Tuesday, February 21, 2006

The Versatile Chocolate Chip Cookie


Two nights ago my husband was having a bad day so I decided to whip up something quick to make him feel better. There's no better comfort dessert than chocolate chip cookies in my opinion. Since we had about ten mini Heath bars in the pantry I decided to break those apart and mix them into the batter. I had tried that before and the toffee melted into the cookie and disintegrated but this time I made the chunks larger and they turned out perfectly.



I know there are a LOT of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there but I still love Nestle's Original Tollhouse cookie recipe. If you like your cookies chewy like I do, make sure you only bake them 10 minutes and if you refrigerate the dough, let it sit out for a while before you bake them so that the dough has a chance to soften. It makes a big difference in the texture of the cookie.

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A few weeks ago I was in the mood for cookies and I happened to have some rolled oats leftover from my pear scones so I decided to make oatmeal cookies.

I found a recipe for oatmeal cookies in the newest Gourmet cookbook (the HUGE yellow cookbook you see in the stores that is edited by Ruth Reichl). The cookbook has a TON of recipes but is frustrating to look through because the recipe titles are all in yellow which is very difficult to read.

This particular oatmeal cookie recipe was difficult to cut in half but I had no choice since I didn't have enough oats for a full recipe. They turned out fine, though. Unlike the average oatmeal (chocolate chip) cookie, these were pure oats. There is very little flour in the recipe so you MUST love oats in order to enjoy these cookies. I added chocolate chips and wouldn't try them without the chocolate for fear they would be way too bland. At first bite I wasn't sure that I would make these cookies again but by the time I finished the first cookie I was hooked and have been craving them ever since. They're best when eaten straight out of the oven so I recommend only baking what you can eat and saving the remaining dough for later.

4 comments:

Gourmetish said...

I have to admit that this post does not "raise the stakes" and that Mr. PW would not approve. However, I find photos of food to be the equivalent of porn for me and I do partly maintain this blog just for myself so that I can review photos of what I have made in the past. Hey, that's what I do with all of the food blogs I read. I stare at pictures and drool.

the cook said...

Gourmetish,

Nice work. Your pictures are lovely. Who cares what Pete Wells likes in a blog -- just keep up the good work. The idea behind your site is solid, and I think you should develop it and have fun with it, without worrying whether some self-appointed (with F&W's help) arbiter of food-blog taste might annoint it worthy of his praise. I'd like to see that guy's blog, if he had one (yawn).

It's 8:40 in the morning, I haven't even thought about breakfast, and you have me wanting to make cookies. You've done your job.

Gourmetish said...

What a sweet comment, thanks! I'm hoping to learn more about html and really put more into this site but I think it'll take a while. Thanks for the support!

Kady

Anonymous said...

I love nothing better than a homemade Toll House cookie. Delicious photos, too!