How The Shoop Family is Staying Busy During Quarantine: Baking

While having free time is nice, this quarantine is giving me more than I ever imagined having!

These are my freshly made chocolate chip cookies filling the whole house with a mouth-watering aroma!

Gooey, Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

A classic staple in anyones baking repertoire has to be chocolate chip cookies! A good chocolate chip cookie can make ANYONE smile! Curbside, a small business in Blawnox, clearly knows this! (Read my last article to learn more about Curbside) Making cookies from scratch is one of my favorite things to do, but there are times where I just want to pop a few cookies into the oven without all of the work. During this time Curbside is making and selling quarts of cookie dough to make at home. This is taking all of the work out of baking, while still giving me the taste of a homemade chocolate chip cookie! If there is one thing you should know about me when it comes to baking, it's that I do not like anything crispy or burnt! This always creates some tension in the Shoop house as my mom and brother like their desserts crispy, while my dad and I prefer gooier treats. This time, since I was the one baking, I made sure they stayed soft and melty! When I pulled the cookies out of the oven I was hit with the sweet smell of vanilla and chocolate. After waiting a little for the cookies to cool off, we all jumped in and tried one. Of course, they ended up being delicious! I'm pretty sure chocolate chip cookies are never a bad idea!

Trying New Things!

While there are times that I would rather make an easy, classic treat, during quarantine, the Shoops' have decided to try some new things! My mom and I happened to come to the same idea, we should make homemade chocolate chip banana bread! My brother Jake was all for this idea, which is strange, considering he is not a fan of bananas. We found a recipe online that looked good and we got started. We pulled out all of our ingredients and decided to divide and conquer. I combined all of the dry ingredients while my mom mashed the "overripe" bananas with some other ingredients. After that I folded the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. I used a folding technique I had learned in a macaroon making class my schools French Club attended. After folding everything together we sprinkled some chocolate chips into the batter, then we made sure to a few extra! We then put the batter into the oven and waited while our excitement (and hunger) grew! When we removed the bread from the oven the satisfying scent of warm chocolate and sweet bananas filled the kitchen. The smell and sight was tempting, making it difficult for all of us to wait for what felt like an infinite amount of time, while the bread cooled. At last, the time to cut into the bread came, and it was better than we could've imagined! The chocolate chips were melty and the bread was cooked just right! (Thankfully, not burnt or crispy!) After this successful attempt at making banana bread, we will definitely be making it again!

The recipe we used for the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread