Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Spring is in the air, graduate school has wrapped up for the spring semester, and the wind carries the feeling of renewal. The next two weeks will be filled with more rest and leisure than I have had in the last four months combined—a welcome break to stretch my limbs and a chance to play around in the kitchen. Even though I have a summer of classes before me (and a graduation date looming on the horizon), the job hunt has already begun.

Reality can never quite escape me completely.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Each job application represents a new road, an unknown path, a concrete possibility in a world filled with dreams. Each application is a window into a potential future, a peak at what my life might become. Even though the process can be arduous, each time I hit the submit button, I take a deep breath as a bright future flashes before me. The moment is brief, but exhilarating. I take a second breath to calm myself down and remind myself not to get my hopes too high. While full of hope and opportunity, job applications can also bring about feelings of rejection and sorrow.

The trick is to keep your head held high, your feet facing forward, and to replace lost dreams with new possibilities. To add new roads to the map of life.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My job search has led me down interesting paths, as I send off applications to other states and cities I have never been. It feels a bit like fishing; I have cast my line and now I must hope the fish are biting. As I anxiously awaited replies (or a lack thereof) this weekend, I made a batch of cookies to calm my nerves. Baking has a way of bringing peace into my life, as I mix ingredients by hand and move slowly around the kitchen to make the moment last longer.

While these Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies will not make time pass faster, they bring about a sweetness that makes the wait much more bearable.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies have a coveted soft-baked texture that lasts for days. A classic chocolate chunk cookie batter has a few added tablespoons of honey, which lend a soft flavor and chewy nature to the cookies. The addition of whole wheat flour gives the cookies a nutty undertone. Fresh from the oven, warm with melted chocolate, these cookies are a sweet fantasy.

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Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free}

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Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free}

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone, it seems, is on an endless search to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Crunchy or soft, chewy or melt-in-your-mouth, each person has a personal preference with a set of criteria to match. There is a reason why there are twelve million hits when you search for the "best chocolate chip cookies"—like a soul mate, we all want to find "the one." While the back of the Nestlé Tollhouse chocolate chip package and the New York Times' cookie recipe are among the top, most popular contenders, my cookie preferences fall into a much different camp.

Have you found your perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mother's homemade cookies consisted of store-bought frozen cookie dough, already packaged to go from bag to baking sheet without needing a single utensil. To be fair, she did make her daughters cookies from scratch occasionally, but the frozen cookies are the ones we remember and hold in our hearts. When my sister and I head home over long weekends or holidays, she always has a package in the freezer waiting for us. It does not matter that I am a proficient baker and could make a batch of cookies with my eyes closed, these are the cookies I look forward to most. Nostalgia has a sneaky way of suppressing any qualms I may have about store-bought baked goods.

Truthfully, I believe the qualities of the cookies we grow up with are the same as the cookies we prefer once when we grow older. My grandmother makes delightfully crunchy cookies that baptize the kitchen table with cookie crumbs each time a bite is taken. My dad loves these cookies, calling them "milk dunkers." My sister and I make help to make a further case for this claim.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I set out to make a batch of cookies last weekend, I did not intend to create my boyfriend's perfect chocolate chip cookie, but somehow it happened. I had almond butter in the cupboard and, inspired by these flourless peanut butter cookies, I played around with a few ingredients. The batter is a bit oily from the almond butter, but the nut oil crafts the most delightfully chewy cookie once it bakes. After stealing two straight from the oven, my boyfriend asked me what was in them, astonished at how unexpectedly perfect he found them. When I told them they were gluten-free, he refused to believe me, claiming the texture was too similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie.

He ate six more before the day came to an end. I have already purposely filed this recipe away for the future.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are fantastically chewy and, shockingly, gluten-free. Almond butter forms the base of the cookies, though it adds only a subtle flavor (if any) to the final product. While sugar sweetens the cookies, a pinch of salt really helps to bring out a contrast of flavors. I prefer to use miniature chocolate chips because they provide a little chocolate to every bite, but larger chocolate chips will work just as well. These cookies are something special, trust me.

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From the Archives: Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

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From the Archives: Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

Inventing and developing new recipes has become a weekend pleasure for me. Creating wild combinations and indulging in my favorite ingredients is a perk of the job. Even though I love sharing original recipes with you, every so often I find myself looking back through the archives with nostalgia, wishing I could bring back the magic of sharing my favorites with you once more. Then I realized, why couldn't I?

With a spruced up look and a pleasant reminder, maybe you will fall in love with them all over again. While a few archived recipes may pop up from time to time, you must not worry. I do not plan to stop playing with my food any time soon.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

This recipe for Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies was among the first handful I posted on this website. The recipe is not of my own invention, but the credit can instead be attributed to my wonderful university physics professor and his wife. As with any great recipe, there is usually a story behind it. This is no exception.

While getting my degree in physics, the physics department of the university held an annual spring picnic to bring together the students and professors for an afternoon of fun. Along with a tower of board games, there was a smoking grill and a table spread with salads, potato chips, and these cookies. Each year, rain or shine, these cookies found their way into the spread and, soon after, found their way into my heart. I would eat three or four in an afternoon's time; more than once, I wrapped one up in a napkin to take home. I had fallen in love with theses cookies and made sure my professor (and everyone there) knew it.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

It was the third picnic when my professor casually revealed that the cookies had a secret. The cookies, he whispered, had no added sugar. Naturally, I did not believe him at first, skeptical that a cookie could taste so positively delightful without sugar or a sugar substitute, but the truth was staring me in the face. In many ways, this simple fact made these cookies that much more precious. After prodding him for the recipe for at least a dozen times, he told me to be patient and that the time would come.

On my graduation day, he congratulated me, shook my hand, and gave me a small sheet of paper with the typed up recipe, entrusting me with cookies I treasured. Every time I make these cookies I am reminded of those spring picnics and all of the memories that come with it. By trusting this recipe with you, I hope that you will bake and share these cookies with the people you love, creating memories of your own.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies are thick, chewy, and have no added sugar. The cookies are made with oatmeal and an abundance of chocolate chips and raisins. While the batter isn't sweet, the add-ins are delightfully so. Do not fret! This cookie will please even the most sugar-happy children. The cookies are formed with a 1/4 cup measuring cup and will keep their shape while they bake; they will not spread. I adore these cookies for both their unique texture and characteristics and I hope you will too.

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