chocolate chips
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Jun 26, 2011 16:22 Filed in: Bread
General Comments:
As you can see, there’s no picture for this one. Sorry about that. While the end product was delicious, it just didn’t scream “take a picture!”. Next time I make this recipe I’ll try to get a decent shot of it, but for now you’ll have to trust me on words alone.
As with most banana breads, preparation is really straightforward. You can basically whip this up and have it baking in the oven in 10-15 minutes. The end result is probably one of the more moist banana breads I’ve had, owing to the addition of sour cream. I thought the flavor was good and basically exactly what I wanted out of a banana bread. The original recipe called for nuts, but I’m not a huge fan of nuts in banana bread and so I opted for chocolate chips instead, I find this to be a vast improvement.
Baker’s notes:
The loaf fell kind of flat after it sat out to cool. I’m not sure why exactly this was, but I might try tweaking the recipe a bit next time to see if I can find a way to keep the loaf nice and puffed up. My current thought is that it might be an altitude issue.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup chocolate chips (you can alway bump this up or down depending on your love for chocolate chips)
2 medium bananas, mashed
Directions:
Credit: Altered version of this recipe.
As you can see, there’s no picture for this one. Sorry about that. While the end product was delicious, it just didn’t scream “take a picture!”. Next time I make this recipe I’ll try to get a decent shot of it, but for now you’ll have to trust me on words alone.
As with most banana breads, preparation is really straightforward. You can basically whip this up and have it baking in the oven in 10-15 minutes. The end result is probably one of the more moist banana breads I’ve had, owing to the addition of sour cream. I thought the flavor was good and basically exactly what I wanted out of a banana bread. The original recipe called for nuts, but I’m not a huge fan of nuts in banana bread and so I opted for chocolate chips instead, I find this to be a vast improvement.
Baker’s notes:
The loaf fell kind of flat after it sat out to cool. I’m not sure why exactly this was, but I might try tweaking the recipe a bit next time to see if I can find a way to keep the loaf nice and puffed up. My current thought is that it might be an altitude issue.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup chocolate chips (you can alway bump this up or down depending on your love for chocolate chips)
2 medium bananas, mashed
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, chocolate chips, and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes (though I recommend starting to check it around 50 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Credit: Altered version of this recipe.
Comments
Cookies and Cream Cookies
May 10, 2011 22:21 Filed in: Cookies
Before:
After:
General Comments:
These cookies were baked for the purpose of putting delicious treats in the bellies of a friend’s thesis committee on his defense day (he’s a doctor now!). Chocolate seemed like a good choice, so why not chocolate in three forms? Oreos? Check. Cocoa Powder? Check. Chocolate Chips? Check. Oh and milk is strongly recommended as an accompaniment. Overall, these cookies aren’t any more complicated than a standard batch of cookies with the exception of needing a food processor to blend up the Oreos. Is making these cookies a better use for Oreos than just eating them on their own? You be the judge.
Baker’s Notes:
First, the recipe didn’t specify whether to use salted or unsalted butter. I turned to the wise Internet for some sage advice, but there didn’t seem to be a clear consensus on the default butter option when you’re not explicitly told which to use. As a result, I basically flipped a coin and went ahead and used salted butter. In retrospect, I should have chosen unsalted. While there was not an overwhelming saltiness present, it was definitely noticeable. In the future, I think I’ll just default to unsalted, especially if the recipe calls for salt in addition to butter. Lesson learned.
Second, while it wasn’t really a bad thing, I personally found the cookies to be a little crumbly -- though they didn’t taste particularly dry. I’m guessing this has to do with the fact that a substantial component of the batter is simply ground up Oreos crumbs, which aren’t going to inherently want to stick to each other. I should also note that I used Double Stuf Oreos instead of regular ones because, really, why wouldn’t I? I’m not sure what effect the extra “cream” component may have had.
Recipe:
Ingredients
2 sticks softened unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (recipe originally called for light, but I just like dark better)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao
1 cup cocoa powder
15 whole Double Stuf Oreo Cookies, finely ground
Directions
Credit: Adapted/modified version of this recipe.
Oh, one last thing just for fun....
To be honest, I wish I had made all of the cookies like Mickey’s face. The Oreo I pressed into the center got nice and soft when baked and really added to the “cookies and cream” name of these cookies.
After:
General Comments:
These cookies were baked for the purpose of putting delicious treats in the bellies of a friend’s thesis committee on his defense day (he’s a doctor now!). Chocolate seemed like a good choice, so why not chocolate in three forms? Oreos? Check. Cocoa Powder? Check. Chocolate Chips? Check. Oh and milk is strongly recommended as an accompaniment. Overall, these cookies aren’t any more complicated than a standard batch of cookies with the exception of needing a food processor to blend up the Oreos. Is making these cookies a better use for Oreos than just eating them on their own? You be the judge.
Baker’s Notes:
First, the recipe didn’t specify whether to use salted or unsalted butter. I turned to the wise Internet for some sage advice, but there didn’t seem to be a clear consensus on the default butter option when you’re not explicitly told which to use. As a result, I basically flipped a coin and went ahead and used salted butter. In retrospect, I should have chosen unsalted. While there was not an overwhelming saltiness present, it was definitely noticeable. In the future, I think I’ll just default to unsalted, especially if the recipe calls for salt in addition to butter. Lesson learned.
Second, while it wasn’t really a bad thing, I personally found the cookies to be a little crumbly -- though they didn’t taste particularly dry. I’m guessing this has to do with the fact that a substantial component of the batter is simply ground up Oreos crumbs, which aren’t going to inherently want to stick to each other. I should also note that I used Double Stuf Oreos instead of regular ones because, really, why wouldn’t I? I’m not sure what effect the extra “cream” component may have had.
Recipe:
Ingredients
2 sticks softened unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (recipe originally called for light, but I just like dark better)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao
1 cup cocoa powder
15 whole Double Stuf Oreo Cookies, finely ground
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until well combined.
- Place flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and Oreo crumbs into a large bowl. Mix together.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Credit: Adapted/modified version of this recipe.
Oh, one last thing just for fun....
To be honest, I wish I had made all of the cookies like Mickey’s face. The Oreo I pressed into the center got nice and soft when baked and really added to the “cookies and cream” name of these cookies.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Before:
After:
General Comments:
This one is just about as amazing as it sounds -- a pie-cookie hybrid resulting in high levels of deliciosity. This was even easier than the chocolate espresso pecan pie (I used a store-bought crust again, but I didn’t have a choice, they came in a two pack!). I’d estimate total preparation time to be ~15 minutes if you’re not making the crust, ignoring the time necessary to warm the butter to room temperature.
Baker’s Notes:
1) At one point I considered omitting the nuts and either substituting in more chocolate chips or some other sort of ingredient because I’m generally anti-nut when it comes to cookies. However, I think the pecans actual play a key roll in the structural integrity of the pie and, in the context of a pie, the nuts fit right in.
2) If you decide to use a store-bought crust, make sure you end up with a volumetric capacity of 4 cups or you risk a situation in which your pie runneth over. Also, I put foil on the crust for the first half of the cooking time to prevent burning.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 9-inch pie crust (4-cup volume)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet or 60% cacao chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
- Preheat oven 325 degrees F.
- Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high until foamy.
- Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
- Stir in chips and nuts and spoon into pie shell.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.
Credit: Used the recipe located here, which supposedly first came from Nestle.