cookie dough

Have I mentioned before that I love cookie dough? Remember the chocolate chip cookie dough brownie?

I have tried two new recipes involving cookie dough recently. First, let's deal with the one that didn't work out so well.

The name is super long:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough + Cupcake = The BEST Cupcake. Ever.

Quite a name, right!?! For me, the equation ended more like this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough + Cupcake = Lots of potential. But fail.

Oh well! I'll try again!

The cookie dough looked great. There may or may not have been some major sampling at this point. ;-)


The recipe actually involves making cupcakes from a mix. I don't really ever make cakes from mixes because I don't like the flavors very much, but I figured it would save some time and not be as noticeable with cookie dough so I did it that way.
Still looking very promising!


And then they came out of the oven looking delicious!


The reviews of this recipe warned that the cupcakes wouldn't look done but to take them out anyway. Within a minute of being out the oven, I realized that they clearly hadn't been in the oven long enough. They had all sunk in way too much:


I still sampled, because it takes a lot to deter me from dessert, but they just weren't edible. Way underdone.


I haven't given up on this recipe yet, but next time I will make the cake from scratch and I will leave them longer in the oven.

The other cookie dough recipe I made was a much bigger success. And was much easier. And is vegan!! It's from Angela over at Oh She Glows: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "Blizzard"



If the "vegan" description turned you off, I beg you to reconsider. You would have no idea these were vegan if I hadn't told you.

At this point, once again, there may have been some serious sampling. I couldn't even resist eating one between these two pictures. Just look at these!


Then you blend a frozen banana and a few tablespoons of cookie dough, add a few cookie dough balls and you have a blizzard!


I'm sorry for the quality of the pictures for this recipe. My camera has been acting up so I sent it in for repair. I'm lost without it and have to make do with my iPhone. (Although I do think it's doing a decent job.)


The best part of this recipe? Aside from the deliciousness of course... I got to use my Ninja blender! Still loving it! :-)

hazelnut... it does a body good

A few years ago, I thought I might be lactose-intolerant. I haven't figured out if I really am or not, but I have never gone back to cow's milk. Instead I went to soy, then lately was on an almond kick, but a week ago, I found hazelnut!!! YUM! I highly recommend it. The best of the milk substitutes that I have tried.

The facts:

It's so good. It's thick and hazelnutty... delicious! Adds a ton of flavor to my morning cereal.

Speaking of cereal, I have overcome my laziness a few times this week and made oatmeal on the stove. I managed to cut out additional sugar between the hazelnut "milk" and the berries or peaches I add in.

Here it is with blackberries:

I ate out a lot this weekend, but I attempted to balance that out with a healthy soup on Saturday night. I steamed asparagus, then threw it in the blender with a tiny bit of light cream, some water, and a bit of chicken broth powder. And voila!

In other news, I tried to make a clementine cake this weekend... I had a bad feeling when the clementines were boiling for 2 hours (yes, 2 hours!!!). I didn't like the smell, but thought maybe it would still turn out okay. But then the recipe called for ground almonds, which I did not find, so I ground them myself in my new 3-cup food processor. Of course, they weren't fine enough, but again, I thought it might do. I should also mention that the recipe called for this batter being prepared in a food processor - well my new little 3-cup one wasn't going to cut it so I used the blender. Definitely not meant for that. But despite all of this, I persevered, ever optimistic! As you may have guessed by now, it didn't work out. The texture was off, the taste wasn't very good, and the middle seemed undercooked. I was so disheartened that I couldn't even take a picture. It went straight into the trash, not even completely cooled yet. I really rarely mess up cakes - strange that I have now had to throw 2 cakes out in less than one month. What was my last post? Oh yes, listen to your gut! Ha! Well now I have that reminder every time I walk into my house: the boiling clementine smell that I didn't like is lingering. Perhaps the other lesson here is, make sure you have the right ingredients and tools before you embark on a recipe journey.

But let's end on a high note. To make up for the clementine cake, I made quatre quarts (or pound cake, or literally four fourths). I figured that the chances were low that something would go wrong with such a classic. Did you know that there is a very easy way to make one? This is how it's done in France: weigh your eggs, however many you want to use. The guideline is 2 eggs for 4 people. Then, use the same weight in sugar, butter, and flour. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (or both extracts, as I did). I also threw in some quality French chocolate that I had finely chopped with my fantastic Wusthof knife. If you bake it as one cake, it will take about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I made cupcakes and they were in for about 25 minutes.

coffee anyone?

Yesterday's weather prediction of 4-6" of snow, ice, and rain turned out to be 16" of snow!! It was gorgeous and enabled me to work from home today. Which leads me to the food story of the day... bear with me, please.

I have noticed that at around 10 AM on snow mornings, the plow guy clears my parking lot. And the best way to use this knowledge is to go outside, clear off my car, and move it to a spot he has already cleared so he can fully clear "my" parking space. Everyone wins! Well there was so much snow today that I couldn't just back out of my spot but actually had to clear some of the snow behind my car and tires. Not so easy without a shovel, but I dug in with my hands. Seeing this, the nice plow man stopped his truck and proceeded to dig me out with his shovel. So nice! We started chatting and he told me that he had been working since 9 PM the previous night. Ouch! I thanked him and moved my car to a cleared spot.

Once inside, I felt that my simple thank you just wasn't enough. I decided to bring him some snacks and coffee. I brought out my coffee machine and started brewing. (I need to remind you here that I don't drink coffee. Ever. So I don't know how to brew it.) So once it was done and looked pitch black, I figured that I may have put slightly too much coffee. I added more water to the coffee machine, but that went through the filter again and it still looked really dark. I ended up adding plain water directly to the coffee, thinking to myself that this is probably taboo to a coffee drinker. I took a tiny sip to make sure it didn't taste awful, but really, it did, which is how coffee always tastes to me. I couldn't tell if there was a difference from the "normal" awful.

As I brewed the coffee, I pondered how to get it to him. A mug? This could be problematic: I pictured much splashing and scalding as he maneuvered back and forth in the parking lot. Plus, then he'd have to get the mug back to me. I didn't want to make him waste any more time than needed - I was sure he was just dying to get home. I searched my cupboards for something suitable, but found nothing. Finally, I decided to use a big, plastic water bottle. I folded up a paper towel, then taped it around the middle so he wouldn't burn his hands.

With the coffee situation now under control, I scrounged up some snacks. I grabbed a banana, two clementines that looked like they might still be tasty (ever try to get through a whole crate by yourself? It's tough), and then I heated up two pieces of blondie brownies that I made last week and froze in single portions. To my goodie bag, I added a little baggie of sugar, a little baggie of almond milk, a bottle of water, a small can of pineapple juice, and a napkin.

Feeling satisfied with my offering of thanks, I set out for the parking lot in search of the nice plow man. But to my dismay, he wasn't there! I walked to the next street, then the next one, then the next one, and after walking through the whole neighborhood, I had to admit to myself that he was truly gone. Oh, what a disappointment! Nice plow man, I know you're not reading this because no one is, but I am sending a big thank you out to universe and I hope you will catch wind of my gratefulness. I know you must have been exhausted after working for so long, and I want you to know that I really appreciate you digging me out so efficiently and nicely. Next time it snows, I'll be ready for you.

Which brings me to the food part. (I told you to bear with me... thanks for doing so!) Now I was home with a huge pot of coffee and no one to drink it. I decided to do something with it - I couldn't just throw it out! I searched allrecipes.com for recipes that called for brewed coffee and settled on Simple 'N' Delicious Chocolate Cake with Coffee Butter Frosting. I was quite excited about the chocolate cake actually, because our family recipe for decadent chocolate cake has the secret ingredient of coffee. Instant and not brewed, though, so I couldn't make that recipe. Both the cake and frosting turned out pretty tasty, although neither has a strong coffee flavor, which is fine by me. I made the cake into mini cupcakes to easily bring to work tomorrow - it's someone's last day so it's the perfect excuse!

Funny how my first post talked about my quest for healthier eating and my second post is about baking! Aaah, my sweet tooth (teeth, really) will never stay hidden for long.