White Chip Chocolate Cookies

O. M. G. These cookies are delicious. Nothing odd about the recipe. Easy to make. VERY chocolatey cookies accented with white chocolate chips = divine. They're chewy in the middle and slightly crisp on the edges. They're very sweet and pretty rich. Amazing. I'd have to give them 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, at least. Again, a chocolate-lover's dream. Oooooohhh... <3

They very much remind me of Toll House's White Chip Brownies (which is also in the cookbook). I knew my dad would love these cookies, because those brownies are his favorite thing that I bake. Luke and my mom love them too. I totally recommend this recipe.

So, my baking for the month of January is done. Out of the seven recipes I've completed so far, my personal favorites are the following:

1. Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies
2. White Chip Chocolate Cookies (very close!)
3. Oatmeal Scotchies

In case anyone's wondering, the reason there's been so much chocolate this month is because the first chapter is called "The Chocolate Hall of Fame." Although, I don't see why the Oatmeal Scotchies are in that chapter... And the Mini Chip Snowball Cookies are from a different chapter.

I'd say it's been a very successful first month. =) It's going to get tougher now that I'm back in school though. I'll probably have to bake more than one recipe on some of the weekends I come home, or attempt to make some in the dorm at school, in order to keep up the pace to finish on time. Wish me luck! <3 And if you ever feel charitable, I'll accept any baking ingredients or utensils anyone might want to give away. ^_~ (Since I'm doing Toll House, I do want to use only their chips.) Oh, and if anyone wants to try some of these recipes, by all means, let me know! I need help getting rid of them all.

Cheers! And here's to chocolate! <3

~Jesia

Blonde Brownies

Very standard recipe. Sort of boring, really. The only mildly interesting thing is that no granulated sugar is used - only brown sugar. By the way, what the hell is a "jelly roll pan" exactly? The recipe called for spreading the batter in a greased 10" x 15" jelly roll pan. I used the closest thing I could find in the kitchen, which was a cookie sheet with raised edges that I measured at about 11" x 15". I just now Google-Imaged "jelly roll pan" and it looks a lot like the thing I used... I just call it a cookie sheet with sides, but whatevs. =P

Maybe I've just been spoiled lately with all these more decadent recipes, but I wasn't super impressed with the Blonde Brownies. I mean, they're not bad. They're tasty and all. It's just, they're nothing special. However, my parents recommend warming up a brownie in the microwave for a few seconds and topping it with vanilla ice cream and Hershey's syrup to jazz it up.

The Blonde Brownies by themselves I think deserve 3 out of 5 stars. They're reasonably chewy, but not incredibly moist or thick like regular chocolate brownies. Like I said, this recipe is fine. It's just not one of my favorites.

Cheers!

~Jessica

A note on food allergies

While this blog's primary purpose is to record my year of baking through Toll House's Best-Loved Cookies, I'd also like to take some time to discuss baking in general. I've mentioned before that I'm allergic to tree nuts, but it's also important to realize that there are other food allergies to watch out for when you share baked goods with friends and family.

For example, my friend's ex-roommate is highly allergic to cinnamon. Another of my friends has PKU, a condition in which her body can't properly process protein, and she must carefully regulate her protein intake. I also have a friend who is lactose intolerant and another friend who is diabetic (I realize that diabetes isn't an allergy, but it's still worth mentioning). It's important when sharing your baked goods to let people know what's in the item for their own safety.

When I make some cookies with nuts and some without, I usually separate them into different containers and label them. I also let people know what kind of nuts, spices, or other oddball ingredients (like coconut or cream cheese) I used, just to be safe. Recently when I made Oatmeal Scotchies, a friend's mother expressed interest in trying some. Before delivering them to her I made sure to let her know that there was cinnamon in the recipe, just in case anyone in her family was allergic. When I brought the remaining cookies to Warhammer night, I made sure to tell the guys the cookies contained oatmeal, butterscotch, and cinnamon.

A person with serious food allergies will likely ask what's in unfamiliar foods before eating them, but it's also up to the cook to spread the word. While usually any negative response will be "I don't like oatmeal" or whatever the ingredient is, it's definitely better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your loved ones' health. <3

Cheers! I'll be baking Blonde Brownies tomorrow. =)

~Jesia

Oatmeal Scotchies

Who would've thought of putting oatmeal, cinnamon, and butterscotch together? I probably wouldn't have come up with that on my own, but damn it's pretty tasty. Of course, oatmeal and cinnamon cookies on their own are good and is probably a pretty standard cookie, but add butterscotch chips to the mix and it just gets better. I didn't realize I liked butterscotch so well until I tried these cookies. ^-^

This is a pretty standard cookie recipe: butter, an even ratio of sugar to brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs, then add a mix of flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. To finish add the oats and chips, and voila! You've got a tasty snack. My apprentice Luke helped me out again today after he got out of class. He's really getting the hang of baking, and I'm proud of him. =) Now, if only the oven at his house worked I could give him homework...

Anyway, there are different baking times depending on how you like your cookies: 7-8 minutes for chewy, 9-10 for crispy. I thought I'd try for some chewy and some crispy so there'd be something for everyone. A word of caution - the chewy ones are delicate like the first recipe of original chocolate chip cookies. They tend to break or get holes in the middle if you're not careful when moving the cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack.

Taste? Mmmm... I just knew they were going to taste good when I got the first batch out of the oven. The hint of cinnamon is to die for, and the chewiness of the oatmeal is certainly a satisfying texture. The butterscotch chips melt a little and are the perfect complement, bringing together a unique cookie you've probably never tasted before. Like I said, I never realized how much I liked butterscotch until I tried this recipe. I'd proudly give it 4 out of 5 stars. I love you, Toll House. <3

I sent some cookies home with Luke, and Dad has already eaten a few (I'm pretty sure he likes them a lot =P). I told Mom that if a homemade cookie like this didn't make her feel better, then she was sicker than we all thought. She has bronchitis, among other issues. =(

I plan to bake two more recipes before January is over. =) So far so good on my schedule, I think. I need to do at least six recipes each month (I'm counting eleven months since I'll be gone all of June for a study abroad in Japan), with a remainder of three recipes. I plan to do one extra recipe, so seven in a month, three times to keep on track. It'll be easiest to squeeze that extra one in during months when I don't have a full month of class, which is why I'm doing seven during this month of January. I don't start classes again until the 25th. =P

Cheers! And here's to butterscotch and oatmeal!

~Jesia

Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies

I had my apprentice help me today. His name is Lucas, and he can be quite amusing to have in the kitchen. xP He is also my boyfriend. <3

Anyhow, today we made Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies. They are what they sound like: chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting on top. The nuts were labeled "optional," so we opted out of those. =P We're nutty enough. xD

Like the brownie recipe, instead of unsweetened cocoa powder or baking chocolate, the recipe calls for melting some semi-sweet morsels. <3 Yum yum. The cookbook is very specific on how to melt different types of morsels correctly; apparently some, like white chips, are more delicate and shouldn't be microwaved on high. I'd definitely recommend this cookbook for anyone who likes to bake, because there are a lot of useful tips to help your cookies turn out just right. ;)

These cookies definitely look amazing, like the ones you see at the cookie shop in the mall. The only snag we had was with the icing. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup chocolate chips melted with 2 tablespoons of butter, then adding 1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk. That was definitely not enough milk. The icing was incredibly thick and pasty, so we had to add about 1/2-1 more tablespoon to get it to a spreading consistency. Just use your best judgement and you should be fine. =) I also didn't want to make the icing too thin, so that it would firm up on the cookies and we could stack them in the container. I put wax paper in between each layer of cookies to avoid too much of a mess. After all, these cookies are going to a night of Warhammer with several ravenous college guys. They'll make enough of a mess of themselves without my help. xP

We made one big cookie to share, and like I said, it looks amazing. <3 It's a little overdone, but I like my cookies a little crisp. And man, if you like chocolate, this is the cookie for you. Whooo~~ ^-^ It's crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle, and ohhh so chocolatey and delicious. <3 <3 <3 I'm thinking this recipe deserves at least 4 1/2 out of 5, if not a 5. It's the best one I've tried yet, in my opinion. Like, I'm in love. <3

Cheers! <3

~Jesia

Mini Chip Snowball Cookies

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! ^_^

Kentucky has finally gotten some significant snowfall, so I thought it was only appropriate to skip ahead to a recipe inspired by snowballs. This is another unusual recipe in my experience, because there are THREE sticks of butter (that is a LOT of butter!), a whole TABLESPOON of vanilla extract, NO eggs or leaveners (baking soda or baking powder), and powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. I'm no expert pastry chef or anything, but that's unusual to me. From what I do know from Foods class in high school (for which I received college credit ;) ) and from The Food Network, I'm thinking that the reason the eggs and leaveners were left out was so that the cookies could retain a "ball" shape. Eggs and leaveners make cookies spread, so they wouldn't have looked like snowballs had those ingredients been added. And, this is just a guess, but I noticed that the powdered sugar kind of melts and becomes sticky and pasty when heated, so perhaps the powdered sugar holds the cookies together in the absence of the protein from eggs. As for the relatively large amount of vanilla... I have no idea.

Anyway~ nothing terribly eventful happened while making this recipe, which is probably for the best. It did, however, take me two hours to complete. I'm sure I could have cut down this time significantly had I put more than a dozen cookies on the baking sheet at a time, but I suppose I prefer to err on the side of caution. The recipe calls for dusting the cookies with additional powdered sugar as soon as they're out of the oven, but they didn't look terribly pretty when the sugar was absorbed into the cookies. So, as the recipe suggests, I dusted them again once they were cool and safely placed in a plastic container. As you can see, they now look like cute li'l snowballs. ^-^

This recipe, like several in the book, calls for nuts. I made the first dozen without nuts for myself, and they turned out fine. =) The recipe calls specifically for miniature semi-sweet chocolate morsels and finely chopped nuts, probably so that the cookies won't turn out lumpy or irregular looking.

If anyone out there tries this recipe, I'll give you a tip to avoid wasting powdered sugar. After sifting the sugar over the hot cookies and eventually moving the cookies to a cooling rack, use a spatula to gather up the remaining sugar to a corner of the baking sheet and carefully scrape it into a bowl. When it's time to dust the next batch, just take the sifter in one hand and the bowl of saved powdered sugar in the other and carefully pour the sugar through the sifter while moving the sifter over the cookies to coat them all. =) Any cookie crumbs or tiny, hard lumps of powdered sugar you might get won't go through the sifter, so you can toss those little bits in the trash after the rest of the sugar is sifted through.

As far as taste, they're very buttery and sugary. Of course, it's up to the person making them as to how "sugary" they taste. xP As far as texture, they're somewhat delicate, so be careful when handling the cookies. I broke a a few while moving them. I'd give this recipe... 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. Definitely interesting.

Cheers!

~Jesia

Chocolate Turtle Brownies

I'm allergic to walnuts, which is just fine since I don't like them anyway, so I've never made anything "turtle" before tonight. It's an interesting brownie recipe, since you melt semi-sweet chocolate instead of using sugar and unsweetened baking chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder. Definitely different...

After melting the chocolate and butter together you add 3 eggs. At first I was a little skeptical, thinking that the eggs might scramble or something, but it was fine. As long as you do as the recipe says and melt the chocolate over the lowest heat setting, there should be no scrambled egg pieces in your brownies. That'd be pretty... weird. Anyway, then you add all the dry ingredients and the batter becomes a really thick, difficult-to-stir sort of chocolatey paste. You scrape the paste into a pan and sprinkle it with more chocolate chips and a bunch of walnuts, but what really makes these brownies come together for the eyes is the melted caramel you add after it's done baking.

A funny thing happened with my caramel. I just figured it would be like chocolate and simply melt, but not quite. The caramel and milk mixture actually ROSE and bubbled in the microwave, much like a marshmallow, and immediately went back down once I opened the door. I'm glad I used a big rather than small cereal bowl, otherwise I probably would've had a crazy caramel mess in the microwave, and that would be such a horrible waste of good caramel... It was Werther's for God's sake!

My parents think these brownies are quite excellent. As for myself, I had all the walnut pieces picked off before I tried some. These brownies are incredibly moist and fudgy, and quite sweet. I mean, not only do you have 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and a dozen pieces of caramel, but there's also an extra cup of sugar in this recipe. Damn.

My mom gave this recipe a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. I'm thinking I'd give it... 3 1/2 or maybe 4 out of 5. If I were to make this again for myself, I'd cut out the walnuts and maybe even the extra cup of chocolate chips on top. I usually eat my brownies plain or with some kind of frosting, so I'm thinking that this brownie recipe with the melted caramel would be pretty divine on its own. I guess that's something you gotta do when you're trying out recipes. Experimenting with the ingredients and such could produce a recipe that is better conducive to one's personal health or taste. In my case, for example, the walnuts are a potential health hazard. xP

Cheers!

~Jesia

Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, my big brother is flying back to Fort Huachuca in Arizona early tomorrow morning. I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to do before he left, like bake something. He said no, but I told him "I will anyway." ;) I might as well take this opportunity to get started on my project. We're having a big dinner with prime rib, and a couple friends are coming over, so why not do some dessert?

I figured I'd start at the beginning of the cookbook, which is, of course, the original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie. It seems sort of wrong to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch using something other than my own recipe, but I'll get over it and so will everyone else. I started getting out all the ingredients but then realized that there is a huge hunk of meat in the oven. I could go ahead and make the dough and put it in the fridge, but... I'd rather not. So I'll just have to wait until the prime rib is done to get started. Oops! xP

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Okay, so we've had dinner and I've got the last batch of cookies in the oven right now. The recipe calls for chopped walnuts, but I know a lot of people (like me) are allergic or just don't like them. I made 8 out of the 36 with walnuts, per my parents' request. Instead of chopping them I used my fingers to break them apart. After all, that's how we broke up pecans at the bakery I worked at last summer. It was kind of nostalgic breaking up those walnuts.

The cookies look good and taste good, but I very much prefer my own chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe is made with butter instead of shortening, so the dough is a lot more sticky, which really isn't a big deal... But after I got the cookies out of the oven, the edges were clearly done while the middles were sticky and doughy! I was afraid to move them off the pan. After the second batch was done, I put the first batch back in the oven for a couple minutes, which I think helped somewhat... I'm sure I'm just partial to my own recipe though. When I did start moving the cookies to a cooling rack, the middles kept breaking apart, making holes in the cookies. =/ Not terribly attractive...

So, for anyone else trying this recipe for the first time, I have something to say. Instead of trying to take the cookies off the pan and transferring them to a cooling rack after 2 minutes (as the recipe calls for), just leave them on the pan till they're mostly cool and set. Use a big-ass, really thin spatula (at least as big as your cookies) to move them, and only move them to whatever container you will keep them in. I'm thinking that would have prevented some of my cookies from falling apart or getting holes... Oh well. You live and you learn, right?

As far as taste, you can definitely taste the butter and salt. The texture is really soft and chewy with ever so slightly crisp edges. I can't say it's a bad recipe. It's just different from what I'm used to. =P

I'd give this recipe... 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. Not bad, Toll House, not bad.

Oh, and one other minor thing. I've counted the number of recipes (not counting "variations") twice, and the book actually has 69 recipes, not 70. So, 1 down, 68 to go!

Cheers!

~Jesia

The Goal

365 days ~ 70 Nestlé Toll House cookie recipes

Doesn't sound too bad, right?
For me it will be a challenge.

Here are the obstacles:
I am a full-time college student at Western Kentucky University.
It is decidedly inconvenient to bake from scratch at the dorm.
I will be in Japan from June 1st to July 1st, which means one month of no baking.
And finally, I need people to help me eat all those sweets.

My dad jokes with me that I have to buy him new jeans when I bake stuff, and my mom asks me to get my baked goods out of the house. I remind them that they don't have to eat the stuff I bake, buuuut... they do anyway.

The cookbook I'm using is Nestlé Toll House's Best-Loved Cookies. I will try my best at each and every recipe through this year, and I will appreciate any support I am given. =) Here's to a sweet 2010!

Cheers!

~Jesia