Just Desserts

On most Saturdays or Sunday afternoons, you'll find me in the kitchen baking. This is a stress reliever for me. I also love to share baked goods with my family and friends. I have a basic cookie recipe that I've been making for years. It's proportions are easy to remember and it is easy to half, no math degree required. This weekend, I baked Chocolate Chip Cookies and Caramel Cupcakes while A was mountain biking with his buddies. The caramel icing on the cupcakes didn't turn out exactly how it was supposed to because I didn't read the recipe carefully enough (a common  problem). The icing tastes good, but it's too grainy. Word of advice: Read before you start. However, I really like the texture of the sour cream pound cake cake base; I just need to work on the icing (myrecipes.com, from Oxmoor House September 2004). The pound cake is also on myrecipes.com, Southern Living November 2007. —PHH

Basic Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups oatmeal (optional—I omitted the oatmeal today.)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Your choice of stir-ins (today I used 6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips and 2 oz. white chocolate chips)

1. Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

2. Combine flour; oatmeal, if desired; and next 3 ingredients. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until combined. Add in stir-ins.

3. Scoop batter onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheet (I use a small ice-cream scoop to get the right-size cookies). Bake at 350° for 9 to 10 minutes.

4. Cool on pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.