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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Finding THE recipe...

for Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Tonight, my friend is coming over for dinner and I was super excited to bake these chocolate chip cookies for her to take home.  She'll be leaving on a trip to Australia in a few weeks so tonight's our night for catching up and pigging out!


To say I have found my favourite cookie recipe is a bold statement, but I think I am ready to make it.  I've been looking around for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe and my search is over!  At least, until I have reason to believe there's another recipe out there that can top the one I tried today.


This cookie has the perfect ratio of chocolate chips to toffee bits and I'd be surprised if you could stop after just one.  And, it never hurts to add just a little bit more semi-sweet chocolate.  Next time, I'll try making them with milk chocolate chips, although I think the cookie will be way too sweet.  But when has a super sweet cookie ever been a bad thing?


These cookies are packed with chocolate and after tasting them, I knew without a doubt that baking cookies at home from scratch makes them taste that much better. Hopefully my friend will enjoy them as much as I did... am.  I've certainly had more than my share of these cookies today.   



Here's the Recipe: (I don't recall where I found it as it was jotted down on a recipe card a while ago... but just for the record, I didn't create it myself!)

Chocolate Chip & Toffee Cookies

Ingredients
1 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1 1/2 Cups Light Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 large egg, room temperature
2 Cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
12 Ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1/2 Bag of Skor Toffee Bits

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine butter, and both sugars and beat until light and fluffy.  Add Vanilla, and mix to combine.  Add egg, and continue beating until combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.  Mix on low speed until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits.
4. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough and place onto the baking sheet, leaving them 3 inches apart.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

An update!

My my my... I can't believe it's already May!  I've been post-less for 2 weeks but it feels like it's only been a few days.  Since my last post, I've been slowly working on building... a portfolio.  Of what, you ask?  Cupcakes!  I've always loved baking cupcakes and whenever I have an excuse to bake (even when there isn't one) I do so.  However, because I've never had people 'order' cupcakes from me, I usually show up unannounced with a box of the little yummies, I don't have any nicely displayed cupcakes to show people.

So, with the encouragement from my girl friends, I started talking to different people: friends, friends of friends, church friends, etc. and in less than a week I have orders for cupcakes!  My mom's church is holding a fundraiser and she's asked me to bake 100 mini cupcakes to sell.  Even though there's no profit in it for me, there's much to gain!  I'll be able to perfect my recipes and play around with new flavours and ideas!

Another friend has asked me to bake cupcakes for her fiance's birthday at the end of May.  I know he's a fan of the Mango-Banana drink at Starbucks so I'm definitely going to attempt something fun with that.  Also, one of my high school friends wants to meet up to discuss my possibly making cupcakes for her 400 guest wedding!  Is that not crazy or what?! I will be meeting up with the bride & groom this Thursday evening to discuss their ideas and set up a taste testing.

As excited as I am to discuss all this, it's truly humbling.  I've never had to do a taste testing before, but the hubby has been super supportive and so have all the girls who have prayed and nudged me along with this dream of mine.

So... there it is.  Believe me, I'll be updating more often and posting pics of my new adventures!