Movember: Chocolate ‘Stache Cookies!

Tags

baking, cancer, chocolate, cookies, cut-out cookies, moustache, Movember, mustache, NaBloPoMo, soft cookies, stache

I still remember that day.

Five years ago, a friend and I were driving back to D.C. from an audition in Raleigh. Neither of us had advanced. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was shining brightly when I got a call from my mom.

“Honey, I have some bad news.”

Something inside me knew exactly what she was going to say.

“Your dad has cancer. We found out a few days ago, but I didn’t want to upset you before your audition.”

Mocha Meringue Stars

Tags

baking, chocolate, crunchy cookies, dairy-free, espresso, gluten-free, holiday, low-fat, meringues, mocha, NaBloPoMo, recipe

These meringues were initially a happy accident. I don’t remember if we had leftover egg whites or what, but my friend Jill and I decided to make meringues one night a couple years ago. A google search led to a Gourmet recipe for chocolate-dipped vanilla, chocolate, and espresso ones. We were sold!

The recipe was kind of tedious since it required making separate batches for each, but we went with it. Well, that is until we hit a road bump in the first (vanilla) batch. The mixer whisk wasn’t able to reach the one egg white due to the groove in the bowl. Nice one, KitchenAid! Obviously we had to think of something, and as lovers of mocha ice cream, we decided to combine ALL THE BATCHES. Not only did this solve the egg white issue, it sure made the recipe a whole lot simpler.

Toasted S’mores Treats

Tags

baking, cereal, chocolate, easy, graham, marshmallows, recipe, s'mores, treats

I do realize that it’s technically fall and that most people probably associate s’mores with summer. However, have you been to south Texas in the summer? Come visit me then and we’ll see how you feel about toasting marshmallows around a fire when it’s still in the 90s at night. :) This is why I think of s’mores as more of a rest-of-the-year, AKA the Other Season, kind of treat.

I thought of these while in New York and unable to bake. Perhaps absence makes the mind grow cleverer? Evidently I have an issue with s’mores things that use un-toasted marshmallows (you should, too!), which is possibly how the idea came about.

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Quick Bread!

Tags

baking, banana, chocolate, Daring Bakers, easy, quick bread, vegan

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Goodness, it’s been quite dull around here! But what’s this? Today is the 27th. This is the Daring Bakers’ Challenge reveal date. I am posting on time! It’s highly possible that a pig just flew by.

Perhaps I was eager to give this Marbled Banana Bread a go. Banana + chocolate is always a winner, but this bread is special because it’s vegan! No eggs, milk, or butter were harmed in the making of this loaf, but I promise that they are not missed. The final product is very moist and flavorful, plus lower in fat and not too sweet. And my, what a looker!

The only vegan-y thing that the recipe calls for is almond milk which you can replace with any milk substitute (I used flax milk) or milk itself. All of the other ingredients are probably residing in your kitchen: ripe bananas, sugar, vanilla, oil, flour, baking soda, salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, and water. Convenient if you’re a non-vegan who has run out of eggs!

Spicy Almond Fudge Babies: My caveman self would totally scavenge for these.

Tags

almonds, chocolate, dates, dessert, easy, fruit, gluten-free, nut, paleo, quick, raw, recipes, snack, vegan

Years ago, my bro-in-law went on the Paleo diet. Years ago, a lot of people thought this sounded kooky. “Paleo, as in Paleolithic? What, do you hunt for your food and cook it over a fire?” It sounded like a good, healthy way to eat, but imagining a world without cheese or bread made me sad. And then I went the vegetarian route. Cavemen didn’t eat tofu, apparently.

Now it seems like everyone is jumping on the Paleo wagon. Rachel just threw an engagement party for her little brother and his fiancee. When I asked if there was anything I could make, she said that most of her relatives were eating like cavemen! Always up for a challenge, I said I’d make a Paleo-friendly dessert and set off googling. The first hit (maybe due to my location?) was from the Austin Post for things called Fudge Babies by Chocolate-Covered Katie. After reading a bunch (okay, that’s being generous) of other possible recipes, Fudge Babies it was.

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Sans Rival!

Tags

baking, buttercream, cake, cashews, chocolate, cinnamon, Daring Bakers, dessert, Filipino, gluten-free, meringue

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake!  And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

In case you’re confused, yes, this was last month’s challenge.  I am super late posting this!  Procrastination, the usual culprit, wasn’t to blame this time.  Although too late to count, I finally decided to make the Sans Rival last week in between bowing string parts for Beethoven 3 (it’s totally fine and normal if you don’t know what this entails).  With the ingredients on hand and friends to feed it to that evening, why not?

(umm, especially when this is the only thing I’ve been able to make since Thanksgiving…)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mochi Cookies

Tags

baking, chewy cookies, chocolate, easy, fall, gluten-free, mochi, mochiko, pumpkin, recipes

With mochiko being a new-found flour friend, I’ve been on the hunt for good mochi cookie recipes.  Not really seeing anything super exciting, yet while also being taunted by  Pumpkin Mochi by justJENN recipes, I came up with a theory.

Pumpkin cookies are often super cakey, and mochi is wonderfully chewy. What if you just replace the regular flour in pumpkin cookies with mochiko?  Answer: Jessica worries and spends lots of quality time with google.

The solution that I was happiest with and ended up using came from Joy of Baking, where it’s suggested to use 7/8 cup rice flour to 1 cup all-purpose flour. Mochiko is actually sweet rice flour (or glutinous rice flour), but I decided to give it a shot anyway.  To make life easier, I went with her recipe for pumpkin cookies. 2 cups all-purpose flour?  1 3/4 cups mochiko!  Maybe too easy?

My uneasiness with flour experimentation and the lack of daylight at 1 a.m. means no process photos.  You can see that they turned out looking like totally legit cookies, though!  They tasted like totally legit delicious cookies, too.

Chocolate Mochi Brownies

Tags

baking, brownies, chocolate, easy, gluten-free

Remember how I was complaining about my inability to cut brownies perfectly?

Well, guess what…

I HAVE FOUND MIRACLE BROWNIES.

And I think I’ve also discovered the perfect utensil for cutting them.  A happy accident, really…while baking these brownies at my parents’ house, I happened upon it in their knife drawer.  

Martian Cookies!

Tags

baking, butterscotch, chocolate, cookies, drop cookies, easy, oatmeal, recipes, soft cookies, walnuts, zucchini

My cat is in Austin now and I have finally baked something.  I think that means I’m moved in!  We’re going to ignore those three boxes in my room (two and a half, really), okay?  Deal.

What to bake first in the new abode?  Cookies seemed like a no-brainer.  I almost went with oatmeal chocolate chip as they are an old favorite, plus I’ve never blogged them.  But then I remembered something a bit similar that Jill had told me about a few times: Martian Cookies!

What gives them the extra-terrestrial name?  Zucchini!  (Martians are totally green, duh.)  They’re not super green, though; you just see little flecks from the skin.  If you or anyone you’d feed these to are weirded out by the presence of a veggie in your cookies, don’t be.  It’s undetectable.  If anything, you’ll be like, “Mmm, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!  But what’s that?  Ohh, butterscotch!”  That stuff is tricksy like that.

Meanwhile, the zucchini martians are on soft cookie patrol.  

Passion Fruit Caramel Brownies

Tags

baking, brownies, caramel, chocolate, passion fruit, recipes

Dear Perfect Brownie Cutters,

I’ve tried parchment paper, cleaning knives between cuts, and even a special brownie-specific pan.  Result: delicious, messy-looking brownies.  What’s your secret?  Is there a magic trick?  I’m all ears eyes.

In the meantime, I’m not going to stop making brownies because that would be dumb.  They will remain destined for my belly, not glossy magazine pages which is better anyway.  Who eats magazines?

(okay, these aren’t that bad.)

Making bon bons resulted in awesome leftovers: passion fruit caramel and about 6 ounces of El Rey Gran Saman 70%.  The obvious solution?  Ridiculous brownies, of course.  My usual go-to brownie recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate, but rather than just cutting back the sugar a little for my bittersweet, I decided to make Nick Malgieri’s Supernatural Brownies.  The recipe is similar since it uses brown sugar and a small amount of flour resulting in fudgy squares with a deep chocolate flavor.