8-30: Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

I was in the mood for baking today (plus, it was date night, so no recipes to share for dinner… Can we say, “All you can eat Sushi?!?!”)

Looking through the kitchen, I had the ingredients for nearly anything I could imagine baking, and my little mind decided it wanted chocolate chip cookies. But in muffin form. Because… Just because.

But? When I looked for recipes for Chocolate Chip Muffins or Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, well, they were all either needlessly complex or required a few ingredients I didn’t have. And I was too lazy to go to the store. Those 3 blocks? Too far. Just too much to ask, really. And the whole getting-dressed thing? Yeah, no. Not gonna happen.

So? What to do? Well, if you’re me, you just do what you always do – make up your own recipe. And so, I took the most common ingredients from the recipes I was looking at, decided on the various amounts of each that might yield the result I wanted, and voila!

Z’s “Famous” Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

(I add the “famous” because it seems like most great bakers have that in their recipe titles, and why not aspire to be great? Huh? Exactly.)

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup flour

chocolate morsels to taste (1 cup-ish)

nuts to taste (I used almonds, to make them “fancy”)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix together eggs, butter, and sugar until creamy. Add salt, vanilla, and baking soda and mix. Mix in the flour until even. Stir in the chocolate chips (and nuts, if you want). Spoon into lined muffin pan. (Should make 12 muffins). Bake for ~15 minutes.

YUM!

8-26: Night Out + Recipe

Tonight, the husband had co-worker bonding while me? I had a clothing swap!!!

I’ve never been to one before, but can I just say? Wonderful.

Especially since I emerged from it with far fewer clothes (which was the point – I needed to trim down my closet a bit) but also? A fantastic pair of knee-high brown leather boots. Oh? And a red coat.

Yes.

Yes, I did!

So, in lieu of the cooking that I did not do, I will instead present to you a favorite recipe of mine…

Six-Minute Chocolate Cake (another Moosewood wonder!) – and it’s vegan!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tablespoons vinegar

*1 tsp chile powder – this is my addition, not part of the original recipe, but I find the spiciness goes very, very well with the chocolate!

for glaze: 1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate, 3/4 cup water, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375F

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar (and chile)into the pan you are going to bake in (either an 8″ square or a 9″ round pan). Pour liquid ingredients – EXCEPT FOR THE VINEGAR – into baking pan and mix. When batter is smooth, add the vinegar and mix QUICKLY (should form pretty swirls when mixing). Bake for 25-30 minutes.

For glaze, melt the chocolate then stir in the hot water and vanilla. Spoon over the cooled cake and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

And then? Enjoy the pure chocolaty yumminess!

August 6 – Banana Bread

Since tonight’s dinner was nothing to write home about (another burger for me, since I was still craving them… Rice, veggies, and fish for the husband) this post is all about the baking.

What was up for tonight?

With a few brown-spotted bananas, that would be BANANA BREAD!

Let’s take a quick pause for a “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!“

So, Z’s quick and easy recipe for making a delicious dessert/breakfast/any-time treat – AND getting rid of the potential for those pesky little fruit flies?

3-4 ripe bananas

1/2 cup melted butter (recipe originally called for 1/3 cup, but I like butter… YUM!)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla (when really, I just pour a bunch in because I also like vanilla…)

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups flour (I use whole grain because I prefer it. But that’s just me. It’s like pretending it’s healthy because I switched the flour up – and ignoring the fact that I added extra butter)

nutmeg, cloves, and allspice to taste (this is totally my addition to an already good recipe… I just like spices!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix melted butter and bananas; then mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle on and mix in the baking soda and salt, then stir in the flour. Bake in a greased pan for 1 hour.

This will give you a lovely, moist banana bread that is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry banana-y!

One major FAIL in this endeavor: I had some bittersweet chocolate that I planned to mix in at the last minute to add a chocolate swirl into the bread, but forgot. “No problem!” I thought, “I’ll just drizzle on top!” Luckily, I drizzled on one slice, not the whole loaf. Because? DISGUSTING!!! Bittersweet chocolate drizzle? Is, um, NOT SWEET. It actually is kind of sour. It is for baking INTO an item, not putting alone on top of it. Please, take my word for it, and DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

August 5 – Dessert

This is what is most probably the quickest, easiest dessert ever (minus the store-bought ones…): pudding pie. The recipe? Make (or buy) a graham cracker crust. Make pudding, either cooked or instant. Refrigerate. Top with fruit (as you can see, I went with banana). Enjoy! Wine optional, though recommended.

Oh, and that stuff you can see on the knife? Somehow I managed to break the cork in half while removing it… So using my MacGyver-esque improv skills, I pushed the remaining half down into the bottle… Which, of course, meant we had to kill the bottle. Too bad, that. Too bad…

August 1 – Fruit Tart

August 1 is a special day – my Mom’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!

In honor of her, and to kick off this month (or more) of daily cooking, I present to you a birthday fruit tart:

OK, so sure, I didn’t actually get to see my mom on her birthday… This tart was actually because my boss has a birthday the same day. But – shhhhhhhh! – don’t tell him! It was really for my mom. What? Why? How? It was a practice tart, you see, so that when I see her in two weeks I’ll have it perfect (because my mom deserves nothing less)

So how did I make this Birthday Tart? First, I used some google. Then I found Cooks.com … And then I started to bake.

Crust

1 cup unbleached flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt (a good hearty pinch)

5 tbsp vegetable shortening (supposed to be chilled, but I forgot… and it worked just fine!)

3 tbsp chilled unsalted butter (this one I did chill, and wished I hadn’t…)

3 tbsp water (also supposed to be cold, but again – nope)

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in medium bowl. Add shortening and butter and cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal (which took me all of, oh, 30 seconds). Mix in enough water by tablespoons to form dough that just comes together (for me, this was 2 – not the 3 they recommended). Gather dough into a ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees before taking dough out.

After chilling, roll out dough on lightly floured surface (they say to 1/8 inch thick round, I just did it til it was enough to cover my pan plus some extra) – transfer to 9 inch diameter tart pan with removable bottom (and if you can do this without breaking it, you’re better than me! Luckily, though, dough is really easy to squish back together!) Trim edges to pan, squish dough to sides (in case you couldn’t tell, I added that last bit).

Line top of tart with foil and fill the crust with dried beans or pie weights; bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights, then bake another 10-12 minutes (until golden brown). Transfer to rack and cool.

Filling

1 package cream cheese, room temperature (and this really is critical!)

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I used the bottled kind, it was fine…)

1/2 cup chilled whipping cream (I used heavy cream, since I was in a rush and grabbed the wrong carton at the store. Same difference…)

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice together in a bowl until well blended (if you have a electric mixer like they ask for, YAY for you! I did it by hand. It was fine. I called it my workout for the day) Add cream and beat until light and fluffy. Spread filling into (cooled) tart shell. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Fruit

Grab your favorite fresh fruit and line the top in concentric circles – as easy as that! I used blueberries and raspberries because that’s what the fruit cart guy had for me, but I believe this is an endeavor for which creativity would be rewarded. So have fun!

Now, you can glaze the top with an apricot glaze – if you have the time. Which I didn’t. And you know what? It was yummy anyways…

So, once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!