this sunday, baking means chocolate chip cookies

oh yes, and how! without introduction (or much of one), chocolate chip cookies:

with the utmost enthusiam, establish the following:

½ C white sugar
½ C brown sugar (demerara, please, it really does make a difference, and that ‘golden’ crap just isn’t going to cut it)
1/3 C butter (unsalted)
1/3 C shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (if you respect yourself, you’ll use real vanilla…)
1 ½ C flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/2 pack semisweet chocolate chips

. preheat your oven to 375
. in a bowl, mash the butter and shortening together until combined and smooth
. add the sugar, egg and vanilla. mix until smooth
. in a separate bowl, have you boyfriend (or you can do it) mix the flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk or run it through a sieve
. add the chips to the wet mix, and then dump in the flour mix. stir gently so you don’t send flour everywhere, but get everything incorporated and happy. the dough should be fairly light, but not crumbly
. place semi roundish balls on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until they’re the sort 0f doneness you like

if you like granola, I suggest baking these at 325 for longer so they’re rock hard. then bang ’em up with a rolling pin and sprinkle into unsweetened yogurt. in my house, this is known as róny granoly.
if it’s luxury you crave, rather than chocolate chips, do a mix of 75% cocoa chocolate (you know the lindt bars with different percentages that are supposed to be from different places like cuba, columbia, all that nonsense) wunked into little pieces along with chopped up frozen caramilk bars (as my dear friend Emelia and I used to do). they are special, let me tell you

30 Helens agree… texture, is important – peanutbutter cookies

it’s sunday. you can’t go to a dinner you would like to go to, so make something sweet to take your place. peanutbutter cookies, you know the ones… a bit more affordable because they’re made with shortening instead of butter; are soft and have that brown sugar comfort thing going for them. this is my grandma’s recipie and I hope she’s cool with me sharing it with you. I never got to meet her, but I really cherish being able to share the food she used to make for her friends and family (like my mom, who passed it on to me). try these and see why.

½ C short’nin’
½ C raw peanut butter (no salt or sugar)
1 C brown sugar (demerara is best)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 C flour (½ C all-purpose and ½ C whole wheat is nice)
¼ tsp soda
¼ tsp salt

. cream the short’nin’ with the peanut butter
. add the sugar, vanilla and egg
. in a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt
. sift the dry ingredients into the wet stuff and mix well
. roll the dough into balls (large egg size) and flatten with a fork on the cookie sheet. these don’t really spread out much when you bake them, so only squish ’em down to about 3/4″
. bake in a preheated oven for ten-ish minutes at 375. they should be goldenish but still a bit soft in the middle. texture is important.