C is for: Cookie {and it’s good enough for me!}

Courtesy: Sesame Street

The fun and interesting thing about starting a blog, (particularly a food
blog) is the feedback you get from your friends, family, and co-workers.

Everyone has an opinion, a suggestion for a recipe or restaurant, and I love
it! It’s become far more social and interactive than I ever imagined.

But when my friend Felipe suggested on Facebook that I do “cookie”
for C week (ala Mr. Cookie Monster), I was terrified.

No, not of the cookie monster, but of baking. A baker I am not. When I cook,
I’m totally the type of person who won’t necessarily measure things out…I
just add what I think looks right and go from there until it tastes the way I think it should.

But baking is literally science. I actually did really well in high school
chemistry (thanks to my wonderful teacher, Mr. Barlow) but for some reason when
I bake, it just doesn’t come out right. Exhibit A: “The Valentine’s Day
Cookies.” I wish I had taken a photo of these beauties. They actually
tasted great, but they turned out flat. Like, really, really, flat. Like,
pancake flat. Sadly, most of my baking endeavors have ended in catastrophe, so
I just don’t do it.

But I’m always up for a challenge, and since the name of my blog was
inspired by Cookie Monster’s mantra, I decided to go for it. But I needed a
recipe. I’m all about making organic and healthy food that tastes good, so I
was intrigued by Carrie Vitt’s
Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from her cookbook, Deliciously
Organic. She also has a wheat-free
version on her blog for my
gluten-free friends. I emailed Carrie, and she graciously granted me permission
to post the recipe here on the blog.

So here goes….

I needed some flour and sugar…but none of the white
stuff. Carrie’s recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat flour, rolled oats,
whole cane sugar or Sucanat, and muscovado sugar. I easily found all of these
in the bulk section at Rainbow Grocery.
(I’m in love with this place, so you’ll see it referenced in my blog often). This photo
represents only about HALF of the amount of flours they carry in bulk.

First, you grind up the oats in a food processor. Then, the recipe says to stir
them together with both flours, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Since
the oats were already in the food processor, I just added everything else and
pulsed it a few times to combine.

You know what else is really exciting about baking? I get to use my shiny
red Kitchenaid
Artisan Stand Mixer. This makes me happy. Anyways, beat the butter until
creamy, then add the sugars and vanilla. Then add the eggs one at a time.
(Check out my sweet action shot. :))

Scrape the sides of the bowl and slowly add the dry ingredient mixture. If
you have one of these pouring shields, this comes in really handy right about
now.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Now by this point, it was almost noon
and I wanted to go to yoga, so I put this in the fridge for a few hours. This
step is not necessary, but I’ve read that it helps prevent flat cookies (and we
all know how I feel about flat cookies.) However, with Carrie’s recipe, they would’ve been fine without refrigerating the dough.

Scoop cookie dough onto
parchment-lined baking sheets with a 2-inch cookie scoop. When I read this
line in the recipe, I thought to myself “There’s such thing as a cookie
scoop?!?” (Clearly I don’t bake very often). Needless to say, as a
lover of kitchen gadgets, I will be purchasing one next time I bake cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes…and…SUCCESS! They were perfect.
And delicious too!! Thank you Carrie! I can confidently say: “C is for Cookie, and cookie is for me!”

These cookies + milk = a beautiful thing.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Recipe used with permission from International Focus Press ©2011)
[printable
recipe]

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats, ground fine in a food processor
• 2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons. salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup whole cane sugar or Sucanat
• 1 cup muscovado sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat over to 350°F and adjust rack to middle position.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Stir together oats, whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat butter in a large bowl with electric or standing mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.  Add cane and muscovado sugars and beat until combined. Add vanilla and then eggs, one at a time. Scrape sides of bowl. With mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Scoop cookie dough onto line baking sheets using a 2-inch cookie scoop.  Bake for 12 – 14 minutes, until set and golden brown on top.

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