Polly's Chocolate Chip Cookies

After so many trying of chocolate chip cookies, it's time to decide on my own.
I think this recipe (my recipe) turned out the best for the type of cookie crispness and crumbs that I like the best.

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/4 lb) soft butter
2/3 C sugar
1/2 C light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
1-1/2 C Flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C+ Guittard Real Milk Chocolate Chips

Procedures:
Preheat oven to 350'F
On 2 baking sheets , place Silpats.
Shift Flour, baking powder and salt 4 times and set aside.
Beat butter till fluffy and pale with sugars. Add vanilla paste. Add egg and beat well.
Add flour mixture and Chips. If you like more chips than 1/2 Cup, please don't be shy and add some more. Mix well just enough so there is no signs of unmixed flour showing in the batter (as it usually is the case when chocolate chip and flour are mixed in together instead of mixing the flour first, then, mix in the chips. But the idea here is mix less to avoid gluten development.)

(Squash down with the palm of your hand)

Use any size cookie scoop of your desire choice - 1 TB or 2 TB size and place on Silpat to bake.     Bake for 8 min >> when you see 1 to 2 mm of sign of brown edge, the cookie is done.       *Depending on individual oven power. I noticed on the regular Silpat, it bakes in 8 min.     In Martha Stewart's baking pad, it took 10 min to brown. I am not sure why the difference, except the Silpat is brownish tan colored pad and the Martha Stewart's baking pad is light parsley green.
Do not bake to wait for the top of the cookies to brown << that's over baked - for this particular recipe I created.
Remove from the oven and cool 2 - 3 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack.  
*The idea is to let the butter and sugar to solidify so the cookies would hold its form or your cookies would crack/crumble.

   Two different Silicone baking mats, two different results.
Tip:   Take out of the oven as soon as you see 2 mm of brownings at the edge <<< but this depends all on your oven size, manufacturer, and heating BTU.    (My oven is extra large GE gas oven.)

FINALLY RESOLVED! Having Problem with AT&T Uverse Connection to Internet

 4-21-2012   Finally received a new modem from U-Verse.     I am glad to have insisted on getting a new replacement shipped.      I know I did not have any problem before this new service and with other modem and that it is this defective modem that is causing online connection outages for the last two months.       So far, the connection is steady and continuous.    So don't get talked into a inside home tech support if the previous box before installing the new service worked.   They may have shipped you a defective box.      I know this has nothing to do with the food, but because of this I have not been able to get online, etc.

===================================
I want to apologize for not responding to some of you via e-mail or through this food blog site's reply.     Ever since I changed to AT&T Uverse Internet Service back in early March.  I have had bad luck of being cut off or have connection for only 10 min in a day or way past midnight or when no-one in the neighbors are using their internet.   I am pretty upset about their service.     It's a some kind of joke that I am finally able to log on today at home because I am on vacation with my grand children.     But I am already seeing the degradation on the connection just because I am online. 
I will try to resolve this issue and post back on response as soon as I can consistently.
Thank you all for the kind notes and dropping by.
Polly

One Pan Banana and Zucchini Bread

When I am energetic in the morning, I love to wake up and head right down to my kitchen and start making my lunch or breakfast.   This morning, I decided to make banana bread.     Start right at 5:15 am and finished at 6:30 am.     Here is a regular quick bread recipe that usually yield one loaf, but I made it into a banana bread and a zucchini bread.      Just when you are ready to pan the mixture in.     Separate half of the batter into a separate bowl and mix each bowl with shredded zucchini and the other with finger mushed banana (chunky)     Zucchini is peeled, but leave some green peel here and there and be sure to squeeze the liquid out (to remove bitterness and too much moisture).       Bake them in a square pan lined with parchment paper.    I sliced them up and took some to work to share with the co-workers.     But, soooorry.    They tasted so good, I almost ate them all by myself at my desk.    

 

Ingredients:

1-3/4 C AP Flour

1-1/2 heaping tsp  Baking Powder

1 Stick Butter, Soft - room temp

2/3 C Sugar

3/4 tsp salt

2  Eggs

1/2 C Sugar

1 C Zucchini - shredded & liquid squeezed out

1-1/2 Banana - in good shape - no over riped - separated into chunks with fingers

1 tsp Ceylon grounded Cinnamon

1/8 tsp grounded cloves

1 tsp Orange zest

Procedures:         Preheat oven to 375'F

Shift flour, salt, Ceylon cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder together.     Set aside.

Beat 1 stick soft butter till fluffy and pale with 2/3 C sugar.     Set aside.

Beat 2 eggs till pale with 1/2 C sugar.

Add egg mixture into butter and add orange zest.   Mix.

Add flour mixture and mix gently and thoroughly.    Separate into equal 2 portions.

Mix one portion  with banana.    Mix the other portion with squeezed zucchini.

Line 8x8 brownie pan with parchment paper.      Option:  Muffin cups or 2 loaf pans

Add both mixture side-by-side into the pan and bake till tester come out clean.

Tip:  Control one bowl mixing technique, my method of beating butter and eggs, separately, till fluffy and pale, then, mixing them together always result in a fine crumb cake for any of my basic cake baking.

Enjoy!     

Hello! Mom

Here is my mom with her spring garden.

 

Rustic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have my own special cake recipe that yields 'fine crumbs', but I thought I will give a try with this recipe from one of my favorite Alton Brown's cooking books.     The crumb turned out coarser than mine; it is moist and the taste of carrots and spices were appreciated joyfully. 
I used several different size spring form cake pan with parchment paper, so I can share some with my families.

 Cream cheese frosting.

 I had to put raisins in my carrot cake.     It goes so well with carrots.

Moorish Chicken and Pine Nuts Pie

This is my first Moorish Chicken and Pine Nuts Pie.     I am quite pleased with the tasty results of mixing raisins, spices, and pine nuts with shredded roasted chicken breasts enveloped in home made puff pastry.     The recipe calls for raw chicken pieces.     I roasted the organic whole chicken with whole Dijon mustard stuffed between the breast and skin + salt & pepper.    Then finger shredded chicken breast.    I vacuum packaged the rest and freeze them for other use.

Home made Pizza dough with Ground Turkey Pizza Sauce

Once you learned a good pizza dough recipe, it's almost unthinkable to eat the pizza out.... but naaa...  sometimes, it is just so enjoyable to have them made by someone...
This pizza crust recipe here is from the Mozza book.    I just love it.     Just like Jamie Oliver's Hamburger and Hot Dog buns recipe, you come to trust it and do it over and over with confidence.     The sauce is half scratch half ready made jar of Ragu's Mushroom Spaghetti sauce.      One night my sister decided to treat me to spaghetti.     She made so much that I was able to add other ingredients - fresh romano tomatoes, more spices, Parmesan cheese, etc, and made into pizza sauce / topping and sloppy Joe with it.

Japanese HOKKAIDO Loaf Bread with Raisins

I tried to make the same soft bread, but I am afraid I have let it proof 30 minutes too much.    So, it is non-conclusive that if the Gold Medal's unbleached flour produces the bread texture of fine crumb with long strands like the breads sold at most of the Asian grocery stores.

 One dough made into three different breads - Bread with Raisins, White Bread, and Hamburger buns.

 Ground Turkey Sloppy Joe.      Actually, it was a ground turkey spaghetti sauce that my sister made.      We had so much of it, that I made it into Sloppy Joe and pizza sauce.