Holiday Cookie line-up continued- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

20. December 2011 · 12 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dessert, food, recipes, Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Sorry I’m a little late with these cookie recipes. I realize Hannukah is today and Christmas is this weekend, but maybe you’re a baking procrastinator? I hope so. But you see, I’ve been a busy girl. I found my perfect wedding dress this weekend! And I think bridesmaid dresses too…and I picked a florist. I feel very productive :)

Anyway, whenever I’m creating my list of cookies/candy that I will be making for my annual holiday cookie-baking, I try to get a good assortment of flavors.

I feel that it’s necessary to have at least one “seasonal” item, like a spice cookie, something fruity, something nutty, and most definitely something chocolate.

I’m a creature of habit when it comes to my cookie-making. Although I love trying new recipes, when it comes to baking the cookies, I don’t usually have the time or energy to try a new recipe and risk it turning out awful.  Because the cookies I’m making this year are mainly just for Nate and a few lucky friends, I figured what the heck!

For the chocolate cookie, I usually default to a recipe my mom discovered a few years back called Chocolate Truffle Cookies. They are even more delicious than their name implies. But since I wanted to branch out a little bit this year, I went with a different cookie I found in my mom’s recipe box called Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

I wasn’t sure what they’d taste like, but the picture on the notecard indicated a pretty presentation. I think I must have made the cookies a bit bigger than intended, because they took longer to cook, but the result was like a crispy, chewy brownie! It’s going to be a tough call deciding whether I should make these again next year or go back to my old favorites. Luckily, I have 365+ days to decide :)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
From my mom’s recipe box

Print this recipe!

makes 4 dozen

2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
4 egg whites

Sift flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl

In med sized saucepan, combine chocolate and oil on low heat, stirring frequently until just melted. Remove from heat, let cool slightly.

Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla til well blended. Using whisk, beat in egg whites until no lumps of brown sugar remain.

With spoon, gently stir chocolate into dry ingredients just until smooth. Cover and refrigerate 2 1/2-8 hours until firm.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease pans.

Put remaining confectioner’s sugar in bowl. Dusting hands with additional sugar, roll dough into 1″ balls. Dredge in conf. sugar til heavily coated. Arrange on sheets 1 1/2″ apart. Bake 8-10 min til almost firm when tapped. Let stand 2 min. Transfer to wire rack with spatula.

In case you hadn’t had enough…

14. November 2011 · 31 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

…here’s another recipe for you involving squash!

And if this plus the last two posts is enough squash recipes for one season for you, then I have nothing more to say to you.

Nate doesn’t really cook. Ok, he doesn’t cook at all. He tells me that when he was single he used to make himself spaghetti and put jarred sauce on it, but I really can’t see him even doing that. He mostly lived on Trader Joes frozen dinners. I don’t feel that bad for him though, because those dinners are pretty tasty.

Despite the fact that Nate doesn’t really know his way around a kitchen, he likes to send me recipes that he comes across in his morning perusal of the New York Times.

He usually sends me the link in an email with a message saying something like “This looks good. Doesn’t it?”  But I believe what he really means to say is “This looks good. Can you please make it for dinner?” Luckily I’m good at reading people…and taking not-so-subtle hints.

Usually the recipes do sound pretty good. And when they don’t, I ignore his emails. So when he sent me this recipe for Quinoa With Roasted Winter Vegetables and Pesto the other day, I took note of it and wrote down all the ingredients so I could have it waiting for him when he got home. It helped that I had some homemade pesto in the freezer that I had been saving. It made putting this dish together way easier. Of course buying pesto would have been equally simple.

I also made it for me, of course, because I can always eat some more squash.

*I didn’t alter the recipe at all, so visit the above link if you’d like it :)

Ooops!

23. September 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

If you’re a subscriber, please disregard the email/post you just got! I totally hit the wrong button and published it by mistake :( I will publish it again on the correct date for Daring Bakers…

No-yeast Cilantro Chickpea Flatbread

22. September 2011 · 48 comments · Categories: Appetizer, Baking, Bread, Brunch, Dinner, food, recipes, Savory, Side dishes, Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I’ve been on a flatbread kick lately. But not just any flatbread…flatbread that doesn’t require yeast, is quick to make, and has the delicious, doughy, flaky bread consistency.

Lucky for me I have a new food buddy who came to the rescue. I’ve recently reconnected with a friend from high school, Emily, who was living abroad in Paris for the last two years and just moved back to nyc.

It’s very exciting to have someone I can discuss food/cooking/recipes with :) I have a lot of other friends who like food, but liking food and knowing how to cook it are two very different things. Emily actually has a food blog as well that has some great recipes!

So when I told Emily about my flatbread dilemma, she provided me with two recipes, both based on the Indian roti bread. I kind of combined them into one puffy, flavorful masterpiece that I highly recommend. It goes extremely well with an Indian Spiced Chicken and Butternut Squash Stew that I will be posting in the next week.


Yeast-Free Cilantro Chickpea Flatbread
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Print this recipe!

makes 8- four inch flatbreads

3/4  cup unbleached all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup garbanzo bean flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 cup (or more) plain low-fat yogurt
Olive oil (for frying)

Combine first 6 ingredients into medium bowl. Whisk to mix. Stir in cilantro.

Add yogurt and stir with fork until small clumps form. Knead mixture in bowl just until dough holds together, adding more flour or yogurt by tablespoonfuls for soft and slightly sticky dough. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead just until smooth, about 1 minute. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces.

Roll each piece into ball, then roll each dough piece out on floured surface to 4 1/2-inch round. Brush large nonstick skillet generously with olive oil; heat over medium heat.

Working in batches, add 3 dough rounds to skillet; cook until golden brown and puffed, adjusting heat to medium-high as needed to brown evenly, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer flatbreads to platter; serve warm. 

7 links challenge

31. August 2011 · 19 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Sweet Caroline over at Sweet Caroline’s Cooking invited me to participate in the seven links challenge. What, you may ask, is the seven links challenge? It’s a fun little blog activity to have you evaluate and judge some of your past posts.

I’m supposed to give my past blog posts superlatives in these categories: most beautiful post, most popular post, most controversial post, most helpful post, most surprisingly successful post, most under rated post and most proud of post.

This was a pretty hard challenge for me, since my blog is just a babe…a little over 6 months old to be exact. But I did the best I could, so here we go:

1) Most Beautiful Post:

Since I already used my  Pear, Proscuitto and Fig Tart with Rosemary-Cornmeal Crust for #7, I figured that my most beautiful post would have to be the recent Rainbow Velvet Cake I made for Nate’s bday. While my photography was certainly not spectacular, the colors in the cake are just so amazing! I mean look at those colors: beautiful!…and that guy in the back ain’t so bad either ;)

2) Most Popular Post:

That would be for the cake I made for Valentine’s day. The funniest part is that it’s so popular because it comes up as the 9th link when you search “how to win a man’s heart” in google. That search leads more people to my site than by any other means. Who knew so many people look to the internet to answer that question ;)

3) Most Controversial Post:

While my homemade jewelry holder wasn’t a controversial post (and in fact received lots of pins on Pinterest!), I put it in this category because it wasn’t a food post. Perhaps that’s a controversy for a blog with the word Eats in the title? Although by that logic, perhaps all of my posts would be controversial because they’re not about an Elephant? I dunno, but I do say in my About Me that I will often insert non-food posts when I find myself doing something crafty that I’m proud of :)

4) Most Helpful Post:

I don’t tend to give directions too much, but my Apology Cookie post was helpful for a different reason. Who hasn’t ever needed to make cookies that would say sorry without actually saying it? Ok, I realize that there are many recipes that would be appropriate for such a purpose, but that was what I chose to make that day…and it worked ;)

5) Most Suprisingly Successful Post:

This would have to be the Ho-tteok recipe, which is a sweet, chewy, Korean pancake. This was actually my most-clicked post but I figured I’d put it here instead of #2. I just found it surprising because it’s an ethnic recipe and probably most people haven’t even heard of it! But I posted it on yeastspotting, so I guess that’s how it got so much attention. I personally think they’re delicious, so if you can get your hands on some sweet rice flour, give it a try!

6) Most Underrated Post:

I would have to say that my most underrated post would be one from back when I really didn’t have a following at all, aside from my family and closest friends (not that I really have a “following” now, but I’m workin on it!). It’s a recipe for Apricot Chicken and it’s a favorite of my family. We tend to make it on Rosh Hashannah because it’s a sweet dish. It’s super easy and is absolutely, positively the moistest, most delicious chicken dish I’ve ever eaten. I’d eat it every day if I could, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t really like chicken!

7) Most Proud of Post:

This would have to be my Pear, Proscuitto and Fig Tart with Rosemary-Cornmeal Crust. It may be a mouthful to say the whole name, but it was soooo good. I’m most proud of this because it’s the only recipe on this site that I developed completely from scratch, without even another recipe idea that I took it from. In addition to being the only thing I’ve ever made that I spent so much time making beautiful, the flavors in it are completely amazing together. I entered it into a contest and while it didn’t win, it doesn’t make me any less proud. Obviously the judges didn’t know what they were doing ;)

You’re supposed to nominate 5 bloggers to do this challenge next, but pretty much all the bloggers I know have already done it. So if you’re a blogger reading this blog and you haven’t done it…then I nominate YOU!

« Older articles
Newer articles »