Berry-July Love Notes

I'm actually kind of enjoying this end of the month Love Note business.  Not that it's ideal to give out that month obviously but you have a fresh Love Note for all your needs the following month.  Instead of being days or even weeks late I'm actually a day ahead of the month. haha  Maybe one day I'll get back to posting them at the starting of each month but not today.

This Love Note is perfect for all those beautiful berries we're finishing up this summer!  Obviously you can focus on strawberries like I did but there are so many cute berry things that would be so great with this tag.

Obviously I think berries and cream! Yum!  Whip up a batch of fresh whipped cream, put it in a cute little ramekin and give a small carton of strawberries with it and they have dessert for the whole family. Pretty healthy and delicious!

Or if you're feeling like baking make a little pound cake loaf.  All you need are these small loaf pans, regular baking ingredients and lemon extract!  I'll be sharing the recipe soon!  It's from my sweet Grandma and it's so delicious!

Wrap some fresh whipped cream, washed and sliced strawberries and a mini loaf of pound cake up and give it to a new neighbor, someone you love or someone you've been thinking about!

Liv even got in on the Love Notes and gave a few plates away to some people that needed to know how BERRY much she loves them! :)

Other strawberry options could be:  Strawberry Sour Patch candies, this cute little Strawberry container, strawberry dish towels (you can never have enough towels!), or a cute strawberry sign.  Or any strawberry flavored drink, chocolate, candy or food item. Think chocolate covered strawberries, oh my word that would be amazing!!

Can't wait to share this Pound Cake Recipe!

Find the Berry Love Notes HERE!

I recommend downloading the file for the best outcome with how I designed the tags.

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Hunt-Caputo's Sea Salt CCC

I've heard some mixed reviews about this cookie.  Some say it's too salty or not their ideal CCC, and on the other hand some say that it's a perfect bakery quality cookie, amazing chocolate, perfect amount of salt and an all around great cookie!  I'll be honest with you, the first day I baked the dough balls I was not very pleased.  haha I actually really didn't like them, but I waited to have more the day after when the chocolate was set and I loved it SO much more.  The chocolate just sings!

These are the Caputo's Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies via Female Foodie.  After watching her Instagram highlights and stories making these I knew I needed to try them!  The dough sits in the fridge for 6-7 DAYS can you believe it!?  I obviously did bake off a couple right after I made the dough, for research purposes of course. ;) I do see the difference!  I far preferred having them in the fridge over baking them right away.  

The cookies turned out prettier, the chocolate spread out more and layered so perfectly and the cookies became more golden during baking.

You also don't skimp on the salt on top.  

This is definitely a cookie for someone that likes salt, and lots of it!

Check out the bakes on these 2 different cookies.  The top was baked after the dough had been in the fridge for 6 days.  The bottom was baked after the dough had been in the fridge for only an hour before baking.

This recipe uses cake and bread flour and it totally makes a difference.  The cookies are fluffy, yet chewy and crunchy.  The amazing quality chocolate from Caputo's really is needed to make these cookies just perfect.

Next time I'm going to try some Milk Chocolate from Caputo's and make this same recipe again because I think I'd love it even more with milk chocolate.

Which says a lot about this cookie.  I don't prefer dark chocolate but I could easily eat a couple fo these cookies! haha  Even the dough was delicious!  And with chocolate pieces as big as that, it's got to be great right?

Really though, you leave the chocolate pieces whole when you put them in the mixer and as they are mixing they break up a little but these discs make it so you get glorious puddles of chocolate all throughout your cookie!

After you make your dough you portion them out in 4 oz. balls!  That's a big cookie!!  Cover in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for 6-7 days.  Trust them they know what they are doing.

Couldn't stop staring at (and eating) this dough!  Or these baked cookies.  They were just too pretty.  I used Brooke's tips to make them look even better by forming them right out of the oven and it really did make them look so wonderful.  The metal spatula really does the trick, when you're trying to press those sides of the warm cookie into a perfect circle!

I had it right out of the oven with ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream and it was totally delicious.  The cookie was still warm but still had some crunch to it, which was a nice surprise.

The moral of the story is get the good chocolate, get the fleur de sel, wait out the 6-7 days while you're refrigerating your dough, try it the day after you bake it when your cookie is completely set.  It really does make a difference.  You can find all the specialty ingredients at Caputo's.

Next week I'm making Joanna Gaines' Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe!

It doesn't have any specialty ingredients just all the usual CCC necessities so make sure you have all the usual things on hand.

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Hunt-Doubletree

Have you ever stayed at a Doubletree hotel and had one of their warm cookies?  Me neither. haha But I hear they are amazing and had to give them a try.  People love this recipe and can't stop talking about them so I had to see what all the hype was about.  

Doubletree released their recipe for these customer favorite cookies at the start of the Pandemic.  I love the companies and people that have tried to go above and beyond and do something little to help brighten their customers and future customers day.  It makes this time in the world kind of fun!

This recipe has a few unexpected chocolate chip cookie ingredients like lemon juice, walnuts, oats, cinnamon.  Honestly I didn't notice the lemon juice at all and I even doubled it after seeing Female Foodie make this recipe.  But they were still delicious cookies!  Another thing that is different than other recipes is the bake time and temperature.  The recipe calls for baking the cookies at 300 degrees for 20-23.  I tried 20 minutes with my first batch, they were still delicious but a little crunchier than I prefer.  My sweet spot was 17 minutes for my oven so just watch until they just turn golden.  If you like crunchier though check at 20 minutes.

After trying Paula's recipe last week and this recipe I've learned I actually really like cookies with nuts in them.  How crazy is that!  I really loved the all semi sweet chocolate in this recipe too.  Experimenting in the kitchen really is so fun.  Even as an adult.  This cookie is packed with flavor, texture and deliciousness and I can see why people crave this recipe.  The dough was so yummy and stores well in the fridge or freezer if you can't bake all the cookies.  It has lots of oats, nuts and chocolate chips so you might think like me that there isn't a lot of just "dough" but it still was really good!

I did make my cookies bigger than my usual cookie size and I preferred them that way.  

More cookie = more to love! I used THIS scoop for reference.  

Of course try a cookie warm right out of the oven like how Doubletree serves them, but also save some for the next day-that's my favorite!

Full of flavor and deliciousness is a good way to describe these cookies!

Had to share a picture my little assistant baker took.  Liv was with me from the start of baking these cookies to the end taking pictures.  She's such a doll!

Next week I'm going to try 

Caputo's Chocolate Chip Cookies through Female Foodie!

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.  Thank you for supporting me!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Hunt-Paula Deen

I'll be honest when I first watched Paula Deen's Quarantine Cooking-Chocolate Chip Cookies segment I was a little shocked!  People like their CCC flat??  AND crispy?? I was a little bewildered, but I thought.  Paula Deen is the Queen of southern cooking and has never lead me astray with one of her recipes, so I had to trust her.

And boy am I glad I did.  This recipe is full of flavor, textures and helped me realize that I actually really like thin, flat, chewy cookies.  That's the cool thing about Chocolate Chip Cookies, there is a recipe out there for everyone.  You can find or even create your ideal cookie recipe that is just perfect for YOU.  

Paula's Chocolate Chip Cookies have a few special ingredients too like milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and pecans!  After you make the dough and scoop it out for the cookies you actually press down and FLATTEN your cookies so you ensure you get that flat cookie.  It's crazy to me that we are actually seeking for flat, thin cookies; when i've been trying all my life to make cookies fluffier and bigger. haha!  

My Tips on this recipe:

I used 1 1/2 C. of chopped pecans and 1 1/2 C. milk chocolate chips, I couldn't get over the fact that I was putting more nuts than chocolate chips in my cookie so I had to adjust.  I did add about 1/4 C. more flour because I wanted to make sure I had enough.  

Flattening your cookie dough down with your hand and non stick cooking spray actually does make a difference instead of just flattening it down with your hand.  Try it for yourself!  I also liked the larger cookies over the smaller size I usually make.  Trust Paula people!

The dough for these CCC was unreal!  So delicious Livy and I couldn't stop taking bites.  I also loved the addition of the pecans!  The addition of pecans made it taste like coconut almost which I love!

Had to get a picture with my latest cookie, chalkboard and wreath combo!

Next week I'm trying the Famous Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies!