The most used kitchen tool and a cookie for one.

I am a sucker for kitchen tools. Whenever I go to Target or some other home goods store, I spend a ridiculous amount of time perusing all the different tools and gadgets (an avocado scoop! Why??). Let me give you an example of my obsession. Spatulas. I have about 10 different spatulas all because I wanted to find out which one was best: wooden handle with a rubber spatula, all rubber or all silicone? I bought different brands of each: Le Creuset, OXO, Crate & Barrel, Target and  Sur la Table just to find the best one (which is this one by the way). 

However, the perfect spatula is not the most important tool in the kitchen., not by far. The most important tool, and the most used tool, is a kitchen scale. 

In the US, recipes typically list ingredients in volume (cups, pints). This is fine and dandy for the most part, but then you want to double or halve the recipe and how the heck do you measure half of a third of a cup? Also, when you are measuring in volume, you are leaving room for a lot of variation. Not everyone measures out a cup of flour the same so you will get a different amount than is written in the recipe. The other downside to measuring in volume: so many dishes. I hate doing dishes. I run my dishwasher three times a day in order to avoid doing dishes. When you are trying to measure out cups of different ingredients, wet or dry, you end up with a lot more to clean up. 

In the rest of the world (and in a professional setting), recipes are written out in weight, either ounces or grams. Even with slight variations in kitchen scales, measuring your ingredients out in weight is much more exact and will end up being truer to the recipe written.

The reason why I really love a kitchen scale is for measuring out wet ingredients. A single stick of butter is 4 ounces or 113 grams. When you are thinking about replacing butter with a different type of fat, you know exactly how much weight of fat you need. So, when I am measuring out almond butter to replace butter, I simply place the empty bowl on top of the zeroed kitchen scale, measure out 4oz of almond butter and I’m done. I do not need to worry about measuring with cups, getting all the almond butter out of the cup. 

Let me give you an example of when the kitchen scale saved me. I wanted to make a cake. Cakes can be incredibly tricky when you are trying to measure things out, but one cake is incredibly simple: pound cake. Pound cake is called pound cake because it is made with a pound of butter, eggs, flour and sugar (and a wee bit of salt). I weighed out all my ingredients and had a delicious cake at the end of it. No guessing when it came to measuring out the right amount of each. 

I use my kitchen scale multiple times a day. It is always out on my counter. They are not expensive and there are a plethora available. I use OXO’s Good Grip’s 5 pound maximum kitchen scale. It is $30 and has never let me down. If you really want to go big with the kitchen scale, OXO makes an 11 pound maximum version that’s about $50. Another great option is from Escali; it is small, comes in fun colors and is only $25. I have one of these as well and use it interchangeably with my OXO one. I will say that I like that the OXO one has a pull-out display which makes it easier to read the weight even with a big bowl on top. 

Now, why all this rambling about kitchen scales? Because having a kitchen scale will make it insanely easy to make a single serve cookie. All you need is a bowl, a spatula, a teaspoon and a scale. 

I took my favorite paleo cookie recipe and shrunk the recipe down to a fourth of the original, all easily with weighing out each ingredient. 

Single Serve Chewy Paleo Cookie

Gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, refined sugar-free

1oz smooth, salted almond butter (if not salted, add a pinch of salt) 

1/4oz olive or avocado oil 

1/2oz maple syrup 

1/2oz coconut sugar 

1/4oz warm water 

1tsp ground flax seeds

1oz almond flour 

3/8oz tapioca flour 

1/8 tsp baking powder (its basically a pinch) 

Optional: 1oz chopped dark chocolate (for paleo chocolate, Taza or Hu Kitchen are delish)

Preheat oven to 350F and line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Set a medium bowl on top of a zeroed kitchen scale. Weight out the almond butter, oil, maple syrup, coconut sugar and water. Measure zero the scale after each ingredient. Whisk together to combine. 

Add the almond flour, tapioca flour, flax meal and baking powder. Stir together to combine. Add the chocolate chunks if using. The dough will be slightly soft, but that’s ok. 

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and top with some flaky sea salt. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes (a little under baked is better; you’ll get a super soft, chewy center). 

Enjoy your big mama cookie that is all for you. You can share and divide the dough in two, but I leave that up to you.