Monday Menu

Today I will post a recipe requested by Alex. The main reason I do these Monday Menus is so my kids can have a collection of the recipes they love. Someday I will have them all put into a book for them, so this is a good way to organize them.

With that said, Alex wanted me to post the recipe for the cookies I made on Saturday. Here's the thing with my baking. Real bakers/chefs will say that baking is a science, and you need to measure carefully to get the correct result. I believe that's true, but in my kitchen I tend to add a bit of this/a bit of that, in my cooking and most baking. My cookies are often a little different every time I make them, but they are always good. There are things like the way your oven bakes and the pans you use that you need to get to know in your own kitchen, then make adjustments that work for you. I use a heavy-weight, dark, non-stick pan for cookies. They tend to brown a bit more on the bottom when you use a dark pan. I like that, because then the top can be a bit on the underdone side and you get moist cookies that don't dry out when they cool. I'll post a few more cookie recipes as the weeks or months go by, I'm sure. This is one that was thrown together and for whatever reason really wooed Alex...

Chocolate Chip/Toffee Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter (I always use butter), softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla (real vanilla. not imitation vanilla, PLEASE!)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle makes the very best...)

crushed Heath candy bars (I had a 12 oz. bag of mini bars, I used about 1/2 the bag)

Beat together softened butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add salt, baking soda, and 1/2 the flour. Mix gently on low. Add remaining flour, mix just until combined. (Beating too hard/too long, stirs up too much gluten in the flour and will make the cookies tough/dry, so don't over mix.) Stir in chocolate chips and crushed Heath bars. At this point, stop and smell the chocolate chip bag. Come on, get your nose in there and take a big, deep breath. It's a must. Then call someone into the kitchen and make them do it, too. Things are better shared. If they don't take a deep enough breath, make them do it again so they really get it. Trust me, it's genuinely therapeutic. Anyway, use a cookie scoop to drop cookies onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 9 minutes. Again, your oven or cookie sheets may bake differently, so adjust that time to your liking. Let set on cookie sheet for a couple minutes, then remove to cool on cooling racks. Yum, yum!

I'd like to show you a picture of the cookies, but I was too late...but this picture really does tell the story.