Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chocolate Chip 'pizza' Cookies

I decided to start off with one of my baking faves this week. Oh, and FYI, despite the name... I am not a huge baker- I prefer to cook, but I decided to whip this one out today just for you. Chocolate Chip pizza Cookies were born after I found most classic chocolate chip cookie recipes were not all that interesting, no texture, kind of blah and they took foreverrr (refrigerate dough?... No thank you!). So, I played around with a bunch of recipes, changing things here and there until I came up with these... gooey, melty-in-the-middle, thin, crunchy-on-the-edges, GEMS.


I did try to take a picture of my fiance (yes! I am getting married in September- personal info fact 1) breaking apart a cookie so I could show you the gooey amazingness inside a cookie... But that resulted in me firmly moving his hands around, making him break numerous amounts of cookies in half, pressing them back together and then pulling apart for the 'chocolaty effect'. Yah. It didn't work out... maybe next time.



These babies are super quick to make and are basically good for you because there are oats in them! If you have a mixer then it will be extra fast. Melt the butter in the microwave (this step came from me never having room temperature butter... and possibly trying to recreate it in a rush and the butter went all the way to liquid form- trust me, it all worked out for a reason!). While the butter is in the micro for 50 seconds or so, cream the brown sugar, white sugar and egg together. Add the melted butter and mix again.

Important: Make sure your butter isn't super hot- stop it just as the last bits of it are melting. Otherwise it will cook the egg and melt your chocolate chips! (sad!)


Next... you add a tsp of pure vanilla bean paste...Yah. I said it. Oh, You have never heard of this? Neither had I, until my mom put it in my stocking and I opened it up Christmas morning...Yes... my whole family is this redic about food. This is a paste made from real Madagascar Vanilla Beans- its kind of sweet and has little crunchy vanilla seeds in it. The taste from this stuff is unreal and makes these cookies over the top decadent. If you don't have this (go buy it), no worries! You can totally substitute vanilla extract, but promise me one thing- don't use the imitation stuff. I know its cheaper, but the taste and quality of pure extract cant compare- and if you are going to the trouble of making cookies from scratch, at least do it with the good stuff!


Mix all of the dry ingredients together and add to the wet, mix it up and then add the FULL cup of chocolate chips. Totally amaze.

Drop heaping tablespoons onto a parchment lined baking sheet (more like tablespoon and a half) and with your hand quickly give the dough blobs a pat down. Make sure the cookies are about 2" apart so they have room to spreaaaadddd. These cookies are giant, hence the 'pizza'! Mmmm...

Throw into a 375 degree oven for 8 minutes and you're laughing. Seriously, how long did that take you- like 9 minutes. Love it!

Have a great Wednesday.



Print this Recipe!

INGREDIENTS:
  • ½ cup of melted butter
  • ½ cup of white sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • ¾ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup quick cook oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 pinch of table salt
  • 1 cup good quality semi sweet chocolate chips

METHOD
  1. Preheat oven to bake at 375.
  2. In a mixer, mix together the melted butter and both sugars until well incorporated. Add the egg and vanilla bean paste.
  3. Mix together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add to the wet mixture and beat until everything is incorporated.
  4. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are just through the batter- you don’t want to bang up the chips!
  5. Drop heaping tablespoons (more like tablespoon and a half) onto parchment lined baking sheets about 2” apart. Pat the cookies down with your hand until they are a 1/2" thick.
  6. Bake each tray separately for 8 minutes. Let the cookies cool before removing them from the sheet.



Saturday, February 25, 2012

i took it as a sign...

Hi All!

Welcome to Design + Doughnuts, for a full explanation about me and the name of the blog visit the 'About D+D' tab.

I'm happy to be writing and I have to admit, one of the main reasons I am is because of the tea I bought on my way up North (Collingwood, ON) yesterday. The coffee shop has a competition every year called 'Roll up the Rim to Win', well I rolled up my rim and I won! Not a car, not a coffee... a doughnut.

I was hesitant to start this blog because of all of the other things going on in my life right now (not to worry... you will hear all about them in the posts to come, I want to be honest on this blog). I am a HUGE fan of Google Reader and without it I wouldn't be able to get through the 30+ blogs I read on a daily basis. Hence, my love of blogs... and hopefully blogging!

Sorry! Back to the story.... So I am driving, it is snowing, I am excited for the weekend and BAM there it is: "WIN/GAGNEZ UN BEIGNE/ DONUT". That was it. Time to start. Make it happen. And I did. So, get excited guys- I cant wait to share my designs, my food and my thoughts with you.

Have a great Saturday.