Let’s take this cookie trail back a little shall we? Back to this past Wednesday, before I headed into the woods.
While tweeting with my good foodie friend Rachael from La Fuji Mama, we decided we didn’t want to show up empty handed to Camp Blogaway (the Food Blogger conference we attended this weekend) then Greg from SippitySup asked Rachael if she was brining Macarons.
Since Rachael was “out of aged egg whites” (or, so she said…) she asked if I happened to have any. What are the odds right? Well in my case the odds are pretty high that I might just have some ready for a quick batch of macarons. So it was decided, Rachael would bring a batch of her Deaddly Chocolate Almond Toffee and I would bring a few Macarons.
Thursday night, I got home from work, had dinner and started making the Macaron shells. I decided I was going to make two flavors, Pistachio, and S’mores.
The cookie trail continues…
Friday morning I finished up the S’mores macarons and decided to make a quick batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies for the boys to enjoy while I was gone, then I quickly packed my bag, got my pillow and sleeping bag ready, and made my way up the mountain to Camp Blogaway.
While at camp we made sure we got enough exersise.
We lounged, chatted, laughed, smiled, acted silly, and even sang the Camp Blogaway theme song to the tune of Gilligan’s Island.
We learned a lot from our fabulous guest speakers who had so much insightful information to share with us.
Our fearless leader PR expert and fellow blogger Patti Londre from Worth the Whisk Spoke to us about the benefits of running our blog like a business and how to work with PR folks. Very, very, insightful!
It was truly a treat to have Barbara Gibbs Ostmann Award-winning journalist and co-author of The Recipe Writer’s Handbook speak to us on the topic of recipe writing essentials, copyright & attribution.
Denise Vivaldo gave a very funny and lively speach on Food Styling Tips and Tricks for Bloggers.
Art Ramirez gave two excellent presentations. One to help improve our photographing skills and the other on quick and easy Photoshop food fixes. – Priceless!
Danny Jauregui from Over The Hill and On A Roll and Food Bloggers Unite Wowed us with his SEO knowledge.
Casey Benedict from Tastestopping brough with her a lovely slide show of Food Porn at it’s best and worst, and not only that she also treated us to the most delicious S’mores, made with her famous Vanilla Marshmallows. YUM!
Just like at camp… a few bloggers were the recipients of some well deserved awards.
Greg from SippitySup received the Camp Cheerleader award. Marla of Family Fresh Cooking received the “Best Overall Athlete” award. And last but certainly not least Rachael of La Fuji Mama received the “The Golden Pinecone” award. She’s so awesome she even shared her award with Jen from Savor the Thyme.
After awards were handed out, props were swapped and good-bye’s were said we each headed down the mountain.
Once I got home two days later to my surprise, there wasn’t a single chocolate chip cookie in sight. I did however find half a batch of brownies and a burnt pastry bag.
Note to self: Don’t use the oven to help dry pastry bags and then go out of town.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
2 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 ounces semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
5 ounces milk chocolate chips
2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and place oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven.
Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
In a medium size bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter for approximately 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down if necessary, or if you have one of these you need not worry much about having to scrape down your bowl.
Add eggs one at a time mix until incorporated before adding the second, continue mixing until the second egg is well incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the chocolate chips.
With a spatula give the dough a quick mix by hand to ensure the chocolate has been well incorporated.
Using a tablespoon size ice cream scooper, scoop out cookie dough balls and place twelve on each sheet, this will yield close to 4 dozen cookies. Or, you can also double the cookies size (2 tablespoons of cookie dough per cookie).
Bake for 10-11 minutes rotating pans (top to bottom and front to back) half-way through.
Cool the cookies on the pans on cooling racks for about 2 minutes. Once they have firmed up, you can finish cooling them directly on the cooling racks.
Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
These cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
