My Chocolate Chip Cookies

It seems premature to bequeath upon the blog my amazing chocolate chip recipe so soon in its life. Especially with a readership of exactly zero. However, a gift like this can't exactly be hid under a bushel, so to speak. So here it is. My fairly amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe. Which, I can't even take full credit for. It comes from 'The New Best Recipe Cookbook'. I just modified it a tiny bit. These cookies are amazingly soft and wonderful. Try it out - you'll amaze everyone.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blend together in a bowl:
2 Cups + 2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In another bowl:
1 stick butter + 4tbs natural creamy peanut butter - melted together in the microwave and cooled until just warm (stir together)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup regular sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:
You know what to do. Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars all together until nice and light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and extract and mix until well blended. Slowly add in the flour mixture, allowing it to blend together. Once it's all together, stir in the chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Roll the cookies into balls (whatever size you like, I find large works just as well as small) and bake for 15(ish) minutes.

You're going to want to pull the cookies out right when they're on the edge between looking not-quite cooked and cooked. The center should still be somewhat puffy, and even a little soft. This helps with their texture. Let them cool on the cookie sheet and then remove and serve.

Prepare to be hailed as awesome.

(P.S. If you don't want to do the peanut butter, just do all butter - a stick and a half. I like the little bit of peanut in there, but some people may not. Try it either way and see what you think.)

Simple Sweets

Last night, Greg and I had a crazy sweet tooth, but both kids were in bed. So I whipped out this super-simple brownie recipe. Seriously. No melting of chocolate over the stove or anything like that. AND it doesn't turn out super-cakey either. Takes about 10 minutes to whip together and about 40 to cook. Check it out.

Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Ingredients
3/4 cup Baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
2/3 cup Butter melted,divided
1/2 cup Boiling water
2 cups Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/3 cups All purpose flour
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon Salt
12 ounces Semisweet chocolate morsels

Preparation
1) In a large bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda; blend in 1/3 cup melted butter. Add boiling water; stir until well blended. Stir in sugar, eggs and remaining butter.

2) Add flour, vanilla and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks. Pour into a greased 13-in.x9in.x2in. baking pan. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool.

If you want to add in some nuts, make it about 1/2 cup at the end. I find that cook times vary fairly drastically with brownies...so just keep an eye on them after about 40 minutes or so. It was closer to 50 minutes in my oven.