My Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

My husband is a self-proclaimed “cookie monster.” While I prefer a cake for my birthday (or more specifically the birthday cake from Milk Bar in New York, which I order and proceed to enjoy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) he wants cookies. Last week he turned 30 and while celebrations have had to be more limited this year, I knew one thing for sure, I could not skimp on the cookies for my Cookie Monster. His favorite cookie? You guessed it, chocolate chip! While I woke him up with Ina Garten’s overnight Belgian waffles for his birthday breakfast, I made sure the cookie train started rolling for on-demand enjoyment throughout the day. If you too want to board the cookie train, grab some butter, and all aboard! These cookies are the perfect texture of soft but also crisp, and sweet, and salty! I guarantee you will not be able to eat just one; make them for yourself, or for the cookie monster in your life.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup)

  • I used European, salted butter. But I like a little salt with my chocolate, so if that does not fit your vision, use unsalted butter here instead.

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 cup of sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 12 oz or 2 cups chocolate (dealer’s choice of wafers, chips, or chopped chunks!)

• Optional additions: 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together sugars and butter, on a medium speed. Add in eggs one at a time until well combined, and then add vanilla (and almond extract, if so desired!).

3. In a large bowl combine, flour. salt, baking powder and soda, and, if you feel the need, espresso powder, mix together.

4. Turn the stand mixer back on a gentle stir and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once combined, add in the chocolate of your choice and mix in!

5. Shape into golf ball size dough balls and place them onto a baking sheet. I line my baking sheet with a Silpat.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done to your liking. I found that the 17-18 minute mark ensures the gooey center and crunchy top—also known as the perfect cookie.

Jazzed Up Banana Bread

I feel as if banana bread needs no introduction, it is standard fare in most home kitchens. But this isn’t your grandmother’s banana bread. I am all for classics, but sometimes you need to throw on a pair of leopard heels and a studded bag to jazz things up a bit! That is exactly what we have here, a classic that has been given a little makeover! Don’t worry you’ll still recognize her; she’s just a little more fun than you remember—with plenty of sugar and spice—and a little twist (of lemon!).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 stick)

• 1/3 cup greek yogurt ( I used Fage 2%)

• 2 tsps vanilla

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup bananas, mashed

• 1/2 tsp lemon zest

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350.

2. Mash 3-4 bananas, to achieve 1 cup, to your liking. I like mine a little more chunky! Set to the side.

3. In a large bowl combine, flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir and set to the side.

4. In a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer, combine butter, sugars, and beat until fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Beat in yogurt, then eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Add in vanilla and lemon zest. I grated my lemon zest right over the bowl! I wanted my batter to catch all of the oil that is released when grating! Stir together.

5. Slowly pour in dry ingredients into wet, mixing until just combined.

6. Add in bananas and bring together.

7. Pour into a greased and lined loaf pan. I simply cut a rectangular piece of parchment paper and let the sides hang over the pan so I can lift my bread out easily.

8. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Dark Chocolate

Hello, Fall! If you’re reading this, I have probably just touched down in the Big Apple, and cannot help but reminded by Meg Ryan’s line in You’ve Got Mail, “Don’t you just love New York in the fall?” While Tom Hanks may not be asking for my address to send me a box of “newly sharpened pencils,” as he jokes in the film, I am finding my own way of enjoying the season. As my mom, sister and I are working through my grandmother’s recipes for the cookbook we are creating in her memory, we are coming across a treasure-trove of old favorites! One of them being, her Pumpkin Bread. Now I’ve never met a bread I didn’t like, but this one feels special. It’s not overly sweet, and the texture is simply divine. The taste actually lives up up the aroma while baking! I will admit, the base of this recipe is my grandmother’s, but I felt it needed a bit of a face lift. For starters, the original recipe called for a full cup of oil. That’s over 1800 calories, just in oil! So I swapped a few tablespoons of butter and some applesauce. The spice list in the original was pretty extensive, too. In order to simplify, I decided to use pumpkin pie spice seasoning, using a tablespoon, and a dash extra of cinnamon. My pumpkin pie seasoning also has ginger in it, which makes the bread a touch more spiced, than the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg the original recipe called for. I love falling for Autumn, and this bread can take me through the season’s flavors in a bite!

Ingredients:

3 cups of sugar

4 tbsp melted butter

3/4 cup of applesauce

1 15oz can of pumpkin 

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 cups self rising flour

1 12 oz bag of dark chocolate chips

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

This recipe makes 2 loafs or one loaf and a dozen muffins! Or you can make all muffins too, if that’s your thing!

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl combine, flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt.

3. In another large bowl beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Crack and add in eggs in one at a time. Once combined, add in pumpkin and applesauce, and bring together.

4. Add dry ingredients in, stirring into wet in 3-4 installments.

5. Once combined, fold in dark chocolate chips.

6. Place batter into greased baking dish. If making in loaf pans, bake for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If making in muffin tins, bake for 25-30 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched.

“Mrs. Field’s” Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Imma make you girls a hump day treat…” Okay, yes, my mom did not wear a hot pink Juicy Suit, like Mrs. George in Mean Girls, while she made after school snacks for me and my friends. She might have left the excessive Juicy Couture wearing to me and my sister, but she was all about the after school treats. In the spirit of back to school, think back to your after school snacks: was there a better surprise to await you than a hot cookie? Negative, ghost rider. These cookies were my childhood. We used to double the recipe and take them to our family reunions and when I dressed up as Debbie Fields for Biography Day in third grade, these were the cookies I had as my prop on my cookie tray. As such, as now refer to them as the “Mrs. Field’s Cookies.”

Side bar: I’ll have to dig up the picture of me on Biography Day, it’s GOLD. I look like an overweight, middle-aged colonial woman who lost her skirt to a pair of scissors.

Ingredients:

-1 cup of butter (softened)

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 cup of sugar

-2 eggs

-1 T. vanilla

-2 1/2 cups of oats

-2 cups of flour

-1/2 t. salt

-1 t. baking powder

-1 t. baking soda

-1/2 t. espresso powder

-12 oz chocolate (dealer’s choice of wafers, chips, or chopped chunks!)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together sugars and butter, add in eggs one at a time until well combined, and then add vanilla.

3. In a food processor combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda and powder, and espresso powder, pulse until oats are powdery.

4. Turn the stand mixer back on a gentle stir and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once combined, add in the chocolate of your choice and mix in!

5. Shape into golf ball size dough balls and place onto baking sheet.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until done to your liking. I found that the 12-13 minute mark ensures the gooey center and crunchy top—also know as the perfect cookie.

7. Let your inner cookie monster shine!