CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

It’s hard to make a case for one more chocolate chip cookie recipe, but this one is worth talking about… What makes this recipe special is its shortbread nature. No eggs in the dough. As Sue described in her original post, shortbread cookies were probably the first versions “invented” by bakers. Think flour, butter and sugar. Beautify it with your favorite additions. And that’s pretty much it. The texture is completely different from a regular cookie. I think I slightly over-baked this batch, as the edges turned just a tad too dark compared to hers. It did not compromise the deliciousness of the final product, though. Trust me.

MILK CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD COOKIES
(from The View from Great Island)

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter and the sugar together. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour, a little at a time, until the dough comes together. Fold in the chips just before it all comes into one mass. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and bring it all together with your hands. Form it into a plump disk and then roll it out, flouring your rolling-pin as necessary, to about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick.

Cut cookies with a 3″ cookie cutter, pressing down firmly to cut through the chocolate chips. Reform the dough as needed to use it all up. Arrange the cookies on a cookie sheet and then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the whole tray for at least an hour.

Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes. You want them to be every so slightly golden just around the edges, and be slightly firm to the touch. Let them cool for a few minutes on the tray and then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Such a nice dough to work with! It rolls smoothly, each cookie hiding the perfect amount of chocolate chip goodness… I rolled mine straight on the countertop, nice and easy.These cookies don’t spread much, so cut them in the size you’d like to enjoy them. You might be surprised to see milk chocolate instead of dark, but I think the extra sweetness is perfect in the shortbread environment. Of course, you can use this basic recipe to make many variations. Think white chocolate and dried cranberries, toffee bits and dark chocolate would be awesome too. Not to mention macadamia nuts, a little lemon zest… Ok, I’ll stop here, but you don’t have to, put your imagination to work…

I’d never had a shortbread cookie before. With the first bite, I asked myself “do I like it?”… one more bite…. “Hummmmm, I think I do like it!“….. After two cookies disappeared in lightning speed, I realized they won me over, big time! If you’ve only had “regular” cookies until now, open your baking horizons with a batch of these.

Sue, as usual it took me quite a while to blog on this recipe… I checked my files and noticed I baked these cookies back in January, can you believe it? But better late than never to say thank you for the inspiration!

😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Chicken in Green Pipian Sauce, Sous-vide Style

TWO YEARS AGO: Classic Shrimp Gobernador Tacos

THREE YEARS AGO: A Walk Towards the Sunset

FOUR YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen

FIVE YEARS AGO: Heavenly Home-made Fromage Blanc

SIX YEARS AGO: A Perfect Sunday Dinner

13Jun2015

FAB CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

These cookies were originally called “Flourless Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.” If that’s not a mouthful of a name, I don’t know what is… But doesn’t it sound great? Flourless immediately conveys a soft, melt in your mouth fudgy texture. Almond butter is the grown-up, classy version of peanut butter. Once you add chocolate chips, oats, and a touch of coconut (omitted from the already long name), you can stop searching for the perfect cookie to start the day. Or as a mid-morning snack…

The recipe comes from Zainab’s blog, Blahnik Baker. Zainab is a food blogger who is working hard to finish her PhD in neuroscience. I remember those days (the PhD days, not the neuroscience); they are bittersweet like the best piece of chocolate. Part of you is thrilled by the vision of the finish line approaching, but getting there is never easy. Always harder than you anticipate. I don’t know a single PhD candidate who at the time of the defense said “I started writing my thesis early enough, it all went smoothly”. Nope, never. But, one way or another, we all seem to get there, and at some point forget the pain, enjoy the thrill.

FAB CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(from Blahnik Baker)

⅔ cup old-fashioned rolled
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
⅓ cup coconut flakes
1 cup almond butter (I used coconut almond butter)
⅔ cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
⅔ cup dark chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with wax paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and coconut flakes

In another medium bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix the almond butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Reduce speed to low and add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined (do not over mix). Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips by hand.

Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop 2 tablespoon rounds of dough onto the prepared sheets.

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

I did not grow up eating cookies, they were not part of my family tradition. However, since moving to the US, I developed intense fondness for cookies with rolled oats. A common American practice is to dunk cookies in milk, but I find that hard to watch. It actually makes me a little queasy, much to the amusement of one of my stepsons, who loved to tease me about it. But, the truth is that even with my anti-American stance on the dunking of a cookie, I suppose that this one would be perfect for such objectionable act.

We loved these cookies! If you don’t have coconut almond butter, use the plain type, but don’t omit the coconut flakes, they contribute a nice texture and that tropical flavor that makes these babies special and unique.

Zainab, thanks for the recipe, and good luck in this final stretch of your research, have a batch of cookies nearby, they do give a lot of energy and will make writing a tad easier. Wishful thinking?

😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Pumpkin-Chipotle and Kale Pizza

TWO YEARS AGO: Enchiladas Suizas a la Marcela Valladolid

THREE YEARS AGO: The Little Apple

FOUR YEARS AGO: Majestic Sedona

FIVE YEARS AGO: Watermelon-induced Daze

26Apr2015

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: GINGERSNAPS WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Posted in Cookies, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

It’s shocking but we are arriving at the end of April. Hard not to use a beaten up expression like “time flies”. It simply does. But, birds are singing, owls are making a ton of noise in the middle of the night, sun is shinning, and I am a happy camper, having stored all my sweaters, coats, and boots far away from my sight. As usual, the last Monday of the month brings with it Reveal Day: a showcase of posts made by food bloggers who participate of The Secret Recipe Club, and are paired in secret. My assignment was the blog by Julie, Confessions of a Cooking Diva. Don’t you love that name? Made me wish I had named my blog The Drama Queen Cooks…. Tongue in cheek, of course. As regular readers know, I am a level-headed, composed, unflappable individual. Julie is originally from Idaho but lives in Utah with a cuddly cat and a basset hound, a type of dog I find very cool with its incredibly sharp sense of smell. Julie shares with me a deep fear of baking, but admits that nothing scares her more than spiders. I’d have to settle for cockroaches as my number one fear, but we are basically virtual sisters. I assembled quite a few recipes on my list of possibilities, like her One Pot Green Chile Mac & Cheese… her Caribbean Jerk Salmon Tacos… her Turkey Sausage….her Black Bean Burgers…. and her Apple-Pecan Cheesecake… But, my love for spices spoke loudly, so here I am to share with you an AMAZING recipe for cookies that marry a traditional gingersnap with chunks of white chocolate. Heaven. Pure heaven in cookie shape.

GINGERSNAPS WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIPS
(from Confessions of a Cooking Diva)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1⁄2 cup molasses
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 + 1⁄4 tsp. baking soda
1+1⁄4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1+1⁄4 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 eggs
3+1⁄2 cups flour
1⁄2 bag of white chocolate chips (I used 3/4 bag)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets by spraying them with cooking spray or line them with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Mix in the molasses, oil, vanilla, baking soda, salt and spices until well combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth. Slowly add in the flour, half a cup at a time. Mix well. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Scoop the dough into balls and roll them in sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 minutes. Then allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click

Comments: Recently I read a book I’ve had for a long time but stayed sitting on a shelf, patiently waiting for me. It is called BOUCHON BAKERY, a masterpiece of a pastry book, written by Thomas Keller & Sébastien Rouxel. My only criticism is its coffee table format, not very user-friendly. But if you don’t mind that, it is well worth getting. The book goes well beyond recipes. In fact, it offers a deeper view of what it takes to start and maintain a bakery of the level of Bouchon. A lot of merit goes for the man in charge, Sébastien Rouxel, and his almost compulsive attention to detail. In Sébastien’s opinion, you cannot be a good pastry baker unless you are neat and organized, to the point that your bench is spotless clean at the end of the day, and as clean as humanly possible while you work. As he says, being neat and organized doesn’t start when you get to work, it starts when you wake up. That is quite a statement! So, let’s say that I was under the spell of the book when I worked on this assignment. My kitchen looked very professional, all ingredients lined up, detailed prep work. I am afraid it won’t last, but it felt great…

recipe

As to the cookies, they are FABULOUS. It is important not to over-bake them, so 10 to 11 minutes and you are done. I baked them mid-afternoon on a Sunday and took them to the department next morning. They were still soft, with a bit of moisture and chew, which is the way I like a cookie. If you prefer a more snappy creature, bake longer. The white chocolate goes very well with all those fragrant spices, that made our kitchen very inviting. Too inviting, maybe?

The ball can wait. I rather fetch a cookie!

Julie, it was nice to “meet” you through this month’s adventure, our students and colleagues in the department sure appreciate your recipe very much, and so did I! Have a great Reveal Day! And, if I may offer you a little gift, here it is. Print it and stick it on your fridge in case you need it.

As usual, my readers are all invited to dive into the collection of delicious recipes featured by my fellow virtual friends from Group D of The Secret Recipe Club by clicking on the cutest blue frog in the world, right at the end of the post.

ONE YEAR AGO: Turkey Chili with Almond Butter

TWO YEARS AGO: Secret Recipe Club: Leek and Cheese Tart

THREE YEARS AGO: Secret Recipe Club; Triple Chocolate Brownies

FOUR YEARS AGO: Shaved Asparagus Salad

FIVE YEARS AGO: Indonesian Ginger Chicken

22Mar2015

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: GLUTEN-FREE & VEGAN RASPBERRY BARS

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Last Monday of March, a month that makes me happy for several reasons. I was born in March, Phil and I got married 15 years ago in March, and the month also welcomes the beginning of Spring. Can you fully grasp the unmeasurable joy associated with it? It means I survived another winter, and here I am, alive and kicking to share with you one more adventure as part of The Secret Recipe Club. You know, that event that pairs two food bloggers in secret, and then the whole group posts about their chosen dish at exactly the same time. My assignment this month was the blog Without Adornment, hosted by Bean. She has a degree in Chemical Engineering, and her hobbies are cooking/baking, and photography, so of course her blog is a perfect venue to showcase her talent. I was thrilled by this assignment, because Bean is a very accomplished baker who must make exclusively gluten-free recipes. Those of you who have gluten allergies know how tricky it can be to try and mimic the delicious cookies, breads, pies, and muffins that rely on gluten for perfect texture and taste. Browsing her blog really opened my horizons and the list of goodies I wanted to try was extensive. To name a few, I was inclined to bake a batch of her White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries, then almost chose her Gluten-Free Pear Clafoutis, Another amazing option that I will bake soon: Dairy Free Creme Brulée (using coconut milk, how sweet is that?). As usual, savory stuff appeals a lot to me, so I also saved her Vegan Walnut Zucchini Crackers for final consideration. After a little bit of a mental struggle, I went with her Raspberry Bars, in part because they use quinoa flakes and I had a box sitting in my pantry begging to come out and play. I could not miss the opportunity…

GLUTEN FREE VEGAN RASPBERRY SQUARES
(from Without Adornment)

1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup oats
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
3 tbsp. palm sugar
1/2 – 2/3 c. coconut oil
3 cup thawed raspberries, with as much of the liquid drained as you can.
3 – 4 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350F.

Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt. Add oats, quinoa flakes and palm sugar and mix until evenly distributed. Add in unmelted coconut oil. Using your fingers, work the coconut oil into the flour mixture until there are no lumps remaining and the mixture is crumbly.

In a separate bowl, stir together raspberries, honey and spices. Add more sweetener to reach desired sweetness. Press over half of the crumb mixture into a greased 8″ square pan. Scoop the raspberries onto the pressed bar mixture and distribute evenly. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top of the raspberries and pat lightly.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until topping is light brown.

Cool completely before cutting into squares.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I changed the recipe slightly by using a mixture of raspberries and blueberries, as the price tag on the raspberries was a little high. I don’t think it hurt anything, it just made the color of the filling darker than Bean’s concoction, and also a bit more chunky, as the blueberries retain their shape. The cute box of quinoa flakes was one of those classic impulse buys that I am often a victim of. But I knew the flakes would come in handy, and was glad to be able to use them in this recipe.

Gluten-free baking is really a huge challenge, because without gluten to provide that nice, elastic structure, baked goods tend to be dry, and much less pleasant to eat. However, using the right mixture of flours and grains, one can get close enough to the “real thing” and these bars are a perfect success story. I took the squares to the department and did not mention they were gluten-free. Nobody seemed to notice, and they were inhaled in a little over one hour. I call it a success story indeed.

Bean, I hope you had as much fun with your assignment as I had with mine! And for those reading my blog, make sure to click on the blue amphibian smiling at you at the very end. She (or he, who knows?) will take you to a new page showing all the tasty concoctions made by my virtual friends of The Secret Recipe Club. Enjoy the collection!

ONE YEAR AGO: Lasserre, a French Classic

TWO YEARS AGO: Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Dates

THREE YEARS AGO: Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Apricot Glaze

FOUR YEARS AGO: The Real Vodka Sauce

FIVE YEARS AGO: Pork Tenderloin and Blue Cheese

1Mar2015

YOU PUT WHAT IN YOUR WHAT?

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

Criticizing is easy, it comes naturally to most of us, I guess. I’ve done my share of criticizing The Food TV Network, going on and on about the good old times when their shows were actually about cooking, not endless competitions. One example: Cutthroat Kitchen. I mean, here we have a guy like Alton Brown, who joined the network with the goal of showing home cooks the science behind food preparation, the tricks of developing a perfect recipe. Now, he hosts a show I find incredibly silly. And I am not alone. Hummm, did I say I was done with criticism? Sorry, I got carried away. I am here to actually praise The Kitchen, a weekly show on FoodTV I enjoy quite a bit. One of the things I like is the sense of spontaneity behind it. Marcela Valladolid is charming, adorable, knowledgeable, and I am a huge fan of Geoffrey Zakarian. Jeff Mauro is witty, and seems like a very genuine person, the more I watch the show, the more I like him. They have features like Tool Takedown, interesting and fun. The whole idea is to test a gadget that is supposed to perform a specific task, say peel apples. One person will use it and another will grab a veggie peeler or a regular knife, and they compete to see who does it better and/or faster. For the most part, they demonstrate that single-use gadgets are a waste of money and storage space. I also love a feature called “You Put What in your What?”. As the name indicates, it involves unusual additions to recipes, or crazy food combinations. And that brings me to this post. I hope you’re ready for it.

I know, it scared me too! But, please, don’t run away screaming. These cookies are delightful, the pictures do absolutely no justice to them. I baked them early in the morning while the kitchen was still dark and had to take pictures under very unforgiving lights. You’ll need to make the dough at least 4 hours before baking, the day before is even better, so plan accordingly. I found the recipe at the The Spice House website. Of course, being the spice cookie lover that I am, and reading the rave reviews of those who made them, I could not wait to bake a batch.

Curry Cardamon Cookies

CURRY CARDAMON COOKIES
(adapted from The Spice House website)

Yields approximately 6 dozen cookies

(I made half the recipe and got 30 cookies)

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, chopped

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to creamed mixture, a third at a time. Stir in nuts.

Divide dough into four rolls and wrap each in waxed paper. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (may also be frozen).

Slice into ¼-inch slices and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven until golden brown, 12-14 minutes. Let cookies cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet, then remove to a rack to cool thoroughly.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

I often tell our students to read the protocol carefully before starting a new experiment. Sometimes it would be nice to listen to my own advice. The bit of “refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours” caught me unprepared. It was 9 pm and my intention was to bake them before going to sleep. Instead, I had to stick the dough in the fridge and resort to plan B: turn the oven on at 5:30am next day… Oh, well…

They puff quite a bit while baking and release a fantastic aroma that will fill your home with joy and tail-wagging dogs.

Can you tell there is curry in them? I doubt it. Actually Phil could, but I suspect he’s got a mass spectrometer in his nose, that man identify smells like nobody’s business. Our students thought they had ginger. I wish the pictures turned out better, but trust my words: these are GREAT cookies. You know why I say that? I normally have one cookie of every batch I bake, no matter how tasty. This was a FOUR COOKIE downfall. I had four. One at home to make sure they were good enough to share, and the others during our lab meeting. They seem so harmless, but in my opinion they join all goodness a cookie should have: sweetness that is not cloying, and a peppery, salty, addictive taste that mixed with the walnuts makes you go back for just one more. Maybe three.

cooling

This is another example of a cookie that will not win a beauty contest, I admit. But please, make them, share with friends, and dare them to guess the secret ingredient!

ONE YEAR AGO: In My Kitchen, March 2014

TWO YEARS AGO: The Blogger and the Shrink

THREE YEARS AGO: The Wheat-Berry Transmogrification

FOUR YEARS AGO: Curried Zucchini Soup

FIVE YEARS AGO: Roasted Onion and Asiago Cheese Miche