Almond extract is amazing

I picked up some almond extract at BJ's the other day and used it in these cookies instead of vanilla.  WOW.  The smell alone is enough to convert you.  Then pair that with cinnamon and whole almonds and you are in heaven.  I need to start branching out on my extracts.  Coconut perhaps?

Almond Coconut Cinnamon Cookies
Adapted from Chocolate Moosey

Ingredients:

• 1  cup white flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• handful of raw almonds for decoration

Method:

In a small bowl mix flours, b soda, salt, and cinnamon, set aside.  In the bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter and the sugar til fluffy.  Add eggs and extract and beat.  Add flour and coconut and beat to combine.  Fridge batter for 30 mins.  Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with foil.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place them a couple inches apart on the sheet.  Press one raw almond into each cookie and bake for about 16 minutes til golden brown at edges.  

Trail mix cookies

Wow, long time no post right?  Thanksgiving come and gone, these are the cookies I made that were inhaled shortly after arriving at my grandma's house.

Chewy Maple Trail Mix Cookies
Adapted from Hungry Rabbit

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups (4-1/2 ounces) old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1-1/3 cups (6-3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) packed light-brown sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup pure grade B maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method:
Preheat oven to 300.  In small bowl mix oats, flour, salt, and sugar, coconut, raisins, and chocolate chips, set aside.  Melt butter in small saucepan and stir in sugar, maple sugar, and vanilla.  In another small bowl mix baking soda and boiling water and then add to sugar/butter mixture immediately.  Pour sugar/butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix til combined.  You might have to add a little more maple syrup at this point (1 or 2 Tbsp) if the dough is a little dry.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place on a tin foil-lined baking sheet.  You can crowd these cookies on the tray because they don't really spread.  Flatten the cookies a bit with your hand because they don't melt down like a regular cookie.  Bake for around 20 minutes give or take depending on the cookie size.  I like these quite brown on the edges, otherwise they don't hold together as well.  Let them cool before you remove from the sheet or they will fall apart.  Sometimes I add nuts to these or other seeds or dried fruit.  They are a big-time crowd fave.

About time I made some cookies

It's been a little while since I got the Kitchen Aid going so I made some chocolate chip cookies last night.  I found a simple recipe and then rolled the dough in coconut and sea salt before putting it on the cookie tray.

Coconut Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Verses From My Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of coarse salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• sea salt

Method:

Mix together the brown sugar, sugar and butter in Kitchen Aid. Add the eggs, mixing until incorporated. Add in the vanilla and continue to mix. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt and add into the mixture. Pour in the chocolate chips and fold until well distributed.
Drop tablespoon-sized balls of the mixture onto a parchment paper-lined sheet that you have rolled in coconut and sprinkled on top with a little sea salt.
Place the sheet into a pre-heated 325°F oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until the bottom is slightly browned.

Chocolate chip oatmeal coconut cookies and why I haven't been baking as much

First of all it's been hot.  When it's above 90 degrees no one feels like turning on the oven.  And even though some people are clever enough to bake on a BBQ, mine is pretty crappy so that's not an option.  So if I'm not baking what am I doing?  Well catching a lot of toads apparently.  Also a lot of gardening and I got to the beach a few times with friends.

But as the temp drops and the oven becomes more tolerable I start thinking about cookies and muffins again...

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe adapted from Thyme of Taste

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C of flour
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 4 Tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 C of brown sugar
• 1 C of dark chocolate chips 
• 1 C oatmeal
• 1 C shredded coconut

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and put tin foil on 2 baking sheets.  In a small bowl mix flour, b soda, salt, and oatmeal.  Melt butter in microwave and then add to it the egg, vanilla, and sugar.  Mix into the dry ingredients and then add the chocolate chips and coconut and stir to combine.  You might have to use your hands if it gets stiff.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place on baking sheet.  These don't spread too much because of the coconut.  Bake for at least 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottoms.  

Maida Heatter fan

Finally!!  Someone who likes Maida Heatter as much as I do.  She's the chocolate goddess of the baking world.  I recently made her Palm Beach Brownies and it is by far the best brownie I've ever made or tasted.  She knows how to make a rich decadent dessert like no one else.  So imagine how excited I was when I came across this blog where this guy is baking only from Maida Heatter's cookbooks!!  I have been bookmarking every other recipe.

For whatever reason I decided to make these chocolate chip wheat germ cookies.  The germ intrigued me.  I switched the ap flour to whole wheat and used egg yolks instead of a whole egg.

Chocolate Chip Wheat Germ Cookies
Adapted from Maida Heatter's Great Book of Chocolate Desserts via Mad About Maida

Ingredients:

The last lonely cookie

• 3/4 cup unsifted whole wheat 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 lb (1 stick) sweet butter (softened)
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant) oatmeal
• 3/4 cup untoasted wheat germ
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

Method:

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with foil and set aside.  Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.  Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat in the vanilla and two sugars. Add the egg and beat well. On low speed add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl and beating only until mixed. Mix in the oatmeal, wheat germ and coconut. Stir in the morsels.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and spread about 2 inches apart on tin foil-lined baking sheets.  Bake two sheets at a time for 12 - 20 minutes (depending on your oven), reversing the sheets from top to bottom and front to back midway through baking. When they are done, the cookies will be lightly colored and the tops will spring back when lightly pressed. Do not under bake - make sure they are crisp on the edges and bottom when cool.  (If baking only one sheet at a time, use the upper rack).**

**Note:

I definitely left mine in a bit longer than the average cookie.  I wanted these to get nice and brown so I waited until they were thoroughly darkened around the edges and on top.  This cookie can't get overcooked.  It can only get more flavorful the browner it gets. Plus we like slightly burnt cookies over here.  

Big yellow cake

I actually went out and bought tumeric for this big yellow cake.  This recipe was so simple I had to try it even though I had no clue who would actually eat it.  It's vegan and it has a really earthy taste from the turmeric.  My cake came out a little less sweet than it should have because I used unsweetened coconut, so I suggest sticking with the sweetened.

Vegan Turmeric Cake
Adapted from May I Have Hat Recipe?

Ingredients:

• 3 cups self rising flour (**see note for recipe)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 ½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• Pinch of salt

• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• 1 ¾ cups SWEETENED almond, coconut or soy milk (here we used Silk Pure Almond)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease and flour a 10" spring form pan.  (The original recipe uses an 11x7" pan).  In a small bowl mix the dry ingredients, in a larger bowl mix the soy milk and the oil, add the dry to the wet and stir just til combined.  Pour into the pan and smooth down with your spatula.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until done in the middle.  Lastly, after the cake cooled I sifted a little powdered sugar on top.  

**Note:

• 3 cups ap flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Mocha Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes it is so hot outside that Philly public schools are getting out early and what am I doing besides online job-hunting? Heating my oven to a cool 350 degrees. That's just how I roll- sweaty and smelling like cinnamon.

This recipe comes from Annie's Eats.

Ingredients:

3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. instant coffee

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut



Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.
Cream room temp butter and sugars in mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and mix in between.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour to mixer in a few additions and beat just til combined.
Add chocolate chips and coconut and mix just til combined.
Spread tablespoon-sized balls of batter onto 4 cookie sheets and bake for 14 to 16 minutes until brown on the edges.

Chocolate Chip Anzac Biscuits

Have you ever heard of Anzac Biscuits? I started seeing recipes for them on taste spotting a few months ago and I loved their golden color. As usual I was sold by the awesome cookie photos. Apparently they are an Australian cookie that used to be made very thick and hardy and they kept well, for this reason soldiers took them to eat during war time.

This recipe comes from Whisks and Whimsy. The only changes that I made were to use honey instead of golden syrup and I added chocolate chips. I baked my cookies in a little longer to get the desired brown-ness, they really can't get over cooked because they're supposed to be really crispy.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut or unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, oats, coconut, and salt in bowl and set aside.
Mix boiled water and b soda in small bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar.
Add honey and mix to combine.
Add b soda/water mixture to bowl and mix just til combined.
Add dry ingredients and mix til combined.
Add chocolate chips and mix in.

Drop tablespoon sized balls on cookie sheet, I pushed mine down to be little discs, they don't have to be really far apart because the cookies don't spread as much as regular chocolate chip ones do.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies have achieved desired brown-ness. I let mine get pretty good and brown.
Let them cool on the sheet, they are really soft when you pull them out of the oven, but they harden on the sheet so don't start picking at them until the coconut really hardens up- about 15 mins.

Mocha Banana Muffins

This recipe comes from The Happy Housewife. My aunt Nan left some chocolate milk in the fridge so I needed a muffin that would go well with it. I didn't add any sugar to this muffin because I added the milk (Wawa brand), which has sugar in it. I beefed up on the bananas and put in some instant coffee to give it an extra mocha kick.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cup chocolate milk
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup strong black coffee
2 mashed ripe bananas
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tsp instant coffee (add to wet so it dissolves)

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 425. Mash the bananas in a large bowl and then add all of the other wet ingredients plus the instant coffee. In a separate bowl mix all of the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ingredients. Stir just til combined. Then add your chocolate and coconut, again, mix just until combined. Pour batter into muffin tins, sprinkle with a little coconut for fun, and bake for 3 minutes at 425. Then turn down the temp to 400 and bake for about 12 more minutes or until muffins bounce back to the touch and a knife comes out clean.

Crispy Coconut Cookies

I thought these cookies looked really pretty so I decided to try them out. Here is the original recipe. I made a few big mistakes when making these cookies. First, my batter should have gone into the fridge or freezer to firm up before baking because they spread like craaaaaazy. Second, I made my cookies too big and crowded the hell out of them on the baking sheet because I was too lazy to spread them between two sheets. I know. Laaaaazy! Thirdly, they came out a little under-done, these are supposed to be crispy cookies, not soft and falling apart cookies. But I really wanted to go to BJ's to get bulk chicken for our Mother's Day party so I pulled them out of the oven before they were completely done.

So I rushed it- as I often do- and they came out a little funky. Still good, but basically I made one big soft cookie. Oh well... They were supposed to look like this-

Ingredients:

10.5 tbsp butter
11 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp wheat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups dried coconut flakes
10 tbsp flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 375.
Line 2 baking sheets with tin foil- two sheets, not one!!!!
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until well mixed.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Stir dry ingredients together: flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder and coconut flakes.
Gradually add into butter mixture.
At this point if your batter is on the warm melty side like mine was, throw it in the freezer for 10 mins.
Create small balls and place on prepared baking sheets with distance between them.
Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from sheet to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

This picture is when I opened the oven and realized that the cookies had turned into one large cookie mass. Then I cursed and laughed and said oh well...

Photo Credit: Home Cooking Adventure

Coconut Banana Oatmeal Bars

I was feeling adventurous today... I took a simple bar recipe and made it into a delicious combination of natural sweetness with a butterscotch surprise.

So if you leave out the peanut butter and the butterscotch chips this recipe is crazy healthy- no added sugar, no gluten, no animal products. It's vegan, gluten-free, and sugar conscious. You can definitely add nuts, chocolate chips, any kind of seed or other fruit you want, a tbsp of molasses would make it darker and richer, I think the possibilities are endless. Next time I want to try baking it in a smaller pan so they come out thicker, because they don't rise they stay short and dense. It might be nice to have them thicker and crustier on the outside with a soft inside. Some sort of crusty top might be nice too, like coconut or oats on the top that will get toasted and brown. Hmmm...

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

2 large, ripe bananas
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peanut butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350
Line a 9x9 pan with tin foil and brush foil lightly with canola oil
In one bowl combine all dry ingredients- 1st paragraph
In another bowl combine all wet ingredients- 2nd paragraph
Combine wet and dry and pour into pan
With a fork press the mixture flat into the pan
Bake for about 35 mins or until the bars are brown and toasted on the edges
Let sit for a few minutes- they do taste really good warm so you can eat them right away
Keep in tupperware in fridge because of the fruit

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Oat Cookies

I knew I was going to see my friend Maya tonight so I searched gluten-free cookie recipes on food gawker (basically just like taste spotting) and came up with a few interesting returns. I liked the looks of this recipe because it uses generic gluten-free flour (which I buy in bulk from the Co-op) and oat flour which I can make in the food processor. However it calls for Xantham Gum and Gwar Gum but I read that you can just sub ground flax seed so I did. I added the chocolate chips to make this the best gluten-free cookie that I have made to date.

1 cup all purpose gluten free flour (like Bob’s Red Mill Brand)
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 tsp ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Measure out the flours, coconut, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl and whisk to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl cream the butter with the sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, then stir in the oats and chocolate.
4. Scoop 2 tbsp-sized balls using a spoon, form into balls, flatten slightly and place on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes. You may need to slightly flatten out the cookies before baking to avoid weird shapes because the oat flour is so dense that it doesn't melt into a perfectly shaped cookie like regular AP flour.

The cookies are done when they have a nice brown color and are set to the touch, they will bake more on the sheet once you pull them out of the oven so don't overdo it in the oven.

Stressed Out Baking: Compost Cookies

Oh my god I am so stressed ouuuuuuuuuut!! So much stuff to do for school and so little time and patience. I wanted to make these cookies- I sort of got the recipe from The Yum Yum Factory but changed a lot of the ingredients in the end.

I've been downloading compost cookie recipes and "kitchen sink cookie" recipes for a while now so the ideas have been piling up in my head. The idea behind this cookie is sweet and salty combined in a pretty basic cookie dough. The Yum Yum Factory recipe calls for pretzels, some people used salted peanuts, potato chips, you name it. I used blue corn chips because that's what I had and I've seen them used before with good results. For the sweet you can use your typical chocolate chips, other chocolate candy like heath bar pieces, butterscotch or toffee bits, coconut, raisins, whatever you want. You can't really go wrong with this recipe. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

1 stick Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup tbsp Brown sugar
1/2 tbsp Corn syrup
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 large Egg
3/4 & 2 tbsp cups All purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup Dark chocolate (some easter eggs and the head of a dark chocolate bunny coarsely chopped)
1/4 cup Old fashioned oats
several handfuls of crumbled Blue corn chips
1/2 cup Sweetened coconut
1/2 cup Raisins
1 1/2 tbsp Coffee grounds (yes- freshly ground coffee beans)

Method:

First cream the butter, sugars, and the corn syrup in your stand mixer on medium high for 2 or 3 minutes, until it's nice and fluffy.

Next, throw in the egg and vanilla and mix for another 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the flour mix to the butter mixture with the mixer on low speed. Mix just until combined.

Now you add in the sweet and salty ingredients that you chose.

Use a big spoon to form your cookies - it should be about 3 tbls in each cookie. Put them on a tin foil lined cookie sheet, making sure that there is at least 3" between each cookie so they can spread. Put the sheets in the fridge for at least one hour.

Preheat to 375F

Bake for 14-18 minutes depending on the size of the cookies and your oven. They are done when they start to brown around the edges but we left ours in longer because they're good when they're extra brown.

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

My friend and neighbor Jenn asked my mom and I to teach her how to make macaroons. Little did she know that neither of us has ever made them before. So Marie set out to get eggs, chocolate, and coconut from Target and I started looking at recipes.

Macaroons turned out to be really simple-looking to make, but they can be very finicky to bake correctly- as we found out. There is a delicate balance between getting them brown on the outside yet cooked all the way through, and not sticking to the freaking parchment paper.

I settled on a recipe that didn't have sweetened condensed milk or flour. I also found that most people were baking their macaroons at 325, although my recipe called for 300, this didn't get them cooked enough so I went back to 325. We made ours bite-sized, these things hit you like a bag of sugar to the face, plus this way you can have more than one.

This recipe makes 8 bite-sized macaroons, it can easily be doubled or tripled etc.

Ingredients:

1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
3/4 C Sweetened Coconut
Pinch Salt

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients with spoon or your hands in a bowl until totally combined
2. Divide into 4 balls if you want larger or 8 balls if you want the bite-sized and squeeze with your fingers until they hold their ball-shape
3. Spray parchment paper with Pam or brush with oil or butter or they will stick!! and place them as close as you want- they don't spread at all
4. Bake for around 20 mins or until they are golden brown and crusty on the outside. If they are too mushy leave them in longer, but don't let them get too dark
5. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then remove them with a spatula
6. Make your chocolate dip by melting 2/3 C chocolate chips of any kind you like (semi-sweet, dark, milk whatever) and 1 Tbsp of butter over a double boiler and when the macaroons are cool either dip them in chocolate or drizzle it with a spoon over their tops
7. Store in tupperware in the fridge so the chocolate hardens

Here's another one that I want to try later this week if I have time: Raspberry Coconut Macaroons from Smitten Kitchen. I'll let you know how they turn out. And I'm definitely going to dip these in chocolate.

Photo credit: Smitten Kitchen