Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kind of the best cookies ever.
Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies
Originally from this site
2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
8 Tblsp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup Nutella
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped and reserved
splash of whole milk, if necessary
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
Coarse Sea Salt, for sprinkling
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla bean seeds.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  If necessary, add milk, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough is crumbly or the flour isn’t able to mix in.  Stir in the chocolate chis and hazelnuts.  Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.  Or alternatively, portion the dough at this point onto the baking sheets and either refrigerate for an hour, or freeze to use another time.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Portion dough onto cookie sheets, and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt.  Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for tablespoon-sized cookies, or 12-14 minutes for 1/4 cup-sized cookies.

It’s Christmas Time!

Annnd…that definitely applies to much more than the world of sweets and cookies.
To represent the Christmas main-dish world, we have:
Pomegranate Chicken!
(you could make this into cranberry chicken or even cranberry-pomegranate chicken. They’re both red. They’re both Christmas-ey. They’re both delicious.)

Originally from this site.

Sweet and Sticky Pomegranate Chicken
(serves about 3-4)

2 pounds chicken wings or legs (We used thighs)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce**
1/3 cup pomegranate juice (or cranberry juice or cranberry-pomegranate juice)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 lime, juiced
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
pomegranate arils for garnish
freshly chopped parsley for garnish
optional: dash of red pepper flakes

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix together chili sauce, pom juice, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar and garlic.

Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place in the skillet and sear on each side until deeply golden and brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove chicken and place on a plate, turning heat in the skillet down to medium-low. Pour in pomegranate juice mix and whisk, allowing the sauce to bubble and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Place chicken back in the skillet and turn and toss to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken and serve with chopped parsley and pomegranate arils.

For a vegetarian option:
Stir-fry celery and broccoli and a bit of fresh garlic until just tender. Add about half a can of great northern beans or some other protein of choice. If you were thinking ahead, you would have saved out some of the sauce and not poured it over the chicken. If you were really thinking ahead, you would have kept this simmering slightly for a while, to bubble out that vinegar-y taste. So…then you would dish out a serving of brown-and-wild-rice-yummy-mix, spoon the broccoli and celery and bean stir-fry over the top of that, and then pour a semi-thick yummy sauce over the top of that. Cashews go decently well with it as well.

**If you don’t have sweet chili sauce, and don’t really want to buy an entire jar and leave half of it unused for the rest of…a long time…you can make this recipe: (note that this probably will give the sauce a very different taste than if you had used real sweet chili sauce. But…we liked it anyway…)
”Sweet Chili Sauce”
1/2 cup. tomato sauce
2 T brown sugar
1/2 T vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of cloves
dash of allspice
1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Yummm…Happy Christmas, everyone!

Banana Bread II

So…what happens when you’re clearing everything out for the year, and discover three mushy bananas, a bag of flour, chocolate chips, and sugar…? Banana bread, of course. Oh wait…I don’t have any eggs. Or honey. Or yogurt. Or milk. Hmmm…

This is what happens.
Banana bread with six ingredients.

Originally from this site.

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup not very packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (well…I didn’t have any butter either. Unless you call spreadable fake Tesco’s margarine butter! ‘cause that’s what I used. I know, kinda gross but…:))
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (maybe a bit less because of the decrease in sugar)
2 cups flour (I did half white and half wheat, with some flax seed and wheat germ thrown in—about two teaspoons of each. Remember that if you do half wheat flour, you’ll probably end up with a denser loaf, and it may cook faster. So keep an eye on it! :))
Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips. I used pretty massive ones.

Directions:
Mix mashed bananas and sugar.
Add melted butter. Mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda, and mix gently until just together. Do not over-mix!
Pour batter into well greased and floured loaf pan. Smooth the top.
Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

For Muffins:
Put batter into 12 standard muffin cups/muffin tin.
Bake muffins at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Cocoa Vegan Brownies—Take One

Here we go! These are simple and college student friendly, and just happen to be vegan! Okay, I did actually make them in order to try my hand at making vegan brownies, but…my taste-testers claimed not to be able to tell any difference. Of course, most of them were from China, and the only girl who was actually vegan had never had a vegan brownie before.
These can also be Gluten-Free. In fact, I made them gluten-free the first time.
Cocoa Vegan Brownies:
2 cups gluten-free flour + 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1 cup sugar (if you leave out the maple syrup, increase the sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups)
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup soy milk (you can use whatever kind here, but I would recommend not using almond milk as that would make it inedible for people with nut allergies)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (alternatively, if you have no applesauce, use a cup of oil)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup (only if using 1 cup sugar. You can leave this out and increase sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups, as above.)

Mix together the wet ingredients, and, in a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 13x9” pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 175 degrees Celcius, for 20-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
We ate the entire pan of brownies between the lot of us…actually, they were gone within an hour of the pan’s coming out of the oven. Of course, there were…about 14 of us.

…Again?

I’m taking a break from the normal recipe post by instead posting a story from every day life here. It does have to do with food, by the way—don’t freak out too much.  

So Wednesday night I made a batch of bread dough, let it rise overnight in the fridge, and woke up at 7 am to bake it and do homework. Pretty normal, right? I mean, I was in the kitchen putting the bread into the oven and the French guy down the hall was sitting on the couch drinking his typical breakfast cup of hot chocolate and watching the BBC, and all was well with the world. Well, it gets better. Last night I made American mac and cheese and sausages for some friends. With bread on the side. It was indeed very tasty. Well, what we didn’t eat I just left with my friend, leaving me again with no bread for sandwiches (lest you forget—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best ever. They also happen to be my favorite food group. I usually eat at least one every day. I mean really…nutritious and yummy…like the best thing ever, right?) So it was down to either buying a loaf of sliced bread from Tesco’s last night (an option? I don’t think so.) or making bread again. Well, duh…last night the first thing I did upon returning was to make another batch of bread dough. I mean, after making a cup of peppermint tea—that was a given. Again, I woke up at 7 this morning to do homework and cook my batch of bread (pardon me while I rescue said bread from the oven…) Well, there we were again. I was putting bread into the oven and Florien was sitting on the couch watching the BBC and drinking his morning cup of hot chocolate. He just kind of stared at me…”Making bread again? You must be like a French girl! Bread is very much a French thing, is it not?” Yes, well…it’s necessary for life. So there.

Chocolate Gingerbread

Originally from this site.
By the way, this is basically the best thing ever. It’s much more like cake than a sweet bread, but I usually bake it in a loaf pan. The times I’ve made it in the regular sized loaf pan it’s taken about twice as long to bake as the original recipe requires.

Chocolate Gingerbread

135 grams (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 teaspoons ground ginger
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses (you can use honey if you’re desperate…like me…)
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (optional)

2 tablespoons crystalized ginger chips
3/4 cup chocolate, coarsely chopped (I’ve made it either with or without these. Both are good.)

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking pan—I usually use a full sized loaf pan, but the original recipe allows for two small paper loaf pans or an 8 inch round cake.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter & brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Mix the buttermilk, molasses and flaxseed meal (if using) together, and add all at once to the butter mixture. Don't worry if it looks a bit curdy. Add the flour mixture and mix just until you get a smooth batter. Fold in the crystalized ginger and chocolate chips being careful not to overmix.

Bake until a cake tester comes clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. (Though if you make it in a regular sized loaf pan, it takes about twice that long to bake, between 45 minutes and an hour. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Muffins (yes, the chocolate part comes first as it is most important…:))

Originally from this site

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

3/4 cup applesauce

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips*

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, combine egg, egg substitute, pumpkin, applesauce and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; fill two-thirds full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

*Or, you can try putting a bit of nutella swirled either on the top of the muffins each individually before you bake them, or fill each cup halfway with batter, put about a teaspoon of nutella on them, then fill the rest of the way with batter.