Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Stress baking: UPDATE




Last night, the first thing I thought about when coming home was getting out the flour, sugar and butter and start baking. The smell of anything baking lifts my spirts. And, well, I do have that 25 pounds of Costco flour to use.


It was a little too late and I was a little too down for a marathon baking session. But I'm ready to begin playing in the kitchen with a few Christmas cookies recipes that I've been dying to try.



UPDATE: I scratched an earlier cookie link since you need a subscription - thanks for the heads-up Mr. Ruffles! Try this one instead. It's the Epicurious site for holiday cookies.

I'll also make Sara Foster's super easy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
UPDATE: I brought these cookies into work today. We really needed them!
Here's the recipe:

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Adapted from Sara Foster's "The Foster's Market Cookbook" (Random House, 2002.)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly grease two baking sheets and set aside. Cream together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until well-combined. Add the egg and the vanilla and mix until all ingredients are combined. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and stir to mix. Slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture while beating or stirring until smooth and well-blended. Add chocolate chips,. Do not overmix. Scoop the dough with a heaping tablespoon, roll into a ball and drop onto prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Press flat with the back of a fork . Each cookie should be about 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thick.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes (or 10 to 12 minutes for soft, chewy cookies) until golden brown. Cool 5 to 10 minutes on the baking sheets before removing the cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The link to the Cook's Country cookie recipes needs to be fixed. Though, to be honest, it is pretty useless since you cannot access the recipes unless you have a subscription.

Shruti said...

Patty, those of us not at work like cookies too...hint hint!