My All Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie

My entire life I have tried and tried to make chocolate chip cookies, and the same thing always happens, they turn out flat, and they are never as good as I would like them to be. I have tried recipe after recipe to find the perfect recipe, and after years of searching....and making this recipe dozens of times, I can honestly say this is by far my favorite recipe and they always come out looking and tasting great. Another great awesome thing this recipe taught me; and I do this every time, I cook one sheet of cookies, then I keep the rest of my dough in my fridge in a sealed container with saran wrap pressed down right on top of the dough. That way you get  hot cookies when ever I want them. The dough stays great (almost tastes better each day) for up to 72 hours.

My All Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 cups minus 2 Tbls of all purpose flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 Tbls granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips (I use half milk-chocolate and semi sweet)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl, set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add chocolate chips and stir lightly in.

Scoop out cookie dough with cookie scoop and if desired, sprinkle each cookie lightly with sea salt. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until light brown, and still soft.

Adapted slightly from: Jacques Torres

Caramel Apples

I Love Fall, and I think that is mostly because of all of the yummy food that is associated wtih Fall! Yumm!  I have wanted to make some caramel apples, but have not wanted to buy caramels and melt them, BORING. So I found this AMAZING recipe for homemade caramel that you cook and then dip your apples in.

This stuff is so good, it has a rich deep flavor that leaves your mouth watering for more. The amount of brown sugar in this does something to the caramel, it gives it a depth that I have never had before in a caramel!! 

The recipe makes a really good amount of caramel, so after I dipped 5 apples, and then put some in a bowl to to eat with a cut up Pink Lady apple into (which was amazing as well). I still had quite a bit left over. So, while eating the apple, the caramel took on the texture that  reminded me of caramels, the kind you make around Christmas, so I wondered if it would set up like caramels, I buttered and 8x8 dish and poured the remaining caramel in there and they set up perfectly. I may never go back to my old caramel recipe again. You have got to try this recipe, you will not be disappointed!

Caramel Apples

8-10 servings

1 cup butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

8-10 medium tart apples along with the same number of sticks

In a heavy 3-qt. saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and milk; bring to boil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until mixture reaches 248*(firm ball stage) on a candy thermometer, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.

Insert wooden sticks into clean and dry apples. Dip each apple into hot caramel mixture; turn to coat. Set on parchment paper or silpat mat to cool (sticks really bad to wax paper).

A great variation to this: after the caramel hardens, dip in melted white chocolate and then roll in a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Put in fridge to set up. Super good, trust me on this!!

*Jessica Note: when working with a candy thermometer, and any candy recipe that tells you to cook to a certain temp. TEST your thermometer first! If you do not do this step, it literally could ruin your candy. To test your thermometer, first boil a pan of water and insert your thermometer and get what temp it registers at. Water boils at 212 degrees. So now take what ever number your thermometer says and subtract to find the difference. For Example, mine boils at 207, so the difference between 212 and 207 is 5 degrees, so now when my recipe calls to cook to 248, I will subtract 5 from the 248 and really only cook my caramel until 243 degrees. (hope that makes sense, cause you really need to follow that rule when cooking candy!)

Source: Karen Ann Bland, via Taste of Home.com