TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

Or rather, Triple Chip and Whatever Nuts Are In the Pantry Chocolate Chunkers. I think Dorie's title is a bit better, you know, being succinct is a good thing. Once again, the weekend got away from me, but for good reason. We were celebrating Glenn's birthday, so I suppose it is okay. Now it is Monday (as I am writing this post) and I completely forgot TWD was tomorrow. How is it possible I forget these things when I do them every week?

We're leaving for Florida this Thursday night so we have been holding off on grocery shopping because inevitably everything we buy would be bad by the time we got back on Sunday. So for this TWD, instead of going to the store and buying the appropriate ingredients, I decided to screw it and make do with what I had in the pantry and fridge. Lo and behold, I give you a chocolate cookie packed with peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, chopped hazelnuts, chopped pecans, and chopped walnuts. Who cares if all of that doesn't go together. They smell good.

For once my cookies came out somewhat like the picture in the book. Hooray! I have fat little chubby cookies at last! This was another quick and easy recipe chosen this week by Claudia of Fool for Food and I really enjoyed it. I like when I can come home from work and just throw together a batch of yummy sweetness at a moment's notice. This week's TWD in one word: chunky

TWD: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

This one definitely sounded promising. I love Whoppers. I always make myself sick eating them when I get them at the movie theatres. At least now they are in manageable portions. This week's recipe was chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart (btw I love the color of her blog) and I was excited to try it.

The dough was very simple to make, as most cookie doughs are. However, in my haste to finish before my Pizza Hut delivery came, I wasn't paying attention and creamed 2 sticks of butter with the sugar instead of the 1 1/3 sticks of butter. Oops! I scraped that out, threw it out, and started over. At least I figured out my mistake before I wasted much else right? After that it was all smooth sailing. Baking them was a different story. Maybe my book was messed up or something, but it didn't have an oven temperature. Kind of odd. I guessed 350. I think I underbaked my cookies a bit too much, but I like them still. I like gooey cookies. To me, it just means they will last longer before they dry out.

Thanks Rachel! Good recipe pick this week. This was a great sweet tooth pacifier (aside from the fact that my cookies were severly underbaked and came out flat, very unlike the thick ones in the picture.) I still enjoyed them a lot. The only change was using Nesquik instead of the malted chocolate milk powder, They only had the plain flavor there and I was not about to pay 6 dollars for Ovaltine that I would not use. I will however be finishing off the Nesquik though. Yum! This week's TWD in one word: malty

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

Whew... that title is a mouthful.

Like I said last Tuesday, I am totally getting this done on time. I am actually writing this on Wednesday the 27th and setting it to post at 12:01 AM on Tuesday the 2nd. Hooray for me. Enough back patting for me though.

I really enjoyed this recipe. It was so simple to make, but then again, most of Dorie's recipes are. If you can keep everything you need for the recipe close by, most recipes whip up in a matter of minutes. I can't really say the same thing about the pies and such, but oh well. Anyway, Glenn just opened the fridge and went, "Mmmmm... Cookie dough!" As he went to reach for the bowl, I quickly informed him that there's oatmeal in it. As soon as I could finish speaking he looked at me all disgusted like and says, "Why do I let you buy oatmeal? Never again, that's nasty!" In case it wasn't obvious enough, Glenn doesn't like oatmeal. Whatever, I don't make stuff with oatmeal all that much, and when I do, he doesn't need to eat it. It's not like I don't have an alternative form of sweets! The chocolate banded ice cream torte is sitting in the freezer right now, not to mention he just finished a piece of it. He boggles my mind sometimes, but I love him. I'm a major p.i.t.a. for him so I suppose we are even.

Anyway, now that one cookie has made it from bowl to oven to my mouth, I can officially say that I really like these cookies. I made a couple minor changes. First, I used half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips and second I used dark brown sugar instead of light brown. Both changes made a big difference. Well I don't actually know that, but they sure are enjoyable cookies. They have that deep warmth and richness to them, if that makes any sense, but they feel good to eat. I suppose that's why they, whoever they is, coined the term "comfort food." Since I like my cookies on the chewier side, I baked mine at the minimum time, but I would suggest a minute or so less. I'm really glad I made these despite Glenn's protestations. This week's TWD in one word: warm

TWD: Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

Once again, I am totally slacking in regards to TWD. I am barely pulling all this together at the last minute. Next week I swear I will have my post by Tuesday, 12:01 AM. It's not that I don't want to do the recipes, because I want to do every last one. It's just that somehow, ever since I started my new job, my time at home disappears. I am completely clueless as to how this happens though because I don't bring any work home. I'm a counseling secretary at a high school, there is not much to stress about yet (at least until testing comes around) and I don't have any stuff that I could bring home even if I wanted to. I'm baking at the same pace that I always do, but still, my time disappears too quickly and I end up being late for TWD. Oh well, I'm still getting it done.

Anyway, this week's recipe chosen by Amy of Food, Family, and Fun. I had to beg Glenn to let me buy the optional Chambord for this recipe. I LOVE raspberries and I just started dreaming up all the ways that I could use the Chambord in my baking. The stuff smells amazing by the way. Once I got down to it and read the recipe I was a bit weirded out. The eggs. This isn't getting baked at all mind you. I'm also not one to balk at the idea of eating raw eggs in wonderful creations like cookie dough, but the eggs in this recipe just seemed so weird to me. Who am I to doubt Dorie though so I forged ahead despite my doubts. You can see what I am talking about by heading over to Amy's blog to see the recipe.

In the end, I found this process to be easy but a little on the time consuming side, but what do you really expect when you make something frozen? I enjoyed this because it combines two of the best things, raspberries and chocolate, and it's frozen. It's hard to not like something frozen when you live in 115 degree daily weather in Arizona. Yes, woe is me. In any event, I think this would make a great party dessert. It looks rather impressive and it is simple and yummy. Long story short though, I have no pictures for now. I really don't want to mess it up and since it is getting a little on the later side, I am going to wait until it is completely frozen tomorrow and cut it then. I promise it's done though! Just sitting amongst the frozen veggies in my freezer. This week's TWD in one word: cold

TWD: Granola Grabbers

Hmmm, what to say about these um, cookies, if you will. They weren't bad. They weren't terribly life alteringly good either. They were decent cookies. I can't say that my granola grabbers were the same "healthier" version in the book, but mine were more like the rebellious spawn. I don't care for raisins in cookies, so I took them out and swapped them with white chocolate chips. I didn't feel like peanuts, and Glenn doesn't like slivered almonds, so I took those out as well. I subbed candied pecans in place of both types of nuts, and I must say that it was very wise to do so. My blend of french vanilla granola (courtesy of Fresh & Easy) along with the white chocolate chips, candied pecans, and dark brown sugar instead of light proved to be a tasty cookie.

Glenn took some to work, as usual, and I got the dreaded "they were okay" comment from him. He said people liked them, but definitely weren't crazy about them like they were with my CCCs or the sinful brownies I made. Oh well, I can't be absolutely amazing all the time.

These aren't terribly attractive cookies either... hmmm.

Thanks to Michelle of Bad Girl Baking I ventured out and tried something I probably would have overlooked in the first place. I did enjoy these, and it was a fun process that was really very easy. This week's TWD in one word: crunchy

TWD: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Sorry for the late post, but I just started a new job at a school and I have been taking care of registration there. I have no idea what I am doing, but I am picking it up a little at a time. It's just crazy swamped and I come home much happier than I did at my other crappy job, but it's been a bit exhausted.

I was pretty excited to make this recipe this week. Target had blueberries on sale so I picked up a bunch, and sour cream is always cheap, so it was nice to have a cheap recipe to make. When I was blending everything together in the blender (only like the 3rd time I've used it since we got married) I tasted a little bit of it and spit it out. I really thought this was disgusting. I mean this as no offense to Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, because I was really excited to try this, but really, without the extra cup of sugar that I added to it, I think it was nasty.

Bottom line, I don't like sour cream so this wasn't a sweet enough recipe for me. Glenn liked it a lot, so that is good I suppose. This week's TWD in one word: sour

TWD: Summer Fruit Galette

This weeks TWD was much much less of an adventure than the last one. Apparently Dorie's definition of summer fruit involves peaches, apricots, nectarines, and plums. PASS. I would actually call this recipe the Cheap Fruit Galette because when I was at the grocery store I looked for the cheap fruit and bought a considerable amount of it. One pound of strawberries for $1? Check. Two mangoes for $1? Check. Four kiwi for $2? Check. Awesome. I also grabbed a bag of sweetened coconut for good measure and that was pretty cheap too. Apparently I went for some sort of tropical theme here.

I had all of the fruit for this at the beginning of last week, but something in me was reluctant to start making it. Before my strawberries molded over I gave them copious amounts of sugar in a nice Rubbermaid container and then a nice big shake. They were perfect come time to bake. I suppose this was a fairly easy recipe to make, the pie dough is very easy, I just used a pastry blender*. I do have to say though, mangoes are a PAIN to cut, or maybe it was just the one I had. Anyway, I enjoyed this recipe and had no real issues, although it was much prettier pre-bake. I would like to know when I will start assembling heavy, fragile desserts on the pans instead of on a bare counter. Last time, for the Danish Braid, I made it on the counter and had quite a predicament when it came time to lift that heavy thing to the pan. Again, I assembled my galette on a bare counter, but thankfully I had an almost big enough pancake spatula to save me. In any event, thank you to Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs for picking a fun recipe that is very easy to play with according to the season. This weeks TWD in one word: Fruity.

* When I first got married and moved in with Glenn I found this very strange utensil in one of the kitchen drawers that I had never seen before. The best we could come up with is some strange kind of potato masher. I didn't even find out until like a couple of months ago that the strange contraption was a pastry blender. Ever since then I have been excited to use it for stuff, I don't know why though. Kind of a lot of work that a food processor could do for you.

TWD: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

Hmmm... well this was an adventure to say the least. First of all, cherries are quite expensive around Arizona. Second, Glenn makes a big deal about how good Rainier cherries are every time we see them, and those are even more expensive than normal red cherries. Third, rhubarb is near impossible to find here. First we checked Target, because we always shop there, then we went to Fry's since we were right by one at the time, then off to AJ's where they had one lone stalk, then to Trader Joe's where we wanted to get all American Psycho style on all the self-righteous hippies, and FINALLY to another AJ's where we found about a pound of rhubarb at last.

I have to say, this was all a bit ridiculous. Everything was easy to prepare and the dough for the topping came together wonderfully and tasted delicious pre-bake. Before I baked it all, I sprinkled a generous amount of raw sugar over the top, which worked out beautifully. However, there are a few changes I would make to the recipe (out of respect of Dorie Greenspan and the copyright laws I won't post the actual recipe). In my opinion, there is too much rhubarb in the cobbler and the next time I would do about 3-4 ounces less and do an equal amount more in the cherries. I would also cut the rhubarb into 1/4 inch pieces as opposed to the 1 inch pieces the recipe calls for. I like my rhubarb more mushy than crisp. Oh yeah, and I halved the amount of ginger in the fruit mixture and added a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Muy bueno. This really was a fun pick because it was SOOOO easy and it made me think twice about what otherwise seemed like a boring biscuit like top.

As for the end result, Glenn and I both enjoyed it. However, it doesn't photograph well (at least not for me). We agree that the rhubarb should be cut much smaller. I also underbaked the cobbler by about 4-5 minutes. Overall, this was a challenge to get everything together, but it was super easy to make and yummy in the end. Before I forget too, I must credit Amanda from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake for choosing such a great and easy recipe. This week's TWD in one word: simple.

TWD: Chocolate Pudding

Hooray! My very first TWD post (Tuesdays with Dorie)! Alas, the Daring Bakers have not been quenching my thirst for challenges that I might not otherwise conquer without a little pushing. That led me to convince Glenn to run out to Borders and buy me the Dorie Greenspan book, Baking: From My Home to Yours for only $8! What a sweet deal, I couldn't pass it up. As soon as I got it I immediately requested to be added to the TWD group. This leads me to my first challenge. Chocolate Pudding!

I've been reading lots of other people's posts about this and it seems like no one likes pudding! That is absolutely ludicrous if you ask me, but thankfully, this delightful recipe has been changing many minds. It is super rich, wonderfully smooth and creamy, and most of all it has the perfect amount of chocolate. I must say thank you to Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen for picking this yummy recipe.

As for the experience, it was so easy. I didn't feel like making the whole recipe so I easily halved it (with the exception of halving an egg: awkward) and it really didn't take very long. I only got nervous because I have a super mini food processor (3 cup capacity) that doesn't have one of those feed spouts. I was worried the hot milk would sit on the egg for too long without blending, but everything turned out fine. I am considering getting a bigger food processor seeing how much the lovely Ms. Greenspan seems to love hers. This weeks TWD in one word: smooth.