I’ve Moved

Just a quick update to let you know that I’ve moved my blog.  Please come visit me at http://www.twoatatimebaking.com/.

Thick, Sweet and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I tried out a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies tonight (once again from Cookie Madness’ amazing blog).  I don’t currently have a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’m happy with.  (The Levain copycat cookies were really good but probably more of a special occasion chocolate chip cookie, in my humble opinion.)  My prior favorite recipe has tasted a bit too sweet the past several times I’ve made it.  I guess our tastes change over time (who knew?).  I was very happy with the texture and thickness of this recipe but it didn’t quench my craving for butteriness.  Erik asked me tonight what my perfect chocolate chip would look like and here’s what I came up with: buttery, not too sweet, lots of semisweet chocolate chips (or chunks), crunchy on the outside, chewy and tender on the inside and moderate thickness.   In terms of size, I find that using a 0.25 cup scoop of batter results in the perfect size.   If you like thick, sweet and chewy chocolate chip cookies, I definitely recommend these . . .

Thick, Sweet  and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 24 cookies
Adapted from Cookie Madness

1 stick butter
0.5 cup light brown sugar
0.25 cup dark brown sugar
0.25cup plus 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
0.25 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
0.25 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

2.  Melt the butter and pour into a large bowl.  When the butter cools to slightly warm, add sugars and mix well.

3.  Beat in the egg and yolk.

4.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until blended.

5.  Stir in the vanilla and chocolate chips.

6.  Using a 0.25 cup ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheet leaving about 2 inches in between cookies.

7.  Bake until lightly browned, about 8-11 minutes.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

8.  Enjoy, with a cold glass of milk!

Grandma K’s Sugar Cookies

My friend Joanne recently asked me for a sugar cookie recipe.  She had lost track of her old, crusty family recipe that didn’t have many ingredients that she enjoyed when she was young.  Funny thing is that I have exactly that kind of recipe – from Erik’s grandmother.  It is just the kind of recipe that I love – written on a small scrap of paper, with very few ingredients and even fewer instructions (probably because she made it so often that she didn’t need the specifics).  I just love those types of family recipes that get handed down and baked by several generations, no doubt with lots of stories being told during the baking.  I adapted it slightly because the original didn’t have all the measurements included.  It’s been a while since I’ve made the cookies but my recollection is that they were quite tasty.  If you give this recipe a try, let me know what you think and please share similar old recipes from your family . . .

Grandma K’s Sugar Cookies

¾ cup shortening
½ stick butter
¼ stick margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
extra sugar for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicon mats.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream shortening, butter, margarine and sugar.
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat slightly after each one.
5. Add vanilla and beat slightly.
6. Add in flour mixture and beat until cohesive dough is formed.
7. Drop dough by tablespoonful onto cookie sheets. Use bottom of glass or measuring cup dipped in sugar to flatten dough to ¼ inch thick.
8. Bake until light gold color and just beginning to brown around the edges, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.
9. Enjoy!

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Today’s project was to find a recipe for a classic peanut butter cookie – pretty big but not wagon-wheel big, mostly soft and chewy with an ever-so-slightly crispy exterior.   Cookie Madness came through with an outstanding recipe that fits the bill on all counts.  I made only a few modifications to the recipe, including that I didn’t chill the dough before baking it.  Actually, I experimented with chilling some of the dough before baking and had the same experience that I always seem to have when I bake chilled dough – the bottoms got really dark.  Not sure why that happens but the solution (to just not chill the dough) works well, given my usual impatience to get on to the baking and eating.  I highly recommend giving this recipe a try.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 10 cookies
Adapted from Cookie Madness

0.5 cup light brown sugar
0.5 cup granulated sugar
0.5 cup butter
0.5 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1.25 cups all-purpose flour
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

2.  Combine white and brown sugars, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and egg.  Beat well for about 1-2 minutes using an electric mixer until well combined. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off.

3.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to batter and beat well (about 30 seconds).

4.  Using a 0.25 cup ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheet leaving about 2 inches in between cookies.

5. Bake for 13-16 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

6.  Enjoy!

Apple Streusel Pie

After breakfast this morning, we went to Weaver Street Market (a great community-owned local grocery store).  Aside from a few of the best restaurants in town, WSM – hands down – makes the best baked goods in the area – particularly pies, tarts and cakes.  And they offer most of their baked goods by the slice, conveniently providing me with a great excuse to try out several of their tasty offerings at once.  (Embarrassingly enough, the other day the person behind me in line declared “I want to be on your diet!”)  They also make really good bread.  While we were there this morning, they brought out a freshly baked apple streusel pie.   I had never heard of that before but it looked fantastic and I had to buy a slice.  I just took a large, pre-lunch  bite of it and I’m happy to report that it tasted even better than it looked.  It is my new favorite type of pie.  It is a wonderful combination of pie and crisp – delicious, perfectly flaky pie crust, sweet-tart apples topped with the perfect amount of sweet crumbly streusel on top.  It tasted like autumn.  Yum.   I am hoping to find a recipe for it so I can try baking one sometime soon.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged – it feels good to be back.  I was really in the mood to bake something this weekend – it had been far too long.  Erik came across a recipe for some really tasty sounding frosting that was posted on the Chowhound website.  One of the commenters suggested that it would go well with some Guinness Chocolate cupcakes.  So off I went in search of a recipe.  I was thrilled to find a recipe from Nigella Lawson since I had wanted to try some of her recipes.  The result was very tasty – love the sweet and salty combination.  The frosting was a little hard to work with in a pastry bag so we just ended up using a spatula to frost the cupcakes.  Some of the comments on the Chowhound website suggested that they would cut down on the amount of butter in the frosting.  I may try that next time – that might help.  As you can see from the photos, I shared some with friends and the cupcakes seemed to be a big hit.   I’m a pretty terrible food photographer (turns out it’s much harder than it looks) so I thought I’d go in a different direction and snap some shots of people enjoying the cupcakes.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
Makes 24 cupcakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe and this Chowhound recipe

For Frosting:
0.25 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
0.25 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup powdered sugar

For Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) unsweetened dutch-process cocoa
2 cups granulated sugar (preferably superfine or caster)
3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking soda

1.  Briefly stir together granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Continue cooking, without stirring, until mixture turns dark amber in color, about 5 to 7 minutes.

2.  Remove from heat and carefully and slowly add in cream and vanilla, stirring with a wooden spoon until completely smooth.  Pour into a bowl and set aside until cool to the touch, about 25 minutes.

3.  Combine butter and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until light in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low, add powdered sugar and mix until completely incorporated.

4.  Turn mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add cooled caramel.  Beat frosting on medium-high speed until airy and thoroughly mixed, about 2 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate until stiff, about 45 minutes, before using.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter tops of muffin tins and line with cupcake paper or foil liners.  In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter.  Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat.  Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

6.  In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well.  Add to Guinness mixture.  Add flour and baking soda, and whisk until smooth.  Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full; don’t overfill.  Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes.

7.  Cool cupcakes in pan on a wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 5-10 minutes. Carefully lift each from pan, and set on wire rack.  Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 30 minutes.

8.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in the mood to bake the other night and decided to go with my old standby: chocolate chip cookies. I followed this recipe except that I used vanilla bean instead of extract. I love vanilla bean and like to use it every chance I get. We had some leftover vanilla bean from some jasmine and vanilla bean martinis we made last week when we had my parents over to celebrate my mother’s birthday. I substituted 3 inches of vanilla bean for the 1 tablespoon vanilla extract called for in the recipe. It didn’t make as much of a difference as I would have thought so for the money perhaps it’s best to stick with vanilla extract. Or next time, maybe I’ll try some extract + some bean. I also realized with this batch of cookies that I’m ready to try out a different chocolate chip cookie recipe – shake things up a bit. If anyone out there has any favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes, please pass them along!

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Erik and I had a fabulous time visiting some friends in Charlottesville over Memorial Day weekend.  On Sunday morning, I made some blueberry muffins (using this recipe).  As I looked for a place to take some photos of the muffins to add to the blog, I was surprised to find a blueberry plant sitting on their dining room table that they had not yet planted.  What a perfect backdrop for some photos of blueberry muffins!  I’m trying to improve my picture taking abilities, especially when it comes to food.  I’m still pretty bad (Erik took this one which I really like) but I’m hoping over time I’ll get better.  I followed the recipe as listed and this time I actually remembered to sprinkle Sugar in the Raw on top of the muffins before baking them.  Although there was disagreement about whether there was too much or too little sugar, we all seemed to like having at least some sugar on top of the muffins.

Strawberry Streusel Muffins

A new farmers’ market opened up about a mile from our house. Erik and I went on Sat. morning (the weather was just perfect – sunny and in the low 70s) and bought some delicious strawberries. This morning, I decided to make some Strawberry Streusel Muffins (from my current favorite muffin cookbook). As usual, I made 6 large muffins and we had some with coffee. I was quite happy with them – next time I would try adding a little bit more streusel. It was the first time I had ever made muffins with streusel and I’m excited to try it again. I didn’t want them to be too sweet so I went a little light on the streusel and would have liked a little more. After I added the milk, eggs and vanilla (I followed the recipe which instructed to add those ingredients all at once), the batter didn’t really ever get smooth again. After I added the flour, it turned into the muffin batter consistency that I’m used to seeing and the muffins were no worse for the wear but next time, I might add the milk, eggs and vanilla separately and mix after each addition to incorporate better.

Strawberry Streusel Muffins
Makes 6 large (or 12 regular) muffins
Adapted from Totally Muffins Cookbook

Streusel Topping
0.5 stick butter
0.5 cup brown sugar, packed
0.5 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
Muffins
1 stick butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
0.75 cup milk
1.75 cup all-purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
0.25 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped

1. To make stresusel topping, cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add cinnamon and salt. Mix until blended. Add flour and mix with fingertips just until crumbly. Can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to a week.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tins (I like to use Baker’s Joy)
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and smooth.
4. Add eggs, vanilla and milk (next time, I would try adding these ingredients one at a time and beating in between each addition and add the milk slowly while lightly beating). Lightly beat until smooth.
5. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
6. Add to liquid ingredients and stir by hand just until flour disappears.
7. Gently stir in strawberries.
8. Scoop into muffin tins. Sprinkle streusel on top of batter.
9. Bake for about 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
10. Enjoy!

Strawberry Orange Scones

Since I didn’t use up all the farmer’s market strawberries in the Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes, I decided to make these scones, which I found over at Baking Bites. I had such good luck with the Cranberry Clementine Scones (which were based on a recipe from Baking Bites as well), that I gave these a whirl. They didn’t turn out as well as I hoped but I have lots of ideas about how I would change them for next time. Nicole used frozen strawberries and I used fresh strawberries. I added the strawberries to the food processor right after I washed them and I think that made the batter way too liquid-y. After mixing in the strawberries, the batter turned pink and there weren’t as many chunks of strawberries as I had hoped for. The batter was also too moist to really work with. Next time, I will stir in the chopped strawberries by hand and I will probably use the drop method from the Cranberry Clementine Scone recipe. They had a good flavor and I really liked the glaze which is unusual for me – I don’t generally like super sweet frostings or glazes but the small amount on these scones was just right. With a few adjustments, I think these will be fantastic next time.

Strawberry Orange Scones
Makes 8 scones
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.25 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, cold
6 ounces vanilla or plain yogurt
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen and coarsely chopped
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse for 5 seconds to combine.
3. Cut butter into 4 or 5 pieces and add to food processor with flour mixture. Process for 10-15 seconds until no large pieces of butter remain.
4. If using fresh strawberries, add yogurt to food processor. Pulse for 10-15 seconds until mixture comes together into a ball. Stir in strawberries by hand.
5. If using frozen strawberries, add yogurt and frozen strawberries to food processor. Pulse for 10-15 seconds until mixture comes together into a ball.
6. Divide dough into eight pieces and place on baking sheet.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until scones are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Let the scones cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes.
8. While scones cool, prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. When scones are cool enough to touch (it’s ok if they’re still a little warm), drizzle glaze onto scones with a fork.
9. Enjoy!