Chef Lisa

My kids love waffles of all kinds. Recently, I’ve been making them on a Sunday for breakfast, then slapping the extras between pieces of waxed paper and putting them in the freezer for a quick hot breakfast for the kids.

I discovered Alton Brown’s recipe for Chocolate Waffles when I was searching for something else (isn’t that always the way things go?). I’ve made then several times now, and my kids just love them. They’ve had them with the standard butter and syrup and with peanut butter, and they prefer them with peanut butter.

Read the rest of this entry »

We spent the weekend with Matt’s parents, and Mary baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies with Ari. They turned out very good, and inspired me to try adding chocolate to our favorite chocolate chip recipe. Below you’ll find the recipe for the first version I made. They turned out pretty good, but I think we need to add a bit more cinnamon – the cocoa powder is a strong flavor, and mostly overwhelmed the cinnamon.

Double Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

Makes around 44 cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups unsalted butter — room temperature
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
10 ounces white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly spray your cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.

Put butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in another mixing bowl. Mix on high until well blended and creamy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. Add in chocolate chips and stir.

Place about 1/3 of a cup of the dough per cookie (or one large ice cream scoop), making sure to leave at least two inches between each cookie because they will spread.

Bake for 12 minutes or until firm to touch. When you remove them from the oven, let them sit for at least five minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

– - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 221 Calories; 11g Fat (43.9% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 42mg Cholesterol; 140mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 2 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

I found this recipe last week at Rachael Ray’s website. It’s not one of her recipes, but from one of the blogs she hosts. It looked good, and the kids were enthusiastic about it, so I made it.

I think the cake was a bit too dry, and that make have been due to the peanut butter I used. It was the Meijer brand organic peanut butter. I find that it’s a bit “drier” than regular peanut butter – not as smooth and creamy as, say Jif.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Streusel Cake

 
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º F. Butter a 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan. (I used a glass pan)

Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat on low speed until the mixture is blended and crumbly. Transfer 1 cup of the mix, lightly packed, to small bowl and reserve (this will be the streusel topping). Add eggs, milk, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda to remaining flour mixture in large bowl. Beat at low speed until evenly moist. Increase speed to medium and beat until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup chips. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle with reserved 1 cup streusel topping and remaining 1 cup chips.

Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack.

I was informed yesterday by my kids that I had to bake muffins. Why? Because they ate the last two of them for their after school snacks. Tomorrow is grocery shopping day, so there’s not a heck of a lot of choice for mix-ins, but I stocked up on chocolate chips when they were on sale about a month ago. I briefly considered using the butterscotch chips, but I want to save those for oatmeal scotchies (which I may make this weekend as Matt loves them). Instead, I went for the milk chocolate chips. Here’s what I threw together. And one of these days, I’ll remember to take pictures while baking and cooking so I can post them here!

Milk Chocolate Chip Muffins

 
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Create a well in the center and set aside.

In a small or medium sized bowl, beat the egg, then stir in the milk, oil and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour mixture and stir until almost all the dry ingredients are moist. At this point, add in the chocolate chips and finish mixing until everything is moist. There batter should be lumpy, so that’s okay.

Portion the batter equally into a standard 12 muffin muffin tin that you’ve either lined with paper liners, or sprayed it with cooking spray. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 – 15 minutes before eating.

Sunday was another one of those “I just HAVE to find something to do, something to make” days. This is one of the things I created. I started off with the Best Ever Muffin base, added pumpkin puree (I had it in the freezer, the stuff I didn’t use to make pumpkin cheesecake), pumpkin pie spice and chocolate chips. It was a hit – a very subtle pumpkin taste, complimented by the spice. The level of sweetness was perfect.

Next time, though, I will mix the puree in with the wet ingredients. I think it will spread the pumpkin better through the batter, and I won’t have to worry about over mixing – or white spots in the finished muffins.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

 
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together, then form a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

In another bowl, beat the egg, then combine with vegetable oil, pumpkin and milk.

Pour wet ingredients into the well you made in the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined. Add in chocolate chips. Stir it all together until well combined, but don’t over stir. There can be some lumps, but you don’t want too many.

Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown.