Cookie Cooking Weekend

In one week we went from snow and icicles...


To bulbs popping their heads out to the sunshine.


Suddenly it seems like the baking season is quickly coming to an end with so many new recipes untried. I couldn't let it slip past without a big cookie baking blowout. All recipes are from the Smitten Kitchen blog.


First recipe on the list to try was the World Peace/Korova Cookies. I'm always looking for ways to use up my bag of coco powder but often find cookies made just with coco are not chocolaty enough. This recipe also adds chocolate chunks which seemed a promising way to amp up the chocolate factor. I also admit to getting all fancy pants and buying Scharffen Berger for the chunks, the body is weak when it comes to chocolate.

This was one of those recipes where you annoyingly have to refrigerate the dough before it can be baked and transferred into your mouth. Usually this puts me off an recipe but when trying 3 different recipes this down time is a plus.

Hot these cookies are good but not that impressive, I like a sharper chocolate taste in the state. However the next day at room temperature..... Divine! The cookie base seems almost short bread like which contrasts nicely with the texture of cold chocolate. Using a good quality bittersweet chocolate for the chunks gives you a satisfying chocolate taste without being too sweet. I would make these again.


Next up the Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie.
As a kid oatmeal raisin cookies were my favorite, even over chocolate chip. This might have been because my sister didn't like them as much which left more for me. Or it could have been because the 70's Betty Crocker recipe had a butt load of trans-fat Crisco in it (Because butter is bad for you right!!). Oh all the things we didn't know where bad for us in the 80's.

What ever the reason I have a nostalgic love of oatmeal raisin cookies and always like to try a new recipe out. This particular recipe is really your standard oatmeal raisin ingredients but called for the dough to be refrigerated before baking to keep them thick. My dough was probably chilled for an hour which may have been too long. I had a had time getting them to cook to the point where they looked done but were not very dark along the edges. Taste wise they are a nice standard oatmeal cookie, but Martha Steward seems to have ruined me for any oatmeal cookies without coconut in them. (I know it sounds crazy but you don't taste the coconut it just tastes fruity and good!)
Because of my love for Martha's oatmeal cookies in the Baking Handbook and the fact they always bake picture perfectly I won't be making these again.


The last cookie to try was the Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Did you say crispy, chewy and chocolate all at the same time!!!! Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.
Again the recipe ingredients were pretty standard for a chocolate chip cookie, but it was the first time I've ever melted the butter before creaming it in with the sugars. The addition of one egg plus another yoke was also interesting. Toward the end of mixing the batter texture was looking to runny, but then suddenly the butter firmed up and it was perfect.

So how does it taste? It really does taste crispy and chewy! My husband even used those exact words even though he had never seen the recipe. I like these a lot, not only for the texture but because the appearance of the baked cookie is top notch. They taste great hot, they taste great cold and probably good with milk if you aren't allergic to it. You can probably tell that I'll be making these babies again.

So anyone want to come over and have some cookies? :)

Oatmeal raisin on the left, chocolate chip on the right and world peace cookies on the top.