Flourless Deep Chocolate Cookies

I've had a chocolate craving late. My children are thrilled. This latest inspiration came to me via Pinterest. The cookie called to me. First in a whisper, then in a bloody loud shout. I went to the pantry to see if I had all the required ingredients: confectioner's sugar, powdered cocoa powder, vanilla. That's all. And then the egg whites in the fridge I knew I had as I had just been to the grocery store. I love that this recipe is adapted from King Arthur flour and yet there isn't a trace of the stuff in them!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

In the bowl of your mixer add
2 1/4 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 cup of Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Add all your ingredients to the bowl and mix well.
Using a spoon or small ice cream scoop place them on to a greased cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart.
Due to their lack of fat these cookies do stick. I found that they even stuck to the Silpat a tad.
Bake in oven 10 -12 minutes.

Options
The recipe as it stands is fat free. The recipe as I prefer it isn't!
I added 3/4 cup of peanut butter and chocolate chips. I would like to make the next batch using mint chips. My kids want to use white chocolate chips. If you like nuts you could add them as well.
If you add these add another 2 minutes to the cooking time. Let the cookies cool when you remove them from the oven. They will be gooey but chewy.  I actually liked them better the next day!

Zucchini Muffins with cranberries and chocolate chips

I adapted this Zucchini muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. She had adapted hers from several sources. So I guess, this is a mutt of zucchini bread recipes. Whatever you call it I call it delish!

This recipe makes 2 loaves or approximately 24 nicely sized muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup Canola oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup each dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional -  I wanted to add the raisins but I had run out!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour  24 muffin cups or spray them with Pam like I do. If I hadn't run out of pretty liners I would have used those.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and as well as chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using. Mix well.

Pour batter into cupcake tins. (I used a small cookie scoop.)

Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool if you can stand it!

Decadent Blondie Bars

This recipe came to me from my friend Melissa which came to her from her neighbor.
They are, as Melissa pointed out, super rich and super yummy!

Ingredients:

2 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter melted

2 eggs

2 tsps. vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup (of each) any chips of your choice (I used butterscotch, white chocolate, and semi-sweet chocolate, but you could also use dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, etc.)

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 15x10x1 in. pan

2.  Stir together brown sugar and melted butter in large bowl; beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth.  Add flour and salt, beating just until blended; stir in chips.  Spread into prepared pan.

3.  Bake 25-30 minutes.

4. Let cool before cutting into triangles or squares.

5.  You can also drizzle with melted chocolate if you're feeling extra decadent.

Delicious Lowfat Banana Chocolate Chip Cake Not From Scratch!

I tend to stockpile things when they go on sale. At least I do at the grocery store. And, during the holiday season it seems that all the good stuff (ie baking!) goes on sale. Yesterday I was at my local Stop&Shop and saw that all the boxed Pillsbury cake and brownie mixes were on sale for just $1 a piece! Doctored up, these can be turned into the most fabulous and decadent treats. So I picked up a few (dozen) boxes... Ok, slight exaggeration!

I had two rotten bananas in the fruit bowl. They needed to be used immediately or tossed to make room for the new ones. I'm a bit tired of banana bread myself, so I decided to doctor up a box of yellow cake mix. My result was spectacular and I was not able to stop after just one piece!

Ingredients:
1 box of packaged yellow cake mix
eggs, as specified on package
water, as specified on package
1/3 cup of lowfat (or fat free) sour cream in lieu of butter or oil
1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
2 (or as in my case 1 and a half) over-ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 -- or as package indicates

In your mixing bowl add cake mix, water, eggs, sour cream and bananas. Mix thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips. (Can it get any easier than this?!)

Spray pan of your choice with a non-stick spray and pop into the oven per directions on your package. Remember, different pan sizes require different cooking times. (I used a springform and baked for 1hour.)

Test for doneness... let cool about 10 minutes or so before serving. This is a very soft and gooey treat and unless completely cooled it will stick to your knife.

A Birthday Cake for my Littlest Hero!

Alexander turned 5 on Tuesday. He wanted a red fire truck Birthday cake. Had he not had one for the past 3 Birthdays I would have indulged. But I got bored. And I wanted something easy. Simple. Let's face it. I'm lazy. I even bought a packaged cake mix. The kids prefer it. I made the frosting from scratch though. Nothing beats homemade frosting. Especially when it is peanut butter! And the middle of the cake is filled with melted chocolate and roasted marshmallows. I totally did good this year!

Christopher offered up his army toys so that I could do an army themed cake.
Seriously. This could not have been easier!
My easiest Birthday cake to date!

The middle layers. After the cake was baked 
(per directions on the box)
I "roasted" marshmallows under the broiler for a couple of minutes...

And melted chocolate... think Smores!
My sister in law has an amazing recipe for graham cracker cake.
But remember, I am lazy!

Melt the chocolate so that you have a nice smooth chocolate bar in the middle of your cake...

Put the two pieces together and frost...
(Click here for peanut butter frosting recipe.)

YUM!

when the Nutella jar is empty...

Don't panic! You may or may not want to run out to the grocery store. I went to my local Trader Joe's. But came out empty-handed. Devastated and empty-handed. I promised my 9 year old that I was going to make him a Nutella and Banana Pannini. I really didn't want to waste more gas by going all the way to the grocery store. I really didn't want to waste my time at the grocery store on a Saturday morning for the sole purpose of a jar of Nutella. So as I drove home I knew I had to be creative. To some peanut butter I would add a little powdered sugar and cocoa powder and create a chocolate peanut butter spread.

So as soon as I returned home I headed to the kitchen. In a bowl I added:

2 Tbs. peanut butter (Skippy Natural)
2 Tsp. cocoa powder
2 Tsp. powdered sugar

I placed the bowl in the microwave for 12 seconds to soften the peanut butter.

In a hot pan I added about a tsp of butter and let it melt. On fresh challah bread (or any other really good bread) I spread a generous amount of the peanut-chocolate-butter spread on top of which I added a few slices of banana and topped it off with another slice of bread.

Into the hot pan (next time I will use the indoor grill) my sandwich went. I let each side get golden brown and crispy, then I sprinkled a little bit of powdered sugar over the top.

The sandwich was a big hit!

Note this is not as sweet as the Nutella is.

Good to the last bite!

Granola a L'Orange et Chocolat

I just finished reading Molly Wisenberg's A Homemade Life, which is, by the way, fantastic and I wanted to keep reading and reading even though the book was over... anyhow she talks about her blog, Orangette, (listed on my side bar) and the treat that inspired her title, and the whole chocolate and orange combination. Since reading about it I have been craving this wonderful combination like nobody's business... I have this fabulous chocolate and marmalade shortbread tart recipe that is absolutely to die for. But I wanted something that was a little bit healthier. And this recipe has just oats, a little bit of canola oil, marmalade and semi sweet chocolate chips. So, a wee bit healthier indeed. Unless you happen to eat the entire tray in one sitting, like I nearly did.




Ingredients:

1 container oats (not quick cook) 18 oz
1 Jar good quality orange marmalade with rind
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup of hazelnuts, chopped in food processor


Preheat oven to 275 degrees
In a large mixing bowl add oil to oats, mix in nuts and chocolate chips.

In a small saucepan heat orange marmalade until it reaches a liquid state. Remove from heat.
Pour over oat mixture and mix until all is well blended.

Spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
Apply  thin layer of the granola mixture on to the cookie sheet. If you have a smaller cookie sheet, you may want to use two cookie sheets. Bake for an hour.

I like my granola a little crunchier and so I turn up the heat after an hour and bake at 300 for another 15 minutes or so.

Let cool completely to harden. Try not to eat too much!

I am now reading this and loving it!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Loaf

This is good. Very good. Second, perhaps, to Emeril's Banana bread! Plus this has the added bonus of oats and instead of a stick of butter this one has a half a cup of yogurt! Chocolate chips (semi sweet) provide anti-oxidants. It's a win-win situation everyone! Or at least I can pretend it is!

Normally I would never consider giving this to my kids for breakfast. I think chocolate chip pancakes are kind of ridiculous. Breakfast is supposed to be a  healthy meal and chocolate chips in pancakes that are sure to be smothered in syrup is not a good breakfast. Rebecca, of course, will beg to differ. She can have her chocolate pancakes and eat them too... at someone else's house!

And once again I digress. I was all about to make them eat a bowl of cereal but the banana loaf was staring at me from it's lovely, shiny aluminum pan... it was calling to me. It had to be tried. And I was just the person to to try it. So I sliced it. Lovely. Dense and thick and rich, and oh the semi sweet chocolate morsels danced around on my taste buds this morning. They mingled with the banana and the oats. The flavor was a perfect accompaniment to my morning cappuccino. I could have downed the entire loaf right then and there. But I stopped at a half a slice. See, I do have willpower!

And then a little person resembling myself came down. I really couldn't say no. So I decided to indulged them all. To make me feel better as a mother this was the only sweet of the day. Afternoon snacks were popcorn and whole wheat pretzels. I'm pretty sure the kids all thought it worth it. (We don't really do dessert at dinner.)

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 (slightly less) cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup yogurt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups of unbleached flour
1 cup of oats (not instant or fast cooking)
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, yogurt and canola oil. Add mashed bananas and mix well. Add baking powder, flour, oats and chocolate chips and mix until well blended.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a loaf pan with Pam or butter. Pour batter in to pan and bake for 1 hour.
Let cool about 20 minutes before removing from pan and slicing.

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Bars

Quintessential laziness again!


These bagged goodies are MUST HAVES for your pantry!


Take 1 bag + 1 egg + 1 stick of butter + 1 cup of shredded coconut + 2 tablespoons of water +
Place in brownie pan
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes =

and don't you ever buy the refrigerated slice and bake kind ever again!

Kids over after school yesterday. No time to bake. Pulled out a bag and within 25 minutes the warm, gooey, chocolaty treats were done. Everyone was happy. Including Mommy!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Rainy Day Cake

 

It's been raining since Thursday. Today is Monday. There's a small pool in the basement. We are lucky. We have power and our house has no damage. A nasty storm came through Southwestern Connecticut and Southeastern New York. Hurricane-force winds uprooted trees and dumpsters and tossed them upside down... some landing on houses others landing on cars. Electrical wires are strewn across town like crepe paper streamers. Roads are blocked by electrical poles and trees. Or flooded. We were spared and we are lucky. But we have some restless natives. Christopher had a friend over. Alexander wouldn't leave them alone. I came up with a million and one activities to do with him. He wanted nothing to do with them. Then I mentioned baking and he wanted to use the hand mixer. So we decided to make a chocolate chip cake. Of course it had to be out of a box because for some reason Alexander thinks cooking out of a box is so much fun. So to please him and because I am the Queen of Lazy Cuisine (ooh, can I Trademark that?!!) I brought out the box of yellow cake mix. And some eggs and some milk and of course the chocolate chips. Alexander wanted to add something else and so naturally I thought of peanut butter!

This is a low cal treat! (Bwahahahahaha!)

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup of oil
1 cup buttermilk or 1 cup of milk plus 1 tbs vinegar
1 cup of peanut butter
1 bag of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

If you don't have any buttermilk you will want to make some by adding 1 tbs of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let stand 5 minutes

In a large bowl add cake mix, oil, eggs, buttermilk and mix well. Add peanut butter and chocolate chips. Mix well.

Pour batter into a Bundt or tube pan and bake for 1 hour.

Let cool about 20 minutes.

Despite the milk, eggs and peanut butter this cake is light and airy!

Decadent Brownie Balls

So I was tinkering. I tend to tinker. I can never leave anything alone. I made some brownies. I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut them so that they would all be the same size and so they would look a little prettier, more festive if you will, than a regular square. And then I rolled one. I've made brownie balls before and they are quite good. But I wanted to do something to this little ball. And I wondered what it would be like dipped in chocolate. Would it be good? Decadent? Too rich? So I turned all the little circles into balls. And then I made a ganche of sorts. I say of sorts because most recipes call for cream and I had none. I had nothing but 1% milk.

I made a double boiler by placing a metal mixing bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. When the bowl got hot and the water started to steam I turned the heat down and added my bad of chocolate chips. I then added some milk, slowly, a little at a time. I would guess a total of 1/4 of a cup and let it temper (warm) on the melted chocolate and beat it in so the chocolate formed something resembling a rich chocolate putting.

Using a skewer I placed the brownie ball in the chocolate and made sure it was well covered and then placed the chocolate covered brownie on to a cutting board that was covered with wax paper. When there was no more room I set the balls in the fridge to chill. (Freezer is good too, but mine was stuffed!) When the chocolate set and then drizzled some white chocolate over the top to cover up the imperfections and create fun patters.

I melted the white chocolate the same way, though I did not add milk and turn it into a ganache. When the white chocolate melted I poured it into a ziplock bag and made the smallest of incisions on the corner so that I could squeeze the chocolate through. When the chocolate cooled I simply placed the bag in the microwave to soften the chocolate.

I made my simple designs and returned the balls into the fridge to harden again.

These brownie balls are not only pretty, fun and festive but they are delicious, completely decadent!

Ingredients:

* Brownies already made and rolled into balls. I think in this case a boxed mix is more suitable than a brownie made from scratch. I tried both and like the brownie made from the mix better in this recipe.

* 1/4 cup of milk

* 1 bag of chocolate chips

* 1 bag of white chocolate chips

* Ziplock bag

* Wax paper or other nonstick surface

Reread for directions!

Shortbread Cookies with Orange Essense and Chocolate Chips

I love the combination of orange and chocolate. And I love shortbread. The way it breaks apart in your mouth and crumbles and melts and the sugar and butter and orange and chocolate dance around on your tongue... It's perfection!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3/4 pound butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• zest from 1 orange
  
• 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier
  
• 1 (heaping!) cup of semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
  
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the Grand Marnier. Add the orange peel. Add flour to the to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Swirl Cake

Lore has it that Lucy Van Pelt made this every year before her brother Linus went off to pay tribute to the Great Pumpkin. You never saw it, but Linus kept a slice or two hidden in his blanket to snack on when it got dark, cold and lonely out there.

Ok, I totally made that up, but Lucy and Linus totally should have! Because this cake rocks and I urge you all to make this at home!

The best thing about this wonderfully moist, pumkinny, chocolaty delicious cake is that is couldn't be easier to make! You'll need:

1 package white or yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 oz) Pumpkin Spice pudding mix (New and Seasonal!)
1 cup of canned pumpkin
1/2 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of water
3 large eggs
3/4 cups chocolate chips
1/8 cup of chocolate syrup
2 Tbs cocoa powder

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl EXCEPT the chocolate syrup and the cocoa powder. With an electric mixer beat on medium until all the ingredients are well mixed.*

Divide the batter in half and pour half into another mixing bowl. In that mixing bowl add the chocolate syrup and cocoa powder. With the electric mixer, beat until all is well blended.

You can use any pan you want to: loaf, bundt, springform or tube pan.

Grease pan very well and pour the batters in alternating, one at a time so that you can create a swirled effect. The pumpkin batter is a bit thicker, so I used a spatula to help spread it in a swirly pattern. I repeated these steps until the pan was filled (quite high!).

Put the cake in to a preheated oven of 350 degrees. The baking could take anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour depending on the type of pan you use. The loaf pan required 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake. The best thing is to keep checking. If you have a wooden skewer use it as you would a toothpick. Insert into the center of the cake and it should come out clean!

Let the cake cool for about 20 minutes before service.

* I totally forgot to add the chocolate chips into the batter, so they were added after the fact in layers. One layer of chips was placed in the middle of the cake and the other on top. It was not what I had planned, but it was tasty indeed!

The 3 basic items for this recipe!

Pumpkin Jell-O Pudding looks Mmm Good!

Pumpkin Granola

We're back in the kitchen! After a couple of weeks of illnesses with symptoms much like those of N1H1 (was it or wasn't it?) we are all coming along and I stepped back in the kitchen today and it felt great. I woke up this morning with a hankering for granola. Pumpkin granola, to be exact. I thought I had read on Facebook that one of my friends had gone off to Trader Joe's to get some. But I found none there. So I decided I would make my own. I already had the oats at home. I picked up some pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), more Pumpkin Pie Spice, some dried cranberries, raisins and, for the pumpkin touch Pumpkin Butter which is a blend of pumpkin and lemon and honey and maple syrup and spices. I picked up a few ingredients for dinner and made my way home.

This recipe is delicious and could not be any easier to make!

You'll need:

18 oz. of Oats (not the quick cooking kind)

1/2 cup of canola oil

2 cups of pepitas

1 cup of raisins
1 cup of dried cranberries
(optional, semi sweet chocolate chips)

1 tbs of pumpkin pie spice
1 jar of Pumpkin butter

Preheat oven to 275 degrees

In a medium sized bowl add the pumpkin and the oil and mix well, set aside

In a large bowl add all the other ingredients, except for the spices. Toss to mix well.

Pour the pumpkin mixture over the oat mixture and mix well.

Line a brownie pan or jelly roll with wax or parchment paper.

Pour in oat mixture and press firmly into all corners.

Bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour increase the heat to 300 and bake another 20 minutes until nicely golden brown.

Remove pan from the oven onto a cooling rack for 20 - 30 minutes to let the oatmeal harden.

When cool break off into chunks into your large bowl. Sprinkle the Pumpkin Pie Spice, more or less, as your tastes prefer. I love the flavor of the granola. It's pleasantly pumpkin-ny, just a hint, without being too much so.

We love to snack on granola. We eat it with apple sauce, yogurt and ice cream. Eating it plain is good too. For a sweet treat add some chocolate chips to it!

Rustic Scone with Almonds, Raisins, Dried Cranberries and Chocolate Chips

My husband has been pushing for scones for a while. I finally gave in! Instead of scones he got one massive, rustic scone! We had such fun cutting away at it... got a bit carried away I'm afraid!

A good scone is moist and flaky, firm not mushy like soft bread as we find all too often here in the States. This was to be a dried fruit and nut scone, but when a 4 year old helps out in the kitchen chocolate chips are inevitably added to the equation... the end result was not exactly fit for a healthy breakfast, but a treat to be savored later on. It was delicious! Thank you, Alexander, for the wonderful addition!


Ingredients:

4 cups plus all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 sticks of cold butter, diced
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold milk
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup almonds, slivered
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 egg white for egg wash



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix flour and cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the dough resembles large crumbs. Add the eggs and milk, vanilla and baking powder and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried fruit, nuts and chocolate and mix on low speed until blended.

Put the dough onto a greased cookie sheet, parchment paper or liner. Spread the dough into roughly a 10 inch circle. (It will be very sticky.) Brush the egg wash over the scone and lastly sprinkle sugar over the top.

Bake the scone about 25 - 30 minutes until it is nicely golden and firm to the touch. Let the scone cool 10 -15 minutes and then bring to the table and either let everyone break off a piece or cut a piece. This is a fun thing to have when you have friends over for coffee in the late morning or early afternoon!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Exchange Cookie Recipes!

Every year at our December book club get together we all participate in a cookie exchange. It's a fun and festive addition to our meeting. This year, due to sick children (there have been a lot this winter) we cancelled our meeting. I opted to host again in February and to host a Chocolate Chip Cookie Exchange in celebration of Valentine's Day. And then February came and once again we had to cancel due to Children and Winter Illnesses. We finally managed to get together last week. Despite our small size we had 4 great Chocolate Chip Treats! (The only rule was that the baked items needed to have chocolate chips as an ingredient)

Susan's Chocolate Saltine Treats

This strange name does not do this salty-sweet treat justice! When you can not make up your mind as to whether you want something a little salty or a little sweet, these treats will sure to satisfy!

1 sleeve of Saltines
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Spray cookie sheet with Pam (must be rimmed and I use a layer of parchment for ease of lifting)
3. Spread Saltines flat over cookie sheet
4. In sauce pan - boil sugar and butter for 4 minutes, stirring constantly
5. Pour evenly over saltines
6. Bake in oven for 4 minutes
7. Take out and pour the chocolate chips over top
8. Spread chocolate evenly as it melts
9. Place in fridge for 2 hours or overnight
10. Take out and break into pieces

Line's Cowboy Cookies

Recipe courtesy David Sutherland, Minot, North Dakota
Show: Food Network ChallengeEpisode: Challenge: Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup shortening (recommended: Crisco) - I used butter and it worked fine.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 (6-ounce) package chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the shortening, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs and the vanilla and beat until well blended. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add oats, nuts, chocolate chips and coconut, mix until combined. Spoon cookie mixture onto greased foil lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

I would highly recommend undercooking vs. overcooking as they turn in to hockey pucks if you do! Much better slightly underdone!

Gretchen's Classic Blondies

In my opinon, Blondies but better! I love how these had just the slightest bit of crunch and chew. By far the best blondie I have come across!

· 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
· ½ teaspoon baking powder
· 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
· ½ teaspoon salt
· ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
· 1/3 cup butter
· 1 cup packed brown sugar
· 1 egg
· 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
· 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure 1 cup flour, then add powder, soda and salt and mix together in a large bowl. Add nuts, if desired. Mix well and set aside.
On the stovetop, melt the butter thoroughly, then add brown sugar and mix well. Cool slightly.
Add beaten egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and blend again. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, until mixture is thick and tough. Spread in a 9x9 pan and sprinkle chips on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

and I made my Chocolate Chip Cookie Perfected!

Thanks girls, for sharing your recipes!

Giada De Laurentis' Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Love 'em... wouldn't change a thing... perfect chewy-crispy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 ounces English toffee candy, finely chopped (recommended: Heath or Skor)
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Line 2 heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. Finely chop the oats in a food processor. Transfer the oats to a medium bowl. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the toffee, hazelnuts, and chocolate chips.
For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1 inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. (The cookies can be prepared 1 day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

OhmyGOD are these good!

This recipe was adapted from the back of the Baker's semi-sweet Chocolate Chunks package

Ingredients:

1 - 3/4 Cups unbleached flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 - 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1+ tsp vanilla
1 cup of peanut butte -- we used unsalted, unsweetened organic peanut butter
3/4 package of Baker's chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg and vanilla and beat until well blended
Add peanut butter and mix well
Add flour and baking soda, mix well
Fold in chocolate chunks

Place into 15x9 inch pan and pat firmly so mixture covers the entire bottom of the pan

Bake for about 20 minutes (test for doneness)
Let cool and cut into 36 squares

Chocolate Chip Cookie Perfected!

I'm what you call a cookie monster. I really do love all cookies... all shapes and sizes and flavors. But I am also a chocolate cookie snob. I can tell you for certain that not all chocolate chip cookies are alike. Sure the recipe on the back of the yellow bag is good, but sometimes you want great. My idea of a perfect chocolate chip cookie has a nice balance of sweet and salt. You can taste the brown sugar and the butter, but they do not overpower the chocolate. To me the perfect chocolate chip cookie is made with semisweet or dark chocolate, but I know many of you beg to differ and prefer milk chocolate chips. I do not like my chocolate chip cookies to crack my teeth open. Nor do I like them too soft. Or too cake like. Cookies, in my opinion, should not resemble cake.

I came across this cookie quite by accident as I was flipping through some old Martha Stewart magazines for something entirely different. But Alexander wanted to bake and these were the cookies he wanted to bake. Thanks Alexander!

These cookies are crispy and chewy, rich with brown sugar and butter... these cookies are truly chocolate chip perfection!

Ingredients

(Makes fifty 4-inch cookies)

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking sheets
3 cups packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups best-quality chocolate chips (I needed more chips and used 2 cups!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment; set aside. Cream butter until smooth; add sugars, and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Into a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Slowly beat dry ingredients into wet mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop 2 to 3 tablespoons dough per cookie onto prepared baking sheets; space dough at least 2 inches apart to allow for spreading. Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets, and allow to cool on baking racks.

For this and other fabulous (cookie) recipe visit Martha's site!