Chocolate Chip Cookies

"We have another Reader Request, Ruth!" I told him as he came in.
"Excellent! What are we making today?" he asked, flying over to sit on my shoulder.
"+Paul Chang would like us to make some chocolate-chip cookies."
"Ah, a classic recipe." Ruth nodded. "I had been thinking we should do those at some point. Though I wonder if the recipe was created in the same manner in your world. In ours, it was the result of a Fae prank."
"Probably not quite," I explained. "Though there are some competing accounts of how the recipe came about. All the stories I've heard agree that they were invented by Ruth Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn of Whitman, Massachusetts. The disagreement in the stories is over how precisely the chocolate ended up in the cookies. One account has chocolate bars falling off the shelf to land in the dough and getting chopped up by the electric mixer. I'm rather disinclined to believe that one for two reasons: one, the chocolate bars would have been wrapped in paper, and two, this was the 1930s and I doubt they really had electric mixers in that time period."
"Electric mixer?" Ruth asked, slightly confused.
"Something like my stand mixer," I explained and he nodded in understanding. "Another story speculates that the recipe wasn't exactly an accident--that she was trying to come up with new recipes. The most common story, and the 'official' one as told by Nestle, is that she was trying to make a type of cookie that was chocolate all through, but ran out of the chocolate she normally used, and possibly also out of time to melt the chocolate, so she chopped up bars of Nestle chocolate and dumped them into the mix, expecting the chocolate to melt."
"Except it doesn't quite work that way," Ruth continued the tale for me. "Chunks of chocolate will generally hold together unless carefully melted, and they certainly won't distribute chocolate evenly throughout the dough."
"Exactly. However they came to be made, the cookies were a hit and have become a classic."
"Let's make some!"
This recipe is the one my family used when I was growing up. It's slightly changed from the recipe in the Betty Crocker 'Cookie Book', as we don't add any nuts.

Here we have the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies! Brown sugar is being ignored while Ruth stands on the white sugar and leans in to look at the flour. Red has brought the vanilla, and Black has corralled the egg next to the baking soda. Hi-chan has brought the shortening and dropped it on the bag of chocolate chips.

We need a cookie sheet and wire cooling racks, of course. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups, while Black has spoons for shaping the cookies. Red has the measuring spoon, of course, and Ruth has brought two bowls and mixing spoons.

Black sets the oven to 375°F (190°C). It should have plenty of time to warm up while we mix up our dough.

We need 2/3cup (410g) shortening. Cutting it on a marking is quite easy. Hi-chan and Red hold the stick of shortening in place while Ruth makes the cut and Black watches to make sure he's cutting it in the right place. If your shortening comes in a tub, try filling a liquid measuring cup with 1/3 cup water and then adding the shortening until the water hits the 1cup mark. Don't forget to drain off the water before you add it, though!
Pardon the odd angle of this photo, Neko-kun was behind the camera and is considerably taller than me, so he got something of a bird's-eye view.

Hi-chan helps dump the shortening into the bowl.

Next we add sugars. Black dumps 1/2 cup (96g) white granulated sugar into the bowl.

This is followed up immediately by 1/2 cup (100g) packed brown sugar. ('Packed' means that you squish it into the measuring cup. It'll come out as a solid clump like you see in the picture.)

My turn now, as the next ingredient in is 1 egg.

Now Red gets a turn, adding in 1 teaspoon (5mL) vanilla.

Mix it all up now!
"Hi-chan, you're going to get bopped in the nose," Red warns.
"I like the view from the top of the bowl, though," Hi-chan mumbles, pouting. She gets down after Ruth and I both shoot her a look, though. "Fine."

It's starting to look like cookie dough already! This won't hold together if we bake it, though.

Hi-chan takes charge of adding 1 1/2 cups (150g) of flour, which pulls her out of her pouting.

I glance at the recipe to see what goes in next. "Ack, we forgot the salt!"
"I'll get it," Ruth volunteers. A moment or so later, he's back with the salt I use for baking. "Whoo, that's a bit heavy to carry."
"It's at least as big as you are, Ruth," Black remarks. "Not like at home."
"Thank you, Ruth," I tell him, taking the salt to measure it out. "Ready, Red?"

"Yup! Measuring-spoon time!" Red chirps as he comes over to carefully take the 1/2 teaspoon of salt from me and adds it to the bowl.

I refill the same 1/2 teaspoon measure with baking soda, and Red happily adds it to the bowl. That's all the dry ingredients!

Ruth stirs the dry ingredients together while everyone watches. Hi-chan has decided that the bag of chocolate chips makes a nice, if rather lumpy, cushion.

Now we add the flour mixture to the shortening mixture we made before. I hold the bowl for Ruth as he carefully scrapes it out, making sure to get all of it.

Everyone watches as Ruth stirs the dry mix in. Now we have cookie dough! It clumps up pretty nicely on the spoon. One more thing to add before we're ready for the oven.

Chocolate chips! Can't have chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips!
"Woah," Red remarks. "Those are massive chocolate chips."
"They are a bit bigger than I was expecting," I admit. "I'm sure they'll work though. Oops, Hi-chan, we don't need the whole bag!"
"What?" Hi-chan glances up at me, looking a little confused. "But the recipe calls for one package of chocolate chips."
"Does it want a different size package, Miaka?" Black asks.
"Yes. The recipe is expecting a 6-ounce bag of semi-sweet chips," I explain. (170g) "That bag is 10 ounces of darker chocolate, and those chips are about twice the size I expected. Personally, I'd like a bit of cookie with my chocolate chips."
"Ah, I see." Hi-chan stops pouring. "Is that good?"
"That should be plenty," Ruth assures her. "I'm sure they'll come out delicious."

"Um, Hi-chan," Ruth sounds a little bit annoyed. "I can't stir while you're standing in the bowl."
"Just trying to make sure we have enough chips," Hi-chan insists.
"There's plenty, Hi-chan," I assure her. "You don't want to be mixed into the cookies, do you?"
Hi-chan makes a reluctant grumbling sound, but she gets out of the bowl.

With Hi-chan finally out of the way, Ruth mixes the chocolate chips into the cookie dough. There's plenty of chocolate. Now we're ready to shape the cookies!

Of course, first we need a place to put the cookies. Everyone pitches in to get some parchment paper on the baking sheet.

One dozen cookies fit on this sheet. The spoons weren't cooperating with me, so these are hand-shaped; rolled into balls and lightly flattened into position. Make sure to leave 1-2 inches (3-5cm) of space between the cookies, as these will expand when baked. If you put them too close together, the cookies will blend into one another. That can be fun if you're planning on it, though.

Ruth puts the first tray of cookies into the oven. They look really tasty already!

Black sets the timer for 8 minutes as Ruth shuts the oven door. The cookies should be a delicate golden-brown when they're done. If 8 minutes isn't enough, put them back in for 2 more minutes and check again.

The cookies are just starting to brown around the very edges, with a lovely gold-brown starting on top. Ruth pulls the finished tray out so we can put the second sheet in.

The first batch is on the cooling racks! Be very careful picking these up, as the chocolate chips do melt a bit and they're quite hot. Everyone is eager to dig in! Let's wait for them to cool a bit, and for the next batch to come out, though!

The second batch just came out and got added to the racks... and Black got tired of waiting.
"Mmm, chocolate," she murmurs, sticking her face into one of the large partly-melted chips.
"You're going to get it all over your face," Ruth warns.
Somehow, I don't think Black cares...

Enjoy!

Tosca Cake

"Hey, we have a recipe that was requested by a reader!"
"Really?" Ruth asked, sounding excited. "Our first Reader Request?"
"Yes indeed!" I told him happily. "Kain has asked us to make Tosca cake. Here, she sent us a link." I pulled up the recipe to show him.
"Ah, the measurements..." Ruth trailed off, looking a little worriedly at the metric measurements listed.
"I can convert them, or just use the scale," I assured him.
"The temperatures as well?" Ruth asked, still a little concerned. "Those do not look like the temperatures at which your oven runs."
"They're not; these are in Celsius."
"Well, if you're sure it will work, it does sound like an interesting recipe to try." Some of his enthusiasm started to return. "I've never seen a recipe like this. Where is it from?"
"This is a Scandinavian recipe, from the farthest north-east part of Europe that isn't Russia. See, it says this cake is especially popular in Sweden and Finland."
"Ah!" Ruth smiled broadly, excited again. "It's always fun to try new recipes from far places. Let's get baking!"

Thank you, Kain-san, for requesting this recipe! Let's get started!

As with anything, we need our ingredients to get started! Red is playing with butter and the scale, while Ruth watches from his post atop the canister of flour. Apparently the bottle of milk makes a good resting-post. Hi-chan has the sliced almonds and an eye on Black chasing the eggs. The smaller canister is sugar, and the baking powder is in the middle with no one paying attention to it.

Since the recipe is in metric and I do have a scale and plenty of prep bowls, we opted to measure everything out ahead of time. Ruth has the milk and butter; Black is still chasing the eggs around. Red insisted on taking charge of the baking powder because it's in a measuring spoon. Hi-chan is attempting to sneak between the flour and sugar.

Here we have pretty much all the equipment we need for baking the cake. Archi is cutting out a circle of parchment paper, so that isn't here, but Ruth has the cake pan and whisk, while the others check out the glass mixing-bowl.

Before we get started mixing, let's preheat the oven!
"But what temperature does it want?" Black asks, confused. "It says 180 but your oven doesn't do that."
"350°F," I tell her. This one I know off the top of my head because a lot of things bake at 350°F (180°C).
"I have not seen a recipe in this 'metric' system of yours before, Miaka," Ruth explains. "All the recipes I've found in Draconaria are in the same Standard System of Measurement, the one you usually use."
"The Imperial System is confusing," Archi grumbles softly.
"Conversions are certainly easier in metric," I agree. "We have to live with what we've got, though. This is actually the only country that uses Imperial measurements much anymore. Everywhere else they use the Metric System."
The dragons all look a little perplexed and comment that this seems odd, so I promise to teach them Metric when we're not in the middle of baking something.

We need to butter the pan and line it with parchment. Archi cut the parchment out while we were getting things ready, so now the twins are maneuvering it into place. You do want to use the butter, even though you're putting paper over it, as the butter acts as glue, keeping the parchment paper in place. Otherwise it'll roll up or fall over.

And here we have the pan all set to go! Now we need to make the batter to put in it.

Red helps me pour in the sugar, about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (60g). Once that's in, I add two eggs.

Ruth takes up the whisk to carefully beat the eggs into the sugar. The picture actually shows the end of mixing, a nice light-yellow frothy sweet-eggs substance.

Red tips the half-tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) of baking powder into the cup (100g) of flour. Black is keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Of course, it's more fun to watch the powders move around from the bottom of the bowl, apparently. Red carefully mixes the baking powder into the flour.

With the flour and baking powder sufficiently combined, Red adds some of the dry mix to the egg mix. Ruth suggested adding it in thirds so as to make mixing easier.

Black pours in 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. Liquids can be added all at once, since we don't have to worry too much about mixing them into this, and they'll help mix the dry ingredients in.

Hi-chan helps me tip in 1/3 cup melted butter (80g). It took about 30-40 seconds on high in the microwave to melt it.

With that all the way stirred in, it's time to add more dry mixture. Red has that under control.
(right) Now everything is mixed in and our batter is ready to pour. This is a slightly thicker cake batter than I'm generally accustomed to, but it flows well enough.

Hi-chan and the twins find good perches to watch from, and Ruth and I work together to pour the batter into our cake pan. The recipe calls for a 20cm (8 inch) cake pan, but the only ones I have are 23 cm (9 inch). We'll get a slightly flatter than intended cake, and possibly a thinner coat of topping. It shouldn't affect anything else, though.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to encourage the batter to spread out evenly. Everyone is taking one last look at the batter before Ruth puts the cake into the oven.

Black sets the timer for 20 minutes. "This doesn't seem like enough time for a cake to get all the way baked," she comments.
"It's probably not," I tell her. "Twenty minutes will get it firm enough that we can pour on the topping and it won't sink, though."
"Oh, right!" Black giggles. "I forgot about the topping."
"Well, it's time to make the topping now, so let's get everything together," Ruth says.

Here we have all the ingredients for the topping, neatly measured out. Black is perched on the measuring cup of milk, while Hi-chan is keeping an eye on the sugar. Ruth has the sliced almonds and the butter. The butter doesn't need to be melted, but I was on a roll with the microwave. Red is keeping an eye on the flour, once again because it's the only item we're using a measuring spoon for.

We don't need much for mixing up the topping. The twins are keeping an eye on the ingredients at the back of the counter while Hi-chan and Ruth bring the saucepan and mixing spoon.

Ruth puts the pan on the stove while Red turns the correct burner on to low heat. We're not trying to cook this, just melt the butter and warm things up a little.

Now let's mix up the topping! Ruth is keeping the pan in place while Hi-chan helps me add 5 tablespoons (75g) butter. I probably shouldn't have melted it, but it isn't going to hurt anything.

Ruth helps me pour in 2/3 cup (100g) sliced almonds. The recipe calls for 'flaked' almond, but 'sliced' is the closest my local grocery store sells. I think it's the same thing, though.

Now for the sugar. We've measured out 1/4 cup (50g) and Hi-chan is enjoying helping to pour it in. "Now we have Sweet Almonds!" she comments, laughing.

Ruth keeps a close eye on Black as she adds 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. "Don't fall in," he warns.
"I won't!" Black insists. "It's fun to watch it pour out."

Red's turn at last! He happily adds 1 tablespoon of flour. That's everything we need for the topping!

I hold the pot still for Ruth while he stirs everything together. This won't produce a consistent mix, but you want to mix the flour and sugar in with the butter and make sure the almonds are all coated. Leave the completed topping to bubble softly on the stove-top until the timer for the cake goes off.

When the timer goes off, Black goes for the controls to raise the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C) while Ruth pulls the cake out of the oven. Time to put the whole thing together!

Ruth carefully pours the topping onto the partly-baked cake.
Once the topping is out, Ruth and I work together to spread it carefully over the whole surface of the cake, doing our best to make it as even as we can. I think we did a pretty good job of it, don't you?

Ruth puts the topped cake back in the oven, which hasn't quite finished heating up to the new higher temperature yet.

Still at the controls, Black sets the timer for 10 minutes, so that we can keep a decent eye on the topping. We're trying to toast the almonds and set the praline around them, but we have to be careful that they don't burn. It might take a bit longer than 10 minutes. I think ours actually took more like 15.

Everyone crowded around for a good look at the cake as soon as it came out of the oven. I let them stare at the top for a minute or so while I pulled out the wire cooling rack.

This cake is best served at room temperature, so everyone is admiring it while it cools. Well, Ruth and Hi-chan are admiring it. Looks like the twins are trying to decide if they can snatch a bite.

Mmm, yummy cake! This is fairly simple to make and really delicious. I see why it's such a favorite! {Om-nom-nom} All the dragons are too busy eating to say anything more than "Mmm!"