Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

I really feel like I'm in a rut lately, and I haven't been cooking or blogging as much. I'm grateful for the recipe swaps to get my butt into gear so I can actually make something in the kitchen!

The theme for this latest swap is Celebrity Recipes. I received this Martha Stewart recipe for Grammy's Chocolate Cookies. When I received it, I had to look back to make sure I haven't made it before! I've bookmarked this for a while now, but never had the chance to make it.

This past weekend was the first warm weekend of the year. It was over 80°, so my sisters decided to bring out the grill! I brought the bulk of the cookies over, and they went over really well. Even with 2 cups of sugar, it wasn't too sweet, and the turbinado sugar I rolled it in added a nice crunch (and added some nice sparkle). I used kosher salt for this, as I do with all baked goods now, and it added a slight hint of salt that was perfect. I brought the rest to work, and it was a huge hit!

Very rarely do I get the exact amount of cookies a recipe calls for. I actually used a Martha Stewart cookie scoop to portion out the dough, and it made exactly 3 1/2 dozen. I use this all the time for drop cookies as well.

As always, remember to check out Sarah's blog for the full swap round up, including my submission of Tyler Florence's shrimp scampi.

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Grammy's Dark Chocolate Cookies

made by cathy's kitchen journey
adapted from Just Baked, originally from Martha Stewart's Cookies




ingredients:

• 2 cups plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• about 3/4 cup sanding sugar for rolling (I used turbinado sugar)

directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture; beat to combine. Form dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 350° degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment, or spray with cooking spray.
4. Using a small cookie scoop, portion out dough and roll dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll each ball in the sanding sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through.
5. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Yield: 3 1/2 dozen

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No Knead Pizza Dough

This past weekend, my girlfriends got together to throw one of my high school girlfriend a baby shower. She is the first one of our group to have a baby and we wanted to do something special for her.

Since the mom-to-be has a dairy allergy, we set out to make everything dairy free. I made these vegan chocolate cupcakes that were a huge hit! I started out using the 2D tip, but the frosting ended up stringy since I used half shortening. It looked fine for the pink vanilla frosting since it looked like flowers but I just used a piping bag without a tip for the chocolate. I topped them with cupcake toppers from here.

We really had a mish-mosh of a menu that included Chinese and Italian cuisines. Since my friend loves pizza, I decided to make pizza for her using vegan cheese.

I've made pizza before, but I really hate kneading dough, even if it's with the Kitchenaid mixer. I've tried it in the bread maker with the dough cycle as well, but it wasn't quite right. This dough was perfect for me, since it required no kneading! All I had to do was dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, then leave it alone! Since I had so many other things to for the party, I decided to give this a go.

I halved the recipe and it made 3 good sized pies (about 12" each). I was going to try making garlic bread with this as well, but I ended up using it all for pizza.

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No Knead Pizza Dough

made by cathy's kitchen journey
as seen on King Arthur Flour, originally from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day




ingredients:

• 3 cups + 3 tablespoons (25 1/2 ounces) lukewarm water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 TBSP instant yeast
• 1 1/2 TBSP kosher salt
• 9 cups (38 ounces) all purpose flour

directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until thoroughly moistened (use a spatula if necessary).
2. Loosely cover and set aside in a warm area. Let rise for 2 hours.
3. After 2 hours, transfer the covered bowl to the fridge for at least 3 hours, or up to 7 days.

to make pizza:

1. Preheat oven and stone (if using) to 450° F.
2. To make pizza, portion out a softball sized piece of dough (about 8 oz).
3. Dust a piece of parchment with cornmeal and place the dough on top. Add another piece of parchment over the dough and roll the dough out between the 2 pieces of parchment. Leave the dough to sit for 30 minutes to reduce shrinkage.
4. Remove the top piece of parchment, top with pizza sauce, cheese and choice of toppings. Transfer to baking stone or pan with the parchment. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pizza.

Yield: I halved the dough recipe, which yielded 3 pies

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Cheese Danishes

I love turnovers or hand pies. They're just so convenient and portable to eat, no utensils required!

For our fruit recipe exchange, I received these cheese danishes. I made these for as another snack for the get together I had. We all played this board game called Quelf. It was a pretty interesting game, as none of us played it before, and I had to crawl under a table at one point! One of the things we had to do whenever anybody rolled a 1 on the die was to yell "all hail the Chinese cheese biscuit!", which was quite coincidental because I had just served these.

I originally had some difficulty using the puff pastry since I took it out of the fridge ahead of time. I was concerned that it had not fully thawed in the fridge. BIG mistake! It made the dough too tough to work with. Make sure the dough is cold, straight from the fridge, or you'll have a tough time unfolding!

A few changes I made were using Neufchâtel cheese to lighten it up, using reconstituted lemon peel from Penzeys, and using the leftover egg whites as a wash. It came out great and everybody enjoyed it, even the cheese haters! I double this to feed everybody and as I thought, I had some cheese filling left. I ended up throwing it away, but I'm sure it can be used to spread on bread or something!

Remember to check out Sarah's blog for the full round up including my submission for blueberry buckle!

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Cheese and Fruit Preserve Danishes

made by cathy's kitchen journey
adapted from Simple Gourmet Cooking




ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, separated (reserve whites for egg wash)
• 2 TBSP ricotta cheese
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 box frozen puff pastry, defrosted in refrigerator
• 8 TBSP fruit preserves (I used raspberry)

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. Cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, lemon zest, vanilla, and salt and mix until just combined (do not whip). Turn off the mixer, and set mixture aside
3. Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll it slightly with a lightly floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. (Use one at a time, leaving one in the fridge until ready to use.) Using a sharp knife or pastry cutter, cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife.
4. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares (I used a cookie scoop). If using, place an additional tablespoon of desired filling into each pastry.
5. Brush the edge of each pastry with the egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so that they stick together tightly. Crimp the edges together with a fork to seal.
6. Lightly brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the danishes for 15 minutes.
7. Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and light brown. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings

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Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies

I just realized that I've been making a lot of bar treats to share. It's just that it's so darn easy to make and share treats this way. Lots easier than waiting for each batch of drop cookies to bake for sure! This blondie recipe is no different in terms of a quick bar treat. This was super easy to make and took no time at all. The tough part was waiting for them to cool before slicing and devouring!

I made these the morning of the day some friends came over to hang out. It was a nice get together. They brought lunch, so I provided some treats and desserts. This was one of the desserts I made for everyone.

After I transferred the contents into my pan, I realized I didn't add any baking soda. I read and re-read the directions probably 10 times until I saw in the comments that there was no leavening needed. Because of that, the bars came out all even and level. It and a very nice caramel taste from the butter and sugar, and the pecans provided a nice crunch. To me, it was sweet, but not too overly sweet that it left a sugar aftertaste and headache. My brother ate 2 pieces and he's not a huge sweets fan!

I did cut this into 12 pieces, thinking that the 16 pieces would be too small, and 9 would be too big. I thought they were the perfect size for adults, but I would cut them smaller if serving to kids.

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Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies

made by cathy's kitchen journey
adapted from Once Upon a Chef




ingredients:

• 8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour (spooned into measuring cups, then leveled off)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat melted butter with sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. On low speed, mix in flour and salt until just blended, do not overmix. Gently stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 23-25 minutes, until top is lightly golden and toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Set pan on a wire rack and let cool completely. Transfer the blondies to a cutting board and cut into 12-16 squares, or to desired size.

Yield: 12-16 servings

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Snack Cake

For this latest recipe swap, I received Kate's blog. I had my choice of anything I wanted to make, but I had quite a difficult time narrowing it down to one recipe! I wanted to make a dessert, but didn't really have an occasion to make or bring a decadent dessert. While her chocolate peanut butter cheesecake looked amazing, I knew I had to make the peanut butter oatmeal snack cake when I saw it pop up.

I love how this dessert isn't too sweet and it's pretty healthy to boot. It had a great salty/sweet taste. My peanut butter loving aunt wanted to hoard this all for herself. Pretty much all the fat is from the peanut butter, and since I use natural pb with no added sugars or anything, I had no guilt eating this for breakfast! ;)

I did cut the cake into 16 pieces instead of 9. It was pretty dense, so a little when a long way, and you definitely want a glass of milk or coffee or something to wash it down with. I did replace the milk with soy milk powder with water since I usually don't have milk on hand. Doing this ended up making this vegan (as long as your chips are dairy free), which is a plus in my book!

As always, remember to check out Sarah's blog for the full roundup of recipe swap recipes. I'm curious to find out who got my blog and what they picked!

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Snack Cake

made by cathy's kitchen journey
adapted from Kate's Recipe Box




ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk (I used soy milk powder with water)
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a metal 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat the peanut butter and sugar in your mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
4. Slowly add in dry ingredients while beating at medium speed. The mixture will be dry and look like coarse sand.
5. Reduce speed to low and slowly pour in milk. Mix until a dough ball forms. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Form a dough ball with your hands then transfer to the prepared pan. Press the dough evenly in the pan.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Let cool, then cut into 16 pieces (or however big you want them!)

Yield: 9-16 servings

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