Chocolate Chip Cookies (regular or sugar free)

I never use to stay up past midnight on school nights.  I remember one night, sophomore year, where I stayed up until 11:30PM to finish a school paper-but that was an anomaly and every other night I would be asleep by 11:00PM.

This year, continuing that blissful sleep schedule has become impossible.  Even into the wee hours of the morning, I still find myself finishing Physics projects, putting the final touches onto English essays (you do not know how nerve wracking it is to write essays when your ability to write cohesively has decreased by 50% XD), or even just trying to start my math homework.

I’d like to blame my teachers for assigning so much homework-and they do-believe me, but I’m also not exactly the best at managing my time [could you say no to the internet? ;)].  As a result, these last few weeks have been a sleep deprived jumble of events, and there have been no blog posts for way. too. long. D:

BUT-it’s winter break now! 😀 I’m ready to sleep 18 hours every day (KIDDING), bake new recipes, take more pictures of food, hang out with my friends, and have fun.  To celebrate this momentous occasion-here’s a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  They’re easy to make, fun, and really delicious.  I hope you try them out and enjoy them!

Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source of recipe here.

Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter*
• ½ cup sugar**
• 1 ½ cup brown sugar, packed**
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 bag)

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together for 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.  Continue beating for another minute.
4. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, and then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Drop ¼ cup sized cookie dough balls onto a parchment papered cookie sheet, and bake for about 9-12 minutes.  They are finished when the edges are golden brown, and the middle is barely cooked through.

* I decided to add ½ cup butter and ½ cup oil.  The oil adds a certain chewiness that the butter alone cannot achieve.

**I went for a sugar free cookie and replaced the sugar with 2 cups of coconut palm sugar and about 1 ½ tsp molasses.

Advertisement

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’m notorious among the people I know as being a baker.  In fact, whenever my friends come to my house, it’s normal to find us crafting various baked goods (well, in some cases it’s me baking and my friend eating XD).  My friend Sonia came over last week, and we made chocolate chip pancakes.  But, the problem (well, I wouldn’t say it’s much of a problem!) was that we made a rather large batch of chocolate-studded batter, even too much for two teens with voracious appetites!  Even after gorging on countless pancakes, I still had a gallon of batter.  Then, I proceeded to eat pancakes at every meal for the next three days.  Um, yum.  But anyways, one would think that after all those pancakes, I wouldn’t be able to look at them without feeling sick.  Nah, my love of pancakes remains firm.

These pancakes are perfectly fluffy, flavorful, and filling. If you’re not super paranoid about preservatives, you can make them super quickly using Bisquick, but if you’re more of a from-scratch type of cook, I’ve included the homemade biscuit mix recipe I myself use.  The homemade biscuit mix makes a lot, I must warn, but don’t fear, it can be used in any recipe calling for Bisquick.  (In fact, I’ll have an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie which uses the mix, which I plan on sharing shortly, perhaps when the weather cools down a bit)

Bisquick Style Biscuit Mix

• 4 cups all purpose flour (some can be subbed with WW flour)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ cup buttermilk power (dry milk can be subbed, but buttermilk powder ensures optimum texture)
• 1 cup shortening (I used non hydrogenated, and it works great!)

1. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  Whisk to combine.
2. Add the shortening, and kneed the mixture with your fingers until shortening is evenly distributed, and the mix barely holds its shape when squeezed.  Use in any recipe calling for bisquick.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

• 2 cups bisquick/biscuit mix (2 ½ cups for thicker, but still fluffy, pancakes)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup milk (buttermilk if using bisquick)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chocolate chips (increase or decrease as desired)

1. Mix the sugar, lemon juice, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
2. Pour into bisquick/biscuit mix, and stir until barely combined.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Cook the pancakes at medium heat for about 2 minutes, flip, and then cook until no raw batter remains.  The batter can be stored for up to three days (maybe even more, but there’s no way they won’t be all eaten by then!), covered, in a refrigerator.
5. Serve with whipped cream or pancake syrup, and enjoy!