Holiday Cookbooks Giveaway
As I mentioned in my last post, the very generous folks at The Harvard Common Press sent me four cookbooks (Chocolate Chip Cookies, Christmas Cookies, Cupcakes, and Holiday Candy & Confections), all part of the Bakers Field Guide series.
All of the recipes are easy to follow, have pictures, and sound delicious! If the Half Chocolate Chip and Half Chocolate with White Chip Cookies are any indication, I’m in for a real treat with the next recipe I try! For your chance to win a set of these fabulous cookies, leave a comment telling me what your favorite holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, or winter holiday) treat is. Stale Peeps in the shape of ghosts is a perfectly acceptable answer.
Also, to those of you celebrating–Shana Tova! May you have a happy, healthy, and sweet new year!
Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, October 2, 2011. One winner will be selected at random shortly thereafter and contacted by email. Please note this contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.
***Giveaway is now closed.***
Half Chocolate Chip and Half Chocolate With White Chip Cookies
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The incredibly kind people over at The Harvard Common Press must have known I was on a self imposed cookbook purchasing hiatus because they offered to send me four cookbooks, all part of the “Baker’s Field Guide” series. They even have a pull quote from David Lebovitz on the covers. I was sold.
Side note: I’ll be giving away a set of these cookbooks soon, so stay tuned for a chance to win!
One of the books was all chocolate chip cookie recipes, and my eyes immediately went to the “half and half cookies,” perfect for those of us who have trouble making up our minds when it comes to cookie flavors! The cookie is half chocolate chip, half rich chocolate with white chocolate chips and is chewy and absolutely delicious. My coworkers ate them up in no time, and everyone keep saying how good they are. They’re definitely worth the extra time it took to roll all the dough balls.
Ingredients
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
3 tablespoons Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup white chocolate morsels
Photos of the process here.
Preparation
Whisk 2 cups of the flour, the baking soda, and salt together in a medium-size bowl.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, and scraping down bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl. Add about one-third of flour mixture and mix on low speed. Gradually add remaining flour mixture, mixing just until blended.
Divide mixture in half. To one half, beat in remaining 3 tablespoons flour and the semisweet chocolate morsels. To the other half, beat in sifted cocoa and white chocolate morsels. Cover with plastic wrap and chill doughs separately at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Take rounded teaspoons of each type of chilled dough and roll it into a ball. (My dough was a little sticky so I measured out the first dough one teaspoon at a time, made balls from it, put the dough balls back in the fridge, then measured out the second dough the same way.)
Press the balls together, side by side, so you can see both colored doughs. Gently form this cookie into a ball. Place on prepared cookie sheets 2 inches apart so that doughs remain side by side. Bake until edges and tops just begin to turn light golden brown, about 12 minutes. Place sheets on racks to cool for 5 minutes, then remove cookies from sheets and place directly on racks to cool completely.
Yields 52 cookies. (Or more, if you make them smaller like I did.)
Recipe from A Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dede Wilson.
Buttermilk Pancakes
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Saturday morning I woke up at 11:00 a.m., exactly 12 hours after I fell asleep. Yes, I slept 12 hours straight. And it was amazing. All that sleep put me in a wonderful mood, and I decided rather than have boring toast, that I would make pancakes for breakfast.
Problem was, I didn’t have any Bisquick. Determined to make still make pancakes, I searched the Internet and found a plethora of recipes. I chose this one, because really, how could a recipe with five stars and more than 2,500 reviews be bad? And it wasn’t. It was delicious! These pancakes are light, fluffy, and oh so yum! Plus, they didn’t take much more time than pancakes from a box. The only change I made was the addition of vanilla, because my mom taught me to add vanilla to everything I bake.
Please ignore my oblong and funky shaped pancakes. I think the last one I poured ended up somewhat circular.
Photos of the process here.
Ingredients
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, melted
cooking spray
Directions
Pour buttermilk into large bowl.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into buttermilk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com.
