Classic Chocolate Drop Cookies

This was my first time baking chocolate drop cookies.

I watched Anna Olson's Youtube video recently and decided to have a go.

The first attempt went badly.  The cookies were rather hard because I used butter spread instead of pure butter.

The second attempt went well and the cookies tasted excellent.  This time, I used shortening for cookies and pastry.  I even remembered the recipe by heart this time.

For cup-to-gram measurement, the US-UK conversion comes from the link below:
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/531168/cups-to-grams-converter

Chocolate Drop Cookie recipe by Anna Olson

Wet ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (115g)
½ cup packed light brown sugar (90g)
½ cup granulated sugar (90g)
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract (10 ml)

Dry ingredients
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (185g)
1 tbsp cornstarch (15ml)
½ tsp baking soda (7.5g)
½ tsp salt (7.5g)

To be added last
1 ½ cup chocolate chips (225g)
1 cup lightly toasted, coarsely chopped pecans (optional) (150g) (I used roasted walnuts)

(Note:I am planning to make another batch of cookies using a reduced amount of sugar because I find 180g of sugar is a bit too much for my teeth)

Below are the photos of the cookies:

Photo 1: 1st attempt- cookie balls before baking

Photo 2: 1st attempt- freshly made cookies

Photo 3: 2nd attempt- cooled and ready to eat cookies

Photo 4: 2nd attempt - cookies ready for storage

Cinnamon Rolls Part Deux

I made some cinnamon rolls yesterday to see if the only recipe in my previous blog worked.  I was still unable to make the rolls look like those in online Youtube videos.

I think the problem is probably due to the texture of the dough and the lack of kneading in my case.  I used a spatula and hand to knead the dough instead of using a food mixer.

The texture of the finished roll is good.

Once I get myself a food mixer, I'll try the cinnamon roll recipe in my previous blog to see if the shape of the rolls has improved.

For the filling, this time, I just mixed 60g brown sugar and 15g cinnamon powder in a bowl by using a fork to stir them all together.  Then, I brushed 50g melted unsalted butter on the flattened dough.  I sprinkled the sugar-cinnamon mixture on the flattened dough before rolling it into a roll.  This amended process helped the filling easily distributed and stuck to the flattened dough.

Below are the photos of my second attempt on the cinnamon roll recipe: