Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Like the majority of the northeast, we were homebound yesterday in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Though we were very largely spared, it was a pretty decent storm with a ton of wind and rain. Luckily, unlike some people like some of my coworkers and my sister, our power never went out (even though I was discouraged from saying so out loud yesterday for fear that we would be jinxed) so even though we had plenty of bottled water, canned goods, and snacks at the ready, I decided to cook and bake instead. And I ate the snacks alongside it and replaced the bottled water with wine. You know, no big whoop.

I saw this recipe weeks ago and was ever so ready to make it. The problem lay in that I knew it had a bunch of steps and every time I went to go make them, I'd get distracted. Yesterday, I was ready. I wasn't going anywhere all day and figured I might as well make good use of both my time and my electricity. I really thought this would take awhile to do-but in reality it was maybe a half hour of prep time with a lot of time in the fridge to set. And the end result? Oh, that end result. A gooey, chocolate-y warm cookie. Dare I say these were better than my regular chocolate chip cookies? The ones that are the size of dinner plates? Yes.

This cookie has three different kinds of chocolate chips in it. Three. It has nutella stuffed in the middle of it. Nutella, people. Do you see where this is going? Eat it upon removing from the oven. Pure. Bliss. This is the kind of thing you'll want to have on Halloween because you want something better than the Peanut Butter Cups you're handing out (though I'm not totally sure on that. Let's call it a draw. But you see where I'm going.). Even better, make the dough, roll it out, then freeze it. You can make the cookies one or two or six at a time and not worry about them getting stale. Because, you know, you'll have inhaled them in an hour.

Get to work, people. These cookies won't stuff themselves, and you need some dessert tonight. Ready, GO!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe obtained from Ambitious Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 C) unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. plain greek yogurt
3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Mix together the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Whisk the butter frequently and make sure to watch as it cooks. The butter will change from foamy to a darker, tan color, and then it will take on a nutty aroma. Make sure you take the butter off the burner immediately at this time-it can burn very quickly past this point. Set the butter aside to cool slightly.

Mix the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. In the meantime, combine the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt in a separate bowl and whisk together until blended. Add the egg/yogurt mixture to the butter/sugar mixer and make sure they are fully combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Let the dough rest and come together for two hours in the refrigerator to cool. Also chill your nutella at this time.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure out dough into the size of walnuts (about a tablespoon and a half) and roll into balls. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place a small amount (1/2 to 1 teaspoon) of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; then roll back into it's walnut-sized shape, making sure that the nutella is completely encased by the dough.

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Try not to burn the roof of your mouth while you shovel them all into your belly in one sitting. 

Bagels with Vegetable Cream Cheese

It must be breakfast week on the blog.

I made these a few weeks ago, and now that they're gone, I'm living vicariously through this post. These bagels reminded me of Bruegger's Bagels. When I was in high school, I'd get a hot, fresh, plain bagel, nothing on it and unsliced, and eat it from the outside in. As in, I'd peel the crust off first, eat that, then eat the middle kind of like a donut. It's strange, I know. These bagels remind me of that.

These are kind of like my pretzel recipe. Probably slightly easier than my pretzel recipe, though equally tasty. I tried to make bagels using my pretzel recipe and failed miserably at it, but this one was much, much better.

As you might have guessed, making dough is strangely not my forte. I've had to throw entire batches of things out because I couldn't get the consistency right. I love my dough hook on my strand-up mixer, but it doesn't seem to love me. My bread maker, on the other hand, is a very close, good friend. We get along very well. Throw the stuff in, hit a few buttons, walk away, then poof! Dough in two hours.

I made these, boiled and baked them, and of course the smell brought Adam down the stairs. He tried one, responded with just "Yes", then took another one back up to his office. I guess that means that this is a winner? I'm ready to vary on the flavor, maybe a whole wheat, poppy, or everything, but this is a pretty simple enough recipe to be able to try 15 different ways if you want.

To go with it, I made some vegetable cream cheese. The first time I made this, it was because I had a basket of vegetables that my father had won at a family auction. I went up to congratulate him, noted how much was in it, and he promptly handed it to me, telling me I could probably do more with it than he could. So, one of the things I made with it was veggie cream cheese. Stupidly easy, and damn tasty. It helps that the base is regular cream cheese, and throwing in diced veggies and mixing it up are essentially the only directions. Who knew I could enjoy radishes so much?

Bagels with Vegetable Cream Cheese (recipes from allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com)

Bagels (recipe adapted from allrecipes.com):

1 c. warm water (roughly 110 degrees)
1.5 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 c. bread flour (I didn't have enough bread flour, so I substituted 2 cups with regular white whole wheat flour)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (one single serve package)
3 quarts boiling water
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. cornmeal
1 egg white
if you are interested in toppings, use 3 Tbsp. of your choice-poppyseeds, garlic, sesame seeds, etc.)

Place first five ingredients in the breadmaker with the liquid on the bottom and the yeast on the top. Select dough setting.

When dough is done, let it rest on a floured surface for about ten minutes. While the dough rests, boil the water and 3 tablespoons sugar.

Slice the dough into eight to ten equal pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball , then poke a hole in the middle using your finger. Make the hole and the bagel bigger by twirling it around your finger, then cover and let rest for ten minutes.

Sprinkle a baking sheet lined with parchment paper with cornmeal. Place bagels in boiling water for one minute, flipping over at the 30 second mark. Drain on a towel, then arrange on the baking sheet on top of the cornmeal. Brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with toppings (if using).

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-15 minutes, or until bagels are nicely browned.

Vegetable Cream Cheese (recipe adapted from Food Network)

• 
  
• 2 8 oz. packages room temperature cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. minced scallions
• 2 Tbsp. diced carrot
• 2 Tbsp. diced celery
• 2 Tbsp. diced radish 
• 2 Tbsp. diced red pepper
• salt and pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cranberry Apple Butter

Fall is in the air. I'm not sure whether to be excited (because I can wear thick, warm sweaters and build a fire turn on the switch in our fireplace) or sad (because I love the sunshine, warm weather, and eating outside). I'm going to call that a draw.

This recipe, however, is a solid win (really, with the cliches?).

As always with our CSA, we get a ton of fruit or vegetables several weeks running. We have received apples for three weeks now. Three! I like to put apples in things, but I don't eat them as a snack, standalone. I'm not sure why, because I love things like pears, but there you have it. Apples are never my first choice in a fruit to just munch on. I knew that I had to put these apples in something to make me feel like they weren't wasted. Bread was fine, but I had made a banana bread a few weeks earlier and currently have a whole host of these, these, and these sitting in my fridge right now. I wasn't really interested in any more bread products (after all, I'm not really needing to carb-load these days, despite my baking that says otherwise!).

On Friday, I had to run to the store because we ran out of a few key items (you know, like milk wine) and while I was there I noticed that cranberries had arrived back in the produce section. Not craisins, but real, honest-to-goodness cranberries. All of a sudden, it hit me. I wanted to make cranberry apple butter.

A few years ago, when I was creating my annual Christmas goodie bag of baked goods for friends, I came across this recipe. I thought it looked pretty easy, and different, for that matter, and decided to give it a whirl. Though I only made one batch, I remember eating that stuff on almost anything-bread, muffins, a spoon-and was pretty sad when it was gone. This weekend, I went off in search of that recipe, and except for the fact that the recipe called for Granny Smith apples (which weren't in the CSA!) I realized I had everything else I'd need to do this. Just like that, it made it's way on my to-make list for sometime this weekend (yes, I make a to-make list of dishes and baked goods for the week that I try to do over the weekend. Don't judge).

On Sunday I felt a little chill in the air and got to work. I threw everything in a pot besides the apples, peeled and cored the apples (and tried not to nick my fingers in the process), and let it cook down for hours. Later, I pureed it using my hand blender, and voila! cranberry apple butter!

Massive amounts of cranberry apple butter. Anyone hungry?

I am pretty sure I'll still be eating this by the spring with the amount I have, but you're welcome to take some of it off my hands. That is, if you can pry it from my fingers first. It kind of gives my taste buds a little bit of pucker after giving it a nice small sweet sugar rush. It's not like most sweet spreads I've had (and to be honest, I'll usually only use raspberry jam anyway). I think it'd be especially perfect with a nice hot, buttery popover. Not that I have any fresh popovers in my kitchen...

...yet.

Cranberry apple butter (recipe adapted slightly from From the kitchen of the 13)

2 c brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 c. orange juice
2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries
10 apples of your choice (I used a combination of Macoun, McIntosh, and Cortlands, but the original recipe calls for Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and chopped into large chunks

*Add all ingredients except the apples to a large pot. Cook over medium heat and stir occasionally until the cranberries begin to pop.
* Add apples, turn the heat to medium-low to low and cook until apples get very soft and fall apart. Make sure you stir the mixture frequently to get everything combined together.
*Put the mixture carefully into a blender (let it cool a bit so it doesn't explode in the blender!) or use a hand blender or a potato masher until the mixture is thick and, for the most part, smooth (I always like a couple of chunks of apple or cranberry!). Spread on anything of choice, but hot, fresh bread or popovers never seem to hurt!

Pumpkin Turtle Waffles

Contrary to popular belief, there are no actual turtles in this recipe.

This particular recipe combines two of my favorite flavors, pumpkin and turtle (pecans, chocolate, and caramel). It's also a recipe that allows me to feed into (ha!) my addiction for breakfast and brunch.

Years ago, I went to a place that specialized in pancakes. It was in New Jersey, so thankfully I can't get there often-but there was a particular pancake that I always ordered, the turtle pancake. Gigantic cakes, bigger than your head, filled with chopped pecans and chocolate chips, with a healthy side of real maple syrup. I loved those pancakes-but I could never finish them. Orders came with three of those cakes, and they were so large I was lucky I could finish half. Still, the thought of them makes my mouth water. Man, they were so good.

I found a recipe for pumpkin waffles on my favorite site a few years back and made them into pancakes instead the first time I tried them. We had gone to New Hampshire for the weekend, and we spent the time relaxing, enjoying the view, reading a bunch of books, and, at the end of the weekend, on a mad hunt to find Spirit who decided it would be great fun to race us to the woods (all was fine, by the way). Whenever I make these now, I'm reminded of this view and these pancakes.

Pumpkin has been abundant in our house the last few weeks, and Spirit, in particular, loves it. I thought that having these waffles on Sunday morning would be a perfect compliment of the weekend. I decided to make a couple of variations: traditional pumpkin, pumpkin pecan, and pumpkin turtle.

After I added the pumpkin, I was nice enough to let Spirit lick the measuring cup. I see it as the equivalent of giving your child the beaters after you make chocolate mousse. He, of course, was not disappointed (and no, I wasn't planning on using that cup again in anything until it had been through the dishwasher, if you were worried).

It's a damn good thing I'm the only one in the house that likes chocolate. I was not about to give anyone a bite of these suckers.

This recipe, though easily made for both pancakes and waffles, are so much better in waffle form (plus, waffles have such nice pockets for filling with butter, syrup, or whatever). The whipped egg whites really made a difference in making the waffles light and fluffy, and the combined taste of the pecans and chocolate chips were incredible. I used mini chocolate chips, which are much better than traditional sized when using them in a waffle maker. It's like these waffles were made for Sunday (though I made extra so on Thursday I can think, "man, these waffles were made for Thursday!").

I also tried something different this time, and didn't use real maple syrup (what???). Instead, I found some maple creme from this place at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. It's awesome, and just melts into the pancake or waffle I decide to have with it. They sell at a few other places in Winchester, etc., so if you get the chance and want to try it, I highly recommend it!

Don't have dinner plans yet? Go out and buy some pumpkin and make these for dinner. Then call me so I can come and join you. :)

Pumpkin Turtle Waffles (recipe adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

2 1/2 c. flour (I used white whole wheat)

1/3 c. brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
4 eggs, separated
2 c. buttermilk
1 c. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)

3/4 stick (6 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
chopped pecans

miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cooking spray

Preheat waffle iron. Mix together all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl with the other wet ingredients in another bowl until smooth. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a handheld mixer until they hold soft peaks, roughly 2-3 minutes. Folk the whipped egg whites gently into the waffle batter, until just combined together.

Spray cooking spray lightly on waffle iron and ladle batter into waffle iron, starting in the middle and spreading toward the sides (do not fill every crevice, as it will spill out over the sides. Just do about 3/4 of the way around the iron). Sprinkle the top with chopped pecans and miniature chocolate chips. Cook according to instructions on waffle maker.This mixture makes approximately 9 Belgian waffles.

Put a bit of butter and real maple syrup or maple creme, and dig in.

Zucchini cranberry walnut pancakes

Zucchini, like tomatoes, have been aplenty in our CSA crate recently. We got two huge ones last week, three the week before, and two this past week. I love zucchini as much as the next person, but there were only so many times I could saute and grill it and not want to do something else with it.

A while back I came across a recipe for zucchini pancakes from smitten kitchen. When zucchinis kept on showing up on Thursdays, I knew exactly what I had to do with them, but the recipe I saw wasn't quite exciting enough for me. I needed something more. I'll admit, sometimes I don't know to stop when I'm ahead, and I'll make something and add so much stuff to it that it doesn't taste right anymore. This time, though, I looked at the recipe and thought, "nuts! fruit!" and hoped I'd be safe.

Safe I was. These things are unreal.

I was so pleased with these. I couldn't get enough (and yes, I'll probably make them again this weekend!). The addition of chopped walnuts and dried cranberries give this pancake a little more sweet and tart, and a bit of crunch. To be honest, they remind me a little bit of these muffins; but I'm a firm believer that pancakes trump every breakfast item, so in my mind, they're better.

These pancakes can be a little soft, and if you're not careful, can be a little doughy inside (though we actually don't mind that). The textures are really wild-the soft zucchini, the crunchy nuts, the chewy cranberries-it's fantastic. It does make me think of fall, which makes me a little sad, but then I remember that it's still August, and it's 80 degrees outside and I'm wearing shorts, and it makes me feel better.

Zucchini Pancakes (adapted from smitten kitchen)

2 eggs
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp each of milk and plain greek yogurt, mixed together well
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini (I used one gigantic zucchini, but you can probably do it with two medium ones)
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 c. dried cranberries

In a large bowl, add eggs, olive oil, sugar, the milk/yogurt mixture, and vanilla until smooth. Mix in zucchini shreds. In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini batter, mixing until just combined. Add cranberries and walnuts.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and spray with a butter spray to keep the batter from sticking. Once hot (flick a few water drops over the pan-it's ready if the water dances), ladle the batter in pan-I used a medium ice cream scoop. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook another few minutes until golden brown underneath. Serve with real maple syrup, or with a mixture ratio of 1 Tbsp. syrup to 3 Tbsp. greek yogurt. I used the greek yogurt mixture to make me feel like it wasn't quite as bad for me, and to be honest, I liked the yogurt with this much more than I thought I would (maybe because it reminds me of whipped cream?). I'll have to figure out which is better when I make them again this weekend. 

Heirloom Tomato Pie

For our CSA share last week, we received lots of good things, but one of the things I noticed the most were the tomatoes.

So help me, I swear we got two pounds a metric ton of tomatoes. Though I love tomatoes, I was a little scared-I needed to figure out a way to use all of these tomatoes. A lot of people would have told me, "make sauce!" which would have been fine, except that I really wanted to use them in different ways (look for another tomato related post coming up!). Knowing we were going to have friends over this past weekend for dinner, and knowing that I wanted to make something summery, and knowing that this meal is incredibly simple and one of our favorites, heirloom tomato pie was a no brainer.

I began making this pie last year when I saw it in the Food Network magazine (and, ironically, the recipe showed up as a recipe of the day in my email inbox when I went to make it on Sunday. Coincidence??). I loved tomatoes, and it looked so good on the cover (isn't that always how it goes?) that I had to make it for us for dinner.

And then I made it again. And again. And again. Every time I saw heirlooms, I knew we were having pie. I knew Adam wouldn't mind, because I think he liked it even more than I did. Maybe it reminded him of pizza, but whatever it was, I knew I had a dish that I could make every day if I wanted and we would eat it.

Now, heirloom tomato season is back, and when I got those tomatoes last week, I knew exactly what to do (though admittedly, the tomatoes we got weren't heirloom. I did have a few extra of those already. Regular tomatoes work just as well in this dish).

I will admit that I cheat a bit on this dish. The recipe calls for a homemade cornmeal crust, and I use a storebought pie crust. I use basil instead of the herbs it calls for, and I use greek yogurt as the binder because I usually have a ton of that lying around, and I don't always have mayo (though admittedly, I have done it with mayo, and the pie does become a bit richer. It tastes fantastic either way.).

Heirloom tomato season is short. Putting this dish together is fast and easy. Eating it is awesome. I suggest you get on this one immediately.

 *This is in a tupperware dish to go in my lunch. Not on the bare counter!

Heirloom Tomato Pie (recipe adapted from foodnetwork.com)

• one storebought pie crust
• 3/4 c. shredded pecorino romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 6-8 mixed heirloom tomatoes
• 3/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 c. greek yogurt
• 3 Tbsp. panko breadcrumbs
• 5 Tbsp. fresh chopped basil
• Freshly ground pepper and salt
• 
  

Directions

Saute onion in a large skilled over medium heat with 1 Tbsp. olive oil until soft and opaque, about ten minutes. Slice the tomatoes; toss with 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and drain in a colander until fully drained, about ten minutes (if you get impatient, skip it. I often do. It makes the pie a little soupier but still just as good).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine both cheeses, greek yogurt, breadcrumbs, the basil, 1/4 teaspoon each kosher salt and pepper, and the sauteed onion in a bowl. Take the pie crust and unfold it into a standard pie dish. Spread the cheesy onion yogurt mixture in the crust. Arrange the tomatoes on top. Drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with pepper. Bake until the tomatoes are browned, about 50 minutes.