Sunday, September 30, 2007

Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

After seeing these posted on The Nest What's Cooking board multiple times, I had to try it out for myself. I followed the recipe to a "T" and was somewhat disappointed with the results.

The batter was dry and the cookies didn't spread the way I was expecting. They were chewy and moist inside, but the outside was sorta dry, like a crust. I'm not sure what I did wrong that I'm not raving about these, but this just proved to me that I should just stick with my Nestle Tollhouse recipe. It's still #1.

This is the recipe from Allrecipes.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.
Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Chicken & Dumplings

This recipe is from Southern Living. This was my first attmept at homemade chicken and dumplings and it was very good. Next time I'll use one of those dumpling makers instead of rolling/cutting the dough.
Ingredients
1 (2 1/2-pound) whole chicken, cut up
2 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon pepper, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk

Cover chicken with water, and bring to a boil in a large Dutch oven. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and next 3 ingredients; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour. Remove chicken, reserving broth in Dutch oven; cool chicken. Skim fat from broth; bring to a simmer.
Skin, bone, and coarsely chop chicken. Add chicken, bouillon, and remaining salt and pepper to broth. Return to simmer.

Combine flour and poultry seasoning in a bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Add milk, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to 1/8-inch thickness; cut into 1-inch pieces.

Bring broth mixture to a boil. Drop dumplings, a few at a time, into boiling broth, stirring gently. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring often, for 25 minutes.

Banana Hazelnut Muffins with Nutella Crown


In the never-ending quest to add Nutella to our favorite recipes, I created these. They were so yummy and the perfect balance of fruit and nutella!

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup toasted hazelnut pieces
Nutella

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl, set aside. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup with a spout, set aside. Lightly brush a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.


In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with an electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing until incorporated. Add the bananas (the mixture will appear to be curdled, so don't worry), and remove the bowl from the mixer.


With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and transfer the batter to the prepared muffin tin. Swirl a teaspoon of Nutella on the top.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Wrap in plastic wrap. The banana bread is best if served the next day.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread




This recipe is from Allrecipes.com. I had a bunch of frozen, shredded zucchini I needed to use up, so I made this bread. I added chocolate chips to half of the batch since I didn't have any nuts on hand. It turned out so good! My changes are below in red.



INGREDIENTS

3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup butter or margarine, melted (I used Earth Balance instead of butter)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't have nuts so I added chocolate chips to 1 loaf)

DIRECTIONS
In a mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Add pumpkin, butter and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until breads test done. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.