Triple Chip Cookies

These cookies went really fast at the first communion party. So fast that they had to be put away so there would be some left for dessert!

My favorite thing about this recipe: coarse sea salt.  What a revelation! Pair the chocolate-toffee classic cookie flavor with a surprise burst of saltiness and you have found heaven!

Triple Chip Cookies
2 sticks softened salted butter
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon medium coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
2 ¼ cups assorted baking chips (I used white chips, milk and dark chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 360˚ F. Cream butter and both sugars until fluffy- about 3 minutes in the KitchenAid. Add both eggs and vanilla and beat an additional 2 minutes.

2. Add baking powder, soda, salt and flour until batter is fully incorporated. Finally, add the chips until well distributed. (At this point I was extremely grateful for the KitchenAid, this is a thick dough!)

3. Drop 2 tablespoons of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Leave cookies on the sheet for 2 minutes after taking them out of the oven. Cool an additional 3 minutes on baking racks, just long enough to make sure they don't burn the roof of your mouth when you dig in!

Snickerdoodles

Or the blog post in which I finally use the KitchenAid, profess my undying love for it, and make some pretty darn good cookies in the process.

You know how some guys are about taking a million different photos of their "tricked out" cars? And you look at those photos and think "what the heck, it's just a car, it doesn't look any different at this angle, or that one, or that one...."

I totally had a moment today where I had to tell myself to stop taking photos of the KitchenAid and focus on the food. Hence the paucity of prep photos with this recipe. It really is ridiculous.

Now that I'm working again, I have really missed my kitchen time. I'm missing my cuddle time with the fiance too, to be entirely honest. I can just hear him now "I can't believe you wrote that in your blog!" (he is far too shy about any sort of public acknowledgement of our coupleness- I have no idea how he is going to react at the wedding when we will be forced to kiss. multiple times. in front of an audience.) And again, after that parenthetical statement I can hear him... echoing his earlier statement. Poor guy.

For whatever reason, my second job has decided in the last few weeks that they really love me, and I've been closing at the store at least two nights a week (after a full day in the classroom), and working at the store all weekend. Kitchen time has been close to nil. I think the most cooking I've done is browning some beef for tacos. Cuddle time has faired a little better, but not much.

Somehow, I managed to get tomorrow off work. Which is a darn good thing, because we have a family gathering for one of Dave's cousin's first communion. Dave's aunt asked me to bring cookies to the party and I jumped at the chance. Making food for other people is probably my favorite thing in the world, after cuddling. (Yes, I'm being ridiculous on purpose. Again, I have to say, Poor Dave) The interesting aspect of this food assignment is that two of the young children in the family cannot have food dyes. So the awesome looking Monster Cookies my darling matron of honor made were out. Then I had two genius thoughts: Snickerdoodles! Some variation on classic chocolate chip cookies- look for that recipe to follow soon! So the cinnamon-sweet adventure in the kitchen for this weekend began.

Snickerdoodles (from the ever awe-inspiring SmittenKitchen)

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs

1. Sift together four, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl (or in the bowl of your KitchenAid, yay!) combine butter and 1 ½ cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine.  Add dry ingredients and beat to combine. Chill dough to desired scooping consistency (about an hour worked for me).

My favorite thing in the kitchen!

2. Preheat oven to 400 ° F with one rack in the top third and one rack in the bottom thrd of the oven. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

3. In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup of sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a medium cookie scoop to form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

4. Bake until the cookies are set in the center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. *the cookies will NOT brown. So seriously, just about 10 minutes. Or you'll burn the bottoms of the cookies. Not that I did that with the first set in the oven or anything*

5. Transfer sheets to a wire rack to cool, about 5 minutes, before transferring cookies to the rack to finish cooling.

6. Eat these bad boys. It seems silly that something so simple is so good. But there it is.

No Bake

After my freak out last posting, I thought a little more (perhaps more realistically as well) about it, I realized that I don't really want to go into the high pressure professional cooking world. Nor do I think I'm honestly that good. I cook well enough for home and friends, and I'm happy with that. I just want to do what I love for a living- whatever form that takes. Right now, I'm just having a hard time seeing how that is going to work out.

Plus, I also watched this documentary: "The Kings of Pastry" and that sure snapped me back into reality.
 Although, it did call my attention to the fact that there is a cooking school right in Chicago that is the only cooking school in the US devoted entirely to pastry. Run by the men from France who are featured in above documentary. Being realistic though, I think maybe I should start by checking out some of my local community college or adult education cooking classes.

Friday night (which is quickly turning into my night in the kitchen, for some reason) I decided I needed comfort food. Quick and easy comfort food. So I turned to my favorite cookie from childhood: the Chocolate and Peanut Butter No Bake.

These are one of those cookies that I always forget about, but as soon as something triggers my memory of them, I have to have one... NOW! Plus, they are super addictive and I could probably eat the whole batch in the span of a couple days. Not that I would do that, but the temptation is definitely there. 

They are also super easy to make- as long as you're patient enough to watch the sugar/peanut butter/milk combo boil for a minute. Which, when I was younger I could not do for some reason. I wanted them so badly I either didn't wait long enough, and then they'd just be a gloppy mess that never hardened to the right consistency, or I would sit on my hands too long trying to be good, and they'd turn out like hockey pucks. Thankfully, I have matured enough that I can finally manage to get it just right and have them turn out a good, chewy consistency. 

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 stick butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups oatmeal

In a heavy saucepan, bring first four ingredients to a boil. Boil for one minute, then add the peanut butter, oatmeal and vanilla. Drop cookies by spoonful onto waxed paper and wait for them to cool and set.