Brad requested chocolate chip cookies again. Having been reminded myself of how delicious they are, I couldn’t refuse. But I could do a little experiment with an ingredient I’ve been wanting to try.

I accidentally bought an extra can of Ovaltine a few weeks ago, so I’ve been wanting to make it an extra ingredient in something.

1/2 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar tightly packed
1/4 cup of margarine
1 tspn of vanilla
2 Tbspns of egg-in-a-carton

1/2 cup of white flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 tspn of baking soda
1/4 tspn of salt
2 Tbspns of Ovaltine

1/2 cup of chocolate chunks

1/8-1/4 cup of white flour (if necessary)

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the first five ingredients together. Add everything but the chocolate chunks and extra flour, and mix it in too. It may seem like a great shortcut to just mix everything together at once but every time I’ve done that (on accident), I’ve come out with flat cookies. Fold the chocolate chunks in.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. By the teaspoonful, place the dough an inch or two apart on the cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. Since two of my three cookie sheets are otherwise occupied at the moment, I spooned cookie dough onto a separate piece of parchment paper while one batch was baking; when the first were done, I simply slid them off and slid the uncooked dough on. Then the cooked cookies could cool a little on the counter while the next batch started.

After the first batch, I noticed that my cookies were coming out flat,

My flat, kind of crunchy Ovaltine cookies.

I determined the amount of Ovaltine to put in it by how much liquid there is in the recipe: not much – just the vanilla and egg. Since the Ovaltine can says to add 4 Tbspns per 8 oz. of liquid, I originally only put 1 Tablespoon in, but when I tasted the dough (I know you aren’t supposed to when it has raw egg in it but I can never resist), I couldn’t taste anything so I added another Tbspn. The extra flour made the fluffier cookies a lighter color, which made them look like dirty cookies, but other than that, I couldn’t tell any difference at all.

A regular chocolate chip cookie (bottom) and one made with Ovaltine.

Next time: Determine amount of Ovaltine to put in the recipe according to how many ounces of ingredients there are, rather than ounces of liquid. Make sure the dough is about the consistency of Play-do before starting baking.

….the time when I feel like I actually might have enough spare time soon to create something and blog about it. My usual mandatory attendance at my niece’s soccer game isn’t required this weekend since she’s out of town herself, so I’ve got an extra hour or two to do something for myself.

But of course, I’m so excited about this gap in duties that I can’t decide what I should do. That’s where you come in:

(I will probably end up making Spring’s bacon-and-fruit biscuits anyway, but I figured I should give you as many choices as I could.)

The last recipe I posted for the chocolate chip mountains was entirely experimental and a little convoluted. This is the simplified, perfected version and it was a big hit at Christmas – especially with my father-in-law, who loves cookies so much, he hides them so no one else will eat them. (I provided him with his own little batch, of course).

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of tightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of softened margarine
• 1 tspn of vanilla
• 1/4 cup of fat-free egg-in-a-carton or 2 egg whites

• 1 1/2 cups of regular flour
• 2 cups of quick-cooking oatmeal
• 1/2 tspn of baking soda
• 1/4 tspn of salt

• 1 cup of chocolate chips

utensils:
1 medium-size bowl
1/4 cup
1 teaspoon
1 Tablespoon
1/4 teaspoon
a sturdy mixing spoon or an electric mixer
cookie sheets
pan with a heatproof bowl that fits on top of it to make a double boiler
large spoon
a plastic sandwich bag
an oven mitt
parchment paper
very small bowl

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the first five ingredients together. Add in the next four ingredients. Fold in a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Cover the cookie sheets in parchment paper. Put the extra flour in the very small bowl, using it to flour the fingertips of your dominant hand and the palms of both. By an estimated Tablespoonful, pull out cookie dough and roll it between your hands like you used to do with Play-doh to make balls. Don’t worry about making it perfectly round, though, just be firm; this step is to make sure that it holds together well enough to shape it. Pinch the ball into a conical shape. Set it on the cookie sheet and push down near the base to flatten the bottom and make it more stable. Once you’ve filled a cookie sheet or two, place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges brown.

Let the baked cookies rest on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes. Then, either carefully slide the parchment paper with the cookies still on it onto the counter or move the cookies onto a piece of already-laid-out parchment or wax paper.

Once all the cookies have been baked, bring water to a low simmer in the pan. Place the heatproof bowl on top – making sure it doesn’t touch the water – with the rest of the chocolate chips in it. Melt, stirring often. Once it is all melted together, use the large spoon to scoop the melted chocolate into a plastic sandwich bag and zip it closed. Carefully cut a small part of one of the corners off. With the oven mitt on, gently squeeze the chocolate down towards the hole and across the peak of each cookie. You can make whatever kind of lines you’d like on the cookie (I criss-crossed them in two different directions for a cross-hatching effect) but remember that it will dry in that formation; it won’t ooze down or together very much at all.

To dry the chocolate quickly, cool them in the refrigerator for about a half an hour, but you can also simply leave them on the parchment for about 6 hours or overnight. Make sure, though, that you store them in an airtight container – or a cookie jar with a small piece of bread in it, not touching the cookies (the bread will steal any staleness from the cookies) – after that; I accidentally left a few in the open air for a couple of days and they were as hard as rocks. If you really want to make them look like snow-capped mountains, you can use white chocolate for the ganache, or dust the tops with powdered sugar – which has the added bonus of looking like falling snow.

I have a recipe for amazing chocolate chip cookies that also happen to be low-fat.

And I have a recipe for “Snow-capped Mountain” cookies that taste incredible too.

So in a little fit of nostalgia for the mountains I grew up near, I decided to combine the two.

Unfortunately, it’s a long one, since I did it a little weird. The recipe is accurate to what I actually did, since doing things in a different order or skipping a step can sometimes have drastic consequences. But I’m guessing you can add the matching ingredients with asterisks next to them together; for example, add 1 1/2 cups of flour the first time I say to add flour and just skip the second time.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar (packed tightly)
• 1/4 cup of margarine
• 1 tspn of vanilla
• 2 Tbspns of fat-free egg stuff or 1 egg white*

• 1 cup of regular flour*
• 1/2 tspn of baking soda
• 1/4 tspn of salt

• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

• 2 cups of quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup of regular flour*

• 2 Tbspns fat-free egg stuff or 1 egg white*

• 1/4 cup or less of regular flour

• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
• 2 Tbspns of margarine
• and/or: about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar

utensils:
1 medium-size bowl
1/4 cup
1 teaspoon
1 Tablespoon
1/4 teaspoon
a sturdy mixing spoon or an electric mixer
cookie sheets
pan with a heatproof bowl that fits on top of it to make a double boiler
large spoon
parchment paper
sifter
very small bowl

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the first five ingredients together. Add in the 1 cup of flour, the baking soda, and the salt. Fold in the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. With the sturdy spoon or electric mixer, add in the dough, oats, and 1/2 cup of flour. Add the additional egg and mix it together as well as you possibly can.

Cover the cookie sheets in parchment paper. Put the extra flour in the very small bowl, using it to flour the fingertips of your dominant hand and the palms of both. By an estimated Tablespoonful, pull out cookie dough and roll it between your hands like you used to do with Play-doh to make balls. Don’t worry about making it perfectly round, though, just be firm; this step is to make sure that it holds together well enough to shape it. Pinch the ball into a conical shape. Set it on the cookie sheet and push down near the base to flatten the bottom and make it more stable. Once you’ve filled a cookie sheet or two, place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges brown.

Let the baked cookies rest on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes. Then, either carefully slide the parchment paper with the cookies still on it onto the counter or move the cookies onto a piece of already-laid-out parchment or wax paper.

It sort of looks like lava, doesn't it?

Once all the cookies have been baked, bring water to a low simmer in the pan. Place the heatproof bowl on top – making sure it doesn’t touch the water – with the butter and chocolate chip cookies in it. Melt the two together, stirring often. Once it is all melted together, use the large spoon to pour some of the ganache onto the peak of each cookie. To dry the chocolate quickly, cool them in the refrigerator for about a half an hour, but you can also simply leave them on the parchment for about 6 hours or overnight. If you really want to make them look like snow-capped mountains, you can use white chocolate for the ganache, or dust the tops with powdered sugar – which has the added bonus of looking like falling snow.

Yesterday, I had a particular flavor that I was thinking of that I really wanted to create, preferably in cookie form. But in going through my cookbooks, I realized that almost none of them had cookie recipes. I have a lot of bread, muffins, and coffee cakes, but only one book that is devoted to cookies.

So I was happy to come across an an online guide to cookies this morning, and thought I should share. It has recipes, troubleshooting, and info on how to package. If you’re feeling really generous, you can send some of your cookies to soldiers.

Now to see if they have a chocolatey, caremely, nutty cookie like the one I’ve been thinking of….

Snickerdoodles have been my favorite since I was a kid. I used to pester my stepmom to make them for me all the time. Kind of like sugar cookies with an extra coating of sugary, cinnamon-y goodness, I introduced Brad to them this year and he’s been hooked ever since. So while these are ostensibly the start of my Christmas baking, we are of course going to save some for ourselves.

My Snickerdoodles

ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of powdered sugar

• 2 eggs

• 4 1/4 cup of regular flour
• 1 tspn of baking soda
• 1 tspn of cream of tartar
• 1/2 tspn of salt

• 1 tspn of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of white sugar

utensils:
3 bowls – two large, one medium or small
electric mixer
1 cup measure
1/4 cup measure
1/2 teaspoon
two cookie sheets
recommended: cooking parchment
wire racks

The recipe I was working off of uses oil instead of the applesauce but I hate how oily it makes my hands feel. Plus, I just didn’t have enough. Peanut oil didn’t seem like a very good alternative, my only banana is not yet overripe and wouldn’t be enough anyway, so I substituted the applesauce.

Preheat oven to 375F. In the largest bowl, use the electric mixer to combine the first four ingredients. Add the eggs and beat again until everything is smooth. In another big bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt; you can use a sifter or whisk but I recommend a simple fork since they are easier to clean and get the job done just as well. Add this mixture into the butter and applesauce mixture, stirring with a spoon or your electric mixer until it completely combined. Mix the cinnamon and sugar at the end of the list with the same fork.

Here, the original recipe recommends forming the dough into balls in your hands and then rolling them in the cinnamon-sugar, but the minute I stuck my hand in the dough, I knew it wouldn’t work. The dough just stuck to my fingers, and hung from them formlessly. If I could ever get it into a shape, it wouldn’t hold. Instead, I spooned it onto the parchment paper on the cookie sheets and then sprinkled each with cinnamon-sugar.

Bake them for about 11-14 minutes. If you’re doing more than one at a time and have them on two separate racks, switch them halfway through. When they’re brown, take them out of the oven and use a spatula to move them to wire racks to cool. Be careful not to let them get too brown; they burn easily on the bottom, even if they look fine on top.

They came out surprisingly well for such a drastic ingredient change, but they aren’t as sweet as the snickerdoodles we both love and have become used to. The almost savory taste of the dough just didn’t have enough sweetness to balance it into cookie territory.

Next time: Add some extra sugar and some cinnamon to the dough. Maybe even add cinnamon chips. Figure out a way to coat them with the cinnamon-sugar better.

I’d bake more cookies today but we’re going to Brad’s sister’s house tonight to work on a Christmas present for his mom. Our niece will undoubtedly be bouncing off the walls and dragging us around as much as possible so I need to save my energy.