Heather's Bytes

The other day I mentioned that I had a recipe for my most favorite chocolate chip cookies ever — and here it is!

My favorite kind of chocolate chip cookies are thick and chewy, the ones that keep their shape when they come out of the oven. I’m not crazy about cookies that flatten out, thin as pancakes, though the ones I made Tuesday were very tasty.

I’ve been making these for a while and they never fail to hit the spot. I like to use the 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips for these.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups + 2 Tb all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt together, set aside.

Mix butter and sugars in mixer until well combined. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Using a cookie scoop, place cookies two inches apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.

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I love the combination of sweet and tangy, especially when it comes to baking. When I saw this recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes making the rounds last summer, I immediately checked my cupboards to make sure I had the ingredients, thanked the universe that I did, and then made them.

They are very good, but I found that the cream cheese and chocolate seemed to fade into each other, without getting a kick of flavor out of either one. The next time I make these I’m going to play around a little bit and maybe add some sour cream to the cream cheese mix to see if that’ll bring it up a bit.

The cupcakes stayed moist in the fridge with plastic wrap and were devoured within two days. This particular version of the recipe comes from Worth Her Salt.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 c sugar
1/8 t salt
1 c miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c water
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 T cider vinegar
1 t vanilla extract

~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper cups or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.

~ In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside.

~ In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir together until well blended. Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture.

~ Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

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I (and about 20 other co-workers) got some really crappy, crummy news today, and since I don’t comfort eat, I decided to do some comfort baking. It works for me!

So, it’s been a little while since I did a Tuesdays With Dorie post, but it wasn’t for lack of wanting to! With the big holidays now out of the way I have more time to focus on the stuff I truly enjoy doing, and unsurprisingly, baking is one of those.

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie is My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, selected by Kait of Kait’s Plate.

I love chocolate chip cookies — who doesn’t? But I tend to like the ones that are thick and chewy, not thin and crispy. In fact, I call those cow patty cookies because, well, that’s what they look like! These, however cow patty-ish they may look, tasted like anything but. They were amazing! Though I don’t know that I’d call them the best I’ve ever had (I’ll write about those later), they are very, very good.

I had everything on hand except some good bittersweet chocolate, though I did have a couple of bars of Hershey’s Special Dark in my chocolate drawer (you don’t have a chocolate drawer?). Since Hershey’s is better baked with than eaten plain (yuck), I chopped it all up (very therapeutic) into some nice chunks.

Like Kait, I also ended up bringing down the baking time to nine minutes and kept the dough in the fridge while the cookies in the oven baked.

Kait’s got the recipe on her blog.

My happy place

Cherry crumble was one of the first desserts I learned to make growing up. My mom canned cherries every summer and we had so many jars stored that we were more or less allowed to make it whenever we wanted.

Though the last jar of canned cherries was used up more than 22 years ago (and I still can’t seem to find a canned cherry that has the same perfect tartness!), I still like to make cherry crumble for my family as often as I can.

There is a canned cherry pie filling that claims to be “less sweetened,” but it is sweetened with Splenda and has a funky, almost watery “not quite right” aftertaste. I try to avoid that one when I’m in the baking aisle (I don’t remember the brand, but it has a very small Splenda logo on the bottom front of the can).

This would be a perfect treat for Valentine’s Day if you plan to stay in, and is the perfect amount for the five of us. Also, the recipe says to enjoy it warm or at room temperature, but I’ve always liked it cold out of the fridge.

Cherry Crumble

1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (20 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter or margarine in a small saucepan. Remove pan from heat and stir in oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt until a dry, crumbly dough forms. Press about 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of 9 inch square pan, making an even layer.

Spread cherry pie filling in the crust, and sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until top is lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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