Cookie Crazy

Welcome back!

If any of you personally know me, you would know that I LOVE cookies, and if you follow me on Instagram (@anmariscooking), you would know that I've tried many recipes and have yet to find the perfect one. In my opinion, the perfect cookie is medium sized, light-weight, full of chocolate chips, with a slight crispiness on the outside and explosive soft and chewy inside. If that didn't get your mouth watering, I don't know what would.

Every batch of cookies I've ever made would either be too dense, too hard, not soft enough, too sweet, or a combination of all of these. I actually gave up on finding the perfect cookie, until one Friday morning, I woke up with the sudden urge to come up with a recipe of my own, and was determined to perfect it!

I went online, just like I would always do, and visited Yummly and Pinterest to steal a few recipes and maybe try to put a couple of recipes together. I stumbled across Sally's Baking Addiction, who in my opinion is one of the best baking blogs out there, and searched through her cookies' tab. Her recipes were always an A+ in my book, so I thought I'd give her Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies a try. With a few modifications, I turned this recipe into the chewiest, softest and most fulfilling one ever!

So here it is:

The Chewiest Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!

*Please read this recipe carefully prior to baking

The perfect little treat!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup on unsalted softened butter, melted
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp of vanilla extract mixed with 4 tbsp of milk
2 cups of chocolate chips or your choice of chocolates (I love using Kinder)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius, and sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a big bowl, using an electric mixer, put together the melted butter and two sugars. Mix for about one minute until the mixture is light and creamy. Don't worry if there is too much butter, it will be mixed in with the dry ingredients. 
3. Next, add in the egg and egg yolk, along with the vanilla and milk. Mix very well, for about 3 minutes using the electric mixer. 
4. Now that the mixture is very creamy and soft, add in the dry ingredients gradually and fold using a rubber spatula. 
5. Add in your choice of chocolates. I used Kinder and added in two packets to make it really rich. 
6. Using a small ice cream scoop, or a spoon, scoop up your cookie dough, making sure you've got enough chocolate into each one, and drop them onto your baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Lightly press them down using your hands (please wear gloves), so that they won't be too dense.
7. Bake for about 7 to 8 minutes.

Heres a quick video I posted on My YouTube Account to help you bake these delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Tips:

1. Butter is the most important aspect of a cookie. It is not true that the more butter you put into the dough, the better, rather it is the quality of the butter, and the form it is in. I've tried melting, softening, using at room temperature, using cold and many other forms, but none of which worked. I was determined to find the solution and I did. Instead of using an old fashioned butter stick, I use this:

Lurk Ghee can be found in any co-op

2. Undercook your cookies! This will not mean that your cookies aren't cooked, but if you cook them for less time, or at least until they've just begun to hold together, it means there is enough heat in them, which means that they will continue to cook until they have fully cooled.

3. Sift your dry ingredients! Sifting will allow more air in your dough, which is something you need to do sine it is compressed. Some may argue, for the sake of not causing an unwanted mess, that you could just use a whisk to break it up after it has been put into the bowl. 

Now, go on and give this recipe a try and let me know how it turns out. 

Feel free to contact me via a comment on this blog post, Instagram: @anmariscooking, or email me!

Happy baking everybody!

Cook with Love!

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” 
― Julia Child, My Life in France

Julia Child is one my favorite chefs out there! I'm not a fan of her actual recipes to use on a daily basis, but I absolutely love her attitude in the kitchen. Call me old fashioned, but to me, part of being a woman is knowing how to cook, or at least knowing the basics to get yourself around the kitchen if you needed to. 

Personally, I grew up with cooks around the house, and I always came home to the finest freshly served food on the table, but that didn't mean my mother didn't cook when she had the chance, which was something she learned from my grandmother. Looking back, when my friends would come over, and my mother would make us homemade pizzas or her famous Tiramisu, they would be astonished with the fact that my mother actually cooked! To me, it was normal- well, maybe because joining her in the kitchen just to lick the spoon was my favorite part. 

Cooking isn't just putting a few ingredients together with a dash of salt and its certainly not just a fancy kitchen filled with high-end appliances, its much more. Cooking is to be done with love. When my mother first taught me how to cook, she kept repeating "cook with love, because whoever is going to eat your meal will feel it", and so I did!

  We all start of somewhere, even if it means burning your food a couple of times!

I didn't treat cooking as a duty. I tried hundreds of recipes, failed countlessly, learned a lot, and most importantly, had fun with it! If I feel like cooking, I'll cook. If I feel like I don't want to, I won't. Following this mentality made me love cooking even more, because it wasn't something I was obligated to do, it turned into a hobby. Though I've got a passion for cooking, I often find myself not as motivated to cook as I would like to, but I've found a couple of ways to provoke my inner foodie into giving a new recipe a try!

Tips on staying motivated in the kitchen:

1. Keep a tidy kitchen

I cannot stress enough on how important keeping a tidy kitchen is! Its just like your closet, if its not tidy, you aren't going to find your favorite sweater!

2. Cook for someone

Try hosting a small get-together with your family or just a couple of close friends. When you know your going to be inviting someone over, tell them your going to cook, they'll be expecting something!

3. Listen to some music

Music is a must for me when I cook! I usually listen to something quiet and calming, like my favorite old Arabic songs.

4. Try something new

If you still feel like nothing is doing it for you, take a short break, and once your back to cooking, try something completely new! You could use new spices, vegetables, or even a new cuisine. 

Most of us have the privilege of having a cook at home to prepare our meals, but they are not to be taken for granted, because one day you might need to cook yourself!

To make this blog more useful, I'd like to know more about you, my dear followers! I would appreciate it if you would answer a couple of questions by just visiting the link below!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XWWDBDP

Welcome to Cook with Numnum

Welcome to my blog!

Who Am I?

I'm Anmar AlDarmi, mostly known as Numnum between my family and friends. I'm a 21 year old Kuwaiti university student who has a passion for cooking. Growing up, I was a very creative child. I did everything from crafts to oil painting. I found myself falling in love with the idea of making something beautiful and getting lost along the way. Paint brushes and colorful pallets were my thing, until one day, at the age of 12,  I tried replacing them with whisks and baking trays. I started practicing with Betty Crocker cake mixes, which by the way, I burned countless times. With the support of my loving family, especially my dear mother, I started taking a risk and trying out recipes from scratch. I would be lying if I said I was good, but with time, I surely got better.

The Journey Begins: 

Two years into college, I got bored with just baking, not that I didn't make main dishes like pastas or pizzas, but I craved more. I like being challenged in the kitchen and working hard to make something perfect. So I went to my mother and asked her to teach me her traditional Kuwaiti recipes. My mother was hands down the best cook I have ever met, and I'm not just saying that because she's my mother. I started learning, it wasn't as hard as I pictured, but it was certainly a challenge. A few months in, and countless Instagram posts later, I got the an offer from a local magazine called The City Magazine, to have a monthly issue called Anmar Is Cooking, where I would provide a recipe and have a photoshoot along with the article. Like anyone else would, I accepted.

A challenge was presented, and I was up for it. One article after another, one photoshoot after another, and a new Instagram account dedicated to make cooking a little bit more fun! I always felt like I was on the right track, until i felt like I was put into a box, and needed to be set free. With university, family, and a social life, it was difficult to keep my account updated. It took so much effort to put everything into one post that was so limited into just one picture and a few words underneath.

A Few of My Favorite Pictures:

My Kuwaiti Cheesecake

        My first photoshoot ever: Kuwaiti dishes including Machous & Bamya

One of my favorite photoshoots ever

An outdoor setting with a traditional Kuwaiti dish: Mrabyan

A personal favorite dish: Fish Covered with Dates (Nagroor)

Everyone's favorite: My Special Berry Cheesecake

Another outdoor setting with a Kuwaiti breakfast

I want to provide you, my dear followers and readers, with something more than just the occasional post. I don't want to feel limited, and I think that this blog will help me give you a better and more efficient learning process.

Lets get cooking!