Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I must admit that when I first heard "whole wheat" used in conjunction with "chocolate chip cookies," I was skeptical.  Then I read Orangette's blog post about them.  That should have been enough for me.  But I think that I secretly am from Missouri (the "show me" state) and so I had to bake the cookies myself and taste them before being convinced. These cookies are amazing! And I bet you (and those lucky enough to share them with you) would not know that they are made with whole wheat flour.  The wheat flour gives them a nice, slightly nutty flavor and interesting texture.  I especially like the texture of the dough - it is very easy to work with because it's not very sticky.  This is the second time I've made them and I've been thrilled with them both times.  I used  4 ounces of Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and 4 ounces of Schokinag extreme dark bittersweet chocolate chips.  I also want to try using chopped chocolate (perhaps Valhrona?). Other things to experiment with: refrigerating the dough, sprinkling with sea salt and using whole wheat flour rather than white whole wheat.
  

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 36 cookies
Adapted from Orangette

3 cups white whole wheat flour 
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted cold butter, cut into 0.5 inch cubes
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.
3.  Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugars on low speed, just until blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
4.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5.  Beat in the vanilla.
6.  Add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
7.  Add the chocolate, and mix by hand until evenly combined.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn and gently massage dough, making sure all the flour is absorbed.
8.  Drop by rounded tablespoon(I use a 0.25 cup ice cream scoop) onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. (I was able to fit 10 cookies on each sheet, staggering them in 4 rows.)
9.  Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned.
10.  Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool.
11.  Enjoy!



Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

It's a cold, rainy day in Chapel Hill and there were 4 lonely ripe bananas on the counter calling out to be turned into a tasty treat. Based on my notes from this prior post and this one, I tweaked my prior recipe slightly and am quite pleased with the results.  Just what the doctor ordered today.  Many thanks to Erik for snapping the beautiful photo with his new Canon Digital SLR camera.

 

Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins
Makes 12 regular or 6 large muffins
Adapted from Totally Muffins Cookbook

0.5 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
0.75 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1.5 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
0.75 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin tins using a baking spray like Baker's Joy.
2. Spread nuts on a tray and toast in oven for 7-9 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In another bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add mashed bananas and beat until combined.
5. Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture just until flour disappears. Lightly stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
6. Spoon batter into muffin cups to the top (I like to use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop for this). Bake 20-25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool 5 minutes in the pan. Turn out onto wire rack and allow to cool 10 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

New, Improved Chocolate Almond Toffee with Sea Salt

Last night, I made this recipe for my friend Ashley's birthday. I made a few tweaks to the recipe.  Overall, the toffee was much better than last time and I'm excited to try out a few more modifications next time:

• I used whole, blanched almonds that I chopped (rather than processing into powder)
• I used Land O'Lakes unsalted butter (my favorite for baking)
• I used all milk chocolate (9 ounces of Callebaut) - no dark chocolate
• I used my new candy thermometer and although it is better than my old one in that the tip of the thermometer doesn't touch the bottom of the pan, the butter/sugar mixture was pretty low in the pan I used and I don't think the tip of the termometer was submerged enough.  So the butter/sugar mixture got too dark even though it hadn't yet reached 300 degrees. Next time, I'll either make a double batch or a smaller pan to get around that problem.
• Next time, I also want to try using a metal pan, increasing the amount of butter (maybe 2.25 sticks?) and lower the heat a little (medium instead of medium-high).

Ice Cream Sundae Hot Fudge Sauce

Erik and I are having our parents over for Labor Day dinner this weekend and I will be serving ice cream sundaes for dessert.  I plan to make chocolate and vanilla ice cream (I have my eye on this vanilla ice cream recipe) and at least a couple of sauces.  I decided to make some chocolate sauce tonight (which served double duty of satisfying tonight's sweet craving and testing out a sauce for this weekend's festivities) but I also really didn't feel like leaving the house to buy any additional ingredients. I've been drooling over Smitten Kitchen's blog lately and was excited to discover this recipe (and thrilled to realize that I had all of the ingredients at home).  I used the only butter (Plugra) and unsweetened chocolate (Trader Joe's) that I had on hand.  We had the sauce over Breyer's vanilla ice cream and brownies that I made the other night (see this blog post). The whole thing was pretty darn tasty and I am excited to try it out with better butter and Valrhona chocolate.  The sauce was dark, fudgy and delicious.  And it transformed into a beautifully firm texture over the ice cream - just like hot fudge sauce should!

Hot Fudge Sauce
Makes about 2.5 cups
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons light corn syrup
Pinch of salt

1.  Melt the chocolate and butter slowly in a double boiler (or in the microwave on 50% power in 30 second intervals), stirring frequently until combined and smooth.
2.  Meanwhile, heat the water over medium heat until it boils in a medium, heavy saucepan.
3.  When the butter and chocolate have completely melted, remove the boiling water from the heat and stir in the butter/chocolate mixture.
4.  Add the sugar, corn syrup and salt and mix until smooth and return to the heat.
5.  Stir until mixture starts to boil (turn up heat if needed).  After the mixture boils, adjust heat so that sauce is just maintained at the boiling point, stirring occasionally. Allow sauce to boil for nine minutes.
6.  Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
7.  Serve warm over ice cream.
8.  Enjoy!



Brownies with (failed) Salted Caramel Frosting

Tonight I made a batch and a half of these brownies and planned to frost them with this frosting.  The brownies turned out very well (such a nice, reliable recipe) but the frosting was very different both in taste and consistency than the last time I made it.  Interestingly, the consistency was much better but the taste was much worse.  I used Plugra European-style butter and I ran out of vanilla extract so I used vanilla bean instead (not the freshest vanilla bean either now that I think of it). I wouldn't think that either of those would make a big difference but seems like they did.  The frosting tonight tasted very buttery with very little of the caramel flavor coming through. I was convinced that I must have inadvertently used the wrong proportions but I went back to the original recipe and confirmed that I followed it properly.  The consistency was much better - much stiffer and easier to work with straight out of the mixer (I didn't really need to refrigerate it at all).  Next time, I'll go back to my favorite brand of butter (Land O Lakes) and also double the amount of caramel that I make and maybe cut back on the butter too (both were suggested in the comments section of the original recipe posting).  I also came across this recipe that looks really good.  For the batch and a half of brownies, I used one 9x13 pan and one 8x8 pan and divided up the batter into 2/3 and 1/3 and it seems to have turned out very well.