Bake Sale Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are roughly 3 1/2 inches in diameter. I call them the perfect bake sale cookies because of their gooey middle and large size. I have always found it awkward trying to sell small cookies at a bake sale. Because of the size of these cookies I feel comfortable charging around $1.50 during a fundraising bake sale.

To make large cookies I prefer to use a different recipe. When I use my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe (the recipe used in the posting for orange chocolate chip cookies) to try and make 3 inch cookies they always turn out too flat, but this recipe results in fluffy cookies.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flower
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix. In a medium bowl mix together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Mix together the flour mixture and the egg mixture. Finally mix in the chocolate chips. 

Each cookie will consist of 1/4 cup of cookie dough. Place the dough 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. 

Bake for 15- 17 minutes or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool.

Yields about 15 cookies.

These are the chocolate chip cookies James likes to make.  :)

Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/best-big-fat-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookie/detail.aspx

Canned Cherry Pie Filling

It's officially been a year since I used this recipe to can cherry pie filling! I wanted to come back and remark on how the canned filling held up. Within the first couple months of using the pies were always fantastic, but the one I made today (7/14/12) smelled a little fermented before it was put into the oven. Although I am not saying it was bad, I very much enjoyed my slice of cherry pie and couldn't taste the slight fermentation I had smelled earlier. Overall I would say try to eat it within about a year and don't go to heavy on the cornstarch otherwise the filling will turn out too thick. Enjoy!

James wanted to can cherry pie filling and he even bought a cherry pitter for the event! The following recipe is for one can or one pie, but can easily be multiplied. We made about 10 batches. Unfortunately, I do not know much about canning and would recommend looking up how to properly seal the jars.

For one pie filling you will need:

• 5-6 cups of cherries
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1-1/3 cup of water or cherry juice
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

To begin, wash and pit the cherries. I would strongly recommend buying a cherry pitter. Then boil the cherries for approximately one minute.

Mix 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 cup of sugar in a large pot. Add the 1 and 1/3 cup of water or cherry juice. Add the almond extract. Stir and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Then add the cherries and stir gently.

This recipe is specifically for canning, but it works great for a fresh cherry pie as well. The baking instructions for this recipe work for canned filling or freshly made filling. 

Line the pie pan with your choice of pie crust. Next, pour the pie filling into your pie crust. James and I chose to do a lattice upper crust.  Cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, and then another 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. After about 30 minutes, cover the edge of the crust with tinfoil to prevent burning. Let the pie cool for at least 2 hours.

This pie filling recipe is modified from pick your own.

Apple Pie

I went to Costco with Amy Davey the other day and we bought a bunch of green apples. There were so many that I had to bake an apple pie. Although I am still scared of crust made from scratch (it always seems to fall apart on me) so I bought some from Whole Foods. Unfortunately the store bought crust started to fall apart so I resulted to a lattice upper crust which I am not very good at.

A traditional apple pie does not have a lattice crust. It can be done, but usually the apples towards the top of the pie are a tad crunchy. To avoid this I substituted cornstarch for the flour. This will make up for the juices that dry out from the holes in the top. There are so many ways to make an apple pie.  I love apple crumble pies because they remind me of fall and are usually full of spices and sugar. However, I can't wait to try a spiral apple tart where the apples are thinly sliced and arranged into a spiral flower shape. It is simply beautiful.

For this recipe you will need:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• tinfoil

Preheat the oven to 425. 

After chopping the apples, combine them in a large bowl with the flower, cinnamon, lemon juice, salt and sugar. Mix thoroughly with hands or large wooden spoons. Grease you pie pan and then line it with the bottom crust. Pour the apple mixture into the bottom pie crust. Cut up the butter into small squares and spread them out on top of your apple filling.  Choose an upper crust style. If your pie is fully covered by the upper crust poke of slice small holes or slits into the pie so it will be able to breathe. The slits are usually strategically placed in a star shape in the middle of the pie.

Sprinkled Cinnamon on the upper crust

 Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees.  After 30 minutes reduce temperature to 350 and place tinfoil around the edges of the pie (to prevent burning). Cook for another 30-40 minutes. After 30 minutes place a toothpick through one of the slits or holes in your pie to test the firmness of the apples. At this point you can decide to continue to cook the pie for another 10 minutes (a total of 70 minutes= 30+40) if you feel your apples are still too firm.

After the pie is finished let it sit for about 2 hours before slicing or eating.