My Foodie Christmas Wish List:

Gingerbread Manor


Rainbow Mixing Bowls


"Perfect Endings" Cupcakes


Breville Dual Disc Juice Extractor

New York Times Cookies Cont......

It's hour 46...the chilled dough has just been baked... and, well, I've got to be honest - they tasted the EXACT same! Still super good - still loving the sweet & salty combo, yet I was a smidge (yeah, I said "smidge"...) let down, only because of all the hype surrounding the chilling process. I really wanted to believe in the idea of "all the flavors coming together". I'm just not convinced that I would ever be able to correctly identify which cookie was made from the immediate dough and which cookie was made from the 36-hour-chilled dough, in a cookie taste test.

My cookie from the 36 hour dough topped with Whole Foods 365 Brand Sea Salt.


So there you have it. I'm happy that I now have a new go-to Chocolate Chip cookie recipe (Sorry Martha Stewart Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies!) and I am even more excited that I don't have to let the happiness chill in the fridge for a day and a half before baking it.

Now, I wonder how the Neiman Markus recipe holds up against this one.....

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie Trial

Success! They lived up to their (high) expectations! The salty & sweet combo was a hit, for me. My boyfriend wasn't a huge fan of the salt but he's not much of a foodie. I, personally, thought it was fabulous!
I have to admit, this review is after baking 4 cookies from the dough right after I mixed it. The remainder is in the fridge chillin' as we speak, letting those flavors soak into each other, so I will give the official thumbs up after the 36 hour mark, and decipher whether or not I think the chilling makes much of a difference.

Preparing the ingrediants... I used the Mijao 61% El Ray Dark Chocolate Discs from Whole Foods, along with Whole Foods 365 Brand 70% Dark Chocolate Mini Chunks


Mid Bake...(Mmmmm, they are starting to smell up the house!)


Pre Chilled Final Cookie

Cookie Cravings

This weeks To-Do:

1. Tackle the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. I'm going to follow the recipe exactly and see if they live up to the hype. I love the idea of sprinkling sea salt on top! Williams Sonoma has these little Sea Salt Caramels around the holidays which first introduced me to the idea of using sea salt with sweets and the result was amazing....soo yummy...the salt really did enhance the flavor and I can't wait to see if it does the same for the NYT cookies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

2. After scouring the Internet, I think I found a good contender to fulfill my craving for New York style Black & White cookies. I had one when we went to Manhattan for Christmas and I immediately wanted to find a recipe to match the fluffy, sweet, cakiness of this cookie. I love finding the perfect recipe for classic treats and I'm hoping this cookie will take me back to the magic that is New York City. The reviews of this recipe along with the photo of the finished product is what sold me - what a puffy cookie! Yay... Hope it lives up to my expectations :)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-and-White-Cookies-I/Detail.aspx

Diddy Riese - why do you not mail your cookies?!

If you have ever lived near or visited Westwood, CA (aka UCLA) and not been to Diddy Riese cookies - you have not been there. That is one of the only places I have ever been where people wait in line a half hour for something that costs .35 and don't complain once. You can smell the place from a block away and, if for some reason your nose is broken, the line around the corner tells you something special is inside. I would push small children out of the way for one of their white chocolate chip cookies - delish! Definitely my fav cookie shop west of the Rockies! Did I mention they also have ice cream which you can morph into your cookie for a monster ice cream sandwich like the ones above? Um, yeah.
http://www.diddyriese.com/

Mary's Mountain Cookie has an online store!!

When I lived in Vail, Colorado I used to work one day a week down in Breckenridge. The happiness of my day was walking down the street and getting a "Vanilla Avalanche" from Mary's Mountain Cookie - the two most perfectly fluffy chocolate chip cookies with a slab of whipped butter cream frosting sandwiched between the two. I would try to eat it as slow as I could because I needed to savor every calorie. Now, imagine my excitement when I find out THEY HAVE AN ONLINE STORE! (Diddy Riese - do you hear this?) I haven't ordered from them yet but I definitely plan to soon. I'm already dreaming about having a freezer stocked full of my $3.50 Vanilla Avalanche's - Yay!!

http://www.marysmountaincookies.com/