Eggless Cookie Dough

 As part of my cookie party, I felt it was necessary to provide a treat that everyone eats and refuses to admit--cookie dough.  The problem with cookie dough though is that it can totally kill you if you happen to eat the kind filled with raw eggs.  So, in order to not kill my friends, I searched the web for a dough that tastes like the real thing but is eggless.  Some people felt that the risk being taken away, the taste of dough was not as exciting.  This wasn't the biggest hit at the party, and I felt I made a mistake putting huge blobs on regular spoons, what did go were the tiny spoons with just a bit of dough on top.

I saved the rest of the dough in the freezer to use for ice cream in the future, I understand this dough won't bake well.

The thing is, I think you can make any of your favorite doughs, but, instead of putting in an egg, replace it with a bit of milk - 4 T to be exact.

I used this recipe but because the butter was melted I felt it wasn't good until after it had been refrigerated a while and then left out.  Next time, if there is one, I would probably stick with the basic tollhouse recipe and replace the egg with milk.  I also recommend making about 1/2 to 1/4 of the recipe if you plan to use this as a dessert with friends

Maple Bacon Ice Cream

Bacon is starting to fall off the popularity scale but it is still high enough on our list to make something crazy with it.  We chose to make some maple bacon ice cream for our recent Game Night.  The ice cream recipe called for a bacon brittle, but we had a little trouble with the brittle and decided to omit it altogether and add just the bacon.  If you are afraid of bacon but love a good maple flavor, I recommend making this same ice cream base and adding some crunchy brittle or chocolate chips or something like that.  Heath bars perhaps?


Maple Bacon Ice Cream  adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup maple syrup, preferably grade B
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 slices bacon, cooked crisp and chopped (fry in a skillet 5 min/side on medium high heat)

Directions:

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a bowl until pale yellow. Transfer to a saucepan and whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until almost simmering (the mixture should be thick enough to coat a spoon). Stir in the maple syrup. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes or up to overnight.

Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker instructions. At the very end add the chopped bacon and mix in.  Freeze until ready to serve.  (We churned this less than usual and it resulted in an incredibly soft ice cream which is advisable).

Caramel Nut Tart

I must admit, when Joey suggested we bake this nut tart for our friend's visit last night I was a little grossed out by it. He then related that some reviewers said it tasted like pecan pie, that gave me a better idea of what I was getting into. This tart, however called for oranges, pine nuts and cashews. What would it be like? How could we serve this to our friends?

We did it and I am glad we did. The texture of the filling is not unlike the filling of pecan pie, but everything else is completely different. The crust is basic and not flavorful alone, it tastes of shortbread. The filling is a simple caramel spiked with orange juice and zest. The texture of different toasted nuts and the cashews add a fun surprise to every bite. Unfortunately, the look of the tart is a bit disgusting so it is better to taste it with your eyes closed.  Perhaps if we organized the nuts into more of a pattern on top it wouldn't look so strange?  This could be a stand in for Pecan Pie at this year's thanksgiving celebration, try it for yourself.

The recipe called for walnuts, pine nuts and cashews. We replaced walnuts and some of the pine nuts with pecans. I think the cashew texture is necessary but I encourage you to replace nuts to your pleasing. Check your local bulk grocery for pine nuts and only get just enough to save money--they were $20/lb at our market! We made the crust and froze it overnight before pre-baking, covered in parchment paper. This whole tart could be made the day before but should be stored at room temperature and covered in foil.

Caramel Nut Tart from Epicurious

Ingredients:

Crust:
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, separated
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
dried beans or pie weights (use dried beans over and over for this purpose)
9 inch tart pan with removable bottom (other reviewers said they used a regular pie pan)

Filling:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice (about the juice of 3/4 orange)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (about 1 orange)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup roasted unsalted cashews, leave whole or chop, cooks preference
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
3/4 cup pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

Directions:

For crust:

Using electric mixer, beat butter, powdered sugar, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add egg yolk and cream; beat until smooth. Add flour and beat just until dough comes together. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly to combine. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inchdiameter tart pan with removable bottom. Gently fit dough into pan, trimming all but 1/2 inch of overhang. Fold overhang in, forming double-thick sides. Pierce bottom of crust all over with fork. Freeze 30 minutes. (at this point, we wrapped the crust in parchment and froze it overnight)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line crust with foil. Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until sides are set, about 20 minutes. Remove foil with beans. Bake crust until golden, pressing with back of fork if crust bubbles, about 20 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, whisk egg white in small bowl until thick and foamy.
Brush hot crust lightly with some beaten egg white and place on rack to cool. Maintain oven temperature. (this means that you should make the filling when the crust is cooling so it doesn't get too solid before going back into the oven)

For filling:

To toast the nuts, heat a small, dry skillet over medium heat. Add nuts and toast until fragrant, watch the nuts for burning about 7 minutes.

Stir sugar and 1/4 cup water in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush. Cook until syrup is deep amber, swirling pan occasionally, about 9 minutes. Remove from heat and pour in juice, then cream. Whisk over low heat until smooth. Whisk in butter, honey, orange peel, vanilla, and salt. Stir in cashews, pine nuts, and pecans.

Pour filling into crust. Bake tart until filling is bubbling thickly all over, the filling will not seem set when you take it from the oven but don't be scared, about 22 minutes. Cool tart completely on rack. This is best served at room temperature.

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookie

At my cookies & milk party, this cookie tied with "eggless dough" for the Most Unique category. However, I voted for it as The Perfect Cookie. The cookie has a variety of chips, a strong coffee flavor and tastes fantastic with milk but I bet it would also be great with vanilla ice cream. It would probably be the perfect replacement for your morning coffee if you're into that kind of thing.

These look kind of weird in the picture, huh? I can tell you why. This was the first cookie I made for the cookie party. I pulled out my trusty airbake cookie sheets, set the oven and baked up two sheets of cookies. And they spread like crazy. They spread so much that they started to look a little like fake barf. After I pulled them out of the oven and set them to cool and they did not recover, I pulled out my standard rimmed baking sheets, lined them with parchment and threw a few more cookies in the oven. They turned out perfectly, they didn't spread at all. They looked like a really dark chocolate chip cookie. Well, I learned my lesson but it was too late for most of this dough. I haven't used my airbakes again since, and I kind of feel like they might be on their way to goodwill in the near future.

Despite the strange look, these cookies were so delicious. I might have one now actually, now that you mention it.

The Inspiration

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons instant coffee powder - I used the cheapest kind and it was good in these cookies but gross used for coffee

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, cut into chunks (I didn't cut this in chunks because by the time I used it it was very soft)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Tahitian)

1 pound chocolate chips or chunks -- I used white, milk and semi-sweet

Maldon sea salt flakes (optional)

Directions

1. Whisk the flour, coffee, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter in a mixer until lightened. Add granulated sugar and beat for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat for another 30 seconds. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until blended.

3. Turn mixer speed down and add flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add chocolate and mix until evenly blended in.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for as long as you can stand it, I did probably about 2 hours

5. Preheat oven to 350, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop a heaping tablespoon full of dough onto sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

6. Cool on a wire rack and eat one warm if you can, then eat one for breakfast instead of your coffee and see if it works.

These cookies freeze well. To freeze, lay cookies in a single layer in a zip top gallon sized bag. Add a layer of parchment paper before the next layer of cookies until the bag is full. Lie flat until the cookies are frozen or the whole time if possible. If you didn't head my warnings and used an airbake style cookie sheet make sure the cookies aren't even in the same room as each other as they defrost because they WILL stick together. If you listened and read through this whole post, go you!

Inside Out Cookies

Inside Out Cookies are like a chocolate chip cookie--except opposite--chocolate on the base and white chips in the middle. These cookies didn't win any prizes at my party and there's still a lot of them left, but I thought they were pretty good. More like a brownie than a cookie, these cookies are kind of time consuming. I think I might have overcooked them because I felt they still looked like dough balls even though the tops were cracked. If you see this, they are probably done. You might want to bake just a few first to get an idea of how long this takes in your oven.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped with a serrated knife

4 Tbls. butter

2 extra-large eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350

1. In a separate bowl whisk the flour and baking powder, set aside

2. Over some steaming water in a double boiler (or similar) melt chocolate and butter together, stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool.

3. In the mixer, mix eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla together for ELEVEN (11-13) minutes. It will get really light colored, thick and fluffy.

4. Pour in the chocolate and beat about 2 minutes until incorporated

5. Fold in the flour mixture and the white chips

6. Line baking sheets with parchment and drop Tablespoon sized balls onto the sheets, these don't really spread so you can crowd them.

7. Bake 10-12 minutes or less until cookies are cracked on top but still look ooey gooey

NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookie

This weekend I hosted a milk and cookies birthday party for my 30th birthday. It was pretty fun. I got some of my friends and relatives and myself to bake over 10 varieties of cookies. Then, we served them with milk and asked guests to vote on five categories. This version of the famous New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie won 1st place in two categories - Just like Mom's and The Perfect Cookie. See for yourself and make this cookie today...er make the dough today, start enjoying them tomorrow or the next day.

Note 1: Do NOT skimp on the refrigeration. For some reason, it makes a difference. Do at least 24 hours

Note 2: Do not use an airbake-style cookie sheet, it makes the cookies spread too much

Note 3: I started off making them huge but ended up making them more normal sized, they were still good

Note 4: Don't forget to salt the tops

I used this recipe, which is probably a little different than the original, but these are the ones to try.

2 C minus 2 T all-purpose flour

1 2/3 C bread flour

1 1/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t coarse salt (if you use regular salt you are supposed to use less)

1 1/4 C butter

1 1/4 C brown sugar

1 C and 2 T white sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla extract

1 1/4 lbs chocolate disks - bittersweet or dark (I found these at Sprouts in the bulk section, I used dark chocolate but it tasted a lot like bittersweet)

Maldon Sea Salt Flakes

1. Whisk flours, baking soda and powder in a bowl, set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugars together for 5 minutes until very light. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well. Add vanilla.

3. Reduce speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined. Add the chocolate discs and try not to break too many of them.

4. Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with a piece of plastic pressed onto the top of the dough. Refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours-but up to 72. (I did 24)

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Line non-airbake cookie sheets with parchment paper or slipat sheets

7. Scoop cookie dough onto the prepared trays and turn chocolate pieces so they are horizontal

8. Sprinkle with maldon sea salt or other flake salt

9. Bake until golden brown but still soft about 10-12 minutes for regular sized cookies or 18-20 minutes for large sized cookies

10. Let cool on trays 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool. Do yourself a favor, have one warm.

These cookies freeze well. To freeze, place one layer of cookies on the long side of a gallon sized zip top bag. Place a piece of parchment on the cookies and continue to layer until the bag is full. Carefully move the bag to the freezer and lay flat until frozen and if possible the whole time. When you defrost, be sure the cookies are not touching or they will stick together.

Coffee-Cocoa Rubbed Pork Chops with Blueberry Hoisin Glaze

This past week, while browsing my list of 80 favorite food blogs, I noticed that the Pioneer Woman was doing some product placement grill contest.

*Note: Product placement is seriously crazy recently. I am all for product placement that fits in, but when they make it all exaggerated and obvious it sort of ruins the show/contest/everything. I'm in advertising, I know about marketing your brand, but still. It is getting ridiculous.

I thought a lot of the Pioneer Woman Grill Contest (Beans) looked great!  So today I set out to make the pork chop recipe.  It was...not a hit in our family. I actually did like the sauce but because I was eating the sauce, I didn't taste the rub. The rub was definitely not good so I understand....but maybe I didn't make it well? Who even knows.

But let me tell you, pork loin chops--about 12 minutes on the indirect heat, cooked so perfectly. Try it, with another rub or maybe this one because it was probably good and just not to us...

Now for some uses of hoisin sauce...

The recipe.