The Chocolate Chip Cookie

 

Well I think I have finally found my favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  This cookie is everything a Chocolate Chip Cookie should be; moist, chocolaty, melt in your mouth goodness.  The best part, this cookie is so dunkable.  Yes people, dunkability is very high on my list of what makes a good cookie.

I can’t begin tell you how many recipes I’ve tried, and yes, I have tried the infamous Neiman Marcus $250.00 cookie recipe as well.  You’ll notice I’ve never blogged about any of these cookies, because frankly they were not blog worthy until now. When I set out to make this particular Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I didn’t take any pictures of the process, I really wasn’t holding out much hope.  But I was wrong, with a little tweaking of the temperature this was the best cookie out there.

Where did I get the recipe you ask? I came across it quite by accident.  The other night I was making streusel cupcakes and it called for golden-yellow sugar (no pictures of that cupcake either, it was way too dark to take a decent picture).  As I was measuring out the sugar I noticed the recipe in the back and thought to give it a try.  I tried it the next night.  I was not impressed with the first batch that came out of the oven, they looked too overdone and the chocolate chips we barely visible.  I lowered the oven temperature and kept a close eye on the next batch.  I was happy with how the second batch turned out, but the true test was in the taste and oh yes the “dunkability” factor.  Once they cooled I poured myself a glass of cold milk and I took a dunk, and then a taste and then another dunk and taste and without even realizing it I had dunked and “tasted” four cookies. I was in love; my journey for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ended that night.  Now I would like to share it with you my friends.  Even if you do have a go to Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I beg you try this one…just once, that’s all it will take.

Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

Peanut Butter, oatmeal, chocolate, these are just a few of my favourite things.  Mix them all together and you get a, “Oh my God, this is so good” cookie.  That’s what we have here, thanks again to Dorie Greenspan.  I’ve been searching and searching looking for a peanut butter oatmeal cookie, when all along I just had to crack open Dorie’s book, Baking: From my Home to Yours.  And truly, this cookies taste like home. (Just a side note, don’t you just find it hilarious how we all refer to Dorie Greenspan as just “Dorie”, like she’s our pal..it just rolls off the tongue)

I was inspired to make this cookies after a conversation at work with the ladies…and the occasional male who happened to drop into the lunch room.  We were arranging our Christmas dinner potluck when someone suggested that we do a cookie exchange too.  Needless to say I was all for that.  After dinner that night I started pouring through my collection of baking books and came across this recipe and thought to myself, “why not make these now?”

 

The recipe calls for nutmeg and cinnamon which I omitted.  My husband isn’t a big fan of either unless they’re in an apple pie or coffee cake.  He practically spit out the cinnamon chocolate cake I made a few weeks back…as you can tell it didn’t make the blog.  This cookie is packed full of flavours, and next time I’m considering adding some shredded coconut to the recipe.  Coconut + anything = goodness (in my books).

Fig & Walnut Biscotti

I’ve been out of touch as of late.  Yes, the bug got me and put me out of commission for the last couple of days.  I’ve been stranded on my living room couch too weak to even watch TV or surf my favourite blogs.  And in case you’re wondering; no I did not get the “swine flu”, just a really sore throat and a killer headache to accompany it.  Believe me at the first hint of my sore throat I asked my husband to look up H1N1 symptoms.  Luckily enough I did not develop and fever, congestion or cough.  But let me tell you if I do get the opportunity to get the vaccine, I’m all for it.  I find that as I’m getting older it becoming more and more difficult to shake things off, even something as simple as a cold.

Well I’m doing better today, not 100% but getting there.  And as soon as I started feeling better I thought that I should post something new on my blog even though I’ve been too ill to make anything this week.  Lucky for me last week when I made the Chestnut Cake I also made Fig Walnut Biscotti which I documented for a rainy day such as this.

This is another recipe that I came across on a website. I printed it out so long ago I had almost forgotten about it.  I have always limited myself to making the standard Almond Biscotti and wanted to try something different.  Walnuts in a biscotto is different, but adding dry figs is way different.  Believe it or not dry figs is something I always have in my pantry, my husband is a sucker for these.Growing up we always had dry figs in the house, and we just wouldn’t eat them plain either.  My dad used to split them in the middle and add an almond, orange peel and then stack them with layers of sprinkled cinnamon in a tin cookie can.  Back home in Italy he went a step further, there are fig trees everywhere. The figs would be sun-dried much like the process of sun drying tomatoes and then prepared the same way I just described above.