Zesty Cook » cookies

Another Chewy… I Mean Really Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

zesty — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:35:41 +0000

Middle of the week is here. Can you believe it? The basement renovation is coming along quite nicely with really no hiccups in sight. Floor is almost completed and we are moving on to trimming out the windows and doors today. Yesterday was a snow day around here with school cancelled and what better thing to do on a snow day than bake cookies.

Not just any cookies I might add, a chewy chocolate chip cookie. I was perusing Jenna’s blog, Eat Live Run, and I came across her favorite chocolate chip cookie. I quickly looked at one of my chewy chocolate chip cookie and compared the ingredients and thought…. Heck I am going to try hers. There were a couple of slight variations that definitely warranted a test in the kitchen. I knew the builders would eat the cookies so I would not have to eat the whole batch.

The big difference that I noted was “DARK” brown sugar. This created a complex deep sweetness and ensures the cookies stays soft and chewy. It really does!

Ingredients

21/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Tsp. baking soda
1 Tsp. sea salt
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
2 Cups packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Cup butter, softened
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Add the vanilla and mix gently to combine.
Add the flour to the butter and mix.
Carefully stir in the chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 for about twelve minutes, or until golden.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Do not over cream the butter and sugar… there is no need as the cookie will smear all over the pan and you will make pancakes.

Alright, so the end results were astonishing. I am not sure if I ever baked a better chocolate chip cookie before. My hat goes off to Jenna for sharing this recipe and forcing me to buy dark brown sugar. These are a definite keeper. A slight variation if you were so adventurous would be to toss in a bag of dark chocolate chips and you could almost call them healthy.

Have an awesome Wednesday. Stay tuned for some basement pics in the coming week.

Take care

zesty

Cookie Me Up: Sweet & Salty

zesty — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:30:42 +0000

Happy Friday to you! Another week gone by and it is Friday the 13th. Good luck for some bad luck for others.. lets hope for some good luck. So let me start into a little story behind these cookies. A while back we attended a benefit dance/bake sale on for a colleague of Mrs. Zesty and well of course I get somewhat excited when I hear bake sale. We chatted about it and tried to come up with some fun ideas on what to bring to the “table”.

It turns out we came up with a few ideas:

Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies
Toffee Bit Chocolate Cookies
Sweet & Salty Cookies

As you can guess from the title of the post I decided to share the Sweet & Salty morsels of goodness. These fellas were delicious ( I had to taste test just to ensure quality). Packed with pretzels, m&m, smarties and a few potato chips… I could eat these all day. Super easy to make and check out my packaging idea(s) – Mrs. Zesty really thinks I am a bit over the top sometimes. Ha! We sold each for for $40. Totally joking… not even sure what the amount was but I had fun making them.

Ingredients

1 Cup unsalted butter
3/4 Cup Granulated white sugar
3/4 Cup Brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
2 1/3 Cups All-purpose flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
3/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup chopped candy coated pieces
1 Cup crushed or jumbled savoury snacks such as pretzels and potato chips

Method

In a large bowl, beat butter, and both sugars until fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time; beat in vanilla
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into butter mixture.
Stir in candy and crumbled snacks.
Drop balls onto parchment paper- lined baking sheets
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes rotating the pan halfway through.

Makes about 30 cookies
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Make these cookies ahead and store in an air tight container for up to 3 days. Good luck having them last that long.

Alright, I hope you have a great start to the weekend and I really hope you give these cookies a try. I think we can call these cookies…. “clean out your pantry with whatever goodies you have cookies”. I will talk to you all on Monday.

Take care

zesty

Remember… Good Eats and A Movember Update

zesty — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:49:51 +0000

Happy Friday! Let’s take a moment to remember all the men and women who served for our Country over the years and reflect on the amazing work that they have done for us and how much we appreciate them. Today as most of you know is Remembrance day in Canada and Veteran’s Day in the US. I just wanted to let let everyone know to take a moment and really think of the importance of these heroes.

GOOD EATS

As I was surfing around last evening I happen to bump into a couple of recipes that I just had to feature and share today for you to admire. First off is something from Aggie’s kitchen with a Mushroom and White Bean Tart. When I saw the picture I literally almost drooled with excitement and knew that this is something I had to make.

For complete information on the recipe… you must go over to Aggie’s kitchen and feast your eyes. You will be happy you dropped over.

Second tasty treat that I spotted yesterday was one of my favorite flavors embedded into a cookie. Chewy Lemon Cookies by Jessica at HowSweetEats. These cookies look amazing! I cannot wait to try them. Can you imagine sitting on the couch with a plate of these watching your favorite Tv show?

I can already picture that. I would only eat 3 or 4 at a time and likely not exceed 12 in one day. Great Job Jessica.

MoVember Update

Well Friday is here. We are 11 days into Movember and I promised to give you a zesty MoVember update every Friday for the month. Here is a link to my profile and if you are interested you by all means can donate and help raise money for Prostate Cancer. The Donate link can be found here. So without further waiting in anticipation, I took a few self shots of the stash this morning for you to see. it is coming along quite well. Hopefully it will fill in a little more in the coming weeks. I have not solidified the final shape as of yet.

Do you have any recommendations on the shape?

Alright, I better get back to some house cleaning, some writing and relaxing. I hope you have a great weekend. I will touch base with you on Monday before I head west to Anaheim for a work conference.

Take care

zesty