Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Pecans

Because there is no end to the goodness of the Chocolate Chip, here is an delight some cookie recipe from the Once Upon a Tart cookbook. Which if you don't have, you might want to think about getting yourself one. Not only because the recipe are so good, but it's fun to read, and has lots of good tips.

Recipe brought to you by Susan:

"All of you who have Once Upon a Tart know that it is a fantastic cookbook with lots of yummy looking recipes.  I swear about 85% of them are on my list to try - not something I could say about most cookbooks.  The scones are especially delicious and hard to resist.  I could eat one or two every day of my life, they are so good.  So I thought I'd try baking their cookies for Sammy's birthday.  These are chocolate chip with oatmeal and pecans and I thought they turned out pretty good.  They are a variation of their chocolate chip cookies, which the authors say are the best selling  cookies in their NYC cafe. I used all whole wheat flour which turned out fine and left the raisins out - I ALWAYS leave the raisins out.  Nothing like raisins to ruin a delicious baked good.  I think you could use a little less sugar and they'd still be plenty sweet - maybe 1/4 cup or so."

Best Big Chocolate Chip Cookies pg 314 and the Variation: a.k.a. The Cookie Frank (Co-Author) Is Most Likely to Bake on a Rainy Day pg 315

• 20 tbsp (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips; or 12 ounces good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces

1. Position your oven racks so that one is in the center, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a big bowl, using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer on high speed (or a sturdy wire whisk), until they are fluffy and light lemon-yellow in color, about 5 minutes. with the mixer on  low speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
3. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Gradually add this to wet ingredients, using the paddle attachment of your mixer on low speed (or stirring with a wooden spoon) until no flour is visible. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. To make big cookies, use a 1/3 cup or your hand (eyeballing for size) to scoop out the dough. Roll the dough for each cookie between your hands into a ball. Have some flour handy to dust your hands in case the dough is too sticky to work with. Place the balls on your baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between them, and flatten each with the heel of your hand until it is about 4 inches in diameter. To make smaller cookies, use a teaspoon to scoop up the dough and your finger to scrape it onto the baking sheet. Drop the cookies 1 1/2 inches apart - no flattening necessary.
5. Place the baking sheet on the center rack in the oven, and bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes (10-12 for smaller cookies), or until the cookie centers no longer have the shiny look of raw dough.
6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Lift the baking sheet off the rack, and use a metal spatula to lift the cookies off the sheet and onto the rack to cool completely. If you're using parchment paper, there's no need to let the cookies cool on the rack. Slide the paper with the hot cookies off the baking sheet and onto a flat surface to cool.

Variation:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips; or 9 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cook or instant)
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• OPTIONAL 1/2 cup dark raisins (if you like your cookies to be ruined)

Prepare the dough and drop and bake the cookies in same way as our Best Big Chocolate Chip Cookies.

From the cookbook Once Upon A Tart

Blueberry Cake

If I may, I'd like to preface this next entry with some food for thought. This entry is from Anna (Banana), it is her fifth time contributing a recipe to this blog. And yes it is a dessert. Four out of five times her recipes have been some sort of spectacular sounding dessert. Only her first entry was a savory entrée (obviously a front). A few things can be deducted from this fact: One, I love Anna and wish I could visit her more often. Two, Anna has the metabolism of a mouse who's heart beats 500 times per minute, and that is why she is still so very very tiny.


I DO love you Anna, and I DO wish I could visit you every time you make desserts... and when you don't. I DO! I DO! (said the same way Jack used to say it when he was little)


Anna:


"Yep - another dessert.  life is short, right? I love this cake! made it 2x in one weekend!  I also made a blueberry crumble (just to see which I liked better) and I like this one much more.  It's very moist and the lemon blueberry combo is summer delish! "

Blueberry Cake Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all purpose flour plus 1 teaspoon of flour (plus more for prepping cake pan)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups blueberries, rinsed and drained (if using frozen blueberries, thaw and drain first)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Powdered sugar for dusting

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour. Or use a 9-inch round cake pan, butter and dust with flour and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2 Combine 1 cup of flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.

3 Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Then add the sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, a couple minutes more. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

4 Combine the berries with the remaining teaspoon of flour and the lemon juice in a bowl. Spoon the berry mixture over the batter.

5 Bake on middle rack in oven for 1 hour at 350°F, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Transfer the cake to a platter, berry side up. Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

Serves 6.


http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blueberry_cake/

Great Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!!

I have ALWAYS loved Great Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookies! What's not to love??? They're huge, for one, they are perfectly moist, perfectly chewy, and they have the richest, most hearty taste of any chocolate chip cookie I've ever had. I would say they're most comparable to the infamous vegan chocolate chip recipe (which I'll have to post soon) except they are not vegan, and personally I'm totally fine with that. Last night I was majorly craving some yummy cookies (perhaps you saw my facebook status) and these cookies came to mind. I looked up this recipe online, wasn't sure how close to the real thing they'd be, but decided it was worth a try. My first bite was so good, it brought me back to when I was little, going to the Great Harvest on Sand Point Way in Seattle with Mom, Brita and Maren and getting these seemingly HUGE cookies, and a free slice of Oh-so-good Great Harvest white bread with lots o' butter. I loved those days :) And I love these cookies:

Great Harvest Bread Co. Chocolate Chip Cookies:


2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups rolled oats
2 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses (may be substituted with honey, or maple syrup - the real stuff)
1 tablespoon milk
1 (12 ounce) pkg semisweet chocolate chips (The Whole Thing Baby!!!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Beat together brown sugar and butter until well combined. Add oats, eggs, molasses (or whatever), and milk; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture; beat until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop dough and drop about 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.  I found that as this is such a big cookie it was helpful when dropping the cookies, to also squish the cookies till they're just about 3/4-1 inch tall (that way they spread out more, rather than just become really thick. However if you like them thick, then by all means omit the squishing step)

Bake at 350 degrees F for12 to 13 minutes, until just starting to brown around the outside (I only bake mine for 10 minutes - not sure if that's an altitude thing, or just a "my oven" thing). Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets. Remove and cool on racks.


recipe found at: http://www.recipelink.com/mf/14/24199

Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato

This addition is from Anna, however, I'm sure you would have figured that out even if you didn't notice the reference to Matt or Jack. The fact it's an ice cream recipe should have given it away :)


The creamiest, yummiest, ice cream! Matt even said he likes it as much as Tillamook Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream. If you know Matt (or Tillamook's infamous PBC) you know that means a lot!! It is so silky and so easy! We doubled the batch and generously shared with a couple friends and quickly regretted it :) It was gone too fast! Even the kids liked it. I wasn't sure they would go for the hazelnut flavor in Nutella, but Jack keeps saying he wants this for his birthday dessert. Yum, yum, yum!


Giadas Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato:


Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, crushed, for garnish
Directions


In a saucepan combine the milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.




Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whip the egg yolks with the remaining sugar using an electric mixer until the eggs have become thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Pour 1/2 cup of the warm milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture and stir. Add this mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 7 to 10 minutes.




Place a strainer over a medium bowl and pour the warm custard mixture through the strainer. Stir in the vanilla and hazelnut spread until it dissolves. Chill mixture completely before pouring into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to freeze. To serve, scoop gelato into serving bowls and top with hazelnuts.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-hazelnut-gelato-recipe/index.html

The Enchiladas they serve in Heaven!!!

That's right, I said Heaven. Now I have never been to Heaven, and I don't know that food is all the rage there, but all I can say is a world without these would be like Hell to me, Hence they've gotta be from Heaven!!! But seriously, I ate about 1/3 of the pan in one day, just ask Morgan who came home yesterday wondering if I had done anything else but eat enchiladas! These are great because you can make a ton of them and freeze part of them. However if you're like me they won't stay in the freezer long.

This is a recipe that I got from a friend, and then changed a few things so they reached the level of Heavenly. They are originally made with shredded chicken, but why would you choose boring, boiled in water and shredded chicken when you can have slow roasted in salsa and enchilada sauce pulled pork! I think this recipe is so good however you could try many different options. Anna and I were talking about it and decided it would be good with beans, extra grilled veggies, and some spruced up Mexican rice! You could even add some hominy, or some kind of white flaky fish, precooked in butter, or shrimp!!! Sky's the limit really. That being said, here's how I enjoy them:

Heaven Sent Enchiladas:

• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of Pork Butt Roast (slow cooked for about 4-5 hours on high. I usually cook mine covered in about half a jar of salsa of your choice, and one can of green enchilada sauce.)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 cup (or more) chopped onion
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped and seeded
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped and seeded
• 1/2 cup or so of frozen corn
• 8 oz grated cheddar
• 1 14-oz can (I use 2) diced green chilies
• 1 cup purchased green salsa (if you make this salsa yourself then by all means, use that)
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped cilantro (the hero of any recipe)
• 4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 cup chopped canned Jalapenos - optional
•  15+ Costco uncooked tortillas - cooked on stove top until fluffy, but not crispy! (the number of tortillas you need will of course vary with how much filling you make, i.e. size of the roast, if you really go heavy on the onions, whatever - this is an easy to play with and easy to make yummy recipe.)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 10 oz Monterey jack cheese
• 1 cup Heavy/whipping cream
•  1/2 cup Chicken broth (for those vegetarian out there I know they make a No Chicken Chicken Broth, but veggie broth I'm sure would still be yummy)

-->Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat and cook the onion and bell peppers until just soft, about 5-8 minutes, then transfer to large bowl. Add the pork (or whatever your filling is going to be), -->cheddar cheese, green chilies, salsa, cilantro, cumin, and jalapeno chilies, if desired.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well. (I dare you to try not to eat too much of the filling when making sure it's seasoned well) 
Lightly grease a 10x15x2 inch baking pan or 2 smaller pans (I use up to 3 even if I make enough filling). Then place 1 flour tortilla on a flat surface and place about 1/3 cup filling mixture along one side.  Roll up from filling side and place seam side down in prepared tray. Repeat this process with the remaining to chicken mixture and tortillas. Sprinkle Monterey Jack over enchiladas (You can prepare the pans of enchiladas until this point one day in advance, chill and cover - I have even frozen them for a few days - wrapped tight in plastic wrap)


-->

Combine the cream and chicken broth and pour over enchiladas(the best part!!!). Then cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove foil and continue baking 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. 

Place 1 or 2 enchiladas on individual serving plates, for added Happiness you can garnish with avocado, tomato, and cilantro, if desired. Or whatever sounds good to you (I eat them plain, or sometimes with salsa on top)