"chocolate chip" news and stories

Notice that it isn't National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. There are other things you can do with them besides the cookie route.

You can put them in pancakes, put them in bundt cake, and even in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Of course, if you want to make chocolate chip cookies, here's the original Toll House Cookie recipe. I keep a bag of the Toll House semi-sweet pieces in my fridge and snack on them constantly.

I pulled out my cookie tome yesterday - Carole Walter's Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets - and went for the aptly-named Carole's Really Great Chocolate Chip Cookies. (I know, the name sounds like a cop-out - until you realize that these are in addition to the "Soft and Chewy Choc. Chip Cookies," the "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies," the "Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter..." - Well, you get the point. After awhile, you run out of names.

No matter: I felt good about these babies. Of course, it was not until I walked the ten blocks home that I realized I'd forgotten the light corn syrup that the recipe called for. So, out came the laptop, in a frantic search for the proper ratio of sugar-to-liquid to make DIY corn syrup. (It's one cup granulated sugar to 1/4 cup water, cooked til thickened).

The cookies are made with 1/2 cup of 1-minute oatmeal to prevent them from spreading out too much while in the oven. It definitely seemed to help, although my first batch was a bit underdone (I cooked them for 12 minutes), and my second batch - at 14 minutes - was slightly crunchy. Although, I have to say, dipped in my coffee this morning, the latter batch was absolutely perfect. Perhaps I should have turned the cookie sheet halfway through, like Carole suggests, or gone with real corn syrup instead of my cheap-o substitute. No matter - despite my flops, they were still amazing. (Oh- and forgive the grainy laptop camera shot).

Check out the recipe after the jump.

You know a cookbook is a keeper when you pick it up as you would a novel, and page through carefully, taking in the words and photographs and recipes as if they were classic literature. You savor each page, admiring the layout, drooling over the photos, and scheming about what recipe you'll try next.

That is what Carole Walter's Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets is to me. I'll read it when I'm not even planning on baking, for fun or inspiration. Walter, an accomplished pastry chef, divides her book into twelve categories, including drop cookies, "big boys," rugelach, biscotti, meringues and more, each with its own glossy, full-color photograph and often accompanied by a sweet story about her children or grandchildren.

The drop cookies chapter alone is enough to stop you in your tracks. Rustic Maple Pecan cookies mingle with Crystallized Ginger and Macadamia Wafers and rub shoulders with Zach's Chocolate Coconut Devils.

Overwhelmed, I went with a safe bet: the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

A chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie, so it's never really bad. If there's one in front of me, I'm going to eat it. On the other side, very rarely does a chocolate chip cookie ever "wow" me. Sure some of them might be cuter because they're smaller, or impressive because they're the diameter of a dinner plate. At some point,though, they're all pretty much the same.

However, I recently came across a chocolate chip cookie that actually made me take notice. A friend and I were out at "shopping event" where local food vendors were sponsoring refreshments up and down the street. One of the stores was offering Deluscious Cookies.

The cookies are just slightly smaller than a CD, so they already stand out for size. They're fairly flat, and somewhat flimsy, which means a lot of butter. I took a bite, and after that first bite, I think I finished the whole thing in about 45 seconds. The cookies are lightly chewy, a little sticky for all that sugar, and though you can't tell from the surface, it's overflowing with chocolate chips.

While I only got to try the chocolate chip (the second one I had was also chocolate chip), there are 24 different "flavors" of Deluscious Cookies. I haven't seen these cookies in stores or bakeries, but they are available for order.

Like so many other people, I nearly always have a couple of bananas laying around that are getting overly ripe. Sometimes I just stick them into the freezer for later use, but I often toss them into a loaf of banana bread. Banana bread is fast, easy and works great for both breakfasts and for snacking. The only drawback is that you can get tired of it after making the same loaf recipe several times in a row. It is easy to dress up a loaf by tossing in chocolate chips, nuts or raisins, but it's nice to have some more varied variations available, as well. In this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips that looked quick, easy and tasty. Not surprisingly, it lived up to my expectations. The bread is slightly heavy, but not too dense, and has a good balance of peanut butter and banana flavors. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and cut back on the amount slightly. The bread is good plain and toasted, for breakfast, with tea or for dessert!