Wednesday's Bake: Personalized Chocolate Chip Cookies

As a mother of five I have made A LOT of chocolate chip cookies. They're the go-to cookie in our house, the after school staple, as well as the usual thing I bake for my husband's weekly visits to school boarding houses. I started with the recipe on the back of the bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips--most people probably know it. But the more cookies I made, the more I tweaked it just a little to fit my own preferences. So today I'm sharing what is essentially a standard recipe... tweaked!

Here it is:

1 cup (2 American sticks, or roughly 225 grams) of salted butter (lots of recipes call for unsalted butter, but I find unsalted butter makes everything taste disgusting. So.)

1/2 cup golden caster sugar (calls for white granulated--this is what I prefer)
1 cup light brown sugar (The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of each sugar, but I prefer my cookies to have a slightly carmelly taste to offset the chocolate chips)

2 and 1/4 cup flour (I err on having slightly more flour than slightly less)
1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used to make the cookies without salt, but I do find they need the slightest edge of saltiness for flavour)

2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla (that's double the recommended vanilla--I like the taste!)

1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips (recommended 2 cups, but I prefer a bit less)

The Method:

Cream butter with sugars, add eggs and vanilla, and then add flour, salt, bicarb, and finally chips! Bake on an ungreased tray for 10 minutes in a 350/160 oven.

Simple, really, but I do find the little changes make a difference. What about you? Have you 'tweaked' a recipe in some way to suit your preferences? I'd love to hear about it!

Wednesday's Bake: Streusel Coffee Cake

It's GBBO tonight, and as usual I'm celebrating with another bake--this one a family favourite for breakfast or brunch. UK readers, coffee cake in the US is not cake with coffee as an ingredient, but rather a morning cake to serve with coffee-delicious!

Ingredients:

For topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 tsp cinnamon

(I tend to use a bit more sugar than flour)

For cake:

1 and 1/2 cups flour
2 and 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup sugar (I use golden caster)
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon (optional--if you want the cake to be cinnamon flavoured as well)
The Method:

For topping, cut butter into flour, sugar and cinnamon until crumbly.

For cake, mix flour and baking powder. Add sugar to butter and egg; add milk and vanilla the mix with flour. Spread batter in greased 8 or 9 in cake pan. Bake in a 160/325 oven for 30 minutes. Thanks to Southern Food for the recipe!

Wednesday Bake: Banana Muffins with Orange Icing

In honour of The Great British Bakeoff, which is a firm favourite TV show in our house, I thought I'd make Wednesday Baking Day on my blog. I love baking, but I have to admit I'm nowhere near Bakeoff standards! Most of my bakes tend to be fairly delicious but rather messy looking. Royal icing and piecrust both defeat me. However I do manage to bake several times a week, usually for my children (and me!) or the boarding houses of the school where my husband works. Today's bake is Banana Muffins with Orange Icing, a great way to use up those browning bananas children refuse to touch! I made these yesterday and my children were a bit dubious--banana is not chocolate, after all. But they tried them and suffice it to say, they're all gone today.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup caster sugar (I use golden)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (I use a few drops more because I love vanilla)
1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( about 3 good-sized ones)
1 tsp grated orange rind (I usually miss this out--too much faff)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup buttermilk (I mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice and top up to 1/2 cup with milk, leave for 5 mins)

For the orange icing:

1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp plain yogurt (I leave this out if I don't have it in the fridge)
1-2 tsps orange juice

Method:

Cream butter and sugar and then add eggs, vanilla, bananas, and orange rind if using. Mix flour, baking powder and soda and beat into egg mixture alternately with buttermilk.

Spray muffin pan with nonstick sunflower oil spray or otherwise grease or use paper muffin cups. Bake in 180 oven for 15 minutes. Let cool slightly and then pour icing over the tops of muffins. Makes about 15 nice-sized muffins.