Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


Ingredients:

Yield:
 
cookies

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
  1. 1 Preheat your oven to 375°F.
  2. 2 Cream the butter, sugar and molasses together in a stand mixer. Beat until well combined and ‘creamy’. If you don’t have a stand mixer beat vigorously by hand in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and continue beating until well combined.
  3. 3 Meanwhile whisk the flour, oats, salt, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.
  4. 4 Gradually add the flour mix to the wet mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
  5. 5 Using a tablespoon scoop out a ball of the dough and drop onto a lightly greased cookie tray. Flatten slightly. Repeat, leaving lots of room in between the balls for the cookies to expand. Bake for fifteen minutes. Cool for ten minutes then remove from the tray and try to eat only one!
*** http://www.food.com/recipe/crispy-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies-michael-smith-437691
If you were able to read our last post you would have read about our troubles with butter; this experience was no different. Unlike the last though it isn not that we used the wrong type of butter but used way to much of the right one. The recipe called for half a cup of butter but of course we did not realize this until after we had put one whole cup in and mixed it in. Thinking we had forever ruined our recipe we went to the teacher who suggested we double the flour since we doubled the butter. This idea saved our cookies and in the end we were eating yummy, chewy goodness. However, even though the cookies were delicious they were not as sweet as they would have been if we did not add extra butter and flour. Clearly, our group needs to work on paying attention to the little things such as butter.

Brownies


Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  •  
  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
  2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
  4. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost brownies while they are still warm.
***Recipe found at http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/best-brownies/Detail.aspx

Boy oh boy, making brownies seems simple enough but for our group we had so many troubles. First of all, the recipe calls for melted butter but we assumed since we were using soft margrine it did not need to be melted. Forunately it turned out alright but we did have to take extra time to stir the margrine in really good. After we got the butter situation figured out we assumed that everything would be smooth sailling but with my group it never is. As we were pouring in the brownie mix into the pan something bumped us and the mix in the bowl completely missed the pan. Not only was mix ALL over the recipe sheet and counter but we also were not able to use a bunch of it so our brownies came out super thin. Don't get me wrong, they were still delicious but if I were to redo this experience I would make sure we were to pay more attention to the recipe and the task at hand instead of the distractions going on around us. My one piece of advice advice to the people trying this recipe is too make sure you go over every detail the recipe calls for instead of just doing a quick brush over.