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The Sobeys Better Food Lovers Holiday Cookie Exchange

November 14, 2012 by Kathryn

Recently I was chosen to join eleven other bloggers as part of Sobeys’ incredibly popular Better Food Lovers Blog. I was honoured to be asked to be a part of this fabulous group of women with a love for good food and the honour was even sweeter when I learned my very first task as a Better Food Lovers blogger would be to participate in a cookie exchange with one of my fellow bloggers!

I was given the task of exchanging cookies with the fabulous Tammi from My Organized Chaos. Tammi has a nut-free household and as most of the recipes we were given to choose from contained nuts, I decided to keep things very simple and use the Classic Cookie Dough.

KathrynLavallee-classic-cookie-dough-candy-cane [Read more...]

Treat Your Family to the Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 8, 2012 by Kathryn

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I’ve noticed recently that there is an assortment of popular online recipes that all involve chocolate chip cookie dough. There are brownies, truffles, cheesecakes and even dips featuring the irresistible flavour combination. So I thought I would share my very best recipe for good, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Moist, chewy and loaded with chips, there’s no need to get fancy when your chocolate chip cookie dough makes such amazing cookies!

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie and these are one of the very best. Chewy and packed with chips; they’re sure to be a family favourite.

Author: Kathryn

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 5 dozen

Ingredients

¾ cup butter, softened
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 package (2 cups) milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream softened butter with both sugars in large bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
In smaller bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until well mixed. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients all at once and stir together until almost completely combined.
Add chocolate chips and mix just until flour is fully incorporated and chips are mixed into dough. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on sheets for a minute and then transfer to wire rack to fully cool.

Not over-mixing the batter is one key to deliciously chewy cookies.

There are two secrets to moist, chewy cookies. First of all, don’t over-mix the batter. The more the cookie dough is stirred around, the more the gluten in the flour develops, creating tough, hard cookies. That’s why my recipe recommends adding the flour all at once and mixing the dough only as much as is necessary to fully incorporate the flour into the dough.

The second secret is to not over-bake the cookies. They should be just very slightly browned on top and firm enough to hold their shape. A bit of practice will help you to determine the look cookies have when they are “just right” and once you do, you’ll be able to tell at a glance when your cookies are perfect!

A plate of perfectly baked cookies. Notice how they’re just very slightly browned, but still firm enough to hold their shape.

It’s worth mentioning that this cookie dough is perfect for experimenting. The basic recipe can be personalized in all kinds of different ways. Use butterscotch chips or toffee bits instead of chocolate chips, mint or orange extract instead of vanilla…there are all kinds of ways to make this recipe your own! Just keep the basic proportions of butter, sugar, eggs and dry ingredients the same and then have fun getting creative!

But first do yourself a favour and try the recipe as-is. If you like really good chocolate chip cookies, you’ll love these!

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