Toasted Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Last week I made these cookies for a very small road trip my friends from derby and I were taking to help out with a neighboring league.  The trip was only a couple of hours, but who doesn't want to snack on cookies with chocolate and coconut in them?  These were extremely easy and quick to make.  They also came out of my CookingLight Everday Baking book.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used light)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

 First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Arrange the coconut in a single layer in a small metal baking pan.  Bake for 7 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring once.  Set aside to cool.

Weight or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup;  level with a knife.  Combine flour and next 3 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until blended.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl;  beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended.

Beat in vanilla and egg.  Add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined.  Stir in toasted coconut and chocolate.

Drop dough by level tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown.  Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

So it's been a while since I updated my blog.  I have been extremely busy lately.  I've been helping out a roller derby league for a number of months now, and I finally started skating with them.  Well, not technically with them because I'm training to become a referee, so I'm skating with the other men and women who are also refs or refs-in-training.  That being said, I've been skating a lot.  It's a great work out and I'm actually comfortable enough on my skates these days to even practice jumping in them.  Not that I want to!  However, that's one thing I will have to do to pass the physical test. 

This recipe I found on allrecipes.com, and I was originally making it for a Passover post, but since Passover is long gone, it's just a flourless chocolate cake.  It was extremely rich, and only a small piece will fill you up.  It was also extremely easy to make. 

Here's what you'll need:

• 4-1 ounce squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder. 

In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter.  Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla.  Pour into prepared pan.

 Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

Enjoy!

Easter Bread Wreath from King Arthur Flour

I wanted to publish this before the spring holidays (Easter and Passover), but I just didn't have enough time.  Also, this recipe took a long time to make.  So before I show you the recipe, you might need a day or two to make this bread.  I found this recipe in one of the King Arthur Flour catalogs, and found the full recipe on their blog.  This was the first time I ever used yeast.  I thought it would be terrible, remembering an "I Love Lucy" episode when Lucy baked bread and it rose too high and became too thick.  I thought it would take over my oven, but that wasn't the case.  So I'll probably be baking more yeast breads in the future. 

Here's what you'll need:

• 3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cool water
• 2 1/8 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon orange oil (or extract, I used Penzeys' Orange Extract)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground anise seed, optional 
• grated peel (zest) of 1 large orange (I used 2 tablespoons of Penzeys' Orange Zest)
• 1 cup of confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk or orange juice (I used juice)
• Little multicolored nonpareils (sprinkles)

To start the bread, you'll need to leave out 1 cup of flour, the cool water and 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast covered lightly and left out on the counter overnight.  

The next day add 2 1/4 cups flour, salt, 2 teaspoons instant yeast, sugar, butter, eggs, egg yolk, extracts, anise seed (if you are using) and zest to the starter.

Mix and knead using an electric mixer until the dough is elastic and satiny (as KAF states). 

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 1 to 2 hours, it might take longer than this to rise.  I left mine out overnight on the counter. 

It looked like the above picture the next morning.  Now divide the dough in three equal sized portions and shape each piece into an 18-inch long rope.  Pinch the ends together, squeeze to a point, and tuck that point under the braid.  To form the braid, bring one of the outer ropes over the center rope.  Bring the opposite outer rope over the "new" inner rope (which used to be the outer rope).  Repeat until the braid is finished.

Curve the braid to a ring and pinch the ends to seal.

Cover the wreath and allow to rise until puffy, about 1 to 2 hours.  Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Bake the wreath for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 20 minutes, lightly foiling it for the final 10 minutes of baking.  The wreath will be golden brown. 

Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.  When cooled or just barely warm, start making the glaze.

To make the glaze, stir together 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons milk or orange juice.  Add more liquid 1/4 teaspoon at a time, until the glaze is thin and pourable. 

Drizzle onto the cooled bread and decorate with sprinkles if desired.  Serve it at your next Easter dinner and enjoy! 

 

Greek Yogurt Chicken

Sorry for the blurry picture, I used my iPad to take it.

This was Friday night's dinner.  I asked my husband to get me some Fage Greek Yogurt so I can put it into my smoothies, I thought he'd buy a few small containers or the next size up.  He came home with 35 ounce container!  That's a lot of Greek yogurt for one person, since he doesn't usually eat any of it.  So I started searching the internet for Greek yogurt recipes, turns out there's more than I thought.  I found a ton on Pinterest alone.  I found a few from food blogs I follow and one new blogger (well, new to me) I found.  This recipe was influenced by Life of Meg's blogspot.  I changed some of the spices since I have a lot of Penzeys' spices, I figured I'd use them. I used Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave. Chicken & Fish Seasoning which consists of salt, black pepper, garlic, lemon peel, and onion.

Here's what you'll need:

• 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt (I used Fage)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1-2 tablespoons Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave. Chicken & Fish Seasoning (Penzeys')

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a small bowl combine the Greek yogurt, cheese, garlic and spices.

  Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.  Coat chicken breasts in the yogurt mixture.  Bake for 35-45 minutes depending on thickness of chicken breasts.

Pair it with your favorite veggies or couscous (which would go well with it too).  Enjoy!

Teriyaki Salmon with Mushrooms

I made this recipe for dinner almost two weeks ago but have had other things on my mind so that's why I'm late in blogging it.  My spring break was this past week and all I really did was go roller skating, study for my second Financial Accounting exam, and help in a roller derby scrimmage.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but I've also been running errands, and reading a book that's been saved on my iPad for a long time, that I didn't have time to get to until now.  So, this recipe comes from my Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals cookbook. The recipe also has a side to go with the teriyaki salmon, orange-ginger sugar snaps, but I chose to use rice instead.   The salmon was delicious and the teriyaki and mushrooms gave the rice an extra flavor, since rice is so flavorful to begin with. ;-) 

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/4 cup sherry (I used white cooking wine)
• 1/4 cup low-sodium teriyaki sauce
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 8-ounce package presliced baby portobello mushrooms
• 4 6-ounce skinless salmon fillets (about 1"-1 1/2" thick)

Combine the first three ingredients in a small bowl;  stir to dissolve sugar.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat;  add mushrooms, and saute 4 minutes or until tender (it took more than 4 minutes for me, I don't remember how long though).  Add 1/3 cup sherry mixture to mushrooms.  Reduce heat, and simmer 1 to 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates (it will take longer, again, I don't remember how long.

Spoon mushroom mixture into a bowl and set aside.  Heat pan over medium-high heat;  add fillets.  Cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until browned on all sides (depending on how thick the fillets are, it will probably take more than 4 minutes).  Add mushrooms and remaining sherry mixture to pan;  cook 2 minutes.

Transfer fillets to a serving platter, and top with sauce and mushrooms.  Enjoy! 

Irish Soda Bread, not Irish-American Soda Bread

It's been a little bit of a while since I updated my blog.  I have two recipes to share with you, a salmon recipe I made last week for dinner, and yesterday's (St. Patrick's Day).  I did the traditional thing and baked Irish soda bread, only this recipe is not your typical full of sugar or caraway seeds soda bread.  This is a recipe that resembles how the Irish bake their soda bread.  I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.  According to their website, the Irish bake their bread with wholemeal flour which is a close relative to our whole wheat flour, as well as baking soda, salt and buttermilk.  Their soda bread resembles bread, as opposed to our cakey-like sweet soda bread.  Anyway, here's the recipe.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour 
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 4 tablespoons butter, cut up into little pieces

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, and raisins. 

Using a mixer, cut in the butter until it's evenly distributed and no large chunks remain.

In a separate bowl whisk together the buttermilk and egg.  Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.  The dough will be stiff;  if it's too crumbly to squeeze together, add another tablespoon or two of buttermilk.

Knead the dough a couple of times to make sure it's holding together than shape it into a ball.

Flatten the ball slightly, and place it into a lightly greased 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.  The bread won't spread too much while it's in the oven.  Use a sharp knife to cut a 1/2 inch deep cross, extending all the way to the edges, atop the loaf.

Bake the bread at 400 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes, until it's golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then take it out of the pan and cool on the wire wrack some more.

Cut it up and spread some butter or jelly or whatever you like on your soda bread.  Enjoy! 

Fruit Crisp

This recipe also comes from my Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook.  I was looking for something warm to eat for breakfast on Saturday and since I'm watching my weight, I didn't want to eat too much, so pancakes and waffles were out.  This recipe was small, healthy, and delicious.  I think it would make a great snack and dessert too, especially with vanilla ice cream on top...mmmm! 

Something to remember before I give you the recipe, raspberries become very watery in the oven.  I completely forgot this happens, but I wanted more than one berry in it.  Maybe next time I'll add blackberries.  Do those become watery in the oven?

Anyway, here you go:

• 12 oz. frozen blueberries 
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar (optional, I didn't need it)
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup whole-wheat or oat flour (I used whole wheat)
• 5 tablespoons agave nectar (I used a light colored one)
• cinnamon to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place blueberries in a 10-inch baking dish, sprinkle with sugar if desired, set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk oats, and flour together, then add agave nectar 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition, until the mixture crumbles.  Place crumbs over blueberries and sprinkle generously with cinnamon.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the top is crisp and the fruit soft. 

Enjoy!