Joanna Gaines Chocolate Cookies - Honest Review

Hope everyone is doing great! Thank God, we have made it to 2021! For those of us still here, let's make sure we embrace and make time with our loved ones. For the beautiful lives we have lost, lets ensure we offer prayer of condolences, strength and healing from our Father in Heaven, for his grace and spirit alone can heal and help us move on. 

It's now 2021. Yay. 

I am not sure why I still have this blog, but because it is a new year and I think I may have written down somewhere, that I at least write one post for 2021. I figured I would beat all the other procrastinators out there who eventually will give up on their New Year Resolutions and just share this "famous" cookie recipe. 

Also, it's my birthday and I decided to take the day off where I had hoped to cross several items from my to do list. So far just two items off from my list, and one them involved making these cookies. Not sure why I wanted to try her recipe, but after seeing other blogs and thier reviews I figured, well alright I better try these...sometime...this year. 

But before I share her recipe, which I obtained by taking a screenshot of someone's pinned photo from her book. I really should let ya'll know, that I am not a fan of Joanna Gaines. I mean I was...but then she got all "Martha", sorry but there is only ONE Martha! Not impressed and put off, so I tuned out on the show. Sorry. 

There was always something about Joanna Gaines, when I would watch the show that seemed a bit snooty and after reading a bit on the controversies of the "Magnolia" empire, I was put off by the "Fixer Upper" couple and decided to move on to HGTVs "Home Town" couple. Praying and hoping they do not let HGTV fame get over their heads and stay true to their home town values. 

Now, with that said, there has been a lot of hype on Mrs. Gaines cookbook and procrastinator or not, I do love to cook a lot. And although I still think she wants to be "Oprah", I need to find out for myself if her hyped recipes are any good. So I have six screenshots of her recipes to try and decided to try the cookies first. Plus this gives me motivation to actually write in this blog, although I know no one is actually reading it. But it gives me reason to pretend like I know how to write stuff and gives me an excuse to cook and bash on someone else's cooking other than my own, even though I do not have a dime to lick on. So yah...let's get started. Jesus forgive me for I will say shit about this lady's hyped up cookie recipe. 

My Honest Review: Although I found these cookies easy to make with the use of my Kitchen Aid Mixer, I found these cookies where overly sweet and according to the initial cooking time of 10-11 minutes left my first batch of cookies raw. I do like the ease of preparing this batch of mix and drop style cookies, however they were inconsistent with texture. Some where too crunchy or too chewy or too sweet or maybe needed more flour? From countless blogs reviews and photos, it seemed like these cookies baked thick and somewhat fluffy in texture. I followed the recipe per noted, had room temperature eggs and butter, mixed butters and sugars as noted. However my cookies failed to cook with a uniform texture throughout all five batches. I was a bit skeptical on the two cups of light brown sugar, but decided to follow the recipe as noted as I wanted to give my honest review. And well, not a fan. I realized that my chocolate chip cookie needs to have both the texture of chewiness and cake in one. Will give it hands up for the super ease of making it, but they turned out too sweet and not uniform in texture for my taste. 

1 of 6 Recipes to go, before I decide to purchase her Magnolia Table cookbook - used. Because I am not paying $$$ for this cookbook and come to find out after trying the six recipes and then the other remaining recipes turn out to not beat my $1 dollar Betty Crocker cookbook from the Goodwill store.

Stay Tune! Wait...Stay tuned ya'll! 

Cheers! Annie 

Here is a summary of the recipe: Magnolia Table Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time: 30 Minutes    Cooking Temp: 350    Baking Time: 10-15 Mins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350. 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs and beat until blended. Add vanilla extract and beat again until blended.

4. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix in dough with spatula (to avoid flour from blowing around from the mixer). Mix on medium until flour is mixed in more and then turn mixer to high speed for a few seconds to pull the dough together. It will be chunky.

5. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop dough by the spoonful on the lined baking sheet; do not flatten. Bake until lightly browned, 10 - 11 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

6. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.