Thursday, 8 November 2012

Cookies to Save The day



            Sometimes the events of a day just take it right out of you. You start it off with the best intentions of it being a really good day and slowly it starts to fall from beneath your feet. Some people, myself included, will have a stiff drink and go to bed in the hopes that things will be better when they wake up. Some will hit the gym or go for a run to relieve the stress and others will sit in front of a television and slowly drift into a coma like state. If you have read this blog at all you all know that I am a comfort food guy so it should come as no shock that when I am having a really bad day you can find me in my kitchen cooking something that, in my mind, restores balance to the force. I have found that nothing does this better than cookies.

            Cookies may be the best comfort food in the world because they conjure up good memories. I don’t think that I have ever heard a bad cookie story. No one has ever come up to me and told me that a cookie has made their day worse. That in a food item is very impressive. The other thing about them is that even if you fail in making a great cookie at the end of the experience you are still eating a cookie and that is a good thing. They are pretty much the Jedi of sweets. When you make them from scratch you get the additional joy of reverting back to childhood a little and licking the beaters. You cannot help loving this and, if every girl I have ever known is to be believed, cookie dough is awesome on its own. There is something magical about the smell of them baking too. It fills your house and is inexplicably comforting. It just makes you feel good. If these reasons have not convinced you to bake some cookies think of this: after you are done baking them.... you get to eat cookies. So here we go making some cookies so you can feel better about the world at large.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies to the tune of Sugar High by Coyote Shivers

1 cup butter softened
1cup packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of white chocolate chips, I know you will add more and that is okay
1 cup of dried cranberries soaked for 5 minutes and drained

-Pre-heat your oven to 375. Beat together your butter and sugars until they are fluffy and your eggs and vanilla and beat until they are fully incorporated.

-In a separate bowl mix your flour and baking soda with a whisk. Slowly add the flour to the rest of your stuff until it has come together like a Beatles song. Add in your chips and berries and mix them through.

-Roll golf ball sized dough balls and place them on a parchment lined sheet pan. I get about 8 to a pan. Using the heel of your hand flatten the ball out a little and then fire them into the oven for 8-11 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that they don’t burn. Let them cool for a little while and then pour a glass of milk, my friends, because it is cookie time.

            So as some of you may have noticed there are some cookies that do not look like white chocolate ones. With some simple additions you can make them too. To your flour mixture add 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and a tbsp of super finely ground coffee, substitute dark chocolate chips for the white chocolate chips and Scor bits for the berries. And you are done. Enjoy. 

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