I'm Jennifer Holder

Click to view slideshow.Whenever I make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, I feel a bit like Goldilocks. Sometimes they come out too hard or too soft, too chocolately or not enough, too thick or too thin. I find myself having trouble getting them just right.  When I make them from the store, however, they’re simple. Either you break them off and throw them on a pan or make them into little balls and throw them on the pan or add water to a packaged mixture and … throw them on the pan. The only way to really screw up pre-mixed chocolate chip cookies is to throw the whole roll on the pan, Clueless style. And then you probably just shouldn’t be cooking. The advantages of homemade chocolate chip cookies is that you can really add anything to the mixture. You also feel worse about eating it straight off a spoon because you know you put eggs in it.

For this experiment, I used the “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe on AllRecipes.com (one of approx. 3,000 with the same name).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup butter, softened, $4.69 for 1 lb
• 1 cup white sugar, 4 lbs for $3.15
• 1 cup packed brown sugar, $1.29 for 1 lb
• 2 eggs, $1.39 for a half-dozen
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, $4.39 for 1 oz
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, $1.35 for 2 lbs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda, 70 cents for 8 oz
• 2 teaspoons hot water, Free
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, Free
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, $2.99 for 12 oz (approximately 2 cups)

Yields: 2 dozen cookies

TOTAL COST: $7

All ingredients together costs around $20, but most likely, a majority you will already have in your kitchen, and you’d only have to pay $3 for the chocolate chips. Depends on how well stocked your kitchen is, though. As for the other prices:

• Nestle Chocolate Chip Break and Bake Cookies, 2/$6, yields 40 mini cookies or 24 regular cookies
• Tube Cookie Dough, 2/$6, yields 17 1 1/2 inch cookies
• Chips Ahoy, $2.50 a package of approximately 2 dozen
• Packaged bakery cookies, 2 dozen for 2/$6
• Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, $2.13 for 3 dozen 2 inch cookies

As for this recipe, the “best” chocolate chip cookies came out good at first – they were gooey and delicious, and I couldn’t stop eating them. But then, over time, they got hard as rocks. Not ideal when your teeth are breakable. Everyone else seemed fans, though, and eventually every last crumb was gobbled up. But homemade cookies are just better, even if they are as hard as Chips Ahoy.

VERDICT: MAKE

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember eating my mother’s yeast rolls. My grandfather used to wish for them on his birthday, and he would hoard them and hide them from everyone else during the holidays. For our family, yeast rolls were king.  Since my grandfather passed away five years ago, my mother occasionally cooks the frozen Sister Schubert rolls ($3.69 for 16) instead of making the yeast rolls from scratch. At first, I was furious. The rolls were always the best part of the meal, and although Sister Schubert’s also tasted delicious, they just weren’t the same. That is, until this year, when it was my turn to make the rolls.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup Sour Cream – 8 oz for 99 cents
• 1 stick margarine or butter -  $4.69 for 4 sticks
• ½ cup sugar – Dixie Crystal 4 lbs for $3.15
• 1 tsp. salt –  Free
• 2 pkgs. rapid rise yeast – Fleischmann’s Yeast, 3 packages for $2.13
• 1 cup warm water – Free
• 4 cups All-Purpose or Bread Flour, Gold Medal, 2 lbs for $1.79
• 2 eggs, beaten - $1.19 for a 6-pack

TOTAL COST: $5.08

Scald sour cream. Add margarine, sugar and salt. Let this cool. Mix yeast in warm (not hot) water. Stir the eggs into cooled sour cream mixture. Add to yeast. Mix flour one cup at a time. Cover the bowl tightly until ready to use. Divide dough into two parts and roll about ¾ inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter or roll into three small balls, put into greased muffin pan. Let sit for one hour to rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until browned. Yields two dozen.

Total cost for all the ingredients is $13.94, but after you break everything down it equals about $5. On sale, you could get two packs of Sister Schubert’s rolls for the same price. Usually, I vote doing the homemade way, especially since these have always been such a big family tradition. And while these aren’t the hardest rolls to make, they cost more and unfortunately, my batch didn’t rise. They still tasted good, but were much denser than intended.

VERDICT: BUY

FACT: red velvet cake is delicious. It’s moist, with the perfect mixture of sweet and tangy, and the frosting is basically worth dying for. While cake mixes and readymade icing are pretty cheap and easy to whip up (running you about $2 or so for each), they don’t always give you that richness. Purchasing a pre-made cake is always an option, but they can get a bit expensive. In Brooklyn, you can get delicious cakes from Choice Market, Baked or Cake Man Raven ranging from $40-$200. At a supermarket, you can walk away with a red velvet for about $15-$30, but we wouldn’t suggest it. So how about the third option, making it from scratch? For this experiment, we suggest this Southern Red Velvet Cake recipe from none other than Cake Man Raven in Clinton Hill.

INGREDIENTS:

CAKE:

• Gold Medal Flour – $1.89 for 2 lbs.
• Domino Sugar – $1.19 for 1 lb.
• Baking soda – 69 cents
• Cocoa powder – $2.99-$3.09 for 16 oz.
• Vegetable oil – $4.49 for 32 oz.
• Buttermilk – $2.39 for one quart
• Eggs – $1.19 for a 6-pack
• White distilled vinegar – 69 cents for 16 oz.
• Vanilla extract – $3.29 for 1 oz.
• Red food coloring – $3.99 for 1 oz.

FROSTING:

• Cream cheese – $1.49 for 8 oz. ($2.99 total)
• Vanilla extract – included above
• Confectioner’s sugar – $2.39 for 32 oz.
• Butter – $2.19 for two sticks

TOTAL COST: $15*

The total cost for all ingredients is $30.37, but after you break everything down, the cake itself only costs around $15.  Luckily, you can use most of the ingredients again (white distilled vinegar has multiple uses ). Unfortunately, you can’t leave out the cocoa powder (although you use so little and it’s costly), otherwise it just won’t be red velvet cake. And good news, your cake doesn’t actually have to be red. Granted, it’s going to screw with your friends’ minds when they taste it expecting one cake and it’s really red velvet, but food coloring is expensive.

VERDICT: MAKE

*Prices based on Pioneer Supermarket in Clinton Hill.

So maybe this delightful dish isn’t the most common, but I was disappointed to find that Food Bazaar carries neither frozen nor fresh quiche.  It’s a-ok, because for those who need reminding of the grocery store quiche experience, it’s usually a spongy mushpot of dairy products tossed with a few cubes of low grade ham.  Get your quiche from the bakery and it will set you back $14-25.  Need I say more?  Below are the ingredients for a simple homemade spinach/ mushroom/ cheddar quiche.

INGREDIENTS:

• Frozen pie crust: 2 for $3.00
• 12 Eggs: $0.99-$4.19
• Bag of fresh spinach: $2.99
• Either white or baby bella sliced mushrooms: $1.99
• Kraft assorted cheddar: 1 for $2.50
• Whole milk: $1.39 (liter)
• Spices (salt, pepper, thyme): $0

TOTAL COST:  $12.86

Preheat oven to 350, poke frozen pie crust with fork.  Sautee the vegetables (and spices to taste) at medium heat until partially cooked.  Remove heat.  Beat 3 eggs in a bowl, add ¼ cup whole milk to eggs, mix in a handful of shredded cheese, and slowly combine with the sautéed veg.  Coat the bottom of the pie crust with shredded cheese, add the egg/veg concoction, and add another layer of cheese on top!  Cover remaining crust with tinfoil so it doesn’t burn, and bake for 30-40 mins.  Nom nom nom.

PS: You have more than enough ingredients for TWO QUICHES (with plenty of leftover eggs and milk).

VERDICT: MAKE.