Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Oh boy. This is practically the ultimate dessert. Honestly, I'm not sure how much better it gets than these.This past Friday and Saturday was the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is celebrated in part by eating dairy foods - like blintzes and of course, cheesecake! And when I knew I was making cheesecake, I couldn't imagine creating anything but this recipe from Bake or Break, for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars.This recipe looks complicated, and the final product definitely looks fancy, but each of the individual components is simple and contain pretty standard ingredients.

Let's begin:

First up is the graham cracker base, which starts with graham cracker crumbs. You can buy these in the store, or make your own (and get out some aggression) by smashing up some graham crackers.
Next, the recipe calls for you to add the melted butter. Followed by the chocolate chips. Of course, since I'm impatient, and the butter was still in the microwave, and the chocolate chips were sitting right there, I added them first. Which meant that when I added the butter, the chips began to melt a little. That's what you get for impatience.
But it still worked fine, and when it was all mixed, I pressed it into a foil pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake that in the oven for 6 minutes. Don't forget it's in there!
Meanwhile, we're going to make the cream cheese filling. Nothing fancy, just the cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla.
Cream it up until it's light and fluffy. Note: the actual recipe calls for you to make the cookie dough first, then the cream cheese filling. Not sure it makes much difference. I suppose the cookie dough is probably easier to clean out of the bowl than the cheese. But I used a different mixer for the cookie dough anyhow. See:
So now you're going to spread the cream cheese filling evenly in the baked graham cracker base. When I did it, some of the crumbs came off and mixed with the cheese - but since I was covering it with the cookie dough anyhow, I wasn't too concerned.

Next came the cookie dough dolloping. Ooh boy. Try not to eat it while you go. Ok, just eat a little bit. There isn't even any raw egg in it! Not that that has ever stopped me before. I pressed the cookie dough pieces down a little bit here, but I think next time I might push a little bit more, to really get them submerged.
After it had baked and cooled, I melted the chocolate, with a little bit of butter for the topping. It was a little thick, so I thinned it out with some milk and plopped it into a ziploc bag and snipped a corner off.
Then I went straight to work with my design.
Isn't it beautiful! I just couldn't stop taking pictures.
Bet you're hungry now. Wouldn't you know, there is even some still left in my fridge. I'll be taking bids now. Cream cheese, cookie dough, graham crackers - is there anything really missing in life?
I should be honest though: this recipe is made for a 9 inch square pan, and I had the audacity to convert it to a 9x13 recipe. Which resulted in a lot of measurements like 7.22 tbsp of butter. So there was a lot of fudging, and a little guessing, but nothing in this recipe worried me, and trust me, it was delicious. So if anyone needs .78 tbsp of butter, give me a call.

Tip of the Day: Make these now! And try not to eat them in one sitting. I dare you.

Recipe: (from Bake or Break)

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsps butter, melted
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Cheesecake:
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Cookie Dough:
5 tbsps butter, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3 tbsps sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips (I used mini here too)

Topping:
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tbsp butter

Crust:
Stir graham cracker crumbs and melted butter together until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips. Press into a parchment paper lined 9 inch square pan.
Bake for 6 minutes then set on wire rack to cool.

Filling:
Beat together cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and blend well.
Pour into baked crust.

Cookie Dough:
Beat butter, sugars, salt and vanilla together until well mixed.
Gradually add in flour, and stir in chocolate chips.
Drop dollops of dough into the filling.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until set.

Melt together the chocolate and butter and drizzle over the top of the baked cheesecake.

Cinnamon "Flop" Cake

I was browsing the recipezaar website, as I'm known to do, looking for a cake recipe to take to a gathering of friends on Saturday, when I came across this Cinnamon "Flop" Cake. I'd never heard of a flop cake before, but this recipe looks simple and interesting. So I figured I'd give it a shot.It smelled so amazing while it was baking that I just couldn't stop myself from taking a peek.

What this cake is, is a basic batter, made with flour, sugar, milk, vanilla, baking powder and one egg (no fat).Then you sprinkle it with a brown sugar and cinnamon mix.
Next, you drizzle melted butter over the whole thing, which then sinks into the cake and mixes with the cinnamon sugar, spreading it throughout the cake.So I made this cake on Friday afternoon, and brought it over to my friend Naomi's house on Saturday afternoon. We all dug in, and enjoyed the cinnamon taste that had dispersed throughout the cake, and scraped off the cinammony mix that had sunk to the bottom of the pan.

But then, I returned to Naomi's house on Sunday night, and about half the cake still remained. This time, the cake was moister and even better, as the butter mixture had spread and saturated the rest of the cake.

Moral of the story: definitely make this cake - it takes about ten minutes and it's delicious. But make it a couple days in advance at least!

Tip of the Day: While nothing beats fresh, freezing cake can be a valuable tool if you have a lot or need to prepare in advance. But you're better off freezing unfilled and unfrosted cakes, and then assembling and decorating once they're thawed. But thaw on the counter or in the fridge, never in an oven or microwave.

Recipe: (from recipezaar)
Cake:
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tsps baking powder
a pinch salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Topping:
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla and egg.
Pour batter into a greased 9x13" pan or two 9-inch round or 8-inch square pans.
Spread the brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
Drizzle the melted butter over the top of the cake.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here is another recipe from BakeorBreak, on which I spend hours of time looking at things that I just have to make. I'm sure I'll be sharing more from there in the future, but for now we have chocolate chip muffins!
As goes the eternal debate: muffin or cupcake? I'm here to settle the argument once and for all. Muffins are denser, often have fruit add-ins, streusel toppings, and are made with melted butter. Cupcakes are frosted, can have a jam center but usually not other additions, and are made with softened butter, and are therefore lighter in density.
So these are muffins, which, by having chocolate chips in them kind of breaks from the rules - but not so much. You can still eat them for breakfast, I promise.

Another reason I love to make muffins, aside from the excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast, is their ability to be made in one bowl, with no need for a stand mixer (which, while I have finally unpacked, I have yet to use in my new apartment.)

Anyway, back to these chocolate chip muffins: I made a double batch and brought half of them to work and half of them to class. They were well received (but really, what free baked good isn't?) and I think they were good, but not mind-blowingly so. But they were a good muffin, so what more am I searching for? Who knows. I'll let you know when I do. In the meantime, enjoy these muffins.

Tip of the Day: Subsitute chocolate chunks for chips if you're looking for a more sophisticated dessert.

Recipe: (from Bake or Break)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted & slightly cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Stir together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, butter, milk and vanilla.
Add to the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Divid batter among 12 greased muffin cups.
Bake on 375F for 20 to 22 minutes.

No-Bake Deliciousness

My friend Sarah studied abroad this past semester, and she's been bugging me the whole time to do a recipe that requires no baking, as she's limited to a toaster oven.
(Which reminds me of the year I lived with only a toaster oven and a communal microwave, but that's another post.)
So now that she's about to leave, I finally got around to making my favorite no bake recipe, that I got from my Aunt Ann a couple of years ago, and have been making ever since. But Sarah doesn't really like peanut butter anyway, so maybe she'll be less mad. Or more mad.

Anyway, these are peanut butter chocolate rice krispie bars, and they are delicious, and so, so easy. Seriously, these can be done in ten minutes, and there are only 5 ingredients, that you probably already have in your pantry.
First, you dump the peanut butter, sugar and honey together in a bowl. It should look like this.
Then, microwave it at intervals of 25 seconds, until you can mix it together easily and it looks like this. It should take about 3 bouts of microwaving.
Once it's well mixed, you're going to pour in the rice krispies - so you should start this recipe out in a big enough bowl to mix. Otherwise you'll end up like I did, with a few stray rice krispies on the counter and floor.

Quickly work the rice krispies into the peanut butter mix until they are all coated, and there is no more mixture stuck to the bottom of the bowl. When I gave this recipe to my friend Tali, she was so concerned about working quickly that she made a friend measure the rice krispies while she mixed the peanut butter and honey. I wouldn't worry that much, but I also wouldn't answer the phone while you're doing this. Only because if the mixture cools down too much, it'll make it much harder to mix.

When all the rice krispies are coated, press the mixture evenly into the bottom of a 9x13" inch pan.
Then its time to melt the chocolate, and spread it over the base. This helps them stay together when you cut them up, and of course adds chocolate! I used a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips, but you can use less or more depending on how much chocolate you want. The 12 ounces just about covers the pan well.
Spread it carefully, so that you don't disturb the rice krispies underneath. You could always stick the pan in the fridge or freezer for a little before adding the chocolate, but I certainly don't have that much patience.
Once you've spread the chocolate, stick it in the fridge or freezer to firm up. I like to leave it there, and enjoy my treats cold, but you can leave it in the fridge or at room temperature as well - it'll just be a little softer.
Cut them into squares, or rectangles, or triangles, or whatever your heart desires.

Now, you're probably wondering what those bars are sitting on in that first shot. I've shown you alot of counters and tabletops and strange places to leave your baked goods in the past couple months. In fact, so far you've seen my old table, my old table covered with a blue tablecloth, my new counter, the range on top of my new oven, the kitchen counter, dining room table and kitchen table of my family home, and even my desk at the office.
But this, well this is actually the ping-pong table in the basement of my parent's house. That, in the background? Those are my dad's weights. I feel like now I've led you on an true exploration of my life. Through baked goods. It's almost like those commercials, where the dad takes his daughter's stuffed animal on his business trip and photographs it in all the places he goes.
So, in that spirit, here are the peanut butter rice krispie bars in my freezer:
Yep, that's vegetable soup in the background. Mmmmm.

Tip of the Day: Always use a metal rack to place your cakes and cookies on after you pull them out of the oven - it can cut your cooling time in half. Don't have one? You can stick it on top of the stove in a pinch, but make sure you turn the oven off!

Recipe:
Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars (from Aunt Ann)

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
5.5 cups rice krispies
Approx 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate.

Place the peanut butter, honey and sugar in a large bowl.
Microwave together until easily mixed.
Quickly stir in the rice krispies until completely coated.
Press into the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Melt the chocolate and spread on top.
Refrigerate or freeze until firm.

Raspberry Chocolate Bar Cookies

Make these. Tonight. You won't be sorry. They're delicious. I promise. As long as you love raspberry and chocolate. And if you don't, what are you doing here?
They're so easy. You can make these now. You have all the ingredients already. See:
That's it! That's all you need. Not one thing more. Promise. Well, a 9x13 pan might be nice. Anyway this recipe originally came from here, but I changed it a little so I'll rewrite it at the end of this post. It begins, of course, which whisking together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Doing well so far. Then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or dinner fork. Press most of the mixture into the bottom of a greased pan and bake for 15 minutes.When that comes out, sprinkle it with the mini chocolate chips. Watch them start to melt. Wipe the drool off your chin.
Yes, you could use regular chocolate chips, but you might want to spread them evenly a little before the next step.Which involves gently dolloping raspberry jam evenly over the base. Then top with your reserved crumb base. And bake for another 20 minutes. And cut into triangles.
Or squares. Or hearts, stars and shamrocks. Or leave them in the pan and watch them quickly disappear. Because they're so good. I know I said that several times already, but I just wanted to make sure you understood.
Mmmmm now I want to make these again to eat more. But I think I'll have to settle for the raspberry sorbet in my freezer.

Tip of the Day: If you want to test a cake for doneness that's deeper than a toothpick, try using a piece of raw spaghetti instead. But don't let it break off!

Recipe:
Raspberry Chocolate Triangle Bars:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Approx. 1/2 jar seedless raspberry jam


Whisk together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork until large crumbs are formed. Remove about 1 cup of the mixture and press the rest into the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan.
Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.
Remove, and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over base. Carefully and evenly distribute jam over the chocolate chips.
Return to the oven for an additional 20 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for an hour before cutting up.

Chocolate, chocolate....and chocolate!

Back to desserts and sweets! And boy are we ever with this recipe. How can you resist making these?This recipe comes from the wonderful blog Bake or Break, which if you haven't visited yet, should certainly be on your list. These are appropriately titled Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies, and outrageous they are. They are rich and chewy and almost like a brownie in cookie form, but so much more delicious. I had to bite in to one right away.
They didn't come out perfectly though - as is easy to do with chocolate cookies, I left them in the oven a little too long for one batch, and some of the edges were a little overdone. It's so hard to tell they start out brown already!
Also, the recipe called for light brown sugar, but I only had dark, which I didn't let stop me. They didn't come out exactly as shiny and crackly as they look here, and perhaps that's why. These are definitely ones I'll make again, so I'll try and let you know!

Tip of the Day: Most cookies will bake up fine on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil, which makes for easy clean up!

Recipe: (from Bake or Break)
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
4 tbsp (1/2 stick, 1/4 cup) butter or margarine
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 ounces (2 cups) chocolate chips

Heat the chocolate and butter together until melted. Stir to combine.
Beat the eggs, brown sugar and vanilla together. Mix in the melted chocolate.
Add in the flour, baking powder and salt.
Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are shiny and crackly but soft in the center.
Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Sunday Supper - Mac & Cheese

People ask me all the time..."Are you also a good cook?" And the answer is...sort of. Of course that question is predicated on the assumption that I am actually a good baker. And only a small portion of you out there have ever tasted anything I've baked. But work with me here.

I do like to cook, though I prefer baking, but I just do it less often. With baked goods, they're easy to bring to the office, or to class, or to give individually to friends and family members. But it would be a bit strange if I brought a chicken sandwich or roast potatoes to work with me. Though I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Which means that generally, if I do cook, its for one (or two). Which doesn't inspire me to try new things very often. But I do cook sometimes for friends on weekends, or if I'm home for my family. There are a few dishes that are my "specialties" and that I know will come out well so I turn to them again and again.

I toyed with the idea for a while about doing a weekly Sunday post on non-baking dishes, but I would never have enough for that, so its more likely to be monthly or even less, we shall see!

So here goes, I tried out this Mac & Cheese recipe I found on recipezaar. Recipezaar is great if you know what you want to make, but are looking for a good recipe for it, or want to see a bunch of different recipes for the same thing and pick your favorite. The ratings and reviews are also really helpful. Enough about that (no they're not paying me), here it is, my baked macaroni and cheese.

For starters, most pasta dishes I have will never use the right type of pasta. Here, I didn't use macaroni, but "Ditalini," which I found in the cupboard and looked so cute. See?
Last week my friend Ariel and I made fettucini alfredo together, except it certainly wasn't fettucini. Rigatoni Alfredo, if I remember correctly. And it was delicious.
Well anyway, this recipe called for you to make the sauce and boil the noodles in separate pots on the stove, which I dutifully followed. Though the recipe called for you to pour the sauce over the noodles and bake it, I thought the sauce was a little too thick for that, so I dumped the noodles into the pot and stirred it all up first, before transferring it to the pan and topping with breadcrumbs.
Then just pop it on the oven on 350 F for 30 minutes, and voila, baked ditalini and cheese! This picture (like most of mine) doesn't adequately show the beautiful baked cheesy goodness. It was there, trust me. Now its time to put it on a pretty plate, after all, its not very civilized to eat right out of the foil container. No, I would never do that. Ahem. Now all that's left to do is to dig in! Yes, this fork is going straight to my mouth. Delicious! Hope you enjoyed this momentary sojourn into the world of savory cooking. Don't worry the sugar and spice will be back soon!

Tip of the Day: Experiment with different types of cheeses in your recipes, or use a combination: if it calls for cheddar try adding in some monterey jack and muenster, but be careful - some soft and hard cheeses cannot be substituted for each other.

Apple Pie update!

Remember when I told you it was too painful for me to show you a picture of my disastrous apple pie?
(If you forgot, just scroll down).
Well, that was party true. But it was also partly because I didn't think I actually had a picture of the pie after its completion. Sometimes, things just get away from me, and baked goods get eaten before I get a chance to photograph them. I know, I know, its atrocious.
But guess what! I found one!
I know you've been waiting with bated breath too see what my pie looked like, so I won't keep you any longer:
It doesn't look so bad, right? In fact, it might look....delicious? Well, looks can be deceiving.
But now your wait is over! Enjoy staring at it, and wondering what went wrong.

Oh no, apple pie

A friend of mine told me recently that she reads my blog just to see the mistakes. And while (I hope) she was kidding, I don't want to disappoint.
Now, right about here, is where I should put a picture of the apple pie I made.
But I can't. It's just too painful.
Something went wrong. And I don't know what. The recipe was simple: I took a graham cracker pie crust, some apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour and salt, and a topping of butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and salt.
Sounds good right? Right. What went wrong? You tell me.
It started off pretty well, with 5 apples, peeled and cored. And no, those chocolate chips in the background aren't for this recipe. But wouldn't that be interesting....?(Pretend there are five here.)
I used granny smith, but plenty of different kinds of apples will work, and, if you'd like, you can use two or three different kinds to mix things up.
So anyway, in apple pies in the past, I have diced up the apples, but I figured I would make some nice little thin slices here instead. And eat a couple along the way. Step two complete, with no apparent problems. Next I tossed them with the flour, sugar, lemon juice and salt. And ate a few slices. And then, even though I wasn't supposed to yet, I dumped it all in the waiting crust.

Now, I'm what you might call a paranoid baker. If something seems a little off, perhaps a little strange, I start to worry. If the amount seems wrong, or if it doesn't smell the way I think it should, or if it looks a funny color, I start to panic. And, most of the time, everything turns out ok in the end. And sometimes, it does not.

After I placed the apples in the crust, I realized I had alot left. Like, alot. And while I didn't have a problem eating a few more slices (clearly), I did think for a minute. Is this the right sized crust? Did I layer the apples right?
But, I piled them slightly convexly (is that a word?) and set about for the next step. Which was, of course, making the topping. A pretty simple mix - 1/2 cup flour, 1 1/2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup quick oats and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Now the recipe that I was sort of pretending to follow said I should cut the butter into the flour, and then add the remaining ingredients. But, well, I'm not exactly the queen of patience, so I just mixed together all the dry ingredients, and then cut the butter in to that. And by cut, I mean used my hands. As I was doing this, I thought the butter seemed so be a little much, but I checked, and double cheSo, after I mixed the topping together, I sprinkled it evenly over the pie. And I stuck it in the oven.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not known for my patience, and I always end up - despite my mother's urging to the contrary - checking the oven before anything is done.
(Side note: oh how I wish my new oven had a window.)
Anyway, about a half hour in to the hour long cooking time, I took a quick peek. And....oh.
The carefully placed topping had completely melted down the slope of the pie, dripping off the edges of the crust and pooling on the (thank goodness I put it there) baking sheet underneath.
I watched in abject horror as my pie appeared to melt off and brown in all the wrong places. I could even see apple sticking out! Oh no!
Well, as this pie was supposed to serve as a dessert for my friends, I had no time to make something else, and I brough it anyway.
After I picked off the pieces of the top that had slid down, it looked basically presentable, but I certainly wasn't hopeful.
And as we cut into it, the pie that should have been crisp and delicious, was liquidy and didn't hold together.
From this, I have drawn two conclusions:
1 - the convex nature of the pie made the topping slide off when heated.
2 - the topping had a too high butter content that made it melt.
So, notes for the future, and one (slightly) redeeming factor: the whole thing got eaten anyway.

Tip of the Day: If a recipe doesn't work, don't get discouraged! Sometimes, you've done something wrong, sometimes it was the recipe, but either way you can remember what happened and use it in the future.

Recipe: I'll share the original recipe I used here, but there definitely need to be adjustments!
Graham cracker pie crust
4 to 5 apples
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peel, core and slice the apples, and mix with the lemon juice, sugar, flour and salt.
Cut the butter into the flour, and mix in the brown sugar, oats and salt.
Fill pie crust with apples, and top with mixture.
Bake on 375 F for 55 minutes.

A New Beginning (and chocolate chip cookies)

Today I baked my first thing in my brand new (to me) kitchen. What better way to begin than with chocolate chip cookies?Now, everyone seems to have their very own favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I'm no exception. But my recipe produces crisp, crunchy cookies, and I figured I would try to make soft, chewy ones this time. So I found this recipe on recipezaar, and thought I'd give it a try. I was not disappointed.
Nor was I disappointed with my new found counter space. Enough to actually line up my ingredients before I start? And not have to remove them from the cupboard one by one and then replace them? Simply amazing. (Yes, I know I'm missing a couple ingredients.) Speaking of things I'm missing, I have yet to get a microwave. Now, I know, people have lived for centuries without microwaves (and some continue to today), but I really need one. For things like melting butter.
Now, granted, for this next step, I could have brought out a pot and melted it on the stove, but, well, pots weren't on my agenda for the day, so instead I placed a stick of butter in a foil container and stuck it in the oven until it melted. It got the job done. Now, while I certainly still have my stand mixer, it, umm, happens to still be inside this here box. Underneath - if I remember correctly - a rolling pin, two ice cube trays, and an assortment of tupperware containers. So it remains in this box for now. And instead I whipped out the trusty bowl and spoon. For a recipe like this that uses melted butter, this is a pretty easy task. I made these cookies quite big, and even though I was only supposed to put 9 on a baking sheet, I decided to live on the edge of danger and do 12. Sure, they spread into each other a little bit, but hey, they still looked and tasted good.
And this baking sheet just, just fit inside my oven. Phew. It was a close one.
Over all, I would definitely say that this will be my go to recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies - they were sweet, chewy, gooey and delicious. And very easy as well.
Anyway, I still have some recipes to share with you pre-move, but I felt that this new kitchen quest should come first.

Tip of the Day: If you know your oven doesn't heat up evenly from front to back, don't be afraid to rotate your cakes or cookies mid-way through baking to brown evenly - but work quickly!

Recipe: (from Recipezaar)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups flour plus 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugars until well blended.
Add in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until well mixed.
Gradually add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.

Form into 18 even balls, and place on to parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake at 325 for 14 to 18 minutes. Cool on baking sheets.