Quest For the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

If you mosey on over to here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html

You will see an article that definitely caught my attention and made me think: Is there such a thing as the perfect chocolate chip cookie? The answer is definitely yes.

In this post, I will give you my top 3 chocolate chip cookie recipes. The first, is from the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?ref=dining

The recipe, which was adapted from Jacques Torres, was one I set out to try immediately, as there were many things about it that I never heard of in a cookie recipe before. The first, was that it used cake flour and not all purpose. The second, was that the cookie dough was refrigerated for 36 hours before it was baked. And yes, I tested it: the cookies that were baked immediately after mixing were not quite as flavor filled as the ones that had time to really "soak up the liquid (eggs and butter.) The last thing that intrigued me? Salt was sprinkled on the cookies before baking.

This cookie definitely has a bit of a grown up kick to it, with the mix of sweet and salty.



I definitely give my approval of that recipe being included in the article, but I wanted a more traditional cookie that was just soft, chewy, and filled with chocolate chips. I found this cookie recipe, on AllRecipes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Award-Winning-Soft-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx

I followed the recipe with some minor changes (2tbsp of vanilla, 2tsp of baking powder, and 1/2tsp of salt) baked for 8 minutes, and what came out of it was a delicious, soft, chewy chocolate chip cookie that reminded me of those "chewy" Chips Ahoy cookies. I had tried many cookie recipes that came out a little bit crispy and crunchy, but this one was super soft.



Now that I had found the best homemade-tasting chocolate chip cookie, I decided to try a recipe for a big bakery style one, and that one also, was found on Allrecipes!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx

This one I followed exactly, but found the dough to be pretty sticky, so I followed a reviewers suggestion to refrigerate the dough for an hour, and it was perfect. It firmed up, and I used my little 1/4cup scoop to put the dough on the pan, without forming them into balls or anything because my scoop made them look like little pucks. I lined my pans with parchment and baked for exactly 15 minutes, and they were the biggest, softest cookies I've ever tasted. These definitely win over bakery cookies :D



So there you have it. My top 3 "tried and true" chocolate chip cookie recipes.

All About Me

Okay, now that I've introduced you to the blog, it's time for all the stuff about me!

My name is Tamarah. I'm 22 years old, and I live with my boyfriend. I'm currently working at McDonalds to save up money to go back to school.

What I'd really love to do is take the Baking and Pastry Arts program at George Brown,

http://www.georgebrown.ca/Marketing/FTCal/chefschool/H113.aspx

followed by a cake decorating course at the Bonnie Gordon School of Cake Decorating and Design. Here's a link to the classes here:

http://www.bonniegordoncakes.com/pages/classes/classes-workshops-main.htm

If you scroll down to the "Professional-level Certificate Programmes" you'll see a "Masters Confectionary Arts, and that's what I'd like to do!

See, I want the 2 year Baking and Pastry Arts Program because I love all baking, and I'd love to be able to know everything about it, including how to make breads, danishes, bars, cookies, cakes, etc; whereas the Masters Confectionary Arts one is, well, all about cake design and decorating. In the long run, I think I'd love to make cakes and decorate them, but as a baker, I'd love to be able to do all of it.

Now all I need to do is save up the money for it!

Welcome!

So my sister recently made a blog. You can view that one here:

http://tobylinn.blogspot.com/

And she's always been telling me that I should make a blog, so when she made hers and I went to view it, and was all "wow, cool!" I decided I'd try making one.

I'm not a gaming nerd, although I must admit, I do love WoW. And I'm not a computer geek, not really anyways. And I don't have any strong opinion on politics, nor do I enjoying critiquing books or movies (well I do a little bit, but not in a "I want to blog about it" sort of way)

But I do love baking, and honestly, I could talk about it all day long. Unfortunately for me, I'm pretty sure most of my friends really only want to hear that I made them baked goods, but not the techniques I used to make them :P I can't even count the number of time my boyfriend has said "wow, baby, that's soo interesting...uh huh.." (that's right, I know you're not listening!)

So that's why I have this blog. Because I think about baking pretty much 24/7, and also, I'm always trying to find new recipes to try out, and it would be awesome to be able to post about it here, complete with the recipe, the source of the recipe, and how it worked out for me. That and, my friends always complain about me making them hungry when I talk about recipes I want to try. At least this way, it's their choice to read about it or not, right? :P

So that's basically the premise of the blog. I love baking, and as I try new recipes, or recap my tried and true recipes, I'd love to write about my experiences with each recipe, and also post photos.

More about me in the next post!