Pinterest review: The perfect chocolate chip cookies

Since I'm up in the night with this cuteness I've had extra time to browse Pinterest!

I came across these delicious looking cookies at around 3AM! 

I decided to make a double batch since Aubrey wanted to give some away with thank you cards she requested to make. 

The recipe says to let the butter and sugars whip for 2 minutes. Then I added the eggs and vanilla before adding in the flour mix. (I used kosher course salt)

Next it says to use a wooden spoon to mix in the chocolate chips. I decided to just use the paddle attachement. Since I doubled the recipe I should of added 5 cups of chocolate chips. Um no way! I don't think the cookies would of even held together.  I added 2 cups of chocolate chips for the double recipe and that seemed like more than enough.

I used a tablespoon to scoop dough balls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I baked these on 350F for 13 minutes and let them cool on the stove top for a few minutes before I transferred to a cooling rack.

They looked pretty comparable to the picture; other than the fact that I left 3 cups of chocolate chips out of the recipe!

FYI:

I got 39 cookies from a double batch; the recipe said I should of gotten 60 cookies.

I wrote this recipe down; they're deliciously decadent and I think these will be requested in the future!

The Thank you gifts are ready for tomorrow! I love that my sweet girl has such a giving heart.💜

Rustic Apple Pie

Making apple pie turned out to be an all day event yesterday! We started our morning with Aubrey playing "chomped". I suggested while Liam napping that we whip up some pie dough.  

My basic pie dough is a recipe from my friend Bonnie.  

I mixed the lard with the flour and salt

I mixed egg, vinegar and milk and then added it into a well in the flour mixture.

With help I divided this into 6 dough balls.

Aubrey shaped these and then wrapped them in plastic wrap.

Pie dough is very simple to  make.  One recipe makes 6 crusts; it keeps great in the freezer and is so convenient to have on hand.

She flattened the balls and then put them in plastic bags to keep in the freezer. We kept two balls of dough in the fridge to use later.

After the dough was made we decided to  take a break and go for brunch as a family. 

When we got home we got to work peeling the apples my sister in-law gave us.

My father in-law dropped this peeler off; what a time saver! This handy took peels, cuts and cores the apples.

Aubrey had a blast!  She probably ate about 5 apples total!  She kept on referring to Jeff and me as "the judges". I think maybe we watch a little too much of the food network.

We put 10 cups of apples in the freezer and used about 4-5 cups for the pies.

We mixed the apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, 1tbsp white flour and 5 tbsp of brown sugar.

This was flavoured to taste; just depends on how sweet the apples are.

Jeff and Aubrey rolled out the dough into a rustic circle shape. They put the filling in the centre and folded the edges into the centre; leaving the centre filling showing. This is a simple way of making a tart without using a pie plate. 

Instead of an egg wash Jeff just sprinkled water and white sugar on top.

We baked this for 30 minutes at 350F convection and then 5 minutes at 375F convection.

Cleaning up while the pies were baking.

Since they actually turned out beautifully we wanted to give one to our sweet neighbours. We actually never know when our freestyle baking will turn out!!! This definitly looked and smelt good enough to share!

While it was still warm Aubrey wanted to personally take the pie over before bed.

Once Aubrey went to bed Jeff and I enjoyed  our pie in peace; only 12 hours after the process first began!

 As we were eating it we thought it would of been even better with shredded old sharp cheddar cheese in the crust. We will definitely try that next time!

It was really good! Our mission was to not eat it all and save a piece for Aubrey.  

This morning:

Breakfast of champions!

Split Pea and Ham Soup

Autum is in the air and with that brings soup season to our household. Who doesn't love to have a big pot of soup on the stove when it's sweater weather out?

I gathered all of my ingredients; starting with two hearty ham bones, carrots, onions, celery, bacon, garlic, thyme and a bag of split peas.

I chopped 5 carrots, 3 onions, 6 ribs of celery, 4 pieces of bacon, thyme and 16 pieces of garlic and sautéed everything together until tender making sure that I seasoned everything generously with salt and pepper.  Seasoning as you go is a great tip to remember when making soup; you don't just want to season at the end. We refer to this as "flavour building" in our home.

At this point I added in the ham bones.  Aubrey was a little curious as to what was sitting on the counter. 

She then wanted to help me. We added in 24 cups of water; making sure the pot was quite full.

We let this come to a boil and then added in a bag of split peas and about 4 cups of frozen peas. We let this until the peas were tender.

This is the best view when I'm cooking!

Once the peas were tender we removed the ham bones. We then cut off the remaining meat and chopped it into bite size pieces and set this aside.

We used our immersion blender and blitzed it until smooth. I then checked the seasoning. I added additional sea salt, cracked black pepper and worcheshire sauce just to round out the flavours. 

We then added the diced ham back into the soup.

Ready to eat! So simple! This whole process from start to finish took about an hour and a half.  This pot made atleast 10 litres of soup; definitly enough to share which is the best part of making a huge pot of soup!

It's now been five days and I have enough soup for one bowl left. This has been so great to have on hand this week for my 3 year old's hungry tummy, lunch with my sister, my friend who's a new mommy, my busy neighbour, a few unexpected visitors and for myself at 3pm today when I realized I completely forgot to eat lunch!  

Our family motto is so true; "sharing is fun!".