Eat your heart out: Chocolate chip cookies

Baking can win hearts. Whether it’s your boyfriend’s heart you are after or the soon to be mum-in-law’s. It also works like a dream when you want to show your foodie dad some love or when you really want to let your mother know that you have finally grown up. There’s something very endearing about a girl [or boy for that matter] who bakes. In my world, baking can solve any problems. In fact, baked goodies are always a good way to say I’m sorry. Who can resist fresh-off-the-oven, especially made for you batch of cookies?

There’s something about the smell of freshly baked goods, bread, muffins, cakes or cookies that makes me feel loved and secure. That’s why every time I’m in a bad mood, I whip up a batch of cupcakes, but that’s another blog post.

One of my favourite bakers [besides Bree van de Kamp] is blogger extraordinaire, Joy The Baker. Her recipes are simple and easy to recreate. So when I decided to venture into baking Chocolate Chip cookies, I trusted no one but her.  The following recipe is from her blog post The Chocolate Chip Debate Part 2.

The cookie dough was allowed to set in the fridge for up to 25 hours [mainly because I forgot that it needed to be baked] and it turned out nice and chewy. In the past I’ve kept it in the fridge for almost 36 hours and the results were not something that I was greatly fond of.

I wanted heart-shaped cookies, so after Googling like mad, I decided that I will cut the dough into heart shapes using the cookie cutter before baking them. BIG MISTAKE! The dough spreads with the heat so you just end up with large, flat, round cookies. However, mistakes are what make you a better baker, right? So as soon as the cookies came out of the oven, while they were still soft and warm, I put the cookie cutter back to work and it worked.

Here’s how I made my pride and joy: heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies.

Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Joy The Baker

8 Tablespoons (4 ounces) butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 medium egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/4 cup plus 3 Tablespoons  flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
Pinch of salt
Parchment paper
Heart-shaped cookie cutter

– Mix the butter, brown and granulated sugar in a bowl using a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon creates enough heat for the butter to melt and mix with the sugar.
– Combine the egg, vanilla essence and salt. Stir in sifted flour, baking soda and baking powder to the mixture.
– Once everything is combined, add the chocolate chips.
– Cover the bowl with a clingfilm and get on with your day. The dough will taste slightly salty now, but don’t worry, just let it refrigerate.
– After 24 hours, for paranoid ones like me, taste the dough, if it’s salty then you know you’ve added to much salt. But if you have used just a pinch as advised, it should taste sweet and cookie-like.
– Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F and line the baking trays with parchment paper.
– Roll the cookie dough into balls and place on tray leaving about two fingers space between each ball.
– Bake cookies in the middle rack for 14 minutes and rotate the trays after 7 minutes.
– The smell of freshly, baked cookies will let you know that your hard work has paid off. However, make sure the cookies are slightly swollen and golden brown before you decide to take it out of the oven.
– Cut cookies while they are still warm, let it cool just a little bit and they are ready to be devoured.