NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from the famous New York Times cookie recipe, a.k.a. The Best Cookies Ever, a.k.a. All Hail the Great and Powerful Cookie!

• 280 g flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 285 g butter
• 520 g sugar
• drizzle of molasses
• 2 large eggs
• dash of vanilla
• chopped dark chocolate

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (approx 5 mins).

Add eggs and mix in one at a time. Add vanilla.

Remove from stand mixer and gently add in dry ingredients until just combined.

Fold in the chocolate bits.

Spoon into a plastic baggie, seal it air tight, and wait at least 24 hours (48 even better!)

Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Spoon out cookies into golfball-sized balls and arrange on the baking sheet.

Make sure to leave ample space between the cookies so they can spread out without touching.

Bake 185C for 10-12 mins per batch.

Tips!

• Don't overmix the dough after adding the dry ingredients, as it will activate the gluten and make for a harder cookie. I prefer to do the final wet/dry combine by hand just to be sure.
• We baked up a batch of these after 72 hours of refrigeration and they were still nomnomnom.
• Careful not to overcook them; remove from the oven when they are just browning on the bottom but are still light (or even slightly doughy-looking) in the middle. They'll continue to cook on the sheet for just a wee bit after removal. They'll also look a bit puffy, but don't worry, will collapse into proper cookie shape as they cool.
• The original NYT recipe calls for part cake flour and part bread flour, but I just use all Halbweissmehl and be done with it. Texture still comes out great.
• Speaking of flour... if you're buying in Switzerland, make sure you get Halbweissmehl, not Weissmehl ;) Otherwise you'll get puffy little cakes instead of chewy cookies!

Pumpkin muffins

Adapted from Pumpkin Muffins II from allrecipes.com:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• dash of vanilla
• dash of molasses
• 1-1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp each of cloves, cinnamon, ginger
• dash of allspice

Beat together wet ingredients: pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, molasses.

Sift together dry ingredients: flour, soda, powder, salt, spices.

Gently combine.

Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins.

Bake 175C for ~25mins.
Makes 12 muffins.

Ideas for variations: maple syrup! Bet that would be yummy.

Thai Red Curry(ish)

Thai Red Curry(ish)

Just put all this together in a pot one day, and it looked kind of like how I remember red curry looking. It was delish!!

Ingredients

Coconut oil
Beef - sliced
Garlic - half of a head, pressed
Red chilis - those little hard ones. 2 or 3 (to taste), finely diced
Mushrooms - handful of white button mushrooms, sliced
Coconut milk - 200ml or 250ml (something like that, didn't measure precisely)
Fish sauce
Red curry paste - generous spoonful
Lemon grass - a few (whole)

Thai basil - to taste, chopped
Green beans - heaping handful
Red bell pepper - one big one or two small

Lime - juice from one half during cooking, the other half for garnish
Cilantro - garnish

Rice

Method

Fry the beef in coconut oil until brown.
Turn down the heat and add garlic and chilis (and more oil if needed). Let them saute a little.
Add the mushrooms. Let them cook down a little.
Add coconut milk, a small dash of fish sauce, and the red curry paste. Stir well.
Add a little more water if necessary to thin, and add lemon grass.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and let this stew for a while so the flavors blend.

At Time(to eat) - Time(to cook rice), start the rice. In a separate pot, of course.

To the stew, add thai basil, green beans, bell pepper, and juice from half of a lime. Cook until veggies are desired tenderness (10-20 mins, depending on whether you like crisp or mushy).

Serve with stew spooned over rice. Garnish with cilantro and juice from the other lime half.

Substitutions

• Chicken for beef
• Broccoli, carrots, zucchini for the veggies
• Soy sauce or tamari for the fish sauce (if you skip the fish sauce, consider adding shrimp)
• Reduced fat coconut milk for regular coconut milk
• Olive oil for the coconut oil (but you should get some coconut oil to have at home! Trust me, you won't regret it)

Notes

• Note that there's no separate listing for salt -- there's a ton of it already from the fish sauce! If you want to add more salt, go for it, but definitely wait until all the other ingredients are added first and then taste it, to avoid over salting.
• Thai red curry paste should be easily found at any sufficiently large or international grocery store. Something like this product.
• If you buy the right kind, you can one with get simple, natural ingredients.
• In spite of the name, there is no curry in it.