Welcome to Katy and Super-Top-Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

WOW!

I'm back.

The break was great and well deserved...(we had baby number 4 and moved back home to Texas, ya'll!!) but I sure missed thinking about food, writing about food, looking at food, and talking about food. Missed. It. So. Much.

The transition to Katy, Texas hasn't been too hard, minus the fact that it's a bit difficult to get into turning on your oven when your house skyrockets to the mid-80s when you do. That means I bake in early mornings and use my grill pan in the afternoons to save my sanity. Oh, and I love my crockpot. True story.

But enough of my reintroduction, eh? Hi. My name is Megan. I took almost nine months off to have a baby and sell everything I own and relocate from Alaska to Texas. And now I'm back!

Let's talk about this week. My oldest returned from his summer visit to El Paso and he started third grade. His lunch lacked a little TLC this week, so I dug out my recipe box (oh, I love my recipe box) and found my husband's top secret chocolate chip cookies. The three older kids (Ages 8, 3, and 14 months) helped me bake and for the first time in a long, long time, I let all cares out the kitchen window and we had a messy, flour-covered blast. It was so, so good for my soul. The kids were happy. The husband liked the surprise when he came home from work and the third grader got a respite from the fig newtons for the two days the cookies lasted. Success.

A little cookie backstory: The hubs spent a few months last year perfecting this recipe based on the old Toll House equation you find on the back of your chocolate chip cookie bag. I never knew there was a baker in the man, but I guess when you think about how picky of an eater he is (read it: highly developed palate) and how awesome he is at math (read it: highly developed recipe swapping ability) it probably always made sense.

He likes a straight butter recipe. I like halving the butter with shortening. He prefers the taste of brown sugar, so he upped that while dialing down the regular sugar. Up with the vanilla a smidge, and be sure the eggs are beaten before you add them. Simple as pie. And probably more delicious.

Though we diverge on the ingredients a bit, our thoughts on what makes a great chocolate chip cookie (or bar) run parallel. There has to be a perfect balance between the crisp and the chew factors. Crisp on the edges, chewy on the inside...even (ESPECIALLY) on day two and beyond. Make sure there's a bit of savory (salt) to heighten the sweet. Yum.

I first wanted to publish this recipe last year, but he wouldn't let me. But now, I think he's forgotten and after the kids and I turned the cookie recipe into bars, well, it's fair game.

Without further ado...

P.J.A.'s SUPER Top-Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
3/4 c. sugar
1 and 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter, room temperature
1 T vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 t. baking soda
2 and 3/4 c. flour
chocolate chips

The bake:
Preheat to 350 degrees. Combine butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla to butter mix. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just incorporated. (Many a cookie have been sacrificed on the altar of overmixing. Don't do it!)

Bake 10 to 12 minutes per batch, depending on oven.

Do your best not to shove the entire first batch in your mouth when you pull them out of the oven. It will hurt and your family will not trust you with the rest of the finished cookies from that point on. It's true.

Happy baking!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream Frosting

With a capital C.

Can I get a heck yeah?!

If that title alone didn't get you jazzed about this post, you better check your pulse, m'friend. 'Cause we're talking Cupcakes with a capital C!

(Unless you don't like pumpkin, and then, well, it's ok. I forgive you, even.)

We stay on a pretty even straight-and-narrow when it comes to baking around here. Chocolate chip cookies for P and the boys. Ginger Crinkles for me. Peanut butter cookies for me and P. I rarely venture off just because I'm a big ol' chicken and I have night terrors about eating an entire batch of cookies by myself because my family has shunned them. (My fears are kind enough to constantly look out for my vanity. Sweet, right?)

But I stumbled across a recipe for pumpkin muffins that piqued my interest. Partly because my husband is a fanatic about pumpkin pies but mostly because I had a ton of canned pumpkin in the fridge from a failed attempt at pumpkin pancakes earlier in the week. Something had to be done use up that poor, neglected pumpkin.

We don't need no stinkin' stand mixer!

Something, indeed. From the land of one and a half-ton pumpkins, comes something truly worth that blessed squash's orangey goodness.

 I adapted the recipe into cupcakes by upping the sugar a bit and tinkering with the airiness of the crumb with the pain-in-the-butt mixing process.

(OK, it wasn't that bad. But I'm more of a dump-and-go sort of girl, so alternating ingredients as I mix them is definitely a step toward fussiness in my opinion.)

As ever, my constant kitchen companion Boo was my faithful helper, jabbing chubby toddler fingers into the batter and swiping my mixers fresh out of the bowl. I love that kid.

On to the cupcakes...

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream Frosting

Cupcakes:
1.5 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each of ginger, clove, and nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Yields about 18 cupcakes.

Double sift flour, baking soda, spices, and salt into a medium sized bowl and set aside. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars well with a mixer. Add eggs one at a time and mix well before adding next. Add vanilla and mix well again, allowing the batter to expand slightly.

Here's where we get the extra work for the extra payoff:

To your butter/egg/sugar mixing bowl, alternate 1/3 of your flour with 1/3 of the canned pumpkin into the bowl. Repeat two more times, making sure you end with the last of the flour mixture. Add batter to individual tins, about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Icing:
2 tablespoons of strongly brewed chai tea, cooled completely
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup cold milk

Combine ingredients and mix on high for 2-3 minutes. Spread on cooled cupcakes.

Happy eating!