chocolate chip cookies.

In my opinion, every food blog needs to have a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's a staple. And unfortunately (for my waist line) it's become a staple in our house as well. Once you've caught on to a great cookie recipe, it's really hard to go back to Mr. Christie, however good his cookies may be.

As with most of my recipes, this chocolate chip cookie recipe is an adaptation of several different recipes. Practice really does make perfect! These cookies are amazing right out of the oven (well to be fair, I'd wait a couple minutes...I don't need a Tim Horton's style law suit on my hands) and just as good a few days later. They have the perfect ratio of crunchy to flakey to chewy to gooey to all-around goodness. 

I tend to take my cookies out of the oven BEFORE they develop a good tan...while they're still slightly on the pale side. If you remove them from the oven at this point, but let them sit on the baking tray, they'll continue to cook throughout without getting too crispy on their tops and bottoms. These rules can apply to your summer sun-tanning as well :)

The nuts in this recipe are completely optional, so your cookies will taste great either way. Because the dough in this recipe is so versatile, feel free to experiment with other "add-ins" such as rolled oats, raisins, M&M's or butterscotch chips...remembering to keep the measurements the same.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

- (1) cup of butter or margarine
- (1) cup of white sugar
- (1/2) cup of packed brown sugar
- (2) eggs
- (1) tbsp. vanilla
- (2 3/4) cups all-purpose flour
- (1) tsp. baking soda
- (1/2) tsp. salt
- (2) cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- (1) cup of finely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, beat together the butter and the two sugars until smooth. 

Beat in both the eggs and the vanilla. Set aside. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips, the nuts, or whatever "add-ins" you've decided to use.

Drop by the tablespoonful onto a baking sheet, approximately 2 inches apart. I normally line my baking sheet with aluminum foil, but it can also be lined with parchment paper or dropped directly onto a greased sheet. Another tip when forming the cookies is to "form" them as little as possible. Rolled dough balls and pressed dough often create very plain, uniform cookies. If you simply drop a rounded mound of dough onto your baking sheet, you will end up with cookies with great character!

 

Pop the cookies in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes (it varies with each individual oven). Remember that if you remove the cookies before they get too brown, you will end up with a softer, chewier cookie. Remove from the oven and allow to cool right on the baking sheet. Remember...Caution...Hot!

best ever banana bread.

On a recent trip to the grocery store, my husband Joe and I were stocking up on fruit. We grabbed a couple apples, a couple oranges, and Joe went to grab a couple bananas. He came back with 8 bananas and I was puzzled. It's just the two of us, and I'm really not huge banana eater, but Joe was sure he'd eat them all.  About a week later, there they were, 3 brown bananas sitting on the counter. I knew it! When I asked Joe about it, he admitted it was all part of his plan because now I'd have to make banana bread...very sneaky!

I have tried hundreds of different recipes for banana bread over the years, but I must say, this is one of the best. I wanted to make a banana bread that was super moist, super banana-ey (?) and slightly less dense and greasy than many others I've tried. A lot of traditional banana bread recipes call for vegetable oil, and while I've always tried to consider this tasty snack one of my 5-10 daily servings of fruit, the grease ring it left on my napkin made me question my theory. After much experimenting and recipe altering, I do believe I've hit the jackpot.

This recipe calls for plain, fat-free yogurt, but feel free to experiment with 2% yogurt, flavoured yogurt, or even sour cream.

Banana Bread

- (1) cup mashed bananas
- (1) cup plain, fat-free yogurt
- (1/4) cup of margarine
- (2/3) cup of white sugar
- (2/3) cup of brown sugar
- (2) eggs
- (1) tsp. vanilla extract
- (2) cups of all-purpose flour
- (1) tsp. baking soda
- (1) tsp. baking powder
- (1/4) tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. This recipe JUST fits in here, so if your loaf pan is slightly smaller, you may want to consider dividing the batter between two loaf pans. 
Mash bananas until lumps are gone and combine with yogurt in a bowl. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the vanilla. Stir in the banana mixture. 

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl and stir into the banana mixture once it is well mixed. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

Cutting Back?

As far as baking goes, this recipe has already cut out a couple major calorie culprits. Be sure to use the plain, fat-free yogurt if you're looking for a healthier alternative and opt for a whole grain flour instead of all-purpose flour. You can try either whole wheat flour, brown rice flour or spelt flour. Substituting the entire amount of all-purpose flour with a whole grain flour can sometimes change the consistency of the bread, so I would recommend using 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of alternative flour.