Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are probably some of the most difficult of cookies to make look appetizing. At least for me, my chocolate chip cookies taste pretty good but don't usually look very good. Well these cookies are a different story. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. They are moist and fluffy and not to mention they look pretty darn good! This recipe is great for so many reasons! The only disclaimer to this recipe is that its a pretty small batch. I made mini cookies so I got a good amount but if your wanting to make a lot of regular sized cookies you may want to double the recipe. Also, this recipe is incredibly easy.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl (a stand mixer works best), cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a cookies scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 min until edges are barely golden brown (tops will not brown, but do not NOT cook longer than 10 min). Let cool on cookie sheet for a few min before removing to finish cooling.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

4 cups half and half

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

7.5 oz pumpkin puree

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

In a medium saucepan, combine half and half, heavy cream, sugar and brown sugar. Bring to 170 degrees F to dissolve sugar then let cool at room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator overnight. In a medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix to combine and chill overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, take both the pumpkin and ice cream base mixtures out. Add some of the ice cream base to the pumpkin and mix well to loosen it up. Then mix both the ice cream base and pumpkin together. Freeze in your ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately or freeze for 2 hours until solid.

Pumpkin pancakes

2 cups flour

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1 3/4 cups milk

3 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/4 cup vegetable oil

In a large bowl, combine flour and all other dry ingredients. In a second bowl, combine milk and remaining ingredients. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until slightly lumpy.

Heat a lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat. For each pancake, pour 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Cook until golden brown, turn when tops are bubbly and edges are slightly dry. Makes 16 pancakes.

Rookie's Notes: I like mine with maple syrup. Jack prefers powdered sugar. And Van prefers a 6 oz. bottle of Good Start.

Recipes- Pumpkin Churros

There is this blog I used to follow called Rookie Cookie, I loved looking at her recipes and she always had great ideas. Than she decided to be done and stopped updating her blog but kept it up so you could still see the recipes. Now she is taking down her blog in the next 2 weeks so I have been copying and pasting recipes into a file so I can still look at them. Until I got the brilliant idea to post them on here- A) so we can all see them and B)so it looks like I am a great poster and cook ( I do cook but never have a recipe or picture to post). So if you are all ok with that I will just start posting some as I have time and as they sound good.

So here is the first one I wanted to post since it is fall and there is nothing better in fall than baking with pumpkin.

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups water

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

4 eggs

Oil for frying

In a medium bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Set aside for tossing the finished churros in cinnamon sugar. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Whisk to combine and set aside. Pour vegetable oil into a large pot fitted with a clip on thermometer, having the oil come 2 inches up the side of the pan.

In a medium pan over high heat, add the water and shortening. Bring to a boil. Pour in the flour mixture and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until a ball forms. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. With a hand mixer, stir in the pumpkin and eggs until smooth. With a rubber scraper, put the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Fry the churros at 325 degrees. Pipe the dough into the hot oil, using scissors to cut each churro. Fry until the outside is browned and the inside is slightly cooked, but still soft, about 5 minutes. Once the churros come out of the oil and let drain on paper towels. Transfer the churros to the bowl of cinnamon sugar and toss gently until coated. Serve warm.

Rookie's Notes: When I say cut each churro with a pair of scissors, I want you to have the pastry bag in one hand and scissors in the other. Apply pressure to the bag and start piping the dough in. Continuously pipe and use your other hand to cut each churro as you go.

Zucchini Bread

First things first, I am absolutely loving my food processor lately. I've had one since I got married, but I've rarely used it until the last few months. They are awesome! It makes quick work of shredding anything (which you will need to do for this recipe) and blending/pureeing anything(which you will need for the homemade spaghetti sauce recipe which will be my next post.) There is a place for the blender, but the food processor is quickly gaining my respect and admiration. If you have one and don't use it, get it out! If you don't have one, look into it, they're not too expensive. Man, someone should pay me for this kind of promotion. Now, onto the recipe!

Ammon's mom uses this recipe, and it probably is more like a cake(see amount of sugar involved), but since it's a loaf shape, we'll call it bread. It's really delicious, so if you have any extra zucchini, or some neighbor's garden is exploding with them, try this recipe. I made a ton this weekend, and then froze them. I don't have a picture, sorry. I hardly ever transfer pictures of my own children from the camera to the computer, let alone a loaf of bread/cake.

Cream the following ingredients together:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
8 oz. cream cheese, softened

Mix the following ingredients together and add to creamed mixture:

2 cups oatmeal flour (just put 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal in the blender until it looks like flour)
1 cup regular flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (I didn't have any and it still tasted good)

Finally, add 2 cups shredded zucchini.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease loaf pans really well, these do not like to come out.

If you make mini loaves, bake for 35-40 minutes (makes 4 mini-loaves).

If you use a regular-sized loaf pan, it will take 55-60 minutes (makes 2 loaves).

Pepperoni Bread

Okay this isn't a great picture, but at least it tasted good. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law. It calls for the dough to be made in a bread maker. I used one the first time I made this and it turned out great. After that mom's bread maker, that she told me I could borrow, died. Don't tell mom. So this time I just mixed the dough up in my Kitchen Aid mixer and it worked just fine. So you can do it either way.

Ingredients:
1/3 C Butter, margarine or oil
1 Egg
12 ounces warm, not hot, water
4 1/4 C Flour
1/2 C Milk
3 T Sugar
1 1/2 t Salt
3 tsp Yeast
Pepperoni
Cheese

Add the first three ingredients to the bread machine pan. Then add the dry ingredients. Set the bread machine at the dough cycle and push start. This cycle usually last 90 minutes to 2 hours. (I just mixed everything up in my mixer and let it rise for about 90 minutes.)

Divide the dough in half. Roll the half portion into a large rectangle. Cover the middle third of the dough with pepperoni slices and cheese. Be generous. Fold one side of the dough over the pepperoni slices and cheese. Now repeat, placing a second layer of pepperoni and cheese on top. Fold the other side of the dough over the top and pinch the ends and edges closed. You can use a knife to cut the top of the loaf to make it look like french bread. Repeat with the second half of the dough.

Allow loaves to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Brush loaves with a whole beaten egg and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with warm pizza sauce for dipping.

This makes a lot. To give you an idea, I followed this recipe exactly, added a couple salads and fed 8 adults and 2 children.

Mexican Rice

I've been meaning to post the recipe for the rice we had with our taquitos and now I finally have some time. I love this recipe because it is so easy and delicious. I found it one Sunday afternoon when we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner. We didn't have much on hand and we couldn't go to the store. I was excited when I saw this and we had everything. It comes from Allrecipes, and we have adapted it just a tiny bit.

Ingredients:
3 T Vegetable Oil
1 C Uncooked long grain rice
1 t Garlic Salt or Powder
1 t Chili Powder
1/4 C Chopped Onion
1/2 C Tomato Sauce
2 C Chicken Broth

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring frequently until the rice is golden brown. While the rice is cooking sprinkle the seasonings on top.

Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.