Crumb Cake

I should totally be studying for a midterm right now, but all I want to do is bake... hence the reason I'm updating during 5th week. Crumb cake is such a simple cake to make, and I'm sure everyone has the ingredients to make this in their cupboard at home. I have a weakness for any crumb topping, and this one surely didn't disappoint me. The cake was nice and moist, while the crumb topping was plentiful.. just the way crumb cake should be. This reminded me of Starbucks' coffee cake, just lacking a bit of flavor. Next time, I'll kick up the amount of vanilla in the recipe to make up for it.

Side note: I actually used my silicone pan to bake this (*GASP!* I know, right?) because I halved the recipe and needed a smaller pan. The only pan that I had small enough was a silicone one (I usually HATE baking with silicone pans), but it surprisingly worked out okay in the end! Maybe I don't hate silicone bakeware as much as I thought I did...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Good ol' plain chocolate chip cookies. You know how everyone has their own "perfect" chocolate chip recipe? I think I may have finally found mine. Took me long enough, too... I've probably baked at least 20 different recipes of this classic cookie. My boyfriend said they tasted like cookie dough (probably because I always OD a bit on the vanilla). I made these cookies HUGE.. about 1/4 cup cookie dough per cookie. Crazy, right? I'm still intrigued by the NY Times Cookie Recipe, though. Maybe I'll give those a shot next.

I just had to share the recipe because I know how hard it is to find the recipe for "the perfect cookie", and hopefully I'll be able to put an end to someone else's ongoing search!

Molly's Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted)
Yield: about 15 large cookies

1 stick (113g) butter, room temperature
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups (156g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12oz (340g) bittersweet chocolate (at least 62%), chopped
Sea salt, optional

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Mix in vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture and stir just until combined. Stir in most of the chocolate, reserving a handful of small chunks. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour, or freeze for 30 minutes.

Drop 1/4-cup portions of dough onto baking sheets. Top with additional chocolate chunks. Bake 12-15 minutes, until puffed and light golden. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt if desired. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Pistachio Cake

It was my mom's birthday today (lots of birthdays this month, I know) and I made her mini pistachio cakes to celebrate. The cake was delicious! Probably the moistest cake I've ever had. It was sweet enough by itself and could be eaten without the frosting (which is the way I prefer to eat it). I threw in some white chocolate chips into the batter for good measure as well, but again, the cake would have held fine by itself.

Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies

So I accidentally left a batch of these in the oven (not the ones pictured, obviously) while I was helping my dad configure the internet connection at home. There was a problem and we were on the phone with linksys for FOREVER (if you've set up your own internet connection before, then you know how that is). Since I was on the phone talking to a linksys representative, I didn't hear the oven go off. My mom turned off the oven but never took the batch of cookies out, leaving them to cook some more until I was done helping my dad. When I finally took the cookies out of the oven, they were done for... hard cookies. OH NO! I hate hard cookies! I always like them to be perfectly soft and dense. Good thing I'm dating a boy who enjoys eating hard cookies just as much as he enjoys eating the soft ones.

I actually tried the hard ones and believe it or not, I thought they tasted better than the ones that came out of the oven on time! Maybe the combination of chocolate chip, finely chopped walnuts, and vietnamese coffee is perfect for burnt cookies. I ended up using a Vietnamese instant coffee packet in this rather than regular Folger's instant coffee granules because that's all I had on hand.

Oreo Cupcakes

It was my boyfriend's friend's birthday today so I baked a batch of Oreo cupcakes to bring to his party. It's a simple white cake/buttercream frosting with crushed oreos mixed into both batters. The outcome? Actually, I don't even know because I didn't even try one. The boys seemed to love them though, so that's all that matters. I decided that I really don't like cupcake liners with crazy prints like this one and the other hippie looking one I bought today. I love the foil ones, they photograph so much better & look more presentable. No more crazy print liners for me!