Sometimes I’ll buy a little gadget or appliance, not knowing how it will completely impact and transform my life. Our Solis coffee bean grinder is on that list, and so are my Silpat silicone baking sheets. I think I found something else for that list, too:
By the way, I am still off of sugar, so I did NOT eat any of these chocolate chip cookies. I just have one more day of this restricted diet, though, so this weekend you can bet I’m going to have my cake and eat it, too!
that is the cutest thing ever! i’m so jealous!
Must-have? My mandoline. You can make amazing julienne, cross cut veggie chips… Oh, how I adore the power of mandoline.
Wow, that is a pretty good tool. But what amazes me is that you made a batch of cookies and didn’t actually eat any. I would have broken that diet in a nanosecond. Good for you!
Freeze me some o’ them cookies girl! 😉 I heart my silpat, my new calphalon pans have changed my life, but my 8″ chefs knife (and sharpener) are the must have items in my kitchen. Very jealous that you get to eat cookies this weekend. My last visit bought me another ten days of brown rice. gah!
wow you made it much longer than I could have ever hoped. I mean really what do you eat when you are on these kinds of diets…
as for my must have. I LOVE my apple core and slicer. Makes me more inclined to eat an apple. I have a tupperware orange peeler thingymabob (that helps huh…) that I find indispensable, when I had an oven my silpat were that way (oh the meatballs I made on you!). I dont cook enough to have others but one day I will and I will share then 🙂
Wow, your cookies look so good!
And thanks for the tips about the silicone oven sheet – had never heard of that but I feel I must find one…!
i, too, cannot live without the cookie scoop. and another tip? it makes PERFECT sized ice cream scoops for rootbeer floats. Just sayin’. 😉
My kids got me a cookie scoop for Christmas but I’m still hoping for a Silpat mat for my birthday! 😉 Hope you have a great time with sugar over the weekend! 😉
Silpats and the cookie scoop are my best buds! My hubby used to be a chef, so we have quite a few sizes of scoops, which is great for all sizes of cookies! Not to mention my huge one for muffins!
I love my little food processor. I don’t even know what brand it is Faberware, maybe. Great for making hummus, chopping onions when I need tiny pieces, and grating cheese when I am lazy.
Parchment paper, a chinoise and a digital meat thermometer are my can’t do withouts.
oh wow. I had never considered the scoop for cookie dough! Brilliant.
I used to work in a kitchen shop, so I have quite a few gadgets and good kitchen tools. Despite the number of gadgets that are out there, my favourites are very basic:
1. Grohmann knives – made here in Nova Scotia – I splurged on these and bought the full tang forged wooden handle knives. I heart them.
2. Baking stones – These are great! My cookies have never been happier!
3. OXO or Good Grips veggie peeler. This one is especially good for people with arthritis.
those cookies look delicious!!!!!!!!! i’m totally on a macaroon binge lately =)
my latest essential kitchen items:
microplane
heavy saute pan
6 inch santoku knife
I got one of those scoops before I made Christmas cookies this past year. I don’t know how I lived without it either!
Oh, how I love the cookie scoop! Mine is still packed away in a box somewhere from when I moved, and each time I make cookies without it I just feel lost. I love that I don’t get (as much) dough on my fingers (and therefore I don’t eat as much), and that my cookies all come out the same size and round.
I’m also a big fan of my knife sharpener — until it joined my kitchen family I had no idea how much I enjoy chopping things.
my baking stone (cookies turn out so evenly baked in my crazy hot spot oven) and my mini spatulas (rubber scrapers) from williams sonoma.
Two words: Immersion blender.
Well, the immersion blender, microplane, and baking stone have already been mentioned… my newest Oh Wow! kitchen tool is the short handled wooden baking peel I got from a foodie friend this week.
(It’s short handled because we have a galley kitchen.) I’m not sure how we made pizza’s without this! So much nicer than the huge aluminum foil hammocks we were using before to trasfer the pizzas to the stone.
Well, most of the things I love have alreay been listed. I have three scoops like yours–a teaspoon scoop, a tablespoon scoop, and a 1/4 Cup scoop. The 1/4 Cup one gets the most use in my house. I use it for pancakes, muffins, biscuits, cupcakes…lots of stuff. I also can’t live without my Kitchenaid mixer–I bake 4 loaves of sandwich bread a week and I use it to mix and knead the dough. I love my microplane and my metal bench scraper, too. I’m pretty much a kitchen gadget junkie!
My fabulous sister gave me an “ice-cream scoop for cookies” about 10 years ago, and I’ve been baking perfect Toll House cookies ever since.
She also told me about “Super Eggplant,” and I’m a loyal fan.
I second the cookie scoop and immersion blender. They are so handy. My favorite tool is the simple bowl scraper. It gets EVERYTHING out of the bowl, much better than scraping with a spoon or spatula. I also love pans with removable bottoms. I think it should be a requirement for every pan!