Back to Basics Baking

Ok, summer vacations had put a pause to my baking. I've decided to drop the "project" out; I lost track, but mostly, the pressure of baking something new every week plus vacation time-off was making it hard to keep up. I'll still try to cook/bake something new and outside my comfort zone, but it might not be every week... (especially in September with visitors, but that's another post). I've also decided to add regular cooking to my repertoire.

The last two baking goods I made were "simple". I was trying to hard to make the hard stuff when I haven't mastered the basics. Of course, these were new recipes.

First up, blueberry muffins. Blueberries were in season, and on sale, hehe. These were huge!!! Definitely not the tiny little ones I used to love when my mom/grandma made blueberry muffins from the box with that little tin can full of dark purple juice and "blueberries". MMMmm.. childhood food memories. The new recipe had sour cream to reduce the butter content.

Grade: B+.
You can definitely notice the less butter/oil, but I think I over baked it or something which made them a little dense. The giant blueberries were yummy.

Next, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Before the only oatmeal chocolate cookies I made were the ones with the department store story (who knows how true that is), but mine always ended up crunchy. I prefer a bit of chewiness in my oatmeal cookies. I also wanted to try this new recipe that also called for sour cream and less butter to cut down on the fat. And I had lots of sour cream from the previous muffins.

Grade: A+!
These cookies were perfect. A bit crunchy on the edges, chewy everywhere else. Plus, less guilt :) Granted, I don't know if the chewiness is from the recipe itself or the fact that I finally used my silpat (because I now have a pan big enough to fit it). Either way, these cookies were perfect. I even made them two weeks in a row (the second time for as a house warming gift). This recipe is definitely a keeper and a favo(u)rite!