thayirsaadham

Hey all,

How have you been? I have been great - swamped with work. But the work is awesome - so am happy . That is the reason I haven’t been around to your blogs. My reader is choking with unread items. But I will clear the backlog soon. I love browsing through the blogs looking at recipes, thinking of ways to adapt them. You get so many ideas and inspirations. And you get to drool all you want.

For quite sometime now, I have been itching to bake a quick bread. I love quick breads. They are quick to make (duh) , require no yeast (hence none of the “Is the water warm enough?” “Hope the yeast has not expired.” “Did I knead enough?” kind of self-doubts). You can play around with ingredients - swap out some yogurt for the sour cream, apple sauce for the butter. As long as the batter tastes good, the outcome is more or less good.

As much as you want to play with the ingredients, in some cases, you want to stick with the original recipe. Like this chocolate-hazelnut swirl bread recipe from TasteofHome. I had all the ingredients in my pantry except for sour cream and hazelnuts. I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts. I wasn’t sure whether to use milk or yogurt for sour cream. While I was contemplating this, I remembered seeing a very similar recipe sometime back in one of the blogs I frequent. A quick search and Bingo! DK of Chefinyou has a similar recipe on her site. I referred her version and saw that she had used yogurt. Problem solved. When an expert says to do something, you do it

Ingredients

Batter

1. Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick) - softened *
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Eggs - 2 (large)
4. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
5. All purpose flour - 2 cups
6. Baking powder - 1 tsp
7. Baking soda - 1 tsp
8. Yogurt - 1 cup **

Topping

1. Chocolate chips - 1/3 cup ***
2. Sugar - 3 tbsp ****
3. Finely chopped walnuts - 1/3 cup
4. Cinnamon - 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Butter (or use parchment paper) a 9X5 loaf pan.
3. Mix the dry ingredients (5, 6 and 7 in the batter ingredients) and keep them aside. (I sifted them to get a lighter product)
4. Mix the ingredients for topping and set aside.
5. Cream the butter and sugar till they become fluffy.
6. Add the eggs one by one and beat well after each addition.
7. Add the vanilla extract to the batter.
8. Add the mixed dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt.
9. Pour half the batter into the loaf pan and spread it evenly.
10. Sprinkle around 2/3rd of the topping on the batter and spread it evenly.
11. Pour the remaining half of the batter.
12. Sprinkle the remaining topping over the batter.
13. Pop the loaf pan into the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes. (In my oven, it took 65 minutes. I would suggest you start checking from the 55th minute mark.)
14. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted in the center.
15. Once done, let it cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Then slide it on to a wire rack and cool it thoroughly before slicing it.

This cake tasted awesome. The chocolate chips had melted and you had a nice, gooey and nutty texture right in the middle. I had one problem with this recipe though. I wasn’t able to get clean slices. Even though I had cooled the cake well, it crumbled all over me when I tried to slice it. One reason could be because I went overboard with the topping. I increased the amount of chocolate chips to 1/2 cup and walnuts to a little more than 1/3 cup. I am not sure if that was the reason. If any of you have any good guesses, please mention them in the comments. The next time I make this, I would add some instant coffee to the topping. I am guessing the bitter taste of coffee would go well with the chocolate and walnuts.

Notes

* To soften butter, just place it on the counter for 1-2 hours.
** I used low fat yogurt. But I am guessing fat free or full fat would also work here
*** I used semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. But I might try using bitter sweet the next time. This cake was a bit too sweet for my taste.
**** I used white sugar. But I would definitely go with brown sugar here. Brown sugar works so much better than white sugar as a crumb topping ingredient.

Hey all,

I am so tired of saying “I am back” again. So, what happened this time? I switched to another team at my workplace. Had to go through the whole process of preparing for interviews, giving interviews, etc. all over again. Though I am smiling now, it was sooo NOT fun. But I am glad I am done and am really excited about the new team and the work there.

I did very very minimal cooking the past 1 month. Last weekend was my first free weekend in a looong time and what did I do? Yep.. you guessed it right! Slept like Kumbakarna . I also made pancakes, baked some muffins and tried making apple turnovers for the first time. You know what? I was never a fan of apples in baked goods. But I am a changed person now. Loved the apple turnover. I did not take pictures of anything that I cooked - just concentrated on shoveling them into my mouth.

The recipe today is something that I made a long time ago - cream cheese pound cake. A little confession here. I am addicted to cream cheese. I do not like cheese and don’t even like pizza that much. But cream cheese - a totally different story. I have been known to eat enormous amounts of wheat thins with cream cheese. I convince myself I am getting whole grains and protein into my diet. And I always, always make it a point to lick the mixing bowl and spatula clean whenever cream cheese is involved. Okay.. Okay.. I do it whenever any cake batter is involved. But I do a really good job when there is cream cheese.

Coming back to this cake, I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I made a few changes - dialed down the sugar, increased the cream cheese (hardly a surprise) and skipped the strawberry coulis because I did not want anything to overshadow the cream cheese. Also, I halved the recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. This is not a low-calorie cake. But I fully believe that indulging in your favorite foods is okay if done in a moderate fashion. As you can see from the above picture, I sliced the cake into thin slices - not that this stopped me from having more than one slice. But I tried.

Ingredients

1. Unsalted Butter - 1 stick *
2. Cream cheese - 1 8 oz package (I used Philadelphia brand of cream cheese)
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. Eggs (large) - 3
5. All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
6. vanilla extract - 1 tsp
7. Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Butter and flour a 9X5 loaf pan.
3. Beat the butter and cream cheese for about 3 minutes - till they are fluffy.
4. Add the sugar and continue beating till the mixture is airy.
5. Add one egg at a time and beat well (for 1 minute) after each addition.
6. Add the vanilla extract.
7. Add the flour and salt and beat just until the flour is incorporated into the batter.
8. Pour the batter in the loaf pan and bake till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. This took around 55-60 minutes for me. **

I loved this cake. Less sugar and more cream cheese made the cake taste more tangy which I just love. Adding some lemon zest or a few drops of lemon juice to the batter would be a great idea.

* Make sure the butter, cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature. I usually keep them out on the counter for 2-3 hours. To get the eggs come to room temperature quickly, just pop them in warm water for a few minutes. Room temperature butter and cream cheese lead to a lighter cake.
** The cake took around 55 minutes to get done. But my oven is kind of cranky and I am hesitant to give an exact number. I would recommend that you start checking after 45 minutes.

Hey all,

When I was young, I used to read a lot of books by Enid Blyton. Famous Five, Secret Seven, St.Clare’s, Malory Towers. I loved them all. I was particularly enamored by the Famous Five series. These kids had their own island for crying out loud. And oh boy! The adventures they had in those books. The closest I have ever come to an adventure is when my dad and I would try to steal the cashew nuts from under my mother’s really really sharp eyes and nose. She hates it when she runs out of cashews when she is about to make a payasam and finds out that we have simply eaten all the cashews. Hell hath no fury like a woman who finds out she is out of cashews.

But I digress. The main reason for my craze with that series - the food! The English sure know how to eat - scones, clotted cream, shortbread, ginger beer, icecreams… I could go on and on. Except for ice creams, I had no idea how the rest would taste or even look. Unlike now, there was no way to go online and look for images for these food items. (Typing that makes me feel old. Do kids nowadays realize how blessed they are with internet? ). I somehow knew all these would taste awesome. Up until recently, I thought shortbread was something similar to a bread - maybe smaller in size. Literal? yeah… that’s me. According to Wikipedia,

“Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word short). The cause of this texture is its high fat content, provided by the butter.”

The mention of butter sold me. I looked for shortbread recipes and I found the recipe for espresso-chocolate chip shortbread in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours . I made minor changes to the recipe.

* I did not add espresso powder as I did not want to make this with the coffee flavor the first time. But the next time I bake this (oh yeah.. there will be a next time), I will add the espresso powder.
* Also, I did not have any mini chocolate chips and hence added regular chips. But I would suggest going with the mini chips. You need to roll the dough and then cut it into squares. Mini chips will make it easier while rolling and while cutting. Otherwise, the square boundaries might span the area of a chip and it gets messy. Not a huge problem. But just wanted to give a heads-up.

The recipe says you can get 32 cookies. I got around 40 cookies. I guess I rolled my dough a little thinner than instructed.

Rolled out cookie dough

Ingredients

1. Instant espresso powder - 1 tablespoon ( I skipped this)
2. Boiling water - 1 tablespoon (I skipped this)
3. Unsalted butter - 2 sticks (8 ounces) (at room temperature)
4. Confectioners’ sugar - 2/3 cup
5. Pure vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon
6. All-purpose flour - 2 cups
7. 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (plain, or a toffee variety), finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
8. Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional - I did not use this)

Method
1. Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.
2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.
3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.
4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.
7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Shortbread before baking

These cookies taste awesome and are really easy to make. They are crumbly and they just melt in your mouth. All that butter helps. These keep well at room temperature in an air-tight container.And the rolling technique? So cool. I am actually thinking of doing it for my other cookies as it makes for really pretty even cookies. Usually my cookies are all of different sizes since I do not have a cookie scoop and I just end up plopping different sizes on the cookie sheet. I console myself by calling it the rustic look .

I am sending these shortbread cookies to Mahimaa’s Contribute Your Recipes Event - Cakes and Cookies.

Hey all,

I am back (hopefully, this time to stay). Lots of reasons for my absence - the usual ones like work, moving apartments, laziness, etc. Also, somewhere along the way, I started feeling some kind of pressure if I did not post. The more I felt the pressure, the more I stayed away from posting. I think I forgot the reason why I started this blog. I did this because I love cooking and I love sharing it with others. I don’t know how to explain it exactly… But I am sure all of you must have felt it… a kind of happiness when someone says they tried your recipe and it came out good or when someone tries your recipe, changes some ingredients and posts about it. When I have questions on some recipes as to why they did not turn out as well as I hoped, you guys are always ready with your opinions and suggestions. I love that. I started missing these exchanges and that is when I realized I wanted to blog again

So, what was I up to the last few weeks? As I mentioned before, work took up a major part of it. I am working on a new project and loving it. It is very interesting and daunting at the same time. Also, I moved apartments. Twice! Within 3 weeks. The apartment that I moved into first was good in all aspects except for the fact that I could hear my upstairs neighbor breathe. (I should mention that some of my friends would say I am the queen of exaggeration). Seriously, the walls were so thin that I could hear EVERY SINGLE THING. And, they had kids - who would always wake up early on weekends and run around. I decided nothing was going to come between me and my sleep. After all, I am Kumbakarni. I have a reputation. So, I moved again and the place I am currently in is awesome. Oh… I have to share this. I baked a cheesecake. Two, in fact. A plain one and a chocolate one. I baked them for a party at work. I loved them, especially the plain one. The chocolate one was good too. But I felt that the chocolate completely overwhelmed the cheesecake flavor. I am definitely baking the plain one again.

Today, I have a very simple biscotti recipe. I love to have something to munch on when I am having my evening coffee/tea. Back home, my father used to always have his coffee with murukku/thattai or the Marie/Parle-G biscuits that we get in India. I think I got this habit from him.

Biscotti are twice-baked cookies, often containing nuts or spices. I have made the plain version before. I just added some chocolate chips this time. The basic recipe is from King Arthur Flour website. I did not change it much except to add some chocolate chips and cinnamon. I have no idea why I added cinnamon. My hand simply reaches for that spice and I add it to almost every thing I bake.

Ingredients

1. Butter - 6 tablespoons
2. Sugar - 2/3 cup
3. Salt - 1/4 tsp
4. Vanilla extract - 1 to 2 tsp
5. Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
6. Eggs - 2 large
7. All-Purpose Flour - 2 cups
8. Chocolate chips - 1/2-3/4 cup
9. Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18″ x 13″) baking sheet.
2. Beat the sugar, butter, vanilla extract, sugar and salt till the mixture is creamy.
3. Add 1 egg at a time and beat well after the addition of each egg.
4. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
5. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until the flour is incorporated.
6. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture.
7. Now, drop the dough on a greased baking sheet and shape it into a log 14″ long x 2 ½” wide x ¾” thick.
8. Bake the log for 25 minutes.
9. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 20-25 minutes.
10. In the meantime, reduce the oven temperature to 325 F.
11. Now, cut the log into slices.
12. Place the slices on the baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.(Take them out when the biscotti are just starting to brown at the edges. They will dry and get crisper while they are cooling. )

Just some things to remember while making biscotti.
1. While shaping the log, you can use a wet spatula or wet your hands and use them. This helps in working with the sticky dough.
2. When cutting the biscotti, try to use a serrated knife. This helps is getting clean slices.
3. A lot of people specify that spraying the once baked log with water will help in cutting without the log crumbling. I have not faced this problem and so did not spray with water. But please follow it if you find your log crumbling. Also, waiting till they are really cool will also help with in getting clean slices.

The one problem I had was that my log spread while baking for the first time. I think it was because I used too much water while shaping it. But it did not affect the taste or the ability to get clean slices. I would love to know the reason behind this though. Also, don’t worry too much about the measurements they have specified for the log. I can never get it to 14″ long. I just try my best in getting a rectangular shape with a decent amount of thickness.

You can add chocolate chips, pistachios, cranberries, etc. Anything goes, really. The King arthur flour website gives a list of additions.

Hey all…

If you haven’t noticed, I changed my site’s layout. The old one (if you can call it a layout) looked…how do I put it… UGLY!!! I have been meaning to change it for a looooooong time… but was just plain lazy to do it. I was thinking that I will develop the site on my laptop, perfect it and then publish it. Ha! FAT chance of that ever happening. I am the queen of procrastination. So, I decided to publish what I have and then work on it. The first thing I need to do is work on my recipe index. I am having some issues tailoring it to suit the new theme. Now, I need to find someone to give me a swift kick in the b*** if I don’t update the site with the features. I am relying on you guys for a virtual kick .

Coming to today’s recipe, I wanted to use oat bran in some recipe. Let me digress here and say something that I am sure a lot of you would agree with. One of the main benefits of blogging and having this network of foodies is the increased awareness about eating healthy. My knowledge on healthy diet was very minimal. I mean… I knew that fruits and vegetables were good for health, too much of rice was bad… you get the idea. Browsing through the food blogs, I gained so much knowledge on which food has what nutrients, how to substitute for a not-so-healthy ingredient with a healthy alternative… the list is endless. Healthy eating is no longer a struggle. I look forward with pleasure to my breakfast of oatmeal every morning - tasty and healthy.

So, coming back to the recipe before you guys start grinding your teeth, I got some oat bran from Whole Foods and was looking for some recipe with it. For people who are not familiar with oat bran, it is the outer casing of the oat kernel. It is an excellent food for people with high cholesterol levels. It is very effective in bringing down the level of LDL or the “bad” cholesterol. You can use oat bran in a variety of dishes. You can toast some oat bran and top your morning cereal with it. You can add it to smoothies. You can make cakes, breads,etc using oat bran. I made a coffeecake with oat bran. I found the recipe on wholegraingourmet. I changed the recipe to suit my taste and the contents of my pantry. I have mentioned my recipe below. You can refer to the link I have provided for the original recipe.

Ingredients

1. Oat bran - 1 cup
2. Whole wheat pastry flour - 1/2 cup
3. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
4. Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
5. Baking Powder - 2 tsp
6. Organic Fat-free milk - 1 cup
7. Egg whites - 2
8. Honey - 1/4 cup
9. Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
10. Cinnamon -1 tsp
11. vanilla extract - 1 tsp
12. Blueberries - according to your taste
13. A combination of your choice of nuts - almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews.

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Mix the dry ingredients (oat bran, whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon) and set aside.
3. Mix the wet ingredients (egg whites, honey, vanilla extract, milk, oil)
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Do not overmix.
5. Gently fold in the blueberries and nuts.
6. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray (or grease with butter) and pour the mixture into the dish and slide it into the oven.
7. Let it bake for 30-35 minutes. (I had to bake mine for 40 minutes. So, please adjust according to your oven)
8. Check for done’ness with a toothpick or a fork.

The changes I made to the original recipe are as follows
* The original recipe mentions the use of 2 cups oat bran. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. So, I used 1 cup of oat bran, 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour.
* I did not add banana to my cake as I did not have any banana.
* I added a tsp of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients for the flavor.
* The original recipe says to use a square baking dish and not a loaf pan. I don’t know why. I used a 8X8 baking pan and got 16 squares.

This cake made for a wonderful combination with coffee. Some days, I paired it with fresh fruits and it made for a very filling and healthy breakfast. This cake is not very sweet as I don’t like my breakfast to be overly sweet. You can increase the amount of brown sugar or honey to suit your taste. Or drizzle some maple syrup on top for your breakfast. Dig in to this healthy cake without any guilt

Okay… I did not know what streusel meant till I baked this cake… I thought it was an ingredient and I was already thinking where I should buy that… baking experts… stop laughing!
For people like me , wikipedia to the rescue - Read here about streusel.

Once again, I postponed baking bread to the next weekend. I am scared to try. What if the dough doesn’t rise? What if it comes out hard? yup… am paranoid… and this is not to say that whatever I have cooked has been a success… far from it actually . I really really want to try baking bread. Will definitely try this weekend. I am posting it on this blog so that I am answerable. Please push me into baking bread!

Though I was not going to bake bread, I badly wanted to bake something else. I had some frozen blueberries and I did not know what to do with them. For an avid fruit lover like me, I find it weird that I did not like the taste of raw blueberries that much. I eat so much of fruits that my sister comments that by now I should be having a full-sized thottam(orchard) inside my stomach.

I had picked up this book - “Breakfast in Bed” by Carol Frieberg from our local library. I had no idea why I chose this one. This was the first time I even went near the cookbook section. The cover of this book had yummy looking waffles on it (with butter on top)… so I judged this book by its cover and picked this one. Pathetic attempt at a joke.. I know . This book has a lot of recipes.. cakes, muffins, scones, breads, waffles, pancakes, egg dishes, non-veg dishes, etc.. I looked for an easy one with blueberry and found this. I followed the recipe for the most part except that I reduced the quantity by half. I am reproducing the recipe from the book here.

Ingredients

1. all-purpose flour - 2 cups
2. sugar - 3/4 cup
3. baking powder - 2 1/2 teaspoons
4. salt - 1/2 tsp
5. butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 stick)
6. milk - 3/4 cup
7. egg - 1
8. fresh or frozen blueberries - 2 cups

Topping

1. sugar - 1/2 cup
2. all-purpose flour - 1/3 cup
3. ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
4. ground nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
5. softened butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 stick)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large bowl, bear flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk and egg with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds.
3. Fold blueberries into batter.
4. Pour batter into a greased 9-inch square cake pan.
5. For topping, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon , nutmeg and butter.
6. Sprinkle over batter
7. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

The changes that I made
1. I halved all ingredients except the egg. I did not know what to do with the other half. So, I used 1 whole egg.
2. I did not have any nutmeg. So, I just added cinnamon.
3. The baking time depends on your oven. I baked mine for about 40 minutes and it was done.

This cake was really soft and moist and the streusel made a very nice crunchy, sweet topping. I baked this 3 days ago and the cake is still soft. I love this recipe

Who can resist these chocolate brownies? These are perfect with a cup of coffee.. or you can drop some vanilla ice cream on top and slurp it off . All my dieting plans … went right out the window!

I wanted to make the healthy brownies from here. But this is the first time I am making brownies… so was scared to change anything from the traditional recipe… Also, my microwave is big enough for only 1 brownie piece. I guess I will try the healthy version using the oven. Need to talk to Divya before I start… otherwise, I might blow up the house

Okay.. so, I did not follow 1 recipe… I kind of looked at the recipe at a lot of places and then ended up with my own measurements. One place that I followed for the most part was the cover of the Baker’s unsweetened chocolate pack. That had a classic brownie recipe. The other places that I checked out are Purva’s Daawat and The Spice cafe

Ingredients

1. Unsweetened chocolate - 4 oz
2. Butter - 1 stick
3. sugar - 1.5 cups (I used white sugar. But I am guessing you can also use brown sugar. Adjust this to suit your sweet tooth)
4. eggs - 3
5. vanilla extract - 1 tsp
6. baking powder - 1/4 tsp
7. salt - a pinch
8. All purpose flour - 1 cup
9. Chocolate chips - 1/4 cup
10. Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup (I wanted to use almonds - did not have any. So, ended up using cashew nuts)

Recipe

1. Melt chocolate and butter. You can either use a microwave or a pan on top of a vessel with hot water.
2. Add the sugar to this mixture of chocolate and butter.
3. Break in the eggs and mix them well.
4. Add the vanilla extract, baking powder and salt and mix.
5. Fold in the flour.
6. Grease a 8×8 pan and pour the mixture into that.
7. Spread the cashew nuts and chocolate chips on top of the batter.
8. Pop into a preheated oven at 325 F for 45-50 minutes.
9. The brownies are done when a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean with a little bit of batter stuck to it.

The brownies continue to cook even after taking them out of the oven. So, please factor that into your calculations. This is by far one of the easiest recipes I have ever seen. I am quite sure I will repeat this recipe. God help my ever expanding waistline

I have this perpetual craving for chocolate chip cookies. When I saw this recipe on Mansi’s funnfud, I just had to try them out.
Mansi’s recipe is very easy to follow. I should know… since this is the first time I have used the oven

I pretty much followed her recipe word to word. I did not add any chocolate chips or raisins as I did not have any. I had a bar of chocolate and I just hacked it to pieces and added it to the batter. I am just going to reproduce the recipe here to have my own copy.

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, divided use
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup raisins (optional)
3/4 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until just combined.
Now cover the dough and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. This just makes it easier to handle and shape into cookies.
Take a scoop from the dough and use your palms to shape into cookies, then line them on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 15 minutes.
Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

One thing that I missed was cooling the dough for 20-30 minutes. I completely forgot this step and the dough was a bit softer than expected. But not that difficult to handle.

I do have one question about this recipe. My cookies tasted awesome. But they weren’t fat. They went rather flat. I recall the recipe saying to just mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Since I did not have a egg beater, I kind of went overboard in beating the flour with a ladle. So the batter became a bit soft. This coupled with the fact that I did not refrigerate the dough could be the reason why the cookies did not come out fat. I am not sure if this is the problem though. Readers, please let me know if you know the reason