Baking all the things.

From cookies to cupcakes to pastries...

(The cookies seen here are from the Bon Appétit BA's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe.)

I started baking for fun early in my 20s. I enjoyed the finesse of it as much as I enjoyed giving away my baked goodies and seeing people delight in the first bites. That, or people are far too kind to say, wow, those cupcakes weren't that great.

Like most in the 2000s, cupcakes were my jam. I dog eared all the pages in the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book and have used some recipes so much that the pages have literally pulled apart from the book.

I hand write notes on the pages, marking tips and tricks or easy short cuts for the next go round. For example, with red velvet cupcakes, the food coloring goes in before the vanilla, however, I have found that adding the vanilla first makes it easier for the gel food coloring to slide out of the measuring spoon better.

Last year, I started playing around more with pastries, making mini eclairs (oh my goodness!) and scones from Baking Illustrated, which is an insanely detailed cookbook with illustrations and tips on the best ingredients (ahem, why flours matter).

It seems everyone has found their way into the kitchen this quarantine, with banana bread and sourdough starters gaining all the attention. For me, I have cracked open old and new baking recipes, and have learned the hard way to pay attention when cutting recipes (in half, and in half again) so as to not have 800 cookies or cupcakes laying around.

My dad mentioned the Bon Appétit recipe and as soon as he mentioned ooey gooey centers I knew I would be making these. And the actual words I uttered after my first bite were, well, let's just say NSFW. A few notes on this recipe: it's summer, and I live in Arizona, so kitchens get hot easily, make sure to measure all your ingredients first to ensure the batter is firm. It says to let rest for 5 - 10 minutes, so I chose to have the dough rest in the fridge. The recipe called for semi-sweet or bittersweet chips, I used both. Because, why not?

Do you have a go to chocolate chip cookie recipe? I thought I did, too, until I made these!