Monday, February 28, 2011 ~ Easy Cookie Recipes | Chocolate Cookies | Peanut Butter Cookies | Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe Source: melskitchencafe.com

**Resist the urge to bake the cookies longer than indicated; they may appear underbaked at first but will firm up as they cool.**

Ingredients:
2 cups Flour
½ cup Baking Cocoa
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
16 ounces Semisweet Chocolate, chopped (it is best not to substitute chocolate chips since they melt differently)
4 large Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla
10 Tablespoon Butter, softened to room temperature
1 ½ cups packed Brown Sugar
½ cup White Sugar
1 ½ cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Preparation Instructions :-

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave (50% power for 2 minutes, then stir and microwave in 20 second intervals until chocolate is melted – be careful not to overheat or chocolate will sieze). In a small bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla lightly with a fork; set aside.
Beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 5 seconds. Beat in the sugars until combined, about 45 seconds; the mixture will look granular. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the egg mixture until incorporated, about 45 seconds. Add the chocolate in a steady stream and beat until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Finally add the chocolate chips. Do not overbeat. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until the consistency is fudge-like, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners (this is pretty important – if the cookies are baked on a greased baking sheet only, they will probably stick). Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls and place them on the cookie sheets, spacing them about 1 ½ inches apart.
Bake until the edges of the cookies have just begun to set but the centers are still very soft, about 10-11 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets about 5 minutes or until set and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

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First, get your ingredients together.

You need to start with your ingredients. What do you need? You will need the following:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Make sure you have all the ingredients. Anything else you need you' will need to buy at the store. Make a list and double check it before you go so that you don't forget anything. If you find out half-way through you're missing something, you're going to be upset. Once you have all the ingredients to make homemade chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you can start mixing them together.

You can use an electric mixer to mix the dough, but be careful not to 0ver-beat it together. Start by creaming together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. If you want, you can use the mixer for this step only to get the best results.

Once the butter and sugar is creamed together, mix in the vanilla and eggs. Don't beat it together, you don't want it to be frothy. This will make your chocolate chip cookies spongy instead of chewy and moist.

Start mixing together your dry ingredients for your homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Next, get a separate bowl and measure and mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix it together well so that there are no lumps in the flour.

Now, you can slowly start adding the flour to the wet mixture. Mix is slowly but thoroughly. Use an electric mixer with a dough hook on a low setting to make it easier.

Finally, pour in the chocolate chips and mix it all together. When you learn how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you will need to mix it correctly and use all the right amounts or else they won't come out right.

When the dough is all mixed, put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, preferably 2 to 4 hours or overnight. The chocolate chip cookies will come out better when the dough is chilled.

Time to bake your homemade chocolate chip cookies.

When the dough is chilled completely, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Get a nonstick cookie sheet. You can put a sheet of parchment paper on the pan to make it easy to remove the chocolate chip cookies, but that is optional. If you do, be careful when you move the pan around after they're baked so that they don't slide off the pan.

Use a spoon and make small 1 1/2 inch balls with the homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. Roll them in your hands to make perfect circles, but don't handle them too much or they will start to get warm before they get into the oven.

Place them on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and 2 inches from the edges. Put them in the oven and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on your oven and how big you made the cookies. Keep an eye on them and remove them when they are golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes on the pan. Then, remove them from the pan and put them on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely or you can serve them warm.

It is not hard to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies even if you are making them from scratch. Make these delicious cookies for a party, get together, or for your cookie jar. Everyone will love these warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies and will come back for more!

Source : How to Make Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Posted in Chocolate Chip Cookies , Chocolate Cookies , Cookie Recipes

Easy Cookie Baking Tips

> Use soft butter

> Cream butter and sugar well

> Check expiration date on your leavening agents

> Flour should be measured properly

> Sift all the dry ingredients

> Pre-crack eggs into a separate bowl

> Mix eggs one at a time, mixing well in between

> Add dry ingredients slowly

> Mix in dry ingredients just until blended

> Hand mix in the chocolate chips and nuts

> Use a cookie or ice cream scoop to make cookies the same size

> Use parchment paper

> Bake just until cookie edges are brown

> Let cookies sit on cookie sheet

> Start over on cool cookie sheet

> Scoop cookie dough BEFORE freezing

> Buy a good oven thermometer

5 Essential Rules to Making Good Cookies:

1) Do not overbake. For those of you who have read my blog for a while you know this is a pet peeve of mine. I have a hard time leaving any cookie alone but if it's overbaked I can easily leave it. It ruins everything about the cookie when it's overbaked...the texture, the color, the taste...

2) Always use real butter. Some of you may argue with me on that but these are my rules so real butter it is. If it says to have your butter at room temperature, make sure it is. That makes a huge difference too when you have to cream the ingredients together.

3) Use parchment paper. I never make cookies without it. I've done tests, one batch with it and one without parchment paper and the ones with parchment paper always win. You can reuse it too most of the time.

4) Always use real pure vanilla...not extract. I can tell the difference in taste when extract is used so splurge a little and buy the good stuff.

5) Use large or x-large eggs. Most recipes don't specify but in general when they call for eggs in the recipe they assume you are going to use large or x-large eggs.