Happy Birthday James!!

Here are a few pictures of my darling husband's birthday cake! In case you didn't know - that's a Texas Tech double T and a World of Warcraft Horde symbol!

I made the decoration out of colorflow about a week before and let it dry completely before placing it on the cake.

The cake was James's personal favorite - white cake with cream cheese frosting.

The white cake recipe is VERY light and airy, as white cake should be!

This was my first attempt at cream cheese frosting for decorating, so I used the Wilton buttercream recipe and just substituted half of the shortening for cream cheese. It was much tastier than the regular wilton buttercream, but still held up really well for decorating.

White Cake

Adapted from allrecipes

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Sift 2-3 cups of cake flour and THEN measure out your 2 3/4 cups. This is very important! Any time a recipe calls for sifted flour, make sure you sift and then measure. I got 2 3/4 cups out of about 2 cups of unsifted flour.

2. Sift together salt, baking powder, and cake flour three times. (Keep adding air baby!)

3. Cream butter with a mixer and gradually add 1 cup of sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in flour mixture and milk, alternating about 1/3 of each at a time until it is all incorporated and smooth. (Don't overbeat here, you'll stir up all the gluten and make it tough)

5. In a separate mixer bowl, whip egg whites until they reach stiff peaks. Beat in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.

6. Fold vanilla and egg whites into cake batter carefully. You want to salvage all that air you just beat into the egg whites.

7. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes for two round pans or one 9x13. (I used a 7x11 but did it in two layers).

Peanut Butter Cake

Last night was my final class from Wilton Course 1. We combined the final two classes, so we did figure piping, balls, shells, drop flowers, leaves, stems, and the famous Wilton rose! I'm sorry the lighting is AWFUL in these pictures!

I have had SO much fun taking these classes. If you've got a spare evening per week, I definitely recommend taking the plunge and taking the class. It's the best $17 (plus supplies....hehe!) that I've spent in a while. It would rate very well on James's infamous "fun:money ratio". (not to be confused with the fun:work ratio, also very important when deciding how to spend your free time).

James asked what my favorite part is: making the cake, making the icing, or decorating, and I couldn't pick! I have LOVED trying out flavor combinations and deciding what kind of cake/filling/icing to do. A pretty cake is worthless if it doesn't taste good! But I've also really loved learning the techniques.

Friday I start Course 2, which is mostly royal icing flowers. I can't wait!

This week my cake is a combination I made up. It's a peanut butter cake (which I didn't realize was so uncommon until I started researching for recipes!) with peanut butter filling and Wilton's chocolate buttercream frosting. I think if I made it again, I might try leaving out some of the butter. The cake was super greasy coming out of the pan, but serving it two days later it is still moist and is very tasty - but I think it's almost TOO moist, falling apart even.

Peanut Butter Cake

Recipe from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. (I used my one 8" deep wilton pan)

Combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each one. Add cake mix alternately with the water. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Allow cakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Level cakes, fill, and frost.

Easy peanut butter Filling:

This is the peanut butter filling from the Million Dollar Cookies. I just made a big bowl of it, rolled it out into a circle on parchment, and placed in the middle of my cakes.

Mix 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar until well combined. That's it! :)

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

My cake class was cancelled for this week, but I had been reading reviews and blog posts all week for Dorie's Perfect Party cake (Both Totally Daring Bakers and Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge groups did it in the last year and I've always wanted to try it!) So I decided to make it anyway, and just play around with my book and the techniques I already knew to practice.
I got the base of icing SO much smoother than the first time by using the papertowel (I used parchment paper) technique! http://www.monkeysee.com/play/988-cake-decorating-a-secret-to-smoothing-icing

The cake is a white cake with a light lemon flavor, and I filled it with homemade meyer lemon curd and blueberry preserves. It is SO good. I would make it again in a heartbeat. A lot of bloggers mentioned they had trouble with Dorie's cake rising. I didn't have that problem at all, and I:

a) Used Dorie's recommended Swan's Down cake flour

b) used all room temp ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, butter)

c) I baked in one 3" deep pan instead of 2 1" pans. My cake teacher recommended this, and I've loved that all my layers on my cakes have the exact same edge because they came off of one cake. And with the wilton leveler, leveling and cutting layers is a snap!

Here are the recipes copied and pasted for the lemon curd and cake. I used meyer lemon for both the zest in the cake and the juice & zest in the curd. Meyers are a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon, so they're sweeter and you can actually even eat the rind!

Lemon Curd

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS
In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Stir in lemon juice, butter and lemon peel. Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

(Here is the full recipe. I made the cake part in my one pan, and then used wilton icing and filled with the curd & preserves so I didn't make her buttercream. But I wanted you t have all of her instructions, she's so thorough!)

Perfect Party Cake
From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
Makes 12 to 14 servings

For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-x-2-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make The Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the tough – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.
To Assemble the Cake: Using a sharp, serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with the third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream left over). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving: The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but it’s best to let it set for a couple of hours in a cool room. Serve it at room temperature with anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing: The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to 2 days.

Pumpkin Bread

On Christmas day, I walked into the kitchen to find this:

My sweet husband made me breakfast! Best egg sandwich I ever had, he's been hiding his cooking skills from me for all these years. From now on, he makes the mac and cheese in the house! :)

My friend Natalie bought me a really great silicone baking mold for Christmas, and I had to use it for Christmas day. Believe it or not - this is the only thing I cooked for any of our Christmas celebrations! I love the pans, and the pmpkin bread turned out really good!

Pumpkin Bread

From Allrecipes

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Downeast-Maine-Pumpkin-Bread/Detail.aspx

Pie Crust 101

My friend Kelly and I had a ball a few weeks of putting together an apple pie. As you can see a few posts down, we did have some mishaps, but she assures me she ended up with a great pie, and we each went home with a dish of homemade applesauce as well.

Here's Kelly :):

So here are the step by step instructions as I know them. Pioneer Woman I am not, so bear with me! 

Place 2 sticks of cold butter into 2 1/2 cups of flour.  I don't go crazy here and freeze the butter and the bowl or anything, just pull the butter straight from the fridge and drop it in. I also add a Tbs of sugar (for a sweet pie) and a tsp of salt.

Using a pastry blender (or if you're my mom and you're really good--two knives!) and cut into the butter and flour. This is "cutting the fat into the flour" that recipes call for. You'll cut one direction, than another, just keep at it, almost like a kneading motion while holind the pastry blender.

It will start to combine and look like this. We're not quite there yet!

Ahh, there they are. The small peas. When all the little butter blobs are about the size of small peas, you're there. You know all those beautiful flakes in a good pie crust? Those come from these tiny peas melting individually when it's cooked to form little buttery pockets in the crust. 

Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time (again, I don't go nuts with the temp. We don't want the butter to melt, but I don't feel the need to soak the water in ice or anything). I usually add 6-8 tablespoons total. Sometimes more, sometimes less. This will depend on humidity, the water content in butter, just the overal mood of your flour? Just don't dump it all at once. You'll be sorry. 

Mix the water in with your hands or the dough hook after each water addition. Pick up some of the dry mixture and form it into a ball with your hands. Pull it in two, if it crumbles completely, keep adding water. If it's starting to pull apart like dough, stop adding water! It should be somewhat dry, but not totally falling apart.

Form the dough into two discs and wrap them in plastic wrap (or...if you forgot to buy plastic wrap,  in the produce bags from the apples for your pie!) and put them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Don't skip this step!! You'll be sorry again.

When you're ready to roll it out, flour everything! The counter, the dough, the awesome rolling pin your mom bought you, anything that might touch the dough.

Roll the disc out in one direction in short little flips of the roller. You don't want to be too hard on the dough, you'll squish all those aforementioned buttery fat pockets.

Flip the dough over and turn it 90 degrees, be sure to throw a little more flour underneath it, on top of it, and on your rolling pin. Continue to roll in short little flips. 

You'll repeat this process of flipping and turning the dough, and rolling it out, several times. You don't want to just leave it flat and get it all rolled out, it will be STUCK to the counter without the flipping turning action. TRUST ME. You'll be....sorry. :)

The easiest way I've found to move the dough is to fold it into fourths (I tried to show Kelly the cool way of rolling it onto your rolling pin almost ended in disaster) and then move it to the pan. It may break some, but you can just press it back together.

With the bottom crust in the pan, repeat the process to roll out the top crust. You can either seal the of the top and bottom crust with a fork, or use your thumb between your forefinger and middle finger to flute the edges.

And voila! You've made a pie. You won't be sorry!

Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies

Pillsbury holds a bake-off every year and gives away $1 million for a great new recipe using their products. This year's recipe was from Carolyn Gurtz in MD for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. The recipe looked so simple, I was kind of blown away that she won. Until I made the cookies.

These were so great! It's essentially a peanut butter cookie wrapped around a smooth peanut butter filling, and nothing could make my peanut-butter-lovin' husband happier. I've been on a cookie binge since I got my baking stone, and my not-so-chocolate-lovin' husband has given mediocre reviews to my last several batches of chocolate, chocolate chip, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. These were a HUGE hit.

The only changes I made were to omit the peanuts on the outside, and I used a break-and-bake pillsbury cookie dough with reese's pieces instead of the roll of dough.

Million Dollar Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Carolyn Gurt's $1,000,000 prize-winning Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 package Pillsbury® Ready To Bake® refrigerated peanut butter cookies with Reese's mini pieces, well chilled (24 cookies per package)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
2. In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
3. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
4. Roll each covered ball in cinnamon sugar mixture. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thickness with bottom of drinking glass or measuring cup.
5. Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

Confession & new recipe

My name is Carla and I have a problem. I start things and then quit them. Unfinished scrapbooks, frames without pictures, halfway reorganized closets, this is my life. But I've missed food blogging so I'm posting again, although I'm fairly sure no one except me and my husband (who I force) are reading it. Guess I need to do more advertising :)

Since I've been gone I've had lots of ups and downs cooking. I made my first prime rib, my first passable bechamel sauce, and had a whole Christmas season of cookies and baked goodies. Since mid-January I've been calorie counting like a madwoman. I have a daily allowance, and that's all I get. Because of that, I'm discovering lots of healthy new recipes, and lots of great substitutions. Mostly I'm learning about portion control. Everything's bigger in Texas--including our chicken fried steaks and, therefore, our thighs.

So for now, just one new recipe. This pumpkin bread was dense, but still very soft and sweet. Perfect for a quick breakfast! And 200 calories a slice means I'm allowed to eat one.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Adapted from CookingLight.com

Ingredients
1 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large egg whites
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Dash of ground nutmeg
Dash of ground ginger
1 pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray


Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips. It helps to dust the chocolate chips in flour so they won't sink to the bottom. (I obviously didn't!)

Spoon batter into 1 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pan coated with cooking spray. (I used 9x5 loaf pans and my slices came out pretty short and fat, almost the shape of a biscotti cookie). Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yields 1 loaf, which I cut into 10 servings. The suggested 16 from Cooking Light would have been really small.

With my changes, SparkRecipes calculated the following nutrition facts:

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 2,040.6
Total Fat: 27.9 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 2,464.4 mg
Total Carbs: 433.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 21.1 g
Protein: 34.0 g

Pie Crust Success!

Along the road to becoming my own little Suzy Homemaker I've had a few things I count among my most proud moments. After tackling homemade bread, I decided I had to try a pie crust. I knew I could do better than what comes in the box from the store, but my first attempt was one of my biggest cooking disasters of all time. Picture a wet, gloppy mess shrunk down into the center of the pie pan. Not good!

So I called in the expert. My mom set up pie making class for me in her kitchen one Saturday and she put together the essentials I didn't have: a dough blender and a gorgeous wooden rolling pin (previous wet gloppy pie crust was rolled out with a coke can. Christmas cookies last year? A wine bottle.) She taught me how to blend the fat into the flour until I see small peas, how to roll it out without killing all the fat pockets, fold and transfer it to a plate, and flute or score the edges. After a few practices on my own, I had pretty good success last night. I decided to venture a little from my mom's recipe and use Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe, but the technique--it's all from mom :)

Honey Wheat Bread

Well, I'm officially unemployed! :) For a few days anyway.
I quit my job yesterday, and my new one starts Tuesday, so I decided what's a stay-at-home-wife supposed to? Make bread! So I made a loaf of whole wheat (not 100% whole wheat, I wasn't brave enough yet!) I now have four kinds of flour in my house: whole wheat, all purpose, bread flour, and cake flour. I'm nuts!
It turned out pretty great!

Honey Wheat Bread
(Adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 (.25 ounce) package rapid rise yeast (1 1/8 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons melted shortening
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/2+ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon melted butter + 1 tsp honey
A few tbs of oats (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup warm water.

2. Combine milk, 1/4 cup water, shortening, honey, salt and wheat flour in stand mixer bowl. Mix in yeast mixture, and let rest 15 minutes.

3. Add white flour, and process until dough forms a ball. (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup or so of flour because the dough was still really sticky at this point)

4. Knead dough with hook for 5-10 minutes. (by hand 10 minutes)

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or towel. Let dough rise for 45 minutes, or until almost doubled.

6. Punch down and pound out the bubbles. Form into a loaf, and place in a greased 9x5 inch bread pans and cover loosely with plastic wrap or towel. Let rise in a warm area until doubled; second rise should take about 30 minutes.

7. Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

8. Right before placing it into the oven, brush the top with the honey butter and sprinkle with oats (the oats are just pretty, they're totally not necessary)

9. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until tops are dark golden brown. Brush a second coat of honey butter on top while still warm. Slice when cool.

Baking Bonanza!

Basically all I did on Sunday was bake! And here is what I ended up with:



1. One of my proudest kitchen moments: you can call it challah, braided egg bread, or as we call it at my house-- "Judy Bread." Every Thanksgiving we are blessed to visit with a family whose mother makes the most amazing bread I've ever tasted. Now, don't worry, I certainly wouldn't presume to call mine "Judy Bread", since I pulled a challah recipe from the internet, and it didn't quite live up to the fabulous standard to which we're accustomed. It was slightly less dense and less sweet than Judy's version, but that did not stop my husband and I from eating almost the entire loaf in 24 hours! It really was a great loaf of bread, and I will not hesitate to make it again.

2. BBFCCC: translation: BEST BIG FAT CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I've been hearing for this recipe almost as long as I've been hanging out on thenest.com cooking boards, so I had to give it a try with the new stand mixer. They turned out great! They definitely live up to everything their name says they are. I think I may prefer a crispier cookie, so I'm not going to make this my always-and-forever chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I'll definitely keep it in the box and use it every now and then.

Now for the recipes!

Challah
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 cup hot milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 2-1/2 eggs (crack the last egg in a bowl, beat, and use half. save the other half for the last step before baking)
  
• 5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 egg
• 2 teaspoons honey

DIRECTIONS

1. Proof yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.
2. Combine hot milk, honey, butter, salt, and 1/4 cup water in a medium bowl. Cool to 110 degrees (lukewarm).
3. In small bowl, slightly beat 2.5 eggs, then add to cooled milk mixture. Add milk mixture to yeast mixture. Add 1 cup flour and beat until smooth. Slowly add remaining flour until it forms a stiff dough. Knead on a floured board for 10 minutes (5 minutes with a bread hook). Place in a large glass or plastic bowl lightly greased. Turn dough over to grease both sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, dark place until doubled in volume, approximately 60 minutes.
4. Punch down, cover, and let rise again until double, approximately 30 minutes.
5. Punch again, and form into three parts. Form each part into a 20-inch roll. Braid rolls on a large, greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled.
6. Lightly beat remaining egg with 2 tsp honey and brush loaf. Bake in preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 40 minutes until nicely browned.

This made one very large loaf of bread. We were going to eat half and freeze the other half, but James was up all night playing games at had almost eaten the half loaf I left out before I got up for work!


Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Honey Wheat Pretzels

I have been on a mission lately to purge our house of enriched white flour. I recieved a recipe from a cooking message board, www.thenest.com, for soft pretzels. I love them! But after getting to the bottom of a bag of white flour, I decided to try something new. This version has whole wheat flour and a little honey, but otherwise the recipe remains true to the original. James is usually very skeptical of my whole wheat substitutions, but he loved these!

Ingredients:

1 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp honey
2+ cups flour - half whole wheat and half all purpose
coarse kosher salt
5 Tbs baking soda
shortening or butter

Directions:

1) In large mixing bowl mix 1 tbls HOT water and 1 tsp yeast. Mix until yeast dissolves completely.
2) Stir in 2/3 cup WARM water.
3) Stir in brown sugar and honey.
4) Slowly add 2 cups flour, stirring constantly. Contuine stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
5) Lightly flour counter. Dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. (Push it down and away from you with the palms of your hands, turning the dough as you work)
6) Grease cookie sheet(s) well with butter or shortening. Sprinkle greased cookie sheet(s) with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475.
7) Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tbls baking soda. (I use 5 cups of water and 5 Tbs baking soda. If you've never seen an empty baking soda container, you will soon!)
8) Divide the dough into 16 equal sized pieces.
9) Using the following 4 steps shape each dough ball into a pretzel shape...1)Roll the dough into a rope 14" long and as thick as your thumb. Bend the dough into a U shape.2) Cross one end of the rope over the other one. The ropes should cross about three inches from the tips.3) Twist the crossed ends, making a full turn. Fold the ends back, towards the middle of the U.4) Open the ends slightly to form a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough firmly.
*note: when I get halfway through a batch I usually get tired of rolling them and shaping them out and make pretzel sticks!
10) Bring water into saucepan to a gentle boil (not to many bubbles).
11) Use pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the saucepan. Count slowly to 30. Then lift the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet (shaking off excess water back into the saucepan). Repeat until all the pretzels are done.
12) Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until the pretzels are golden.

You can also top with cinnamon sugar instead of salt. If you do that, don't salt the baking sheet, or your pretzels will have salt on the bottom and sugar on the top.

ENJOY!!!!!

FULL Credit for the original recipe goes to Krashed24 on the nest's What's For Dinner board. She recommends you make a double batch from the get-go or you'll be sorry. I agree!