Chips off the block Cookies

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool.

Shun him.

He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is simple.

Teach him."

Sir William Osler

Thanks William, again.

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Taking that quote - I am confident that these cookies are very good.

If you have a better recipe - by all means - teach me.

I am not trying to re-incarnate Julia Child here - just offering some of my recipes for you...

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There is something comforting about baking.

I usually bake after a bad day at work and find it strangely soothing.

Is it the knowledge of the taste of the final product?

Perhaps.

Though often I find I don't eat much of the final product at all (see pancake recipe or waffles...). There is an attraction - a deep seated satisfaction -

in seeing a pile of flour, sticks of butter, cups of sugar, eggs

all arrive at a final destination that can create and elicit so many forgotten memories...

I can remember clearly the times I have bitten into the soft and

yielding center of one of Grandma's cookies...

baking brings me back to that.

Sarcomas take a back seat when I bake.

Brain tumors cease causing hydrocephalus when I bake.

Fevers subside ever so slighty when I bake...

It's my place, my time - I hope these recipes and this blog helps you create such a feeling...

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Enough waxing eloquent!

Onto the cookies!

Cate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

(modified a great deal from mulitple recipes I have encountered, the amount of dark brown sugar lends a sublime molasses flavor underneath a darn good choco chip cookie -

"sublime molasses flavor?" - be quiet Darrick, it's my blog!)

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The Dry:

2 ¼ cups flour (AP)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

10 oz of chocolate chips/chunks (more or less to taste)

Cream the following:

½ cup shortening (butter flavor)

½ cup butter (unsalted or thou shall be smitten by mine hand)

1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla



Ok. Creaming.

The butter NEEDS to be at cool room temp (68-70 degr F) in order

to properly cream anything.

Yes! Stick a Thermometer in it (get one!)

Try creaming with cold butter and there wont be anything sublime about your cookies.

Make sure the creamed ingredients are integrated well.

Scraping sides of bowl often
What not to do (part I)

Make sure the bowl in your mix in firmly locked in place

BEFORE turning it on.
Slowly add the dry S L O W L Y

What not to do (part deux)

Add the flour all at once, and your significant other will complain about white flour particles being everywhere for days

Once all the dry has been integrated -

Add the chocolate chips…

You did set your oven for 375, right?

I use a melon baller to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets.
You can use a spoon as well.
Bake em for 9-12 minutes (in my oven with melon baller sized dough, its 12 minutes, but not all ovens are created equally).

HELP STOP COOKIE DOUGH THIEVERY




If you have seen this person, please apprehend her at once!
Place her in a holding cell with NO yarn or needles until she promises to never
EVER steal cookie dough again.
Excuses such as "You have plenty" are NOT acceptable!

Trent

Next post - Yeast starters (get your ziplock bags ready!)

My first post & "Better than Perkins Pancakes"

"I have had three personal ideals. One to do the day's work well and not to bother about to-morrow. It has been urged that this is not a satisfac­tory ideal. It is; and there is not one which the student can carry with him into practice with greater effect. To it, more than to anything else, I owe whatever success I have had-to this power of settling down to the day's work and trying to do it well to the best of one's ability, and letting the future take care of itself. The second ideal has been to act the Golden Rule, as far as in me lay, towards my professional brethren and towards the patients committed to my care. And the third has been to cultivate such a measure of equanimity as would enable me to bear suc­cess with humility, the affection of my friends without pride and to be ready when the day of sorrow and grief came to meet it with the courage befitting a man."

Sir William Osler
L'ENVOI, IN AEQUANIMITAS, 450-1.

Thanks William... a fine quote to start a blog (and to live by...)

What you’ll find here…

reflections…

recipes (that worked and those that stunk!) with pics…

more pictures of the little one…

What you won’t find here –

weapons of mass destruction

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For the first post – in memory of Dad – a recipe… When I told Dad I could make pancakes from scratch, his comment was, “Yeah, but they probably aren’t as good as the ones at Perkins.” I smiled and made ‘em.
Here’s the recipe for what I call “Better than Perkins Pancakes” (it takes some time, but these are now what is expected at our household, just a warning…)

I’m honored that Dad got to try them…


Better than Perkins Pancakes

The Dry:
1 ½ cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
Griddle set at 350-375 degrees.

The Wet:
1 cup milk
½ cup of vanilla yogurt
(place in bowl and whisk)
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs – separated yolks and whites
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Mix dry together and set aside.

In bowl that can accommodate all ingredients whisk the milk and yogurt together.
Melt butter (in microwave, over open fire, or an alternative heat source)

and add egg yolks to melted butter and mix together

(this allows the fat in the butter to combine with the egg, which then acts as an emulsifying agent allowing better integration into the milk mixture – just do it, ok?)

Add butter/egg yolks to milk/yogurt mixture while constantly stirring.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks.

Add dry to wet and mix until just combined.
Don’t worry about lumps (everyone does at first, trust me – they’ll go away)

FOLD in the egg whites in two installments.

I use a ½ cup measuring cup to dish out mixture onto griddle

(if you dont have a griddle... get one!)
Then cook them (flip em when their brown -)

Serve with whatever. Truth be told, I don’t care much for pancakes (but my family does), and I enjoy these without any syrup…