Hey y’all and welcome back to Teen Scene in Enid Monthly!! This month is the start of a new year and idk about you guys but I’m pretty excited. I thought why not show my excitement and happiness by sharing with you all something that always makes me happy! This month’s column will be about my favorite goods I like to bake, who/what inspired me to start, and my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe at the end! Let’s go!
There are many different types of things you can bake and I’ve tried almost all of them. All the way from macarons to basic chocolate chip cookies! If I had to choose just one, I would say cookies are my favorite because they are really easy and don’t take too much time. The hardest part about making cookies is not burning them since you can’t see the bottom of them. And sometimes the tops don’t look ready when they actually are. I’ve burnt my fair share of cookies so even if you do, just retry until you get it right. Macaroons are one of the hardest things I’ve ever tried to make. You have to mix as little as possible or it won’t bake right. Another challenge is getting your egg whites the perfect temperature, not too cold and not too warm.
The most time-consuming thing to bake is cakes! It has taken me up to 5 hours to make a cake. Every time I make cakes I just want to give up about halfway through. I recommend making the icing/frosting while the cake is cooling or baking so you don’t get too bored of waiting and give up. One thing I have never tried to make is bread! The closest I ever got was making chocolate chip pumpkin bread whenever I tried to make chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes but they turned out to be more bread texture than cupcake. #epicfail.
I started getting into baking about 3-4 years ago when I kept seeing recipes on my “For You” Page on TikTok. I started to look more into it and attempted multiple different recipes. My favorite baker is chelsweets. I get almost every single one of my recipes and still have never found one that I didn’t like. Her recipes are very easy to understand and work with. I would always see her making different things on Instagram and TikTok and it really made me want to start baking. When I was younger my mom would bake every now and then and I would help but she was a PERFECTIONIST and had to do everything done her way so I kind of picked that up from her and now no one likes baking with me. Don’t worry I’ve been working on being more fun in the kitchen!! Here is the recipe for my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I hope you try them out and of course I got it from chelsweets!!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients:
- 2 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg &1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Now before I get into the process, I want to highlight the KEY aspects of baking a chewy cookie. The secret ingredient is a bit of cornstarch! It works wonders. Having your eggs at room temperature also is important, but the MOST important part of the process to ensure a chewy cookie is to CHILL YOUR DOUGH. I mean really chill it. Your dough can sit in the fridge for anywhere from 2 hours to 3 days. This aspect is so important because the cooler your dough is, the less it will spread. And the less it spreads, the chewier it will be.
How To Make These Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Start by getting the dry ingredients together. Put the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl, and set it aside. Next whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Then whisk in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. After that pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix them together with a rubber spatula. The dough may be soft, but that’s fine because it still needs to be chilled. Next pour in the chocolate chunks or chips and chill the dough for 2-3 hours. After chilling the dough, take it out of the fridge and allow it to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, while it’s preheating grab either your pans, with parchment paper or nonstick spray, or a silicone baking mat to get ready for your cookies! Roll the dough into balls, using about 2 Tablespoons of dough then put about 12 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Let the cookies bake for 11-12 minutes (you may need to bake a little longer depending on your oven so after the 12 minutes check every minute to see if they’re ready.) Even if the cookies look a bit underdone, it’s ok! They will continue to cook on the cookie sheet, and firm up as they cool. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before you move them to a wire rack to cool completely or if you’re like my dad, eat them right off the pan!
Thank you for reading this month’s article. I hope you enjoyed it! I would love to hear about the cookie recipe if you try them out so email me at tweensceneenid@gmail.com I hope you have a wonderful start off the year! See you next month. BYE!
