Archive for March 31st, 2009

For years I was hard boiling my eggs way too long to the point that after you peeled the shell and cut them they not only smelled bad but the yellow had darkened (greenish) and was not pleasant to look at. Well, no more! My husband realized what I was doing wrong and explained that the eggs shouldn’t look like that and it was because of overcooking.

The perfect boiled egg:
After placing the eggs in a saucepan with cold water, set the heat on high and the timer for 20 minutes. Remember when the time is up you must cool them quickly in cold water so the shells will come off easily. That’s it, perfect eggs every time!

I named this Chocolate Chip cookie recipe after the creator who was our neighbor when I was a child. One day I was at her house because she had a son that was my age that I played with often and as luck would have it, Alice had just finished baking a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies that were fresh out of the oven, smelled delicious and of course we were offered some. Man oh man were they good! I went home and told my mother about them and at some point she was able to get Alice’s recipe which has now been in our family for decades. Heavenly

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C margarine (Land o Lakes 100%)*
• 1/4 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 C + 2 T flour
• 1 T milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 C (6oz.) Nestle Semi-Sweet Morsels
• nuts/raisins optional

Do this:
Preheat oven 375ºF
Cream the margarine, add white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add egg, milk and blend, then mix in flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in chocolate morsels by hand. Drop by tablespoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375º for 10-12 minutes, add additional time if using an air-bake cookie sheet. Leave cookies on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack. Makes 2 1/2  dozen cookies.

*I had not made this chocolate chip recipe for several years and did not like the way they turned out recently as they were not flat and crispy like the original. After double and triple checking the recipe there was only one thing left… the brand of margarine.
I had been using Blue Bonnet margarine for baking and cooking and noticed that when it was heated in a pan for frying it would “spit”. After reading the label on the Blue Bonnet margarine I found that it had 80 calories per tablespoon with obviously water added which caused the spitting. It also affected the chocolate chip cookies in causing them to rise and be soft which I did not want. My last batch of the chocolate chips turned out much better by using Land 0 Lakes 100% margarine and does not “spit” when melting in a fry pan. Now I will only purchase Land o Lakes margarine for baking and cooking and I am so happy that I finally figured out the problem
Have you had a similar experience?

Fresh out of the oven homemade chocolate chip cookies with a glass of milk – what could be finer!