Feeling really bad, but making up for it with this post!

I feel really bad that I didn't spend some time working on the blog during Ramadan.  I really wanted to post a few recipes that could work in a pinch, but instead, I resorted to taking you to posts from last year.  In my defense, I was spending a lot of my time reflecting and increasing my knowledge of my religion.

To help ease my guilt, I'm going to pass along a delicious chewy, chocolate chip cookie recipe that is to die for!  I'm not lying or exaggerating when I say these are really good cookies.  I've made these cookies twice already and you'd be surprised at how fast they were gobbled up.  Last night I took a tray of 40 cookies to SeekersHub because it was the 27th night of Ramadan and the Hub had an extended night program.  I was afraid that the 40 cookies wouldn't get consumed by the night's end. BOY, was I ever wrong! The cookies were finished within 15 minutes of my arrival- the vast majority were consumed by adults of the male specimen! hehe...I think only a handful of kids got to try a cookie.  Note to self, next time make a double batch to take to the Hub!

The original recipe for these cookies comes from Lil' Luna's blog. The picture of the cookies with a glass of milk was tantalizing enough for me to try out the recipe.  After looking it over, I decided to try and cut out some of the sugar in the recipe. I don't know about you, but I think 2 cups of sugar in a cookie recipe is a bit much. I also tweaked the flour component of the recipe.  This recipe is very adaptable- you can make them double chocolate chip cookies by adding cocoa powder, throw in nuts or butterscotch chips...

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies ( a crowd favourite!)

3/4 cup brown sugar (original recipe calls for 1 cup)
3/4 cup white granulated sugar (original recipe calls for 1 cup)
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature, or if you're in a pinch, microwave for 10 seconds
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (original recipe calls for vanilla extract)
3 cups flour (what I did was use two cups of white flour, then for the third cup, fill the measuring cup with 4 TBSP whole wheat flour and then fill the rest of the cup with white flour)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (original recipe calls for milk chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Take two cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter, oil and sugars.  Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla bean paste.
In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture and mix until combined- don't over beat the batter.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Using a 1 1/2" ice cream/cookie scoop, scoop out cookie dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.  Bake one sheet at a time for 7 minutes.  Remove cookie sheet and place cookies onto a cooling rack. In between baking, place cookie sheets in freezer to cool them down. If you put the cookie dough on hot cookie sheets, the cookies will spread out too much.

Ghirardelli Classic Brownies

I've been sitting on this recipe for a while, since December.  I finally have a moment today to post it.

Ghirardelli Classic Brownies

4oz Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar (1 bar)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

3/4 cup and 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/3 cup Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chips

1/4 cup walnut pieces, plus more for sprinkling on top of brownies (my edition, so it's optional)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (my edition, so it's optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter an 8"x8" pan (as you can see, I did not use an 8x8 pan. I listed the pan size written on the instructions for you guys!) and coat it with cocoa powder.  Set aside.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate bar and butter over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.  Stir in brown sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs, mix well.  In bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Slowly fold in flour mixture; mix well. Stir in chips and walnut pieces.

Pour batter into pan and sprinkle walnut pieces on top of batter.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Dried Fruit

This Eid went by in a blur. We flew in to TO, blinked our eyes, and bam it was over! Seriously, as soon as we got off the plane, it was like we hit the ground running. Every single day there were things to bake, gifts to buy, home to clean, clothes to iron, people to call, and appointments to go to. It almost felt like we didn't have a chance to sleep, eat, or breathe. I still don't know how I managed to get to the gym to work out.

And because everything was a blur, I didn't get an opportunity to blog about the treats I made until now.

First, I must inform you that the pictures in the next few posts were taken from my iPod and tweaked using Instagram.  I left my camera back in LA and had to make due with some grainy shots.  Oh well....

This first treat is so easy to make, you can do it blind folded (but you really don't want to do that because you might burn yourself and/or the chocolate).

Dark Chocolate Dipped Dried Apricots

20-30 dried apricots

1 bar Lindt Excellence Madagascar 65% Dark Chocolate, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup sliced almonds, crushed into small pieces

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.  Place the crushed almonds in a bowl and set aside.

First, get a large pot and fill it with 1 to 2 inches of water and place it over low-medium heat until the water begins to simmer. Take a glass or stainless steel bowl that has a diameter larger than the pot and place it on top.  Make sure the bowl doesn't touch the simmering water. Place most of the chocolate (three-quarters worth) in the bowl and let it melt, while stirring occasionally. Once the chocolate has melted, remove from heat and stir in the remaining chocolate until melted.

Take the dried apricots and dip them half-way into the melted dark chocolate.  Then roll the apricots in the crushed almonds and place them on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Once the chocolate has set, about 20-30 minutes, place the apricot pieces into cellophane bags and tie with ribbon if you want to give them as a gift, or place them in an air tight container. 

A first for moi: the S'More

When my parents immigrated to Canada over 40 years ago, they came with the clothes on their backs, a little pocket money, and plenty of hopes and dreams.  They worked hard, and raised and educated three kids all the while discovering and creating a unique cultural identity- a Canadian Pakistani Muslim identity.  They meshed together bits and pieces from Canadian and Pakistani societies that would enable them to create this identity, this culture without compromising on their religious values. Essentially they took parts of Canadian and Pakistani cultures that would compliment Islamic culture and belief and created a wonderful cohesive mix.

Now in terms of food, Pakistani cuisine won hands down. It took my mom several years before she started experimenting with ingredients and recipes that didn't stem from the sub-continent. She's an awesome cook and I think I get my "let's try something new, or let's combine these different flavours together and see what happens.." thought process from her.  Still, there are some "exotic" fruits and veggies that haven't made their way into her tummy or kitchen, but they have in mine. Spaghetti squash, rhubarb muffins (thanks Linds!), kale, star fruit, baby buk choy, anchovies, pumpkin, calamari, lobster, chives..really the list is endless. Some of you may be scratching your heads and thinking...Hinna, these ain't exotic.  Trust me...in a home of Pakistani heritage..these ARE exotic! lol

This blended culture that we grew up with also shaped the types of familial activities that we would enjoy. We swam, skated, played soccer and street hockey, rode our bikes, roller bladed, skied and skipped. But, we never went camping, or had a clue about what a cottage was until later on in life.  I am proud to say that we have been to a cottage and do know what it's used for! :p  I'm not sure if I'm up for camping, but I am excited to say that I finally tasted the quintessential camping treat.....the S'MORE!  Taking inspiration from Ina Garten's adult s'more, I was able to recreate this treat in my kitchen with my gas stove!

S'Mores

1 package of cookies that have one side coated with plain chocolate

1 small package of halal marshmallows

long wooden skewers

Turn on your gas stove burner onto low. Lower a skewered marshmallow close to the flame until the marshmallow begins to melt and turn brown.  Try to keep the marshmallow from burning or carrying a flame.  Place the melted marshmallow onto the chocolate side of one cookie. Create a sandwich by squishing down another cookie, chocolate side down. Follow the same process and make as many s'mores as your heart desires!

Gifts and Cookies

Back in high school and university, I used to spend a lot of time customizing gifts for my friends and family.  I would carefully plan out the gifts by creating detailed shopping lists that listed gift ideas and wrapping for each individual.  Yes, I spent more time planning gifts than studying...my Managerial Accounting mark can attest to this!! heh.

Sadly, I no longer spend that much time on picking out the perfect gift. Nowadays, I have to bounce ideas off of other people, give cash, or resort to gift cards. This Eid I really struggled to find things for family members and ended up getting some gift cards. I did however, try to add a personal touch by adding a homemade cookie mix to the gifts.  This idea stemmed from Bakerella's post on Mixing things up!

This is probably the simplest gift you can make. It's not too expensive and you can customize it by using different coloured Smarties or M & M's, or using different nuts.  Get a mason jar and slap on two printable labels- one for the name and the other for directions and voila! You have a great hostess or holiday gift.

*Note that the label in the picture has wrinkles in it...to avoid this, use smaller labels

Chocolate Oatmeal Cowboy Cookies

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and levelled

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup Smarties (you can use M & M's if you are celebrating a holiday)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3-1/2 cup chopped pecans

Before you start the layers, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl together.

The layers will be as follows:

1.The flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt mixture.  .

2.The oats.

3.The Smarties.

4.The chocolate chips.

5.The brown sugar.

6.The white sugar.

7.The chopped pecans

Pack each layer down tightly so that you can fit all of the ingredients in.  If a plastic seal is missing from the mouth of the jar, take a small piece of plastic wrap and cover it up, before closing the lid.

Using printable labels, you can print out two labels- one label for the cookie name, and the other for the instructions.  I put the name of the cookie at the front of the jar, and put the instructions on the back.  Here are the instructions I used on the label:

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir dry ingredients in a large bowl and add:

1/2 cup butter, (almost melted), 1 slightly beaten egg & 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine thoroughly. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls & bake on a lined cookie sheet for 10 minutes.

If you want to make the cookies for yourself, the recipe is as follows:

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and levelled

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup Smarties (you can use M & M's if you are celebrating a holiday)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3-1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large glass bowl.  Add in the wet ingredients and mix well.  Roll the dough into small balls, and place them, evenly spaced, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

Double Chocolate Chip Cupcakes!

Lately I've been feeling like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done.  The weekends are a blur, and the weekdays are packed with gym classes, family stuff, appointments, meeting friends, and everyday errands. I've also been taking an online Qur'an class that involves listening to two lessons a week, doing homework and then partaking in a live session with a TA. And just because I wasn't busy enough I went to a two-day board workshop on reading assessment!

I have also found myself connecting with the arts and crafts scene online.  There is this really cool iPod app called CraftGawker that tracks interesting craft projects people have created. It gives you a new selection of projects everyday and you can "heart" them and go to the artist's blog to learn more about the project.  I have already added 150 projects to my favourites in the hopes that one day I will be able to sit down and make them.  I did start a few Ramadan and Eid projects, but I'll save that for another post.

And now for this wonderful recipe from My Baking Addiction.  Jamie has a plethora of interesting recipes and I have more than one recipe from the site tagged as a future kitchen adventure. I decided to try out this recipe on my UNO friends as we were gathering at Shiva's house for our meet-up.  There was a lemon poppy seed cake in the mix, but that definitely is another story because it involves a cake falling apart and me trying to come up with a creative way to salvage it!

Although the recipe gives you exact measurements for the frosting, I decided to be more free-flowing with the confectioners' sugar measurements and just kept tasting the icing until it was "just right."  I made these cupcakes a second time for Canada Day and instead of using the cream cheese frosting, I used melted chocolate. Pictures and the alternative icing ingredients are below.

Double Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup of cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup 1% sour cream

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  (Dark or white chocolate chips would also work well here)

a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips for decoration (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-cup regular-sized muffin tin with liners.  In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until the consistency is light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Beat in the vanilla.  Mix in the flour in two batches, alternating between the flour and sour cream.  Begin with the flour and end with the flour.  Fold in the chocolate chips.   Since I wanted my muffins to roughly be the same size, I used a 1 1/8" ice cream scoop to fill my cupcakes-each muffin had exactly 3 scoops of batter.   Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

3 oz bitter sweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled  ( I melted the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave.  I set it on high for 30 seconds and repeated this until the chocolate was melted.)

confectioners sugar to taste, sifted.

In a bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until well blended.  Add in the vanilla and salt and mix well.  Pour in the melted chocolate and gradually begin to add the confectioners' a little at a time until you reach your desired sweetness.  Once your icing is ready, spread over the cooled cupcakes using an offset spatula. Top each cupcake with a semi-sweet chocolate chip.

 **Alternative icing

I made another batch of these cupcakes for a US and Canadian family reunion barbeque at my mom's during the Canada Day long weekend.  Since the cupcakes were going to be devoured mostly by kids under the age of 12, I thought it would be best to swap the cream cheese frosting for plain melted chocolate.  Following the same procedure from above, I melted 15 milk chocolate wafers in the microwave. Once the melted chocolate was slightly cooled, I spooned it over the tops of the cupcakes and added a toothpick Canadian flag as decorations

Candied Ginger and Chocolate Shortbread

I first spied this recipe back in December in the Toronto Star's annual Advent calendar cookie recipe. I tested it out, ate most of the cookies and then felt the need to share it on my blog, but I never got around to it. It is now two months later (I can't believe it's February already!) and I finally got the my act together and will be sharing the recipe.

Now usually people eat a lot of shortbread during the holidays, but I say throw that idea out the window and enjoy it year round.  In fact, this cookie is so  simple that I will probably make it very often- on snow days, long weekends, or even for dessert when I have guests over.  I must warn you though, these cookies are HIGHLY addictive and you will definitely have to hide the cookie tin from yourself if you want to keep your waistline in check!

 Candied Ginger and Chocolate Shortbread  

 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup corn starch, sifted

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup candied ginger, finely chopped

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup icing sugar

In a bowl, mix together the flour, corn starch, salt, dark chocolate and ginger.

In a separate bowl, using a mixer on low, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the flour mixture with a spoon until just combined.

Pat down the dough into a block. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Gently smooth out the dough with your fingers. Cut off tiny squares or rectangles and place them on the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 325 degrees oven until the edges are a light golden brown, 15-18 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Buttons

During my last foray down in LA county, I was spending a lot of time tagging recipes to try out at a later date.  I originally had an organization system under my Favourites tab, but I must sadly report that it no longer works and now my Favourites is just one big heaping collection of everything under the sun. If you have any recommendations on how to organize tagged recipes, please please tell me!!





 During my tagging expedition I was exploring Food Buzz and found that one of my Food Buzz friends' chocolate chip cookie recipe was featured on Food Buzz's Top 9 recipes of the day. Sprinkle of Parsley's pictures and a quick poll on Facebook led me into the kitchen to try and make these beauties.

 Luckily I had everything on hand otherwise I would have to walk on over to my neighbourhood Ralph's.  I did make a few simple changes to the ingredients and I didn't flatten them out prior to baking which resulted in a cute button-like cookie.



One thing I have realized with the adaptations is that you don't necessarily get the same ingredients that I used in the US here in Canada.  I wanted to make these again now that I'm here in Toronto again, but I couldn't find the white wholewheat flour. After visiting 3 different groccery stores, I realized that the white wholewheat flour equivalent is Robin Hood's NutriBlend Flour.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Buttons



2 cups white wholewheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant espresso powder

3/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cup of 60% dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Sift the flour (if you're using the nutriblend flour, don't sift it, just run your spoon through it to get rid of any clumps), baking soda and salt into a medium sized bowl.  Melt the butter and then combine it with the brown and white sugars.  The original recipe called for the creaming of the sugars and butter using a mixer, but I used a wooden spoon and it worked just fine. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract to the mixture and stir until the ingredients are all combined and you have a creamy texture.  Slowly add in the flour mixture in a few batches so you have more control. This goes for hand mixing or using an electric mixer. Mix until ingredients are just combined. Add in the chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.





Using a small ice cream/cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and drop it onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  In LA I have some disposable foil cookie sheets (I reuse them over and over again) and what I like about these is that they have pre-made cookie shapes on the trays so you can evenly space out the cookies without having to eye-ball it. And because the parchment is semi-transparent, you can see the individualized spots pretty easily. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until the edges are lightly golden. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before you gently transfer them to a cooling rack.

My mom's Hajj send off

Last month, my mom, accompanied by my aunt and cousin, went for Hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime obligatory pilgrimage that every Muslim must make to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Prior to her leaving, I decided to have a small, all-female gathering at my place so she could meet some people before leaving and for those same people to give her well wishes before embarking on this spiritual journey.  The dinner portion of the evening turned out to be a pot luck set up in a buffet style.  Dessert was all mine.   I decided to stray away from some of the more healthier desserts out there and tried two recipes that caught my eye. For plating, I used a three-tier display tree that my mom had given me way back when.

The first one I'm going to share is a sour cream chocolate cake with minimal adaptation.  This recipe I got from Lynn's Kitchen.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour ( You could also use a nutri-blend flour to get more health benefits)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch-round cake pan with parchment paper. Butter the sides of the pan lightly. In a medium bowl, stir together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, use a hand mixer to cream butter and sugar together until light and airy. Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each.  Beat in vanilla and reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in two batches, alternating between the sour cream.  Make sure you start and end with the flour.  Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the toothpick test comes clean.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cook completely on a cooling rack.

To ice the cake, I melted 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips with a pat of butter over a double boiler. Once melted, use an off-set spatula to spread over the cooled cake.   Once the icing has set, cut into small pieces.


The second dessert item was blackberry jam bars from Elissa at 17 and Baking.  Some of the adaptations I did were cutting down the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups, reducing the sugar in my drizzle and using milk for my drizzle.

Blackberry Jam Bars



2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
4 eggs
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup seedless blackberry jam**

Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons 1% milk
1 teaspoon pure almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a half rimmed sheet with butter.
Using a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add in vanilla and almond extract. Slowly add flour and salt, and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix!

Using an offset spatula, spread the batter into the pan. The batter will spread when baking so do not fret if the pan corners are free of batter.  Drop teaspoonfuls of jam over the top of the batter. Try to distribute the drops of jam evenly.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.

Cook in the pan and the cut into small pieces using a pizza roller.  Mix the icing ingredients together and lightly drizzle over the bars using the tines of a fork.

**In this recipe, seedless blackberry jam is required. I searched high and low for such jam, but couldn't find it. What I ended up doing was warming up blackberry jam (with seeds) in a small pot on the stove and then straining it/ pushing it with a spoon through a fine metal sieve.

Eid Tins

Eid celebrations consist of going for a congregational prayer, receiving guests at your home, and of course, house hopping to and from people's homes. Whenever my family and I would "house-hop," we would take a hostess gift of either sweets or flowers.  For this Eid, I decided to make Eid Tins filled with dark chocolate almond cranberry bark.

This recipe is a variation of the one in Kraft Foods "What's Cooking" magazine.

Dark Chocolate Almond Cranberry Bark

18oz 70% dark chocolate, chopped into medium sized pieces
6 oz white chocolate, chopped into medium sized pieces
1 cup - 1.5 cups of chopped almonds, skin on**
1/3 cup of dried cranberries **

In two separate double boilers, melt both the white and dark chocolates over low heat.  Stir occasionally to assist in the melting process.  In the meantime, chop up the almonds.  Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the almonds into the dark chocolate and the dried cranberries into the white chocolate.  First spoon out the dark chocolate mixture onto a large, parchment lined baking tray and smooth out with an offset spatula.  Next, pour the white chocolate cranberry mixture over the dark chocolate. Using the offset spatula, start creating wave pattens in the chocolate so you get a marble-like look.  Refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours or until firm and then use a sharp knife to break into small pieces. Line small cookie tins with wax paper and fill them up with the bark.

** rough estimates

Cravings of Chocolate Equals a Brownie Recipe Fit for A Swirly Scoop of Pinkberry

I've begun to notice that the days I am fasting is when I crave chocolate the most.  It's this urge that won't go away until I've had some chocolately goodness.  I missed two fasts during Ramadan because of traveling, so now I have to make them up. I started today and honestly the chocolate cravings were crazy.  I just knew that once I broke my fast I would have to have a chocolate fix. So I went through my "Chocolate" section under My Favourites and came across Two Peas and Their Pod's Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies recipe.  Bingo!  I didn't have all of the ingredients the recipe called for, so I decided to adapt it to what I had on hand. The end result was a fudgey brownie with a smokey, dark chocolately taste.  Yumm!  Instead of consuming the brownies on their own, I believe because of the texture and flavour, the brownies would be better as a topping for ice cream or frozen yogurt.  And since I got my husband to pick up some of Pinkberry's Original swirly goodness, I had to test my theory.  Yup....it was a perfect pairing!

 Brownie Topping

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour, sifted

3/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup organic almond butter, room temperature
1 tbsp crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9" pie plate with parchment paper. You should cut the parchment paper to fit the bottom of the plate.

In a bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  Add in the sugar and espresso powder and mix to combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla extract and oil until blended.


Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and lightly mix together until just blended.  Add in the almond butter and crushed walnuts.  Stir until combined. Using a spatula, evenly spread the brownie mixture in the pie plate until it reaches the sides of the plate.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.  I found that my brownies were ready in 10 minutes, so be careful and watch those brownies.

Cool and serve on top of ice cream or frozen yogurt.

A rustic, yet delectible cookie

Eid is just around the corner and I know people are starting to think about what they are going to make. Eid is a day to celebrate with family, exchange gifts and eat lots of great treats.  Also, in between the house hopping, is the oh so important Eid nap where your tummy prepares itself for the next round of eating.
When I was growing up, my mom and grandmother would always make a traditional Sindhi sweet dish called keer karkoon. It comprises of full fat milk flavoured with cardamom pods and sugar, slowly cooked over the stove for a few hours. When the milk turns a pinky colour, the rehydrated dried dates are added to it and cooked together.  Unfortunately I have not had any experience of making this dish- mom, it's time for a cooking lesson!

Since there will be no keer karkoon cooking in my kitchen for Eid,  I have decided to bake some cookies instead. The cookie recipe is from Heidi Swanson's site 101 Cookbooks. Heidi's site is the first food blog I followed. It's full of mouth-watering recipes that use a variety of healthy ingredients to tantalize your taste buds. Do check it out when you have a moment.

Now let's get to this cookie recipe. It is rustic, hearty and oh so delicious! It's a combination of old fashioned rolled oats, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and bitter sweet chocolate. Just thinking about them is making my mouth water! Heidi's recipe calls for the use of 2 cups of sugar. I found that to be a bit much, so I cut it in half.  I also decided to add a bit of cocoa powder for more chocolaty goodness. The original recipe was to make these cookies over sized to make ice cream sandwiches, but I decided to make them a lot smaller and used a small ice cream scoop to shape them.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup coconut/palm sugar

2 tsps cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I baked these cookies on the top rack because my oven distributes the heat unevenly. Use your judgement when placing the oven racks.

In a bowl combine the oats, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well.

In another bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar for 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixture and combine until everything just comes together.

You do not want to over mix the batter.  Toss in the chocolate chips and mix well. 

Use a mini ice cream scoop to scoop out the batter in round balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Make sure to leave space in between the cookies. Once on the sheet, gently pat down the tops of each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a cookie sheet.

A bite of sweetness to tide you over

As the days of fasting continue, I find myself having chocolate cravings- Snickers, Twix, Crunchie. Oh so yummy, but oh so bad for the waistline. I've been holding back, but last night was just too unbearable.  I had to have a chocolate fix right then and there.  I quickly scoured my kitchen cupboards to find something and I came across a bar of Lindt's 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate bar. Perfect!  I also came across a box of Baker's Secret Semi Sweet baking chocolate. Even better! I wanted to have some texture to my chocolate fix, so I threw together a dash of this, a handfull of that and came up with bite sized crunchy chocolately goodness.

Crunch Chocolatey Bites

1 Weetabix biscuit, crushed

2 Tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes

2 tsp almond slivers

4 squares of Lindt's 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate bar (should be about an ounce)

2 ounces of semi-sweet baking chocolate

Crush the Weetabix biscuit in a bowl and mix in the coconut flakes and almond slivers. Set aside.  On the stove, create a double boiler- put a small pot on the stove with some (don't fill it up all the way because you do not want the water to touch the chocolate) water and let it simmer. In a small steel bowl, break the chocolate into pieces and place on top of the small pot. Stir until the chocolate has melted.  Pour the melted chocolate into the Weetabix, coconut and almond mixture. Stir well.  Using a round 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, scoop out the mixture onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Set aside to firm up. Once firm to the touch, put the tray in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

What started off as a cookie recipe...

So I got inspired by a cookie recipe my cousin had posted up on Facebook. It was Alton Brown's The Chewy cookie recipe. I had some ideas on how to tweak the recipe and what resulted was a really nice chocolate cake- yes cake, not cookie recipe!

Chocolate Cake

1/3 cup of butter, melted
1 1/4 cups of almond flour or almond meal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 egg
2 tbsp 2% milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients and put into an 8.5" tart pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Enjoy on its own or with a scoop of frozen yogurt.

Cashew Chip Cookies

I've been having chocolate cravings for a few days now and I wanted to find something to satisfy my cravings and be somewhat on the healthy side.  I came across this cashew butter chip cookies on Stephanie's Hope for Healing food blog and thought I would give them a try.
Cashew butter isn't readily available in your everyday grocery store. It can be found at Whole Foods, Planet Organic or other natural health and food stores.  Before I give you the recipe, here are some fancy facts about cashews:

• Cashew nuts are actually seeds that adhere to the bottom of the cashew apple, the fruit of the cashew tree, which is native to the coastal areas of northeastern Brazil.
• They are a very good source of monounsaturated fats and copper, and a good source of magnesium and phosphorus.
• Cashews have a lower fat content than most other nuts, approximately 75% of their fat is unsaturated fatty acids, plus about 75% of this unsaturated fatty acid content is oleic acid, the same heart-healthy monounsaturated fat found in olive oil. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=98 

Variations from Stephanie's recipe:

-I cut down the sugar from 1 1/2 cups to 1 1/4 cups

-Instead of sucanat, I used fair trade natural cane sugar

-In half of the cookie batter, I added a dash of instant espresso powder

-I used just a sprinkle of large dark chocolate chips, it turns out that every cookie has 1 or 2 chocolate chips in it.

Cashew Chip Cookies (makes 3 dozen)

(The cookies on the left are the variation, flatter and with instant espresso powder, the ones on the right are fatter and without any add-ins)

1 16 ounce jar of natural cashew butter with the natural oils

2 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cup of fair trade natural cane sugar

Dark chocolate chips (as much as you desire)

Dash of instant espresso powder (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in all of the ingredients in the order presented above. The batter is sticky and you will need the liquid from the eggs to help you mix in the ingredients.   Using your fingers, scoop out a little bit of the dough and roll between the palms of your hand.  Make the cookie balls on the small-medium size to have cookies looking like the picture, above right.  If you want a flatter cookie, flatten the cookie ball between your palms.

Place cookie balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper a few inches apart.  My cookie sheet has individual cookie rounds made on it, so I use that to help gauge the distance between each cookie. When you bake the cookies, you will see cracks form, that's normal. Bake for exactly 12 minutes (use a timer!) and remove and cool for at least 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH them until at least 10 minutes are up, otherwise they will fall apart. 

If you want to add a finishing touch, you could cool the cookie completely and then drizzle melted chocolate on top of them.

Something to whip up when you're bored

Not working full time has left me with a lot of free-time on my hands, free-time that I'm trying to fill with working out, knitting and experimenting in the kitchen. After spending some time browsing the net yesterday, I found a cookie recipe that I wanted to try. It came from Thinkfood, a cookbook that features 50 original, brain-healthy recipes, each created by a different food blogger.

I had to make a few changes, or rather adaptations to the recipe. I used white whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat because that is what I had on hand and swapped the canola oil for olive oil. I also didn't have flaxseed meal (the regular grocery store here in Pasadena doesn't have a healthy/organic food section), so I just took it out.  One thing I noticed is that the dark chocolate chips make the cookies sweet, so the next time I make these, I'll probably omit the agave nectar and sub in another 1/4 cup of milk.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup regular milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well until batter is blended evenly. Use a tablespoon to portion cookies on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, approximately 1-2 inches apart.  Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes.  Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool on wire rack.

Peanut Buttery Drops

I love all things with peanut butter. As a kid, anytime I came home after a trip overseas, the first thing I would do after putting down my bags was make a peanut butter sandwich and pour a glass of milk. There's just something about peanut butter that makes it irresistible.

My love for peanut butter led me to this recipe from Tina at Carrots 'N' Cake.  Here is my tweaked recipe:

Peanut Buttery Drops

1 1/2 cups of old fashion oats

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

1/4 cup of agave nectar

1 egg

1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease small muffin tin and put aside.

Mix all ingredients until combined. 

Using a tablespoon (the one that you get with your cutlery set), "drop" batter into the greased muffin tin.

Bake on the top rack of the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until the bottoms of the drops are slightly brown.

Makes 19 drops

*Notes: Keep a close eye on these drops because the bottoms can burn easily.
* If you want to make bite sized drops, you can scoop out the batter into a smaller cupcake pan. I used a small ice cream scoop to make the drops similar in size and shape.  I was able to get 30 drops using this method.
* I'm also trying to increase the healthiness of this recipe, so the second time I made it, I cut back on the 1/2 cup of flour by leaving some space at the top of the measuring cup and filled up the rest with flax seed meal.  I think it's a nice way to get some Omega-3 into your diet!