4C - Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake

Here we go!

Christmas is right around the corner, and one scientist can't help but already smell it... and taste all deliciousness from the holidays!

To me, nothing shouts "It's Christmas!!" from the top of their metaphorical lungs, more than Chocolate chip cookies!

My mother and I found this recipe years ago, on the back of a condensed milk can. And it has being our go to recipe every holiday since than.

We spent a lot of time baking this recipe just the way we learned, but after a while, I started to play along with the ingredients. And finally I came up with this final form, that goes well as a cookie and also as a cupcake!

Seriously, When I'm not in the mood of baking several pans of cookies, I just bring out the cupcake pan, and we have a lot of delicious chocolate chip cookie cupcakes! Bet you can't say that three times fast!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake

Materials:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 100g unsalted softened butter
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup oat bran
• 100g chopped walnuts
• 200g dark chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoon rum extract (or some fruity liquor)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoom salt
• 2 egg yolks (optional, you'll see why)

Methods:

• It's basically just mix them and bake. But follow this order, and just move to other ingredients when everything is mixed. This will make everything evenly distributed.
• Beat the condensed milk and softened butter until it forms a cream.You can use an eletric beater for this part.
• Toss the egg yolks and the extract and beat well. About the egg yolks, they make the cookie/cupcake fluffy. If you're gonna make them cupcakes, I advise you  use the egg yolks. If you gonna make cookies, you can add them or don't. It's about your preference on cookies crunchyness. If you gonna make cookies and cupcakes, I say use the yolks!
• Add the salt and baking soda and beat again!
• Now it's time to use a wooden spoon. Mix the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.

• In a separated bowl, mix the flour and and the oat bran.
• Add the powdered mixture into the liquid mixture 3 to 4 tablespoons at a time and mix untill well incorporated.
• Cookies: Place 1 shallow tablespoon to form each cookie in a lined baking pan. Apart at least 2cm from each other. Bake at 180ºC until the edges start browning
• Cupcakes: Put the dough as high as half the cupcake space and bake at 180ºC untill the top start turning brown.

Experimental observations:

The original recipe asked for vanilla extract. But vanilla always seemed so... Vanilla. I thought it could give an extra punch using something stronger! Also, someday I was out of vanilla extract, and I added  japanese plum liquor to the recipe and the result was
just WOW!

As cupcakes, the recipe is a bit ooey-gooey on the inside. An awesome type of ooey-gooey. So, wait until they cool down to remove from the pan.

As cookies, also wait too cool down, or they might break.

If you're in the south hemisphere, like me, you might want to chill the dough a bit before baking the cookies. It chill the butter, and the cookies won't spread too much while baking