Savage Chocolate Chip Cookies...

This is very much a non-travel related post...I love baking (as you can tell by my pudgy mid-section!), and it's one of the things I dearly missed while living as an expat in countries where apartments don't come with ovens.

I'm a self-proclaimed cookie connoisseur, and (humble brag) make some savage chocolate chip cookies.  My friends keep asking me for the recipe, so to make life easier on myself, I'm just going to post it here.

I think I found this recipe on the HuffPost and made some adjustments to suit high altitude baking, because: SCIENCE!

These cookies are seriously yummy, and addicting A-F.  They're chewy, chocolate-y, and super rich. I always prefer them the next day, but they're still just as good fresh from the oven.

Ingredients:

The magic.

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3.5 oz Instant vanilla pudding
Pinch salt

1 1/2 stick softened butter
3/4 cup of brown sugar (I use dark brown, the original recipe called for light brown)
1/4 cup granulate sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla

12 oz bag chocolate chips

*******************************************

In a bowl, combine the flour, powder, soda, pudding, and salt....set aside.

In a large mixing bowl (or stand-alone mixer if you have one), cream the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla until well creamed - at least 3 or 4 minutes.

Cream the shit out of that...

Slowly add the dry mix, I usually add half and mix until combined, then add the other half.

Add the dry...

If the mixture is crumbly, add 1 tablespoon of cream and mix....keep adding 1 tablespoon of cream at a time until the dough sticks together (mine at high altitude takes 2-3 tablespoons).  You can also use water if you don't have cream.

Crumbly bumbly...

What your mixture should look like after adding the cream

Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Try not to eat the dough....even though you want to....the end game is worth it.

Use your 1/4 measuring cup to measure out the dough, roll into balls and slightly flatten.  It makes roughly 18 cookies - depending on how much cookie dough you ate along the way.

Now...here's the important step: Refrigerate the dough AT LEAST 2 hours, this is standard for all bomb ass cookie recipes...you need to give the butter time to harden again so your cookies don't flatten out when they bake.

REFRIGERATE THOSE BALLS!!

Bake @ 350 degrees - you'll have to adjust your time accordingly, the original recipe advises 11 minutes, but I bake mine for 17 at high altitude.  You want to slightly underbake them because they'll continue to bake when you pull them out of the oven.

Let the drooling commence...

Let 'em cool and enjoy the savageness of the best chocolate chip cookies everrrrrrrr!!

Happy Baking Trails...
I promise a bomb ass travel blog next time!

Photo of the Month: Cambodia and the Bayon

I'm itching for an adventure.  A solo one, because I'm pretty much over humans at this point.  You know how I know when I need to get away?  I start acting like a crotchety old lady...and I've been crotchety and moody for months now.  I want to go somewhere off the grid, but not entirely.  Just off the grid enough that my phone doesn't work so that the people who only text me when they want something can't get a hold of me.  Somewhere that I can talk to someone in broken English and learn something new about their culture.  Somewhere that also serves a delicious spicy bowl of noodles and a mango-something desert.

Y'all...I can't even begin to describe how fed up I am.  It's a culmination of little things that add up over time and take small hits on my overly empathetic heart.  My last blog entry, I wrote about how my life has turned on itself: where there was once a semblance to my social life but my work life sucked, now my job is great but my social life?  What's that?  You try to make friends, make yourself vulnerable to dudes that you fancy --- which in and of itself is hard enough...it took me DAYS to send a text telling Dude that I was interested...only to get a "maybe" response.  Well, in the words of Jack Johnson, "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no'".  And what have I heard from him on this subject since?  A big. fat. nothing.  So, to the dudes of the world I say, if a chick tells you she likes you, it probably took a LOT for her to say something, to take that risk...grow a pair and give her an answer, even if it's one you know she's not going to like, she'll respect you a lot more for that.  I'm just sayin.

So this is where I'm at.  Chillin' on my own, hiking on my weekends in the great Colorado Rockies, and counting down the days until my September vay-cay.  Unfortunately, this year is a no-go for international travel, since British BFF is coming to visit.  So, Photo of the Month's get me reminiscing and dreaming of past adventures, yummy noodles, and broken English conversations while standing in awe at the base of ancient temples.

Today, my memories take me to Cambodia.  Because I didn't have a desire to visit Cambodia...ever...but I fell 110% in love.  So right now in my mind, I'm in a tuk-tuk, following the throngs of tourists swarming to the Bayon, one of the many temples on the grounds of Angkor - a seriously magical place.  One that brought me to tears the moment I glimpsed it.  And I'm happy.

Entrance to an ancient civilization

Now, if I could get a damn bowl of spicy noodles and a coconut shake, I'd be feeling pretty grand :)

Happy Trails!

And, well...Jack.