Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best comfort food, I think, is chocolate chip cookies. What’s not to love? If done correctly, they’re chewy, moist, straight out of the oven, and oozing with chocolate. I recently went to lunch at this local deli and got a chocolate chip cookie with my meal. They’ve never disappointed me before, but this time they certainly did. It tasted like burnt sugar and was hard as a brick. Needless to say, I needed to remedy this situation and make my own batch of cookies. I’ve used this recipe probably since I started baking and it’s never failed me. I also like to freeze the leftover dough so whenever the urge strikes me, all I have to do is pop them into the oven!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, stir the flour and salt together. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixture, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Mix until incorporated, but don’t over-beat.
On low, add the flour-salt mixture. Finally, add the chocolate chips and nuts (if using, I usually don’t).
Scoop the cookie dough and roll into uniform balls. Space out evenly on the baking sheet*, and bake for 18 minutes.
Transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely, or–if you’re like me–eat one (or two or three) straight out of the oven with a glass of milk.
Enjoy!

* If you plan on freezing the dough, stop here. Do make sure to place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, but transfer it to the freezer. This will allow for them to freeze separately so they won’t stick together. After they are firm, place them in a freeze-safe zip-top bag, and keep in the freezer. When you are ready to bake, I usually just have to add 2 more minutes to your bake time, but it may vary depending on your oven.

Adapted from:
David Lebovitz via Smitten Kitchen

Marble Cupcakes

Summer is finally in full swing! There are plenty of vegetables to throw onto the grill, delicious and fresh salads to eat for lunch, and lots of gatherings where I can test out new recipes. A friend’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I thought these marble cupcakes would be perfect! We had a pool party so I decorated them in that theme and will post a tutorial for how to make the shark and beach designs.

Marble Cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan.
In a medium bowl, sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, combine the cream and milk together, stir, and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high until light and fluffy–approximately 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Blend in vanilla extract.
Slow the mixer to low and add in the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk/cream mixture between each addition. Mix until no streaks remain.
Scoop out one cup of batter into a medium bowl. Mix the boiling water and cocoa powder together, then add to the cup of batter. Mix until smooth.
Scoop the vanilla batter into the paper liners, leaving 1/2 of the cup empty. After all of the vanilla batter is distributed, scoop in chocolate batter, leaving 1/4 of the cup empty (the paper liners should be 3/4 full, just like a standard cupcake measurement). Using a skewer (or in my case a chopstick) make a figure-eight in each cup. This creates the marbling effect of the cupcakes.
Bake, rotating once, for about 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Allow cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.

You may top the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, or just a light dusting of powdered sugar.
Enjoy!

Adapted from:
Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Nutella Milkshake

Let it be known that I have an unhealthy obsession with Nutella. I will find anything and try to put Nutella in it. Usually, they are successes–except the Nutella pancakes, but that’s another story–and taste delicious. Especially with summer almost upon us, what’s better than mixing a milkshake and this hazelnut-chocolate spread?

Nutella Milkshake

2 cups (1 pint) your choice of ice cream

1 cup milk

A couple of large spoonfuls of Nutella

In a blender, combine the ice cream (I’ve tried chocolate but it seems to overpower the Nutella. However, vanilla always seems to be the winner), milk, and enough Nutella to satisfy your personal taste. I usually add four overflowing tablespoons. Blend until smooth and fully incorporated.

Pour the milkshakes into individual glasses (chilled if you have time..or remember–I usually forget). You may also top the milkshakes with a variety of choices. Above, I whipped up some almond-vanilla whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and almond extract), but they are also very delicious with burnt marshmallows!

Enjoy!
Baking by Becca original

Chocolate Chip Scones

I love breakfast food, but I get tired of the same thing over and over again. I’m not the kind of person that can eat the same bagel/oatmeal/cereal every day and never grow tired. I like to have a little variety. I think that’s why I love these scones. They taste great when they are made fresh and when frozen then baked!

Chocolate-Chip Scones

Ingredients:
1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter, melted
Additional sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a bowl. Add the chocolate chips until they are distributed evenly. Add the heavy cream to the dry ingredients and stir until the dough comes together and all ingredients are incorporated. (You can either mix these by hand, with pasty blenders, or with a stand mixer.)

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface and press to an inch thickness. If the dough is too sticky to handle, add in an additional tablespoon of flour until it is the consistency of biscuit dough. Cut into shapes of your choosing. You can either use a biscuit cutter to make circles/squares, or form the dough into a disk and cut into triangles. Place dough on the prepared baking sheet* and brush with butter and sugar if desired.

Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Enjoy!

* At this point you have two options: you may either bake the scones fresh or freeze them. To freeze, place the scones on the baking sheet and place in the freezer until they are harden. This will keep the raw dough from sticking together and you having a dilapidated, albeit still tasty, scone.  Once the scones are frozen, place them in a zip-tip bag, labeled and dated, and store up to one month to ensure the correct texture and taste (although they never stay in the freezer long for me!). To bake, follow the remaining instructions but add 2-4 additional minutes to your bake time.

Adapted from:
Annie’s Eats