Those who know me know I hate baking. Whether people bake from scratch or use a box mix, many people find baking to be some what relaxing. For me, I never found baking to be relaxing. Even with a box mix I found baking to be stressful. Baking requires way too many ingredients, the wait time for the oven preheat took forever, the mess was always sticky and there was always way too many dishes to wash afterwards. Also, with baking, most of the time you cannot substitute for ingredients that you don't have. For me, I never had all the ingredients on hand which was also partly the reason why I never baked. Even if I was successful in mixing all the ingredients together, I could never tell the food was done baking. My cookies would always be overcooked while my cakes would be under-cooked. There was this one time, where I tried to make Nutella cookies that only required three ingredients and I managed to screw it up. They came out tasteless and under-cooked Needless to say, I do not enjoy baking. When I was living with Cecily, she was great at baking and I left t all the baking up to her. Now that I no longer live with her, I was left to bake for myself. I have decided to embrace the challenge of baking however, I do not like using box mix. For me, it was to do it from scratch or don't do it at all.
I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch since I had all the ingredients to make it on hand. I searched everywhere for a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. Most of the recipes I have seen, people usually use hand mixers or the kitchen maid mixer. Since I do not bake often, I do not own a hand mixer or a fancy mixer. I came across a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe from Allrecipes from Youtube (see recipe below) that only required a whisk. I decided to give it a try and the cookies came out amazing. It was chocolaty, sweet, soft, and gooey on the inside.
This recipe yields 24 to 26 large cookies.
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 stick of melted butter (3/4 cup)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
While the oven is preheating, let's combine the dry ingredients. Combine 2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Set aside the dry ingredients.
While the dry ingredients are hanging out on the side, let's mix together the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk 1 1/2 stick of melted butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Once all the wet ingredients are combined, lets bring together the dry ingredients.
Introduce the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Make sure you whisk and combine all the ingredients after you add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Once all the ingredients are combined, add in 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Take a rubber or wooden spatula and fold the chocolate chips into the cookie batter.
Grease of line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop a spoonful of cookie dough on the cookie sheeting keeping them 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake in the oven for 15 to 17 minutes. Take it out of the oven, allow it to cool 2 to 5 minutes on the cookie sheet so that the bottom of the cookie has time to set. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack or a plate to allow it to completely cool.
Things I did/would do differently:
I had a little less than a cup of brown sugar in my pantry. I decided to use all of that brown sugar and bump up the white sugar content. Instead of using 1/2 a cup, I used 3/4 to 1 cup of white sugar. Also, the recipe calls for 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chip. I just poured a the whole bad of semi-sweet chocolate chip into the batter. If you were curious of which brand of chocolate chips I used, I used the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chip because it was on sale at the grocery store. The next time I make this chocolate chip recipe, I would set side a handful of chocolate chips. I would put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet then dot the top of the cookie dough with a few extra chocolate chip pieces so that the color of the chocolate chips would add a nice contrast to the cookie.
I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch since I had all the ingredients to make it on hand. I searched everywhere for a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. Most of the recipes I have seen, people usually use hand mixers or the kitchen maid mixer. Since I do not bake often, I do not own a hand mixer or a fancy mixer. I came across a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe from Allrecipes from Youtube (see recipe below) that only required a whisk. I decided to give it a try and the cookies came out amazing. It was chocolaty, sweet, soft, and gooey on the inside.
This recipe yields 24 to 26 large cookies.
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 stick of melted butter (3/4 cup)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
While the oven is preheating, let's combine the dry ingredients. Combine 2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Set aside the dry ingredients.
While the dry ingredients are hanging out on the side, let's mix together the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk 1 1/2 stick of melted butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Once all the wet ingredients are combined, lets bring together the dry ingredients.
Introduce the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Make sure you whisk and combine all the ingredients after you add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Once all the ingredients are combined, add in 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Take a rubber or wooden spatula and fold the chocolate chips into the cookie batter.
Grease of line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop a spoonful of cookie dough on the cookie sheeting keeping them 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake in the oven for 15 to 17 minutes. Take it out of the oven, allow it to cool 2 to 5 minutes on the cookie sheet so that the bottom of the cookie has time to set. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack or a plate to allow it to completely cool.
Things I did/would do differently:
I had a little less than a cup of brown sugar in my pantry. I decided to use all of that brown sugar and bump up the white sugar content. Instead of using 1/2 a cup, I used 3/4 to 1 cup of white sugar. Also, the recipe calls for 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chip. I just poured a the whole bad of semi-sweet chocolate chip into the batter. If you were curious of which brand of chocolate chips I used, I used the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chip because it was on sale at the grocery store. The next time I make this chocolate chip recipe, I would set side a handful of chocolate chips. I would put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet then dot the top of the cookie dough with a few extra chocolate chip pieces so that the color of the chocolate chips would add a nice contrast to the cookie.