Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

I love to cook, but I'm not much of a baker. One of the reasons ...... I think is that I have a problem following recipes. I have this tendency to just wing it. Baking cookies, cakes and other delicious pastries require discipline....something that I just don't have much of a desire to have when it comes to the kitchen. I enjoy cooking, but not baking. There's a big difference between the two. I love to throw things together and experiment in the kitchen, which is great for making different types of pastas, rice dishes, meat, chicken and vegetable dishes, but a different set of rules apply to baking. 

Anyways, since I can't buy ready made cookie dough or cake powder, etc. in Italy,  I've got to start actually baking things from scratch. So, I decided that I would try the chocolate chip recipe from Dinner With Julie. Her recipe looks really delicious - soft with a chewy centre on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside. Well, as usual, things don't turn out the way they do on cooking channels or websites I follow. I followed the recipe up to a point. Except that I didn't use egg-whites (because I'm allergic to them) and so I substituted it with some milk and some maple syrup (since I can't find any vanilla extract in this town, among many other ingredients that I can easily find in Canada or America). Also, I have this problem with measuring things, so I just kind of pour ingredients into the mixture without using measuring spoons, etc. Lastly, I didn't have any cookie trays to bake on, so I used muffin trays that I had bought to make Yorkshires for Christmas dinner last month. 

They were still delicious, but not how I pictured or imagined them. 


Uuuuuuuumm, could it be that recipes have to be followed exactly as they're written? I guess from my experience they do. What about you?

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dinner with Julie's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Big difference - NO?

Do you follow recipes?