Friday, October 3, 2008

Chocoate Chip Cookies + New Oven!



That's right, I have a new oven!!! After a year of baking frustrations, my life has gotten much, much better! We have had an oven thermometer for a while, and noticed that our oven at it's best tends to be about 50 degree's cooler than what we set it for. At it's worst, the oven's temperature will fluctuate from 75 degree's too cool, to 20 degree's too hot; all in one baking cycle.

After complaining to our apartment manager (yes our apartment, we are young newly weds after all!) and a visit from our very friendly maintenance technician, we found out that some internal sensor was broken. We were also told that the oven was too old to find replacement parts for, and that we should get a new oven.

We tried to talk to the manager several times with no luck, that is, until yesterday! While at work, Greg received a call from them with the best news, "We have an oven in stock for you, can they come over right now to install it"? Luckily, I have Thursdays off. With in 5 minutes the old piece of junk was gone and the brand new, clean, digital oven, with a window was installed! It was time to celebrate/test out this new toy.


First, I thought about making something fussy and fancy. Then I thought, why not go for something classic that will let me know right away if this oven is any good? The obvious answer: Chocolate Chip Cookies! I must say, I forgot how wonderful it is to bake each batch of cookies for the same amount of time, and have them all turn out the same! Standardization, what a concept! With my old oven we had to check each batch every 3 minutes...what a pain.

And so, without further ado, the classic chocolate chip cookie. No real modifications here, just a bit more flour and vanilla. This is essentially the Nestle recipe, but almost all of these recipes are the same.

Recipe:

3 C. Flour
3/4 C. brown sugar, packed
3/4 C. white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C. butter, softened
12oz bag chocolate chips (I love mine very chocolaty)

-Cream butter and sugar together, add eggs and vanilla.

-Add flour, sat & baking soda, mix to combine

-Add chocolate chips

-Chill dough for at least 30 mintues

-Spoon out dough in 1 tbs balls, about an inch and a half apart on a baking sheet

-Bake for 8 minutes 30 seconds at 375 degrees. (yes that is specific, but I found that 8 minutes left them too soft, even after cooling on the baking sheet, and 9 minutes left them a bit too dark).

-Enjoy!!!

p.s. I promise next time to post a non-dessert!