Poll Results: Everyone Loves Cookies, but Not the Kind in a Jar

So, I’ve recently started running some polls over on PCO.  Partly for fun, and partly because it helps me figure out what you guys want to know about/like/dislike/etc.  I asked what people think is the best homemade food gift.  One third of folks who responded said Cookies.  I guess that’s not too weird, but 0%–that’s right, nobody–thought that cookies in a jar was a good gift.  Do you guys know what I’m talking about?  It usually comes layered in a Mason jar–flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips and stuff–topped off by some sort of Decorative Ribbon Affair.

Personally, I kinda think that Cookies-in-a-Jar is a cool present. I know a Very Lot of people who think baking cookies means slicing off pieces from a tube of dough or spooning out some dough from a tub or breaking squares of dough apart and placing them on baking trays. I’m just saying that it does not take a baker to pull apart squares of dough.  I bet you don’t even really need Opposable Thumbs. Anyhow, friends, if you don’t introduce your Other Friends to real ingredients, they might never know that you can make some Excellent Cookies with just a handful of ingredients.  Only you can prevent Ingredient Ignorance.  Don’t you owe it to your Scoop-N-Bake friends?

Here’s the problem with lots of cookie mixes in a jar.  They’re based on some sort of baking mix, like Bisquick.  And Bisquick contains hydrogenated fats.  I know, because I looked it up for you.  Another issue with these recipes is that everything is all layered together, so you can’t really work the whole Creaming Method, since the sugars are all mixed in with the flour and other dry ingredients.  To get around this Issue, I propose changing the Gifting Vessel from a Jar to a Basket.

Watch and marvel as I take my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and turn it into Cookie Mix In a Basket right before your very eyes.  Make some for your buddies, who I’m sure all have opposable thumbs, and then make some straight up cookies for yourself.  Or make some for yourself first.  You are Altruistic, and you Deserve Cookies.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
10 oz all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 sticks/8 oz butter
8 oz. dark brown sugar (or light–whatever you have)
3.5 oz granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 whole eggs
8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Regular directions.

Melt chocolate in the microwave in short bursts.  Cool.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together very well.
Cream the butter until soft and smooth.
Cream the sugars in on low speed.  You’re not looking for light and fluffy–you’re not making a cake.  You just want a smooth paste of sugar and butter.
Mix in the vanilla.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low and scraping bowl.
Add the melted and cooled chocolate.
Add in dry ingredients and mix on low for a few seconds.
Mix in the chips.  Finish mixing by hand.
Space rounded tablespoons of dough about 2″ apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets.
Bake 1t 400F until set on the tops but still soft, about 12-13 minutes.
When cool enough, put in face.

Cookie Mix in a Basket Directions for you, the Giver and your friend, the Givee.

For the Giver:

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and put in a baggie–seasonal, if you can find them.
Wrap the unsweetened chocolate in some plastic wrap or in a baggie.
Do the same with the 8 oz of chocolate chips.
Mix the two sugars together and put them in a baggie, too.
Label the baggies so your friend knows what’s in them.
Get a Cute Holiday Basket and line it with a seasonal kitchen towel and/or oven mitts.
Nestle the four Attractive Baggies in the basket.
Wrap with some of that colored plastic wrap and tie a Jaunty Bow around the whole thing.
Affix the whole recipe and the givee rules, thusly:

For the Givee–Here I am just suggesting wording, mind you.  Say it how you want.

“(Almost) instant cookies.  Just add 2 sticks of softened butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 eggs.

Array the four baggies in front of you.
Take the unsweetened chocolate out of its baggie, and melt it in the microwave on medium power.  Let cool.
Cream the butter until smooth.
Add the baggie of sugar and cream all until smooth.
Mix in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, mixing well.  Scrape bowl.
Mix in the cooled melted chocolate.
Pour in the dry ingredients and mix for a few seconds.  Scrape bowl.
Pour in the chocolate chips and mix in by hand.
Space heaping tablespoons 2″ apart on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake at 400F until puffed and dry on top but still a bit soft.
Cool on the cookie sheets.
Put in face.

Whether or not you plan on making Baskets O’ Cookie Fixin’s for your friends, you should seriously make these cookies.  They are Very Very Good.  I based my recipe on one from Rosie’s Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich, No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book, by Judy Rosenberg.  Pretty much all the cookies in her book are Awesome.

And this concludes the first installment of Poll Results.  There are still two more polls up if you’d like to swing by and vote.  I’ll be changing the polls every three-four weeks, so check back and help me come up with some topics.  Have a lovely day.