Saturday, December 6, 2008

My 12 Days of Cookies - Day 6

Every year the Food Network features 12 Days of Cookies. If you sign up here you can receive a new cookie recipe in your inbox each day.

Some of them look pretty good and some of them are not my style. This year I decided to do my own version of 12 Days of Cookies. Feel feel to join me in this challenge and make your own 12 cookie recipes (one each day).



Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (226g/8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (115g) packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 ounces (335g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 cups (340g) store-bought chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup (100g) finely chopped pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts. The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you’d like, you can freeze rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they’re solid. There’s no need to defrost the dough before baking – just add another minute or two the baking time.
Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 5cm (2in) between spoonfuls.
Bake the cookies – one sheet at a time and rotating the sheets at the midway point – for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may be still a little soft in the middle, and that’s just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.
Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Makes 45

I found out that these spread A LOT. So I recommend either chilling the dough or leaving lots of space between the cookies. Mine all ran together. =(


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