Chocolate Chips

Have I Mentioned my Love for Chocolate Chips?

I'm currently waiting on a batch of chocolate chip cookies to cool so I can put them away before heading to bed. This feels like an exact repeat of last night... it's totally normal to make chocolate chip cookies two days in a row, right? Healthy life choices will start tomorrow... after I finish the cookies, of course.

In my defense(?) its really an experiment of sorts. I've read that letting cookie dough chill for 24 hours in the fridge produces a better cookie. Last night James had to work until almost 10pm, so I decided to be a good girlfriend and have some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies ready for him when he got home. As always I got distracted and they weren't even in the oven when he got home, but they only bake for ~10 minutes so no biggie :)  Anyway, I decided to save half the dough and put it in the fridge to test this theory. 

The verdict? I think its true. 

These are from the batch that was refrigerated. The texture is perfect and I feel like they have more flavor. It's quite possible this is all in my head, but I think it worked. Chances are I'll never actually have the forethought and/or patience to make dough ahead of time and wait 24 hours before I can have cookies, but I may just start splitting batches - have half before to soothe my impatient soul and the other half the next day. It's portion control, really. See? Healthy life choices starting already ;)

ps - Since I was making these at 10pm last night, I just used the recipe on the nestle tollhouse chocolate chip bag. They were good, but try it with your favorite recipe and see how it works! Or, if you're lazy like me, just use the tollhouse one ;)

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie - Healthy!

You'll Never Guess What This is Made of...

Have you guys heard of Chocolate Covered Katie? If not, you should go check out her blog right now. It's filled with tons of healthy dessert recipes. I posted already about my love for chocolate chip cookies here so when I stumbled across her recipe for a deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie that was healthy I knew I had to try it. To be honest, I really just tried it as an experiment and to see if anyone would be able to guess what it was made of. For the record, no one did. 

I only have a small 3 C mini food processor so it took way longer than it should have, I wouldn't really recommend trying this unless you have a better food processor than me! I had to make this in several small batches of 'dough' and then combine it all so it was kind of a pain - way more trouble than I'm willing to go through for a cookie. With a larger/better food processor though I think it would be fairly simply and definitely worth a try. It would probably turn out even better than mine did.

Anyway, enough chatting and onto the recipe.

Look at her pictures, they're way better!

Ingredients:

-2 cans white or garbanzo beans - drain & rinse (500g)

-1 C quick oats (I used gluten free ones)

-1/4 C unsweetened applesauce

-3 tbsp oil

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 1/2 C brown sugar

-1 C chocolate chips (or more! ;))

Preheat oven to 350F. Dump everything but chocolate chips into a *good* food processor (that also happens to be large enough to hold everything!) and blend well. Then just mix in chocolate chips & pour into greased pan - I just used a 9' round cake pan, but a springform pan would probably be preferable. Bake for 35-40 minutes and let sit before serving.

Eat & Enjoy - and share with others to see if they guess what it's made of! I did sneak 1tbsp butter into mine just because I had to. I did 2 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter. I can't help it, I love butter and just had to throw some in. I'm sure it'd be just as good (and even healthier) without the butter. 

**Original recipe post here

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Chocolate Chip cookies are one of my favorite things. Ever. However, as I've discussed on here numerous times, I'm lazy. Making individual cookies just seems like too much work to me when you can just make cookie bars instead. Plus I got a pan for my birthday one year that has the insert that just forms a bunch of squares so I don't even have to cut anything into bars. Easy made easier, just the way I like it ;)

Anyway, my brother was in town recently so my parents were hosting a family dinner and I, being lazy, had nothing planned to bring for dessert. I also took an afternoon nap that may have lasted a bit too long. I woke up with about 45 minutes before I needed to leave the house. I have a cookie bar recipe that I've used a few times in the past and like, but it takes too long and I didn't have all the ingredients for it so I consulted my friend google and came across this recipe. It seemed easy, used only a few ingredients and would fit into my time frame. Done.

All you have to do is melt some butter, cream it with some sugar & eggs, and throw in your dry ingredients. The recipe calls for 1 egg and 1 yolk, but I was in a hurry and didn't feel like separating an egg so I just threw in 2 eggs. It also says to fold in dry ingredients with a spatula, but again, no time for that. I just dumped in my dry ingredients and let them get stirred in until they were just mixed in. 

I did, however fold in my chocolate chips with a rubber spatula so I guess that counts as following directions, right? Original recipe called for 2 cups of chocolate chips. I just had a bag of mini chips in the pantry and dumped what was left in. I have no idea how much it was, but like always, I think I could've used more... there's always room for more chocolate ;)

Finally I just poured it into my heavily greased pan with the also heavily greased insert. If you don't have one of these, you should probably get one. I use mine all the time. I also opted to top 1/2 the bars with chopped pecans - if anything makes cookies better, it's pecans :)

Then I just popped it in the oven for 20-25 minutes rotating halfway and voila, cookie bars!  These were simply & delicious. I've been on a quest for the Best chocolate chip cookie - you know, the ones that are gooey, chocolatey & oh so buttery all at the same time?!? These weren't quite that for me, but they were delicious. What wasn't gone at dinner was quickly eaten for breakfast this morning. And the fact that these were ridiculously easy and used ingredients you probably always have in your pantry definitely makes them a winner in my book.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

-2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

-1/2 tspn salt

-1/2 tspn baking soda

-1 1/2 sticks butter - melted and slightly cooled

-1 cup light brown sugar

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

-1 lg egg & 1 lg egg yolk (again, I just used 2 eggs)

-2 tspn vanilla extract

-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

-chopped pecans or whatever else you want to add :)

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease pan & set aside. Melt butter - while butter is melting sift flour, salt & baking soda together. In mixing bowl combine melted butter & sugars until well mixed. Then add eggs and vanilla.  Once that is well mixed fold in flour mixture - again, I just dumped it in to the KitchenAid with everything else, just be careful not to over mix. Fold in chocolate chips and pour into pan. Bake 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway. Let cool, then eat and enjoy!