Kicked Up Cookies

Hey kids, I'm back and it has been way too long.

Dabney and I had to bring dessert for Christmas. We brought some cheesecake bars and chocolate chip cookies. I have been reading Cooks Illustrated but while I have several issues, I have not made many recipes from it. The chocolate chip cookie recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and what they did was take the traditional Tollhouse Cookie recipe and made some modifications. It uses melted butter, more brown sugar, and extra egg yolk. Also it has you mix together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and egg, then you whisk the mixture and then rest three times. The whisking and resting helped make a very smooth batter because the sugars broke down. We also added some craisins to the recipe, which we thought would add to the holiday feel of the recipe. It was interesting doing a variation on a recipe that made with my Mom when I was a kid. The cookies and cheesecake bars were very good and were a big hit at the dinner.