I don't usually do a lot of baking..Don't really know why, because I have the most wonderful bright red Kitchen Aid Mixer..I didn't even use it the first year that I had it...Shameful, to say the least...Since there are only two of us, if I do bake, I always take some to my Mom and Dad..My Mom doesn't cook anymore, so they appreciate it...There are basically two reasons I normally don't bake..1. It seems to take forever (especially in the case of cookies) AND 2. There is "who needs it" fab homemade stuff that is hangin around, calling your name...(so cruel!)..
When I do bake, it is important to me, just as in any of my cooking, that I have what I consider to be the best ingredients and recipe/knowledge of the product that I am making.
Call me picky, but to me, chocolate chip cookies, are not equal in quality..That is why over the years when I have made them, I have narrowed it down to a couple of recipes, and the one I made today is one of them...Mrs. Fields did not become a mulitzillionare for no reason...She had an excellent recipe, and that is the one that I made today...Her recipe is just what I like in a chocolate chip cookie, different from the other recipes out there...If you like your cookies chewy on the inside, and crisp on the outside, there are two things that you have to do...use a recipe with more brown sugar than white, (preferable dark brown), and bake it lower and slower than the usual chocolate chip cookie..Are they good? Too good to make on a regular basis, unless you are going to sell or give them away!
Mrs. Field's Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies or "How some cute little stay at home Mom with kids driving her to the brink, turned a simple task into frequent 5 star hotel suite reservations, Nannies, and trips without her husband..."
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teasp. baking soda
1/4 teasp. salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened..(I used unsalted and it was fine)
2 large eggs
2 teasp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix well with wire whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl with an electic mixer, blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla extract, and mix at medium speed until just well blended...Do not overmix.
Add the flour mixture (about a third at a time) until blended, at a low speed, again...not to overmix....then by hand, mix in chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded Tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet ( I use parchment...it's an incredible invention!) Be sure that they are 2 inches apart and bake for 22-24 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula....(Keep your dough in the fridge while others are baking, because a cool dough will keep it from spreading while baking. If you like nuts in them, you can carefully press larger pieces into the rounded Tablespoons of dough after they are on the cookie sheet, before they are baked. I actually make these a bit bigger than a Tablespoon...)
Makes about 3 dozen or so...
No comments:
Post a Comment