Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies on allrecipes.com a few years ago. It's not my recipe, obviously, because someone else created it. But it is the cookie recipe that I make for my family. That's what this blog is all about; not just recording my original recipes, but those that are staples in our home.

I follow this recipe exactly as it's written and it never fails. The vanilla pudding is a great flavor addition. These cookies don't spread out a lot during baking so I usually give them a little pat before I put them in the oven. This way they bake up like discs rather than biscuits. The only change I do make is that I cut the recipe in half because the original recipe posted on allrecipes.com makes a lot of cookies. I've scaled it down here so that I never have to divide 4.5 cups of flour in half ever again.


Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cups butter, softened
• 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Apple Dumplings

This is not my recipe, but is from a popular website that I frequent: The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

I first read this recipe when she posted it last winter and thought it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. 'Mountain Dew and Crescent rolls?' I thought, 'Give me a break!'. One day in August while combing through her archives for some inspiration, I noticed that I had all of the ingredients for this dessert on hand (except the Mountain Dew, I needed to make a special trip to the store for that) and decided to give it a try. I'd half the recipe so if it flopped, which I fully expected it to, it wouldn't be much of a loss.

As soon as I took this out of the oven, I knew I was going to be sorry that I only made a half batch. That, and my kitchen smelled as if it were smack in the middle of a giant apple pie.

This apple dumpling recipe is not at all diet friendly, so if you're on one of those, you'll probably want to pass this by. It is a great alternative to baking a full apple pie and it's a snap to throw together. I can have this in the oven in under ten minutes. The most time consuming part of making this is peeling 2 apples. It's so simple. I'll post the recipe in it's original form and make notes of what I now do differently.

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls (I use reduced fat)
2 sticks butter (I reduce this to 1.5 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I reduce this to 1 cup)
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

I've found that 30 minutes is plenty of time to bake this dish. At 40 minutes the top of the rolls have started to brown and become hard. 30 minutes allows the rolls to cook through and the apples to soften just enough. I also sometimes dice a third apple and scatter it around the pan in the liquid.