Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm on a search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found this recipe on a blog post titled "The Best EVER chocolate chip cookie recipe." Sounds promising, right? Unfortunately, it's not exactly what I'm looking for. However, this really is a great cookie recipe. The best I've ever made. It's chewy, buttery, rich, and has just enough salt to be slightly addicting. I found myself taking a bite, thinking, this is a good cookie. Then a second later, thinking, wow this is a great cookie. The only thing keeping it from being perfect is the texture. It's a little on the thin and crispy side. The taste is right-on, however, and if thinner cookies are your thing - this just might be for you. I, however, am still searching for its thicker, chewier counterpart. If anybody has any suggestions or recipes to try, leave a comment and let me know.

Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Savory Sweet Life (I copied her instructions word for word because the recipe seems very precise)

(printable recipe)

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
1 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt *please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups/16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 5 minutes on medium speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving.

Homemade Tortillas

The idea of homemade tortillas may seem like a lot of work, but trust me, it's worth it. Last night we ate chicken fajitas on warm chewy tortillas straight off the griddle. It's a completely different fajita experience. Tortillas are incredibly simple to make. They have five ingredients, which take about 2 minutes to mix together. Rolling them out and cooking them is a little time consuming, but for the taste and texture, not to mention the amount of money you save vs. store-bought, let me say it again...It's definitely worth it. Mike and Jess agree :)



Homemade Tortillas
adapted from All Recipes
(printable recipe)

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons crisco
1 1/2 cups water

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the crisco with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden, about 1-2 minutes. Flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Wrap the cooked tortillas in a clean dish towel to keep them warm until ready to serve.

*If you roll them out very thin, their consistency is similar to store-bought tortillas. If you leave them a little thicker they are a little doughy and chewy. I prefer them a little thicker.

*I also plan to experiment with using half whole wheat flour, and freezing/re-heating them. If anybody tries this, please let me know.

Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage

Another winning recipe from mykitchencafe. This is everything you could want in a baked pasta dish. It's warm, cheesy, full of wonderful tomato flavor, and just the slightest bit creamy. We loved it. Mike originally rated it a 4, but as I heated up leftovers the next night, he changed his rating to a 4.5, saying "I seriously think I could eat this almost every day." If you've been reading for any length of time, you'll know that this is high praise indeed from my husband, who takes great pride in his rating scale. This dish deserves it, however. It looks elegant enough to serve for company, and tastes like it came from an Italian restaurant. This is definitely on our "to make again soon" list.

Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage

Adapted from My Kitchen Cafe

(Printable Recipe)

*Makes a heaping full 9X13 pan*

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes

1 (14.5 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 pound penne pasta

9-oz. bag fresh baby spinach

12 ounces precooked smoked chicken sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic. Cook for another minute. Stir in tomatoes, oregano and basil; simmer for 8-10 minutes. Add cream; cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Add spinach to the pot of boiling pasta right at the end and cook until wilted. Drain, and return contents to pot. Add tomato sauce, sausage, and half of mozzarella to the pot; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop pasta into lightly greased 9X13-inch pan (or divide evenly between two 8X8-inch pans). Top with rest of mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Bake until browned and edges are crisp, 20 to 30 minutes.

*To Freeze: Prepare recipe up until the baking step and then cover with a double layer of aluminum foil. Freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days. To bake, increase baking time to 1 to 1 1/4 hours. If baking from frozen, bake covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes, uncover and bake 30 minutes longer.

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Make these. Seriously. They are incredible. I thought I had found my favorite scone recipe previously (and those are really good), but these are better. They are moist and sweet and full of wonderful pumpkin flavor. And the icing? Don't leave it off, because it takes the scone from good, to something that I want to eat for breakfast every morning. It's like the gooey topping of a cinnamon roll. Mike loved these as well. He no longer claims to dislike scones or pumpkin, that's how good these are. He rated them a 4 and asked me to make them again this weekend, although without the nuts. :)

Pumpkin Spice Scones

from TastyKitchen

(printable recipe)

2 cups Flour
⅓ cups Brown Sugar, Tightly Packed
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoons Ginger Powder
½ teaspoons Nutmeg
1 stick Unsalted Butter, Frozen
½ cups Pumpkin Puree
½ cups Heavy Cream

FOR THE ICING:
1 cup Powdered Sugar
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ginger Powder
2 teaspoons Corn Syrup
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Heavy Cream (Enough To Let Icing Reach Consistency Of Honey)
½ cups Toasted, Chopped Walnuts (optional)

Mix first 8 ingredients with a fork and add the frozen butter stick by grating it on a cheese grater over the flour mixture. (Note: work quickly, holding the frozen butter in its wrapper and a paper towel to keep it from melting.) (*Does anybody know if there is a benefit to this method rather than dicing the cold butter into small pieces?)

Mix butter curls into the flour mixture with a fork. In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin and cream and pour into the flour/butter mixture. Fold with a wooden spoon just until flour is moistened, then turn out onto a lightly floured board and gently knead over a couple of times.

Pat into a circle about 1 inch thick and cut into 8 sections like pie slices. Separate scones onto a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes. (Or make these ahead and place them in the fridge overnight.)

Bake at 400F for about 25 minutes till just firm and golden around the edges. Let cool to room temperature.

ICING:
Mix the first 5 icing ingredients (powdered sugar, cinnamon, ginger powder, corn syrup, vanilla). Add heavy cream in small amounts at a time, stirring often, until icing reaches the consistency of honey.

With a large soup spoon, spoon the icing over the cooled scones and sprinkle toasted walnuts over the top. Let the icing set a bit before putting the scones away in an airtight container.

*Note: We reheated these in the microwave for breakfast the next day (and for dinner...), and while were missing their semi-crispy texture, they still tasted wonderful.

French Bread

Saturdays are my bread baking days. Whenever I'm cleaning, or doing laundry, or another chore I don't enjoy, it's nice to simultaneously have the wonderful yeasty smell of rising and baking bread in the kitchen. It cheers me up. I also love to try new bread recipes. This is a french bread recipe I found on tasty kitchen. I originally planned to try King Arthur Flour's french bread recipe, but this one just seemed so much simpler that it won out. And it turned out great! So soft on the inside, with a perfectly brown crust. It was perfect to serve with the hamburger soup we had last weekend. I actually liked it so much I made it again this past weekend and served it with enchilada soup (recipe coming soon - it's a good one!) Mike hasn't told me his rating yet, but judging by the amount of bread he's eaten over the past week, I'm pretty sure he liked it. :)




*note: the first time I followed the recipe as written on tasty kitchen. The second time I altered it slightly to get a slightly less dense, lighter loaf of bread. I prefer the second method, so that's what I included here. If you want the original, follow the link to tasty kitchen and use that recipe. The pictures were taken using the original recipe. The altered recipe has a crustier crust and and inside looks noticeabley less dense. Either is great, and perfect with a bowl of soup. :)

French Bread
adapted from Tasty Kitchen

(printable recipe)

2-¼ cups Warm Water
2 Tablespoons Sugar
4-½ teaspoons Yeast
1 Tablespoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
6 cups Flour

In a large mixer, combine water and sugar and yeast. Allow it to soften/proof for about 5 minutes. Add salt, oil, and half the flour; mix well. Add remaining flour and mix well (I used the dough hook on my kitchenaid). Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Stir the dough down and allow to rest 10 more minutes. Repeat until dough has been stirred/rested 5 times.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead lightly 2 or 3 times. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a long loaf and place on baking sheet sprayed with Pam. Cover and allow it to rise 30-60 minutes. With a sharp knife, cut 3 gashes at angle on top of dough. Spray top with water. Bake 400 degrees for 30 min, checking at about 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

This is one of my favorite fall recipes (also known as pumpkin gobs). Last year when I discovered the recipe, I think I made them three times in a one week time period! (Don't worry, I gave most of them away). Everyone that has tried these loves them. Cream cheese icing with a hint of cinnamon, sandwiched between two soft, cake-like pumpkin cookies. This pumpkin version puts traditional chocolate whoopie pies to shame!

Mike loves these and was looking forward to their reappearance this year. He was travelling this week, and expressed much disappointment when I told him that I made them to take to his dad and sister. Thankfully I remembered to freeze a few for when he gets home, a fact which earned me the title "Best Wife Ever." It's the little things that count :)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
adapted, slightly, from Rachael Ray
(Printable Recipe)

Cookie:
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups flour

Icing:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, chilled
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 pinches of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

a few shakes of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the baking powder, the baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour.

Using a spoon, drop small mounds of batter, spaced evenly, onto each baking sheet. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

For the icing: using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter with the cream cheese. Add the confectioners' sugar and the remaining 2 pinches salt, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon; mix on low speed until blended, then beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Spread the flat side of half of the cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.

Hamburger Soup

Hamburger Soup is not the best name for this. It tastes great, but when I mentioned it to Mike as a possible future dinner, his response was "Hamburger Soup?? Those two words go together about as well as tomato and pie." Right. After that I called it chili, and I don't think he ever put two and two together.

That being said, this soup (it really is more of a soup than a chili), is great. Please don't let the name hold you back from trying it. It's so easy to put together, and it cooks in the crockpot while you're at work. The ground meat breaks up and becomes part of the broth, and if you add a little cheese when serving, it makes it even better. Mike rated it a 3.25 (he prefers chili), but said he would gladly eat it again. I would definitely make it again just based on the number of meals it provided and the ease of cooking, let alone the fact that I really liked it.

Hamburger Soup

(adapted from Tasty Kitchen)

(Printable Recipe)

2 pounds Ground Beef
2 cans Large (48oz) V8 Vegetable Juice
1 large bag of shredded green cabbage
2 cups Frozen Corn
2 teaspoons Spices (I just sprinkled in some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder). The original recipe recommends red pepper flakes as well, but I didn't have any)

Brown the beef in a large skillet and drain off fat.
Place the cooked beef, V8, cabbage, corn and spices into your crockpot. Cook on low for 8 to 12 hours. Serve with shredded cheese on top.