Baking Project

Who can resist chocolate chip cookies ? Whenever I pass by Famous Amos, I feel like buying the whole shop! Anyway, yesterday after the gum paste session, I baked some chocolate chip cookies for my daughter (and myself.. ). I got the recipe from an old book and just reduce the sugar content.

Here’s the recipe, this cookies are crispy on the outside, soft and chewy when you bite into it.

Ingredients :

2 2/3 cups of all purpose flour (sieve)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (sieve if there are big clumps)

1 cup unsalted butter, soften to room temperature. (if using salted butter, omit the salt)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnut (if you wish)

Method :

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the two types of sugar. Cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Then fold in the flour. At this point, you might want to mix using your hand since the dough is lumpy and will strain your mixer. After the dough is well mix, stir in the chocolate chips and nut. Take a tablespoon and shape into a ball, arrange on your tray. Leave about an inch space between the cookies. The cooking time is about 10 minutes.

I don’t generally like cookies, but I can’t resist the ones bought from Famous-Amos. 100 gm pun tak cukup.. The very name ‘cookie’ is actually derived from a Dutch word ‘koekje’ (sorry I don’t know how to pronounce that) meaning ‘little cakes’. During the old days, bakers use to drop small amount of cake batters to test the temperature of their oven. That’s how cookies began..

There are basically 6 type of cookies : drop cookies, bar cookies, rolled, molded, pressed and refrigerator cookies. When I have the time I will go into details on each of this. But here’s the summary.

1. Drop cookies - the quickest and easiest to make. You drop the cookies using teaspoons onto the baking sheet.
2. Bar cookies - baked in square pan. Might use nuts or oatmeal. Cut into squares.
3. Rolled cookies - made from a stiff dough which is rolled and then cut into smaller pieces.
4. Molded cookies - made from a stiff dough also and shaped into balls, log or whatever mold you have.
5. Pressed cookies - these are the ones formed by using a cookie press or pastry tube.
6. Refrigerator cookies - normally a rich dough shaped into logs. Can be stored in freezer until ready to use.