Starting 2018 Off Right

   

  Now that I'm an "adult" and I'm out of school, the new year seems to hold more weight. I used to track the new year by the start of a new school year: a fresh slate of new grades. Now it's a fresh slate of new possibilities, goals, chances to chase dreams. And chances to go after dreams you may have avoided in the past because as fun as chasing dreams can be, there's also the fear of the unknown (what if what I create isn't good enough? what if that risk isn't worth it?). Hopefully, 2018 will be a year of working hard and chasing dreams. 
    For me, one of those little dreams has always been to start a food blog. And honestly, there are tons of food blogs out there, and who knows if anyone will even read this? But I bake just about every weekend-enough to make my family tell me to start giving cookies away to other people for Pete's Sake-so I decided I might as well share some recipes and pictures.
 
    I'm also starting off the new year making chocolate chip cookies. Let's face it: if you bake, chances are you're on a constant quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's like the Holy Grail of the baking set. I'm not sure whether or not this is "the One"...but it comes pretty dang close. These cookies use a lot of butter, so the high-quality chocolate chunks are surrounded by chewy deliciousness that you actually want to eat just as much as a the chocolate. They're big and thin and it's way too easy to eat three or four...or twelve. There are some things about the recipe that are different than what I've done before, like using cold butter chopped into small pieces and sifting the chocolate chunks to keep the batter looking pristine and free of chocolate flakes. It was really fun to put together, and quick!

Start 2018 off the right way...with cookies.

    Oh, and I also adapt everything I bake to be gluten-free for my lovely mom who has Celiac Disease (which is super different from gluten intolerance, see this page for more info https://celiac.org/celiac-disease/understanding-celiac-disease-2/what-is-celiac-disease/). At the end of the recipe, I have a recipe for the flour mix that is my go-to. You can totally use your own favorite store-bought gf flour mix too...whatever you like! I also add 1/2-1 tsp of xanthum gum to recipes per cup of my flour blend, since I didn't blend it in already.

Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Thomas Keller 
Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour mix)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 ounces 55 percent chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces (about 1 1/4 cups...I used one semisweet and one bittersweet Ghirardelli baking bar)
• 5 ounces 70 to 72 percent chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar, preferably molasses sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs

Directions:

1. Position the oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour and baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir in the salt.
3. Put the chips in a fine-mesh basket strainer and shake to remove any chocolate “dust” (small fragments).
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat, half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth. Add both sugars and the remaining butter, and beat until well combined, then beat for a few minutes, until the mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is incorporated before adding the next and scraping the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the chocolate.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the dough with a spatula to be sure that the chocolate is evenly incorporated. The dough or shaped cookies can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to five days or frozen for up to two weeks. Freeze shaped cookies on the baking sheets until firm, then transfer to freezer containers. Defrost frozen cookies overnight in the refrigerator before baking.
6. Using about two level tablespoons per cookie, shape dough into balls. Arrange eight cookies on each pan, leaving about two inches between them, because the dough will spread.
7. Bake for twelve minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, switching the position and rotating pans halfway through baking.
8. Cool cookies on the pans on cooling racks for about two minutes to firm them up a bit, then transfer to the racks to cool completely. Repeat with second batch of cookies. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to two days.

My favorite gluten-free flour mix

1 cup superfine brown rice flour 
1 cup superfine white rice flour 
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour 

Whisk all the ingredients together, and use the mix in place of regular all-purpose flour. I add 1/2-1 tsp of xanthum gum per each cup in a recipe. Xanthum gum acts kind of like gluten and holds dough together, so I use more for things that I want to have structure, like pie crust, and less in say, brownies.