Sea Salt Caramel Chip Cookies

 Hello Friends! I hope you are all safe and well.  It took a second lockdown but I have finally capitulated and joined the baking frenzy that has gripped the world.  I had been craving the delicious balance between the salty and the sweet that is sea salt caramel.  What could be more marvelously comforting than sea salt caramel chip cookies?  There is a plethora of basic cookie recipes out there.  Most helpfully, there was even a recipe provided on the back of the sea salt caramel chip packet that I used.  However, I drew inspiration from a marthastewart.com cookie recipe with a couple of tweaks of my own.  Of course, you can use any flavour of chip that you prefer.

Sea Salt Caramel Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups sea salt caramel chips (or any other type of chip)

Optional: 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Beat together the butter, white and light brown sugars and the flour then add the rest of the ingredients. I used an ice cream scoop to measure out portions at least 2 inches apart on parchment paper or on a silicone baking mat placed on a baking tin. You can also use 2 heaping tablespoons. For added depth of flavour, I also added 2 tablespooons of maple syrup.  The smokiness of the maple syrup deepens the flavour profile of the molasses present in the brown sugar.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges darken slightly in colour and the center is soft and chewy.  Let cool on a baker's rack and then store in an airtight container.

I have also tried butterscotch chips in this recipe.  Afterwards, I sprinkled a pinch of pink sea salt of top to achieve that sea salt caramel flavour.  

I experimented with different sizes.  I found that by pressing down slightly on each portion, the cookie dough would spread out in the oven and attain an amusingly large circumference.

What could be better with these scrumptious cookies than a cup of tea or coffee?

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Comforting Things To Do When You Are At Home

How are you?  I have realized that no one has actually asked how I am doing whilst sheltering in place.  I have been inundated with exhortations to Be Thankful!  Be Grateful! Smile! Cheer Up!  but no one has actually asked me how I am really doing.  Maybe this is you too?  Maybe, like me, you are feeling anxious, stressed, wondering if you are going to have a job at the end of all this,  when will the end come, what will the world look like and so on.  I had to go through a range of emotions akin to the stages of grief.  I realized I was grieving for all those deaths around the world and many more to come and also for the loss of our way of life.  There has been a loss of innocence that strikes right at the heart of our existence.  Those days of blithely spending hours in a crowded restaurant or cafe are long gone.  One day, we will go to a restaurant again but I think there will always be that niggling sense of worry and fear.  Can you even imagine trampling through a horde of people on Black Friday or Boxing Day?  The very thought makes me break out into a cold sweat.  

As the days and weeks passed, I began to settle into a semblance of a routine and to find ways to keep myself occupied at home. I have realized how important it is to nurture one's health with nutritious food and there is nothing more nutritious and comforting than homemade chicken soup.

Break out that fine china and cutlery that you only use a few times a year.  You can easily make each meal an occasion by using the fancy china that you have been saving "for good."  I have a set of Denby cutlery that I rarely use because the handles are made of the famous Denby pottery.  In the above photo, you will see a Denby spoon.

I did a stock take of my kitchen cupboards and came across a tin of Ghirardelli hazelnut hot chocolate.  I truly cannot remember how I acquired this tin but am so glad I discovered it.  It is amazing!

It is so creamy and rich.  The hazelnut flavour combined with the dense chocolate goodness is so satisfying. Diet, you say?  What diet?

I also did some baking.  I had a set of silicone cups that I had never used.  In the spirit of making do with what I had on hand, especially now that grocery shopping is so arduous and flour has disappeared off the grocery shelves, I whipped up some oatmeal and applesauce muffins.

I must say that, in these times, it is important to not just be kind to others but to be kind to yourself as well.  It is okay to feel what you are feeling.  Lean into those emotions.  There is no need for you to come out the other end as the next Mother Theresa or with a degree in astrophysics.  Let me know how you are doing as I truly want to know.

A Monstrous Cookie Halloween

In my continuing quest to slow down, I have temporarily put aside learning how to bake a decent loaf of bread due to Monsieur's increasingly frequent comments regarding a passing gluten intolerance. Strangely, this intolerance tends to disappear when cookies and cakes are on the menu.  Hmmm, I think I will have to try my hand at baking cookies.  I am very fond of ginger and molasses cookies and, as I had unearthed a long forgotten carton of molasses in the kitchen cupboard, I set about attempting to bake them.  I used a recipe from epicurious.com which I won't copy here for various reasons to be explained later.  I have never used molasses in cooking before and so had no idea how hard it was to get out of the carton.  I wonder what Monsieur thought when he came home and saw this.

Note that I do not have a mixer.  In this house, mixing is done a la Little House On The Prairie style, with elbow grease and a wooden spoon.  The molasses is so viscous that I am unable to mix it consistently throughout the cookie dough.  I am sure that extreme minimalists everywhere would applaud my exhaustive and exhausting efforts with a wooden spoon.  However, all I can think of is the time Monsieur came home with a steam vacuum cleaner instead of a mixer.  Honestly, a steam vac!  In despair, I give up and throw the batch of "cookies" into the oven and hope for the best.

Suffice to say, the cookies are a failure.  They don't rise or spread out and develop strange crevasses all over. In fact, with the strange spotted colouring, they almost look like chocolate chip cookies.  In fact, they look like Frankenstein monster cookies!

Gloomily, I eat a breakfast cereal bar wrapped in a non-recyclable wrapper.  Yes, I know.  Fortified with mass-produced food, I am determined to try again.  Forget faffing with molasses, also known as edible road tar (although if you have experience cooking or baking with molasses please send along any tips or suggestions!).  This time I will try that old standby, chocolate chip cookies.  I have a bag of peanut butter chips so I decide to switch out the chocolate chips.  Obviously, my rebellious spirit is still alive and kicking.  I use a recipe from Martha Stewart's website.  Thank heavens, the Queen of All Things Good doesn't disappoint.

Strangely, though, the cookies nearest the heating element stayed smallish (the row at the top) while the cookies on the tray further away from the heating element in the oven spread out more (the row on the bottom).  Baking is an exact science and to me a mysterious one.  Still, whatever their size, they taste scrumptious.

  Perfect for a Hootin' Halloween.

Or, for would-be Dragons and Dragonettes, a Roarin' Halloween.
Wherever you are, I hope you have a Spooktacular Halloween!

I'm linking up with Natasha In Oz.