German Chocolate Cake Cookies

Do I really need to discuss the merit of joining german chocolate cake and cookies into one glorious baked treat?

Does not the name say it all?

German. Chocolate. Cake. Cookies.

Is this something you think you can handle?

I barely could.

Pecans, brown sugar and coconut on top of a chocolate cookie.

I'm not sure that it gets better than this.

Bake a batch of these and share them with a friend.... just don't skimp on the frosting or you might lose that friend.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

Source: Peach Cobbler Murder by Joanne Fluke

Cookie Dough:

1 cup butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

Frosting:

½ cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup packed shredded coconut

½ cup chopped pecans

¼ cup chilled butter, cut into 4 pieces

2 egg yolks

Directions:

1. Use a doubler boiler or your microwave to melt together the chocolate chips and butter.

2. In a seperate bowl, beat together the white sugar and eggs until well mixed and smooth. Slowly add the cooled chocolate mixture and continue to beat. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla and flour. Mix well. Cover the dough and set aside.

3. In a food processor, chop up the brown sugar and coconut until the coconut is very fine. Add the pecans a butter. Process until the butter is in small bits. Add the egg yolks and continue to process until completely incorporated. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate the frosting.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the oven is heated, pat the cookie dough into 1'' balls. Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet (leave lots of room for spreading). Press down in the center of each ball to make a deep indentation.

5. Pat the chilled frosting into ½" balls and place in the indentations. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and allow them to completely cool before enjoying.

Sour Cream Twists

Where did summer go?

I feel like I went inside my house to escape the heat and when I left the next morning the leaves were changing colors and the temperature had dropped 10 degrees.

All of sudden I'm digging for down filled jackets and wholly boots.

I'm not complaining though.

Definitely not!

I love the fall. 

I love being able to cook roasts and bake breads and pies. 

To me, there's not much better than coming out of the cold and being hit with the smell of fresh baked bread laced with roasted meat and cinnamon sugar.

YUM and YUM.

That's why I made these sour cream twists.

Pretty much just for the smell.

If I could bake these and bottle the scent, I'd be a billionaire.

No joke. Probably even a gillionaire.

Not only do they smell a-mazing, they also taste dee-licious.

The dough is really tangy and soft while the cinnamon sugar filling is the perfect blend of crunch and sweetness.

I won't be waiting too long to make these again.

Bake these! Your house will smell fantastic.

Sour Cream Twists

Makes: 24 twists

Source: Della's Favorites

1 cup sour cream

2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast

¼ cup warm water

2 tbsp butter, softened

3 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp butter, melted

⅓ cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp cinnamon 

Directions:

1. Heat sour cream to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sour cream, butter, sugar, salt, egg and one cup flour. Beat until smooth.

2. Mix in remaining flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Knead on a floured board until smooth. Let rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size.

3. Roll into a rectangle, 24'' x 6''. Brush with the remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over a lengthwise half of the rectangle. Fold the other half over the sugar half. Cut into one inch strips, holding the strips at each end. Twist in opposite directions.

4. Place 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet, pressing the ends on the sheet. Cover and let rise until double in size.

5. Heat oven to 375°F. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden. If you want, drizzle with a glaze.

Garlic Bread Sticks

Yes..... well..... ahem...... these look a bit rude, don't they?

They were really just supposed to look like a bread stick; the phallic resemblance was completely unintentional.

I'm even a bit embarrassed looking at that top photo. Let's just move on to photos of dough. 

Yes, innocent looking dough..... much better!

Anyways...... these breadsticks were inspired by a Glee eposide via the Food Network.

Apparently somewhere in the show the winners of a duet competition get a dinner at a fictional place called BreadstiX where, ironically (not), the breadsticks, much like these ones, are bottomless.

I can't say that I care very much about Glee, but I do care about bread.

I care deeply about bread.

Especially bread that is soft, chewy, garlicky and accidentally inappropriately shaped.

These were really great fresh out of the oven but didn't keep well. By the next day they were getting a bit dry. In the future, I might try freezing them in dough sticks then taking them out to rise just before I bake them.

Don't worry, if you don't know anything about Glee (like me) you can still enjoy these yummy breadsticks.

Garlic Bread Sticks

Source: Food Network

Makes: 12

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme and/or oregano), for sprinkling

Directions:

Put 3/4 cup warm water in a food processor. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and 1 teaspoon salt and pulse until dissolved. Add the flour, olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter and pulse until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. Continue to process with the motor running until smooth, about 2 more minutes.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; brush with olive oil. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Divide into 12 pieces, then roll each piece into a 12-to-16-inch rope. Arrange the ropes 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets, rolling them to coat with the oil. Cover each baking sheet with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm place until the breadsticks double in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and the garlic in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave until melted, about 1 minute. Brush the breadsticks with the garlic butter; sprinkle with herbs and salt. Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

These cookies have a little bit of everything in them.

Dried cranberries, toasted pecans, oats and chocolate chips.

Normally, I'm just a straight-up, no frills chocolate chip cookie kind of girl but occasionally, very occasionally, I get a hankering for something a little bit more interesting.

Given that yesterday the skies decided to open up and release an ocean of rain on Revelstoke, it seemed like a good day to turn on the oven to restock my cookie supply. 

Yes, I am amply supplied with cookies at all times. 

I had seen a recipe for John's Kitchen Sink Cookies from Martha Stewart that piqued my interest but when I checked it out it had corn syrup in it. I don't know why but it doesn't seem right to put corn syrup in cookies so instead, I settled on this recipe from the Food Network magazine and made a few changes (as always).

Make these with whatever's in your cupboard, raisins, toffee chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, you name it! Sandwich them between vanilla ice cream for a quick and delicious summer dessert.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Makes about 20

Adapted from the Food Network

¾ cup flour

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

½ tsp baking soda

pinch of salt 

½ cup butter

1 egg

1 ½ cup rolled oats

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup toasted, chopped pecans

½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and light brown, dark brown and granulated sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix on low speed until incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture, oats, dried cranberries, pecans and chocolate chips and mix until combined.

3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. With wet hands, make 20 balls from the dough and put on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Press down on the dough balls with the palm of your hand to make flat circles.

4. Bake the cookies until golden and still a bit tender in the center, 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the baking sheets for 1 minute, then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Summer Quinoa Salad

It seems that I have a crush on quinoa.

Breakfast Quinoa.
Crunchy Quinoa.
Mango Chicken Curry Quinoa Salad.

It's just fun to say: keen-wah, keen-wah, keen-wah, keen-wah, keen-wah...........keen-wah.

Actually, I like that it's so versatile.
You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and even dessert.

Unlike a lot of other foods, I find the leftovers really easy to use up. You can throw leftover quinoa in soup, smoothies (yes, blended up!), chocolate cake (you heard me) and of course salad like, conveniently, the one I have right here.

This salad is a mixture of chicken, raw veggies, quinoa and feta in a lemony vinaigrette. The recipe for the dressing is a bit rough so if you make it you'll have to adjust the ingredients to your liking.

Try it out and bring it to your next picnic.
Hope you like it.

Summer Quinoa Salad

Jesse's Kitchen Creation

Makes about 4 cups

For the salad:

2 cup cooked quinoa

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded

½ head broccoli, diced

1 sweet red bell pepper, diced

¼ cup crumbled feta

For the dressing:

1 shallot, minced

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp maple syrup 

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp minced parsley.

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine together all the salad ingredients. In a small bowl whisk together dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine. Serve chilled. (Doesn't keep well).

Raw Lemon Chews

Wow! It's like a trillion degrees here. No joke.

I just think about going outside and I get a sunburn.

Yesterday, I posted on Facebook that I couldn't wait for winter and I was bombarded with hate mail.

Can you believe that? I even got a buh humbug.

Who cares that we only get 2 months of summer here compared to 8 months of heavy snow; the summer heat is oppressive!

I consider myself too much of a lady to sweat like this.

Since I can't turn my oven on for fear that my house will burst into flames with the temperature rise, I made these cool, somewhat refreshing lemony treats. 

They're not hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies but they do fill a certain void for sweetness in my life. 

The date, almond, lemon mixture is so sweet that I'm pretty sure my one year old thinks they're candy. She steals them from the fridge and hides in the corner in fear that I'm going to take them away.

Of course, I think it's great that she likes them and even considers them a treat.

So if you're feeling the need for a sweet baked good without the baking, try out these babies. I know you'll love them.

Raw Lemon Chews
Makes an 8'' x 8'' pan
Bar: Jesse's Kitchen original recipe
Icing: Recipe based on the Rawtarian


For the bar:
1 cup whole, raw almonds
¾ cup dried dates
1 lemon (preferably organic)

For the icing (optional):
½ cup dried dates
¼ + ⅛ cups water
¼ cup coconut butter
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:
1. Use your food processor to grind up the almonds into a coarse meal. Set almonds aside and grind dates as fine as you can. Add the zest and juice of one whole lemon and continue to process. Add the almonds and process for a few minutes until the mixture sticks together. Press the mixture into an 8'' x 8'' pan.
2. To make the icing, soak the dates in the water for about 15 minutes. Blend all of the icing ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor until smooth (mine didn't really get that smooth). Start on a low speed and gradually work your way up.
3. Spread the icing over the bar and refrigerate until firm. Cut into square or use a biscuit cutter to make pretty little rounds.