chocolate chip | Bewitching Kitchen

When I spotted this recipe during last month’s Reveal Day of Secret Recipe Club, I knew it was the perfect excuse to bring our Cuisinart ice cream maker out of its hibernation in the basement. Raspberries offer their beautiful color and sharp flavor, brown sugar mellows it all down, the chocolate provides exciting contrast in texture, but what really sold me was the use of coconut milk. Wonderful! So, allow me to share with you the first ice cream of the season!

RASPBERRY BROWN SUGAR CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM
(slightly adapted from Nora’s site Natural Noshing)

3 cups coconut milk (full-fat)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup fresh raspberries, chopped

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used 1/4 cup cacao nibs)
1 Tbsp lemon juice

In a saucepan, heat coconut milk until it bubbles slightly. Remove from heat. Stir coconut milk into beaten eggs. Return to saucepan. Cook and stir for approximately 2 minutes or until heated. Remove from heat. Let it cool. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, combine brown sugar with lemon juice. Mix well. Stir into chilled ice cream mixture. Cool the mixture for at least a couple of hours (or overnight).

Follow ice cream maker’s instructions and towards the end, stir in raspberries and chocolate chips/nibs. Transfer to a container and place in the freezer. Scoop some, and…

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Nora modified the original recipe to use coconut milk, and what a great twist that was! The coconut flavor is not too intense, even people with coconut issues might not mind it in this preparation, as there’s a lot going on with the raspberries and the chocolate anyway. I worried that the nibs could be too harsh in texture, that’s why I reduced the amount quite a bit. You might want to play with this recipe and see how you like it best. White chocolate chips could be perfect, although it might be a good idea to use mini-chips, keeping the whole thing more delicate and elegant.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoy Spring and with it the promise of Summer…
Sun, shorts, t-shirts, sandals, bright colors, lighter food, it’s all wonderful!
And frozen treats don’t hurt anything either!

(modified from a classic cartoon…)

ONE YEAR AGO: Chocolate Mousse “Légère comme une plumme”
.
TWO YEARS AGO: Black Olive Sourdough
.
THREE YEARS AGO: Buttermilk Cluster
.
FOUR YEARS AGO: Farfalle, Farfalle

Talk about an American classic… I’ve seen so many recipes for chocolate chip cookies, and one of the major issues is… do you like nuts in your cookies? Purists want the flavor of chocolate, and little else. Others enjoy the scrumptious crunchiness of walnuts or pecans, and without them, something is missing. My beloved falls in the second category, and he’s set in his preference. I don’t care that much, as long as the cookies are chewy. Please, no dunking in milk, as my stepson loves to do, it grosses me out, and he dunks them right in front of me! 🙂 In fact, the first thing he said after my naturalization was: “now that you’re an American, you’ve got to start dunking some cookies in a tall glass of milk“….

Whether you are a purist or not, or a “dunker” or not, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy these cookies. I’ve made them several times since I first saw the recipe at Smitten Kitchen. In this batch my only adjustment was to chop some of the nut pieces slightly larger. These cookies will still please the purists, though…

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(as posted in Smitten Kitchen, original recipe from The Great Book of Chocolate)

(receita em portugues na segunda pagina)

100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
120g (1/2 cup) dark brown sugar
8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
175 g (1 + 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
200 g (1 + 1/2 cup) good quality semisweet chocolate chips
130 g (1 cup) walnuts toasted and chopped

Heat the oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use a Silpat lining.

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2T balls and place them on a baking sheet separated by 3 inches. Bake for 18 minutes, until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 24 cookies.

to print the recipe, click here.

Comments: You’ll notice that these cookies bake at a lower temperature than most recipes call for. If you are like me, and enjoy chewy cookies, this is the best way to bake them. I like to make the dough and rest it in the fridge for a couple of hours. By doing so, the dough spreads less during baking, which also favors a chewy texture.

Toasting the nuts is an important preliminary step, but watch them carefully, because the difference between toasted and burned is just a few seconds!

Match made in heaven: a chocolate chip cookie with a mini-capuccino, served in a cup from one of our favorite cafes in Paris!