Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's Good Friday today. While idling around reflecting, I decided to take this time to start and fuel up my blog (since "holidays and vacations" like this are limited).

Two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were battling over my "over-indulgence" in baking tools/accessories which were not really needed in homemade baking creations; case in point: boxes for cakes, cookie cutters, toppers, etc. I did not want to bake again without going all out even in the decorations, and he is so supportive even if we have been driving around (well, he IS the one driving always) and circling places to no avail. Mind you, I'm no pro in these baking, so what I should have concentrated on instead is perfecting those little sugar concoctions, as he always reminded me. In the end, I succumbed to baking again, without my little "extras". I am a newbie in baking. Before this, I only have had baked less than 10 creations. Mostly brownies from recipes I pick up in the internet like the good ol' Hershey's recipes. Well, at work I sometimes observe (or pry) from the experts. But, that is another story.

Anyway, so my boyfriend convinced (or railroaded) me to bake during one of his visits here at home, so I grabbed the one on top of my head -- chocolate chip cookies! I checked the recipe and ingredients needed, and thankfully, I got them all covered (or so I thought). Here's my first attempt at baking again! Mixing became a bump in the process because I did not have any stand nor hand mixer. Yes, I did the good old twirling motions with my friend, the spatula. (No judgements, okay. I better invest in a really good mixer soon.)

Fresh from the oven cookies - soft almost melting chocolate chips

The aftermath

 I followed Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies which I got through my good friend Google. Why? It has the simplest ingredients I could find. And its sugar-butter-coffee-chocolate proportions seemed good enough for me. (But of course, what do I know? Haha) I tweaked a little of the recipe because of my ingredients (or lack thereof).  

  
Here's the ingredients and procedure with the tweaks I incorporated. I know that in baking you should follow the recipe down to its last detail, but I guess the changes in the flavoring does not really count, right? Or does it? Anyway, here it is.

Kitchen adventure number 1: SUCCESS!

I poured in the salt while mixing the butter and the sugars 'cause when I just sift it with flour, it sometimes tends to not be distributed evenly. Okay, blame it on my manual powers of mixing. 

Also, as mentioned, I placed brewed coffee instead of the espresso powder, but I think a stronger coffee would work out better if you want that bittersweet taste of cookies.  

My chocolate chip cookies were also limited, so I used chocolate buttons instead, which i sliced into little squares! 

 Nevertheless, my cookies turned out great! Boyfriend loved it, even family loved it (and our househelp)! They finished everything in a blink of an eye. Oh, the wonders of baking. :)

What's good to bake next? Hmm.