Store Brand Ingredients ≠ The Good Stuff

I thought "Hannah's Best" cookies turned out a little bland.  But, I wonder if it was more the brand of ingredients I used rather than the cookie recipe itself.  

I bought my supplies at Kroger and they only had the store brand for the butterscotch and white chocolate chips. In simply tasting the white chocolate chips I don’t think they had any flavor.  The butterscotch chip seemed okay.  I have since found Ghirardelli brand white chocolate chips at another store. 

Please check back to this blog for the official Lit Chicks chip taste test.  (Try saying that three times.)  Although I only use pure vanilla extract, as opposed to imitation, I also wonder about the quality of the vanilla.  Is that fancy Madagascar vanilla really worth it?  I plan to do a taste test of that also.  Just need to figure out the best way.

1) Room temperature ingredients.  2) Ready to get creamed.  

3) Salt.  4) Always crack eggs into a separate dish then add to mixing bowl.

Recipe #2 from Joanne Fluke's Gingerbread Cookie Murder

Preheat oven to 325°F
Rack in the middle position.

YOU WILL NEED:  

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, softened
6 ounces cream cheese (3/4 of an 8 ounce package) softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
3 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups salted cashews, chopped (measure before chopping)

DIRECTIONS:
 

In a large bowl, mix the softened butter, softened cream cheese, granulated
sugar and brown sugar together until they’re light and fluffy.

Mix in the vanilla and the baking soda.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

Add the butterscotch chips and stir them in.

Add the white chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.

Add the salted cashews and mix well.

Drop the dough by mounded teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 12
cookies to a standard-sized sheet. (You can also cover your cookie sheets with
parchment paper or baking paper if you have it.)

Flatten the cookies a bit with the blade of a spatula or the palm of your
impeccably clean hand. They’ll spread out a little more in the oven, but not a lot.

Bake at 325°F for 8 to 10 minutes or until nicely golden on top.

Let the cookies cool for two minutes on the cookie sheet then remove to a wire
rack to cool completely.

Yield: Approximately 7 dozen cookies.

More Photos:

1 - Butterscotch chips
2 - White chocolate chips.  Any chips that fall out of the measuring cup you must eat.
3 - Chopping the old fashioned way.
4 - This is all that was left from a 9.75 ounce can of nuts.  My son walked by and took care of these few leftovers.

 

5 - Getting messy
6 - Using the small cookie scoop
7 - Flattened and ready to bake  

8 - Did I really make all that mess? 

9 - Seven dozen cookies cooling.

Kathyrn's Rating:

For ease of preparation - 
4 out of 5 cookbooks  

For time start to finish - 
3 out of 5.  The usual reason for having to bake sheet after sheet of cookies.
 

For taste - 
2 out of 5 cookbooks

Would I do this again?  Yes, but only to see if I can do a better job.