Cooking with Asia

Prep Time: 15 Min

Cook Time: 10 Min

Ready In: 25 Min

Servings: 9 - 10

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. Line cookie sheet with parchment.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

4. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla.

5. Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder; mix well.

6. Stir in the chocolate chips.

7. Use a scoop to drop cookies on the prepared cookie sheets.

8. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

9. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I chose to make the best double chocolate chip cookie recipe because I really enjoyed it when we made them before. When I was making these at home it was pretty easy because we've made these two times already before in class. I did pretty good while making these, and I think that they came out really nice. I was scared that I might have burnt them but to my surprise I made them perfectly. They were nice and soft in the middle and the edges were nice and crispy. I was proud of myself for making them all on my own because before this class I never really baked at home. When making these cookies and preparing the ingredients I made one mistake after baking the cookies. The only thing that I did wrong was that after I took out the second batch of cookies I left to let them cool and they were sitting on the sheet and I left them there for too long and they were moist. But my mistake was easily fixed when I transferred them to the cooling rack. When I was baking, I used my knowledge from our cooking class to help me through making these cookies. So I learned in class that if you don’t have a scoop the scoop out your dough then you can use two large spoons so that’s what I did to measure my cookies. I really like this cookie recipe so I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make these again. Next time I make these though I'm going to make sure that i don’t lose track of time or else the cookies could get moist.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (100 grams) white granulated sugar

1 large egg

3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 (75 ml) candied red cherries, chopped

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).

2. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and then add to the butter and egg mixture. Mix just until a dough forms.

4. Stir in the cherries until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

5. Place dough on a large piece of parchment or wax paper. Smooth and shape the dough into an evenly shaped cylinder that is about 10 inches long. Then thoroughly wrap the shaped logs in the parchment or wax paper, twists the ends of the paper to seal the logs, and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least three hours, or up to three days. The logs can also be frozen for about one month. If freezing, it is best to let the logs stand at room temperature about 15-20 minutes before slicing.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F with the rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

7. Using a thin bladed knife, slice the logs into 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick slices. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Store at room temperature for about five days or baked cookies can be frozen for a couple of weeks.

When I went to have a cookie I was skeptical on how it would taste because all the guys said of how bad they tasted but when I did have one I enjoyed it. They were really sugary but overall I think they were pretty good. When we were making these it was really hard to roll the cookies into a cylinder shape. Whenever we'd get it to ten inches then I'd accidently roll it more to get it perfect and it got too long. Also another thing that didn’t go too well was that when we came back the next day to bake the cookies they were flattened on one side. So it was no longer a cylinder shape, so we just cut them and left them as that. We weren't sure if we needed to shape them into a circle because even the substitute didn’t know. They turned out as like half circles but they were still nice. When we were making these I think we did really good because we took them out at the perfect time. They came out with a light golden brown color and they weren't burnt so that’s good. When we were taking the cookies out of the oven they barely had a brown color to them but since I learned about carry over cooking we took them out early. Since they cooked after we took them out of the oven more they became a better golden brown color which was nice. I think these cookies were okay but I wouldn’t make them at home because I don’t think my mom would like these because they seemed a little dry. At least the ones I tried tasted were dry. If I were to make these at home I would roll them into balls and maybe they would come out as a circle cookie rather than a half circle cookie. 

Ingredients:

¾ c. margarine

1 c. white sugar

1 egg

¼ c. molasses

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. cloves

1 tsp. ginger

Directions:

1. Cream margarine and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add egg and molasses to creamed mixture.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.

4. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and stir.

5. Roll dough into 24 balls.

6. Roll balls in sugar.

7. Refrigerate for a few minutes.

8. Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Source: A. Carnegie

Making these ginger sparklers were fun and easy. On the first day when we made the dough the molasses smelt bad but when I got used to it it started to smell like pumpkin. On the second day it was fun having the grade 8s with us while helping make the cookies. When the cookies came out of the oven they smelt so good and they tasted delicious too. I think they turned out pretty well because they came out with a bit of crunch, they were cracked at the top and they weren't too chewy in the middle. When I had one of the grade eights to put the cookies into the oven she accidently squished one of the cookies with the oven mitt but other than that I don’t think anything else wrong happened. While making the recipe I used my previous knowledge that I learned in class when I measured the butter. I remembered from when we made other things that you need to measure butter last and keep it in the original container and not transfer it too much or else you would leave a lot of it behind. I think that the cookies tasted good but I wouldn’t make them at home because I wouldn't be able to have more than two of these because they had a very strong taste to them. 

Prep time: 20 min. Cook Time : 8 min. Ready: 3 hours

Yield : 30 cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.

2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

6. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

7. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.

8. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

9. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

I don’t recall ever trying sugar cookies before so I was pretty excited to try these because my mom used to make these before but I don’t remember ever trying one. I liked making these because it was fun to decorate them and I did pretty good. I was pretty good at decorating them and it was fun using piping bags. The cookies came out tasting great and they were baked really nicely with a golden brown look. What didn’t go well though was that we kept rolling out the dough and we had to roll it over three times to get as much flower shapes as we could. I don’t think it affected the taste much because they still tasted good. Another thing we did wrong was that we didn’t put enough flour onto the counter so the flour really stuck to the counter which deformed the shapes when we tried to get them off. Without learning in class that the dough needs to be even throughout I wouldn’t have known to do that. I've never made cookies like these before by myself so this was a new thing to me. If I were to make these at home I would need to make sure that I flour the counter really well so that the lowers have a more appealing look to them.

Prep Time: 15 Min

Cook Time: 10 Min

Ready In: 25 Min

Servings: 9 - 10

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. Line cookie sheet with parchment.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

4. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla.

5. Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder; mix well.

6. Stir in the chocolate chips.

7. Use a scoop to drop cookies on the prepared cookie sheets.

8. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

9. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.\

When I knew what we were making in class I remembered when we made these with the grade 8's at the spend a day. I liked when we made them the first time and I enjoyed this time too. My favorite part of the lab was when we were able to have a cookie because they were so delicious. When we were making these in the kitchen it was easy and wasn’t too complicated of a recipe. In the process of getting all the ingredients prepped we messed up and lost count of how much cocoa powder we measured. It was a tiny set back because we had to measure it again but it was a fixable mistake. We actually did pretty good making these cookies and I think that we had a good consistent size and we took them out of the oven at a perfect time. A big mistake that we made in this lab though was that we had the temperature at the wrong setting. We had it at 350 degrees when it should have been 375 degrees but it was fixed easily because all we had to do was keep them in the oven for a little while longer. In class we learned that brown sugar needs to be packed tight into the cup which I didn’t know before this commercial cooking class and that helped me during this cooking lab. Before when I baked things with brown sugar I would just put brown sugar into the cup rather than packing it in like you're supposed to. If I would make these again at home I'm thinking that I would need to pay more attention to the temperatures and I also think that I need to watch the cookies closely so that they don’t overcook. 

Makes 1 – 8 x 8 inch pan

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/2 cup (64 grams) all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 113 grams) unsalted butter

• 1 cup (200 grams) sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and flour and 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside.

4. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Once melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sugar until combined.

5. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6. Stir in the vanilla.

7. Whisk in the dry ingredients until combined and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

8. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.

9. Allow brownies to cool completely before serving.

Recipe by Darla, Bakedom

So I had to make these at home and when I did it made my house smell so good. I was kind of scared because I was sure that they weren't going to be a good recipe but they turned out being really good. they were nice and chewy with a crispy outside and thats the kind of brownie that I like. My mom and sister really enjoyed them too which made me happy. When I was making these it was fun and it was easy. I did really good in preparing everything and I went through all the instructions thoroughly to make sure I did everything right. I don’t necessarily think that I messed up during the recipe but the only thing I could think of that I might have done wrong was not melting the butter enough. I'm not sure if I did because when I put the sugar in it didn’t melt to a fine liquid It was still kind of grainy but I didn’t know if it was meant to be like that or not. The brownies still ended up being really good though. In class I learned on how to put parchment paper into the 8x8 pan correctly. If I wasn’t shown that then I probably wouldn’t have put parchment paper at all I would probably just dump the brownie mix into the pan. I'm going to keep this recipe because I really enjoyed it and someday I think that I'll make them again and when I do I'm going to make sure that do everything right.