Oct 28
Chocolate Cookies
I know I shouldn’t be baking cookies… most of all because we… EAT THEM! But, with the change of the season I become so active; I don’t know what it is but it’s always been like this. I have to do something! Years ago, I would change the position of my living room’s furniture… I placed the sofa where the table and chairs were and I took the TV and put it in the opposite wall; I would move the buffet towards another wall… The years passed and finally all the furniture found its definitive place in the living room, so I have to fulfill that need by arranging the terrace garden, by painting a room or by baking/cooking new recipes. This last option is most appreciated by my family ;D.
I’ve been searching for a good Chocolate Cookies recipe for a while now, a simple one, one of those that stays with you forever more, one of those that you can perform by heart because your family asks for it week after week ;D. The picture of a nest with 3 huge birdies with their mouths wide open just came to my mind… that’s how it is at home, lol!
And as Michael Jackson would say… This is It! I found it… the simplest Chocolate Cookie recipe ever! My foodie friend Miriam from El Invitado de Invierno just posted an awesome, easy recipe which I’m showing you hereunder with only one addendum: a Pecan on top of it. Only because I felt so guilty with the chocolate and the butter, I wanted to compensate and placed a pecan on top to remind me that we should take care of our health. Be the Pecan that reminder and let it be the one that unblocks my arteries from the butter grease ;D.
Lately, my interest for food photography is growing and I want to share with you my kitchen’s backstage; my photography set… see how easy it is to have a photography studio without special lamp lights, just some cardboards and some food style objects. I didn’t use a trypod for these ones :D. I encourage you to try with natural light; it’s your best choice! However, this might be a problem when the weather is cloudy or stormy… After you take the pictures, post edition is important: a little bit more exposure, or some more sharpening and saturation may improve the photos’ final result. Try it with Picasa or IPhoto, of course Photoshop and Lightroom are wonderful programs too!
Most of the times, I choose my post recipe thinking about the picture first… Am I too weird? See? with this one I wasn’t sure about the cookies presentation and I thought that the 3 in a row game would be nice to photograph, but after I tried, I didn’t like the result; so I chose the green recipient to get a fresh contrast with the browns and beiges.
Recipe
Ingredients for a 50 Cookies Batch: The amount will depend on the size of your cookies :D. 240 grs of pastry flour, four tablespoons of coco power, 1 pinch of salt, 210 grs of vanilla sugar, 180 grs of unsalted butter at room temperature, 2 big yolk eggs at room temperature, 50 grs of melted 70% cocoa chocolate, 50 raw pecans.
- In a big bowl, pour the flour, the coco powder and the salt and stir with a wire whisk.
- Take the chocolate and cut in pieces, place inside a bowl and put over a pot with hot water. Stir until it melts and reserve.
- In another bowl, place the butter and the sugar and beat with an electric mixer until bleach.
- Add the egg yolks one after the other. Keep beating and add the cold melted chocolate. Beat until you get an homogenous batter. Pour the flour bowl inside and mix with a silicon spatula until you don't see the flour anymore.
- Place the batter over kitchen film and divide in 3. Shape into 3 rolls. Wrap with the film and place inside the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 170ºC.
- Cut the cookies and place on some oven's paper on the oven's tray. Place the pecan on them. Bake for 15 minutes aprox.
- Cool down for 5 minutes over the oven's tray on the kitchen counter and then place over a wire rack.
- Enjoy!!!
Comments
My photography style consists of putting the dish on a plate and shaping several photos and hoping it turns out. Sometimes I get inspired by others photos and composition. The photos are a visual but I get more of a kick from writing about it. Your photography has always been exceptional Nuria.
You are as sweet as these cookies Val!!! Thanks for the nice words :D. You made me laugh with your particular style :D. I guess that if I wrote in my own language I might enjoy 50% writing, 50% photos. Writing in English can be tough for me sometimes.