PURE BLISS

I'm enjoying the Good Friday weekend immensely. There weren't urgent emails to be answered and there weren’t any phone call either. I caught up on my sleep, and baked Thomas Keller’s simple Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe uses molasses sugar. No nuts. No vanilla. Just absolute chocolate enjoyment.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Adapted from this recipe in Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller

Makes 30 cookies

340 grams all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

140 grams 55% chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces

140 grams 70% chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces

227 grams unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

200 grams molasses sugar

100 grams caster sugar

2 large eggs

Preheat your oven at 180 degrees C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a medium-bowl. Stir in the salt.

Put the chips in a fine-mesh strainer and shake to remove any chocolate “dust”.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth. Add both sugars and the remaining butter and beat until well combined, then beat for a few minutes until the mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is incorporated before adding the next and scraping the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the chocolate.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the dough with a spatula to be sure the chocolate is evenly incorporated. The dough or shaped cookies can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 5 days or frozen for 2 weeks. Freeze shaped cookies on the baking sheets until firm, then transfer to freezer containers. Defrost frozen cookies overnight in the refrigerator before baking.

Using about 2 level tablespoons per cookie, shape the dough into balls. Arrange 8 cookies on each pan, leaving about 2 inches between them, because the dough will spread.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, switching the position and rotating the pans halfway through baking.

Leave the cookies in the baking sheets for about 2 minutes to firm up a bit, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

I've never used molasses sugar in my baking before so this is a first. It not only tints the cookie a nice honey brown, it also gives a rich caramel flavour. I could tell that my mother enjoyed the cookie very much because she said, “This cookie is different! You should consider setting up shop.” She then proceeded to pack a dozen for a friend.

This is definitely one Wow Cookie so Thomas Keller gets two thumps on the back from me.

GIFT FROM SEOUL: MADAME BUTTERFLY

A gift from Roke and Julia in Korea.  It's a bookmark but I think it looks more like an elegant piece of hair accessory, don't you?  Makes me feel beautiful just looking at it.

TREATS FROM MAKI: MATCHA DELIGHTS

I've fallen head over heels with Japan.  And I haven't even visited the country yet.

But it's hard not to appreciate all things Japanese when you have a friend from Tokyo who sends across the most amazing stuff at every opportunity she gets.  This time Maki shares her private collection of Green Tea Goodies.

.Just look at these cute fridge magnets from Suntory (伊右衛門).  I especially love this matcha mont blanc.  I've often wondered why people want to spend money on this kind of accessories.  Now I understand.  The craftsmanship is so very intricate!

Maki's package came with a personal note, which was delicately folded origami-style in the form of a heart.  I ought to have taken a photo of it but in my haste to get my eager hands on everything inside the box, I forgot!  Well, I did save the beautiful wrapping paper.

Thanks to Maki, I got to sample Japan without having to jump on a plane!

TREATS FROM MAKI: PIGEON PEAS

The eagerly anticipated package from Maki finally got to me via Malini! I promised Maki that I’d post photos of these Japanese snacks on Chilli Crab Kitchen before I consumed them. But then it rained.  It rained again the next day. Not great weather for the amateur photographer.

The sun finally appeared yesterday morning. I hastily snapped a few shots before I dashed off to work. I love the Pigeon logo on the paper bag. It looks as if it is enjoying little snack peas. Super cute! The name of the snack shop in Kanji is 豆源, which translates to "The Bean Source" in Chinese. It sells a variety of bean snacks. According to Maki, the snack shop uses a pigeon for its logo because in Japanese culture, the pigeon and the bean 豆are somehow characterised with each other.

THERAPY

I don't have much to write about today because I'm completely cream crackered.  What a work week it has been!  By the end of Friday I crawled home from the office, exhausted and completely brain dead.  And so I ignored my vibrating mobile phone and blinking Blackberry and instead focused on the more important things in life -- like what to bake for the weekend!

I decided on chocolate chip cookies because they are so easy to make and almost always turn out right. Best of all, I didn't have to make a special trip to the stores because I already have all the ingredients I needed right at home.

Doesn't chilled cookie dough remind you of ice cream?

Mood shot :)

Baking helps me unwind.  Tomorrow will be the start of another hectic week.  That's why I used up only half of the cookie dough, keeping the remainder in the freezer for baking therapy next weekend.