Mia Bakes: HappyCall Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies (cookies cooked on hob!)

Well, I didn't intend to put this up as a recipe post, but in the end I just decided to (for my own record's sake) so here's a super quick and short post! 

To be honest, I have no idea how many cookies I can get out of this recipe because I've not finished baking the entire batch of dough (more than half of it is currently still frozen in my freezer) even after using part of it as my baked cheesecake base. That idea came out pretty fail, by the way, because the low heat required to bake off the cheesecake is not enough to give you a crunchy cookie base, which was what I want to achieve. But if you like a soft, severely underbaked, chewy and gooey cookie base, then go for it. 

Anyway, to get at least an estimated a dozen huge (subway sized) chocolate chip cookies, you'll need:

100g unsalted butter

70g shortening (preferably butter-flavoured)

75g dark brown sugar

115g castor sugar 

(I substituted part of this with stevia)

125g plain flour

60g top flour (or cake flour)

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

180g chocolate chips 

(I used semi-sweet & 72% dark mixed)

recipe adapted from modernhoney.com

First up, melt your unsalted butter in a pot over the hob and let it simmer until browned. Then, take it off the heat and set it aside to cool, before beating in the shortening and sugars until creamy.

Add in the egg (at room temperature) and vanilla extract, and mixed until well combined before sifting in the the rest of the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) in 2 to 3 batches, folding until most of the flour cannot be seen. 

Then, add in your chocolate chips (or you can use chocolate chunks, up to you) and fold until just combined. 

And I'm pretty sure nobody needs to bake off a dozen huge-ass chocolate chip cookies at one shot, unless you're having a party, so just portion out the amount of dough you wish to bake off for now, and wrap the rest tightly in clingwrap and pop it into the freezer. That should give you ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough for the next couple of weeks!

Do note that cooking time will differ depending on how big or small you portion out your cookies to be, I made mine with 3 flat tablespoonfuls of dough each. 

The cookie dough has a pretty high fat content (170g of butter and shortening!) and also because HappyCall is a non-stick pan, there's really no need for you to add in anymore butter or cooking spray. Just warm up your pan for a little (needs not be very hot, just barely warm), and then press your cookie dough (I shaped mine into about slightly more than 0.5cm thick) onto the pan. Snap your HappyCall pan shut and lower your heat down to the lowest heat and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the side has turned golden brown.

Now, the reason why I used HappyCall pan is because the cookies will still be very soft and crumbly, so flipping them will be a b*tch! With HappyCall, you simply just flip your entire pan around and set it back onto the hob! It's that easy!

Cook your cookies for another 8 mins or so, until the side turns golden brown as well. 

At this point, the cookies will be fully baked (this is a slightly crunchy, crisp cookie so you need not worry about over-baking it that much) but they will still very extremely fragile. Leave it on the pan to cool for at least 3 to 5 minutes before attempting to pick it up. The cookies will firm up and turn crisp upon cooling down. 

Till then, 

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Brookies (Brownie+Cookies)

Finally, I made myself some (half-healthy) brookies!

Even though I made this for my #cheatdayeats on Sunday, I'm still hesitant on "go big or go home" and decided to lessen my guilt by combining a sinful, high calorie chocolate chip cookie with a healthy, low calorie (just 70 kcal per serving!) brownie to balance it out! :)

So let's get over the ingredients so we can get started!

For the chocolate chip cookies:

(adapted from tasty.co)

60g unsalted butter 

12ml to 15ml strong coffee (optional)

25g baking stevia (or 50g castor sugar)

60g light brown muscovado sugar

80g all purpose flour

1/2 an egg 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking soda

110g chocolate chips/chunks 

(dark, milk, bittersweet, semi-sweet or a mixture, to your preference. I've used 72% dark chocolate chips & Excellence Chili Chocolate)

For the healthy (70 kcal) brownie:

64g unsweeten applesauce

80g plain greek yogurt

84g raw honey

60g all purpose flour

45g unsweeten cocoa powder

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

First, let's start off with preparing the cookie dough as it needs to chill for at least 30 minutes. In a pot, melt your butter and keep it over low heat until browned and set it aside to cool. As the water content in the butter will be evaporated during browning, measure the butter again and top it back up to 60g with a dash of strong coffee (or water, if you prefer). 

Then, add in your sugars and beat with a balloon whisk until well combined before beating in the half-egg and vanilla extract. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) and fold until mostly combined before folding in your chocolate chunks until just combined. 

Cover with some cling wrap and place it in the fridge to firm up for at least 30 minutes or overnight for the flavours to develop. 

While the cookie dough is chilling, prepare your brownie batter! It couldn't be any simpler, for this is a 1 bowl recipe. First up, dump all your wet ingredients into a large bowl (applesauce, yogurt, honey and vanilla extract) and whisk until well combined. Sift in your dry ingredients (very important to sift the cocoa powder as they're always lumpy!) and mix until just combined. THAT'S IT!

Pour your brownie batter into a greased/parchment lined baking pan (I used a round pan, but you can use an 8x8 square tin) and bring out your chilled dough from the fridge. 

Using either your hands or spoons, drop chunks (big or small, up to you!) of the cookie dough all over the top of the brownie until it's mostly covered. You need not make sure that the surface is 100% covered as the cookie dough will spread as it bakes.

I personally did not use up all my cookie dough for the brookie (hence the "bald" patches) but leftover about 20% of the dough to bake up as some chocolate chip cookies, which I found to be too sweet. I have already reduced the sugars from tasty's recipe to begin with and used dark (and spicy) chocolates, so... I can't imagine how sweet the cookies will be if one is to follow that recipe strictly.
And I do know the 70 kcal brownie looks inviting but I do not suggest that you use this brownie recipe as a straight up brownie on its own. I've intentionally tone the flavour down (both the sweetness and richness of chocolate flavour) to complement the strong flavour from the cookie. In short, these two seemingly separated recipes are meant to be baked and eaten TOGETHER. 

If you're bent on having a healthy, low-calorie brownie, check out my 77 kcal brownie recipe HERE.

Alright, then send your brookies to bake in the oven pre-heated to 180 degree celsius for about 25 minutes until the middle has set an a skewer inserted comes out clean with just a few crumbs. 

Wait for the brookies to cool COMPLETELY before cutting as the cookies will be exceptionally crumbly when still warm from the oven. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Oreo / Reese Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

First up, a very Merry Christmas to y'all! 

It was another #bakingtrio project time and this time, we've not only baked some stuffed cookies, but also enlarged the mini yule logs (recipe HERE) we've baked last year following cupcakejemma's recipe.

I will, very much, advise you to at least HALF the buttercream recipe, or use a much smaller baking tray to get thicker sponge cake. If not you'll end up like us, chocolate-rum buttercream overload. Not that we're complaining though. That buttercream is out-of-the-world delicious.

So now, on to the stuffed cookies!

For roughly about 15 to 16 cookies, you'll need:

60g soften unsalted butter

1 small - medium egg

60g castor sugar

40g brown sugar

120g plain flour

(may need to add more)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

70% cocoa chocolate chips 

(however little or much you prefer)

oreo thins

reese peanut butter cups

Note: I do suggest trying out with standard oreos instead as we found oreo thins a little too underwhelming.

And also, because #bakingtrio prefers to do less sweet, you may want to add a little more sugar if you'll prefer your cookies to be sweeter. Or you might just want to use a sweeter variation of chocolate chips if you fancy. 

First up, cream your butter and sugars until it turns light and creamy, before beating in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift in all your dry ingredients and fold until you do not see large pockets of flour, before folding in your chocolate chips until just combined. 

Make sure your dough is pliable and doesn't stick to your hands excessively (or even too liquidy to work with). Fold in more flour (tbsp by tbsp) if required, until you get a consistency you can work with. Then, use a tablespoon and spoon your cookie dough into 30g dough balls and wrap either an oreo cookie or reese peanut butter cup into each ball. 

This cookie will be slightly cakey and dense, so it wouldn't spread much so do remember to give your dough balls a little press on top to flatten it as you place them about 1.5 inches apart on your baking sheet, before baking them for about 11 to 12 minutes at 175 degree Celsius or until your cookies starts to turn a light golden brown at the edges. 

And I have to say the reese peanut buttercup ones were really satisfying! We decided to use the leftover ganache from the yule log for the oreo stuffed ones too, which kine of make it up for their lack of oomph. 

So, how was your Christmas bakes? Do share them with me!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Cocoa Nibs Crunchy Cookies

Okay, I promise this shall be the last baking post I'll do for this year. And the reason for this bake post is because of two new 'babies' I've bought on iherb.

Raw cacao sweet nibs to replace our sugar (and fat) laden chocolate chips.

And a 1:1 sugarless sugar replacement that supposedly bakes and tastes exactly like sugar. 

I've previously baked 1 batch of chocolate chip cookies following their 1:1 replacement instruction and also using semi-sweet hershey's chocolate chips and the result was... SUPER SWEET. 

So my advice to you is, do not follow the 1:1 replacement instruction. Start low, with about 50% reduction and then slowly work your way up if it's not sweet enough for you. 

So now, let's get over the ingredients so we can get started:

For 15 (1 tbps-sized) cookies, 

60g unsalted (soften) butter

100g AP flour

10g potato starch

(you may sub with corn flour/starch)

15g top flour

(you may sub with cake flour)

1/2 tbsp honey 

(you may replace this with milk and increase your sugars)

25g brown sugar

25g baking sugar substitute (sugarless sugar)

(you may use castor sugar)

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg (small to medium size)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder (or 1/2 tsp baking soda) 

1/4 cup organic raw cocoa sweet nibs

(you may use normal chocolate chips)

You can get the sugarless sugar, cocoa nibs and other ingredients I've used HERE.

The baking procedure is basic and standard. First up, cream your soften butter and sugars until pale and fluffy. Beat in your egg, honey and vanilla extract until well combined. Sift in all your dry ingredients and fold until just combined before adding in your cocoa nibs and folding your batter until the nibs are evenly distributed.

Using a tablespoon, spoon the batter onto your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you're chilling your dough, the cookies will NOT spread at all hence you MUST flatten your cookies and you may position them closer together on your baking sheet. 

Chill your cookie dough (on the baking sheets) in the fridge until they're harden up and bake until they're beautifully browned on the surface. 

I can't advise you on your oven setting and baking time as I've baked them in my mum's air fryer/roaster, which works very differently from a conventional oven. 

Anyway, just FYI, I baked mine at 215 degree Celsius in the air fryer for 5 minutes first before cranking down the temperature to 180 degree Celsius for the next 25 minutes. 

The AF bakes much, much, muuccchhhh slower as compared to an oven (my oven broke down and I haven't gotten a new one) and based on past experience with my oven, the cookies should bake within 15 to 20 minutes (depending on how thin you've flatten them) at 170 - 180 degree Celsius in a conventional oven.

These cookies are crunchy throughout and kept their crunchiness over the days they lasted. Due to addition of cornstarch and top flour, they're slightly crumbly and tender, like a shortbread cookie. 

But the cacao nibs killed it all. T.T
Contrary to those raves on iherb reviews, the nibs tasted sour with a weird, herbal aftertaste. It wasn't even the cocoa bitterness I enjoy in my dark chocolates. Texture wise, some were crunchy while some were overly crisp, somewhat crackly, and it made me feel as though I'm biting onto eggshells.

So my conclusion is, unless you're really desperate to follow through with an extremely 'healthy diet' and absolutely need to find a healthy alternative, if not just stick to your good old chocolate chips, please!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Recipe: Crunchy Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies

It has been a while since I've baked, being bogged down by many other nitty gritty issues recently. I had actually planned to bake some rainbow cake in a jar for my colleagues as x'mas presents but somehow chucked that idea into the refuse chute.... :( 

Nevertheless, I still have to share this recipe I've tried a while ago. It's CRUNCHY chocolate cookies with chocolate chips! 

Let's get on with the ingredients you'll need:

1. Butter - 125g

2. Brown Sugar - 50g

3. Caster Sugar - 40g

4. Semi Sweet + Unsweetened Baker's Chocolate, MELTED - 125g

(you can tweak the ratio you want by yourself to get varying level of sweetness)

5. Vanilla Extract - 1 Tsp.

6. Egg - 1 no.

7. AP Flour - 150g

8. Cocoa Powder - 30g

9. Baking Soda - 1 Tsp.

10. Salt - 1/2 Tsp.

11. Chocolate Chips - 100g

This recipe will give around 4 sheets of 16 bite sized cookies each.

First up, if you do not have baking soda on hand, you can always substitute it with 2.5x to 3x (actually in terms of actual content, it's 4x, but it might change the texture of your cookie if you used too much) of Baking Powder. But it's always better to stick to Baking Soda. 

First up, cream the sugars with the butter (soften, at room temperature) until it turns light and fluffy. 

Add the melted chocolate after it has cooled down (I did this because I didn't want my butter to melt along with the hot chocolate mix. Plus, we gotta wait for it to cool to add in the egg eventually) and stir well until thoroughly mixed. 

Crack in the egg and add in vanilla extract. Mix well. 

Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and sift well. Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. 

Add in the chocolate chips and fold until just combined.Remember, do not overmix!

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of the batter onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 170 degree Celsius for 25 mins. 

Do tweak your baking time depending on your oven and size of your cookies. The batter is also very firm so you can either work with your hands or with two spoons. 

After reading up on whether keeping the cookie batter overnight will produce better tasting cookies, I've decided to do an experiment on it. I separated my batter into two batches and kept half of them in the fridge overnight, wrapped in cling wrap.

My verdict is, there is no difference. However, a cookie batter can typically be kept in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer for up to months. So for convenience sake you can always prepare more batter to keep in the freezer and bake them as and when you crave for some freshly baked cookies. But taste-wise, I'll say skip it. 

Till then,

Mia

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