Eats

My First Successful Baking Story

A good friend of mine had just celebrated her 24th birthday recently. And she said, " Ang tanda na natin. Mid 20s na tayo!" (Aren't we old? We're already on our mid 20s!). I protested "Nooooo! We're still on our early 20's". Then I realized, oh God, it's true. 24 is the start of mid 20s. (Though I'm still 23 as of writing). But hell yeah, aren't I getting old? I've been thinking that since the day I turned 23.

Unfortunately, I'm not getting any younger and I still don't know how to cook any decent food or cuisine. By cooking I exempt boiling or frying cause that's where I'm good at. LOL.

Anyway, this is one of the reasons why I opted to buy an oven last month. I want to try baking! So I researched what the best recipe to try for first time bakers and stumbled upon Bianca G's blog post. I ended up with chocolate cookies too. Sounds exciting!

I sort of failed at the first time I tried it. I forgot to buy chocolate chips so Mama decided to use Nips instead. It didn't turn out so bad though. Still edible, but they didn't look like the ones I saw on the internet. Ha-ha

My second try was successful!! Crisp, semi-sweet and tastes just fine, perfect for coffee or milk! Let me share with you the recipe I followed with my own amendments according to taste.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips (or as much as you want!!)
1/4 cup unsalted nuts (optional)

1 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 175°C.
In a big bowl, mix all the dry ingredients - 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda,1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, 1/4 cup unsalted nuts. Set that aside. The nuts are optional; as what my Mama said, it doesn't add any taste but I love eating nuts!
In a separate bowl, mix together the softened butter and sugar. Please remember that softened butter doesn't mean that it should be melted into liquid form. Just leave the butter at room temperature, out of the fridge and let it soften for a bit.
Then add 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix it until all are combined. If the butter is still frozen, you can try using an electric mixer but make sure to mix in only one direction. The mixture should be smooth enough when there are butter chunks left.
On the same bowl, stir in the dry ingredients by portion. The batter will start to get thick and mixing will be quite an effort. If you think that the chocolate chips aren't enough, you can add more if you want!
Now on the baking pan, drop dough by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart. I like flatting it slightly with a fork so it will spread out even more when cooked.
Bake them for 12 minutes. You have to check the cookies from time to time but don't open the oven!! When the edges start to get brown at 8th or 10th minute mark, then you don't have to wait for 12 minutes.
Put out the baking pan and let the cookies settle in for 1-2 minutes before lifting them up. Let them cool first then ta-daaa, you now have your own home made chocolate cookies!

My family told me it was so delicious! I ended up making around 45 pieces with the amount of ingredients above. Another thing I figured was that the longer you bake them, the stiffer it gets. So if you want them soft and chewy, 8-10 minutes would be enough.

Happy baking!