chocolate chips

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

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Happy February!  Earlier in the week I shared this flourless chocolate cookie recipe and declared that I would be sharing more chocolate recipes as we get closer and closer to Valentine’s Day, a day that should be full of chocolate.  The name of this blog is Hottie Biscotti, but I’m fairly confident that I’ve only shared one biscotti recipe.  So I thought it only appropriate to make some chocolate biscotti.

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Biscotti means “twice-baked”.  The dough is baked once in a log, allowed to cool slightly, then sliced into pieces and baked again creating a crunchy cookie that begs to be dipped into your hot beverage of choice.  Coffee is mine, but tea or hot chocolate would do just fine.  And they’re delicious eaten just as a cookie without any dipping.

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This biscotti is full of almonds and chocolate chips, but isn’t too sweet, making it the perfect morning or afternoon snack.  They would be wonderful crumbled up over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.  They’d also make great little gifts.

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This recipe is from Dave Lebovitz, a pastry chef whose blog I started reading a few months ago.  It’s a great mix of recipes, stories about life in Paris, cooking tips and restaurant reviews.  It’s been a fun change of pace in blog reading for me, since very few of the blogs I read are written by chefs, most are home cooks like myself.  Check it out and drool over some French food and wine, learn some things you didn’t know and grab some great recipes.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

From Dave Lebovitz

Makes about 26 cookies

Ingredients

For Biscotti

  • 2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup good cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 egg for glaze
  • raw sugar or coarse sugar for sprinkling

For Chocolate Dipping

  • 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine eggs, sugar and extracts and mix until well combined.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, then add in almonds and chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.  The dough will be very stiff.
  5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.  Divide dough in half and form each half into a log, about 8 or 9 inches long and 3/4 inch high.
  6. Transfer each log to the parchment lined baking sheet.
  7. Whisk egg and brush tops of each log, then sprinkle with sugar.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes.  Move logs to a cutting board and slice on the diagonal into 1/2 inch pieces.  A serrated knife works well for this.
  9. Place slices back on the parchment lined cookie sheet and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes, then flip cookies over and cook for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooking rack and let cool completely.
  10. You can coat one side in chocolate if you’d like to or leave them plain.  To coat in chocolate: melt chocolate and vegetable oil over low heat, stirring constantly until chocolate has just melted.  Remove from the heat and spread chocolate onto one side of the biscotti in a thin layer.  Move to a clean piece of parchment and allow the chocolate to set.

 

 

 

Flourless Triple Chocolate Cookies

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Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and while it’s not my favorite holiday, it is a perfect excuse to make and enjoy loads of sweet treats.  It’s also a good excuse to enjoy an especially  nice meal with your sweetheart, either at home or out.  Candles and roses required of course.

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In anticipation of Valentine’s Day I’ve decided to spend the next couple of weeks baking and sharing some delicious Valentine’s Day goodies.  By the time it rolls around my husband is probably going to be sick of chocolate, but that’s ok.  I’ll pick up the slack.  I have this amazing ability to endure baked goods and sugar beyond what is considered normal.  What can I say, it’s a gift!

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These are not your typical chocolate cookie since they’re flourless (gluten free!) and end up being very crunchy on the outside with just a little bit of gooey middle.  Whole Foods makes a similar cookie that has walnuts which I kind of love.  You could easily adds nuts into this cookie if you’d like.  The pure chocolately goodness of them without nuts is wonderful, though.  The cocoa powder, semi sweet and milk chocolate chips makes these triple chocolate, but you could opt for just one kind of chip, or go crazy and add in dark chocolate chunks as well.

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This cookie batter/dough comes together in no time and while you can use a stand mixer, you don’t need one.  The ingredients are simple and you likely have them all in your kitchen right now.  You definitely need to bake these cookies on parchment paper or a nonstick silicon mat.  They stick a little, even to the parchment, so use a stiff spatula (or a small offset one) to get underneath the cookies as you’re taking them off the sheet.  This way you won’t lose any chocolate pieces.  That would be a tragedy.

Watch out for little hands.  They’ll swoop down when you least expect it and steal these.  I let her eat the whole thing by the way.  Right before dinner.  Great parenting over here.

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Flourless Triple Chocolate Cookies

From Food 52

Makes 24-30 cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup good cocoa
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
  • 1 1/4 cup milk chocolate chunks or chips
  • 1/2-1 cup nuts, toasted and chopped, optional
  • Sea salt flakes, optional

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment (you’ll need more parchment for each batch).
  3. Whisk together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt.
  4. Beat in the egg whites until well combined, then mix in vanilla.
  5. Fold in chocolate chips/chunks and nuts if desired.
  6. Spoon batter, 2 rounded teaspoons per cookie, onto your cookie sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart for spreading.  I found I could fit 6-8 cookies per sheet without any problems.  Sprinkle each cookie with salt if desired.
  7. Bake for 12-14 minutes until cookies look just set and dry on top with some cracking.  Let cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

 

 

 

 

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

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In general I prefer a thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.  The flat crunchy kind aren’t what I typically make or choose to enjoy with a glass of milk.   I’ve made my fair share of chocolate chip cookies and have some favorite recipes.  These, these and these are probably the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.  Going back in the blog archives makes me nostalgic and a little embarrassed of my food photos and writing.  Yeesh.  But, this is why I blog!  Documenting the good and the not so good, and seeing how my cooking, blogging and photography has changed.  Anyway, back to the cookies.

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I made these cookies for a friend who recently moved into a new house.  I kept a few for myself.  They are thin, but still chewy, which I realize now is what I really crave in a cookie.  And they are buttery and sweet and delicious.  The small amount of toffee pieces adds something special to these.  The original recipe, from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, calls for mini chocolate chips.  I used regular sized chips and think that it’s really a personal preference.  With mini chips you’ll get chocolate in each bite.  With the big chips you’ll end up with some bites with no chips, but the bites with chips are super yummy.  I love big hunks of chocolate in a cookie.  I guess a solution for that could be to use more big chips…  Other than the chips and the addition of the toffee pieces, I didn’t do anything differently.  This is a terrifically simple recipe.  Enjoy!

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Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Makes 24-36 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 11 tablespoons unsalted butter,  softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup toffee pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugars until light in color, then beat in egg and and vanilla.
  4. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
  5. Mix in chocolate chips and toffee pieces.
  6. Use a cookie/ice cream scoop or tablespoon to drop scoops of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick liner.  Space them a couple inches apart since they’ll spread during baking.  8 cookies per sheet works well.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.  Let cool for a minute before moving to a rack.

Salted Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Cookies

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Coconut Oil.  Apparently it can do almost anything.  It can make your hair long and luxurious, get rid of stretch marks, help nursing moms increase their milk supply and bring about world peace when applied daily.  I’ve been seeing it everywhere lately and thought I’d give it a try as a replacement for butter in cookies.

These were delicious and I would definitely make them again.  The coconut oil gives them a subtle coconut flavor without the texture and chew of coconut flakes and a richness that is different than that of butter.  Sprinkling a little flaked salt on top before and right after baking really makes these special.  Ben, who doesn’t always love sweets, enjoyed the combination of salty and sweet and I think he ate more than just the one obligatory cookie.  And that is saying something.

Guittard milk chocolate chips (the ones in the silver bag with blue label) are my favorite and using them in these cookies didn’t hurt in making them extra super tasty.  They’re a little larger than the typical chocolate chip and so delicious and creamy.  I’ve been known to sit with a bag of these and snack my way through half of it.  Which is why when I am going to buy a bag to make cookies I buy a second bag for snacking.  No lie.  It might be a problem?  If you’d rather, dark chocolate chips would also be wonderful I am sure.  Enjoy!

Salted Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Cookies

Makes 18-24

Ingredients

  • 2 2/3 cup flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup coconut oil (softened if needed)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  • flaked salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. Beat together coconut oil and sugars, then beat in eggs and vanilla until well mixed.
  3. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix just to combine.
  4. Stir in the chocolate chips and coconut.
  5. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets and sprinkle each cookie with a bit of salt flakes.
  6. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on size) until edges are just browned.  Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle a bit more salt on each cookie.
  7. Let cool and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Is there any better combination?  Maybe if I’d added caramel in some capacity…

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
  • 1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup coarsely ground pretzels
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling

Directions

  1. Beat butter and peanut butter until thoroughly combined.
  2. Add sugars and beat until light.
  3. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until fluffy.
  4. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until combined.
  5. Mix in pretzels and chocolate chips.
  6. Roll into balls (about the size of a golf ball) and roll in granulated sugar.  Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment and flatten slightly.
  7. Bake @ 350°F for 10 minutes.

Yogurt Banana Bread

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Last week I made pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches and made cole slaw as a side dish.  The cole slaw used  mostly plain yogurt and just a few tablespoons of mayo.  I had to buy a big container of plain yogurt since everything in the small containers was flavored.  What to do with an entire pint of plain yogurt?  I ate some of it for breakfast with granola, but after 2 days of this I went in search of something I could make to use up the yogurt.  I found this recipe for banana bread on The Fresh Loaf.

I made two batches of the bread; one with chocolate chips and one without.  The bread is much more moist than other banana breads I’ve made, and not as dense.  The plain bread is just sweet enough, and is delicious toasted with a little spread of butter.  I would add some toasted pecans or walnuts next time.  The chocolate chip version was also tasty, but I prefer my banana bread without chocolate.  Call me crazy.

Yogurt Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 or 3 very ripe bananas
  • 1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt (fat free is fine)
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
  • ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and sugar a 9×5 loaf pan.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar until creamy.
  3. Add in eggs, one at a time and mix well.
  4. Mix in yogurt and vanilla.
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and powder and cinnamon if using.
  6. Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients a little a time, then stir in chocolate chips if using.
  7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut, Walnuts & Chocolate Chips

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Bethenny Frankel was on the Today Show yesterday talking about her cookbook, The Skinny Girl Dish, and I was inspired to search for a healthy dessert recipe to try out.  I found a recipe for banana oatmeal cookies that sounded very tasty.  To my dismay, I did not have all the ingredients.  So I searched a bit more, and saw some other tasty sounding banana cookie recipes, but none were exactly what I wanted, so I made my own.

These are definitely not the original healthy banana oat cookie that inspired me, but they are yummy and at least a bit healthy thanks to the bananas, oats and protein packed walnuts!

I love the coconut and the dark chocolate chips.  You could easily omit the coconut if you’re not a fan, or substitute the walnuts for pecans, or go nut free if you must.  Milk chocolate chips would be good, and peanut butter chips would also be terrific.

My only complaint with these cookies is that the banana makes them very moist and they become soft when stored in an airtight container, and they will stick together.  Make sure to cook them so that there isn’t a gooey center, and don’t store them on top of each other.  Another way to avoid stickiness is to eat them all, but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have some help.  Here is the original healthy recipe, and here is my version.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut, Walnuts & Chocolate Chips

Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter
  • ¼ cup shortening
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 ripe bananas, smooshed up good
  • 2 cups oats
  • ¾ cup coconut
  • ¾ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips, dark or milk
Directions
  1. Cream together butter, shortening and sugars.  Add in egg and vanilla and mix well.
  2. Stir in bananas, then stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until well combined.
  3. Mix in oats, coconut, walnuts and chocolate chips.
  4. Drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and baker for 10-11 minutes until browned lightly on top.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

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The success of the peanut butter M&M cookie last week inspired me to try the cookie again, but this time with chocolate chips.  I changed the amount of sugars in this cookie.  I wish I could claim that I was being purposefully experimental and had some great reason for changing the ratio of white to brown sugar.  The truth is that I didn’t have enough brown sugar left.

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So I used 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup white sugar.  All the rest of the ingredients remained the same.  I used 1 cup of milk chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped 60% cacao Callebaut from a block that I had left over from another recipe.

I think this cookie may be my new favorite.  I love the texture and flavor.  Even with the change in the sugar ratio they were delicious.  I did find them a bit less moist than the cookie with more brown sugar, but not enough to make them less tasty.

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Colorado Oatmeal, Coconut, Chocolate Chip Bars

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I am part of a family who thoroughly enjoys snacking.  That is why we needed some cookie bars up here in Durango for after finishing off all the cookies we had from Bread Bakery in Durango.  They have some incredible cookies, a delicious ham and brie sandwich and an incredible goat cheese and thyme scone that I plan to try to duplicate at some point.  So, after all the crazy delicious goodies were gone I made these cookie bars.  I found a recipe for oatmeal, coconut cookies from Allrecipes.com, and changed a few things in the dough and also made bars instead of cookies.  I was reminded by my sister after I had pressed the dough into the pan that I should have done something to compensate for the high altitude, but it was a little late for that.  So, I took my chances.  It turned out not to be an issue.  The bars did take a bit longer to bake than I would have thought.  Other than that, the flavor and texture were good.

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