Cooking for Seven

Chocolate & Pudding. HOW could you go wrong with such a combination?

Alright, I’ll admit it. When I attempted to make these chocolate crepes a month or so ago, they were a complete and utter failure. I must have let the batter sit too long - the crepes were very weak. This was a much-needed cooking lesson.

These crepes have been a family favorite for quite some time. They have been requested for birthdays, and are a wonderful breakfast treat.

As you can see, with Grandma’s help, we succeeded at making crepes: Dad gave us the “thumbs up”!

Grandma advised us to keep our crepe-making secrets. Thus, I shan’t give you any recipes.

**Next Time on Grandma’s Cooking School: Roast Beef!**

These cookies are a lovely blend of one of favorite flavor pairs - Chocolate & Peanut Butter. In fact, my favorite cookie recipe stars those two ingredients.

To be completely honest, I was scared of this recipe. I had my doubts about flourless cookies. So I made a half recipe.

But I had nothing to worry about! These cookies do have a very soft and chewy texture, but the flavor is straightforward and scrumptious. Make them with 60% cacao baking chips, and these cookies are lovely treat.

Note: The original recipe didn’t call for any butter, salt, or vanilla; I added all three.

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Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from the little red house

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar (homemade or regular)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) Place the peanut butter, butter, and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix.

3) In a small bowl, mix together the oats, salt, and baking soda. Add to the peanut butter mixture and stir well. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be very soft and sticky.

4) Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies

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Devil’s Food Cake

Chocolate & Almond Biscotti

Macadamia Nut Brownies

Milan Cookies

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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I have been making this recipe for approximately 6 1/2 years. We printed the recipe (simply entitled Peanut Butter Cookies IX) from allrecipes on a thin sheet of paper. The page has been torn and has grease marks and purple scrawls. Penciled in next to the ingredient list are the measurements for doubling and TRIPLING the recipe. Yes, we like these cookies.

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Of course, I have made some (healthy) changes to the original. If you would like to make the cookies as they were intended to be, simply use 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup white sugar in place of the raw sugar, regular peanut butter, and 3/4 cup white flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat.

Enjoy!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Printable Page

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup demerara sugar or sucanat or rapadura
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour (aka soft white wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup regular rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 ° F.

2) In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream together the butter, sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into the butter and sugar mixture. Add the oats and chocolate chips.

4) Form the dough into balls the size of golf balls and place on an ungreased or parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten the balls slightly.

5) Bake in the preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Remove from oven and let the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.

Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

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The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons are French cookies made with egg whites, almond flour, and sugar and sandwiched with a delicious filling.

For this challenge, we were encouraged to create whatever flavor of macarons we wished. I decided to make chocolate flavored cookies filled with coffee meringue buttercream. It was certainly a winning combination.

“You never make enough of those things,” my sister chided.

I suspect that I did not make my macarons properly. There was no almond flour in the house, so I attempted to grind the almonds with the powdered sugar. It worked fairly well, but I just couldn’t get the almonds ground fine enough. Also, almond flour is dryer than ground almonds, so the cookies were a bit dense. However, the flavor was wonderful.

These cookies were surprisingly easy to create. Next time I will either grind the almonds more or break down and buy some almond flour. I also think I could make these healthier by using raw sugar that has been processed in a blender or food processor.

Here is a very nice video showing how French Macarons are made.

French Macarons

Printable Page

Ingredients

For the Macarons:

• 2 ¼ cups Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar (225 g, 8 oz.)
• 2 cups Almond flour (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons Granulated sugar (25 g , .88 oz.)
• 5 Egg whites at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder, optional for chocolate macarons

For the Meringue Buttercream:

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup demerara or white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 2 teaspoons of coffee extract, espresso, or flavoring of choice

Directions:

For the Macarons:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder (if using), and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip. You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or until lightly colored.
7.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack before filling. When the macarons are completely cool, spread with filling of choice and serve.

For the Meringue Buttercream:

1. Place the egg whites, sugar, and salt in a medium heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until the egg whites are hot (approximately 140° F) and the sugar is dissolved, 3-4 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and whip with a hand mixer until thick and cooled, approximately 5 minutes. Beat in the butter and flavoring and continue beating until smooth and spreadable. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Return buttercream to room temperature and beat with a hand mixer before using.

Yield: 10 dozen.