Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Tasty on My Mind

Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough June 29, 2025 from Tasty on My Mind 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat on low speed after each addition just until combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips until evenly disbursed.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let cookies rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm late getting this post up as it's past National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day but, not surprisingly, there are many other things going on and chocolate chip cookies, as much of a comfort food as they are, especially when you're emotionally eating, don't rank as high as human rights, women's bodily autonomy, the disdain towards vaccines in a time of Covid resurgence and measles making a comeback, humanitarian aid being denied to "the least among us" and again, the litany goes on.

But I'm trying to follow the advice of reasonable, rational people like Heather Cox Richardson, Jay Kuo, Dan Rather, Marc Elias, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich and many others. Their advice has been consistent: it's easy to be overwhelmed during these times so it's important to rest and to find joy where you can. Even small pockets of joy can sustain you for the long haul. And we are in it for the long haul.

So my little pocket of joy today is this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies that's billed as a Panera copycat. I haven't had Panera's chocolate chip cookies enough to assess whether this is a reasonable copycat but I can tell you this is a great chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The dough handles beautifully and you can see from the pictures that this stays thick and doesn't spread too much. The edges are crisp and the caramelized brown sugar flavor comes through well. If you want a good amount of chocolate in each bite, go with mini chocolate chips as those mini chips get more evenly disbursed through the dough.

If you're going for comfort food, this one's pretty comforting.

Vanilla Pound Cake from View from Great Island

Vanilla Pound Cake - made June 20, 2025 from View from Great Island 

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla paste or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon milk or more as needed

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line with parchment paper to be able to easily lift out the loaf.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in buttermilk.
5. On low speed, add dry ingredients, mixing after each addition until just combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool on wire rack.
7. Make the glaze: in a small mixing bowl, whisk powdered sugar and vanilla with milk to create a thick, spreadable glaze with no lumps. Spread over cooled cake. Let glaze set before cutting and serving.

I've had good luck with recipes from View from Great Island before but this one didn't seem to work out for me. The inside texture on mine didn't look as good or fluffy as on their original blog post. Maybe I beat the batter too much and incorporated too much air into it. Or I didn't bake it long enough, as evidenced by the sinking in the middle. 

I also didn't bake it in a single regular-size loaf pan but in a couple of mini ones as well as a little round paper baking cup. The flavor was fine but I didn't love the texture. Plus, yeah, hey, the world is still barreling towards fascism around us so it's hard to get excited about cake. Release the files.

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) from Compadre Cooking School

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) - made May 31, 2025 from Compadre Cooking School

2 large egg yolks

250 ml heavy whipping cream

90 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon flour

1 strip of lemon peel

1 cinnamon stick

300 grams of puff pastry (I used storebought puff pastry sheets)

8 pastel de nata tins

1. Combine egg yolks and heavy cream in medium saucepan and whisk together until combined. Whisk together flour and sugar before adding to cream mixture.
2. Place saucepan over medium heat and add lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Stir occasionally until until mixture thickens and almost boils. When close to boiling point, turn off heat and let cool.
3. Roll thawed puff pastry sheets into a tight log. Keep chilled until ready to use.
4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F if your oven goes that high. If not, preheat to 450 degrees F with your baking sheet inside so it can also heat up. 
5. Slice puff pastry log into circles about the width of your finger. Place each circle in the center of a pastel de nata tin. Using your thumb, press the center of the pastry into the tin to anchor it. Press the dough up the sides of the tin all the way to just over the top edges. Fill each tin with the cooled custard mixture, more than 2/3 full but not all the way to the brim.
6. Remove heated baking sheet from oven and gently place filled pastel de nata tins on top. Place in oven and set oven timer for 10 minutes. Do not open oven door for the first 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, check if they've browned enough on top. Bake another 1-2 minutes if not. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from molds. Serve lukewarm. 

I recently came back from a trip to Portugal. I'd been there before for a work conference and loved it so much I went back for vacation. It's a beautiful country with amazing people and even more amazing food. I discovered the francesinha (huge portion that must be shared or suffer the overeating consequences - but worth every calorie) but my ultimate favorite from my first visit and well into my second one remains the pastel de nata or the Portuguese custard tart. They call it egg tart but to me it's more accurate to call it the custard tart since the filling isn't eggy like a Chinese dim sum egg tart. But pure custard goodness.

What makes a good pastel de nata is the buttery, flaky pastry crust. And no one does that better than the Portuguese with their custard tarts (sorry, France, I know those are fighting words). Pasteis de nata is the plural of pastel de nata and it would be accurate to say I ate pasteis, not just pastel de nata.

One of the highlights of the trip is we had a cooking class at Compadre Cooking School in Lisbon and they taught us how to make a prawn appetizer, a codfish with cream casserole and of course, the pasteis de nata. It was a fantastic evening and if you're ever in Lisbon, I highly recommend booking yourself into one of their classes. The chefs were patient and excellent at what they do and they helped us create delicious food.

Plus I got to learn how to make pasteis de nata firsthand from very experienced chefs. This is a slightly different post in that instead of making this recipe myself when I got home, I'm posting pictures of the ones we made during our cooking class at Compadre Cooking School. Technically, I did help make them since my part was to make the custard. I didn't want to lose the recipe or the experience and memories so I'm posting the recipe and pictures from that evening since I don't know when I'm going to make them myself at home. But just to be authentic for when that day comes, when I got home, I ordered genuine pastel de nata tins (made in Portugal) from The Curated Pantry. I recommend getting it directly from their website rather than amazon as, even with shipping, The Curated Pantry is cheaper. (I'm not affiliated with them and don't make any money if you click on the link to buy it from them.) I got the smaller version as they mentioned that's what shops like Manteigaria use. I've had the pasteis de nata from Manteigaria in Porto, Portugal and can personally attest how excellent they are.

When you get the tins, they have instructions on how to season them before the first use. Basically you crank up your oven to 500 degrees F or as high as it'll go and bake the tins upside down on a baking sheet for 90 minutes. That burns off the solution they coat them with initially to prevent rust while they're on the shelves. The tins darken and are ready for use after that. I followed the instructions and have my authentic pastel de nata tins ready to go.

In terms of the dough, the chefs had already premade the laminated dough for the pastry shells. You roll out the dough into a rectangle then roll it into a tight log. You should be able to see the layers of dough and butter in the roll. Cut the log into finger-width rounds, place a round in the center of each tin and press outward so the shell goes evenly up the lip of each tin. Our chef did it expertly in two or three quick movements. Needless to say, we the students took a little bit longer, ha. Also, as with any laminated dough, keep the dough chilled until you're ready to cut and form them into the shells. That keeps the butter from warming up before you bake and minimizing the butter leakage during baking,

During our cooking class, another person in my tour group and I made the custard filling. After you make it, cool down the filling before you fill the shells, again to keep the butter in the dough from melting from a warm filling before you're ready to bake. Fill the shells about 2/3 full, not all the way to the top as the shells shrink a bit and the filling puffs a little so you don't want to overfill them.

You also want to place the baking sheet you'll be placing the tins on in the oven as it preheats. Having a hot baking pan to start with helps the custards bake more evenly, according to the Compadre Cooking chefs. Our chef instructor also said once you place the baking sheet back into the oven, set a timer for 10 minutes and don't even look at the oven until the timer goes off. That'll help you avoid the temptation to open the oven door and peek in. That would let the heat escape and negatively affect the baking. 

Once the 10 minutes are up, then you can look and decide if you need a few more minutes of baking time. You want to bake until you see the telltale brown spots on top of the custard and the pastry is browned.

Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool in the tins for 10 minutes then take them out. If you seasoned your pastel de nata tins properly, the tarts should come out easily. Proper care of the tins also says to just wipe them clean. Never put them in the dishwasher and only use soap and water if they're really encrusted and can't be wiped off with a paper towel. Make sure you dry them thoroughly to prevent rust.

So there you have pastel de nata. It's easily one of my top 3 favorite desserts now. As long as I can eat them in Portugal.

Crumbl Cookies review #97 - North Carolina Lemon Pie

Crumbl Cookies review #97: North Carolina Lemon Pie - visited July 23, 2025

I should've published this review last week when the lemon pie was available but I didn't get around to it, partly because I wasn't in the mood to do a write up and partly because I was actively working on all my coping mechanisms: I did 4 shifts at the food bank, I went out with friends a couple of times and I baked for those friends for each outing. Plus my double workouts a day take time. Yeah, lots of stress coping going on.

In any case, the Lemon Pie was a new-to-me offering that I hadn't tried before. To cut to the chase, if you like custardy desserts and lemon, this is a good choice. It was tart but not too tart and not too sweet. Bonus if you like whipped cream and the pretty decorations on top.

For myself, I got it to try it but I knew going in that I'm not a big fan of custard desserts or whipped cream. I do like lemon though, if not the decorative slice on top, so flavor-wise, this was fine. But I didn't eat very much of this as the calories weren't worth it. That's not to say this was bad because it wasn't. It's a matter of preference. I really need to stop buying the desserts I know ahead of time I'm probably not going to like. I tell myself I'm keeping an open mind and something might surprise me, like the original Tres Leches Cake did. But this wasn't it.

This had a $1.49 surcharge at my store so it was $5.98 + tax for a total of $6.47.

I'm not sure if I'll get to Crumbl this week although they do have a couple of cookies in this week's lineup that I like, namely the Lemon Bar and Cake Batter Cookie. Plus I want to try the Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie even though I think they've overplayed the skillet cookie concept. So we'll see. I just want a bite of each and don't really want a freezerful of cookie pieces again when I've just cleared out my freezer during my 3-month Crumbl abstinence.

Ultra Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from My Country Table

Ultra Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough June 23, 2025 from My Country Table

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into cubes

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, cold

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 ounces (1 bar) high quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

1 1/8 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine cold butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar, beating on medium speed until thoroughly combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in egg and vanilla until combined.
3. Add flour, mixing on low speed until just combined. Fold in chopped chocolate and 1 cup chocolate chips, mixing until evenly disbursed.
4. Use a large cookie scoop to portion dough into 10 equal dough balls. Using remaining chocolate chips, press over tops and sides of dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls, 5 to a baking sheet. Bake each sheet for 12-13 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies didn't turn out "ultra thick" but they were good nonetheless. They weren't exactly thin but they definitely weren't as thick as other chocolate chip cookies I've made. Not sure what happened as I did my usual tricks of freezing the dough and baking from frozen dough. Still, they were tasty. The edges were crisp, the middles chewy and they had a good brown sugar caramel flavor. 

I'm still struggling with writing these blog posts so we'll just leave it as this is a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. And these days, do what you can to keep your mental health and equilibrium. In my case, I made these cookies and shared with good friends who I have common moral values with to show my appreciation of who they are. You know, those who believe democracy good, fascism bad, pedophiles really bad. And that an "underage female" is a child. Child. Don't use euphemisms that enable pedophiles to gloss over what they're doing. Ever.  

Sourdough Discard Snickerdoodles Cookies from Ginger Homemaking

Sourdough Discard Snickerdoodle Cookies - made dough June 26, 2025 from Ginger Homemaking 

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup sourdough discard

2 large eggs

Coating

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, sourdough discard and vanilla, beating on low speed until combined.
4. Add dry ingredients in 2 additions, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Portion into golf-ball size dough balls.
5. In a small bowl, combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar with cinnamon, mixing until uniform. Roll dough balls in mixture, coating completely. Evenly space on baking sheets and bake 9-11 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I have to admit, I've been stress baking quite a bit lately. The act of baking not only brings me some comfort but it helps me to share baked goods with the people around me: the women (and their husbands) from my quilting group, the smart, articulate people in my book club, the long-time friends I get together with when I go to the Bay Area, the compassionate volunteers I work with at the food bank and other local friends I go out with. The sharing shows my appreciation for the good, decent people in my life and how much I appreciate their goodness and kindness, especially over the past 6 months.

It's not the baking and the sharing that's caused me angst. It's writing the posts on my blog. Because it's hard to sound "normal" or talk about cookies like things aren't dire. Because they are. Because we're watching the US slide towards authoritarianism in real time, brown people are being hunted, kidnapped and disappeared into - let's call them what they are - concentration camps sanewashed as "detention facilities". Federal employees are losing their jobs for no good reason, there's an obscene transfer of wealth towards the 1% who don't need it at the expense of people being thrown off their health insurance, losing Medicaid and food assistance not to mention all of us paying more for everything because of tariffs. The list goes on and I haven't even touched on the torching of science, research, public health, national parks and a disgusting amount of even more that makes our country smaller, poorer, harder and sadder.

So yes, it's hard to keep writing about, "hey, these snickerdoodles are really good". They are and also, let's see the unredacted Epstein files, yeah? Ugh.

ETA: correction, the only redactions I want to see in the Epstein files are the names and identities of the girls who were abused and trafficked. Everyone else, be they Republicans or Democrats or neither, should be named. Everyone.

Honestly, I don't know where to go from here. If you're turned off by "politics" and don't want to read about the real world on a baking blog, my blog isn't for you and I'm okay with that. Goodbye. But congratulations on your privilege to be able to look away and just think about cookies. I can't anymore. 

Shout out to Shugary Sweets, a blog I've gotten amazing recipes from for years. I caught her feed on Instagram and she's been vocal about speaking out against the fascism. Which is something we all need to do.

Crumbl Cookies review #96 - Cookies & Cream Mint Brownie (tester), Sea Salt Toffee Skillet Cookie, Semisweet Chocolate and Chocolate Cake Batter Cookie

Crumbl Cookies review #96: Cookies & Cream Mint Brownie (tester), Sea Salt Toffee Skillet Cookie and Semisweet Chocolate

It's been hot in my area, often too hot to turn my oven on, especially when I'm not in a baking mood. I had my bookclub meeting this week and wanted to bring dessert so I went with a 4-pack from Crumbl instead. There weren't really any flavors that piqued my interest but it looked like my store had gone back to testing a new flavor (they hadn't had a test cookie/dessert in a very long time) so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try a (small) piece of it and share the rest with the others.

I ordered the Cookies & Cream Mint Brownie (tester), the Sea Salt Toffee Skillet cookie (new to me), the semisweet chocolate (new to me) and the churro (one of my favorites).

Churro Cookie

The frosting on the Churro was a little sad looking, as if whoever piped it either got to the end of the piping bag and tried to squeeze out a little more or they didn't have control of the piping bag. But I don't sweat the small stuff and it still tasted good when I had a piece at our meeting.

Cookies & Cream Mint Brownie

                                           

I am generally not fond of mint chocolate as a flavor. I always maintain it's like brushing your teeth then eating a piece of chocolate. So I was more than happy to cut off a little piece of this and share the rest. You can compare the Crumbl marketing picture of the brownie and the one I actually got and see that the Andes pieces on top of mine were way smaller than the marketing picture. That's rather typical of Crumbl. The garnishes often leave something to be desired and don't live up to their marketing pictures. Again, small stuff not worth sweating.

I was actually positively surprised by this brownie. It's more chocolate brownie than mint which is what I prefer. The green frosting didn't taste minty, which I had braced for. It's still too much frosting for me but the brownie itself was moist and delicious. I also liked the chocolate fudge topping. The mint flavor kicked in towards the end of the bite and I think that was mostly from the bits of Andes candy garnished on top. If you like a stronger mint, you might be a little disappointed but for me, this was the perfect balance. Still not my first choice for a flavor but I'm glad I tried it as now I know.

Sea Salt Toffee Skillet Cookie

The Sea Salt Toffee Skillet was marginally interesting to me since I liked the different components to it: the vanilla bean mousse, the toffee cookie, the milk chocolate and caramel drizzle.

Unfortunately, put together, the combination isn't as compelling. It's mostly due to textures and temperatures rather than flavor. Flavor-wise, this was fine. But Crumbl recommends serving this warm. When warm, the vanilla bean mousse isn't as good. Not as much flavor and the texture is too soft and almost liquid-y. Mousse is generally best chilled. But if you chill the whole skillet cookie, the cookie itself has a drier mouthfeel and the texture is more firm.

This is probably best eaten when you first buy it as I assume the mousse is still chilled and the cookie is still warm. So the texture contrasts would be good. But I bought it several hours before I needed it and tried it so I missed that window. 

In general, I don't think Crumbl's skillet cookies hold up very well because of that temperature difference needed between the mousse and the cookie.

Update: as I was literally writing this post, my doorbell rang and a delivery person dropped off a 4-pack of Crumbl cookies! It was a gift from one of my nieces and contained the Sea Salt Toffee Cookie. So I got a second chance to try this as Crumbl meant: the mousse was still slightly chilled and the cookie base was still a little warm. As I suspected, that was MUCH better. The cookie was delicious and the mousse was good. So I will revise my review slightly to say this cookie was amazingly good BUT ONLY if you can eat it shortly after buying it.

The 4-pack gift from my niece contained the Chocolate Cake Batter Cookie which I don't remember ever trying, the Churro (again my favorite and this time I didn't have to share, lol), the aforementioned Sea Salt Toffee Cookie (glad I got a second chance at it) and the Semisweet Chocolate.

The gift pack from my niece - the frosting on the Churro was much better on this one

Semisweet Chocolate Cookie

When I brought the cookies for my book club, I didn't try the semisweet chocolate as I figured trying the brownie and the sea salt toffee was enough sugar for that day. So I'm glad I also got another chance at trying the semisweet chocolate. My first preference is always going to be milk chocolate but I ended up liking the semisweet too. Crumbl's chocolate chip cookies are sweet and there's an argument to be made that semisweet offsets that sweetness better than their milk chocolate. My sweet tooth has a high tolerance so I don't subscribe to that argument. Still, the semisweet was pretty good. The cookie has the same flavor and texture I like in the milk chocolate and Crumbl seems more generous with their semisweet chocolate chunks than their milk chocolate chips. So this was good.

Chocolate Cake Batter Cookie

Another pleasant surprise was the Chocolate Cake Batter Cookie. I don't often get Crumbl's chocolate cookies as they're too rich for me. This was rich as well but my sweet tooth proved accommodating enough. The cookie was fudgy, which is a must in any chocolate cookie. 

I ended up liking the frosting as well. They must use the same recipe as their Dirt Cake Cookie as it tasted similar like from a can of chocolate frosting from my childhood. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I can't explain why but I loved that canned frosting back then. I don't love it as much now that I make my own frosting. But still, my taste buds can get sentimental.

I ended up liking the thickness, texture and flavor of this cookie. Not wild about sprinkles in general but still, small stuff once again. I wouldn't be able to eat this whole cookie or even a half at the same sitting so I did my usual portioning into fourths and tucked most of it into my freezer for consumption at a later date.

Actually, that's where most of the second 4-pack is now so I'm stocked up on Crumbl cookie pieces once again for at least a month.