Saturday, November 15, 2014

Tinkering the Chocolate-Chip-Dunking Cookie

Chocolate
Dunking
mildly Crunching
. . . Vegan

Those are the priorities on the cookie recipe.

I've been tinkering batch by batch the last few weekends. It all started with the Trader Joe's chocolate chip wrapper recipe:

2 1/4 C flour
1t salt
1t baking soda
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
1 C butter (room temp)
1t vanilla
2 eggs
1 package of Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375.
combine flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
combine butter, sugars, and vanilla and beat until creamy. ( I hand mix these just until mixed).
Add eggs.
Add dry ingredients.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake 8-10 min 

The first weekend batch I switched out 1 1/4 cup of the flour with instant oatmeal and chia seed "egg" for the eggs. Great results. At this point, I'm almost exclusively switched from ground flax to ground chia for egg replacer across all baking. The formula:

1 large egg = 1 TBS ground chia seed + 3 TBS water*

*Give or take a bit on the 3 TBS water if you don't want too much liquid in the recipe.

The next weekend batch I switched from butter to Earth Balance Soy Free butter replacement.
I event went so far as starting this at room temp. Great flavor so far but they seemed a little oily.
This batch was also graced with Guittard Dark Chocolate chips. They were 1/2 off at Whole Foods and came to $3/bag. I should have stocked up! These chips brought the cookies closer to transcendence, one satiating cookie at a time.

Thoughts on the next batch,
handmix, lower cooking temp to 350.

PS I don't obsess over all recipes methodically in this fashion but this will hopefully be the signature
on which I will make million$.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Guest Chef - MEV

Best known for her cameo appearance on the mini-series, Cooking with MEV, Mary-Ellen boasts a
no-measure technique. The results are delicious BUT-- get out the Friskies, getting her to write it down is like HERDING CATS! I've taken drastic steps at attempting today's recipe from the Guest Chef. It's not plagiarism! You'll just have  to bare with my attempt until MEV publishes that long awaited . . .cook book.

Farm Frittata

1 lb of Swiss Chard leaves and stems chopped.
1 clove garlic minced
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup Feta Cheese Crumbled
3 slices of Italian bread chopped into small pieces (like croutons).
Salt Pepper Olive Oil

Saute swiss chard with garlic very slowly,
season with salt and pepper.
Beat an egg, adding a little milk.
Toss the bread and feta over the Swiss Chard.
Pour the beaten egg over this veggie mixture.
Cook very slowly until the Egg is dry and golden. Flip the
frittata out of the pan to serve.

11/15/14 Edit from MEV: "Add:   Adjust to your liking, more veggies, cheese, eggs, etc!"