Small batch chocolate chip cookies

Is everyone else carbo-loading their way through this lockdown? Baking is a great learning tool for my toddler, keeps us occupied for awhile, and keeps us flush with comfort foods. Can you be sad about being stuck in your house while you’re shoveling warm chocolate chip cookies into your mouth? I think not. 

The problem I always have with recipes is that I am feeding two people, and one of us is 3, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to make a batch of 40 cookies. For these cookies, I modified this recipe and ended up with a dozen cookies. It was perfect for our family!

7 tbsp butter, just melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar 

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

Beat together butter, sugars, vanilla, and vinegar. Add egg yolk and beat again. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat it. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into balls. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Eat warm for best results. 

*edited to add: at room temperature, these are reminiscent of Mrs Fields chocolate chip cookies, so you really can’t go wrong when eating them. You’re welcome. 

Coconut Macaroons

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These are macarons.

This is Macron. (photo credit)

These are macaroons.

They're basically what would happen if a meringue and a coconut got it on. 

My three year old loved making them because egg whites are f*cking magical. He then loved eating them because they're light and fluffy and essentially melt in your mouth. Recipe here, followed exactly. I rarely cook from cookbooks anymore, but this one is a gem. Many of my cookies come from here, although I have found a gingerbread recipe I like better elsewhere.

End of the World Baking

I really wish the coronavirus had hit during better weather. If it had, I would be taking my kiddos hiking every day and spending lots of time outside playing, having fun, and swearing at mosquitos (nobody's perfect). Unfortunately, we've had rain consistently for about the last week, and are expecting a combination of rain and snow and an absence of sunshine for about the next two weeks. This is not weather I want to be hiking in, especially with two small boys. But it's also not a viral climate I want to be taking my munchkins to the movies or mall or trampoline park in (basically the only places that haven't announced yet that they're closing). Which means we're stuck at home roughly 24/7 with just each other and the dog for company. Which means lots of baking. And crafts. And television. And more baking.

So far, we've made end of the world brownies.

Spicy cookies (aka gingerbread, if you're not 3).

Pumpkin muffins.

And we made a Target run to pick up new games, craft stuff, and more baking supplies.

Not to mention all the extra effort we've been putting in to dinners...

How to Freeze Cookie Dough

Omygod you guys, this is a game changer. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Remember when I made these awesome snickerdoodles and was complaining about how quickly they would disappear? 

I could have frozen some and saved them for later. I should have. 

Now I know.

The other day, I needed an M&M cookie. I used this recipe, which made 21 balls of cookie dough. I figured 6 would be a not unreasonable number of cookies for my family to eat in one day, so I popped the rest in the freezer.

The next day, my munchkin and I grabbed two frozen cookie dough balls out of the bag and threw them straight into the (preheated) oven. Just add about 3 minutes to the time suggested on the original recipe (at the same temperature). Do they look any different than the cookies I made from fresh cookie dough? They do not. Do they taste any different? They do not!

If you have frozen cookie dough ready to go, you can literally go from "I think I want a cookie" to eating a freshly baked cookie in 20 minutes flat. As I was saying, game changer.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to try this with every other cookie recipe ever, so I can have whatever variety of fresh, warm, delicious cookies whenever I want! What is your favorite kind of cookie that you want to try this with?

Snickerdoodles

I casually mentioned that I wanted a cookie. Hubby asked if I knew that snickerdoodles are his third favorite cookies. I said I do now. And that’s how I decided to make snickerdoodles. 

Didn’t they come out pretty?

I started with this recipe from Cookies & Cups and tweaked it based on a) not having cream of tartar and b) not wanting two dozen cookies. Having more cookies in our house somehow doesn’t make them last any longer, so I try to make smaller batches in an attempt to have fewer unhappy tummies. 

Cream together 6 tbsp warmed butter, 3/8 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix in 1 egg and a splash of vanilla. Then mix in 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp mild tasting vinegar (the original recipe used cream of tartar, but who has that? Seriously?), and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix in 1 3/8 cup flour. Roll dough into 12 balls; roll each ball in a cup of cinnamon sugar (1/8 cup sugar and 1/2 tbsp cinnamon). Place cinnamon sugary dough balls on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes at 325 degrees. Let cool (or don’t) and enjoy!