Everyone Needs Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk

I had a crazy intense craving for a warm chocolate chip cookie and a glass of cold milk the other night. You can't really just make one chocolate chip cookie so I ended up baking 2 dozen. Don't worry. I do remember my goal (Btw, I saw a nutritionist today and she says I'm crazy to think I need to lose 20 lbs and she helped me reset my goal to 10 lbs so that's good news to hear. Finally, some good news.).

I can't tell you how satisfying it was to have that one warm cookie and then cold milk to wash it down. The cookie was soft in the center and slightly crispy on the edges and the gooey chocolate chips just made me smile. Mmmmmm. I took the rest of the cookies to work the next day and they were devoured. I'm grateful to my co-workers :)

I got my recipe from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. I like this book. The recipes are easy to read and understand and there are plenty of pictures of the finished goodies. There are a variety of recipes for breakfast, cakes, cupcakes, pies, tarts, brownies/bars, cookies, candies/chocolates and even drinks. I can't wait to tackle their recipe for the Sweet & Salty Cake (a bestseller at their bakery in New York) and the Baked Brownie (Oprah's favorite and voted Best Brownie by America's Test Kitchen and the Today Show).

Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

my notes are in parenthesis

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (Leave the butter out at room temperature or place on top of warm oven to soften but don't let it melt!)
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (try not to use vanilla flavoring - some of them have corn syrup)
• 16 ounces (a little more than 2 cups) of semisweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda and set aside
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. The mixture will look light and fluffy.
3. Add the vanilla and beat for 5 seconds.
4. Add half of the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. (Don't overbeat.)
5. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Cover the bowl tightly and put in the refrigerator for 6 hours. (I only put mine in for 3 hours because it was getting late and I really wanted my cookie. In terms of texture, I think my cookies would have came out better if I had refrigerated the dough for 6 hours.)
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (I used foil and it was fine.).
8. Use an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop out dough in 2 tablespoon-size balls. Use your hands to shape the dough into perfect balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
9. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans once during the cooking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown and the tops just start to darken. (I didn't rotate my cookies and they were fine.)
10. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely (although they are delicious warm).
11. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Bacon Apple Pie! Seriously.

I'll try almost anything once. I love bacon ice cream and I love the mix of the sweet and savory so why not try my hand at baking a Bacon Apple Pie? My chance finally came when someone recently gifted a spankin' brand new KitchenAid mixer to me. (Ha! Does this mean the pressure is off and I can stay single forever now? Because really, why do women go through the hoopla of fancy, expensive marriage ceremonies but for the chance to register for KitchenAids, pots & pans, a million spoons, vases and a whole mess of stuff they may never use? Hmm, I do want a set of these Unison pans.).

I've tried many recipes for pie crusts and so far, I really like this one I found from Shelley Young, a Chicago-based chef who also has a recipe for Bacon Apple Pie. I only used her recipe for pie crust though because I found the lattice bacon top to be too much. Yes, I do have limits.

Make sure your butter and shortening is chilled. You want it cold so when it mixes with the flour mixture, you get a good crumbly texture.

Life before the KitchenAid = 30 minutes of mixin' and sweatin' and a pair of very sore arms.

Life after the KitchenAid = 1 minute of mixing and I didn't even break a sweat.

After the dough forms, divide it in half and flatten it into a disc before wrapping tightly and chilling in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Chilling the dough is very important because chilled dough is much easier to roll out and flatten. You don't want to be rolling out a piece of melting, sticky dough.

The next day, roll out the dough and fit one piece over your pie dish. Brush some flour on your rolling pin to prevent sticking. I like to roll out my doughs on parchment paper to prevent sticking to the surface.

Next, fill it with your fabulous bacon and apple filling. I recommend using thick-cut bacon because there's more meat. I used Gala apples because that was the only kind available at my Farmers Market. You can also use Granny Smiths but try to stay away from the mealy ones from the supermarket.

Fit the second pie dough over the filling, cut off the extra dough and tuck in the edges of the top dough into the bottom dough. Be sure to cut some slits on the top for steam to escape or you can cut some pretty shapes like I did. You can use the extra dough you cut off earlier to cut shapes and lay on top of the pie.

Bacon Apple Pie - Done! I think heaven probably smells like that.

You can serve your Bacon Apple Pie with a piece of smoked cheddar. I can't resist a warm pie with ice cream a la mode so I went with vanilla ice cream.

Verdict? My parents, sisters and I all agree the pie was good but it did not exceed our wildest dreams for a Baaaaacon Apple Pie. The pie crust was perfect - flaky, flaky, flaky with a hint of sweetness from the sugar I added to the flour mixture. The KitchenAid really did its job of thoroughly mixing the butter and shortening to give me a flaky crust; I never got such flaky crust when I was mixing by hand.

I should have sliced my apples thinner and more uniformly because I found out that some pieces were softer than others. Surprisingly, the bacon did not overpower the pie and you can't taste any greasiness which is good. So my verdict is that the bacon is probably unnecessary and a plain old-fashioned Apple Pie is just simple deliciousness that will impress on its own . However, if you're like me and like to try anything once then I say you should try your hand at baking a Bacon Apple Pie.

**I should note that we had the Bacon Apple Pie as dessert after our decadent meal of Iberico de Bellota Pork with Jamon Serrano so we were stuffed from our dinner and bacon just pales next to Iberico de Bellota. Hmm, perhaps I should try this again with the pie as the only course.

Flaky Pie Crust

from Chef Shelley Young

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, chilled
• 3 tablespoons shortening, chilled
• 3½ tablespoons cold water

*(Correction: I previously wrote that this will make a double crust pie. That's incorrect. This is enough if you are making a single crust pie with a bacon lattice top. Double the recipe if you want to make a double crust pie like I did here. When you get to step 4, after you form a ball with the dough, use a big clean knife and cut the ball in half. Reshape into a ball and follow step 5 and 6.)

1. Put flour, sugar (optional) and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade.
2. Cut butter and shortening into small pieces; add to processor.
3. Pulse mixture until crumbly and butter is in small pieces throughout flour.
4. Working quickly, start processor and add cold water until mixture just forms a ball.
5. Turn out dough onto work surface; flatten into a disk.
6. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 24 hours before rolling out.

Bacon Apple Pie

from Eclectic Gecko with some extra notes from me

• Pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie, uncooked
• 6 cups apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices (about 2 lbs or 8 medium apples); try to avoid mealy apples
• 3/4 lb uncooked bacon; thick-cut recommended
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• For the pie wash: Mix 1 tablespoon milk with 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Fry bacon in skillet until slightly floppy. It should harden and become more crispy as the oil drains on paper towels.
2. Chop bacon into 1/2″ pieces. Line bottom of pastry-lined pie dish with a layer of bacon, reserving the rest.
3. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add apple slices and remaining bacon pieces. Toss to coat.
4. Transfer bacon-apple mixture to pastry-lined pie plate.
5. Place upper crust on pie, cut away extra dough and tuck/seal the top and bottom pastry dough (If you wish, you can do a lattice pastry top. Or, you can make a bacon lattice top and use uncooked bacon for the lattice - remember to adjust recipe though). Cut slits on the top if you are using the double crust to allow steam to vent. Brush top with milk and sugar pie wash.
6. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour or until bubbly and brown.
7. Cool before serving.