Chocolate Chip Cookies- a winner recipe

Well, it's that time again.
Time for Christmas baking and cookie decorating and ice skating circles around Millennium Park. Just one more week of school and I can finally relax. And by "relax" I mean i can submerge myself in making James' Christmas present. I can spend an afternoon baking a chocolate mint cake for Sara. I can shop mindlessly around Downtown Chicago with my best friend, Sonja, while we goof off without the pressure of homework.
Christmas really is the best time of the year.
But before we finalize the transformation from fall to Christmas officially, I would like to share one more "Fall recipe". There's something about running home after school to a nice warm batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, that will never again happen for me. However, my mom gets to drive home from work only to find these cookies awaiting her.
So, here they are. Pretty much the best chocolate chip cookies ever. They are chocolate filled and extremely chewy- but not soft and cakey like store bought cookies tend to be. They are perfectly golden brown with a slight crisp to the edges. Of course, I couldn't expect anything less form a Hershey's Recipe.
So go on and make yourself one last batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies before the Christmas baking rush.



Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Butter (softened slightly, so butter can bend without breaking but is not mushy)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet)

Make the cookies!
Preheat over to 350 degrees F and butter two cookie sheets
1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine Flour, baking soda and salt
2. In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes)
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. Gradually add flour mixture to the large mixing bowl, beating it in continuously.
5. Stir in chocolate Chips.
6. Roll cookies into 1 1/2 - 2 inch diameter balls and place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Take out and let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack or your mouth.
Good luck with getting ready for the Holidays!

Math Inspired Red Velvet Cake

This weekend I had an impossibly difficult task placed in front of me. THe 36-hour problem. A nation-wide math problem where four people have 36-hours to solve a real world problem using math skills and hours of collected research.
As soon as I realized I would have to subject myself to nonstop math for 36 hours straight I did what any logical person would do in this situation- I made a cake.
A red velvet cake. This cake was gone within the first 15 hours of the 36-hour problem. Which means it must have been exceptionally delicious. Or maybe everyone just wanted to take breaks every hour and a half.
This cake was rich, smooth and velvety with a slight cocoa flavor that brought out the sweet cream cheese frosting. I'm not sure what more a person good ask for in a cake.
Except maybe the solutions to the 36-hour problem printed on the cake and a man hidden inside it.


** This year, the 36-hour problem was to observe data concerning violent crime rates for a city in addition to the factors that produce crime such as high school drop outs, unemployment, and repeated offenses of parole by criminals. By hour number 31, my group was too insane to function. Good thing we synthesized all of our brilliant ideas during the day, such as giving puppies to inmates in jail to care for before they are released on parole. Surprisingly, the Puppy Behind Bars foundation has been highly effective in the jails they've worked in such as Ohio, New York and Florida.

Now, think up an excuse to throw a fancy party, or a never ending math problem, and go create your very own red velvet cake!



Red Velvet Cake
adapted by Joy Of Baking

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Table spoons cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 eggs (large)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Buttermilk (I made my own by combining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup skim milk)
2 tablespoons red food coloring (i used one tablespoon red and one tablespoon pink. It turned out beautifully; a cake fit for a princess)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease two 9-inch diameter round cake pans
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy, then add sugar and cream until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add both eggs, one at a time beating well for 30 seconds after each egg. Mix in vanilla extract.
4. Add the 2 tablespoons of food coloring to the one cup of buttermilk and stir until thoroughly combined.
5. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk into the large bowl with the creamed butter, beating consistently the whole time. Begin and end with the flour mixture.
6. In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar, allow the mixture to fizz, then quickly fold it into the large bowl with the cake batter.
7. Evenly distribute the batter into both cake pans, smoothing out the top with a spatula when all the cake batter has been distributed.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Do not over bake this cake! Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool completely before taking them out of the pans and putting them on plates.
9. Make frosting and Frost completely cooled cake. (See frosting recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
10 oz of Philadelphia cream cheese
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

DIrections
1. Beat butter and cream cheese together until the two are soft and fluffy.
2. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and milk, alternating between the two until all is stirred in and frosting consistency is smooth.
3. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. If your prefer a thicker consistency, mix in more powdered sugar, if you desire a thinner consistency, stir in more milk.
SPread your frosting evenly over your cake. YUM!

Apple Walnut Banana Muffins

These muffins... wow. Just wow. They have a strong resemblance to Marry Poppins- Practically Perfect in Every Way.
I whipped these muffins up early Sunday Morning before church. I brought these muffins to a small lunch gathering through my foreign exchange student's program. They were immediately descended upon by both kinds and adults. Thankfully there were three left over when we were ready to go. Using the excuse of needing to photograph the muffins for my blog, I eagerly brought the remains home with me in a doggy bag.
Okay, so maybe I just wanted the left overs. That's how good these were.
They perfectly represent fall with favors of apple and crunchy walnut and get me anticipated for next weeks haunted house!



Apple Walnut Muffins
adapted from: Mouthful of Temptation

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup plus a tablespoon of melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
2 small apples
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1. In a large mixing bowl, smash bananas and mix with butter. Add the sugars, eggs and vanilla. Mix with a whisk until everything is fully incorporated.
2. Mix in the baking soda, flour, and spices.
3. Peel the apples and cut into tiny squares. Fold in the apples and the walnuts.
4. Line a muffin pan with baking cups. Fill the cups completely full with batter, but don't overflow them.
5. Put in oven and bake for around 25 minutes, until a toothpick is inserted into the middle of the cupcakes and comes out clean.
6. Let cool for 20 minutes, one batch makes around 13 cupcakes.


yum!

Bright-astic Sugar Cookies!

Summer is officially over. Although everyone around me is moaning and groaning about this abrupt end to warm weather and carefree attitudes, I am secretly relishing this changing of the seasons. Sipping pumpkin spice lattes before church, wondering around in the crsip weather. Unfortunately, my brain automatically jumps from summer to Christmas.
Honestly though, can you blame me? There's so much excitement around the holidays, I can't wait to get started.
James and I already went iceskating once this season, an experience that confirmed my worst fears- James had no Christmas adventure. He clung to the wall of the ice rink, terrified of falling on the ice. A ten year old was blazing passed him. Multiple times. I decided we would just have to go back the next Saturday. And the one after that. By the end of this winter, James will be skating circles around that ten year old.
To help boost his morale a little, I decided to bake him... sugar cookies! The perfect festive treat!



These were extremely fun to decorate! And watch my foreign exchange student pop them in her mouth one by one.
Although sugar cookies are a bit time consuming, if you feel like have a chill weekend, or your kids friends over (or your own!) for a cookie decorating party, this is the recipe to use!

Lemon Sugar Cookies:
recipe based off of: Joy of Baking



Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 teaspoons lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon Almond extract

Making the cookies!
1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.
2. In a large whisking bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Next, beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the extracts.
3. Slowly mix in the flour until wel incoorporated.
4. Wrap dough into two seperate balls and put in the refridgerator for 2-3 hours.
5. After dough has firmed, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Roll out dough to about four mm thick circles and use cookie cutters to create shapes.
6. Place cut out dough onto a greased cookie sheet at least two inches apart.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will still be very soft directly coming out of the oven. Repeat until all of the cookie dough has been used and baked.
8. Ice cookies with any kind of icing desired. I used lemon and powdered sugar mixed with food coloring.
9. Decorate your cookies as intracately or plainly as you want! That's the most amazing part of sugar cookies! Enjoy =)

Lazy Day Chocolate Cupcakes

Sometimes I go all out. Sometimes I dress my desserts up with piped frosting, flower decorations and fancy designs. Then sometimes, I just want a cupcake. The more simple, the better, and the faster I'm able to consume.
My friend sonja came over after her swim practice. By then I was:
A) exhausted from my two hour workout. Yes, an hour of intermediate pilates followed the very next minute by an hour of "cardio conditioning" class. I'm pretty sure the Evanston Athletic Club (EAC) should make someone sign a waver before entering such a class. It should come with a warning label on the door, then another one on the weights: Do not attempt if you have a strong desire to have function of your muscles in the next 48 hours.
B) Craving Chocolate (but really, when is that not the case?) and
C) Getting ready to leave for Cleveland the following morning.
So, what could be more easy, more delicious, and more decadent for us to bake than our favorite cake in CUPCAKE FORM?
It was genius! We could give it away to friends and family since I was leaving, and also eat one for ourselves whilst having a quiet, lazy, tuesday afternoon.
Now, Sonja is also getting ready to add another family member to her household. In approximately four months, their new puppy will be born. After we got nice and hyper on chocolate and sugar, we started spitting out silly dog names faster than Chuck Bass downs his drinks. Somewhere in the midst of giggling, we managed to think of some fun and perfect names. Here were some of our favorites:
-Nala
-Cleopatra
-Athena
- Artemis
- Biscuit
So, if anyone's out there reading me, your input would be greatly appreciated!
Now, on to the cupcakes:



Look how gorgeous they look next to the vase of flowers James gave me (I knew I kept him around for a reason).
Obviously romance and chocolate cupcakes go hand-in-hand; in fact, they practically arranged themselves into a heart!

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes:
Ingredients
2 Cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flower
1 cup Dutch-processed Cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon chocolate extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 24 cupcake- cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
1. Stir together flour, coca, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add eggs and whisk well.
3. Add milk and oil and extracts and whisk for 2 minutes.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and then take the cupcakes (in the liners-duh) out of the tin to cool COMPLETELY before frosting!
5. Frost the cupcakes! with decadent chocolate frosting and fluffy, sweet vanilla cream cheese frosting (recipes below).

Chocolate frosting recipe
ingredients:
5 tablespoons butter
1/3 + 2 tablespoons Cocoa powder
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/8 + 2 table spoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Melt butter in microwave-safe bowl. Stir in cocoa powder until fully incorporated.
2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk beginning and ending with the milk until you have desired frosting consistency.
3. Stir in vanilla extract and VOILA! You have melt-in-your-mouth chocolate frosting.
If frosting is not your desired consistency:
Add milk if you wish to achieve a thinner glaze-like frosting
Add powdered sugar if you like thicker, fluffy frosting

Vanilla Frosting Recipe



ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese
4 Tablespoons salted butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
splash of milk
1. Cream together cream cheese and butter.
2. Add powdered sugar slowly, mixing on medium speed the whole time
3. Stir in the extracts and splash of milk. YUM!

You can frost these cupcakes as fancy as you want, or simply slather on the frosting for immediate consumption and treats for the boyfriends! They're beautiful and to-die-for-delicious either way!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

I have discovered something very important about myself this summer. I have an "addictive personality". That is to say, I get addicted to every thing I love and all of the sudden, I can't get enough of it. This discovery probably deems it necessary to lock me in a virtuous room with nothing but a bible and carrot sticks for the rest of my life. BUT I found a loophole.
Participating in the Appalachian Service Project for a week every year always helps clean my conscience.
In fact, by the time I returned, all my sins of Spain were forgotten and I was ready to take on a new addiction.
Read: Lemon Blueberry Pound cake. A moist, delicious lemon-flavored cake with a heaping cup (or two!) of blueberries mixed in the batter. All topped with a lemony cream cheese frosting-glaze. Probably the guiltiest addiction I've developed, if only because I singlehandedly ate half the cake. Okay, so it's definitely not the only new addiction I've acquired, or my favorite, but it certainly is the most dangerous.
If you have the same dangerous personality type as me, you'll bring this beautiful bundt to a family barbecue or a picnic on the beach. Or you could just shamelessly embrace your addictions and dig in with a friend and a fork (I chose this one!).
As long as your addictions don't surpass those of Tiger Woods', who had to get carted off to "keep it in your pants" camp, you can still keep it classy.
So please go make this cake. You'll thank me later. Read: As soon as you get a lick of that frosting.



Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

Ingredients:
For Cake:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 plus 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Extract
3/4 Teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used nonfat, but some people prefer full fat)
2 cups blueberries
For blueberries: 1 tablespoon flour, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup of lemon juice (or juice form about 2 lemons)

For Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze:
3 ounces of softened cream cheese (no skimping on the fat)
1 Tablespoon Butter, softened as well
2 cups confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/8-1/4 Cup lemon juice (add more until glaze reaches desired consistency, I eyeballed this)

Make the cake

1. Grease one medium sized bundt pan. Make sure to get the grease all up in the ridges. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups flour and the baking powder and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and both sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often.

4.Add the eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
5. Beat in the extracts and lemon juice. Reduce to medium speed and add the flour mixture alternatively with the yogurt, starting and ending with the flour. Beat until everything is completely incorporated.
6. In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour and the almond extract. Gently fold the blueberries in the batter, making sure they are evenly distributed throughout.

7. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out completely clean. keep your eyes on the cake, not the time!!! Cool in pan for 20 minutes or so before dumping the cake onto a plate.
8. Pour frosting evenly over your beautiful cake.

Frosting:
1. Beat together the cream cheese and butter.
2. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and lemon juice, alternating between the two until frosting reaches desired consistency.
3. Stir in the extracts.
4. Pour over your cake!!!

New York Cheesecake

I´ve never been much of a sports perosn. Sure, I enjoy going to live games now and then but watching a football game on tv like it´s the latest vampire diaries episode? No thank you. Until now. I think I´m a convert. Watching every move the soccer players of Spain makes on TV as they kick their way to victory is as addicting to me as... cheesecake.
The games are just the begining of excitement. After, the streets are bursting with a sea of red and yellow and the car horns can be heard until 1 in the morning. The whole city of Salamanca- heck probably the whole ocuntry of spain- is out partying after another victory in the world cup. And now. The final match! If Spain brings home the world cup this year (I´m pretty sure part of this obsession for me stems from the fact it has the same name as the Quiditch world championships in Harry Potter) I doubt one person in Spain will get a second of sleep.
Partying is completely acceptable when there´s something to celebrate. Staying out all night is a given. If you happen to do something completely stupid? At least you won´t remember it in the morning. Just kidding. Kind of.
Obviously I had to bake something with all my excitement. And since cheesecake is the perfect dessert and Spain has the perfect soccer team... well, it´s obvious where I´m going with this.
Plus, in Salamanca, the cheesecakes are drastically different than the American classic dessert. I figured I´d give my Spanish family a taste of America. Now and after the championships.


cheesecake heaven? I think yes.


Anddd last one for luck. GO ESPAÑA!

Classic and Delicious New York Cheesecake
adapted from: Joy of Baking

Ingredients:
Crust
2 cups of vanilla cookie crubs (grahm crackers work as well)
1/8 cup sugar (1/4 cup if using grahms cracker crumbs)
1/4 cup Butter
1 egg white
Filling
32 Ounces of cream Cheese (1 KG!!!)
1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
4 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
4 large eggs and 1 large egg yolk
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (or 1 Tbs. lemon zest)
1 teaspoon almond extract
Garnish
Pretty much anything you crave at that particular moment.
I used:
1 Jar of apricot jam
caramel is also delicious as is white chocolate or dark chocolate ganache
the possibilities are endless!

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 C) and butter a 9-inch Springform Pan or pie dish.
2. In a food processor, crush cookies/ grahm crackers into fine crumbs then dump them into a meduim sized bowl.
3. Place the sugar in with the cookie crumbs, and stir together. Next, melt the butter in a microwave, then throw it in the medium sized bowl as well. Add the egg white. Mix everything together very well, so the cookie crumbs are all coated with liquid. Honestly mixing with your hands works best in this regard.
4. Cover the bottom of the pan very evenly with a thin layer of crust, then push it up the sides of the pan, evenly distributing all the way around until all crust has been used. Put in the refrigerator until the filling has been made.
5. Place the cream cheese, sugar and flour inside a larger bowl and cream until smooth, about two minutes.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl!
7. Add the whipping cream, and extracts and beat well to make sure everything is incoorporated.
8. Take the crust out of the refrigerator and pour into it the filling. Make sure the layer is even, it will be almost overflowing so be careful!
9. Place cheesecake in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 250 degrees F (120 C) and continue to bake until only the middle is still wobbly and wet.(VERY important!) This should take around an hour, it only took mine 45 minutes though so keep a close eye on your cake!
10. Remove from over and run a knife along the edge of the crust to loosen it up. Then, let the cheesecake completely cool before putting the desired topping on it. Afterwards, place in the refrigerator for at least an hour, overnight would be best, covered in seran wrap or aluminum foil. Serve and enjoy!