Choolate Hazelnut Banana Toaster Strudel

Well, this isn't really toaster strudel, more like a hand-held pie...but it was meant to mimic the famous 'Pop Tart' (R)....which could actually be toasted.  Nutrition be damned...sometimes you just need a treat!  This was a HUGE hit in my house and a perfect post-exam treat.  Believe me....we needed it.  The stress of final exams is becoming so intense these days.  I think our kids feel that every decision is a career decision...that is a lot of pressure for a teen.  So, a little chocolate hazelnut spread, banana, cinnamon and pastry must be able to ease some of that??  There is a cure for everything.

I left these out to cool while I was out and came home to find a missing pastry and a sweet note...

This is another recipe of 'assembly', rather than culinary art, but you are certainly welcome to whip up your own favourite pastry recipe to substitute for the 'express' pastry version here!  I will try it again with my own pastry recipe, but this one was so easy and fast...I had a cute little plastic mould from Williams Sonoma, but these could easily be made in triangles and folded over.

Chocolate Hazelnut  Banana Toaster Strudel

One package ready-made pastry
Chocolate hazelnut spread
1 banana, sliced very thin
cinnamon sugar
1 egg (beaten)

Preheat oven to 350F

Roll out pastry on floured surface.  Cut into triangles or use square pastry strudel mould.  Add one heaping teaspoon of chocolate hazelnut spread, lay a banana slice on top and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Brush edges of pastry with beaten egg and fold over (for triangles) or add top (for rectangle mould) and press edges together to seal.  Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar.  Bake on parchment-lined cookie sheet for 25 mins (less for triangles) or until golden.  Let cool for 10 mins on baking rack.  Enjoy quickly...they disappear fast!

Buttered Popcorn Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Yes, I just said that...

In my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, these are ranking up there.  In the words of a recent visitor to our house..."I don't know where you got those cookies from, but they are like crack cocaine"....I suspect the comment is due to the influence of the recent Toronto Mayor Rob Ford 'Crackstarter' scandal, but it's a descriptor that I could only take as a compliment!  No drug dealers were killed in the making of these cookies.

Also, it is exam time in our house, so the 'post-exam' treat posts will be fast and furious.  Keep a look out for indulgent goodies!  That's the best stress relief that I know...

This recipe was inspired by both Joy the Baker and Smitten Kitchen, who have featured similar recipes.  I have decided to use my own cookie recipe and add in the buttered popcorn and sea salt.  I've also tried using store-bought kettle corn, which works quite well too.  Let's face it, sweet and salty goodness together in one cookie is just too good to pass up!

Buttered Popcorn Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

1 cup butter (room temp)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 - 3 cups popped popcorn, lightly buttered (you choose how much popcorn...personal preference is important!)
sea salt  (I use fleur de sel)

Heat oven to 350F.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well.  In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, soda and salt.  Add to butter and sugar mixture and mix until just combined and there are no flour bombs.  Using a wooden spoon, mix in chocolate chips and popcorn.  Scoop cookie dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.  I use a 2" ice cream scoop for uniform size.  Sprinkle cookies with a bit of sea salt.  Bake for 15 mins or until golden and slightly brown on the bottom.  Let cool on pan for 5 mins and remove to a wire rack.

Oh Yeah....Smothered Hot Chocolate Cookies!

So, it's getting dark earlier now...certainly not as early as I remember of my days in Britain....in November,  it would actually start getting dark at 3:30 pm.  Seriously.  But I digress....it is getting dark earlier...and cold...and I actually wore gloves today.  So these cookies are very appropriate....fudgey chocolate cookie, smothered in chocolate frosting with a lovely marshmallow surprise inside.  Uh huh!

Just like a warm hot chocolate in front of the fire...but better because it is sweeter and meltier and slathered in chocolate!  So, we welcome the cold.  We embrace the cold.  We mock the cold....Bring it!

Smothered Hot Chocolate Cookies

Cookies:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch processed)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
About 9 large marshmallows, halved crosswise

Frosting:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons (just under 1/2 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch processed)
1/2 cup milk
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Sift together flour, cocoa, soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand up or electric mixer, fitted with paddle attachment.  Mix on medium high speed until pale and fluffy (about 2 mins).  Reduce speed to medium low, mix in egg, milk and vanilla.  Mix in flour mixture all at once and stir until combined.  Dough will be slightly sticky.
4. Using a small ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.  Bake cookies until firm (8 - 10 mins).  Immediately press half a marshmallow on top of each cookie and pop back into the oven for 2 mins.  Let cool completely on wire racks.  If the cookie is still warm when you try to ice it, it will be a slippery, gooey mess...

Frosting:
1. Put confectioners' sugar in a medium bowl.  Melt butter with cocoa in a saucepan or the microwave (for about 30 seconds).  Stir well.  Add butter mixture to the confectioners' sugar.  Whisk in milk and vanilla.
2. When cookies are cool (see above), spread about one teaspoon or so of frosting on top of each cookie to cover the marshmallow.  Not too much or a drippy cookie, you will have!  Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temp for a couple of days.

Start the log fire...and enjoy.

Hungry for the Hunger Games - Flourless chocolate cake

With the hysteria over the Hunger Games in full force at our house, I decided to surprise the troops with a 'Hunger Games' dessert.  A simple flourless chocolate cake (and I do mean simple....I can say this because I made it TWICE....the first one got overdone while I worked on the stencil for the mockingjay symbol), with a stencilled icing sugar mockingjay...voila!

The stencil was printed off the internet and then lovingly cut out with a exacto-knife.  While it generally turned out okay...lifting the final stencil off sent some powered sugar in a pouff onto the dark chocolate cake....a damp paper towel took off most of it.

A fitting 'tribute' to the newest teen craze!

Simple Flourless Chocolate Cake

Makes one 8-inch cake

4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (I used 76% cocoa solids)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
confectioners sugar for dusting the stencil

Preheat oven to 375F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper.

Chop chocolate into small pieces.  In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt chocolate with butter, stirring until smooth.  Be careful not to let the bowl touch the simmering water or the steam to escape the sides to touch the chocolate mixture.  Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into into chocolate mixture.  Add eggs and whisk well.  Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined.  Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven for 25 minutes or until the top has formed a thin crust.  Cool cake in pan on a rack for 5 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate.

When the cake is completely cool, place stencil on top of cake and dust with confectioners sugar.  Be careful when removing the stencil so the extra sugar doesn't drop on the cake!  I lifted the stencil with the exacto-knife and removed with a butter knife for more support.  Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or sorbet.

Restorative Brownies

It's been a bad week...well, let's keep it in perspective...we're healthy and alive, so it can't have been that bad.  So I'm being a bit of a drama queen, but that is sometimes the necessary first step of healing.  I think it is in a 12 step process somewhere!  I've heard of restorative yoga...I've never been, but the the image it conjures up is lovely.  Something that somehow restores peace, harmony and health back to your body.  Nice, huh?  So, I'm re-naming my brownie recipe...Restorative Brownies.  Yes, they will restore peace, harmony and health (umm...okay not if you are diabetic) to your life.  They will make you feel better than you did before.  Really!

Restorative Brownies

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup dutch processed cocoa
2 cups of sugar (ya, I just said that...see above)
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Melt butter in a large saucepan or microwave in a large bowl.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cocoa.  Blend in sugar, eggs and nuts (if using).  Pour batter into greased 9 x 13" pan.  Bake in preheated 350F oven for 30 - 35 mins.  Eat plain or frost with chocolate frosting when cool.

S'more brownies:  layer the bottom of the pan with graham crackers before you pour the brownie batter.  Bake for 25 mins.  Sprinkle chocolate chips then mini marshmallows on the top and bake for 10 more minutes.  Drizzle with caramel sauce if it's been a really bad week.

Chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies

Eating an Oreo (R) is like a journey back into childhood...pulling chocolate cookies apart and licking the filling out....that's the way I preferred to eat them...OR you could take the whole thing and dunk it into a big glass of milk...usually while watching 'Gilligan's Island' or the 'Partridge Family' after school.  Usually a whole row would disappear before the first commercial.  Sigh....

Well let me say that these are (if I do say so myself) BETTER than that!!  The cookies are buttery and yummy and the filling is much more...shall we say 'natural'?  The nice thing is that you can flavour the filling however you like...with vanilla, cocoa or espresso, or add some peppermint and pink food colouring for a nice Christmas treat (as above).  I think these will become regulars in our repetoire....

Chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies
(adapted from Joy the Baker)

For the Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract (depending on how strong you want it)

For the Cookies:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

15 Tablespoons (7 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, but into 3/4-inch cubes, at room temperature (this is important)

For the Filling:

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to boil over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and add the finely chopped white chocolate and peppermint extract.  Make sure all the chocolate is covered by the cream.  Let stand for 1 minute (this is important), then whisk the white chocolate until completely melted.

Transfer the filling to a small bowl and let stand until room temperature.  You’ll need the filling thicker to assemble the cookies, so cover the filling and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or an hour, until a thick consistency is reached.  If the filling hardens too much, it can be rewarmed in the microwave for a few seconds.  It’s best if left at room temperature until the proper consistency is achieved.  This may mean leaving it out overnight.

For the Cookies:

Position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed.  With the mixer running, add the butter a few pieces at a time.  The mixture will have a sandy texture at first and then will begin to form peddle-size pieces.  As soon as the dough starts to come together, stop the mixer.  Make sure all the butter is well incorporated.  If there are large butter pockets, mix for a few seconds more.

Form and roll the dough straight from the mixer.  The dough becomes hard to work with if chilled.

Transfer the dough to a board and use the heel of your hand or a pastry scraper to shape the dough into a block about 5 by 7 inches.  Cut the block into two pieces.

One at a time, roll each block of dough between two pieces of lightly floured parchment paper until about 1/8-inch thick.  Using a cookie cutter, cut into 2 inch rounds.  Place 1/2 to 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.  You can form and roll the dough scraps once after the first roll.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking.  Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets for 2 to 5 minutes.  They’ll be too soft to move straight from the oven.  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To Assemble the Cookies:

Place half of the cookies upside down on a work surface.  Whip the filling lightly with a whisk to loosen it.  It will lighten in color and fluff up.  Be careful not to overwhip or the filling may begin to separate.

Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip.  You can just scooped the filling out by the half teaspoonful.  Pipe or dollop one teaspoon of filling  in the center of each upside down cookie.  Gently, using your fingers, press the cookies together until the filling comes just to the edges.

Store in airtight container.  These also freeze well for a couple of weeks.

The best chocolate chip cookies...really!

Chocolate chip cookies are comfort...they are sweet and melty and feel like a good hug.  We've tried a lot of recipes, but this one is the one we keep coming back to.  I think Kara has it memorized.  If I wasn't so old, I might memorize it too....:)  So, live on chocolate chip cookies...we love you.

The best chocolate chip cookies.

(Adapted from Anna Olson)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla

1)  Preheat oven to 350F.  In a medium bowl, using a fork, stir flour with cornstarch, baking soda and salt until evenly mixed.  Measure out chocolate chips.  Place butter in a large bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat until smooth (about 1 min).  Beat in brown and granulated sugars  until fluffy (about 2 mins).  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Using a spoon, stir in flour mixture and chocolate chips until just evenly mixed.
2) Cover baking sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop out a small cookie scoop of dough (we like our cookies a bit bigger) and place on sheet.  Repeat with remaining dough, spacing at least 2 inches apart.  Do not press down.
3)  Bake, one sheet at a time, in centre of oven until cookies are golden around the edges (12 - 15 mins for large cookies...8 - 10 for 1 tbsp sized cookies).  Let stand for 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool.
4) Eat as many as you can right now...they go fast!