Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You will EVER MEET ... and eat

aka Jim Lahey's Chocolate Chip cookies.

Hello my loves! Does it seem like I've forgotten about my blog? Because it feels like it... Sorry!! But I'm back with lovely recipes and great stories, prepare yourselves!  Read, Bake, and Enjoy!

I am aware that I do in fact, say this about ever single chocolate chip cookie recipe I ever make. But guys, GUYS! THIS IS THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE I have yet to come across.

These lovely, lovely cookies become flat when baking, but when you bite into them, they're full of flavor, and chewy and yum. Oh my yum. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. They are most likely some of the cutest cookies, you think all c.c cookies will be chunky because of the chocolate chips, but noo! They flatten out after only five minutes in the oven.

After learning about Jim Lahey's fabulous cookies, we baked not only two batches, but three batches of cookies... which were all eating within the first hours of their freshly baked cookie-lives. From my point of view, eating between five and ten of these cookies is totally ok. They are thin and have a small amount of chocolate chips (although when I baked them, I added in a couple more then called for ; ) ) therefore, completely justified. Go ahead, eat ten, no biggie my friends.


Scrumptious pictures shall be posted tonight!!

Love these as much as I do!

xx

Jim Lahey's Chocolate Chip CookiesMakes 15 - 20 cookies

Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (I used unbleached white wholewheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temp (if you don't have large eggs, take two small eggs, and use 1 and half of another...and you'll have 1 large egg)1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Prep
Preheat oven to 425 ℉, and arrange racks into upper and lower thirds of your oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and side aside.
Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl.
Using and electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and both sugars in a larger mixer bowl about 2-3 minutes, until combined.
Add egg and vanilla; beat on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
Add dry ingredients, and reduce the speed to low, mix until blended.
Then fold in chocolate chips.

Scooping
Spoon out heaping tablespoons of dough onto your prepared baking sheets. (I used a small ice cream scooper) Be sure the keep the scoops small, they may look like not enough, but *remember* they spread out when baking.
Bake until cookie edges are golden brown, about 6 - 8 minutes, and rotate the pans halfway through!
After you take them out of the oven, carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack, they will be VERY fragile.

:)




Adapted from: Bon Appetit

Orange Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones

I made these a few weeks ago with one of my very best friends and I'm happy to say that these were the most delicious, almost healthy and incredibly easiest scones I've ever made. (I'm a big scone person, to say the least). We replaced All purpose flour with Whole wheat pastry flour. Instead of making an orange-y glaze to put on top, we mixed the orange zest into the dough and they ended up being pretty, textured,  moist and sweet! Therefore, these lovely scones are not only easy and fun to make, but healthy and are a delicious companion to your morning tea or coffee!


I've made them three more times this past week, will be posting a picture soon!
Love them as much as I do.



Orange Cranberry Chocolate Chips Scones

2 cups Whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp COLD butter
Zest of an orange
1/4 cup organic raw sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup (pick any of the following!): milk, almond or soy milk
1 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze (totally optional!) I highly suggest trying it without the glaze, and then if you don't like it...go all out and make the glaze!
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Zest of another orange
Orange juice, from the zested orange

Preheat the oven to 400 ℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Zest an orange and mix the zest with the sugar, set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut the 5 TBSP of butter into horizontal slices, and then cut those slices in half again. Make small cubes! Cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, fork, or use your hands. (But be careful not to melt the butter with the heat of your hands!!) Mix the butter and the flour until there are small crumbs and no large clumps of butter. Stir in the sugar, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Measure the milk, add the vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture. The dough should be slightly sticky, if it looks like you need to add a little more milk, add a little more milk!
Do not, I repeat! Do not knead the dough! Bring the dough together into a ball. Use a little extra flour as needed when cutting the dough. Pat it out into a 1.5 inch thick round. Cut the round into 8 triangles. Place the triangles slightly apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, while turning the baking sheet half-way through the baking time, bake until the tops of the scones are golden on the edges.

To make the glaze, just mix the powdered sugar with orange zest and juice! Make sure the keep the glaze thick because it will melt a little bit when you bit it and become thinner on the scones.

Adapted from: honeybeecooksjackfruit

A sad day, but a so incredibly happy and wonderful experience

I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my house guests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

- Dream, Priscilla Ahn

I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but for the last couple of months I have been interning at the Flying Apron Bakery, in Fremont, Washington. And I have loved every single minute. It was without a doubt a dream come true. I was working in this wonderfully successful bakery without any outside experience, (except what I had learned in school). I started interning for my senior project at the beginning of October 2011 coming in two to three days a week and have been interning there for two days a week ever since.
My coworkers are wonderful people with incredibly kind hearts, I always leave smiling or laughing. :) Our baked goods are great, and oh-so-fun to make! The atmosphere and the customers are lovely and I have always felt so at home. Although, I am sad to say that because of my school schedule they no longer need me as an extra pair of hands on those two days during the week. But I have nothing to say but joyous things. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. If anything, working here has solidified my decision on what I am doing with my life after I am out and graduated from high school. As of right now, I am in the middle of my application to the C.I.A (Culinary Institute of America), and on my way to filling out a couple more applications to Culinary schools in my area.
I want to say so much more, but I also feel like if I do, I will constantly be repeating myself... :) What else can I say? I am so blessed and I am so grateful to have had the chance to experience what I have experienced. To all of my Flying Aprons, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. You will never know how much you have done for me. I am sad it is over, but I am so unbelievably happy, I don't know how to say it any other way. But thank you for all you have done. ♥