X'mas Cookie Baking II

As mentioned, this is the one of the other x'mas cookie that I had made. It's called the chocolate chunk cookie, recipe courtesy by Cheryl - She Bakes and She Cooks. Instead of adding chocolate chips, this cookie added lots of chocolate chunks; resulting in a rich, buttery vanilla cookie infused with lots of chocolate flavour. You can bite chunks of chocolate in every bite! Big or small chunks, depends on how you want it to be. It is really very nice, I promise! When I read her blog raving about how good this is, I decided I had better try on my own. It really didnt disappoint me. This is the second time I made this and the results were equally good on both attempts. The recipe yield large amount if you were to make a normal size cookie. But not to worry or even thinking of halving the recipe because they'll be gone very soon! Hehe...do give it a try, the steps are simple enough!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (about 185 g) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar (I used 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cornstarch (I omitted this - see below tips)

1 tsp baking soda (I changed to baking powder - see tips)

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into chunks

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 °C.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla and blend in. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients and add in chocolate chunks.
4. Use a tablespoon (I used teaspoon as I don't like my cookie too big) to drop cookie dough on to a greased baking sheet.
5. Bake for approx. 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
6. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield about 70 to 80 small size cookies (about 3 cm in diameter)

Tips: This cookie is supposed to be chewy. But I prefer crispy cookie. Omit the cornstarch and replace the baking soda with baking powder if you want to make crispy versions.

Bake longer if you like crispier cookie, until the sides are brown, but watch out for overbaking. They turn soft really fast. So, once cooled, store in an airtight container. If it turns soft, bake it in the oven for about 1 to 2 min, let it cool again, then store. :)

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Okay, coming to my last cookie of 2007

Peanut Butter Cookies!

Well, I could actually have double up the recipe for the chocolate chunk cookies to give to the little kids at my aunt's christmas day dinner. But I wanted try different variations. I had always wanted to bake peanut butter cookies but I'm sure many of you would have agreed with me that there are always so many in our to-try-list that the list is never-ending. I would usually look at the ingredients I have on hand, the occasion for me to bake certain things or simply the crave for something. Heheh so, this is my chance to bake this cookie, otherwise I don't know how long I have to put off until.

Hehe...I'm being long-winded again. lol. Alright, this cookie was introduced through Cheryl - She bake & She Cooks blog, the original recipe from Nic - BakingBites.

These cookies were crispy and had just the right sweetness and saltiness. As usual I used teaspoon to spoon them onto the trays, though I felt that they should be made bigger in order to get the 'kick' out of peanut butter favour, especially if you are peanut lover. ;)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180°C.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg, followed by vanilla and peanut butter and beat well.
4. Add in dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined.
5. Drop spoonfuls onto lined baking sheet.
6. Using a fork, mark grid patterns on top of each cookie, dipping the fork in water after each cookie. (Some recipe requires the chilling of dough, so I guess the dipping of fork in water is not neccessary; but for this method, this step is crucial else you would not be able to get the grids properly)
7. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, until the edges just begin to turn brown.
8. Cool on wire rack.
9. Once cool, store in an airtight container immediately.

Recipe Source: Bakingbites