Monster Cookies

Last night we went over to Sandra and Nico's new house in Ari for a housewarming-cum-Christmas party. The party was aptly themed "Bring your own food". How convenient. There's also the gift exchange, which was a real challenge for me. For days I was harassing friends for ideas. Some of the suggestions I got included: toiletries, photo frame, towel.... non of which was very inspiring. Most importantly, non of which was gift I personally want to receive.

Eventually in the morning of our big night, Nuk showed me the picture of her gift through Yahoo Messenger: two baskets of large eggs. Let me re-frame that: two baskets of large eggs with double yolks. Go figure. Anyway I guessed it's not illegal to bring food item. So I decided instead of buying a hamper, why not bake some cookies? I did a pretty good job with my first batch of cookies for Yim's birthday. I think.

After some reading, I got the idea that cookies basically come from the same batter. You can add whatever you want for that extra personal touch. I found this recipe recipe for kids that uses multi-colored MnM's chocolate candy. I made some changes to suit the adult taste: dark chocolate in the peanut butter cookies for half the guilty sugar rush; and pecan nuts and Mars bar niblet to make up for the lack of sugar rush in the aforementioned recipe. Redundant. I know.

These recipes make 3 dozens cookies each. I baked a dozen each because the box can't fit more than that. Lame. I know. But hey! Look I put a ribbon over the box!

Adrian and I were leaving early and we got to pick our gifts before everyone else. I got a Calvin and Hobbe's from Sandra. MY FAVORITE! This is probably one of the best "lucky draw" gifts I've ever get. Adrian got a Starbuck's card from Gate. What else can a coffee addict ask for? Sandra later text me and said that whoever got my cookies shared them with everyone: "it was a hit!"

Ingredients:
(make 2 dozens)

For the Peanut Butter cookies:

• 1/4 cup butter, soften at room temperature
• 1/4 cup organic creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup unrefined white sugar
• 1/4 cup natural brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup unprocessed all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
  
• sea salt

For the Mars Bar Cookies:

• 1/2 cup butter, soften at room temperature
• 1/4 cup unrefined white sugar
• 1/4 cup natural brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup unprocessed all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 Mars Bar,
  
• 1/4 cup pecan, chopped
• sea salt
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking parchment over a baking tray.
   
2. Cream together butter (peanut butter) and sugar. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. Sift flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.
   
4. Fold flour mixture into butter mixture. Add fillings.
5. Transfer batter to baking parchment one tablespoon at a time. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes.
   

Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chips Cookies

Yim painted me a picture of my all-time favorite Japanese anime - Totoro - for my birthday. Given what little talent I have, I decided to bake her something for her birthday. Initially I wanted to bake brownies because she doesn't like brownies. Something to do with childhood trauma. I thought I would help free her from the bygone and start embracing brownies the way these sweet treats deserve. For reason unknown to me, Adrian expressed his sympathy for Yim when I told him of my good-will plan.

Anyway, I set out to searching for a good brownies recipe but I somehow settled on cookies. There are many cookie recipes but non of them are interesting enough to capture my attention. After all cookies are just flour, egg, sugar, oil, salt and leavening agent. Pretty idiot-proof. Right?

Wrong. I once watched a Hong Kong TV sitcom that made a big fuss about fried rice because it was the true test to the chefs. I heard the same thing said about omelet, too. Apparently the unassuming chocolate chip cookie is the baker's crucible. So few ingredients, so many possibilities - for success AND failure -. A quick search on internet shows a multiplication of the humble recipe, some more mutated than the other, cookies topped with bacon for instance.

Then I stumbled upon this article on New York Times on Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chips Cookies. It has great tips from the grandmother of Chocolate Chips Cookies, Ruth Graves Wakefield, and also some of the best bakeries in New York such as Jarques Torres Chocolate and City Bakery. One of them is to leave the dough for 36 hours before baking. I had to skip this step because I had less than 16 hours before I saw Yim.

While the famous bakeries have chocolate made for them, with the lack of such luxury, I used local dark chocolate chips. They work pretty well as far as I can tell. However I did pick up the next most essential tip: sea salt. There's nothing special about the recipe that I used. What set it apart is the sea salt. A sprinkling of sea salt just before baking add a distinctive dimension to the Chocolate Chip Cookies. I shall never underestimate the use of salt in sweet baked goods ever!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven at 170C. Line a piece of baking parchment over baking tray.
   
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
   
3. Cream butter with sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.
   
4. Fold the wet ingredient into the dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips and mix to combine.
5. You may leave the dough for up to 36 hours in the refrigerator before baking. Or proceed to bake as I did. Use what you need and freeze the rest.
   
6. Drop two tablespoons (or one for smaller cookies) of dough at a time onto the baking parchment. Cookies should be 3" apart.
   
7. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 18 minutes for big cookies or 10 - 15 minutes for smaller ones.
   

Bear Heart Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Today, 16th November 2009, is our 2-year wedding anniversary. Or, as I prefer to call it: 730 days as Mrs Cox. Adrian arranged for us to stay a night at the Shangri-la Hotel. People wonder why would we do that given that our apartment is literally a stone throw away from the hotel. At least Shangri-la is at the other site of the river as our apartment; we get to see different view of the city from another angle.

Since it's our anniversary, and upon Mr Cox's permission, Mrs Cox decided to "take the day off" and not cook for the day. So we rode the apartment boat to the hotel, stormed straight into the Next 2 riverside cafe for breakfast buffet; we got a Spa appointment at 9.30am. Breakfast was good although Mr Cox thought "nothing is as good as your cooking".

We had a 3 1/2 hours couple spa treatment. It was way too long. I was terrified when they placed the 5th layer of mask on my face after the 8th cleanse (or whatever they were for). It was a huge relief for us when the masseurs finally let us go.

The rest of the day was spent chilling by the pool, eating free snacks and drinks at the club lounge, and watching TV (we kind of have this thing with TV while we travel to make up for the lack of TV back home). It wasn't exactly an exciting day but we both felt refreshed by the end of it. I think the occasional isolation from the "world" is necessary for the soul.

Someone once told me honeymoon is over after two years of marriage. There may be certain truth in that. In any case I prefer to see our marriage as an adventure. I'd be straight up lying if I say everyday has been great in this two years. But every time we fight it makes our relationship stronger than before; it makes me appreciate our relationship even more; I come to realize how truly I am in love with this man.

I panicked the day Adrian told me he had plan for our anniversary. What should I do then? I thought of a symbolical way of telling Adrian my wish of truly becoming one with him - no "he" no "I"; just "us". I'm keeping a little privacy here as to what I gave him. Along with that, as a gesture to commemorate our anniversary, I baked this oatmeal cookies in Bear and Heart.I adjusted the recipe to suit the Bear and Heart molds. You may double the amount to make 18 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 50gram of butter, soften at room temperature
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/2 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 tsp pure Vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 cup Oatmeal
• 1/4 cup Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Walnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
   
2. Add a pinch of salt to the softened butter. Beat together with sugar until creamy.
   
3. Stir in egg, pure vanilla, flour, baking soda and oatmeal. The dough should not be too sticky.
4. Fold in chocolate chips, walnuts and cranberries.
5. Transfer dough into molds or drop by rounded teaspoons onto parchment paper.
6. Bake for 20minutes if using molds, or 7 - 11 minutes for cookies-size.