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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

You voted, you got it!
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Here's the recipe:

8oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 and ¼ to 3 and ½ cups AP Flour by spoon and scoop method (or 13-14oz)
¾ tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
12 oz (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts
1 tbsp vanilla extract (optional)

After measuring ingredients, the first step of cookie making is creaming the fats and sugars. Cream the butter and sugars in an electric mixer with the paddle until well blended and fluffy. The next step is adding the wet ingredients, the eggs and vanilla (one at a time). Lastly, add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt)...slowly; I usually add in three batches. And finally add in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Chill dough for 30 minutes, then preheat oven to 350 and separate dough into 4oz portions--shaping into a ball, putting about 6 balls onto a sheet (always lined with parchment paper)(I use the air insulated cookie sheets, I find they keep my cookies from burning on the bottom)...this recipe should yield 12 cookies. Bake for 16-20 minutes. In my oven, 16 minutes is just about right...but remember from the video, if they look done...they're burnt! Pull them out a bit early, just as the edges begin to brown.

Here are some variations you can try:
1 and ½ cups of total sugar...you can vary the brown to granulated ratio
you can take the baking powder down to as low as ½ tsp
you can take the baking soda down to as low as ¼ tsp if you use less brown sugar
you can use chocolate chips beside semisweet (a popular variation is ½ semisweet, ½ milk chocolate)
vanilla extract is optional, some people also use 2 tsp vanilla extract
you can use nuts other than walnuts, I've heard of good results with macadamia
you can use 1 tbsp cornstarch (though I find the cookies a bit 'chalky' on day 2)
you can use cake flower (though I find the cookies too chewy on day 2)
For more discussion on possible variations, you can view one of my original sources (the blog mentioned in the video) at sugoodsweets ...it's a lot to go through, but definitely interesting reading!

With cookies this good, this easy...why would you ever buy cookies from the store?!?

I hope you liked the videos...let me know what you think, both of the videos and the cookies. I went for a longer video, split into two parts, rather than rushing through it all in less time. Hopefully that works out for y'all...if not, let me know that too!

And finally, next week I'll be putting up a new poll, so stay tuned...



2 comments:

Kat said...

Plastic cutting board - $3.00
Chocolate chips - $6.00
Look on your face when the cutting board hit the mixer blades - priceless.

You were looking good. Love the videos.

Question: Do you ever plan to answer my previous question?

Question 2: Do you learn all your cooking secrets from Food Network or are some of them learn as you go secrets?

Supercenter Chef said...

Sure...
#1 No, I will never post in the buff. My producers say the glare isn't good for the camera....and Halloween is over!

#2 I learn many of my techniques from the Food Network but getting them to work is always 'learn as you go!'...and finally...many of the secrets I've learned from other places, I eventually see on the Food Network, lol...