Chocolate Chip Cookies...the ultimate
As you might know, I really enjoy baking, but the ultimate chocolate chip cookie has always alluded me. The gold standard to which I compare all other chocolate chip cookies is the Meeting Street Chocolate Chunk cookie in Providence. It's a huge cookie larger than my head filled with giant chunks of chocolate and the dough is just divine. I had a major breakthrough this past Tuesday when I baked up a recipe from Williams Sonoma. I'm pretty sure I've tried this recipe in the past, but I don't remember the results being remarkable because I probably made them small like the recipe suggested. This time, I decided to bake essentially one giant cookie on a rimmed baking sheet rather than separated small cookies because I didn't have the time to deal with baking individual round cookies. The results were delicious and as close to a Meeting Street cookie as I've ever come. I'm not sure if it was the superb heating powers of my new oven, but I even daydreamed about the cookies while at work the next day. Yesterday, our friends were over watching game 6 of the ACLS (go Sox) and requested the cookies so I baked a second batch. This time, I added a dash a cinnamon and I think it was even better so today I baked a third batch to bring to a church potluck and I must say, there were no leftover cookies. Here's the recipe:
plasticann's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Note: yields 20 delicious giant cookies or 96 unremarkable small cookies
1 delicious giant cookie=4.8 unremarkable small cookies
2 sticks butter (1 cup) softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 and 2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 shakes of cinnamon
2 cups chocolate chips (one 12 oz bag)
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. line half sheet baking pan with parchment paper
3. cream butter until fluffy
4. add sugar and brown sugar, cream until time fluffy and the sugar is no longer gritty
5. add eggs and vanilla, mix well
6. add dry ingredients, mix until combined
7. add chocolate chips, mix
8. Spread entire batch of cookie dough onto rimmed sheet or use large cookie scoop to scoop cookies and place them on the sheet just an inch or so apart. The cookies will bake into each other in the oven.
9. Bake 15-20 minutes, check to see they're nice is delicious looking and brown
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
More on Cupcakes
Zames and Zess recently had their birthdays and their mommy Zara is probably giving birth to #3 as we speak. Earlier this week, Zara sent some very cute photos from Zess' 4th b-day party...a Tinkerbell themed fairy dress up party. I scrolled through cute photo after cute photo on Shutterfly until I came upon the one with the cupcakes. Being the engaged and attentive aunt that I am, I became utterly fixated on these cupcakes because they were HUGE. Sure Zess looked cute as usual in the foreground, but the cupcakes looked like they were half the size of a Zess' head. They were frosted luxuriously with copious amounts of pretty frosting topped with little Tinkerbell figurines. I zoomed into the photo trying to size up the cupcakes. At first I thought maybe the kids were just super tiny and normal cupcakes looked big relative to the tiny kids, but then I noticed that Zara's cake plates could only hold at most five of these outsized creations. Finally, I broke down and e-mailed Zara just days before she was about to give birth my very important question. Fortunately Zara graciously confirmed that in fact the cupcakes were GINORMOUS as was her belly. Now that I've seen these cupcakes, I'm slightly obsessed with the idea of eating giant cupcakes myself. I wonder if I can convince Zess to order them for Christmas when we're visiting so I can experience it for myself, they looked like they might be deliciously moist and full of potential.
Zames and Zess recently had their birthdays and their mommy Zara is probably giving birth to #3 as we speak. Earlier this week, Zara sent some very cute photos from Zess' 4th b-day party...a Tinkerbell themed fairy dress up party. I scrolled through cute photo after cute photo on Shutterfly until I came upon the one with the cupcakes. Being the engaged and attentive aunt that I am, I became utterly fixated on these cupcakes because they were HUGE. Sure Zess looked cute as usual in the foreground, but the cupcakes looked like they were half the size of a Zess' head. They were frosted luxuriously with copious amounts of pretty frosting topped with little Tinkerbell figurines. I zoomed into the photo trying to size up the cupcakes. At first I thought maybe the kids were just super tiny and normal cupcakes looked big relative to the tiny kids, but then I noticed that Zara's cake plates could only hold at most five of these outsized creations. Finally, I broke down and e-mailed Zara just days before she was about to give birth my very important question. Fortunately Zara graciously confirmed that in fact the cupcakes were GINORMOUS as was her belly. Now that I've seen these cupcakes, I'm slightly obsessed with the idea of eating giant cupcakes myself. I wonder if I can convince Zess to order them for Christmas when we're visiting so I can experience it for myself, they looked like they might be deliciously moist and full of potential.
GJDubya & plasticann Business Consulting
GJDubya recently made the excellent point that Kickass Cupcakes would probably do better with a less objectionable name. Afterall, kids love cupcakes and Kickass is hardly appropriate for the little ones. I think GJDubya's rebranding suggestion along with my suggestion of lowering the price point from $2.75 to $1.75 could be a potent pair of recommendations. We might even be able to charge real money for this advice if we were to start a consulting practice that simultaneously the addressed issues of branding and price elasticity. Hmmmm.
GJDubya recently made the excellent point that Kickass Cupcakes would probably do better with a less objectionable name. Afterall, kids love cupcakes and Kickass is hardly appropriate for the little ones. I think GJDubya's rebranding suggestion along with my suggestion of lowering the price point from $2.75 to $1.75 could be a potent pair of recommendations. We might even be able to charge real money for this advice if we were to start a consulting practice that simultaneously the addressed issues of branding and price elasticity. Hmmmm.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
"Kiwis cause milk to curdle..."
was the title of an e-mail Adam sent me last week. He went on to say, "Unfortunately found this out with my breakfast cereal. :( " and referenced this "Note: Raw kiwi contains an enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting and causes milk to curdle." from this website. Curdled cereal milk sounds pretty nasty and I can also attest to the little fact about gelatin, I remember my fruit terrine failing to set years back because I'd added kiwi to the mix.
was the title of an e-mail Adam sent me last week. He went on to say, "Unfortunately found this out with my breakfast cereal. :( " and referenced this "Note: Raw kiwi contains an enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting and causes milk to curdle." from this website. Curdled cereal milk sounds pretty nasty and I can also attest to the little fact about gelatin, I remember my fruit terrine failing to set years back because I'd added kiwi to the mix.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Kickass Cupcakes
I was really excited to check out Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square a few weekends ago. I even tried to convince Adam to bail during a church meeting to go get cupcakes. Alas, we didn't bail, but we did go after dinner later that night. We tried the Lucky Cupcake and the Strawberry Shortcake the first night and Adam went back and bought a Mojito Cupcake and a Cinnamon Chai Pecan Sticky the next day. My favorite was the Mojito. However, at $2.75 a pop for a rather normal sized cupcake, the price is too high for Kickass cupcakes to be a regular treat. I honestly think that if they lowered their priced south of $2, they'd get a lot more people stopping in for cupcakes on a regular basis. That said, I do feel hipper and cooler living in a square that boasts a cupcake bakery. Soon, we'll be getting a Shino Express Sushi restaurant so there's more good stuff coming.
I was really excited to check out Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square a few weekends ago. I even tried to convince Adam to bail during a church meeting to go get cupcakes. Alas, we didn't bail, but we did go after dinner later that night. We tried the Lucky Cupcake and the Strawberry Shortcake the first night and Adam went back and bought a Mojito Cupcake and a Cinnamon Chai Pecan Sticky the next day. My favorite was the Mojito. However, at $2.75 a pop for a rather normal sized cupcake, the price is too high for Kickass cupcakes to be a regular treat. I honestly think that if they lowered their priced south of $2, they'd get a lot more people stopping in for cupcakes on a regular basis. That said, I do feel hipper and cooler living in a square that boasts a cupcake bakery. Soon, we'll be getting a Shino Express Sushi restaurant so there's more good stuff coming.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Classic Steve
Last Friday was my 29th birthday and I had a really fun time celebrating with dinner at the Rialto with Adam. Getting to the Rialto was quite the challenge. Park street station has a fire so the train was shut down so I had to walk from Downtown Crossing over to Kendall/MIT to catch the train to Harvard Square. Adam was coming from Davis and he got stuck in the train for 40 minutes just outside of Harvard Square. Fortunately, the folks at Rialto were extremely gracious and they held our table for over an hour and offered us complimentary glasses of prosecco because we looked so stressed out and harried when we finally arrived. That said, my friend Steve called and left me a message Friday and the following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Hey Steve.
Steve: Did you get my message?
plasticann: Yeah, I heard your bit of juicy gossip.
Steve: [elaborating on juicy gossip]
plasticann: Steve, did you know it's my birthday today?
Steve: Did you think I left you a message for your birthday?
plasticann: It crossed my mind.
Steve: Uhh...Happy Birthday!
plasticann: Thanks, but that's not particularly convincing. However, you can write yourself a note for the future.
Basically, it's classic Steve to call me on my birthday to tell me a bit of juicy gossip and not realize it's my birthday. It's pretty hilarious. Thanks for the birthday chuckle Steve.
Last Friday was my 29th birthday and I had a really fun time celebrating with dinner at the Rialto with Adam. Getting to the Rialto was quite the challenge. Park street station has a fire so the train was shut down so I had to walk from Downtown Crossing over to Kendall/MIT to catch the train to Harvard Square. Adam was coming from Davis and he got stuck in the train for 40 minutes just outside of Harvard Square. Fortunately, the folks at Rialto were extremely gracious and they held our table for over an hour and offered us complimentary glasses of prosecco because we looked so stressed out and harried when we finally arrived. That said, my friend Steve called and left me a message Friday and the following is a reconstructed conversation:
plasticann: Hey Steve.
Steve: Did you get my message?
plasticann: Yeah, I heard your bit of juicy gossip.
Steve: [elaborating on juicy gossip]
plasticann: Steve, did you know it's my birthday today?
Steve: Did you think I left you a message for your birthday?
plasticann: It crossed my mind.
Steve: Uhh...Happy Birthday!
plasticann: Thanks, but that's not particularly convincing. However, you can write yourself a note for the future.
Basically, it's classic Steve to call me on my birthday to tell me a bit of juicy gossip and not realize it's my birthday. It's pretty hilarious. Thanks for the birthday chuckle Steve.
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