Betty Crocker's Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm trying to get the perfect chocolate chip cookie these days, so I've already tried about four different recipes just last week. 

One of them was the turtle cookies I posted a few hours ago, which was awesome, but that technically wasn't a chocolate chip cookie, and they had nuts in them.

This one's more of a pure, classic version:)

Of course, they're huge, soft, thick, moist, and chewy - just how I like'em!

I usually try to underbake my cookies so that there's a little cookie doughy bit inside:)))

And these cookies certainly gave me that!

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies
Recipe from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook
Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar*
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour**
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F.
Mix sugars, butter, and egg in a large bowl. Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving 3 inches between cookies.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are set but the center is still soft. Let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Notes:
*I used splenda brown sugar blend, just to make it a little healthier:)
**I used 2 1/4 cups of self rising flour and omitted the baking soda and salt.
For regular sized cookies, drop by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

How about that, eh? Ooey and gooey. And chewy.

I made these for my dad and his golf friends, since they always skip lunch when they go golfing.

I had less than an hour left until my dad had to go, so I made these in a real hurry. 

Notice that they are quite underbaked. Problem? Nah.

They didn't even get to cool down before getting packed, which meant EXTRA gooey:)

These are the BEST peanut butter chocolate chip bar cookies I've ever made!

They have a slight crackling top, and the interior is very soft and moist. 

Every bite gives you a huge chunk of oozing chocolate and a killing smell of warm peanut butter.

I'll probably make these again... and again...and again... 

until I become a big, fat chocolate chip.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Makes 16 bars
Recipe adapted from Bakeat350
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted  butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8" square pan with aluminum foil.
Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
Cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Beat in both the sugars until combined.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Stir in the vanilla; stir in the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake about 40 minutes. Cool completely; cut into 16 squares.

Caramel Turtle Cookies

I love chocolate chip cookies. That's an undeniable, solid fact.

I baked big, fat chocolate chip cookies three days in a row last week, all of which I have gobbled up after lunch (and dinner... and umm.. breakfast too). 

But I don't like just any old chocolate chip cookie..

Wait, let me fix that. I like any chocolate chip cookies, but I don't fall in LLLOVE with all of them.

There are lots of things to consider when you're choosing THE ONE.

Crunchy vs. Soft

Thick vs. Thin

Chewy vs. Cakey

Crisp vs. Ooey Gooey

Chocolate chunks vs. Specks of mini chocolate chips

Nuts vs. No nuts

....

...

...

I could go on forever, but my criteria is simple.

1. Soft, but not cakey

2. Loaded with chocolate chips

3. Thick

4. No nuts

That's all I ask for.

How come none of my chocolate chips turn out that way? It's so frustrating.

These caramel turtle cookies are a little twist to chocolate chip cookies, because I added some caramel bits and nuts to it.

I know, I know, I hate nuts in cookies, but these were requested by my mom, who loves anything with nuts in them, so I reluctantly grabbed a bag of some forgotten macadamia nuts and poured them into my precious cookie dough.

And surprisingly, they were perfect! Even the nuts gave them a great flavor and a nice crunch. I think I didn't mind the nuts because the tops of these cookies were crackly and crunchy anyways.

The inside is soft though, so I munch-munched until I realized it was 11pm. 

Hmm... I'll walk 10 miles tomorrow.

Caramel Turtle Cookies
Makes 1 dozen 5-inch cookies
Recipe adapted from My baking addiction
Ingredients:
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon cake flour
5/6 cup bread flour (1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel bits (I used Kraft)
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine both flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until very light, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and mix well. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips, caramel bits, and chopped nuts.
Using a regular ice cream scoop, scoop a generous amount of dough and place on the cookie sheets. I got 9 on one of them and 3 on the other.
Bake until golden brown but still soft, about 18-20 minutes. You might want to switch the two cookie sheets  during baking for even browning. I didn't, so 9 of them were golden brown while 3 of them were a tad bit pale:( Cool completely on a wire rack, then store in an airtight container.

Notes:
For smaller cookies, you can use a heaping tablespoon instead of an ice cream scoop, and bake for 12 minutes.

Flower Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Tada!

My very first attempt at cake decorating!

I was shy and I always stuck to simple whipped cream when it came to frosting cakes, but I guess it was about time I'd tried something new.

So I made some royal icing and buttercream and used them both on this beautiful flower-covered cake!

Today was my mom's birthday, so I made a full course dinner for her (well, technically, we had it for breakfast. Yup, at 8am in the morning.) including an appetizer, an entree with two sides, and a dessert :)

So the menu was:

~*~

Appetizer - Korean rolled omelettes

Entree - Braised beef eye of round steak with BBQ sauce

Side - Garlic mashed potatoes

- Oriental salad

Dessert - Flower cake with chocolate frosting

~*~

Wow... the main dish just looks like a big lump of 'stuff'.

I wasn't too happy with the beef because the sauce turned out a little too sweet, but overall, I was proud of my special gift for my mom:)

Especially the cake.

OMG, the cake.

It was the best thing on the menu.

Sinfully delicious and divine. That's what it was.

The chocolate buttercream was perfectly creamy and rich, and the cake layers were very moist and tender. 

And the filling was...

Okay, I cheated a little and used pudding mix and cool whip for the filling, but I was so busy cooking and baking yesterday that I just didn't have the time to make bavarian cream.

Anyway, it was a wonderful cake, and the flowers were of just the right sweetness too.

I'm planning to make this cake again for my dad's birthday, but with different decorations!    

    

Flower Cake with Chocolate Frosting

makes 4-layered 8-inch cake

Recipe adapted from makinglifedelicious(sponge cake) & Wilton(buttercream)

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

5 egg yolks

5 egg whites

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Rum Syrup:

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoon light corn syrup

2 tablespoon rum

For the Filling:

1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix

1 1/4 cups fat free milk

3 tablespoons cool whip

1 pkg chocolate instant pudding mix

1 1/4 cups fat free milk

3 tablespoons cool whip

2 cups cool whip

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

1/3 cup water

2 tablespoons meringue powder

1 (1 lb) box powdered sugar, sifted

10 tablespoons Crisco shortening

2 oz semisweet chocolate, melted

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

5 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon butter flavor

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Royal Icing:

1 tablespoon meringue powder

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, measured before sifting

2 tablespoons water

Few drops of food coloring (any color)

Directions:

You might want to make the royal icing flowers several days before making the cake, because they need time to dry.

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

Beat egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl until lemon colored. (They will look crumbly, like they're never gonna mix, but don't freak out like I did; they will look better later on!) 

In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold half of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Sift flour over the mixture and fold very gently until just incorporated, then add the remaining egg whites and gold, again, until just incorporated. Be very, very gentle, and try to mix them in quickly but thoroughly, until you have no more white streaks.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (I baked them for 22 minutes and the sides came out a little hard)

Remove cakes from the oven and turn out of pans onto wire racks to cool completely.

You can do that, or you can wrap them tightly with plastic wrap when they are warm and put them in the freezer to lock in the moisture. I read about this method in a blog once and I use it whenever I feel like I overbaked the cakes just a tad. Once they cool down, take it out of the freezer and let it become room temperature.

For the Rum Syrup:

I know you're supposed to boil water and sugar first and then add the rum, but I didn't have time for that.

I simply combined water, corn syrup, a splash of rum, and called it a syrup:)

For the Filling:

The ingredients kinda speak for themselves. Mix the vanilla pudding mix with fat free milk, as directed on the box, let it set, then stir in the cool whip. Do the same with the chocolate pudding mix. Refrigerate until use.

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

Combine water and meringue powder. Whip at high speed until peaks form. Sift in 1 cup of powdered sugar into the mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, beating at low speed after each addition. Alternately add shortening and remaining sugar. Add cocoa powder, melted chocolate, and corn syrup. Add salt and flavorings. Beat at low speed until smooth.

To Assemble:

Cut off the tops of each cake to make them flat. Slice them horizontally in half to make four cake layers.

Put one layer in an 8-inch cake ring. Sprinkle with rum syrup. Pipe the chocolate buttercream around the cake with a round or star tip so that the filling doesn't ooze out. Fill in with vanilla filling. 

Top with a second cake layer, sprinkle with rum syrup, pipe a buttercream border, and fill in with cool whip. Reserve some for the very top.

Top with a third cake layer, sprinkle with rum syrup, pipe a buttercream border, and fill in with chocolate filling.

Top with the last cake layer, then spread the top with remaining cool whip. Coat the sides thinly with chocolate buttercream.

Using a basketweave tip (#47), make basketweave designs on the side. Then, using a star tip (#21), make rope borders around the top of the cake. (Click on the links for detailed how-to's.)

Pipe a message on top with the remaining frosting, using a round tip (#3).

My 'Happy Birthday' message kinda soaked into the cool whip and made a smudgy mess; I don't know why that happened.

For the Royal Icing:

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer). For stiffer icing, use 1 teaspoon less water. Add 1-2 drops of desired food coloring. Fill a decorating bag with icing and pipe flowers, leaves, whatever you want, on a piece of parchment paper, and let it dry completely for 1-2 days, more if the flowers are big.

Here are the instructions for the roses, star drop flowers, and leaves.

When they become candy-hard, decorate the cake!

Swiss Black Forest Cake

Let me get straight to the point.

This cake is heavenly.

The chocolate cake layers are incredibly moist, and the filling is so creamy and light, you almost feel nothing at all. 

I think this cake makes a wonderful gift for any occasion.

I baked mine for my mom's birthday a few months ago, and everyone absolutely ADORED it.

Especially because it was baked in a 7-inch pan, it was perfect for a 'leftovers-free' birthday cake! My mom hates having large cakes and pies in the refrigerator because it takes up so much space, so she always tries to slice'em up and store them in a small container.

But I hate doing that, because if I store it that way, the cake gets all out of shape and it loses so much frosting in the process of putting it in and out of containers!

That's why I usually bake smaller cakes - so that we can finish it on the spot:)

Swiss Black Forest Cake
Recipe adapted from hotpolkadot
Makes one 7-inch cake
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 eggs
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cake flour (or substitute)
For the filling:
7 g/0.25 oz powdered gelatin
1/4 cup water
3 cup whipped cream (I used cool whip)
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1-15 oz can pitted maraschino cherries, drained, syrup reserved
3 tbsp spiced rum
For Garnish:
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, grated or shaved
12 pitted maraschino cherries



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 7-inch spring form pan and set it aside.

In a small heavy sauce pan combine the chopped chocolate and water then bring it to a slow boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove it from the heat once it thickens to a pudding consistency and stirring leaves temporary lines in the surface. Set it aside and let it cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer and the whisk attachment beat the eggs and sugar until they triple in volume. Gently but quickly fold in the cake flour half at a time until it's just incorporated. Next fold in the cooled chocolate mixture.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 23 - 28 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. The top of the cake will rise while baking then lower slightly when it's done and feel springy to the touch. The sides will also shrink as they pull away from the pan.

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow it to sit for 10 – 15 minutes before releasing the cake from the spring form to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, make the filling. In a medium bowl combine whipped cream and sugar. In a small heatproof bowl combine the gelatin and water. Let it soften for about 5 minutes then place the bowl in a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the gelatin is dissolved. Set the gelatin mixture aside and let it reach room temperature, then add it slowly to the whipped cream. Stir in vanilla extract.

Drain the can of cherries and reserve the syrup. Set aside 12 cherries to top the cake later. With a cake leveller or a long serrated knife level off the top of the cooled Chocolate Génoise Cake and slice it into 2 even layers and put one into a mousse ring/springform pan, or wrap it around with parchment paper. In a small bowl combine the reserved cherry syrup and spiced rum then drizzle it evenly over each cake layer. Spoon in 3/4 of the filling and push in the drained cherries. Top with the remaining cake layer and spread half of the remaining filling over it. Pipe rosettes around the cake with a piping bag and top each with a cherry. You can keep the stems on if you'd like, but I didn't have enough pretty cherries with stems, so I just took them all out:)

Giant Cream Puffs with Chocolate Frosting

One of the many advantages of baking at home is that when you make cream puffs...
 YOU CAN STUFF IN AS MUCH FILLING AS YOU WANT!!
These cream puffs, filled with creamy pistachio pudding and frosted with sweet, sugary chocolate icing, were made simply to satisfy my own cravings:)
I didn't care how they looked, or how messy they got; I just wanted to gobble, gobble, gobble!
Although, I have to say, they look pretty scrummylicious to me;)
Overall, these were heavenly. The icing was a little too sweet for my taste, but then again, I used semisweet chocolate instead of unsweetened chocolate because that was all I had, which probably made a huge difference. Oh, and I also made some other healthy substitutions, so I didn't feel guilty at all.
I got this recipe a few months ago from my cooking teacher, and after we made them in class, everyone was licking the frosting and filling off their mixing bowls!

Giant Cream Puffs with Chocolate Frosting

recipe from my cooking teacher

makes 6

Ingredients:

For the Cream Puffs:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup water

2 eggs

Dash of salt

1/2 tsp sugar, if desired

For the Filling:

One 4-serving box of Jell-O instant pudding and pie filling, any flavor

1 cup fat free milk

1 cup whipping cream (I used 2 cups fat free cool whip)

For the Frosting:

1 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 tsp butter

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

2 tbsp hot water

Directions:

For the cream puffs:

In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, salt, and sugar, if desired. Bring to a boil. Add all the flour at once, stirring vigorously over low heat until the mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. (The batter may look curdled, but this is normal, and it will become smooth in the end. No worries!) Drop by scant 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake on the lowest rack in a preheated 400F oven, until puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Cool in the oven with door slightly open.

For the Filling:

Chill 2 bowls with beaters. Whip whipping cream in one bowl until stiff. In the other bowl, mix pudding mix and milk. Mix for only 1 minute at high speed. Fold the pudding and the whipped cream (or cool whip) together thoroughly. 

For the Frosting:

In a microwave, heat unsweetened chocolate and 1 tsp butter in a microwave safe bowl. Stir in sifted powdered sugar and hot water, 1 tbsp at a time. Beat until smooth.

To assemble:

Cut off the tops of the cooled puffs and pull out any soft dough. Save the tops. Fill puffs with filling, replace tops, and frost with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate until serving. 

Make ahead: Make the puffs, filling, and frosting, and keep refrigerated. The next day, crisp up the puffs, after pulling out the insides, in a preheated 350F oven for 5 minutes. Cool, then assemble.

Moist Cocoa Brownies

I'm so into brownies these days. 

For the last few months, I've been obsessed with cakes covered in whipped cream, so I had them practically everyday. I'm still not over it, but two weeks ago, this amazing book of brownies caught my eye.

It was full of awesome bars, brownies, and blondies recipes, and I just HAD to buy it.

Plus it was on a clearance sale!

I've tried three of the recipes so far, and all of them turned out great.
This was my first brownie from the book, and it's moist and chocolatey, with some crunchiness from a handful of nuts; it's just like the classic, most basic brownies you can ever bake.

Moist Cocoa Brownies

Recipe very closely adapted from Good Housekeeping: Brownies

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Direction:

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Combine flour and cocoa powder in a medium bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; remove from heat and stir in sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, mix in eggs, then stir in vanilla extract. Stir in flour-cocoa mixture and mix until moistened. Stir in chopped nuts and pour batter into a 9-inch square pan lined with foil. Bake for 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then on a wire rack, until completely cooled. Cut into 16 squares. You can dust some powdered sugar on top just before serving, but to me it tastes gorgeous even without it:)

Enjoy!

Mini Raspberry Heart Cakes

Have you ever tasted a chocolate cake and had an irresistible urge to gobble down the whole thing?

I have.

And it's this cake right here.

And you can't even go for the rest of the cake because it is "portion controlled".

Hmm.. I say this cake is good for your waistline.

It's incredibly moist and soft, it practically melts in your mouth. I actually made this for my mom, who recently had a dental surgery, so that she could enjoy her food without having to bite into it too hard.

Of course, she enjoyed it too, but she said that the doctor told her to avoid sweet stuff.

Oops...I forgot about that. Silly me:)

So I ended up eating the whole batch with my dad!

I got this recipe from the Hershey's website, which has the most amazing chocolate cake photos EVER. Once I start looking at all the chocolatey treats, I sit in front of my computer drooling at them for at least 3 hours. I had a very hard time choosing which one to make, so I chose one that didn't yield a lot of servings. Just to experiment. This one was a recipe for two, but I doubled it and made four lovely mini chocolate cakes:)

Chocolate Sweetheart Cakes for Two

Recipe from HERSHEY'S 

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Frosting:

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

2 to 3 teaspoons milk

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish:

4 raspberries

Fresh mint leaves

Caramel syrup (optional - I used smucker's sugar free caramel syrup)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 8-inch square baking pan.

Stir together flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add water, oil, vanilla, and vinegar; beat with spoon or whisk until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Transfer to cutting board. Using a 3-1/4-inch heart shaped cookie cutter, cut cake into 4 hearts. Spread chocolate frosting on top of two hearts. Press remaining hearts on top. Drizzle with caramel syrup, if desired, then garnish with raspberries and mint leaves.

For the Chocolate Frosting: Place butter in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave at medium (50%) 20 seconds or until butter is melted. Stir together powdered sugar and cocoa; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beating with spoon or whisk until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Makes about 1/3 cup frosting.