Chocolate Chili Cookies

These cookies are super chocolatey, sort of like the outside of an Oreo cookie, only with real chocolate flavor.  Sort of like a brownie baked into a cookie. I used ground chipotle chili; the result was only the slightest hint of heat in the cookie that some couldn't even detect.  

I was a little thrown off by the direction to roll the dough into 1-ounce balls -- how large is a 1-ounce ball of dough???  It turns out it is about one inch or slightly larger, but since I ended up with 18 cookies instead of 20, my cookies were slightly too large.  Consequently, after 10 minutes, the cookies were still extremely soft, so I cooked them longer, and ultimately cooked them too long.  (The recipe warns against this.)  They were still tasty, but they were chewy-crunchy instead of fudgy.  (Better for dunking.)  They are the perfect cookie for chopping up and mixing into vanilla ice cream. 

These came together quickly and easily; the only tedious part is rolling the dough into the individual balls -- pretty sticky and messy.  You could probably use a dough scoop, but I didn't have mine available when I made these.  But since this is a recipe you could whip up on a moment's notice when the chocolate craving strikes, it's a good one to have up your sleeve.

Conclusion:  These are very chocolatey and nicely address a chocolate craving, but either increase the chili quantity or leave it out.  And as the recipe warns, don't over bake if you want that chewy texture.

Recipe:  Chocolate Chilli Cookies via Scientifically Sweet

(The original recipe is no longer available, but this one for double chocolate cookies might be similar.)

Sour Cherry and Greek Yogurt Scones

This  recipe uses yogurt and a little olive oil instead of butter, which made me worry about the resulting texture.  I didn't want a soft, bready scone!  And while these are not as short as a traditional scone, they were much better than I'd feared.  The outside bakes up crusty, though the inside remains a little soft.

I followed the recipe as she suggested, using spelt (not sprouted) and whole wheat pastry flours.  However, I used dried tart cherries, and only 1/2 cup. (I should have used the whole cup) and sliced almonds instead of pistachios.  The other change was, because I didn't want to be bothered with honey butter, I added the 1/2 t cardamom right into the flour mixture for the scone.  They had a very light cardamom flavor, very subtle.  (The creator suggests that, as an alternative to the cardamom butter, add 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped sage into the flour mixture.) 

Here's what I used:

2 cups flour (half sprouted spelt and half whole wheat pastry flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 1/2 cup pitted sour dried tart cherries
2 dozen shelled pistachios, chopped sliced almonds (about 3 tablespoons)
Cream or 1 beaten egg with 1 tablespoon of water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  In a separate bowl whisk together oil, and yogurt. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture. Mix to combine.  Place dough on a well floured surface. Knead lightly to to incorporate all the flour, then mix in the cherries. Make a nice ball, being careful no to over handle the dough or the dough will be tough and pink. Flatten out the dough using your hand and make an 8 inch circle. Cut into 6 wedges. Brush with cream or beaten egg. Sprinkle with nuts and press them down lightly into the scones so they stick.  Transfer the scones to a baking sheet sprinkled with flour or cornmeal. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Cardamom honey butter
1/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cardamom

In a small bowl, mix butter, honey and cardamom to combine.

Conclusion:  I omitted the cardamom honey butter. These were delicious and simple.  I'll be making them again.

Recipe:  Sour cherry yogurt scones with cardamom honey butter via Stir It Up! at the Christian Science Monitor

Fresh Fig and Almond Crostata

This was an easy and straight-forward recipe.  Nothing very tricky about it, although I always struggle with butter pastry.  (It doesn't help when one leaves it in the refrigerator too long and then attempts to roll it out straight away.  Patience is not one of my virtues.)  I replaced half the flour with whole wheat pastry flour, and instead of mascarpone cheese I used a combination of cream cheese, Greek yogurt and heavy cream.  Since it was being mixed in with other ingredients and layered with even more, I'm sure that change didn't make any difference and now I don't have to figure out how to use up the rest of the container.  😎  Here's what I used:

 

1¹/₂ 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1 lemon, zested
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
10 tablespoons (1¹/4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons ice water
3¹/₂ ounces almond paste, at room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup combined cream cheese, Greek yogurt, and heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
6 large or 12 small fresh figs, sliced, stems removed or 20 dried figs, reconstituted*
1/4 cup apricot jam

Combine the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, lemon zest, and salt in the bowl of a food processor; pulse until blended. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. With the machine running, gradually add the water until moist clumps form. Turn the mixture out onto a work surface and form into a ball. Flatten the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; chill for 1 hour.

In a clean food processor bowl, combine remaining sugar, almond paste, mascarpone cheese (or alternative), vanilla extract, and honey. Blend until smooth. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

The filling seems like a lot

 

On a large sheet of parchment paper, roll out the dough into an 11-inch circle. Transfer the dough to a large, heavy baking sheet. Spread the almond filling over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. 

 

 

 

Spreading on the apricot jam.

 

 

Arrange the figs on top of the almond filling, then spoon the jam over the figs. 

 

 

 

All tucked in and ready.

 

 

Fold the dough border over the filling to form an 8-inch round, pleating the crust loosely and pinching to seal any cracks in the dough.  

 

 

 

 

 

Bake the tart until the crust is golden, about 40 minutes. Place the baking sheet on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then slide a metal spatula under the crust to free the tart from the parchment. Transfer the tart to a platter and serve.

*To reconstitute dried figs, simmer in water for 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool completely. Strain before using.

I wish I'd had the presence of mind to buy fresh figs at Farmer's Market -- they would have been perfectly ripe and sweet!  But these came from the grocery store.  Far too much pale flesh.  However, other comments in the recipe state you really have to use fresh figs in this, that reconstituted dried ones simply don't work very well.  And it's fig season!

I did not use parchment paper, and had no trouble getting the crostata off the lightly greased baking sheet.  However, I do wish I had used an air-bake pan.  I should have thought of that, as anything with a high fat content over-browns on the bottom in my oven unless I do.  

Conclusion:  This was delicious, though very rich and fairly sweet.  It would go best with some vanilla ice cream.  It was easy to put together -- with my substitutions, the only thing I had to buy was the figs.  I would add a bit more salt, perhaps another 1/4 teaspoon, as I think salt helps to balance the richness.

Recipe:  Fig and Almond Tart via Giada De Laurentiis at the Food Network

 

Grape Molasses and Tahini Rolls

 

I so wish I had remembered to take a photo of these before I baked them.  It was a sorry sight, and I was sure they were going to bake up into runny hockey pucks.

I thought I had worked with puff pastry before, but nothing about it seemed familiar.  The (purchased) dough was very soft and unforgiving, and one of the first things I noticed was that the sheet was much smaller than expected, about 12x12".  I knew 1.5 cups of filling was going to be too much, so I reduced it to half.  (I think that was still too much.)

It rolled up fine, but as soon as I started to cut the slices it squished into a sticky, messy glob.  I suddenly found myself wondering what were the cautions I'd read about with puff pastry -- something about the edges that would cause them not to rise.  I couldn't remember, but whatever it was I was sure I was violating every rule.

So I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. As the recipe warns, these are not very sweet, but sweet enough, especially since they are very rich.  In fact, while I love the flavor combination (a sort of Middle Eastern take on peanut butter and jelly), I would like to pair it with a less rich dough, since tahini is already very high in oil.  (But the crispness of the puff pastry is so nice!)

I did not bake on parchment paper -- with all the released oil, these slid around loosely on the pan.  I baked them 4 minutes longer; at 15 minutes they were just golden, but I was concerned the centers might be squishy.  The sugar was just starting to burn on the bottoms at 19 minutes, but the centers were still too soft for my taste.  I think reduced filling would help with that.  (I would spread it very thinly next time, and consequently add sugar.)  Also perhaps using an air-bake pan.

Conclusion:  Delicious, a different flavor from the usual, and easy to make.  But I'll be making some adjustments next time.

Recipe:  Grape Molasses and Tahini Rolls via Taste of Beirut

September ABC challenge: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

 
 Update:  I used this recipe to make these spooky chocolate coffin muffins!

I used to ADORE the giant double-chocolate muffins I got from the grocery store when I was young and working my first job out of college.  To me, a muffin was breakfast food, and it didn't matter if it was loaded with chocolate (and sugar and fat) and bigger than my fist.  And really, it DIDN'T matter, because I was still a twig no matter what I ate.  Well, those days are long gone, and even if I wanted to put something like that in my body, I couldn't.  Not and get away with it.

So here was a chance to make a chocolate muffin that I could eat for breakfast.  (Yes, I made this into muffins.) This recipe is low in sugar, low in fat, and has a lot of zucchini in it (though I'm not sure that's adding any nutritional value to speak of.)  However, it still had chocolate and white flour, so doctoring was still required.  I'm okay with straight cocoa -- that's good for you.  I had to get rid of the chocolate chips, though.  Not for morning chow.  (Besides, you can't judge the "chocolateyness" of anything if it's loaded with chocolate chips.  I wanted to see what kind of chocolate punch this recipe had on its own merit.)  I added walnuts instead, but immediately wished I had used raisins.  I also switched out almost all the white flour for whole wheat.

I keep only olive oil and peanut oil in the house, neither of which was very appropriate for this recipe.  That's what I had, though, so that's what I used:  about 2:1 peanut to olive oil.  Nonetheless, I thought I could taste the olive oil in the batter, and it didn't taste good.  I was concerned.  Besides that, the batter was just plain unsightly.  A ghastly grayish brown, thick with green and white strings.  I was not impressed.

I made half the recipe, which produced 9 moderately-small muffins that turned out surprisingly good.  The weird olive oil taste in the batter was not detectable in the final product.  The whole wheat also went unnoticed.  They were pleasantly sweet without being cloyingly cake-like, and decently chocolatey.  I do wish I'd used raisins instead of nuts, or nothing.  The nuts were okay, but just didn't add anything.  (I usually like nuts to cut some of the sweetness in baked goods and add texture, but it was unnecessary with these.)

Coincidentally, I bought whole wheat chocolate zucchini muffins from a small, local bakery yesterday, and they weren't nearly as good.  They were spongy, and not especially chocolatey.  I felt smug.

Conclusion:  I'll need to play around with this recipe a bit, but I think it has a lot of promise. There's a chocolate muffin recipe on the KA site that is similar, but I think sweeter and more cake-like.

Recipe:  Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread via King Arthur Flour