Chocolate, chocolate & more chocolate chip cookies

These are obscenely chocolate, and fit only for those who have some serious chocolate addiction. If you love the cookie part more than the chocolate part in chocolate chip cookies, then sorry !!!! THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!!! but if you love chocolate chip cookies not for the faint cookie base, but for its rich chocolate taste, then THIS IS FOR YOU and WELCOME TO THE CLUB! are you reading these caps while shouting out the words? sorry I didn’t mean to be weird and mean, but I’ve had 2 of these babies and Im feeling strangely buzzed. Perhaps it’s all the chocolate or perhaps its all the chocolate. I don’t know..

These are the delicious, fattening, pant tightening, addictive, chocolate oh yeah they’re chocolatey and you might want to go to the chocholics anonymous.. But if you make them, you will make them again and again and eat them and thank me. I’m serious.

One of the biggest reasons I made them is also because I happen to have a lot of chocolate on me now.. seriously good chocolate. The kind of chocolate you’d want to eat in heaven..but getting back to these cookies..

You need flour(mixed with salt and baking soda), butter, sugar both white and light brown, egg, vanilla and obscene amounts of chocolate. Do you see that fat bar of chocolate.. yeah that amount..

Cream the butter for a minute. make sure it’s room temperature. You don’t have to use mixers for this. A wooden spoon would suffice, but for these majestic cookies I brought out the big guns.

In goes the granulated white sugar

followed by brown sugar

This is for effects.. see how nicely packed my brown sugar was. Beat again for a minute until all the sugars are evenly distributed. We don’t ant any lumps

Add the egg also at room temperature. You don’t want to put in anything remotely cold from the fridge okay?

Vanilla…

Beat some more to mix in the egg and vanilla and let it look like this.

In with the flour. I have already mixed salt and baking soda right into the flour.. I’m a visionary.. yes I am.. ok I’m not.

Mix it again for a minute or until the flour is barely incorporated. You don’t have to mix it within an inch of its life. This is a step where you can easily use a spatula or a spoon.

My favourite part. Dumping in the chocolate. See I wasn’t kidding about it at all.. It’s a lot of chocolate.

This is eventually what it’s all going to come down to. Mix the chocolate into the cookie dough until it’s completely flecked with chocolate pieces, chunks, shavings & smithereens

This is the dough that will eventually make cookies. It’s more chocolate less dough, just the way we like it aha aha. Now refrigerate for half an hour.

Once out of the fridge, use an ice cream scooper to scoop out even sized cookies.

Onto a sheet lined with parchment paper,line the cookies. These spread quite a bit so space them out more than an inch apart.

Look at these.. just look at them. Every bite is sinfully good, seriously chocolatey and oh my god. It is not for the faint of heart but if you like your chocolate a lot then this is one of the best things you could make with them.

Go on.. Make it already.. seriously you have to.. Enjoy!!

Recipe

125 gms flour

80 gms white sugar

60 gms light brown sugar lightly packed

130 gms good quality dark chocolate. Either chocolate chips or chocolate bars cut into pieces.

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

110 gms butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Recipe – In a bowl sift the flour, salt and baking soda, mix well and keep aside.

Begin with beating your butter which should be at room temperature for about a minute. Either with a mixer or a spoon or spatula until a bit light.

Add in the sugars and beat again.

crack in the egg, add the vanilla and beat for a minute or so again.

Add in the flour and beat until just incorporated. You don’t want to overmix at this point.

Now taking your spoon or spatula, scrape the sides of your mixing bowl and stir to mix in any stray bits of flour or sugar.

Now tip in the chocolate pieces and mix until the dough is flecked with chocolatey rubble.

Refrigerate this dough for half an hour. For better results let it go in for 3 hours.

using an ice cream scoop, scoop the cookie mixture on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Make sure there is enough space between ech cookie since they spread out.

Bake at 180℃ for about 12-15 minute or until they brown a bit at the edges.

NOTE You have to let these cookies rest on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes or they will break when you transfer them on a wire rack to cool. These are very soft and gooey when just out of the oven. Wait for them to firm up slightly.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk or senseless television..

Apple Cobbler Crumble

What what? a cobbler and a crumble together? Yes indeed.. for why just have a cobbler when you can also have a crumble and vice versa.

This idea happened not because I was feeling very inventive, well maybe I was.. I was greedy and the fat juicy apples sitting in front of me asked me how they’d like to be cooked.. now I’m just hallucinating. Actually I initially wanted to make a crumble but midway I started making a cobbler and then came back to crumble.. I’m confused that ways. But seriously, once you’ve had this divinity, you’d probably end up making this all the time.

Out of habit I always make a lot of crumble topping and freeze it for instant crumbles, so of course I had the crumble ready.. you never know there might be a surplus of fruits and you’d want to top them with crumble.. Be prepared in life I say.

Okay, so this is how I went with it..

I know, I know.. I couldn’t resist another picture of the gorgeousness that was this crumble cobbler or vice versa.. yes it’s an ice cream atop that.. Yes it’s winters, and yes its French vanilla ice cream.. thank you.

These are 3 apples. Peeled, cored and sliced. Use whichever ones you want. In your baking dish try to pile them evenly.. I did say TRY !!

Sprinkle some sugar. I used about 3 tablespoons of granulated white sugar

Sprinkle some cinnamon.. you can be a bit more generous.. I couldn’t because le huzbend don’t like no cinnamon very much (cry a little)

Set the apples aside and start with the crumble topping. I have flour and salt (mixed), sugar, baking powder, butter, egg and vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl melt the butter, add the vanilla, and bet in the egg.. so basically a bowl of dry ingredients and a bowl of wet ingredients.

Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet one or vice versa. and mix till all’s well mixed. It’ll be a thickish batter. If your batter doesn’t get to a dropping consistency then add 1 tablespoon of milk.

Spoon the batter over the apples.

I spooned over the batter in 9 uneven albeit somewhat pretty dollops. Don’t laugh.

Here’s another close up..

Here’s the crumble part. I added a bit of rolled oats to the crumble. As I said I had this crumble ready in the freezer for any passing fruit might need it..

Now sprinkle the crumble over the exposed apple parts. Honestly I didn’t mean for it to sound dirty. Sprinkle the crumble over the non cobbler parts and bake @ 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

the baked result.. Let it cool a bit. Cut a generous slice, top with vanilla ice cream and please eat it already..

Le another picture.. ok no more.. Enjoy !!!

Ingredients & Recipe

3 Apples

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

For the cobbler

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter melted

1 egg

1/2 tbsp vanilla

For the crumble

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup cold butter cut into cubes

2 tbsp rolled oats.

Recipe

Peel core and slice the apples and line into your baking tray. Try to make them even.

Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

For the cobbler, mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the melted cooled butter with the vanilla and egg and mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and form a batter. If the batter is too thick add in 1 tbsp of milk. Spoon the batter over the apples.

For the crumble sift together the flour,sugar, almond flour and baking powder. Cut the cold cubes of butter. You can either use a food processor, pastry cutter or simply your fingers. Once your mixture reaches a porridge like consistency add in the oats. Let there be clumps of butter since these will brown and give your crumble a burnished look.

Sprinkle this crumble mixture over the apples which do not have any cobbler on them. Make sure your apples are mostly covered with either cobbler batter or crumble mixture.

Freeze the remaining crumble mixture and use them as and when needed..

Bake 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

Buttery Vanilla Cake.

Not the best picture, I know. This cake was made on a special request, fairly late in the evening, for my younger brother. His demands were simple. A very unpretentious, basic, spongy, no frill vanilla cake, which is easily wolfed down.

This is a recipe I have on my finger tips and it’s so buttery, so luscious and spongy that you don’t feel the need to slather any icing on it. Tea cake, breakfast cake, anytime cake- this will fit the bill.

My photographs have to be excused, I clicked them without any natural lights and edited them a bit on instagram.

Ingredients

Butter 150 gms

flour 250 gms

sugar 180 gms

2 large eggs

milk 200mls

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

It’s fairly simple as cakes go. Sift the flour and baking powder and keep aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (I used a hand mixer for this). Crack in the first egg, beat until well incorporated, now crack in the second egg and mix well.

Add the vanilla extract, keep mixing all through. It’s this addition of air that makes this batter so light and spongy.

add the flour mixture and milk, in 3 alternating additions. Mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl. The batter is done.

Transfer into a well greased baking pan and smoothen the top. I also tap it a bit on the surface so there are no air bubbles and it doesn’t result in a dome shape.

bake at 170℃ for 35 minutes. Ovens may vary sometimes, so you need to check with a toothpick for doneness after 30 minutes.

This cake though easily eaten just as it and in fact tastes best that way can also be iced, filled, frosted to your liking.

Orange muffins

These plump beauties, with the right notes of orange are not only fresh tasting but also serve as such a delightful post meal dessert. In fact I ate them instead of a meal but that’s only because they don’t feel overly heavy or dense. Delicate flavours, that orangey tang and all in a form of cake. It doesn’t get better than this.

These muffins are actually a spin on Dorie Greenspan’s lemon and poppy-seed muffins. Since they called for fresh lemon and poppy seeds, both ingredients strangely absent from my local walmart (I live in China), I decided to play with oranges, and believe me, I wouldn’t have has it another way. This has tasted better than any orange related confectionery, dessert, cake I have ever had.

Ingredients

3 tbsp sugar

zest and juice of a small orange

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup yogurt

1 large egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 tbsp melted and cooled butter

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and lemon zest with your finger tips, until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange is strong.

Whisk in the flour, baking powder, soda and salt.

Now, in another bowl whisk the yogurt, eggs, orange juice, vanilla, and melted butter together until well blended. It will smell heavenly.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Do not over mix, just stir in until it all just comes together. Lumpy muffin batter makes for the lightest muffins.

Divide the batter in the muffin trays and bake for 18-20 mins @ 200℃

makes 6 muffins..

Another pic for the morale boost..

Double chocolate chip cookies

It’s been really long since I put any new posts, and this is how I really wanted to make up. I had been traveling, working and being lazy and yes was away due to work related issues and was working my ass off, in fact the few months of crazy work and long hours of commute had almost turned me into a comatose vegetative state.. Not anymore though: For I bring forth to you.. a double dose of chocolate in these little cookies.. om nom nom nom

Very easy, nothing much in the way of too much work. Grab your mixer, either hand or stand.. assemble ingredients and its just a matter of putting in everything one after another.

Btw, not step by step pictures this time…It’s been almost impossible blogging from China and putting in more than one picture is just not happening.. Soooo SORRY>. will try something else next time 😦

Recipe Ingredients

110 gms butter

75 gms granulated white sugar

70 gms firmly packed brown sugar

150 gms flour

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

150 gms chocolate chips

1 tbsp cocoa powder

First things first: In a separate bowl mix the cocoa with the flour and set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer beat butter and sugars until light and creamy and gorgeous. Beat in the egg and mix until well incorporated. Add in the vanilla extract and combine everything beating well. Now slowly add the dry ingredients without making a mess if possible (flour+cocoa). and beat it all together, slowly adding in the chocolate chips too..

Refrigerate the dough for a while- 20 minutes should do it.

Either use an ice cream scoop or use 2 spoons and drop the dough onto the baking sheet.Bake for around 12-14 minutes (depending on your oven) in your pre heated oven @ 180℃

Allow to cool on a wire rack and dig in.

This recipe made me around 2 dozen cookies.. it can vary according to the size you decide to make. All in all, these are easy, delicious and devoured immediately..

Banana Coconut cupcakes

This cupcake happened when I saw, the last remaining banana in my fruit basket had turned into a ghoulish yellow black with kinds sloppy looking ends..I was grinning wide because isn’t this is the perfect opportunity we are always looking for when we really want to make banana bread..?? Ok so the banana wasn’t enough for a bread, but it was more than enough for some experimenting with the just brought coconut creamer.. yes creamer because I couldn’t fine any coconut milk and my desperation for whipping up some Thai food had left me with few alternatives..

So anyways, this was by far the easiest cupcakes I have made without bothering much about the whole wet ingredients, dry ingredients shenanigans.. It was made in one bowl without any mixer.. just a spoon and a bowl..

Ingredients

1 banana

1 egg

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup coconut powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup flour

30 mls milk

15 mls vegetable oil

take the banana

add in 2 tbsp brown sugar

mash them all together like there’s no tomorrow.. doesn’t this look like melted chocolate? hah..

crack in an egg and pour in 15 mls of vegetable oil

add in the coconut powder and the baking powder.

next in is the flour.. just stir

this is the resultant brownish gloop.. and yes the kitchen was smelling awesome..

into my pretty silicone molds.. I love these colorful babies.

I filled them a little more than half way through.. you can see the banana remnants atop.. don’t worry these will all be gone..

I baked these at 200℃ for around 22 minutes.. depending on your oven.. these are hot and I ate 2 already..

Enjoy !!

Peanut butter & Vanilla Ice cream cake

This was an over indulgent dessert that I had prepared sometime back, but only writing about it today. I don’t have the pictures for the process since my hand mixer broke down during it’s making and I’m mourning it’s loss since…

This is a dessert only supposed to be eaten sparingly.. I don’t know if that’s even possible.. It was delectable, cold, crunchy and every bite packed the peanut butter flavour beautifully coming together with the vanilla..

It’s a very easy adaptable recipe.. you can actually add in any flavors mix and match your choice of chocolates and make this the most fascinating dessert ever..

Ingredients

plain vanilla ice cream (amount depends on you.. I used 1/2 a tub)

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 package crushed oreo cookies ( I used the ice cream flavor)

2-3 bars of snickers broken into tiny pieces(I used the around 6 small ones)

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

This is all.. let the vanilla ice cream thaw a bit and then using your stand mixer or simply a wire whisk (which I had to eventually use, since my hand mixer broke 😦 … )mix all these ingredients together and refrigerate the whole thing at least overnight. It’s so tasty you’d ant to add in a couple of hours to your aerobics lessons and a couple of inches to your pants waist..

Enjoy !!!

Lemon Apple pops..

They’re cold, they’re delicious and they’re very very healthy (these ones at least). Pops somehow always evoke the memory of my childhood, buying the cheapest and the coldest lick lollies, orange or cola flavoured, dripping down all over my dress, running down my arm I always had the most satisfying orange grin and a tooth cavity.

These are great desserts and my sweet toothed husband never seems to get enough of these. As a grown up now, I have lost that fondness for them but these babies- they’re delicious and you’d never feel guilty about letting these drip down your arms..

AS the name suggest you need an apple and a lemon.

An apple nicely peeled and cored.

Juicy fat lemon

Zest of the lemon

200 gms of yogurt

add in the zest and squeeze the lemon making sure that no seeds get mixed up.

if you want some sweetness add in 1 tsp sugar, you can omit this if you want no sugar in your Popsicle.

I also added in around 1 tsp of blueberry jam. It just gives it a very slight tinge & tiny blueberry note.

That’s it. These are all the ingredients and we just need to blend them together & pour them into the moulds.

Freeze these overnight and you’ll have the most awesome lemony pops ever.. ever!!!

Enjoy !!!!!

Peanut butter & snicker cookies

As I mentioned earlier in my posts, I’m currently residing in a small town in China which is a little scarce in the kind of foodstuffs we are usually used to. It isn’t such a big problem though but the biggest issue I face is— wait for it… NO BUTTER !!!!!! none… there are 2 walmarts here and none sell butter, because its not such a big deal here and no one cares for butter.. no one buys it and no one eats it.. so basically it’s been a month and we haven’t had any butter.. ahh the food of the gods.. we’re waiting for the summers to go down a bit and maybe then we’d be able to go out to another bigger city and buy a couple of tons for the winter hibernation.

Soon enough I was facing cookie and cake withdrawal. I needed to bake a batch and soon.. hubby was getting impatient and I was twitching, missing the surplus and the comforts of some homemade cookies, which is when I finally decided to take charge and make do with whatever little I had. There was nothing to lose after all. Considering it’s just the two of us I didn’t even need to make a lot, and this experiment couldn’t really go wrong when you have peanut butter and snickers involved.. I mean seriously, whats the worst that could happen?

The experiment proved successful and I had me over a dozen cookies (15 to be precise)..

Here’s how I did it..

Ingredients

½ cup sugar granulated

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ tsp baking powder

I regular bar of snickers (cut into small tiny pieces)

½ cup peanut butter

With a hand mixer or a stand mixer,cream the butter and sugar together with a frenzy you’d never known before. Add in the vanilla essence and fluff it up some more. Add in the eggs and beat again finally adding in the flour and baking powder and beating it together.

Once it all comes together you finally add in the snicker pieces and give it one last mix. I refrigerated mine for 15 minutes before putting them on my baking tray. You can just put them as it is. bake them at 200℃ for 6-8 minutes depending on your oven..

In my cookies the snicker pieces arent too visible on the outside but you can see just a teeny bit of nougat melting out. I cut my snickers pieces too small, you can cut them up according to your choice..

Enjoy..

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