Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bake Sale Chocolate Chips

This year, as always, all the parents are asked to bake something for our kids’ elementary school’s Spring Fair. I usually bake the Oatmeal Chocolate Chips that I have already posted but this year I decided that I needed a new recipe. Our favorite realtor, Linda Betts, has us on the mailing list for her promotional magazine called American Lifestyle. This magazine usually has a few interesting recipes. The January issue had an entire article on Chocolate Chip cookies. I’ve always loved Chocolate Chips. Doesn’t everyone? The article explained how chocolate chips were born at the Toll House Restaurant in Massachusetts as a bit of a mistake when Mrs. Wakefield ran out of nuts for her butter cookies and used a chopped up Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate bar instead. A happy mistake, I call it. The recipe I chose to make is called The Orchards’ Chocolate Chip Cookies. According to the article, these cookies originated at a bed and breakfast called The Orchards in Massachusetts. The Orchards offered their guests fresh-baked cookies and milk by their beds each night. The recipe came from a nationwide contest that the Inn had sponsored in 1987. It sounds like a winning recipe to me. I baked up a batch, packed them two to a bag and tied the bags up with festive ribbons. I hope they sell well at the Fair!

The Orchards’ Chocolate Chip Cookies

6 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups butter (6 sticks)
2-1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set the mixture aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter with a large wooden spoon. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and continue creaming until they are well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients, using your hands to blend them well. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for about 8 minutes. Do not overcook. Place the baking sheet on a rack so that air can circulate under the cookies as they cool or slide parchment paper, with the cookies still in place, onto racks to cool. When they’re completely cool, store them tightly covered.

Yield: 9 to 9-1/2 dozen

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Arnold Palmer - Iced Tea Lemonade

I have been a big fan of Iced Tea and a big fan of Lemonade for a long time. I never thought about putting them together until recently. I heard that there is a drink mixing both of them that is named for the professional golfer, Arnold Palmer. It started way back in the 1960's when Arnold Palmer was in his heyday. It was his favorite drink and a smart waitress at a restaurant he frequented named the drink for him. The fact that I only learned about it a few months ago doesn't mean it isn't a popular drink. I am not a big fan of golf. The drink sounds good to me, though. It seems like a simple premise. Mix some lemonade with some iced tea in whatever proportions you prefer. I wanted to take it a bit further and make the iced tea and the lemonade from scratch. Apparently, there are lots of iced tea makers out there but I am from the old school, as I have probably mentioned a few times. I just went ahead and made my iced tea the old fashioned way by boiling water and putting a bunch of tea bags into a pitcher. Of course, you can go back even further and get yourself a tea infuser. I have never dealt with tea in its "unbagged" form but I imagine it would be messy. I guess if I am going to call myself old fashioned, I really should do it that way. Next time, maybe.

I also wanted to make fresh lemonade by squeezing a few lemons. It was very easy when I used my favorite Pampered Chef citrus juicer. I love Pampered Chef stuff. Pampered Chef is my secret splurge. I can rarely resist a Pampered Chef party even though I have so much of their stuff already. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. Don't tell all those Pampered Chef reps that I am a terrible push-over for their stuff. Right, they probably already know.

Why all this fuss about iced tea and lemonade. Well, I am trying to keep D from drinking too much soda. My sister started him on Sprite when he was about 2 years old. I really would have liked to keep him from it for a long time. But if she hadn't started him, I'm sure that my hubby B would have introduced him to it in due time, anyway. Fortunately, D likes iced tea and lemonade. He also likes things that are "different." That is what gave me the idea about making the Arnold Palmers. Personally, I don't like all the fruity iced teas that are available from Snapple and Arizona. I just prefer my tea with some lemon. The iced tea lemonade is about as "different" as I will go with my drinks. Call me boring but that is the way I like it.

Here are the recipes I found for Iced Tea and Lemonade. After making them both, I will use two pitchers to make the Arnold Palmers. At first, I am going to start with half tea and half lemonade. I will then adjust as needed. I prefer my iced tea unsweetened which is probably heresy to some people but again that is just the way I like it. Go ahead and add sweetener to the tea if you like.

Iced Tea

6 cups of boiling water
6 Lipton teabags

Steep tea for 2-5 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea. I steeped mine for 5 minutes because I knew it would be mixed with the lemonade.

Lemonade

2 cups boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 cups lemon juice (about 8-12 lemons)
ice cubes

I first boiled the water and then added the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and make it into a simple sugar syrup. I poured this simple sugar syrup into a pitcher and then added the lemon juice and ice cubes.

Arnold Palmer

1/2 glass (4 ounces) iced tea
1/2 glass (4 ounces) lemonade

You can adjust the proportions of each to your taste. Enjoy!

The Creative Cook