Recipes Discovered

Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

I have a confession. I cannot make chocolate chip cookies. I have tried countless recipes and multiple techniques, but I have gotten maybe three good cookies out of hundreds. It had gotten to the point where I just refused to make them anymore because I was tired of throwing them out (or forcing Seth to eat them). All of this changed however after a recent trip to a Doubletree. Doubletree Hotel gives a chocolate chip cookie to each guest upon check-in, and they just happen to be one of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. As I was sitting at the hotel, enjoying my cookie, it occurred to me that the recipe had to be online somewhere, and thanks to the free Internet, I soon found that recipe. It’s a fairly basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, which a few odd additions (lemon juice), but the key to the recipe is refrigerating the dough. I found it was easier to scoop the dough onto cookie pans with an ice cream scooper and then refrigerator the whole pan for 8 hours. After refrigerating, I baked the cookies for 13 1/2 minutes, which seemed to be the magic time for my oven. And it seriously was magic, because all thirteen cookies (I made half a batch) turned out absolutely perfect. The cookies even passed the “next day test”, as Seth likes to call it. In fact, Seth called me the next day and asked me if I could make another batch. He claimed he wanted to take them to work, but I think he just wanted to see if I could duplicate my success, which I did. I made a whole batch today and each cookie turned out as great as the first one. I am so excited that I can now make a chocolate chip cookie.

Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe

I have had this cookie recipe for quite awhile and never found the time to make them. The cookies have all the ingredients of carrot cake and they are filled with sweetened cream cheese. I have been craving a really great carrot cake recently though, so I figured it was time to dig out the recipe.

First, I creamed together butter and two types of sugar. The recipe calls for 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of both brown sugar and granulated sugar. I’m not sure why this is such an odd measurement, but I found it to be just shy of a 1/2 cup. I also used dark brown sugar in the recipe. After the butter and sugar were mixed, I beat in an egg and some vanilla until the mixture was light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. I mixed in the dry ingredients next, even though the recipe said to add the carrot and walnuts. After the dry ingredients were incorporated, I added the carrots and walnuts. >> Read more

Crispy Chocolate Squares Recipe

Being in a hotel room doesn’t change the fact that I have a major weakness for chocolate. It does add a challenge though, since I only have a microwave to work with. I did find a recipe though for these crispy chocolate squares. They are essentially a chocolate peanut butter Rice Krispie treat with chocolate frosting, and best of all, they are made in the microwave.
For the bars, I combined a bag of mini marshmallows, peanut butter, butter, and instead of chocolate chips, half of a bag of Dove dark chocolates in a two quart glass dish. I covered the dish and put it in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes on high. The marshmallows puff up quite a bit, so be sure to watch it so it doesn’t pour over the sides of the dish. After 2 and a half minutes, the marshmallows were puffed, but nothing else looked like it was melted until I started stirring it. >> Read more

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I have had this recipe for quite awhile and made it several times. The recipe honestly makes an incredibly thick and chewy cookie that is very moist, but they are also enormous. It’s a fairly standard cookie recipe, combining butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla with flour, baking soda, and salt. I used white chocolate chips this time, but any type of chocolate chip works. I’ve even skipped the chocolate chips and just “frosted” the cookies with melted chocolate I had leftover from cheesecake topping. The point is, this recipe produces a serious cookie. I wanted to make a regular sized cookie though, so instead of rolling 1/4 cup balls, I used a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop. I baked the cookies at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes on parchment paper and removed them from the pan as soon as they came out of the oven. The results weren’t as great with the smaller cookies. They still had a very rich taste, but they were lacking the thick chewiness of the larger cookie. It was still a good cookie, just not a great one. I guess I will have to stick with the huge cookies if I want to make this recipe, and I’ll also have to find a better recipe for a regular sized thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Any suggestions?

Homemade Oreos Recipe

I saw this recipe awhile ago and thought it sounded like a great idea – make your own Oreos. When I was looking at the recipe today, I couldn’t remember why I thought it was such a good idea. Why would I want to make my own Oreos when I can just buy a box with a lot less hassle? I couldn’t find another recipe that looked really good though, so I ended up just making the Oreos.
The recipe is backwards from every other cookie recipe I’ve seen. First, the dry ingredients are mixed together – flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Then softened butter is added and lastly, the eggs. If you have ever mixed anything before, you know this is just asking for trouble. Especially since I was doubling the recipe so there was a lot of dry ingredients. I decided to remove half the dry ingredients and try to get some of the butter incorporated first. I worked the rest of the dry ingredients in slowly and then added the eggs. It worked out fairly well, but it still made a bit of a mess. I would recommended using a very large bowl, and definitely a stand mixer. My hand mixer nearly died by the time everything was mixed together – the dough is extremely thick. >> Read more