Once Bitten, Twice Not Shy

 

When I first got hold of my Martha Stewart Cookies, I thought to myself that there would be lots of delicious cookies for me to look forward to. The book seem to promise delectable cookie recipes with mouth-watering pictures. Nah. I was proven wrong when I tried out my first Martha Stewart cookie. It ended up as a melted pool of buttery mess in the oven. I could not bear to dump them and so I tried to salvage them to the best of my ability.

The cookies ended up staying in the oven much longer to firm up. What I gathered from the experience was  the recipe had way too little flour to create a good structure. Taste-wise, there were too many elements, causing the cookie to lose it focus. As the saying goes, "too many cooks spoil the broth".

I thought of chucking the book aside after the horrid experience. Later, I thought I would give the book another chance, to prove that my purchase was not all in vain .

Browsing through the book, I decided upon a Milk Chocolate Cookie recipe. This time round, I checked the ingredient list to make sure that it is a safe recipe and not one that would spell disaster.

Thankfully, Martha Stewart did not disappoint this time round. The cookies were supremely rich, chewy and brownie-like. In fact, It would have made a good brownie recipe.

Do not let the wrinkled appearance of these round disks fool you. They certainly spell chocolate with a capital C.

On my visit to NTUC Xtra today, I picked up a book - 300 Best Chocolate Recipes, at a great bargain price of 12 SGD. It would have cost around 33 SGD elsewhere. The author Julie Hasson had caught my eye and without much consideration, I made the purchase.

Milk Chocolate Cookies ( recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies )

Equipment: Cookie trays/ sheet, baking parchment/paper

Cookie Dough:

140g plain flour

40g dutch processed cocoa powder ( I used Varlhona)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

220g milk chocolate, ( 110g coarsely chopped, more if desire and 110g finely chopped)

115g butter, cubed

200g caster sugar (try cutting down on this)

2 eggs (60g each including shell)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2) Line cookie pans with baking paper.
3) Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together to ensure uniform distribution.
4) Place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water without the bowl touching the water.This is known as a double boiler. Melt the finely chopped chocolate and butter. Stir to obtain a smooth mixture. Allow to cool.
5) In a large bowl, beat cooled chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and vanilla on medium speed until well combined. Add in flour mixture in 3 batches and beat on low speed to obtain a smooth batter. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with a spatula to incoorporate loose flour. The resulting batter is very thick.
6) Fold in coarsely chopped milk chocolate chunks.
7) Scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) tablespoons of dough onto lined trays. Bake for 15 minutes. When done, the cookies will look puffy and soft but will deflate into flat disks upon cooling. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on tray before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Note:
1) Do 2 cookies as a test batch to determine your baking time. Repeat if necessary.
2) Cookies will stick to baking paper. Use a spatula to scrape underneath the cookies slowly to release them.
3) Try cutting down on the sugar as cookies are quite sweet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It has been quite a while since I baked any cookies. Previously, my bakes were mainly in the area of tarts or cakes. Now its time to give more attention to my cookie recipes.

Cookies always warrant a satisfying treat for me whenever I am hungry or just itching for a munch. I could eat several of them in one go. This was the case for my one-day old chocolate chip cookies. I ate about 12 of the 16 cookies I baked and they were all gone the next day. I did have the intention to share it with some friends though, guess they just did not have the fortune to enjoy these snacks.

Baking chocolate chip cookies seems like a easy task. Getting the desired texture is another different story. Some people like it dense and chewy - supporters of the Subway cookie, others like it crunchy like the Famous Amos cookies. For me, I am alright with both the chewy and crunchy variations. Would prefer the Subway variation slightly better though.  

The recipe I referred to churned out cookies that were soft, cake-like and tender with crunchy crisp edges. These were unlike any cookies I have tasted. After a day of storage in non-airtight containers, they became slightly chewy. It was a good break from the usual chocolate chip cookies.

This is the first time that I am making giant 2-tablespoon sized cookies. Making these large cookies required less effort to shape the dough into mounds and scooping them onto the baking trays. However, I could only bake 3 to 4 such cookies in a batch due to the size of my baking trays.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson)
Serving size: 15 - 18 cookies

Equipment and materials: 

1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Wire rack
6) Cookie trays/Baking trays
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Weighing scale

Cookie Dough:

125g plain (all-purpose) flour

20g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

115g unsalted butter, softened

80g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1 egg (60g)

1 tsp vanilla extract

185g semisweet chocolate chips

extra chocolate chips (see notes)

Method:

Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Prepare dry ingredients: Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Use a balloon whisk to whisk the mixture well to ensure uniform distribution.

Making the batter: Beat the butter on medium low speed for about 3 minutes. Add in both sugars and beat for a further 3 minutes. The butter mixture should be light and fluffy. Notice that the volume of butter mixture will increase noticeably after beating. Next, add in the egg and beat until combined. Blend in the vanilla extract to ensure the flavour is evenly distributed.

Incorporating the flour and chips: Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 2 additions. Beat until just combined for each addition. This is when all flour particles are absorbed and there is no visible trail. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure that the dough is evenly mixed. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips.

Shaping the dough: Scoop 2-tablespoon-size dough onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Leave some space between each cookie. The cookies will spread to about 3 inches during baking.

Ready to bake: Bake cookies for about 13 - 15 minutes. Cookie centers will be soft but will set upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Note:

1) Use one cookie dough as a test batch to determine the required baking time for your oven.

2) The last bit of cookie dough may have less chocolate chips. Fold in some extra chocolate chips.

Lemon Fragrance

I have been setting my goals on mini bakes for a while and hence decided to try out this recipe for lemon cookies. The recipe was easy to follow and i thought lemon and butter would make a wondeful combination. As i ran out of unsalted butter, i decided to tweak the recipe to suit my needs.

The cookies turned out wonderful. At first, I was sceptical about the taste and the texture. However, cookies turned out to be crisp and these lovely bites give off a burst of fragrant lemony flavour when popped into the mouth. This is good news for me, as i have another good cookie recipe to keep and bake for my loved ones.

Lemon Cookies

200g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
grated zest from 2 lemons
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
240g self raising flour

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2) Place butter, sugar, lemon zests and juice into a mixing bowl and beat until mixture is pale and fluffy
3) Sift flour into butter mixture and beat to form a soft dough.
4) Spoon dough into a ziplock bag. Snip off one corner and pipe out 3cm circles onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Alternatively, chill dough in the refirgerator for 1 hour or till firm. Spoon out levelled teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking trays and flatten slightly into circular discs.
5) Bake for 12-15mins. Leave to cool on baking tray for 5 mins before leaving to cool completely on wire rack

Mocha Truffle Cookies

Hmm... Mocha Truffle Cookies.. Sounds exciting and delicious. That was the first impression i got when i was reading this recipe. What I liked about this recipe was that I had all the ingredients and did not have to run around to shop for other required ingredients.

Instead of following the recipe and dropping tablespoons of cookie dough, I dropped teaspoons of dough onto the baking tray. For the first batch, I baked them at 180 degrees C for 12 minutes. I then baked them for 7 minutes for the subsequent batches.

When I tasted the cookies, I got a surprise. The 1st batch of cookies turned out to be crisp and chewy. You could still see grains of brown sugar when you chew into the cookie. For the susequent batches, the texture was fudgey. After two days, I realised that the cookies tasted even better and the flavour has matured. There is this light coffee fragrance when you sniff the cookies.

I have problems taking pictures of chocolate confections. They always turn out to be a pile of dark brown mess. To make things worst, I have the tendency to bake in the evening. Under such lighting conditions, the pictures turn out to be disatrous. In order to take pictures of the cookies, I had to wait till morning when the lighting condition is brighter.

Mocha Truffle Cookies

55g butter
50g chocolate
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
130g plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
90 caster sugar
60 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
60 g chopped nuts

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2) Place a metal mixing bowl over a pan filled with water. Ensure that the base of the bowl do not come in contact with the base of the pan, use a suitable size pan to do so.
3) Melt butter, chocolate and the coffee powder over the pan. The steam from the water will heat up the mixing bowl and melt the contents. Stir to obtain a smooth mixture. Leave to cool slightly.
4) Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together into a bowl. Add in eggs, both the caster sugar and brown sugar and the chocolate mixture obtained from 3). Mix well to form a dough. Lastly, incoporate the nuts to the dough.
5) Drop levelled tablespoonful of dough onto baking tray. Leave some space between each dough. Bake for 12 minutes. The dough should rise and puff up. Leave on wire rack to cool before storing in airtight container.

Things to note:
1) Vary baking time to get desired texture
2) Use an electric mixer to mix the sugar into the dough more evenly.

Gingerbread Cookies

Ok here goes another delayed post. Gingerbread cookies are the best in representing the Xmas mood. They come in attractive shapes and are adorned with colourful icings. I tried baking these cookies for the first time and it sure was a tiring attempt. It was like a cookie baking marathon for me when i was trying to bake these and the chocolate chip cookies.

These cookies had a slight spicy ginger taste and the tone of brown is on the light side. I find these cookies rather soft. Perhaps they are meant to be like that. The tough part when baking these cookies is cutting the dough and placing them on the baking tray. When handling the soft cut-out dough, i had problems trying not to disfigure the gingerbreadman and break them. Even after much chilling, the dough was still too soft to handle for big cut out shapes like the gingerbread man.

When preparing the icing, I had some doubts. The icing consisted mainly icing sugar and egg whites. What i was doubtful was whether uncooked eggwhites would be safe for consumption. From what i have gathered, it seems that uncooked egg whites has antibacterial properties. Once again, having to bake several batches of cookies and putting the icing on took me quite a few hours. If only there were someone who could help me out and lighten my load. I realise baking can be quite time consuming and laborious.

I was glad that the cookies turned out somewhat presentable. Good thing i had green food colouring in hand and it suited the Xmas mood. I thought the icing looked attractive and added much life to the cookies. In the end i decided only to put icing on the smalled cut-out cookies and not the gingerbread man as i was afraid that the gingerbread man cookies will break.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For Xmas i decided to bake Chocolate chip cookies for my friends. This was my 3rd time baking these cookies and i was pretty confident they would turn out well. These cookies never failed to amaze me. One of my friend whom i had known since Sec Sch joked that i bought the cookie from famous amos and passed them off as my baked cookies. Another friend commented that they tasted really nice and i can start to sell cookies. I thought that i would suffer a lost if i start to make these cookies since it takes me 2 hours to get one recipe quantity of cookies done. Not to mention there is still the tedious washing up to do and mess to clear. Arghh!!! That is the part i hated most!...

Well, I'm not trying to boast or anything. It is just that the recipe is really a good one hence the cookies always turn out to be pleasent smelling and cripsy. I would say they are 80% as good as famous amos cookies. The original recipe called for chopped nuts but i ommited them and added more chocolate chips instead. This is definitely one recipe i would greatly recommend!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe kindly shared by Hugbear from Bakingmum)

125g butter softened at room temperature
75g caster sugar
60ml brown sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon or 7 drops of vanilla essence
150g plain flour
45g cornflour
1/2 tsp bicarbonanate of soda (baking soda)
pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
60g chopped nuts
125g chocolate chips (use more if desired)

Method:
1) Cream butter with both sugars till light, pale and fluffy. Beat egg with vanilla and add to butter mixture. Mix well.
2) Sift plain flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt together and add to the mixture in 1). Mix until a soft dough is obtained. Do not overmix.
3) Stir in chopped nuts and chocolate chips.
4) Drop levelled teaspoons of cookies onto baking tray lined with baking paper.
5) Bake at 180 degrees C for 18-20mins. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Things to note:
1) If nuts are ommitted, chill shaped dough for 30 minutes before baking to prevent dough from spreading too much and ending up with flat shaped cookies.
2) Chilling and addition of nuts prevent cookies from excessive spreading.
3) If dough is too sticky to handle, chill dough for 40minutes before shaping. The dough should harden and become less sticky.

Melting Moments

Came across these mouthwatering cookies called melting moments when i was reading biscuit, cookies and brownies by Periplus. The great thing about this recipe is that few basic ingredients are required and the steps are really simple. I followed the instructions and my 1st bake turned out pretty good.

The crust was cripsy and the inside simple melted when popped into the mouth. I guess that is the reason why it is called melting moments. After reading the melting moments entry on cadenz's blog - http://decadenze.com/blog/2006/10/10/more-melting-moments/, i decided to sandwich 2 cookies with chocolate buttercream. yummy!~ Shall sandwich melting moment cookies with jam and melted chocolate to create a variety next time.

Basic Macarons

I attempted to bake macarons for the 2nd time last week. On my 1st bake, i took the opportunity to polish my piping skills. At first i made quite a mess with the batter while piping. However, i soon got the hang of it after some practice.

Making macarons certainly was no easy task. I read that macarons have a high failure rate especially when using the french meringue method. In both my 1st and 2nd attempts, I managed to get the right consistency of the batter - shiny flowing lava. The tough part was the oven temperature and baking time.

During the 1st 8 mins on my 2nd attempt, my macarons developed 'foot'. I sure was excited about that. However, I had difficulty in getting the base of the macaron to be cooked. I baked the macarons for nearly 25mins before the base was nearly dry when the recipe stated only 10 -11 of baking time. Due to the long baking time, my macaron browned when they were supposed to look shiny.

Even though the macarons on my 2nd attempt were like 80% successful, the taste was quite ok. it tasted chewy on the 1st 2 days. After a few days in the fridge, they tasted better without the chewiness.

I shall attempt baking macarons another time. Its nice to see the macarons you bake turn out crispy, moist and colourful. The best thing about learning to bake macaron is that you get to save a lot if you are good at it. Macarons are quite pricey and one macaron sells for $1.60 at Bakerzin.

Here are some sites which i referred to when baking the macarons:
1) how to make macarons
2) basic technique and simple macaron recipe

3) coffee macarons

For those who are interested, refer to link 3 for the baking timing and temperature control. Read links 1 and 2 for basics on macaron making. Good luck!