oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I was in the mood for eating something sweet, but didn't want to regret it during my run later this evening. What was my go-to recipe? Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! These remind me of high school, when my good friend Charlie and I spent our summer days making dozens of oatmeal cookies. We'd experiment with raisins, nuts and different grades of chocolate. No matter what we added to the mix we always came out with a delicious batch of warm cookies.

This recipe is a bit different from my younger years, but it is equally as good. With most of the ingredients already in my kitchen, these cookies were super easy to make. I substituted half of butter in the original recipe for applesauce to make the cookies even more heart-healthy.
I hope baking these will bring back some warm memories of your yesteryear.


The Recipe (adapted from My Recipes: Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies):
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
3 tblspn unsalted butter
3 tblspn unsweetened applesauce
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350degreesF.
Grease large baking pan. I used grapeseed oil, but you can use whatever you like.
Mix dry ingredients. Melt butter and mix with sugar and applesauce in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to the other bowl. Mix well. Add egg, vanilla and chocolate chips. Mix well. Use a tablespoon to scoop out dough to place on greased pan. Place in oven for 12-15 minutes.

Apples + Walnuts

Every year during Passover I look forward to my grandmother's charoset—a small side-dish that we eat on the first two nights of Passover. The color and texture is supposed to represent the bricks that the Jewish people carried on their backs when they were slaves in Egypt. But the taste has a completely different story. My grandmother chops the apples and walnuts into small chunks. She adds Manischewitz wine and cinnamon until it tastes just right. The somewhat notorious wine is ideal for this dish because it has enough sugar to sweeten the apple-walnut mixture. My grandmother's charoset is sweet and aromatic—perfect for a light dessert or at any hour of the day. I've had many different types of charoset—some had added sugar and others were chopped very finely—but my grandmother's is by far the best.


Ingredients:
Red Apples (Gala or Fiji are my favorites)
Walnuts
Manischewitz wine
Ground Cinnamon

Note: You're going to have to measure out the ingredients according to taste. Start off with 2 apples, 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of wine.

Directions: Peel the apples and chop into little chunks (about 1/4-1/2 inch). Chop the walnuts into small chunks. Put ingredients into a bowl. Add Wine. Mix. Begin with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (add according to taste). Mix. Let sit in refrigerator until ready to serve.

ENJOY!

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german pancakes

German pancakes (also known as Dutch baby pancakes) are one of my favorite breakfast treats. I grew up eating these at my family's favorite deli, which was conveniently located minutes away from my house. At least once a week I'd order a plate of the golden brown German pancakes which were folded like crepes and dusted with powdered sugar. The secret was in the lemon wedges. They were systematically placed on the plate. One squeeze over the pancakes, and the spectacular treat became enhanced with a bit of tangy flavor. When I made these pancakes for the first time and took one bite I felt like I was back home.

The sweet taste and light fluffy texture of these pancakes are the most delightful way to start the day. Whether it's winter or spring, if you're alone or planning a brunch for ten people, these pancakes are an ideal delicacy.
The short ingredient list gives the impression that they are quite simple to make, but it's not so easy. But if I can make them, so can you.
It's all about the right pan and the correct temperature. The recipe I used instructed me to use a 9-inch baking pan and the oven. I tried it twice and my pancakes stuck to the bottom of the pan (even after I buttered it). I tried the recipe again and instead used the stove-top. Finally, they turned out to be perfect!


Here's my recipe (adapted from Smitten Kitchen):

Makes 2-pancakes.

4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup flour, sifted
2/3 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Butter a pan and place on stove-top (medium temperature). Mix the eggs until light yellow in color. Add remaining ingredients; process until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Let the edges get golden brown before flipping. When ready, flip sides. When golden brown on both sides, slide off pan and plate. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with lemon slices.

GREATEST CHOCOLATE CAKE

Why do we feel so guilty after indulging in a moist delectable dessert? It could be the daily articles filled with statistics on obesity or the celebrities with the perfectly-fit bodies on the cover of Vogue. Or it might just be that the cake we relish in provides us with such gratification that it feels like a sin.
Well this chocolate cake is definitely one of the greatest cakes I've ever made; it tastes sinful, but it's not. The sweet chocolate flavor combined with the moist texture is ideal for a cake, but the white chocolate chips floating throughout add an extra punch of delight. This chocolate cake is like a pan full of heaven. Aside from the fantastic flavor and consistency arousing my palate, the best part about this cake is that there is no butter and no sugar added. Sounds like a miracle, I know.



Recipe (See Elana's Pantry)

1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao (if you want to use a bar, it's about 6 ounces)
½ cup coconut milk (recipe calls for canned, but I used So. Delicious)
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon salt (recipe calls for celtic sea salt, but I used Kosher salt)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Melt dark chocolate chips and coconut milk in a small saucepan over very low heat
2. When chocolate is completely melted, remove saucepan from heat
3. Stir eggs into saucepan containing chocolate/coconut milk mixture
4. Next, stir in almond flour, salt and baking soda
5. Fold in ½ cup of the white chocolate chips
6. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish with oil of your choice
7. Pour batter into baking dish, then sprinkle remaining white chocolate chips over batter
8. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes
9. Cool and serve

ORANGE CHOCOLATE SCONES

I came across a great recipe from Elana's Pantry for Orange Chocolate Scones. I was a little hesitant as the recipe called for almond four and agave nectar for sweetening. Don't forget that this was my first attempt at using alternative, natural, ingredients when baking. To my utmost delight, these scones turned out to be sensationally aromatic and delicious—you'd never know that butter was omitted from the mix. These guiltless scones are perfect for breakfast or anytime you're craving something sweet and delicious! On an even better note, they are easy to make!




Gluten Free Orange Chocolate Scones:

2 cups blanched almond flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips (the recipe calls for dark chocolate chips, but I used Callebaut milk chocolate chips)
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 egg
3 tablespoons agave nectar

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda, chips and zest
2. In a smaller bowl, combine egg and agave
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Knead dough with hands if necessary to ensure proper distribution of ingredients
5. Form dough into a circle that is about ½-inch in thick
6. Cut dough like a pizza, into 8 slices
7. Using a metal baking spatula transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet
8. Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes
9. Serve

little balls of cake

It's that time of year again, when people find reasons to stay in and warm up by the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa and some delicious treats. For my annual holiday party I decided to make cake balls with my favorite Amy's Bread yellow cake recipe. Tasting one of these delicacies is like sampling a piece of utopia. I spent a lot of time making over 70 of these drops of heaven. So you can imagine by the end of a long day—full of cake, frosting and chocolate—I was utterly relieved to share with my friends. Believe me, they were delighted too.

The power of these chocolate coated cake balls will stop you and send you into a world of bliss. The thought of biting through a chocolate shell into a soft sweet cake continues to marvel me, as the differing textures are so compatible together. I would definitely suggest learning some patience with this dessert and having at least three dish towels nearby...let's just say that by the end of the day my kitchen was happily covered in sugar, flour and chocolate.




Directions:
Bake AMY'S YELLOW CAKE and BUTTERCREAM FROSTING. When the cakes are out of the oven and still warm, dump them into a big mixing bowl. Pour the frosting over the cake—this will be messy. Use your hands (if you don't mind) to mix the cake and frosting. It should be very mushy. Make small balls with the mix. Place the cake balls on a baking sheet and place in freezer for at least 1 hour. Take bakers chocolate and melt in a double boiler (it's good to use a candy thermometer to keep the chocolate at the right temperature). Have the cake balls ready. Use a toothpick to insert into the cake balls and one by one dip in the chocolate. Place the chocolate-coated cake balls back on the pan. Repeat until all of the cake balls are coated. Place in freezer until ready to be served. I enjoyed getting extra fancy by melting more chocolate for drizzling and sprinkles for fun (sorry that I only have pictures from the first few steps of the baking process, but understand that few confections last long enough for a proper photo shoot in my house).

happy indulging!!

sweet & savory

What are the first foods that come to mind when you think of a tailgate? Hamburgers? Hot dogs? What's for dessert? Nothing sweet comes to mind when I think of tailgating before a football game. But when my friend, Deb, told me that she was making cupcakes that looked like hamburgers I began to think otherwise. I am a bit of purist—I prefer steamed veggies as opposed to grilled or fried, red ketchup instead of green, and hot fudge instead of the chemically enhanced stuff that hardens. The idea of eating a cupcake that looks like a hamburger baffled me, until I found myself standing in Deb's kitchen fascinated by her confection. One bite had me sold on this clever dessert. The sweet vanilla, chocolate and coconut flavors worked beautifully with the contrasting savory facade. She prepared over 100 hamburger-looking-cupcakes for a fraternity tailgate. Deb used vanilla and chocolate cake-mixes, frosting, shredded coconut, and food coloring for dying.


HOW TO:

Bake chocolate and vanilla cake mixes in a cupcake pan. Cut all of the baked vanilla cupcakes in half. The baked chocolate cupcakes you should cut in thirds. The chocolate cake will be the 'burger' and the vanilla cake will be the 'bun.' Use food coloring to dye vanilla frosting—yellow for mustard and red for ketchup. Dye the shredded coconut green for lettuce. Layer the burger with all of the condiments and enjoy this awesome dessert!