Posts Tagged ‘make it do’

Yes, I did restrain myself… barely.  I had only one cookie today.  I was making them to give away… and somebody needed to make sure they were edible… right?  And when they are warm out of the oven… you would have to have more self control than me to not have at least one.  Since I needed 5 dozen cookies to give away, I doubled the recipe and had enough left over for my family.  And lucky too, I would have been in big trouble if I’d given them all away.

I love these chocolate cookies right out of the oven.  They are classic served with a glass of milk.  They just what a chocolate cookie should be:  chewy and soft on the inside, and slightly (perfectly) crisp on the outside.  And did I mention buttery.  And chocolaty.  They’re my favorite.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1/2 lb. cold butter, cubed
  
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
  
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 to 2 1/4 cups flour (bread flour)
• 2 cups chocolate chips
  
• up to 2 cups walnuts or pecans (optional)
  

Cream butter cold with sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, eggs, and baking soda. Add flour in small amounts until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts if desired. Drop by teaspoon (I use a small ice cream scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 375°. (Don’t over-bake—the cookies should appear slightly wet on top)

Makes approx. 3 dozen cookies.

This recipe is great doubled to make 6 dozen cookies.  (When doubling use 3 whole eggs.)

1. Cube up the cold butter.

2. Cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.

3.  I always crack my eggs into a separate bowl, just in case I have shell go into the egg, it’s easier to grab it out. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. Mix in the soda.  Then add the flour a little at time until mixed in.  Be careful not to over mix.  Add in the chocolate in carefully… again don’t over mix.

4. Grease your cookie sheet.  I spray it with a little cooking spray.  I love using a small ice cream scoop.  It’s fast and the cookies are more even.

Because I am making 6 dozen, and am always in a hurry, I place 15 cookies to a baker’s half sheet.  Mostly it’s recommended to cook 12 to a sheet.  What are rules, but to be broken?

I cook them until they are a little golden around the edges.

Make sure to eat one while they are still warm.  The next day (if there are any left) and you want a warm cookie, you can put them into a preheated oven for a few minutes or into a microwave for 5 seconds or so.

One note about altitude.  I have a friend who mentioned she hasn’t been able to make a good cookie since she moved to our town of Alpine, Utah from Austin, Texas.  Here we live at close to 5,000 feet.  And that is the problem with her cookies.  I find I often have to add more flour to my cookies than a recipe states or I wind up with pancakes.   For this recipe I add about 1/4 cup more flour than the recipe calls for to compensate for high altitude.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of reading aloud The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy to my girls. We are nearly to the end of the book and the girls and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

It’s a sweet tale of four very clever, self-sufficient sisters and their summer vacation.  The Penderwick girls’ mother died when the youngest sister was a baby.  The girls have learned to care for each other with the help of their kind though somewhat absent-minded father.  Each of the girls have wonderfully distinctive personalities and interests.   And I love the sense of family pride and honor each of the girls have.

The adventures in the book are decidedly ordinary, but they are told with such insight that they seem like grand adventures.  And isn’t that exactly how childhood is?  You don’t need to ride a camel across the Gobi desert to have an adventure…. as a child, you just need to search for a lost rabbit or climb a tree to escape from a cruel landlady.  The Penderwicks has left us wanting to read just one more page… Pleeeease.  And I know we will all be sorry to have this wonderful story come to an end.

Since I mention great read aloud books for girls, I have to share one of my very favorites: The Ordinary Princess. I loved this book when I was young and I could hardly wait to read it aloud to my girls.

It is a story of a young princess who is the seventh princess in a family of lovely princesses… each one more beautiful and more perfect than the last.  She is expected to be the most splendid princess of all.   That is, until a fairy godmother comes to her christening and gives her the magical gift that she should be ordinary.

While the gift of ordinariness shocks and dismays her family, the ordinary princess, Amy, grows up to be a delightful girl.  She has none of the qualities valued in a princess, she has mouse brown hair and freckles and would rather climb trees than play the harp.  But rather than being cool and austere like her sisters, Amy is lively, quick-witted, and kind.  When her parents attempt to marry her off to a stuffy prince, she runs away… and has adventure and in the end she falls in love with someone as ordinary and extraordinary as she is.

I love the values this book teaches.  You don’t need to look or be what our society thinks is perfect.  The way to happiness is to be true to your self.  There are gifts whose value is far above physical beauty.