The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I desperately wanted an excuse to bake, so Gary's mere mention of a cookie craving last night sent me on a quest to find a new chocolate chip recipe.

I found slight variations of this recipe in many blogs and on allrecipes.com, but the Cook's Illustrated transcription on Zen Foodism seemed to have the best, and most detailed directions (recipe below).

Instead of chocolate chips, I made mine with Ghirardelli Classic White morsels, and chopped up pieces of milk chocolate Valentine's hearts from See's (what I had on hand--cheapness which I will try to pass as "creativity").





Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Cook’s Illustrated

2 and 1/8 cups (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower- middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in desired amount of chips.

Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Each half will have a jagged surface where it was ripped from the other; rotate each half up so the jagged surface faced the ceiling and press the halves back into one ball so that the top surface remains jagged. (The nooks and crannies you have created will give the baked cookies an attractive and somewhat rough, uneven appearance.) Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about 9 balls per sheet.

Bake, reversing cookies sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Makes about 18 3-inch cookies

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NOTES:
- If you take a look at the pictures for these cookies on allrecipes, you'll notice the varying texture & shape outcomes. These cookies don't "melt" and spread out too much while in the oven, so you want to form your cookies into even, flatter discs (mine were roughly ½” thick, but I want to try making them even thinner next time) instead of balls. When creating your discs, try to leave a crumbly and cracked surface on the tops of the cookies to give them a nicely textured look when finished.

- Only bake for 15-17 minutes max. The edges of the cookies should just be ever so slightly darker than the center, if at all. The centers may still look a little bit soft, but will set up nicely after they cool.

- These cookies have the same texture and flavor as the ones I used to buy for 50 cents in my K-12th grade cafeterias. They have slightly crispy edges and a soft, chewy, buttery center (mmm...). This is truly one of the best cookie recipes I have ever tried.

Croutons - La Jolla

www.croutonstogo.com
8707 Villa La Jolla Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
(In between Pick Up Stix and Healthy Back)

One of my favorite places to grab a quick salad or soup is Croutons. Granted, $6 for a small salad can seem a bit steep, but you really can't beat this place in terms of convenience and quality. All of the sandwiches, salads and soups I have tried have always tasted extremely fresh and wonderfully homemade.

Croutons is small, but the environment is one step above fast-food level. You order at the counter, they give you a number placard, and a worker brings your order to your table.

And if you show your UCSD ID, you get a free drink!


Large Cobb Salad ($6.95) - Romaine with diced roasted turkey breast, smoked bacon, tomato, avocado, egg, crumbled bleu cheese and croutons with bleu cheese or ranch dressing


Small Chicken and Wild Rice soup ($3.45) - I was expecting a brothy soup, but as you can see, this turned out to be quite thick (but still delicious). It tasted like a combination of corn chowder and chicken/wild rice soup. You can also ask for samples of the soups prior to ordering, just in case you're not feeling adventurous.

Portabella Burger

As part of our attempt to jump on the fitness train, Gary (the bf) and I have been trying out lots of healthy recipes. Tonight's mushroom burger was superb, mostly due to the marinade. We used whole weat rolls, and topped our portabellas with tomatoes, onion, and lettuce. The mushrooms were incredibly juicy and delicious.


Portabella Mushroom "Burger"
Recipe from fabulousfoods.com

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 T Worchestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
3 minced garlic cloves
1/4 tsp. black pepper
hot sauce to taste

2 large portabella mushroom caps
2 large hamburger buns
2 slices cheese (swiss, or muenster are my favorites for this recipe)

Optional Toppings:
tomato
lettuce
onion
bacon
avocado
green chilis
mayonnaise

Combine all marinade ingredients together. Place each mushroom in a shallow bowl, gill side up. Pour 1/2 of the marinade over each mushroom, pouring a little in the bottom of the bowl first, to wet the upside down cap, and the remainer into the upturned cap. Marinate for 5-10 minutes. Do not marinate longer as the mushrooms will absorb too much marinade.

Grill mushrooms on a wood or charcoal fire, or in a hot skillet on the stovetop, or under a broiler. 2-3 minutes per side will usually do, or until the mushrooms are browned and tender. If desired melt a slice of cheese on top during the last minute or so of cooking. Serve on burger buns with toppings of your choice.

Serves 2


Marinading the caps.


The finished product.


We used the leftover tomatoes to make a pseudo-caprese salad. Tomatoes, mozzarella, salt, pepper, and some good old Kirkland Signature pesto sauce.


The "burger" aftermath. Watch out, they're super juicy.

And according to this site, a 3.5 oz. (100g) portabella mushroom cap has only 26 calories!

What I ate on my winter vacation...

Spent two point five weeks with my family in Peru during the holidays, and managed to take over 150 pictures of almost everything we ate. Some food highlights from the motherland:


Cuy (guinea pig). You can see its little open mouth resting on top of the rice. My dad ordered this while we were in Cusco and reported that it wasn't too tasty. Apparently it didn't settle well either...this guinea pig got his revenge soon after he was consumed.



Anticuchos (skewered cow heart). This is one of my faves. The meat is soft and dense, and full of smokey flavors.



A classic--lomo saltado. Stir fried beef, onions, tomatoes and potatoes with hints of vinegar and soy sauce.



Picarones. Krispy Kreme has got nothing on these bad boys. Chewy sweet potato and pumpkin dough, deep fried and served with a sweet prune syrup.



Cancha - the Peruvian equivalent of kettle corn. On steroids.



Churros, but not just any kind. Custard-filled churros. Your choice of custard, or manjar blanco (dulce de leche) filling. These churros visit me in my American dreams regularly, and it's the only thing I can think about during those 9 hour flights back to Peru.



Ceviche, Peruvian style. It's prepared with corn and served with sweet potatoes.



Lechon - roasted pig. Incredibly tender and flavorful.



Bistec apanado. A cut of beef pounded with bread crumbs into a really thin, soft, steak, and then pan fried and served over rice.


The rest of the pictures can be found on my Flickr account. As you can see, we ate A LOT of food. 152 pictures worth of food, to be exact. Due to all the goodness we consumed, the interesting food posts will be sparse for a while, as I have been feasting on a diet of salads and whole wheat turkey wraps in attempts to fit back into my skinny jeans.