Baking with Bubby
This past school year was unique in that Jacob arrived home earlier than the girls did- about an entire hour earlier. That is significant because, Jacob, as the first born, was the first to start preschool and then school so it had been a long time since it was just Jacob and me at home together without any other kiddos around. Most days, Jacob would arrive home, grab a snack, tell me scantily little about his day and then either find a friend to hang out with or go to the basement and play video games (he hardly ever had homework; he was able to get it done almost every day in study hall). Jacob would fairly frequently ask if we could make cookies or brownies. I didn't want to make unhealthy snacks that often, so I told him that once a week, we would make his favorite- chocolate chip cookies. Tuesday ended up being our baking day. So, just about every Tuesday, as soon as Jacob arrived home, he'd say, "Let's make cookies now!" I found myself looking forward to this baking delight as much as he did. It gave us a chance to chit chat and to perfect (almost) our recipe and enjoy an unhealthy but most delicious treat.
I've always used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe as found on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip package. For about the past seven or eight years, I've tweaked it a bit. Instead of two cups of butter, I use one cup of butter and one cup of shortening. Using all butter made my cookies spread out too much and be too thin for my liking. The shortening helps the consistency of the cookies.
I also never use my KitchenAide mixer when making chocolate chip cookies. For one thing, I've been making cookies a lot longer than I've had my KitchenAide mixer so I got pretty used to using a hand mixer. Also, I usually have to soften the butter. I soften the butter in the same bowl that I use for the cookie dough. If I used my KitchenAide, I'd dirty another dish since the main bowl of the KitchenAide is not microwavable. The other nice thing about the hand mixer is that you get two beaters to lick, not one oblong thing like when you use the KitchenAide.
One tradition began when Jacob and I starting making our cookies together. We would bake only 15 cookies. We'd take the rest of the cookie dough and roll it into balls (the same size as if we were going to bake the cookies) and refrigerate the cookie dough balls and eat them as snacks. Bad, bad, bad, I know. I've made "eggless" cc dough from recipes on Pinterest but the kids weren't crazy about it. So, we eat our eggfull dough.
Jacob did not want me to take his picture of the cookie making process. So, I took a picture of his back!!
Jacob and his beaters, my Christmas bowl which is my go to cookie dough making bowl, and my hand mixer.
Baking with Bubby and getting to eat chocolate chip cookies once a week, how did I get so lucky??
I've always used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe as found on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip package. For about the past seven or eight years, I've tweaked it a bit. Instead of two cups of butter, I use one cup of butter and one cup of shortening. Using all butter made my cookies spread out too much and be too thin for my liking. The shortening helps the consistency of the cookies.
I also never use my KitchenAide mixer when making chocolate chip cookies. For one thing, I've been making cookies a lot longer than I've had my KitchenAide mixer so I got pretty used to using a hand mixer. Also, I usually have to soften the butter. I soften the butter in the same bowl that I use for the cookie dough. If I used my KitchenAide, I'd dirty another dish since the main bowl of the KitchenAide is not microwavable. The other nice thing about the hand mixer is that you get two beaters to lick, not one oblong thing like when you use the KitchenAide.
One tradition began when Jacob and I starting making our cookies together. We would bake only 15 cookies. We'd take the rest of the cookie dough and roll it into balls (the same size as if we were going to bake the cookies) and refrigerate the cookie dough balls and eat them as snacks. Bad, bad, bad, I know. I've made "eggless" cc dough from recipes on Pinterest but the kids weren't crazy about it. So, we eat our eggfull dough.
Jacob did not want me to take his picture of the cookie making process. So, I took a picture of his back!!
Jacob and his beaters, my Christmas bowl which is my go to cookie dough making bowl, and my hand mixer.
Baking with Bubby and getting to eat chocolate chip cookies once a week, how did I get so lucky??
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