Last week, Annalyn and I baked cookies. From a recipe. With eggs and flour and everything.
What do you expect? I’m a stay-at-home mom now!
Okay, so my house still isn’t clean and my cabinets aren’t reorganized (oh, I can’t wait to dig into THAT! For real.), but I did more cooking than normal. (And vacuumed and actually put away all our clean laundry. And I know you’re not asking, but I feel good with my little list of accomplishments, okay? Just bear with me…)
I really enjoy cooking, but baking’s not really my thing. It involves math and precision, two things I’m not so fond of. So I typically stick to mixes when it comes to baked goods.
Last week, though, I realized I had a bag of white chocolate chips in the pantry. I’m not sure why – or when – I bought them, but the package had a recipe for cookies on the back that seemed to only use ingredients I actually had on hand.
According to Nestle Toll House, these chocolate cookies with white chips are called White Chip Chocolate Cookies. I find that confusing, though, so I’m calling them Backwards Chocolate Chip Cookies. I suppose you can call them whatever you want.
Just don’t call them late to dinner.
I don’t know. It just seemed right to say that. I may have been wrong.
Annalyn loves helping me in the kitchen these days. She drags a dining room chair or her pink bathroom stool into the kitchen and climbs up to my level. I let her mix, fighting my perfectionist tendencies like crazy, saying in the calmest voice I can muster, “Gentle. Be gentle when you mix. Keep the spoon in the bowl. IN THE BOWL!”
I didn’t say it was actually a CALM VOICE.
She doesn’t seem to mind my craziness. She just likes to do whatever I do. (Something that comes in handy at mealtimes and potty times. One of these days she’ll catch on to my “I’m going to go potty. Do you need to go, too – just like me?” trick. But for now, it’s working great for all of us.)
And, just like our Wisk experiments have been teaching her about science, I love how baking – whether it’s from scratch or a mix labeled with “Just Add Water!” – teaches her some basics about cooking.
Backwards Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup baking cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Then mix them together. (I’d never follow this direction before, but after my banana bread debacle, I thought I’d comply. It turned out well.) Use spoon to drop onto baking sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Makes 5 dozen small cookies or 3 dozen big ones. (Go ahead. Guess which category my cookies fell under.)
Now, the recipe says to use ungreased baking sheets. That seems weird to me in the first place and in the second, I just bought new cookie sheets, so I wasn’t about to start them down the scratched and stained road just yet. So I greased them up. A lot (as you can see).
Here’s the part where I tell you all the things I did wrong – I mean, different from the recipe. Thankfully, it’s a pretty short list. First, I didn’t measure as well as I should. Anyone shopping for me this year should put measuring cups and spoons on their list! Second, the baking soda I had was the stick in the fridge and forget about it kind. And lastly, we were short on sugar and I had to sub about 2/3 cup with confectioner’s sugar. It turned out okay, but I’m not sure I (or Nestle) would recommend it.
What’s your favorite kind of cookie to bake? To eat?
This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Fabulous Food Fridays, Foodie Friday, Grocery Cart Challenge, Friday Firsts and Food on Fridays.
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That looks YUMMY!
Mary,
You know that I love you, right?
Umm.. IMITATION vanilla extract!!! A little piece of me just died.
:-(
REAL PURE Vanilla Extract only! please! I promise, promise, promise it makes a difference and if you can get your hands on some Mexican Vanilla.. ZING!
Or.. make your own!!!!
(the recipe looks delicious!)
{drool}
Cookies are perhaps my favoritest (most favorite?) thing to bake. Ever. I made wild orange chocolate chip cookies this weekend. To. Die. For.
You ARE crazy about the cookies. I think I’ll try to do more baking now that I’m home. Then again…it’s not like I NEED cookies around all the time. Hmmm…what a dliemma!
Dilemma. I CAN spell.
My husband helped our daughters (nearly 4 and 2 1/2) make a birthday cake for me. I had to leave the room, I couldn’t watch the wild spoon-waving…Those cookies look delish though!
That’s sweet – but I probably would have had to leave the room, too!
I have a household full of kids this week that will love these! They might just be today’s project! :)
Oooh, good. I hope you liked them1
Hi Mary! I have not been around for a while. I quit my job recently too to stay home. I am also prego with our second, due in early February. These cookies look so yummy! I just wanted to say that it has been such a relief to catch up on things like laundry, so I know how you feel. I’m no super housekeeper or anything, but I have been able to get so much done around here in the last month and a half. Have fun and stay sane. Ha!
Hi there! Sounds like you have a lot going on right now – having fun and staying sane is a great wish for us both! :)
This looks great and I love your daughters apron and how fun it looks making memories like that together!
Nichole @
carterfamilytable.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by and your comment, Nichole!
These look yummy and I want to try them soon. I only have the regular chips, but they should do very well. Double Chocolate Chip cookies !!
Actually, that sounds better to me – the more chocolate, the better!
Oh she’s adorable and I love the name Annalyn! It makes my heart squish w/ cuteness when I see little kitchen helpers! You’re right – it is such a great way to teach cooking, and math, and nutrition!
I’ve never had these cookies, but they look yummy! I think it’d be impossible to choose my fav cookie. It changes upon mood, but the top contenders are chocolate chip, peanut butter, and anything with tons of nuts and goodies in them!
Thanks for sharing these with Friday Firsts this week! :)
Thank you, Christina! Yum – my favorite is the traditional chocolate chip. I’m boring that way! ;)
My teen daughter makes something called “Night and Day” cookies that sounds very similar to this one. I just ate one earlier today, and I do recommend them. I’ll have to track down the recipe so you can try it–I like them because they are a little different. I usually default to basic chocolate chip, so change is good.
Thanks for linking this to Food on Fridays!
Nothing wrong with basic chocolate chip!
Thanks for linking at our virtual cookie swap! Looks like a fun cookie too!