dark chocolate cherry walnut cookies

getting into the Valentine’s day spirit…

Chocolate cherry, walnut cookies (makes~2 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup flour
2/3cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cups (12 oz)+ 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

• Bittersweet, or dark, chocolate chips make these cookies really rich and chocolatey, without being overly sweet. Using semi-sweet, or milk chocolate chips would work, too, but your cookies are going to turn out sweeter

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup dried sour cherries

– Melt butter and 2 cups chocolate chips. Once chocolate is melted, remove from heat and set aside.
– Beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes on high speed. Whisk in chocolate until fully incorporated
– In a separate bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredient and mix until just incorporated
– Add remaining 1 cup chocolate chips, dried cherries, and nuts and mix by hand until evenly distributed. Refrigerate batter for 15-20 minutes
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
– Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick pray. Spoon about tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto baking sheet; smaller balls are better, because the batter will spread
– Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes; the top will begin to crack, and the bottoms will be set, but their insides will still be soft

• If you have a conventional electric oven, the top tray of cookies will cook faster than the bottom. After you take the top rack out, cook the bottom tray of cookies for another 3-5 minutes
• I made a double batch of cookies and couldn’t fit all of them in the oven at once, so I put the extra batter back in the fridge, and once the first batch was done, I scooped them off the trays, put them on a cooling rack, and scooped a new batch of dough onto the hot baking sheet

Once cooled, wrap up a bunch of cookies for yourself, your neighbors, and your friends and have a happy valentines’ day! The cookies also keep well in the freezer; just microwave for a few seconds to warm them up!

 

bourbon banana bread pudding

 bourbon banana bread pudding

1 day(s)-old french baquette, ciabatta loaf, sweet bread, brioche, or challah (or a mix), cut into 1/2″ cubes

• If you have a fresh loaf, I would recommend toasting it or drying it in the oven, otherwise, when you soak the bread it’s going to all become one textureless glob5-6 large banana, sliced up

1 cup currants

• feel free to use raisins instead of currants. I like currants because they’re not as sweet as raisins

6 eggs
3 cups whole milk or half-n-half
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup bourbon
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
4 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
– Mix bread, banana slices, and currants into a large baking dish
– Whisk together eggs, milk, sugars, bourbon, and spices. Pour over bread and allow to soak for 30-45 minutes
– Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle pieces of butter over the top and bake for 45 min- 1 hr
– Serve warm with ice cream!

banana cupcakes w/ chocolate buttercream

Banana cupcakes (makes ~20 cupcakes)
These cupcakes have a lot of bananas in them, which makes their texture denser than a plain chocolate or vanilla cupcake. However, they don’t taste heavy, and it’s quite easy to eat at least 2 of them before you start to feel them in your stomach.

3 cups        all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp          baking powder
1 tsp          baking soda
1/2 tsp      cinnamon
1/4 tsp      nutmeg
1 cup         butter, melted
3 cups      bananas, mashed
4                eggs
2 tsp         vanilla

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
– Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together butter, bananas, eggs, and vanilla
– Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
– Pour batter into greased muffin tins. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

Chocolate buttercream (enough for 2 dzn cupcakes)

2 cups    butter, room temperature
1 cup unsweetened coco powder, sifted
3-4 cups confectionery (powdered) sugar, sifted
2 tbsp heavy cream

– On low speed whisk together butter and coco powder until butter is light and creamy
– Slowly add sugar to butter in small portions, mixing between additions until incorporated
* If the frosting begins to get too thick, add in a little cream to get the consistency you want. If you’re frosting a cake you may want a thicker frosting, but if you’re piping frosting a thinner frosting will work better.

happy baking