Category Archives: Dessert

Dessert / Sweet / Vegetarian

36 Hour Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 17, 2014

Well, my 36 hour chocolate chip cookies did, in fact, turn out; so, as promised, I’ve got the recipe for you today.  Hooray!  Chocolate on a Monday!  What could be better?

Maybe it could not be Monday?  Well, I’m not adept at the art of manipulating space and time just yet, so these cookies will have to do.

chocolate chip cookie dough

Here’s a dirty little secret for your Monday, also: I… am not super into chocolate chip cookies.  I know — I hate birthday cake (blech), I’m not big on pie, and I can take or leave a chocolate chip cookie.  I should probably be deported for being un-American.  The thing is, while I pride myself on not being a picky eater when it comes to general foods, I am suuuper picky about dessert.

So, anyway, there’s that.  Basically, I’m the worst.

Despite my “whatever” attitude towards these cookies, others have informed me that these are “the best” chocolate chip cookies, so I will take their word for it.

And even for me (the “who really cares about chocolate chip cookies, let’s just eat the dough” person), these were pretty darn good.

So dust off your Kitchenaid mixer and prep these bad boys 36 hours before you actually want to eat them.  Oh, and try not to eat all the dough out of the fridge while you’re waiting for them to “cure.”

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

36 Hour Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

originally by NYTimes and Jaques Torres

makes about 25 (giant) cookies

  • 2 cups minus 2 tbsp cake flour
  • 1 2/3 cups bread flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt (I used kosher, but sea salt would also work well)
  • 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) room-temperature unsalted butter
  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar (I used light brown)
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 large eggs (at room temp)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 pounds chocolate chips (at least 60% cacao content — I used Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips)
  • sea salt (I used Maldon flake salt)
  1. Combine and whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt, then set aside.
  2. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until very light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).
  3. Add in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, beating well to incorporate between each.
  4. Scrape down sides of bowl, turn mixer to low and add dry ingredients until just incorporated.  (Make sure to scrape all sides of the bowl — the bottom of the mixing bowl tends to not become as well-incorporated as the rest.)
  5. Add chocolate chips (either fold these in by hand with a spatula — it’s a workout!  Or, add these in with the mixer on low, mixing just until combined.
  6. Turn out dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap.  Shape into a large disk, cover with wrap and refrigerate 36 – 72 hours.
  7. When you’re ready to bake, remove dough from fridge and let soften slightly.  Preheat oven to 350°.
  8. Scoop dough onto a lined baking sheet (use parchment or a Silpat), making generous golf-ball sized mounds, 6 cookies to a sheet.  Sprinkle top with sea salt and bake until golden brown and just cracking on top, 15-20 minutes.  (If you’re doing more than one sheet of cookies at a time, rotate your pans halfway through).
  9. Let cool on a wire rack.

*If you’re a crazy person like me and like less chocolate chips in your chocolate chip cookies, I would use about half the recommended amount (10oz).

Date Night at Home / Dessert / Holidays / Sweet

Valentine's Ideas: Sweets for Your Sweet

February 12, 2014

You may be already overloaded with candies, chocolates, and other sweet treats for Valentine’s Day; but in case you aren’t, here’s a little homemade sweetness that you can make yourself.

And hey, if you’ve got a lot of special people in your life, what better way to say “I love you” to all of them than with a homemade treat?

Homemade Desserts

  1. S’mores Cookies smores cookies
  2. Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies IMG_1727
  3. Heart-Shaped Oreos Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies
  4. Affogato affogato-2

I’m personally trying out a new chocolate cookie recipe this year for our Valentine’s Day.  You have to make the dough 36 hours in advance, so I hope they turn out.  (Fingers crossed!)  Recipe up soon if they do.  XO, Chelsea

Dessert / Sweet / Vegetarian

S'mores Cookies

October 16, 2013

smores cookiesThis cookie recipe is from an old Everyday Food magazine.  I love s’mores, so the idea of a s’mores cookie sounded delicious.  I decided to make these years ago (what a good decision that was), and have been making them fairly regularly ever since.  They’re pretty simple (although they do use both the food processor and the mixer), and are a nice change from the usual chocolate chip cookie scene.

S’mores Cookies

from Everyday Food/Martha Stewart

  • 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 7-8 oz chocolate, cut into about 30 squares (I like to buy the fair trade organic 72% dark Belgian chocolate at TJs for this — 2 bars, cut into 16 pieces each)
  • about 15 large marshmallows, cut in half
  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. In a food processor, pulse oats until finely ground.  Add flours, cinnamon,, baking soda and salt, then pulse to combine.
  3. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl, then beat in egg.  With mixer on low, add in flour mixture and mix just until combined.
  4. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto baking sheets, and top each with a square of chocolate.
  5. Bake until just lightly golden (about 11-13 minutes), then remove sheets from oven.
  6. Heat broiler.
  7. Top each cookie with half a marshmallow (sticky side down), then place cookies under broiler until marshmallows are just browned (about 1 minute).
  8. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.
  9. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Budget-Friendly Weekend Fun / Date Night at Home / Dessert / Favorite Things / Gluten-Free / Sweet / Vegetarian

Date Night at Home Ideas: Dessert

March 26, 2013

Since you’ll be making dinner for date night, and maybe even cocktails, the simpler the dessert is, the better.  For date nights, I like to have something store-bought or easily assembled for dessert (since, by the time dinner is over, I’m generally not ready and raring to be measuring out cups of flour in the kitchen.  Or sober.  Y’know.)

Part 3: Dessert

It tastes even better when you’re not the one who made it.

affogato-2image

One of my most favorite things to order for dessert when we’re out is an affogato — which is vanilla ice cream covered in espresso.  It’s basically like having your dessert and after-dinner coffee all in one.  Also, because it’s a whopping two ingredients, it would be easy to make at home.  Use either an espresso machine (here‘s the one I have) or a stove top espresso maker (I have one similar to this) to brew espresso, then pour over a scoop of good vanilla ice cream (I love Three Twins).

date night 3I love French macarons, but I highly doubt I’d ever have the patience to make them.  (Much less make an assortment of them.)  I would love for my husband to come home with a bright assortment of these cookies for a date night to have for dessert — they’re almost prettier than flowers, don’t you think?  Miette and La Boulange make good ones.

Sorry, there aren’t too many ideas for dessert on here — but I’m sure you can come up with some good ideas of what to tell your love to pick up on his way home for date night.  These are just two of my favorite things.  (Hint hint, Kace!) 🙂

Budget-Friendly Weekend Fun / Date Night at Home / Dessert / Dinner / Drinks / Favorite Things / Relationships

Date Night at Home

March 20, 2013

date night 7

I love going out to dinner.  It’s probably one of my most favorite things to do ever, actually.  I love having KC take me out to some fancy joint where you generally have to wait an hour or more for a table (more time for cocktails!)  I mean, I’ll down a $10 cocktail like it’s going out of style, and then spend 2.5 hours lingering over dinner and deciding whether or not I could possibly fit a coffee and dessert into an already-full belly.  (Spoiler alert: I can.)

But, even with only two people eating, that’s quite the pricey evening.  So, what’s a girl to do?  Cancel date night?  Opt for Fresh Choice over Camino?  Nay nay.

Rather than sacrificing romance (or my taste buds), I decided to have date night at home last Friday.  I’m sure I don’t really need to explain what that means, but I’m going to anyway.  Because it’s my blog and I can do what I want on here.

Power!

Our date night was:

A clean house

date night 5Getting dressed up

date night 2Flowers from KC

date nightA homemade meal

carmelized onion pizza with goat cheese and prosciutto 3And fancy boozedate night 6

Surprisingly, staying in was just as fun and romancey as going out usually is.  You should try it!  Here are my tips:

  • Get your place cleaned up (you want to feel like you’re escaping, and not be distracted by the pile of laundry that’s been sitting on the floor since Tuesday)
  • Treat it like you’re going out — get dressed up (really dressed up!  Fancy shoes!  Lipstick!)
  • If you don’t think your honey is going to show up with flowers, ask him to pick up dessert on his way home
  • Put on music, dim the lights
  • Splurge on drinks (you’d spend way more if you were boozing it up at a restaurant, so feel free to get a nice bottle of champagne, spring for the bottle of red you’ve been eying, or get fancy and make your own cocktails)
  • Set the table with your nicest dishes, complete with stemware
  • Make something delicious, but not too time-intensive (you probably won’t feel very romantic if you’re spending 3 hours dicing, chopping, and sweating in the kitchen)

I like to have KC pour drinks and hang out in the kitchen with me while I prep dinner — it’s almost as fun as waiting for a table at the bar, with a cocktail in-hand.  Almost. 😉