Salty chocolate chunk cookies - the search for the perfect cookie, Part I

It's hard to find the perfect cookie. Trust me, I've tried. If you think that I'm merely joking, ask my husband, who's watched me scour through cookie recipes, tried and dabbled with many recipes. Even when I find a great recipe, I continue on, hoping for utter bliss in my mouth. As I find recipes that work, I'll share them. 

Now let me tell you about these cookies. Don't mind the salt; this recipe is delicious. Really. It's got an interesting mixture of flavors, and the salt sprinkled atop the cookies adds a new complement to the sweet that you wouldn't expect. I really liked this recipe for the fact that you've got two layers of sugar, and the rich batter is good all on its own. 

Hope you enjoy this with a huge glass of milk. 

Salty chocolate chunk cookies

Makes approximately 18-24 cookies, depending on your size preference

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate 

flaky sea salt for sprinkling

• Preheat your oven to 375°. 

• Mix your flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, and then set the dry mix aside.

• Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the softened butter, brown sugar, sugar, and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. This process will take approximately 3-4 minutes. 

It almost looks like a snowed in home.

Make sure your butter is completely soft, otherwise this won't work. 

• Add egg yolks, egg, and vanilla to the wet mixture. Beat them in, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl, until mixture is pale and fluffy. This will take approximately 4-5 minutes. 

My dog really appreciated the egg whites.

• Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add in your dry ingredients, mixing just to blend. Gently fold in your chocolate. I followed the recipe, and this seemed to ask for less than most recipes. I'd add a smidge more next time. 

• Chill your cookie dough for approximately 30 minutes to an hour. This makes the dough a lot easier to work with, and the cookies keep their shape as they bake.

• Spoon rounded tablespoonfuls of cookie dough onto 2 parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spacing 1-inch apart. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.

• Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through. This will let your cookies cook more evenly, as there might be some cooler spots in your oven. Cook the cookies until they are golden brown around the edges. This will take 10-12 minutes. (Note: your cookies will be soft, and will firm up as they cool). Let cool slightly on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks; let cool completely.

Beautifully wonderful brownies

Have you ever made a dessert recipe that leaves you wanting to lick your fingers, your mixer, your bowl? Have you ever wanted to make a batch of something sweet that was so wonderful that you didn't want to share?

This fast, simple and delicious recipe for brownies, adapted from Allrecipes, is that for me. I shamelessly licked up any brownie mixture that got onto my hands, and you'd better believe I licked up the leftover frosting from the bowl after spreading it on these bad boys. 

Beware: if you make this recipe, you're going to end up eating everything by yourself. You've been warned. 

Beautifully wonderful brownies

Brownie batter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and grease an 8-inch square pan.
• Mix your butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. 

Make sure your butter is very soft to allow for good mixing.

• Slowly stir in your cocoa, flour, salt, and then baking powder. 

• Spread the batter into your pan.

• Bake your batter for 25 to 30 minutes. Be careful not to overcook these brownies. They might not look completely cooked, but they will continue to cook once they are removed from the oven.

Poke with a fork to check for complete cooking. 

As your brownies cool, you can make your frosting. With this easy recipe, you'll never want to buy frosting again.

Frosting mixture
3 tablespoon butter, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

• Mix the ingredients, and spread onto the brownies as they are still warm.
• Allow the brownies to cool completely before you remove them from the pan. 

You can eat these without the frosting, but isn't that the point of living?

Quick blueberry biscuits... in under 30 minutes!

We had a dinner party go bust today. Matt was going to have a friend over, and I was supposed to cook a beautiful meal for all of us to enjoy. But… then Matt had to work late. I had a headache. We were both tired. It was downhill from there.

I felt badly that I wasn’t going to make something, so I looked online for something sweet and simple that I could put together quickly. I had a small basket of blueberries, and had a hankering for something comforting. I found this recipe on Plain Chicken, and the biscuits were heavenly.

Quick blueberry biscuits

Approx. 14 biscquits

2 1/4 cups Bisquick

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup wild blueberries

3/4 - 1 cup buttermilk (I used fat-free)

• Preheat oven to 450.

• Stir together bisquick, sugar and buttermilk until soft dough forms. Fold in blueberries. 

Your dough will be wet.

Be careful to not over-mix the blueberries!

• Scoop dough with large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop (3 tablespoons) onto ungreased cookie sheet. 

• Bake 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.

If this isn’t enough sweet for you (it was for me), add an icing to the biscuit.

You’ll need:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 to 2 Tablespoons milk

Combine powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle over biscuits.

Sugar Donut Muffins for your Valentine Love Muffin

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you are enjoying yourselves, regardless to whether you are single or in a relationship. I love Valentine’s Day because people are extra affectionate, and my students give me chocolate. No matter what, I win.

It’s also the first Valentine’s Day that I get to share with my new husband. Last year, my hubs was living 2,000 miles away, and while we were together for the holiday, it was bittersweet because we both knew our time together had an expiration date.

This year, we got to wake up late, and I decided to surprise my husband with something a little sweet. Matt’s not a big fan of breakfast foods in general, but will eat them when forced. Getting Matt to eat things that are delicious, good for you, and fun to make became a life mission.

This recipe for sugar donut muffins, pulled from Stylish Cuisine, hit two of my three requirements. I definitely recommend it for any time you want something sweet, but aren’t in the mood for something elaborate.

Sugar Donut Muffins
approx. 10 servings regular muffins, 24 mini-muffins

¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼  tsp salt
¼  tsp ground nutmeg **I used a scant ¼ of allspice instead because of allergies
¼  cup vegetable oil
¾  cup milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter, melted

½ cup sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

2. 

   Eggs and sugar mixture should
   be light and airy

   In a large bowl, beat together sugar and  egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
   
   
4. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
   
   
   
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. I decided to try out the suggestion I'd read about, and immediately lowered the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees once I put in my muffins, and added a few minutes to my cooking time. This let my muffins rise nice and high. HOWEVER, if you pull them out too soon, they look like little bald men heads on top. Cook all the way through!
   
   

   

   Look at that lift.

   
   
6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.

These things are perfect as they are.

My husband decided that he wanted to eat these bad boys with buttercream frosting, because... sugar tastes better with sugar. *sigh*

So to get back at him for that, I sent him, the biggest Bears fan ever, this lovely Valentine's E-Card. 

Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!