chewy chunky blondies - trying to satisfy all parties is impossible

So, do you think my boyfriend was happy after I stole half of his batch of chocolate chip cookies to give to my relatives in California? Hmm, not so much. What about when I told him I was baking another batch of cookies for my family to sample? Probably, but not until he heard they were oatmeal raisin cookies (supposedly one of his most hated type of cookie). So what to do with a grouch pants that is in dire need of baked goodness? Resort to the best- My famous chunky, chewy blondies. Absolutely deelish' and positively going to satisfy my boyfriend.


The recipe is fairly simple and easy to make (well, it also helps that I've made these blondies numerous times before).


Ahh, the familiar look of these little square nuggets of gold. I don't think I'll ever get sick of these blondies. The texture and flavor combined is exactly perfect, and sure to satisfy any chewy chocolate chip cookie lover.


The only real dilemma was how to portion the amount of blondies for each party. I mean, I want to give my boyfriend all the blondies his heart desires, but at the same time I want to have enough presents to give to my family in California. Decisions, decisions.


Well, my boyfriend will just have to survive with half a batch of blondies and half a batch of chocolate chip cookies (damn, I am such a horrible girlfriend). Needless to say, my boyfriend was not so happy about this ordeal, but my family on the other hand, well they seemed to love these blondies just as much as the rest of us.

---RECIPE---

Recipe found here.

oatmeal raisin cookies - afraid of the oven, my ass

I used to go to California every summer and bask in the famous Orange County sun while playing (and by playing, I mean fighting with) my three younger girl cousins. Those were the days- endless weeks pretending to be frolicking among the wealthy, while really being tormented by these little dweebs because "I was the cooler cousin". Needless to say, things have greatly changed; years have passed, and egos have been burst (mine). Although I haven't spent a summer there for almost two years, I figured I'd fly down on my Spring Break to surprise the fam' of my new life changes!


The last they saw of me, I was the typical angst teenager who'd rather talk on my cell with boys than play dress up with my little cousins. To top it off, for an entire 18 years of my life I have been sheltered from using all hot objects including the oven (thanks, overbearing parents!). So the girl who used to be "afraid of the oven", is now the girl "who loves to bake".


Now, my smart family would obviously never believe such a tall tale without valid evidence. Proof of choice: two types of cookies (some leftover The Chewy / NY Times) and my famous oatmeal raisin cookies. I always feel that one choice of cookie is boring, so I tried to switch it up a bitch with the oats.


Now that I think about it, I probably subconsciously chose the oatmeal raisin cookie through a long lost memory. I can see the memory now- I'm about 10 or 11 or so, just going through my "fat" phase. I'm at my grandparents' (the ones who live in California) house. I wander downstairs to the kitchen in the middle of the night for a "little" snack. I find a pack of Little Debbie's and begin to devour these chewy circular objects. Oatmeal raisin, I see. Well, needless to say, I enjoyed them back in the day; and apparently (or I hoped so) my grandparents did as well.


Typical to true form, I stick with my pals at Cook's Illustrated. They haven't let me down thus far. I prepared the dough, and then later baked them, at my boyfriend's house. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone- bonding time during gift baking.


The cookies came out great- as expected. My family, while in disbelief of the news, soon believed me after eating my cookies. See- people really do change! And also- I really can bake! Hehe.

---RECIPE---

Recipe found here.

the ny times cookie - attempting to fool a die hard fan

My boredom typically gets the best of me. I am constantly searching for new types of entertainment (usually always in the form of food). What better way to get through a typically boring day other than to pull a fast one on my boyfriend, and trick him with his "favorite" chocolate chip cookie. Yeah, you heard me- I'm going to willingly trick my boyfriend... and enjoy it. We'll definitely show him who's boss. And besides that, I've been meaning to try out this recipe. There's way too much hype about these cookies online to ignore.


So apparently we've been flip-flopping from one cookie to the next. Recall the original cookie-bake-off? All four of those cookies (which apparently, my boyfriend so immensely adored the Cook's Illustrated one) are now running competitors.


We've started off with the Cook's Illustrated as the favorite. And then I pulled the first fast one by presenting him Alton Brown's "The Chewy", which he soon thereafter moved on to. I did throw in the Neiman Marcus cookie, for shits and giggles, mostly because I knew he'd know they were different.


But now- alas, the prominent New York Times Cookie! The one that stated an exact amount of a full 72 hours in the refrigerator (which, to my fault, could be the reason he disliked them the most the first try). Shall we try this recipe again, but to the T? I think so...


And so, as the process endued, I began to notice slight differences. And yes, I did also have half a leftover batch of "The Chewy" which I used that as a comparison (the fact that it is a leftover batch is obvious given the use of white chocolate chips for Mr. Picky).


In the cookie dough alone, you can notice obvious differences. The NY Times cookie is much darker in appearance, and had a firmer texture than The Chewy. Even the cookies after baking their given times and degrees lead to this stark difference in color.


And after further examination you can notice The Chewy (left) is actually more puffy than anything. It appears as if the inside had prompted the outer shell to expand so much as to form large cracks down the edges. The NY Times cookie (right) on the other hand, appears calm and collected, free of scars and breakage.


So this was the NY Times cookie, with all its spoiled 72+ hours of refrigeration, its two different types of flour, and a brand name attached to it. His dark appearance and flat surface intrigued me. The exterior was so perfect; so round and compact- Basically, they were ready to be eaten.


After enough trickery on my behalf, my boyfriend no longer easily falls for my schemes. He noticed the difference (obviously, I just rambled on for hours of the drastic appearance change), and quickly found out my plan. It didn't take him much to willingly participate in my cookie taste-off, though.


As we both armed each hand with the two types of cookies, we realized we had the end of our chocolate chip cookie quest in sight. We will finally come to a conclusive answer as to which chocolate chip cookie really is the best. And the winner is? Truthfully, all the cookies are great- they really just depend on our moods and the person tasting them. Although my boyfriend and I did choose this cookie as our favorite, I wouldn't be surprised if our opinions changed for the next cookie.

---RECIPE---
Taken from The NY Times.

ingredients:
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1+2/3 cups bread flour
1+1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1+1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1+1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2+1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1+1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1+1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (I just used regular chocolate chips.)
Sea salt (Omitted.)

directions:
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. (Finally! A recipe supporting refrigerating dough.)
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3+1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

amount:
Makes 1+1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies. (I made more that were much smaller in size.)

green clover sugar cookies - how to convince a picky eater

Mid-baking my green lime cheesecake, the fear of failure came over me. What if my cheesecake came out like crap? What if I really didn't like lime flavored things? Damn- I needed a for-sure thing that I knew my boyfriend and I would enjoy- I mean, I couldn't ruin Saint Patrick's Day for us! (Joke, because neither of us are Irish, nor do we care about the holiday itself). Well we all know my boyfriend absolutely loves chocolate chip cookies, but those couldn't be tinted green without looking like crap (literally). I went through other cookie recipes, specifically looking for light colored ones. All arrows pointed to sugar cookies- supposedly one of my boyfriend's "least favorite cookie".


Ehh, who the hell cares! I've changed his mind so many other times (making him change his favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, watching him enjoy underbaked cookies, tricking him into liking eggnog cookies, and the list goes on). I'm sure with enough convincing, he'll learn to love these sugar cookies as much as I do. And remember now, I've been on the quest to find the perfect sugar cookie for a while... and I think I finally found it.


Dumb action for the day: Adding the food coloring to the dry batter. Duhh, I should have rethought that one. It was pretty hard to thoroughly mix the color evenly (and we know how terrified I am of overmixing batter).


Okay, so the dough was slightly speckled with different shades of green, but whatever. I rolled the dough into three evenly sized balls and slightly squished them on top of another.


During the baking process, the there little balls overlapped and formed a bond, creating these mini three-leaf clovers!


But, we know I could do better than that. First of all, clovers are supposed to have four leaves (I guess I had a brain fart earlier), and second of all, the overlapping effect wasn't working for me.


I also made them smaller- making them even more cuter (if that was even possible).


So what did my picky-eater think of these sugar cookies? I know him all too well- he obviously enjoyed them because the entire plate was gone before Saint Patrick's Day was even over. The funny thing was he didn't even realize he was devouring sugar cookies. Only after all the clovers were missing did I ask him, "So you do like sugar cookies?", to which he replied, "I guess so". End of story.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Cook's Illustrated.

Recipe found here.

green lime cheesecake - how st patty's day changed my life

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Although I'm not Irish, nor do I celebrate Saint Patrick's Day (other than drinking I guess), it's a great excuse to bake! Green, green, green- What could I possibly great that is green and appetizing at the same time? I've grown up not particularly caring for lime flavored baked goods; most likely because I've never tasted any good ones. With that said, I chose to just go for it because I couldn't get away with a green colored chocolate cake or anything.


The verdict was a cheesecake- a mini cheesecake to be exact. You see, I still wasn't so sure if this lime thing would come out as tasty as I hoped, so I thought it'd be best to make a tiny version first. Also, I figured cheesecake would be the best choice for a dessert seeing as how it's already pale in color, so it'd be easier to tint it green.


I'm not sure what my dilemma with lime/lemon is. Key lime pie- ehh. Lemon meringue pie- ehh. Notice that up until now, I have not tried even one recipe which focuses on lime or lemon. Where is this hatred coming from?


Perhaps I was wrong. What if, for some odd reason, I did not know everything there was about food. Had I just never tasted a good lime dessert before?


Before the big tasting event was to ensue, I proudly placed my cute baby cheesecake in front of my boyfriend. He was in as much awe as I was; the cake was fucking adorable. Although at first the puke green tint may be off putting, after much examination, the entire package becomes so deliciously appealing. The sheen green top of the cake is encompassed by this rock hard brown gravel in all its majesty.


As the first slice of the cheesecake was removed, we astonishingly gazed into the center of the cake. It was almost as if I expected it to be not as green in the center. Well I was wrong; my hulk-green cake was indeed green throughout.


Okay- we get it- the cheesecake looked adorable, but how did it taste? Shocking! I didn't mind it at all; to be quite honest, I enjoyed it. Lime has this fresh bright zing which I didn't realize I liked. My favorite part was noticing the little specs of lime zest sparkled throughout the cake. And the cheesecake itself tasted creamy and smooth; making for a perfect little package.

---RECIPE---
Taken from All Recipes.
"Luscious Lemon Cheesecake" (I substituted the lemon for lime, obviously).

crust ingredients:
1+1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (omitted)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

filling ingredients:
4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1+1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice (lime)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel (lime)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

directions:
1. In a bowl, combine crumbs, nuts and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom of a greased 10-in. springform pan; set aside. in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined. Add lemon juice, peel and vanilla; beat just until blended. Pour into crust.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from the oven; let stand for 5 minutes. Combine topping ingredients; spread over filling. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
3. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before slicing.