Currey’s family left yesterday morning after being with us for a week. It’s back to reality! Menu planning, to do lists and household chores I’d previously put on hold are now starring back at me begging to be completed. It was a lovely week filled with meals together, shopping for the kids, going to Ikea, a trip to the zoo and lots of playing together. We crammed a lot into 1 week. My adorable nephew Sam even helped me take the pictures for my blog!
We spent Labor Day searching for the perfect playhouse for the kids and Lolly and Pop sure spoiled them with a big play house for the back yard. The boys were even gracious enough to spend their last day with us putting the playhouse together!
For dinner on Labor Day, we decided to cook out and it was the perfect night for grilling. We enjoyed grilled corn, stuffed jalapenos, garlic bread and steaks with cilantro hot sauce butter. We settled on a chocolate chip cookie cake for dessert, which was delicious. I’m not sure what sets a cookie cake apart from cookie bars but we enjoyed it the same either way. I doubled the original recipe and baked it in a 10×15 pyrex baking dish. I only baked it for 20 minutes, which resulted in a soft cookie, even the next day. I had visions of recreating a frosted cookie cake with a simple butter cream icing just like I used to love from the chain cookie stores at the mall. I made chocolate frosting from Lauren’s Latest but ended up just eating the cookie warm with vanilla ice cream. The icing was so delicious and may have just been eaten with a spoon! I can guarantee it will back another appearance on the blog in the near future.
Besides being delicious, you most likely have the ingredients for this recipe on hand. This is a recipe that I will make again and again because it’s so fast and easy. I actually made it 2 or 3 hours before dinner and kept it covered in the fridge. When it was time for dessert we just popped it in the oven. So easy!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 10×15 rectangular pan with parchment paper. You could also use a large round rimmed baking sheet.
- In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3-4 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla stirring again until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. The dough is very thick and it will come together. (Mine was several large clumps and I was convinced I’d botched the recipe. Just keep mixing because the dough will eventually form.) Stir in chocolate chips.
- Using your fingers, press dough into prepared pan and bake for 16-20 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown.
- To serve: This can be served warm with ice cream. If you prefer a frosted cookie cake, let the cookie cool completely then decorate with your favorite frosting. A couple daring souls even ate theirs with a dallop of icing and a scoop of ice cream.
Original recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything