The best chocolate chip cookies

Every night we've been curling up on the couch after dinner and tuning into the Olympics. I'm sure many of you are doing the same. I've really been into women's volleyball and gymnastics. I can't wait for track and field to start next.

And what goes perfect with the Olympics? The best chocolate chips cookies, of course. After much searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe online, I stumbled across three different posts about Kim Boyce's whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Luckily I had borrowed her cookbook, Good to the Grain, from a friend so I had the recipe in hand.

Her cookbook is organized by the types of whole grain flours she uses in her recipes. Amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kamut, multigrain, oat, quinoa, rye, spelt, and teff. All of the recipes sound amazing, like figgy buckwheat scones, quinoa and beet pancakes, olive oil cake, or apricot boysenberry tarts. It's a great cookbook to bake from and it will get you to buy whole grain flours you haven't used before.
Kim uses whole wheat flour, but I used spelt instead and they still turned out magical. The perfect salty and sweet combination, as my husband says. If you don't own a kitchen aid mixer, don't sweat. You can use a food processor to cream the butter and sugar.

Changes are coming to the blog and I'll be sharing that with you next week! Until then make these cookies, share with those you love, and enjoy the Olympics.

Raspberry malbec sorbet

Today's Food Matters Project recipe is a raspberry cabernet sorbet. This sorbet is done in minutes, and the blender does all the work. Recently I had a blackberry cabernet sorbet that I really liked, but honestly I wasn't that crazy about this recipe. I think next time I'll use blackberries and blueberries instead.

I had a bottle of malbec open, so I used that in place of the cabernet. See the original recipe here and what others made here.

Raspberry malbec sorbet
2 c frozen raspberries
1/2 c frozen blueberries
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/2 c organic plain yogurt
3 tbsp malbec (or cabernet)

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Enjoy immediately or freeze for later. I think this is best eaten immediately though.

Check back tomorrow as I'm part of Tomato Tuesday and will be sharing a recipe with slave-free tomatoes. Make sure to follow along here.

Boozy stone fruit crisp

Fruit cobblers and crisps are my go-to dessert in the summer. They're quick and easy with fresh, local fruit taking center stage. My mom would always make peach cobbler from the peaches we'd buy from roadside stands on our way home from the beach as kids.

Last weekend a good friend had a surprise birthday party for her husband. She put me in charge of desserts, so I made this blueberry-peach cobbler and this cherry crisp. They were both a success, but the cherry lambic crisp was my favorite. I soaked the cherries in Cerise—a cherry fermented ale—instead of the lambic. The topping was perfect with its notes of cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange.

Yesterday I realized my cherries, apricots, and peaches were in dire need of being eaten or made into something, so I decided to make a stone fruit crisp for a light dessert for two. I soaked the fruit with two tablespoons of bourbon. If you don't want it boozy (or aren't a bourbon fan), reduce to one tablespoon or omit altogether. I thought the bourbon worked perfectly with the maple syrup and spices.

I substituted coconut oil for the butter and maple syrup for the sugar to keep it wholesome and vegan-friendly. Feel free to use gluten free oats to make it a completely gluten free dessert. Yes, you must turn your oven on to make this dessert, but I think it's worth it. But if you're looking for a dessert that doesn't require baking, try Jacqui's raw tart instead. I won't hold it against you.

Boozy stone fruit crisp Serves two
Inspired by this recipe
2 cups stone fruit (peaches, cherries, apricots)
1-2 tbsp bourbon (like Bulleit)
1/4 c almonds, chopped
1/3 c oats
1 tbsp maple syrup
1.5 tbsp melted coconut oil
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of cardamom

Preheat oven to 375. Slice the peaches and apricots, leaving their skin intact. Pit cherries and slice in half. Mix fruit in a bowl with bourbon. Stir and let sit for up to 30 minutes.

Mix almonds and oats in another bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Lightly oil two ramekins (our ramekins' have a diameter of about 3 inches, so they're fairly large). Fill with fruit and pour in the bourbon that collected at the bottom of the bowl. Scatter almond-oat mixture over the top.

Bake up to 30 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream and eat immediately. If you have leftovers, eat for breakfast the next morning with your cold brew coffee.

A simple summer treat

This weekend was low-key. We ate a tasty breakfast here, saw this exhibit, biked to the market, hit the pool with friends, and spent a lot of time reading. I called my dad on Father's Day, but we won't celebrate until I go to my parents' house later this week.

When I saw this week's Food Matters Project recipe, I was excited. All I could think about was how perfect the flavors of sweet, juicy cherries are with rich, bitter dark chocolate. I first thought I would make scones—and I did end up making blueberry ones—but I decided to share a simple summer treat instead. See the original recipe hosted by Margarita and see what others made here.

All you need is fresh, ripe cherries and your favorite dark chocolate bar. That's it. Seriously. There's no oven or appliance needed for this dessert. There's no gluten or dairy involved (if you get dark chocolate, it shouldn't contain milk). Just break this out after dinner (or anytime really), and let the cherries and chocolate do their thing. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

Oh, and I wanted to share what I've been spending a lot of time on the past month. The second magazine I designed for Society Social is now online! Part two will be coming soon...

Friday Favorites with House to Haus

Today I'm talking with Talley from House to Haus. I stumbled upon her lovely blog not too long ago, and I'm so glad I did. She is an architect that once lived a routine life in Connecticut, but uprooted to Switzerland with her husband. She says she wasn't much of a cook until she arrived in Zurich, but I find that hard to believe. Her photographs and stories are captivating, and her recipes make my stomach rumble. I can't wait to make this boozy compote, this fava bean crostini, and this ratatouille tart. Hungry yet? Make sure to follow along with Talley's adventures in the land of cheese and chocolate.

Talley, what's your favorite food?

Dark Chocolate: I arrived in Switzerland, the land of chocolate and cheese, an apathetic chocolate eater, but now a year later I am officially addicted to the slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate. I eat at least a square a day, and when I’m not eating it plain I’m melting it into mousse or chocolate cake and chopping it into chips for cookies. It is really true that using good chocolate when baking makes all the difference in flavor. My favorite chocolate to use in baking is Cailler 64% (except when I’m melting chocolate bunnies), but to eat I prefer it with a little extra pizazz, like Beschle’s Fleur de Sel & Pistachio. I do as the Swiss do and pick up Schoggi (Swiss German for ‘chocolate’) every time I’m at the store so I can be sure that I never run out. 

Here's the recipe for her chocolate mousse featured above. Yum! Have a great weekend everyone. 

Dark chocolate sunflower brittle

Every Easter morning as kids we'd wake up to baskets wrapped in colored plastic—pink, purple, and yellow. We'd have Cadbury eggs, Peeps, Robin's eggs, and small trinkets hidden inside. Then we would head to sunrise service and eat a big breakfast afterwards. My parents always out did themselves at holidays and Easter was no exception.

I wanted to share the ingredients of those popular creme-filled eggs that many kids will receive on Sunday. Hershey's doesn't list the ingredients online, but I found this article that does.

Which would you rather eat?

As a kid receiving all that candy was great, but nowadays I steer clear of processed sweets and candies. Don't get me wrong I love chocolate, but the stuff I eat nowadays contains little sugar, and mostly just dark chocolate.

There have been a number of recent studies boasting the health benefits of consuming dark chocolate. I'm not arguing with that one. Here are some reasons why you should eat more dark chocolate. Off to nibble on a piece of dark chocolate now...

This is an easy, healthy treat you can make at home with that leftover bag of dark chocolate chips you have in the pantry.

Dark chocolate sunflower brittle
1/2 c organic dark chocolate chunks or chips
1/4 c sunflower seeds, raw or toasted
2 tbsp roughly chopped almonds
pinch of salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Pour about an inch of water into a small pot. Bring the water almost to a boil. Meanwhile, put the chocolate into a glass or aluminum bowl. This will act as a double boiler. Place the bowl on top of the almost boiling water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the boiling water below. Stir quickly with a spatula. Turn off the heat, and continue stirring until all the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Add the sunflower seeds, almonds, and pinch of sea salt. Mix well.

Pour the mixture onto the parchment paper. Spread about half an inch thick with your spatula. Don't worry about getting it perfect. The seeds will make it hard to spread evenly. Toss into the freezer for a couple of hours until completely cooled and set. Remove from the freezer and enjoy. Makes about one large chocolate bar.

Orange pumpkin chocolate chip bread

I don't have a kitchen pantry. I have a long row of shelves above the counter instead. They're bright red and without doors. Someday we'll paint them grey, but for now they'll do. Since they're open and all of our dry goods—as well as bowls, glasses, and plates—are on display, I keep them organized. I can also keep tabs of the inventory pretty easily. But occasionally something gets pushed to the back, and I forget all about it. This happened a few weeks ago when I was moving things around, and spied a lonely can of pumpkin puree. I had purchased it with the intention of making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies last fall. (Someone in our house was addicted to the ones from Whole Foods.) I moved the can to the front of the shelf as a reminder to use it.

A few weeks passed by, and I got an inkling to make banana bread. I walked into the kitchen, looked at the fruit bowl on the counter, and realized we didn't have any bananas. Then I looked up and saw the pumpkin puree.

I quickly remembered a recipe I had bookmarked last November. I tinkered with it a bit, adding almonds instead of hazelnuts, orange juice and zest, as well as a few tablespoons of chocolate chips. I also added an apricot-date puree with a splash of maple syrup in place of the sugar. It tasted subtly of pumpkin, with deep orange and spice notes, and bits of dark chocolate. The cookie lover in the house even approved.

Give the apricot-date puree a try. It's so easy and an excellent replacement for sugar. Last fall in my chef classes, we made a date puree to sweeten granola. I loved the idea and made a note to try it again. I think it provided the perfect sweetness to this quick bread. Note: If substituting the puree for regular ol' sugar, you may need to increase the dry ingredients or decrease the wet ingredients, to get the right consistency for your dough or batter.

Apricot-date puree*

2/3 c dried dates & apricots, pitted

1/2 c warm water

Blend on high until smooth. 

Makes about 1 cup.

Orange pumpkin chocolate chip bread
1/2 c almonds or almond meal
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c coconut oil
1/2 c apricot-date puree*
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp orange zest
2 organic eggs
juice from 1/2 an orange
3 tbsp dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil a loaf pan with coconut oil or butter. Line with parchment paper.

Toss almonds in food processor and blend until a fine meal. In a large mixing bowl, add the almond meal, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, soda, powder and spices. Sift or whisk together well. In a separate bowl, add the remaining ingredients, minus the chocolate. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Pour into the oiled loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove and let cool before serving (unless you're impatient like me, and wanted a warm slice).

Enjoy as an afternoon snack with tea. I think this would make an excellent gift for a friend.