Tag Archives: chocolate

December 3, 2012 · 5:24 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

DAY 3: Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These pumpkin cookies are a soft, spiced cookie studded with chopped dark chocolate.

Pumpkin cookies often have a very soft, cake-like texture with very little spread. For a chewier, less-cakey texture, combine and mix all of the wet ingredients (butter, sugar, pumpkin, eggs) at once until just blended instead of the more traditional method of creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then beating in pumpkin and eggs.

RECIPE:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Servings: Makes 3 dozen cookies
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3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cardamom (optional)
pinch of cloves & allspice
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (about 8-10 oz) coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper.

Use a whisk to combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.

Use an electric mixer to combine the butter, sugar, pumpkin, egg, and vanilla; beating just until blended (don’t cream butter and sugar first; beat together all wet ingredients at once). Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate.

Drop tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets. Use the palm of your hand to flatten cookies slightly.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for two minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

(Recipe adapted from Erin Cooks)

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Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: German Chocolate Cake Cookies

DAY 2: German Chocolate Cake Cookies

Soft, chewy cookies with the great flavors of a traditional German chocolate cake covered in coconut pecan icing. All in a compact hand-held package.

RECIPE:

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

Servings: Makes 4 dozen cookies
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2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and both sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans.

Drop tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

(Recipe from Food Network)

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Tagged as baking, chocolate, christmas, Christmas cookies, food, German chocolate, recipe

September 11, 2012 · 10:39 am

Triple Chocolate Nutella Zucchini Muffins

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We are still working on getting through the numerous monster zucchini that came out of our zucchini forest this summer.

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After a fall at a church young women camp, I spent most of the summer in this:

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I had spent a good portion of spring digging out old dirt and hauling in new topsoil to help rejuvenate our garden. The new soil made a huge difference and we ended up with zucchini plants that were almost as tall as me. I realize that at 5’2”, that is not a huge accomplishment, but for zucchini, I thought that was pretty impressive. Our garden is planted on a tiered hill, which was impossible for me to navigate in my new fashionable summer footwear. The plants were so tall that I had a really hard time getting my kids to wade through the jungle looking for squash. For some reason ratatouille and zucchini fritters (some of my favorites) were not a huge motivation for them to risk life and limb in the outback. However, when I switched to making zucchini brownies, pumpkin zucchini muffins and these chocolate zucchini muffins, I found I had ample volunteers!

And when they came across this little guy hiding out in the cucumber plants, they spent a good portion of the rest of the summer searching for living, crawling things in the garden.

If you still have zucchini that you are working your way through, these muffins, spiked with Nutella and chocolate chips, make for a great breakfast (especially for a couple dozen awesome teenagers at 6am!) or a much appreciated lunchbox addition.

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RECIPE:

Triple Chocolate Nutella Zucchini Muffins

Servings: 36
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3 eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 cup Nutella
1 ½ cups brown sugar
½ cup buttermilk or kefir (or sour milk**)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom or nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line regular muffin pans with paper or foil cups. Or use large Reynolds Foil 3 ½” baking cups (these are self-standing-just arrange on a baking sheet).

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, Nutella, brown sugar, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in zucchini.

In a separate bowl, use a whisk to mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cardamom or nutmeg. Add mixed dry ingredients to wet ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin cups (fill about 3/4 full).

For regular muffins: Bake 15-18 minutes.
For large muffins: Bake 20-25 minutes.

Yield: About 36 regular muffins or 20 large muffins (made with 3 ½” baking cups)

**To make sour milk: place 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar in a ½ cup measuring cup. Add milk to ½ cup line. Let sit 5 minutes.

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Tagged as baking, chocolate, muffins, Nutella, recipe, zucchini

December 4, 2011 · 7:43 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

DAY 10: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These fun cookies are from Martha Stewart. If you dip them in dark chocolate, they taste a lot like Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies.

Martha’s recipe is quite labor intensive, involving three refrigerator/freezer periods, dough rolling & cutting, dipping the cookies with a fork, and sifting the candy into similar sized pieces.

I simplified the process a lot when I made these. I shaped the dough into logs that I sliced into rounds, instead of rolling out the dough and then cutting them out with a round cookie cutter. I only chilled my dough once. I dipped the cookies with my fingers (coating just the top and sides, instead of the whole cookie), and I definitely did not sort my crushed candy canes into large and small pieces. Mine may not be as perfect as Martha’s, but that didn’t seem to make any difference to the kids eating them.

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RECIPE:

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Servings: 4-6 dozen
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2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
10 Tbs butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 ½ tsp pure peppermint extract
12 large candy canes or 30 peppermint candies, crushed
about 2 pounds chocolate, coarsely chopped (dark or white chocolate)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add eggs and peppermint extract. Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated.

Divide dough in half and place on two large pieces of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap, shape dough into 2 logs about 2″ in diameter. Wrap logs securely in the plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1-2 hours, or several days.

When ready to bake, unroll plastic wrap from dough logs. Use a sharp knife to cut dough into 1/4” disks. Gently reshape edges into circles, if necessary. Place cookies on lined baking sheet, keeping unused dough in the refrigerator until ready to slice. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until dry to the touch. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave or in a double boiler (melt chocolate slowly). Dunk cookies into melted chocolate. Use a fork to turn the cookie over in the chocolate. Pick up the cookie with the fork, let excess chocolate drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl. Place on parchment (or waxed paper)-lined baking sheets, and while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle tops of cookies with the crushed candy canes. Let chocolate harden before storing. (TIME SAVING NOTE: You can also just use your fingers to hold the cookie and only dunk the top and sides of the cookie, gently scraping the excess chocolate off of the top of the cookie before placing it on the parchment paper)

Makes 4-6 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

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Tagged as baking, candy canes, chocolate, christmas, dipping chocolate, recipe, Thin Mints

December 3, 2011 · 8:49 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

DAY 9: Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

Gluten-free. Butter-free. Sugar? OK, not exactly sugar-free. But with only 6 easy-to-find ingredients that can be mixed in one bowl without a mixer, cookies don’t get much easier than this!

Made with chopped toasted nuts, egg whites, powdered sugar, cocoa, salt, and vanilla, these cookies turn out soft and chewy on the inside with a crackly top, like the top of a great batch of brownies. In fact, every bite is like the best part of a pan of brownies (those chewy edge pieces).

I made these with walnuts and we really enjoyed them. They were rich, chewy and chock full of nuts. Next time I want to try them with chopped roasted almonds.

RECIPE:

Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

Servings: 3 dozen
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3 cups walnuts, pecans, almonds or hazelnuts
1 lb (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
½ tsp salt (fine ground sea salt, if you have it)
4 large egg whites
1 Tbs vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spread nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast nuts in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let nuts cool completely. Chop into coarse pieces (don’t chop too fine).

In a large bowl, use a whisk to stir together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. With a large spoon, stir in the cooled nuts. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla until well combined.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Drop the batter in small mounds on the baking sheet, leaving about 1” of space between cookies (no more than 12 cookies on a normal sized baking sheet). Bake for 11-13 minutes. The cookies will spread, puff slightly, crack on top, get glossy and then turn matte. Slide the entire sheet of parchment paper or mat off of the baking sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool completely. Use a metal spatula to remove cookies from parchment paper or mat.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Recipe adapted from Dinner with Julie

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Tagged as butter free, chocolate, christmas, Cookies, egg whites, gluten free, recipe, walnuts

November 29, 2011 · 5:14 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

DAY 5: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

It is usually the simplest treats that are my kids’ favorites. These chocolate covered pretzels definitely fall into that category. They are easy to make, and fun for kids to help with. Adding the sprinkles is a coveted job in our kitchen.

For easy dipping, pour melted chocolate into a tall narrow container, like a drinking glass, wide mouthed canning jar, or a Pyrex measuring cup. For easy cleanup, line your glass or jar with a Ziploc bag. Fold the top edge of the bag back over the lip of the glass. When you are done, just throw the bag away: no scrubbing chocolate out of the glass.

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RECIPE:

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Pretzel Rods
Dipping chocolate: dark, white, and/or colored
Variety of sprinkles

Melt chocolates using a double boiler (or melt slowly in the microwave). For easy dipping, pour chocolate into a tall narrow container, like a drinking glass, wide mouthed canning jar, or a Pyrex measuring cup. (For easy cleanup, line your glass or jar with a Ziploc bag. Fold the top edge of the bag back over the lip of the cup) Use a spoon, if needed to coat about 2/3 of the pretzel rod with the chocolate.

Place dipped pretzel on a sheet of waxed paper. Drizzle with contrasting colors of chocolate, if desired (for easy drizzling, use a squeeze bottle, or a Ziploc bag with a hole poked in one corner). While chocolate is still wet, garnish with sprinkles. Let dry completely before storing.

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Tagged as candy, chocolate, christmas, easy cleanup, pretzel rods, pretzels, recipe