Version #1: for Meghan and other dark chocolate lovers
Apparently, it’s going to be a week of revelations. I baked my go-to Chocolate and Fruit Oatmeal Cookies yesterday, using cranberries, split the batch, added white chocolate (Zephyr 34% Cacao Barry) to one half for Michael and dark chocolate (Tanzanie 75% Cacao Barry) to the other half for me, then posted a photo on my Instagram. Prepared to be asked for the recipe, I popped over to my blog (i.e. here) for a link only to realize I never posted it. I only sent it out in a newsletter (May 2017!!).
So here it is, if only just so I can link back to it myself.
It all started with a chocolate bunny. Okay, it all started with a tea date with my friend, Janine, who brought the dark chocolate bunny. No, wait it goes further back than that … it was just the chocolate bunny – a Purdy’s dark ‘Hopkins’ – that triggered it all. Some time in 1995 – I told you we were going WAY back – we got ’email’ through the University. I place the word email in quotes because I am not sure that it was actually email, maybe it was just some sort of messaging system that connected Canadian or other Universities? Anyway, an old friend, Richard, and I some how connected through this system, and he sent me a cookie recipe – yes, my reputation for baking cookies was firmly cemented even then. The recipe had some story attached to it that I have mostly forgotten, something about a woman eating these cookies at Neiman Marcus and then getting charged $500 ($5000?) dollars for it, and the store refusing to reverse the charge so the woman was now deliberately sharing the recipe with the entire world …
This story, even hastily sketched out here, sounds suspect, but the cookies sounded delicious. I wrote the recipe in my book and made the cookies … looking at my notes, I omitted the nuts (as I always do) but didn’t change anything else back in 1995. Someone – I’m not sure that is my printing – has written the note, ‘good!’ in pencil (see below) beside the ingredients, so I guess they were good, but, ultimately, too time consuming for me to bake often.
Back to the bunny. Yes, the bunny made me want to make these cookies again, but of course, I can’t ever follow a recipe, so I modified it to taste.
Yes, I chomped off the bunny’s ears and gnawed on his head a couple of days ago … can you blame me?
This is what 10oz of dark chocolate bunny looks like grated. YUM!
I hand rolled the first batch, as the original recipe suggested.
First batch – tasting notes – hand rolled, baked for 12 minutes and allowed to cool on the rack for 10 minutes. They were a little too dry for my tastes, and maybe I didn’t use enough chocolate chunks? So:
Second batch – tasting notes – dropped by mounded tablespoons, baked for 10 minutes. Allowed to cool for 5 minutes. Better.
Third batch – chilled the dough for 24 hours. Ate fresh from the oven, dipped in milk – YUM!
Fourth batch – chilled another 24 hours (48 total). I do think these do get better with extra refrigeration.
hand rolled cookie, baked and broken…
So, all in all, this was a fun and tasty experiment. I’m about to dropped off the final batch to the neighbours across the street, as I need to get them out of the house. Did I mention the recipe yields DOZENS of cookies? Too many dozens!! These don’t rank in the top five of my all time favourites – they are still too much work – but they are super tasty and a good use of a chocolate bunny.
I stumbled across a picture of these cookies on Pinterest a number of weeks ago, and – enthralled, as I have a number of friends for whom gluten is an enemy, I immediately clicked away to Recipe Girl to grab myself a copy of the recipe. I first tested the cookies on Jan 21, 2012 and took them to a Stitch & Bitch to rave reviews. I made them a 2nd time for a party on Feb 24 – where I had a number of requests for the recipe, hence this blog post.
Sorry for the focus-challenged picture, but I wanted to show the dough mounds – these are still too big, and ran into each other during baking.
Modifications – I stayed very true to the recipe. It is simple AND delicious!
On Jan 21st, I used 4 egg whites and Callebaut bittersweet chocolate chips. I noted that 14 minutes was the perfect baking time, and the cookies where very rich so, next time, I should use teaspoons instead of tablespoons to spoon the batter onto the cookie sheet (which I covered in parchment paper without the non-stick spray).
On Feb 24, I used 3 egg whites (2 of the eggs were larger), and mixed some semi-sweet chocolate in with the bitter (again, I used Callebaut, though this time I chopped the chocolate as I didn’t have any chips). It is important to note that even spooned in heaping teaspoons I believe these cookies are still too large. They are rich and chewy and so tasty, but I think smaller would be better. Many of the guests at the party broke the cookies in half and shared. Also note, I cannot fit 12 on a single baking sheet – they have a large amount of spread – 6 mounds is better.
Rating: 5 stars!!
Update: July 22, 2018 – These cookies are still most definitely a go-to recipe for me. But I use Valrhona cocoa powder, Tanzanie (75% cacao) from Cacao Barry feves (aka chocolate discs), pure vanilla, and sea salt.
Last week I found this monster zucchini hiding behind a garbage can full of crazy potato plants (more on those later). Under this stealthy cover the zucchini was able to grow beyond tasty eating size and into what-the-hell-am-I-going-to-do-with-this proportions.
So this:
Monster “Ambassador” Zucchini
Became this:
Monster Zucchini = 8+ cups when grated!!
Became these:
Zombie Chocolate Chip Cookies (x 2 batches)
And this:
Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips
And last, but certainly not least in taste, these:
Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
And yes, despite this flurry (fury?) of baking, I did manage to get some writing done last week.
As seen in SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN (see post below for more info) Belinda, not knowing what to do with Annie once she has rescued her from the back yard, defaults to her comfort zone: baking, specifically, she bakes gingerbread cookies. Here is the recipe I (therefore she) uses:
The dough (ready to be plastic wrapped and chilled) and a traditionally shaped (not the one I used for the episode) gingerbread man cookie cutter:
Naked gingerbread people cooling and getting ready for decoration:
Decorated cookies (still from Sifting Realities, Ep. 3):
**Note: it took an entire bottle of red food colouring (and a couple of drops of blue) to make the icing “blood” THAT red. The yellow noose (middle top) is made out of string licorice. The cookies on the right are decorated with the more “traditional” look I usually use.
These cookies are “soft” gingerbread and super tasty… the crew eyed them all day while we were shooting and eagerly gobbled them up after we’d wrapped. There was some disbelief that they were whole wheat, which I take as a compliment to the cookies. Eliza, who plays Annie, preferred the licorice “guts”, of course.
Um, ya, so I made this… with a lot of help (please see the credits), but yes, this is the sort of thing that comes out of my brain…
#2. GUN IN THE TOILET – Issue: Still attempting to maintain some normalcy within the chaos of her life, Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) chats with Lise (LACI MAILEY) as Lise picks up baskets of cookies for delivery. However, later, as she is cleaning her guest bathroom, Belinda finds a gun duct taped to her toilet and another man (Rich, played by ROB LAMPARD) in her shower. Life, once again, is anything but normal for Belinda.
Starring: CARMEN BENNETT, ROB LAMPARD & LACI MAILEY
In lieu of the 2nd Baking with the Director episode (which we decided to not shoot so we could launch episode 2 of SiftingRealities) here is the recipe for the cookies that are featured in episode one: MAN IN MY BED (more details in previous post). Of ALL the cookies I bake these are my absolute favourite. This is my go to recipe, for every occasion (except maybe Christmas):
Belinda wakes to find a man (DAVE), who really shouldn’t be in her bed. Issue: Dave really believes he belongs in Belinda’s (or is that Linda’s?) bed. Cookies: CHOCOLATE CHIP PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
SiftingRealities is a webseries… my first foray into online distribution and, as soon as it finishes compressing, I will be posting the pilot episode. Please check it out! Reviews, comments and referrals are gratefully (& hopefully) graciously appreciated.
We have 6 more in the post-production pipeline and 7 more to film to complete the first season. I’ll post more extensively on the process of creating, shooting & releasing this series when I am further into the experience.
I am shooting the first of the Baking with the Director segments this week and #1 will go live on Monday, March 22, 2010. In it I will chat about my oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies (featured in SiftingRealities: Pilot). I’ll be sure to post a link here as soon as it is up.
In other news… more seeds planted this week: basil, 3 types of tomatoes & acorn squash (will attempt to get photos through the week). Strawberries and oregano (now 3 weeks old?) still seem to be struggling but, oddly enough, the melons all seem very happy.
Testing a new cookie recipe, currently called cowboy cookies, got some solid reviews during the SiftingRealities cast and crew screening yesterday, so they might be a keeper… oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chunk – yum!
