just a personal thing!*

Rolo Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Bag of Rolo candies, unwrapped
Sugar (for rolling the cookie dough balls in)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.

3. With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time. Next, add in vanilla extract. Mix until blended.

4. Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend well. Take a spoonful of chocolate cookie dough and wrap around one Rolo candy. Make sure Rolo is completely covered with cookie dough. Roll dough ball in sugar and place on prepared baking sheet. Continue until you run out of cookie dough.

5. Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and cool completely.

A Cookbook

Here are my most favorite cookbooks! Or should I say "Bake"books.
The question is, do I compile my favorite recipes into my own type of book? One I could make on MyPublisher or Blurb.com ?

Or do I continue as is with my assortment of cookbooks?

In my degree program in college I learned that it is very hard to photograph food. Often times the foods that are professionally photographed have been sprayed with glosses and are inedible, although they look delicious.

What to do?

xoxo Liz

Etsy? Yes Please!

Etsy is amazing! I am baffled at how creative people are and the ingenuity that goes into some of the products sold on this website.

What would I like to do if I had a spare moment from my toddler and infant.

Surf Etsy!

xoxo Liz

Please sit....and laugh with me!

This blog is really intended for myself and a way to keep track of things I love and like and things that interest me. This really is intended as a bit of a playground for my creative ideas to play. And if all else fails, I can sit and laugh at what I have tried to create.....So please sit, and laugh with me a while!

xoxo Liz