The perfect chocolate chip cookie

There's something comforting about warm chocolate chip cookies, especially going into the holiday season. And while I don't have the biggest sweet tooth in the world, I definitely love the smell of them.

In the last year or so, I've tested 13 chocolate chip cookie recipes, but my favourite recipe by far is this one by Martha Stewart (seriously, she's a genius). Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, these cookies have (IMO) a perfectly balanced texture.

I found the original recipe waaaaaaay too sweet, so I played around with the amount of sugar used.  Below is the recipe with my notes.  Also, I find this recipe actually yields about 26 or so cookies instead of the 20 or so listed.

Another idea: substitute 1/2 the chocolate chips for semi-sweet chocolate chunks.

Happy baking!

(Reminder: make sure your eggs and butter are room temperature)

Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups packed dark-brown sugar (reduced to 0.75 cups)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (reduced to 1/3 cup)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
- Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time.
- Add vanilla.
- Reduce speed to low.
- Add flour mixture; beat until combined.
- Mix in chocolate chips.
- Using a 2 1/4-inch ice cream scoop (about 3 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.
- Bake until golden around edges but soft in the middle, about 15 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Chunky apple muffins

Apples are one of my favourite fruits - they last forever and work well with both sweet and savoury dishes. I've been on a baking roll these days and wanted to do something with apples. Enter Martha (yes, again). I found this recipe on her site.

I didn't really tinker as there isn't much sugar used in the recipe (normally I reduce sugar by about 1/2).  The muffins turned out moist and the recipe was so easy to follow. Plus it didn't take much time to make. Definitely a good recipe for home cooks like me.

P.S. The family loved them!

Golda's Kitchen

It's no secret I'm a Christmas nut (yes, I'm the girl who has her tree up and most shopping done by December 1) - anything that has to do with Christmas brings me joy. It's especially fun for me when I'm able to combine my love of food with some Yule Tide spirit. Enter holiday baking. Last year, instead of store-bought presents, I decided to give most of the people in my life an assortment of homemade treats. It was such a success that I've decided to do the same thing this year. 

I housed my cookies in holiday-themed tins from the Dollar Store. The tins worked okay, but because there weren't any separate compartments, I found it difficult to keep the cookies apart (in my world, different flavoured cookies cannot touch...cross-flavour contamination merits its own blog post). I did some research and stumbled across Golda's Kitchen, an online store (which recently opened a physical location) that sells anything and everything related to cooking - including cookie boxes with separate compartments.

Golda's Kitchen is like Michael's - but focused entirely on cooking. Prices for many items are also slightly lower at Golda's.

Located at 2885 Argentia Road (unit 6) in Mississauga, Golda's Kitchen is a little bit off the beaten path. But I have to tell you: the drive is worth it.

P.S. I did get my cookie boxes. I'll post pics after I start to bake goodies for them. I'm still working out which 4 cookies to bake. So far: chocolate crackle, chocolate chip, chocolate cinnamon and TBC.

Pumpkin pecan dream

Up until recently, all I've really done is bake cookies - cakes and cupcakes were too intimidating, but with nearly 3 years of baking experience under my belt, I decided it was time to take on this challenge. I have to say that I've screwed up my fair share of recipes, but I have also taken quite a few and successfully made them my own.

This following recipe - one I'd like to call pumpkin pecan dream (the dream part comes from the fact that the marshmallows I added to the recipe remind me of pillows) is one that I can truly call my own.

Check this out and let me know how it goes!

Ingredients
- 18 medium are large cupcake liners
- 3/4 cup canola oil plus more for pan
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour 
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1.5 cups pumpkin puree 
- 1.25 cup plain low-fat yogurt 
- 3 large eggs
- 0.75 cups of brown sugar + 2 teaspoons for sprinkling
- 1.5 cups of coarsely chopped pecans  
-   36 mini marshmallows (an Olivia addition)

**Make sure all ingredients are room temperature

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush 12 jumbo muffin tins (each with a 1-cup capacity) with oil; set aside. (The recipe actually makes about 18 muffins if you’re using a standard cupcake tray - adjust number of marshmallows based on the size of your tray)
- In a medium bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk oil, pumpkin puree, yogurt, eggs, and 1 cup sugar to combine; add 1 cup walnuts and reserved dry ingredients. Mix just until moistened (do not overmix).
- Fill the muffin tins about a 1/3 of the way and then push a mini marshmallow into the middle. Fill the muffin tins with the rest of the batter – making sure it’s only about 75% full. Pull another marshmallow into the middle so that the top is showing. Sprinkle tops with remaining walnuts/pecans and sugar.  Bake until toothpick is inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, roughly 30-35 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes in pan. Move to cookie racks for further cooling.  (Note the baking time is shorter because the muffins are slightly smaller).

Boylan Diet Cream Soda

I recently had a wisdom tooth removed (yep, 1 tooth since the other one isn't ready yet...which means I'll have to suffer all over again), so eating solid foods has been a literal pain. Therefore it's fitting that while I'm unable unable to eat solids, I stumbled across a drink by Boylan Bottling Company - Diet Creme.

Boylan makes gourmet soda pops. Each serving comes in its own vintage looking glass bottle - which adds to the entire soda pop experience. That's right - soda pop - not just pop.

Diet Creme tastes like cream soda with sugar, which is incredible to me. I favour diet pop since sugar pop messes with my system, so I'm used to the chemically tastes of aspartame, giving it a fake - and sometimes, a not-so-yummy aftertaste. But this...THIS tastes real (and it has 0 calories - another bonus!)

Diet Creme - the taste, the bottle...the entire thing demands that you slow down and savour this drink.

While it's not something I can have often (at $2.02 tax included from Pusateri's it`s nearly double the price of regular pop), this is definitely a once in awhile treat. A deliciously refreshing treat :)