Triple Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate lovers, look no further for your fix.

It's chilly today, and I wanted to bake something delicious yet not overly gluttonous.  I turned to the queen of delicious-yet-not-overly-gluttonous, Ellie Krieger, and found her recipe for triple chocolate cookies.  The search was abruptly over.

Ellie's recipe calls for cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate, but I upped the ante even further and subbed in semi-sweet chocolate for the milk chocolate.  These are some damn chocolatey cookies, just screaming out for a glass of cold milk.  I am a happy bunny.

There is not a lot of butter or sugar in this recipe - it's all about the chocolate.  And when you bake the way I do, with all whole wheat flour, you can actually feel pretty good about eating these.  Just make them small, or else you  might overwhelm anyone else that eats them with the intense chocolatey goodness.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave

makes 24-32, depending on the size

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa), coarsely chopped

2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.

2.  In the bowl of a standing mixer (or in a large bowl with an electric beater), beat the butter and sugar together until well combined.  Add oil and egg and beat until creamy.  Mix in the vanilla.

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, and salt.  Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well.  Stir in both chocolates and mix well.  Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop batter onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Ellie says you'll get 24 cookies, but I got 32.

4.  Bake until cookies are just set, 10-12 minutes.  Transfer to a rack to cool.  

Enjoy!

Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Every year my office has a holiday party.  There are many avid bakers in our office, so each year we have a potluck dessert situation.  The past couple of years, it has been declared a "bake-off celebration"  (read:  competitive and intimidating).  Still, I have participated each time, without trying too hard to knock anyone's socks off.  I make simple and yummy things that I think people will eat but not necessarily vote for.

Well this year, I might have broken that tradition.  Yes, they're cookies, and not a big fancy cake or cheesecake or giant cupcake.  But they are special. You see, they feature nutella.  They also feature quality cocoa and chopped hazelnuts.  They are decadent and delicious and beautiful.

Still, I won't hold my breath for a win.  There are some veteran bakers in our office and I wouldn't presume that I'm even in their league.  Either way, these are wonderful little holiday treats and they made our house smell terrific.

Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

adapted from Cooking Light Magazine

makes 28 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (lightly spooned into cup) whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

1/3 cup Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment or silpat liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk.

3.  Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).  Whisk egg yolks with instant coffee and add to the butter along with vanilla.  Beat well.   Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat at low speed until just combined.  The batter will have a thick, fudgy texture.

4.  Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax paper.  Knead a few times until smooth and shiny.  Shape dough into 28 1-inch balls.  Roll sides of balls in the chopped hazelnuts, pressing gently.  (Not a lot of nuts will stick - don't stress over it).

5.  Arrange balls 1 inch apart on baking sheets.  Press thumb into center of each cookie, leaving an indentation.  (The indentations will be less intense after baking - you might need to recreate them with the back of a spoon while cookies are still hot).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove cookies from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

6.  Spoon a scant 1/2 teaspoon of Nutella into the center of each cookie.  Use a toothpick to swirl the Nutella into a pretty pattern (see picture above). 

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

It's not a holiday season without cookies.  It just isn't.  Peanut butter blossoms don't have anything particularly holiday-ish about them, but somehow I associate them with this time of year.  They feature the greatest flavor combination of all, chocolate and peanut butter.  I tweaked them slightly to add a hint of nutrition, but some things just can't be taken too far.  These are decadent little fellows, and that's why we make them small.

Pillowy peanut butter cookies providing support to a full-sized, slightly melted Hershey's kiss - it's just that simple.  I experimented with doing half dark chocolate and half milk - they'd also be great with Hugs, or with any of Hershey's other odd kiss formations (so long as it's something that goes with peanut butter - I'd stay away from the mint flavored ones).

Hershey's may not be the best chocolate there is, but this is one way to make it taste absolutely fantastic.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

adapted from the Hershey's kiss package

makes about 4 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

3/4 cup creamy all natural peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons skim milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

48 Hershey's kisses, unwrapped (milk, dark, or combination of both)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Heat oven to 375.

2.  Beat butter and peanut butter in a large bowl or stand mixer.  Add both sugars, and beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually beat into the mixture from step 2.

4.  Form 1 inch balls of dough and place on two baking sheets.  You should get about 48 cookies.  (I got 45).  Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Remove from oven and immediately press a kiss into each cookie.  The cookies will crack a bit; don't worry!  Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that school is starting up again, it seems like a good idea to have after-school snacks around the house. Or after-work snacks, as the case may be. I know the best after school snack of all when I was a kid was home made cookies with a glass of cold milk. Some things never change. And here is a low fat version to make it seem slightly less cheeky.

Most avid bakers are well aware that you can substitute applesauce for about half of the fat in many recipes, but they don't do it for fear of having cookies that taste like applesauce. Here is the proof that this fear is unfounded. These cookies are chewy and cakey and sweet and chocolatey...everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. No undertones of apple are detectable.

I used to make these cookies all the time, and after the first couple of batches I just stopped telling people they were low fat, because that automatically builds a prejudice against them. I don't want a "wow, these are pretty good for low fat cookies" as a compliment. I just want a "Mmm, yum" or "Are there any more?" And I've found when you leave out "low fat" from the description, that's exactly what you get.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Sunset's Quick, Light, and Healthy
makes 2 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups regular rolled oats
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350, and line two cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, oil, and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl; stir in oats and chocolate chips.

4. Working quickly so the dough doesn't dry out, spoon 2 tablespoon portions of dough onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing cookies evenly. Dip fingertips in granulated sugar and then pat cookies into rounds about 1/3 inch thick.

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, switching positions of the baking sheets about halfway through, until just golden. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Breakfast Cookies (CEIMB)

Today I'm pleased to announce a new feature on this blog. You see, I am now a proud member of Craving Ellie in my Belly, a blog made up of a group of food bloggers paying homage to the lovely and talented Ellie Krieger every Thursday. Each week a different one of Ms. Krieger's recipes is chosen, and the food bloggers all post about it on Thursdays and compare notes.

This week is my first week participating, and the recipe was Ellie's Breakfast Cookies. The idea of cookies for breakfast sounds somewhat unorthodox, but think about it people - we eat croissants, muffins, scones, and even donuts and call them breakfast. This cookie is far more nutritious and excusable! Just wait until you see the ingredients.

I tweaked it a bit to make it even *more* healthy, if that's possible - I substituted honey for the refined sugar, and used all whole wheat pastry flour instead of part whole wheat and part regular. I made a couple of other changes that were just matters of preference. What results is the version of the recipe that I've posted below, which produces gorgeous, soft oatmeal raisin cookies with a hint of spice and a whole lot of wholesome goodness.

Breakfast Cookies
adapted from Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger (2007)
makes 12 cookies*

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened, all natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
1/3 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350, and line a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat liner.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine butter, oil, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds.

3. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, and raisins and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of batter per cookie onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a couple of inches between cookies. (An ice cream scoop filled about halfway is a good measure for the batter).

4. Bake for 12 minutes, until fragrant but still soft. Let cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I made only 9 cookies because I was greedy with the batter.

Enjoy!

Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, I admit it. I bake a lot of cookies. They're fun to make, convenient to eat, and universally loved. (At least within my universe, anyway). This weekend felt like a weekend for good old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies. No frills, no muss, no fuss. Just yum. And they come from Martha Stewart, so you know they have to be good.

Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies
makes 2 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or silpat liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add salt, vanilla, and egg, mixing until well blended, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.

4. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, on prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating cookie sheets halfway through, for 12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown but centers are still soft. Let cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks and cool completely.

Pour yourself a glass of milk and sneak a couple of cookies while they're still warm. They'll remind you of the days of after school snacks. Enjoy!

Carrot Coconut Cookies

These cookies are a work of art. They taste absolutely phenomenal, and there isn't a single ingredient in them that should inspire guilt. Nothing refined, nothing artificial, nothing animal-based. It seems impossible that something so flawless can taste so good.

I found the basis for this recipe on my very favorite food blog of all, 101cookbooks. Heidi comes up with the most incredible, wholesome vegetarian food. I own her cookbook, I visit her blog daily (or whenever she updates it), yet somehow this is the first recipe of hers I've ever actually tried. I changed it up a bit, but I would never have even dreamed it up without her blog. Heidi, I salute you.

I highly recommend you make these cookies this weekend, and keep them around to snack on. Healthy though they may be, they are still sweet, and they are still cookies - so be warned. They are dangerous. Especially when you make them bite-sized like I did.

Carrot Coconut Cookies
adapted from 101cookbooks.com
makes 2 dozen +

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded carrots (about 2 or 3 medium carrots)
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup neutral vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375, and line two cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and oats. Add carrots, coconut, and pecans, and mix.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together maple syrup, oil, applesauce, and ginger. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

4. Drop cookie batter by level tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets, leaving an inch or two between each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden.

I waited about four seconds before tasting one. Ha, that's funny. One.

Enjoy!

Holy Trinity Cookies

I'm sorry, but there is just no contest. The greatest trio of flavors in the history of sweet foods is peanut butter, chocolate, and banana. You might disagree. You would be wrong. It's just a fact.

They're great together in their pure forms - a banana dipped in chocolate syrup and peanut butter. They're also great together in a cookie. That's where we come in with today's recipe.

This cookie is not too intense. The problem with that is you won't feel too hesitant to eat multiple. That's why we make them really big, so you might be able to walk away after just one!

So go ahead, if you don't already have ripe bananas laying around, buy a few more than you can actually eat the next time you go to the grocery store. It will give you an excuse to make this delicious, sweet, cakey cookie and share it with your friends. Or just keep it to yourself. I won't judge.

Holy Trinity Cookies
adapted from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (blog.fatfreevegan.com)
makes about 15-20 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375, and line two cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. Cream together peanut butter and the two sugars; stir in banana and mix until smooth and creamy.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to peanut butter a little at a time until completely incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips until well-blended, but do not over-mix.

4. Drop by ice cream scoops (or smaller utensil if you want smaller cookies) on prepared cookie sheets. They don't spread out while they bake so you don't need to space them too much. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until just turning golden brown. Remove and cool for a few minutes before eating.

Pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecan

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I left an "s" off the end of the title of this recipe. Well you're wrong. And no, there isn't only one pecan in the entire recipe. But there is a subtle background flavor of pecan running through the whole cookie batter that results in a mysterious nuttiness that you can't quite place (unless you're told what it is).

The other day I felt like baking chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted them to be a little bit different somehow. I found a recipe for chocolate chip & pecan cookies in the new Williams-Sonoma cookbook, and decided to make it without the pecans, since I don't like chunks of nut in my cookies. But they are still there, ground in with the flour in a food processor, lending their yummy pecan-ness to the cookie as a whole.

I'd also like to give an honorable mention to a new purchase of mine, the beater blade. It's a new paddle attachment for my stand mixer that has built-in silicon scrapers so you don't have to keep stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides with a spatula. That's right. It's awesome in the most literal sense. And it made these cookies insanely easy to make.

The photo at the top of this entry is of the last lonely cookie. I ate it soon after the photo was taken. Let's all take a moment to mourn for the loss of the Last Cookie. And now you can bake some more.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecan
Adapted from The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook
makes about 2 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, combine flour, pecans, baking soda, and salt, and process until pecans are ground into a powder.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer (or a regular bowl if you're using a hand mixer), beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat well, then beat in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until well mixed, then stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop the dough with a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop (or whatever utensil you prefer) onto the cookie sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating the cookie sheets about halfway through, until golden brown, about 10 minutes total. Let cool on the sheets on wire racks for 3 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Now go ahead and try not to eat half of them before they cool down. Let me know how you do.

Best. Cookies. Ever.

I promise not everything that I make has pumpkin in it. But after the pasta the other night, I had 2/3 a can of pumpkin puree just waiting to be used. Just look at it, doesn't it look sad?


So I decided to make my world-famous (that's right, I said world-famous) pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I can't really claim credit for this recipe, as I found it online once upon a time, and only made some very minor changes to it. But I've made these cookies about a million times, and they are always a hit. I decided to whip up a batch to take with us to see the in-laws. We'll see how many cookies are left by the time we get off the plane in Chicago - I guess it depends how long we are delayed by the weather...

A side note - I always use white whole wheat flour in my baking. If you prefer regular all-purpose flour, that will work too. I like to convince myself my cookies are "healthy" so I can eat "more" of them.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 2 dozen cookies, fewer if you make them big like I do.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (combo of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment (or silpat liners, the greatest things on earth).

2. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Beat in the egg, followed by vanilla and pumpkin puree.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Slowly beat the dry mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Scoop cookie dough by heaping tablespoons (or ice cream scoops!) onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cookies are browned around the edges. Remove cookies from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks for cooling.

6. Take a deep whiff and EAT them.

There won't be any posts for a few days, until we get back to LA. Happy holidays, everyone!