Vegan Raspberry or Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are super simple to make & turned out delicious!  I made a small batch with blueberries & another small batch with raspberries.  Both turned out equally yummy.  I hope you try them out!

Raspberry or Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup Earth Balance butter or any other vegan butter

1/2 cup crushed berries

1/3 cup white sugar

3/4 cup + 2 tb white flour

1 ts baking powder

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

Makes about two dozen cookies.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Melt butter in a large bowl.

- Mix berries & sugar into the melted butter until thoroughly combined.

- Mix remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate) until thoroughly combined.

- Fold chocolate chips into the dough.

- Scoop about 2 tb of dough per cookie onto cookie sheets & bake for 14 minutes.

Leftover Easter Candy Equals Cookies

What to do with leftover Easter candy?  What to do?  Oh, I know!  Cookies!  Yum, right?  I was perusing the aisles at Target around Easter time when I came across white chocolate M&Ms.  I do not particularly care for white chocolate (I mean it's not even real chocolate!) but I never knew they existed in M&M form so I bought a bag to try out.  As suspected, they were too sweet for my liking so I used decided to turn them into cookies - white chocolate raspberry cookies, to be exact, & what an excellent decision that was.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

2 & 1/4 cups white flour
2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
5/8 cup unsalted butter, cold
5/8 cup light brown sugar
5/8 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 ts vanilla extract

1/2 cup dried raspberries

1 cup white chocolate M&Ms 

- Combine flour, baking soda & powder, & salt into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter & sugars until creamy and fluffy. 
- Add egg & incorporate well.
- Add vanilla extract & mix.
- On low speed, add flour mixture & mix until just combined.
- Carefully add dried raspberries & white chocolate without breaking them.
- Chill dough for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grab a spoonful of dough, roll into a golf-sized ball & place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ooops!  Looks like I never finished posted this recipe from over a year ago!

The bacon-in-sweets craze has come upon society!  Why not join in on the festivities & make some bacon chocolate chip cookies.  I adapted this from Jacques Torres' chocolate chip cookies recipe which I had posted about here.  WARNING - This may contribute to high-cholesterol levels since I even used all the grease from the bacon in the batter.  :D

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 strips bacon, the fattiest you can find

2 cups minus 2 tb cake flour
1 & 2/3 cups bread flour
1 & 1/4 ts baking soda
1 & 1/2 ts baking powder
1 & 1/2 ts coarse salt (I used sea salt)
1 & 1/8 cups unsalted butter, cold
1 & 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup & 2 tb granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 ts vanilla extract
1 & 1/4 lb chocolate disks (at least 60% cacao)
Sea salt

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Mince bacon & fry until extra crispy.

- Separate the bacon from the grease/oil.  Important!  Keep the leftover bacon grease! 

- Combine and sift flours, baking soda & powder, and salt into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter, bacon grease, and sugars until creamy and fluffy.  About 4-5 minutes.
- Add one egg at a time and incorporate well after each addition.
- Add vanilla extract and mix.
- On low speed, add 1/2 flour mixture & 1/2 fried bacon.  Mix until just combined.  

- Add & mix the remaining flour mixture & bacon to the dough until just combined.
- Carefully add chocolate disks without breaking them.
- Now here comes the most difficult part (especially for those with no patience like yours truly) - Chill dough for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grab a spoonful of dough, roll into a golf-sized ball and place on baking sheet.
- Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of cookie.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Vegan Chocolate Mocha Banana Bread

This is my vegan version of banana bread but ingredients can easily be substituted if you prefer dairy & eggs in your baked goods.  

Vegan Chocolate Mocha Banana Bread

4 very ripe medium bananas, peeled & mashed

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tb ground flax seed + 3 tb water (or 1 egg)

1 & 1/2 cup flour

1 ts instant espresso powder

1 & 1/2 ts baking soda

1 ts sea salt

1 cup chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit & lightly grease & flour a loaf pan.

- Mix all wet ingredients together until thoroughly combined.

- Add remaining ingredients except for the chocolate chips & stir until just combined.

- Fold in chocolate chips.

- Pour into the loaf pan & bake for an hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or in my case - almost clean as I like mine slightly mushy.

The espresso powder adds depth to the bread & gives me that caffeine kick to start my mornings.

 

Bread Pudding

I had about a third of a loaf of French baguette that went stale while laying out on my kitchen counter for a couple of days.  I had completely forgotten about it and before I knew it, it had gone completely stale.  I don't like wasting so I perused my brain and decided it's about time I make some bread pudding.  When I think of the words bread pudding, I think of my mother.  She used to make a killer bread pudding out of croissants and marmalade when I was still under 5' tall.  She didn't make it often so when she did, I would get so excited and eat so much of it that my stomach would beg for mercy.  Bread pudding can be pretty heavy with all the heavy cream and whole milk involved, however, my mother's bread pudding even with all the butter from the croissants was light but with all the moistness of a heavy cream laden bread pudding.  I don't have my mother's recipe so I attempted to recreate the fluffiness of her bread pudding.  I must say, it was easy-peasy and turned out really well!  It has the fluffiness and moisture throughout with a crispy top.  Yum!!

Bread Pudding

1/3 of a French baguette, stale and broken up into pieces no larger than an 1"
6 tb chocolate chips
1 cup fat free milk
1 egg
1 tb brown sugar

Makes 3 servings.

- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Evenly distribute baguette pieces and chocolate chips between 3 ramekins.
- Combine milk, egg & brown sugar in a bowl and mix well.
- Pour mixture into ramekins and allow baguette pieces to soak in the milk mixture while the oven is preheating.
- Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes.  The bread pudding is done if a toothpick inserted into the middle of a pudding comes out clean.

Elvis Muffins

I recently watched "Lilo & Stitch" & was inspired to make something with chocolate, peanut butter & banana so I whipped up some Elvis muffins for a healthy breakfast to go.  Trust me, these are so healthy & yet, so tasty!  

Elvis Muffins

2 cups minus 2 tb whole wheat flour

1 ts baking soda

1/4 sea salt

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup peanut butter, chunky or creamy is fine

2 & 1/2 cups mashed overripe bananas

1 & 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Makes about 16 muffins.

- Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda & sea salt.

- In a separate bowl, mix apple sauce, brown sugar, & eggs.

- Add peanut butter & mashed bananas.  Mix until well combined.

- Add flour mixture & mix until well combined.

- Fold in chocolate chips.

- Fill each cupcake liner until batter is just below the top of each liner.

- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Hello, My Name Is ... & I'm A Chocoholic - Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'll admit I can't let a day go by without ingesting a piece of chocolate or two or three or more.  And it can't just be any chocolate, at least one of those pieces has to be dark chocolate - mmmMMM.  I thank Central & South America every day for being the originators of this little cacao bean and bringing such yummy goodness to my life.  Who knew that this little bean would bring such joy and addiction to millions (maybe even billions) of people across the globe?

As noted from a previous post, my body loves cookies so I decided to combine two of my favorite things and make chocolate chip cookies!  Last November, I made a little trip to Manhattan & Brooklyn to visit my "twin" and I demanded we stop by Jacques Torres Chocolates.  Mr. Torres is a renowned pastry chef and makes some of the most decadent chocolates around so of course it's a must to stop by his shop every time I make a visit out to The Big Apple.  His shop over in DUMBO is always bustling with people wanting to get a bite of that delicious chocolate goodness.  One of my twin's friends bought a chocolate chip cookie from the shop an shared it with everyone and it was one of the best chocolate chip cookies that has ever touched my palette!  Ever since then I have been wanting some more and now I've found his recipe!  Unfortunately I do not have any more of Jacques Torres' chocolate disks (NOTE to self - order a pack of those disks) so it's not the same but the ones I made here are still some of the best darned chocolate chip cookies I've had.  I dare you to make a batch and see if you can eat just one cookie!



Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tb cake flour
1 & 2/3 cups bread flour
1 & 1/4 ts baking soda
1 & 1/2 ts baking powder
1 & 1/2 ts coarse salt (I used sea salt)
1 & 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cold
1 & 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup & 2 tb granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 ts vanilla extract
1 & 1/4 lb chocolate disks (at least 60% cacao)
Sea salt


- Combine and sift flours, baking soda & powder, and salt into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy and fluffy.  About 4-5 minutes.
- Add one egg at a time and incorporate well after each addition.
- Add vanilla extract and mix.
- On low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Carefully add chocolate disks without breaking them.
- Now here comes the most difficult part (especially for those with no patience like yours truly) - Chill dough for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grab a spoonful of dough, roll into a golf-sized ball and place on baking sheet.
- Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of cookie.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.



   

Trail Mix Cookies

Cookies are one of my biggest weaknesses.  I'm bound to sniff out the one cookie in the entire house and devour it within seconds.  I absolutely love cookies because they are filled with carbs and come in an endless array of possibilities.  I haven't had a cookie in a couple of days so I decided to whip myself up a batch.  These cookies were inspired by a Trader Joe's trail mix that I have been obsessed with all of last year - wow, it feels weird to think of 2010 as last year.  The trail mix is made of peanuts, dried berries, chocolate chips, and almonds.  It's one of those mixes where you open up a bag and the next thing you know the entire contents of that bag is in your tummy.  What better thing to do than to make a cookie out of it?  It'll be in my tummy in milliseconds!

I just made up the recipe today so it's definitely not perfect yet.  I think it ended up being a little too sweet so I'm going to cut the sugar from 1 cup to 2/3 cup.  Feel free to try it out with less sugar and let me know what you think.  :o)

Berry Trail Cookies

1 cup chunky peanut butter 

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tb unsalted butter, softened

5 tb canola oil

1 large egg

1 cup wheat flour

1/2 ts baking soda

1/2 ts salt

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup dried berries of any kind (blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, and etc)

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- Beat peanut butter, sugars, butter, oil, and egg until thoroughly blended.

- Stir flour, baking soda and salt in until thoroughly incorporated.

- Stir in chocolate chips, almonds and dried berries.

- Scoop balls of dough onto baking sheet about 2-3" apart.

- Bake about 12-15 minutes.

Yum!