helicopterina

an urban chick adventuring around | twitter & insta (kind of): @helicopterina

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Thanks to Bev -- my buddy ever since 4th grade! -- the latest issue of Cook’s Illustrated landed on my lap last week.   And this morning was first day in quite some time that I had the energy to do a little baking.  Alas, won’t be able to taste these babies, but they are perfect to bake off and give away...plus store some pre-shaped frozen extras for future use.   And they smell heavenly, so there’s that.  As always happens in my baking adventures, the cookie-math didn’t quite jibe with the recipe’s yield prediction (21 v. 24) - but hey, so be it.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

(from Cook’s Illustrated)

1 1/2 cups (7.5 oz) APF

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp table salt

1 1/2 cups packed (10.5 oz) dark brown sugar

1 cup (9 oz) creamy peanut butter (mag recommends Skippy and that’s what I used)

2 large eggs

4 Tb unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I browned mine a bit)

2 Tb honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped fine (I used unsalted)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment or Silpat.

2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in small bowl.

3. In large bowl, whisk sugar, peanut butter, eggs, melted butter, honey, and vanilla until smooth.  

4. Add flour mixture to large bowl and use rubber spatula to stir until soft, homogeneous dough forms.  Stir in peanuts until evenly distributed.  Batter becomes smooth and shiny and easily pulls away from the bowl’s interior.

5. Working with 2 T dough at a time (or using #30 portion scoop), roll dough into balls and evenly space them on prepped sheet (12 dough balls per sheet).  Using your fingers, gently flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter.

6. Bake cookies until edges are just set and beginning to brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheet after 6 minutes.  

7. Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes.  Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

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Very grateful to my Cousin Jen for this amazing chocolate drink recipe that fits my new liquid diet requirements — smooth, drinkable, delicious and filled with good things for the bod. I tweaked just a bit as Jen noted how flexible you can be with the recipe — today’s version is noted below and I gotta admit I used DIY almond milk. WHO AM I?!?! #lovethevitamix

Chocolate chia shake with almonds, walnuts and dates

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

2 tbsps chia seeds

3 whole medjool dates, pitted

1/3 cup toasted walnuts

3 very ripe bananas

2 tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 plain Greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

In small bowl, mix almond milk and chia seeds. Let sit 15-20 minutes.

Add everything to the Vitamix and start at lowest speed, work steadily up to 10 and then go into warp speed for the last minute.

Blend until thick, creamy and smooth. Can be thinned with more milk, if desired.

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Returning to this blog after way too many moons of neglect. I’m recouping on day 7 since a bad bike accident — and day 6 since an operation to fuse my lower jaw back together. Since my mouth is wired shut for about a month now, I’ve been consigned to a liquid diet. Was way too woozy for first few days to do much but am now starting to experiment with our new Vitamix. It is mighty mighty mighty powerful and a source of fun and creativity. Well worth the splurge made from the hospital bed (bless you, Amazon) and it makes our ancient Osterizer seem like a wheezy old machine. Pictured here is a nifty citrus carrot juice inspired by a recipe in the Vitamix manual. I added a few healthy pinches of the MishMish spice by La Boite with a blend of honey, lemon and saffron. This frothy drink pours out like glowing orange sunshine and tastes light and refreshing.

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Unbelievable but true: I’m in love with yet another cookie recipe. Thank you, Nik Sharma. It’s his spicy chocolate chip hazelnut cookie. But I didn’t have hazelnut flour (have actually never used it ever — now I’m curious to try it), so I subbed in almond flour as he suggests, and I also swapped out hazelnut extract for almond extract. Very cool and fun playdough-y technique in forming these little patties. And it’s amazing how what seems like a dry batter with very little fat (2 T butter) and only 1 egg really comes together nicely because of the inherit moisture of these and other ingredients (candied ginger, muscovado sugar). And I just realized this is gluten-free to boot. https://food52.com/recipes/78052-nik-sharma-s-spicy-chocolate-chip-hazelnut-cookies

Nik Sharma’s Spicy Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies Recipe on Food52

This recipe began with Nik Sharma's affection for Nutella—the wonders of which he discovered after moving from Bombay to Cincinnati for gr

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Seems like the right time of year to make pumpkin bread/loaf/teacake. Found this ginger-laced recipe by Molly Baz on bonappetit.com and gave it a go. Such a beauty when pulled from the oven, and then again when lifted out of the pan. I halved the sugar from 1.5 cups to about 3/4 cup. Full Monty calls for a whipped up side of salted maple butter but it just doesn’t feel necessary. Can’t wait to slice in ...

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Tres Cantos reverie.

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Some of this weekend’s kitchen puttering, including these salted chocolate shortbread cookies that are all the rage now. Understandably. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019152-salted-chocolate-chunk-shortbread-cookies?smid=ig-nytfood&smtyp=cur&utm_source=soldsie&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=180119_recipe%3Asaltedchocolate-chunkshortbreadcookies

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