Tidbits and Tweaks

When we decided to start this blog we discussed what we would call it.  We decided on “Tidbits and Tweaks” because that is what we wanted to share—little tidbits we had picked up along the way and tweaks on our favorite recipes, crafts, etc.

I had given up long ago on making drop cookies or cookies you spoon onto a cookie sheet.  As a busy mother of four active children I didn't have the time, energy or patience for them.  My preference was bar cookies.  You made the batter, put it in the pan, baked it and you were done.  You might say I was the queen of bar cookies.  Then Beth started bringing her Triple Chip cookies to family gatherings.  The first time they showed up with semi-sweet, milk chocolate, and white chocolate chips.  Next time they had semi-sweet, milk chocolate, and mint chocolate chips.  They were so good I had to get the recipe.  Here it is:

Beth’s Triple Chip Cookies

3 cups flour                                                              1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt                                                        1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed                                    2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter, softened (=11 tablespoons)         2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla                                                 ½ bag white chocolate chips

½ bag semi-sweet chocolate chips                      

½ bag milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix flour, soda and salt.  Cream together sugars, butter, shortening, eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients until well blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.  For a softer cookie stir (stir by hand) ½ cup flour.  Form into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  (Beth cooks them for 8 ½ minutes.)  Cool 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack.  You can freeze the dough.  If baking frozen dough bake for 10-12 minutes.   (Beth bakes hers on parchment paper.)

Here is a tidbit for you.  I have found through the years if you give ten women the same recipe it will come back slightly different in ten ways.  If you want a recipe to turnout more like when you originally ate it you need to ask the original baker, cook, chief the tricks or secrets that they do.  If you look at Beth’s recipe her tidbits or tricks are written in parenthesis.

Well, I tried this recipe and fell in love with it!!!  I loved it so much I started experimenting with the “triple chips”.  Here are some of my “tweaks”:

Instead of using white chocolate chips I have used peanut butter, butterscotch, or mint chocolate chips. Delicious!

The ones I wouldn't use again have higher sugar content and melt to the cookie sheet making it miserable to get off the sheets.  Two examples of this were Heath baking bits and caramel (yes that’s right—caramel) baking chips.

Then I started experimenting with candy.  I found mini Rolos didn't work well because once again the caramel would melt and stick to the sheet. In the process I came up with a recipe for what we call “Almond Joy” cookies.  Here is the recipe:

Almond Joy Cookies

3 cups flour                                                  
1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt                                            
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed                      
 2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter, softened (=11 tablespoons)         

1 teaspoon vanilla                                       2 eggs

1 teaspoon almond extract                         ½ cup coconut 

1 heaping cup Almond Joy pieces            ½ cup diced almonds            

1 cup milk chocolate chips

                                                         

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix flour, soda and salt.  Cream together sugars, butter, shortening, eggs and extracts.  Stir in dry ingredients until well blended.  Stir in chocolate chips, Almond Joy pieces (I measure a cup of the Almond Joy pieces and a cup of the milk chocolate chips.  Then I put the rest of the Almond Joy pieces in a cup measuring cup and top it off with milk chocolate chips), coconut and almonds.  For a softer cookie stir (stir by hand) ½ cup flour.  Form into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  (I cook them for 8 ½ minutes.)  Cool 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack.  You can freeze the dough.  If baking frozen dough bake for 10-12 minutes.

In my experimenting with candy I came up with this version as well:

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

3 cups flour                                      
1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt                               
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed           
2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter, softened (=11 tablespoons)        

½ cup peanut butter                         2 eggs 

2 teaspoons vanilla                          ½ cup cocoa                   

milk chocolate chips

1 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Chips  

1 heaping cup of Reese's Minis Unwrapped Peanut Butter Cups

      

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix flour, soda and salt.  (I use 2 ½ cups of flour and ½ cup of cocoa.  I find if I mix the cocoa in now it is distributed more evenly.)  Cream together sugars, butter, shortening, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients until well blended.  Stir in chocolate chips, Reese’s Minis Unwrapped Peanut Butter Cups, and Reese’s Peanut Butter chips. (I measure a heaping cup of Reese’s minis, a cup of Reese’s peanut butter chips, for the third cup I use the rest of the minis combined with the rest of the peanut butter chips.  If the third cup isn’t full add milk chocolate chips to top it off.) For a softer cookie stir (stir by hand) ½ cup flour.  Form into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  (I cook them for 8 ½ minutes.)  Cool 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack.  You can freeze the dough.  If baking frozen dough bake for 10-12 minutes. (This tends to make a denser cookie because of the added peanut butter.) 

Now it’s your turn.  Have fun and see what kind of combinations you can come up with.

Family Olympic Ceremonies

I don’t know about you, but we love the Olympics at our house. We decided that in honor of the 2014 Winter Olympics we would have our own family opening ceremonies.

I made all of the signs with just some scratch paper and Tay’s crayons. This is what our schedule for the evening looked like.

We started off by feeding the athletes (aka our family) an international dinner (I got this idea from A and Steph). Here is what our menu looked like.

After dinner we ran the torch (a flashlight that I taped tissue paper and foil to). We started in “Greece” of course.

We each took turns running the torch around our house. We had the lights on downstairs to represent running the torch during the day, and turned off the lights upstairs to represent running the torch at night. We cheered as whoever was holding the torch ran by. Our dining room table was our track so we ran the torch around the track and then lit the big torch (our gas fireplace).

After we ran the torch we each made a flag to represent our own country. We used scrap paper and taped it to straws. Then we, the athletes, marched into the stadium (down the hall and around our table).

It was a fun night and a few days later our daughter is still carrying her flag around with pride.

Happy Olympics!

Heather