Baking Novice

I  have to say, for someone who used to bake a lot when I was younger (granted they were all store bought mixes), I am terrified of baking and making pastries in general.  Why?  Because baking requires a LOT more science than most other methods of cooking.  You need to put the right amount of ingredients to produce an acceptable result.  If you don't put enough baking powder, your cake or cookies won't rise.  If you don't put enough eggs, your consistency is off.  If you don't cool your cookies on a wire rack, they harden more than they should.  There is just so much attention to detail that baking requires.  This is why I believe being a pastry chef is one of the most stressful professions in the world of cooking.

On the same hand though, baking is wonderful.  Once you get all your ingredients right, you leave the cooking up to the oven.  And with the help of an oven timer, you can multi-task!  So tonight I decided to try my hand at baking Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies and was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out, not to mention my place smells WONDERFUL:-

Adapted from the recipe by Shared Bites, I was able to prep and bake 40 delicious cookies in an hour!  Talk about fast.  Here's the recipe if you want to try your hand at it:-


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


Ingredients:-

2 cups of Old Fashioned Oats (or 2.5 cups of instant oatmeal)
1 1/2 cups of All Purpose or Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 cup of Canola or Vegetable Oil
1 1/3 cups of Sugar (they say brown sugar is better, I used regular)
1 cup Chocolate Chips (I combined milk and semi sweet chips)
1 Egg
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Soda or Baking Powder
2 tbsp Skim Milk

*Preheat oven to: 325 degrees

Instructions:-

1) In one bowl mix: oats, flour, baking soda/powder, salt, chocolate chips
2) In another bowl mix: sugar, oil, milk, egg, vanilla extract
3) Combine the dry ingredients with the wet and mix well
4) On greased cookie sheets, scoop tablespoons of the mixture and place them about 1 1/2 inches apart from each other (1 tablespoon of cookie mixture =  2 inch cookies)
5) Place the cookie sheet in the preheated oven and remove after 12 minutes. 
6) The cookies will feel VERY soft right out of the oven, so don't poke at it (I did and definitely freaked out).  Let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack for cooling <-- do not skip this, it is more vital than you think :)

Repeat the process until all your cookies have baked!

Now I shall enjoy my cookies with a cup of hot chai :) Toodles~

p.s.  I received a pretty nifty tip from some of my twitter friends (Ami, Jasleen & Nabila).  Keep a slice of bread in the container that you use to store the cookies in.  It helps keep them moist :)  So cool!!