SMS: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Almonds

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Almonds. Even the name is genius! You know, I can't really say that all chocolate chip cookie recipes are created equal. I also can't say for sure, but I am fairly certain I have never had a chocolate chip cookie with almonds, toasted or otherwise, in it.

What I can say, without any doubt at all, is that this week's recipe, as voted upon by myself and my fellow bakers - which is being hosted by Lorelai and Melissa Murphy herself, is in now in the top three of my very favorite chocolate chip cookies (rounding out the top three would be the NY Times chocolate chip cookies and the ones at Paradise Bakery).

The recipe is really quite easy and friendly to put together. While there are some extra steps involved - toasting almonds, chopping your own chocolate, chilling, rolling logs, cutting, etc. - it is oh so worth it. I actually did the recipe + half and ended up with three nice logs of cookie dough. I baked one, gave one to some friends that let us crash their family dinner as a last minute hostess gift, and the other is happily nestled in my freezer - waiting until I have another immediate craving.

The toasted almonds really set this recipe apart and are amazing in the baked cookies. That said, let me just tell you what my favorite part was. In fact, I have a little bit of a terrible confession to go along with it.

In high school I don't recall that I ever ate lunch in the cafeteria - in fact, I'm not sure that I ever even went to lunch in the cafeteria. We were allowed an open campus for lunch and always visited a variety of places. Probably the strangest lunches I ever ate though were when we went to grocery store. It is a rather awful testament to my sweet tooth that on more than one occasion we would buy a tube of cookie dough, cut it open and eat it for lunch.

Obviously, I never went through a real healthy eating phase. That said, I rarely want to eat cookie dough anymore. That is, until today.

I knew these cookies were going to be amazing because one little taste of the dough and for the very first time in years I really just wanted to grab a spoon and dig in!

Make sure to check out the Sweet Melissa Sundays blog and bakers for more cookies and a post with Melissa's pictures.

SMS: Bear's Peach Cobbler

Sweet Melissa Sundays this week is brought to us by Andrea of Nummy Kitchen who in fact chose Bear's Peach Cobbler.  Melissa tells a little story of this dessert in the book about this being her little sister's favorite dessert and how she requested it for her birthday the same year she got her teddy bear I believe.  

It just so happens that baked peaches are the only baked fruit I generally like.  Since fresh peach season won't hit here in Utah until the end of the summer, I used some nice bottled peaches I had from Costco.  I am fairly certain I would like this recipe much more with fresh peaches, but the ones at the store here were pretty pathetic when I went looking.  The bonus for using bottled peaches is that it really cuts down on the cooking time.  The downside was that the flavor really wasn't all that great for some reason.  

I really don't think it had anything to do with the recipe though.  My very favorite peach cobbler recipe is almost identical in the filling and is always heavenly.  I did really like the biscuits here for a change though from the more soft drop biscuit dough I usually use.  The only other change I made was to substitute some of the white sugar with dark brown, mainly just because I love it - it made the filling a beautiful dark amber color too.

I think I would like just the biscuits with some strawberry jam or something though until I can get some good peaches.  I've been spoiled buying them and bottling my own for the past few years and it really stinks that I ran out!  I am not going to miss it this year, that is for sure!

Make sure to check out how the other SMS Bakers did this week!

SMS: Strawberry Shortcakes

Well, I've gone and joined another baking group. Since I have been baking quite a few things out of my copy of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy, and that book is the focus of the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group, it seemed like a natural fit. I can't guarantee I'll make it every Sunday, but since participation only requires me to join in the fun at least once a month I figured I could manage that!

So, for my first week with the group the recipe has been chosen by Wendy at Pink Stripes and, as you have probably already guessed from the picture above, was for some amazingly wonderful Strawberry Shortcakes.

The recipe was simple and wonderful. The shortcake itself is a simple sweet biscuit that gets an extra lift from some fresh lemon zest that really just sets it apart and puts it right over the top. The strawberries were just simply macerated berries - just sliced strawberries with some sugar so they can get all nice and juicy and syrupy. I added just a splash of pure vanilla extract to the strawberries for a little something extra.

Check out the Sweet Melissa Sundays blog to see more lovely shortcakes by the other bakers on the blogroll. You can find the recipe on Wendy's blog and on page 130 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.