I love Chocolate Chip Cookies

Modified Hershey's Special Dark CCC's

This afternoon I found myself with some unexpected extra time and instead of doing chores, or relaxing I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Earlier this week I made the Cook’s Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip cookies but I gave them to a friend who did a huge favor for me. I’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies ever since then. It was difficult for me to move beyond the Cook’s Illustrated cookie, because I love everything about them, but today I just wanted a quick cookie to satisfy the craving. I was going to make the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chip bag, but when I went to measure out the flour I realized that I didn’t have enough all purpose flour so I made some substitutions which worked out fine. I only baked twelve of the cookies. The rest of the dough is in the refrigerator and I’ll bake more of them tomorrow.

These cookies are very good and I would make them again. They are crisp on the edges, and chewy in the center. They are not at all cakey.

Modified Hershey’s Classic Special Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. softened butter

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. cake flour

3/4 c. bread flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

 2 c. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together then butter, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes rotating the cookie sheet after 5 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Remove the cookies and cool on a wire rack.

Cherry – Red Raspberry Pie

Cherry Red Raspberry Pie

To blog about this pie or not? That’s the question. Obviously I decided to go ahead and share it with you. The filling is very tasty and although the recipe needs some tweaking to make the filling less runny it will be worth the tweaking.

I got this recipe from here . Many of the reviewers mentioned the filling being runny but I decided to make the recipe as posted and then fiddle with it in the future based on my results. I made my own crust, and that was also a mistake on my part. The filling is still hot when the pie is assembled. I used an all butter crust, and the hot filling and an all butter crust made it very difficult to assemble because of course the butter starts to melt as soon as it comes in contact with the hot filling.

Back to the filling. Next time I make this I will definitely cut back on the liquid. I think I will go down to 1/2 cup of juice from the fruit instead of the 1 cup called for in the recipe. I had more filling than would fit in a pie dish, which was fine because it was excellent on top of ice cream!

If you like a sweet/tart pie go ahead and make the recipe. The flavor combination is excellent, but definitely cut back on the liquid in the filling and use a shortening based pie crust for a pretty crust.

Kaiser Rolls

Kaiser Rolls topped with Toasted Sesame Seeds

Yesterday afternoon I put together the dough for these Kaiser Rolls. I had put some beef in the crock pot earlier in the day. My husband had requested pot roast for dinner, but he’s also been trying to get out of a menu rut so I decided to do my own thing with the beef, and make sandwiches.

I didn’t make these sandwich rolls with the intent of writing about them but they turned out so good that I decided to share them. The best thing about dinner last night is that I managed to make it entirely with ingredients that I had on hand. For some reason I didn’t want to go the grocery store yesterday. I wish I had measured carefully when putting the ingredients for the beef together. Next time I will so that I can share that recipe too. In case you’re curious, my husband was not at all disappointed that he didn’t have pot roast for dinner last night! 🙂

The recipe for the Kaiser rolls is on The King Arthur website. I rarely retype recipes that I get from Internet sites, but since I used a different method for mixing the dough I will type it here. If you want to use your bread machine or mix it manually be sure to check out King Arthur’s directions. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook.

There is no comparison in flavor or texture between these rolls and the ones you get from the store. I didn’t know a sandwich roll could be so good. Prior to yesterday it hadn’t occurred to me to make these myself but I’m so glad I did.

Kaiser Rolls

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 large egg (room temperature)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup water (+ 2 T. if it’s really dry where you live)

Topping:

1 large egg yolk

toasted sesame seeds

Warm the water to 80-85 degrees. Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer. Attach the dough hook. Mix on speed 2 for 15-30 seconds. Gradually add the water, butter and 1 large egg, and mix for two minutes at speed 2. If the dough looks shaggy add one or more tablespoons of water until the dough clings to the hook and all of the flour is incorporated. This takes a minute or two. Once the dough is clinging to the hook continue mixing on speed 2 for 3 more minutes. (The lowest setting on my Kitchen Aid mixer is “Stir”, speed 2 is the next lowest speed.)

Butter a container that is large enough for your dough to double in size. Place your dough in the buttered container and roll it around so that all sides of the dough are buttered. Cover the container loosely with plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in size. This takes about one hour.

Punch down the dough and divide it into six equal pieces. Shape each piece into a 14 inch rope. Loosely tie the rope into a granny knot. Gently take the ends of the rope and wrap them around the knot and tuck the ends into the center. For a pictorial of this check out the directions at The King Arthur Baker’s Banter’s blog.

Place the rolls on a greased cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow the rolls to double in size. This takes about one hour. Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Place an empty broiler tray or a cast iron skillet on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk the egg yolk in a small dish, and using a pastry brush, paint the rolls with the egg yolk. Sprinkle the rolls liberally with the toasted sesame seed.

Place the cookie sheet with the rolls on the center rack of the oven and quickly pour 1 cup of hot water into the preheated broiler tray and shut the oven door. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the rolls are golden brown.

Love those sesame seeds. If you don't you could use poppy seeds instead.