The Pillsbury Test

Well hello everybody!! For this post I'm going to do something a little different. It's not even going to be about cats or cupcakes! Today I'm going to pursue a life long dream of mine. That's right boys and girls I'm comparing the ingredients of a REAL chocolate chip cookie recipe with the ingredients listed on a Pillsbury Chocolatey Chunk Cookie Dough Roll. With store bought foods, ingredients are listed in order of use. So if flour is listed as the first ingredient and sodium phosphate is the last ingredient, then flour was used in the biggest amount in the recipe and sodium phosphate was used the least.

Alright I couldn't find our chocolate chip cookie recipe so I'm using another one we have at my house: The Branch Family Recipe, courtesy of Sarah Branch.


Pillsbury:
enriched wheat flour
sugar
semisweet chocolate chunks
soybean and cottonseed oil shortening
water
soybean oil
blackstrap molasses
wheat protein isolate
salt
dried whole eggs
baking soda
sodium aluminum phosphate
artificial flavour

Branch:
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon salt
As many chocolate chips as you want


So, there's actually quite a difference between the two recipes. Personally, I wouldn't use dried eggs in my cookies but I'm also pretty sure that my cookie dough wouldn't last 2 months like the Pillsbury dough does. What do you think?

p.s. Here are the directions on how to make Sarah's recipe for those interested:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2) Mix shortening, butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla thoroughly in a large mixing bowl
3) Stir in remaining ingredients
4) Roll dough into balls and place on a large ungreased cookie sheet
5) Bake for 8-10 minutes
6) Cool and DEVOUR!!!!

Mini Fudge Cupcakes

This cupcake recipe is from a Cookbook I have called "Kitchen for Kids" by Jennifer Low. These cupcakes are like fudge brownies, and are a great topping for ice-cream sundaes. They also freeze well, so you can keep them for a long time.

Supplies You Will Need:

• 1 oven (I hope you all have one of those!)
• 1 large microwave-safe bowl
• measuring cups and spoons
• 1 spatula
• 1 whisk
• about 48 (yes, 48) mini muffin-tins and liners

Ingredients:

• 6 squares of unsweetened chocolate (1 oz./30g each)
• 6 Tbsp of butter (Hint: two finger-widths on a stick of butter is about 1 Tbsp)
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 1/2 tsp of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F (160C)

Heat the chocolate squares with the butter for around 3 to 4 minutes at 50% power in your microwave. Since 50% of 10 = 5, on most microwaves you should heat at Level 5. (any points for that Mme?)

Cool slightly, then whisk in the sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Put your mini-muffin liners into your mini-muffin tins and spoon in the batter so that the liners are about half-full.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are puffed and a tooth pick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Extra:

These cupcakes are so rich, icing isn't necessary. But after they come out of the oven, you can press a chocolate chip into the center.