Flourless Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

As a kid, I actually never had a taste for chocolate. Over the years I began to develop the taste for chocolate but it hasn't been until recently that I have started to like dark chocolate. This recipe is adapted from several different recipes because none of them were exactly right for me and they are truly incredible! They are crispy and chewy on the outside with an almost fudge like center. Furthermore, you can even make them for a passover dessert because they are flour free and they are the perfect dairy free treat because they naturally are butter and milk free.

1 cup chocolate chips (use good ones)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar divided in half
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 400 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a glass bowl, melt the chocolate chips and let cool slightly (if you microwave them, microwave on 30 second intervals for 2 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a large bowl beat the egg whites to soft peaks on high speed. Then beat in 1 cup of powdered sugar until the mixture looks a little like marshmallow creme (don't try and beat them to stiff peaks). In a medium bowl, combine the remaining cup of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, corn starch, and salt. With the mixer on low, combine the dry ingredients and egg white mixture until incorporated. Then pour in the melted chocolate and stir until completely incorporated and the batter starts to become harder to a ganache consistency.

Scoop out a tablespoon of the batter at a time, put the scoop in your hand and roll to make a perfect circle and then place it on the cookie sheet. Make sure to space them 2 inches apart because they spread out. Now here's the important note. You need to constantly wash off your hands in warm water after every 3 cookies because otherwise, the chocolate becomes very difficult to roll and you'll make a mess. Do not make a mess because on top of having to clean that up, your cookies will be impressively unattractive and I think that's a disservice to these beautiful treats. (This batter will make 24 cookies).

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until outside is cracked.  They will be soft when you take them out, make sure to let them cool before eating.

The great thing about these cookies is that they're relatively low calorie and very rich so just a few for dessert with a good class of red wine and some berries, you have yourself a dessert that won't hurt you after. Plus, they keep pretty well at room temperature in an air tight container but to be quite honest, they will not last long enough to worry about. Trust me.

Bacon and Tequila Pinto Beans

This recipe if from the Rick Bayless cookbook and it is incredible. If you are a bacon fan, which I happen to be, cooking this will make your house smell like bacon (fantastic!) This recipe is also great because it keeps pretty well for a week or so and gets better as the flavors are allowed to combine so feel free to make it a day or so before you're ready to serve it.

8 ounces pinto beans
1/2 cup cubed pork shoulder (or 2 ounces bacon)
4 thick slices of bacon
1 small white onion - diced
2 jalapenos (one if you don't like things too spicy) - seeded, stemmed, and diced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons tequila
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Rinse the beans thoroughly and put them in a medium sized pot (like a dutch oven). Cover them with 5 cups of water and remove any beans that float. Then, put in the pork shoulder or bacon. Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce the temperature to medium-low so you can keep the beans at a gentle simmer (partially covered). You'll need to cook them for about 2 hours stirring occasionally and adding water when necessary so that there's about 1/2 inch water above the beans.

Then in a fry pan, cook the remaining bacon until crisp. Then remove the bacon onto some paper towels and pour out all of the bacon grease EXCEPT for 2 tablespoons. Then, using the bacon grease, put in the onion and jalapeno and cook over medium heat until they're golden brown (10 minutes or so). Then, scrape the onions into the beans and season it with salt.

At this point, you want to cook the beans for 20-30 more minutes to let all the flavors come together. Also, you don't want to add any more water so don't worry that the water level will drop because this isn't soup.

Now, if you're serving this right now, crumble the bacon over top and stir in with the tequila and cilantro. However, if you're storing this, keep those additions off until right before you serve because that way, you'll taste the fresh tequila and have the crunchy contrast to the creamy beans.

Here's a note about rinsing the beans. I know it's tradition to soak the beans over night but Rick Bayless (highly acclaimed, James Beard Award winning chef) insists that soaking beans is unnecessary. Quoting from Mr. Bayless himself, "after having cooked almost 12,000 pounds of beans a year for most of the nearly ten years we've had Frontera and Topolobambo, I've learned quite a few things. Many are simple confirmations of what we've been taught all along - except one thing: I was taught to soak beans and I no longer do. Never having seen Mexican cooks soak beans, I've come to the conclusion that they know what is right. Soaking does practically nothing but reduce cooking time. Soaking doesn't really make the beans much more digestible, which is what we were all told. Yes, soaking and throwing out the soaking water does have some effect, the scientists now tell us, but nothing we should count on. What makes beans more digestible is a steady diet of beans, the diet nutrionists tell us we should have anyway" (241). So there you have it, from the man himself.

Drunken Fruit Salad

I decided to cook myself a festive Rick Bayless inspired meal tonight and so I created this special fruit salad. The great thing about this recipe is that you can use any fruit you have lying around or any fruit that you like the best. I wanted to mix a little fall flavor with Caribbean flavor so I used a combination of watermelon, mango, pear, and apple. This turned out to be a very refreshing side and my new favorite fruit salad.

1 pear chopped
1 apple chopped
1 mango chopped
3 cups watermelon
1 lime juiced
2 tablespoons torn mint
1 tablespoon (more if you like) of tequila

Place all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix, and refrigerate until you're ready to eat it. It's that simple and the combination of the mint, lime juice, and tequila creates a margarita like macerating liquid. The other variation that turns out nice is to create a ginger and mint infused simple syrup

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons mint
2 tablespoons ginger

Bring all ingredients to a boil, remove from heat, and cool in a container for at least 24 hours to let all the flavors infuse.

Cider Glazed Chicken with Horseraddish Apple and Pear Salad

This amazingly light yet filling dinner came from an article I was reading in Cooking Light about a cider glazed chicken breast with rice and stuff. My issue with the recipe is that if you're going to use cider as a deglazing liquid, don't hide the apple, make it shine! So then I started thinking about what I like to eat with apples - horseradish, pears, and cheese (but this is dairy free so no cheese). So with this recipe, the chicken is browned in the pan, splashed with cognac (yup... Brandy also goes well with apple), and then the cider and horseradish is reduced to make a sauce to finish off the chicken.

Here's what you need:
4 Chicken cutlets
1 cup apple cider
1/3 cup cognac
1 tablespoon grated horseradish
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 pear
1 apple

First, take 4 chicken cutlets and make sure they're an even thickness (I prefer between 1/4 and 1/2 inch for quick pan cooking). Season your chicken, light on the salt if you're concerned with heart health, and begin heating a non-stick pan over medium-high heat with a little olive oil. Once the pan is lightly smoking, place the chicken cutlet in and don't touch it for at least 3 minutes (my chicken cutlets were pretty thin so I cooked them 3 minutes a side but you might need to cook them longer depending on thickness). Turn and cook on the opposite side and then when it's ready, take the pan off the heat and pour in the cognac.

**IMPORTANT - If you've never flambeed anything, there are a few things you need to be extremely careful of with this. If you pour the cognac in the pan from the bottle and the pan is too hot, the pan can ignite and sent the flame right to the bottle blowing up the bottle in your hand (that's not good). Aside from that, make sure you pour in the cognac in off the heat and swirl to cook out the alcohol. Then remove the chicken and place in a foil tented plate.

Next, pour in the cider, mustard, and horseradish and cook on medium heat until the mixture is thick and syrupy. Once it's reduced, put the chicken in the pan and reduce the heat to low to warm the chicken in the sauce.

As far as the salad, chop up the pear and apple and warm them in a small sauce pan very briefly. You don't want them to caramelize, just warm and soften slightly. Place them at the bottom of the plate and then put the chicken on top with a nice pour of sauce.

Bananas Foster Bread

Ok so if you know me, you know I LOVE banana bread. However, more than that, I love banana anything. Over the past year I've been experiencing with different classic recipes with amped up banana flavor like bananas foster pancakes, and sweet potato and banana mash (with a little maple syrup and walnuts - yum). I recently came across a recipe for a lighter banana bread with a bananas foster twist that I just had to try and it came out amazingly well. For those of you (like me) that go to places like Yankee Candle to get candles to make your house smell like the fall, avoid the mall and make bread. Seriously, my house has never smelled so good!

Preheat the oven to 350 and coat a 9"x5" loaf pan with cooking spray. Create the banana mixture:

• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (3 bananas)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons of melted earthsmart butter replacement 
• 3 tablespoons cognac 

and place it all in a non-stick skillet. Cook the banana mixture over medium heat just until the mixture starts to bubble and then immediately remove from heat and cool.

Add the banana mixture to a large bowl and add in:

• 1/3 cup silk plain yogurt, 
• 2 eggs
•  1/2 cup of packed brown sugar 

beat on medium speed until it's completely mixed.

In a separate bowl, measure out:

•  6.75 ounces of all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice. 

Add the flour mixture to the to the banana mixture and mix until it is just incorporated (dear god, don't over mix this batter).

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about an hour (I took mine out at around 55 minutes - just check with a toothpick). Once it's out of the oven, put the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pan so it can cool directly on the cooling rack.

Now it's glaze time! Take

• 1 tablespoon of melted earthsmart butter, 
• 1 tablespoon cognac, and 
• 1/3 cup of powdered sugar

 and whisk until smooth. Pour this glaze over the warm bread. You can still do this after the bread has cooled but it won't be completely the same. When you pour that glaze over the warm bread, it seeps into the loaf adding an extra dimension of moisture and greatness.

Smore Cupcakes

Who doesn't love smores? You cannot go wrong with these amazing chocolate cupcakes with a graham cracker crust and a french meringue frosting. The meringue component is a little labor intensive and may be tricky if you've never done anything like that so you can substitute that with a simple marshmallow fluff frosting. (8 ounces of marshmallow fluff, 3/4 cup softened butter replacement, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla - beat these together and use freely).

For the graham cracker crust, line the muffin tin with the 12 papers, preheat the oven to 350, and get your ingredients together.

3/4 cup crushed graham crackers (about a half a package or 4 graham crackers)
2 tablespoons earth balance butter replacement- melted and slightly cooled
1 tablespoon sugar

Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until they're finely ground, then add the butter and sugar and combine. Put a tablespoon of the graham cracker mix in the bottom of each muffin paper and press down firmly with something small and round (I used the bottom of my 1/4 cup measure because it's flat on the bottom but you could easily use a shot glass or something). Then bake these for 5 minutes and then remove from the oven to cool.

Then in a large bowl, sift together the following ingredients:
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
7/8 cup flour (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
3/8 cup cocoa powder (6 tablespoons)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a medium bowl, whisk together the following ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kahlua

Make a well in the dry ingredients and then (this is important!!) - Put 1/2 cup water on the stove and bring to a boil. Right before it's boiling, pour the wet ingredients into the well and GENTLY FOLD. Then fold in the boiling water. This makes a pretty soupy batter but it does work and it makes the cupcakes very moist - I HATE DRY CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES! Fill each tin 3/4 the way (I used an ice cream scoop because it gives you perfect and even cupcakes).

Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Then let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes and then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Once they're cool - it's meringue time. There are a few things that can royally screw up meringue. Your mixing bowl for your stand mixer must be clean. If it's not clean, those whites will not whip (say that a few times fast - not easy) and you will have a flat meringue. The second thing is that your egg whites need to be at room temperature. Finally, do not over beat these because then you get this broken mixture that is extremely unappealing. Now that we're done with the disclaimer, let's beat some eggs.

Put 6 egg whites, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar in your stand mixer bowl and place it over a pot of simmering water. Put a candy thermometer into the bowl and constantly stir (not whip) over the heat until the temperature reads 160. Then remove the bowl and put it in the mixer and beat over high heat until you have stiff peaks. Once you're close, pour the vanilla in and stir to combine.

Once they're at stiff peaks and are all shiny and glossy, frost those cupcakes and enjoy.

Beer Bread

I love my Cuisinart Breadmaker. I just want to start with that sentiment because this recipe for incredible bread doesn't utilize that wonderful machine. Anyone who has ever used a bread machine knows that you just throw the ingredients in to this pan, push a few buttons, and then come back several hours later to a flawless loaf of bread. However, this recipe is basically just as easy and it's done in a drastically short amount of time.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey (or sugar if you prefer)
1 12oz bottle of beer (MAKE SURE IT ISN'T FLAT!)

Preheat your oven to 400 and grease a loaf pan. I used a really small pan (8"x3.5") but you can use a normal pan with the same proportions (since I had to throw away a little batter).

Whisk together everything but the beer. Then open the beer, pour it in, and fold until it is mixed but please don't over mix. Pour contents into pan, even out with a spatula, then bake for 35-40 minutes (if you're using the smaller loaf pan, start checking at 25 minutes). Once a tooth pick inserted all the way through the middle of the loaf comes out clean, you're ready to take it out of the oven.

Let it cool for 15 minutes and then remove from the loaf pan and continue cooling on a rack, or if you're like me, start eating as fast as possible because warm bread is simply irresistible.

Truffle and Vegetable Quiche

Quiche really is a great versatile dish to be used from anything ranging from an informal brunch to an elegant lunch. My biggest issue with making quiche is that I'm definitely not a fan of pre-packaged frozen pie crusts and furthermore, making pie crust can be extremely challenging. If it's too dry, it cracks like crazy when it's rolled out and yet if it's too moist, it's too soupy. Even worse, too often homemade pie crust can lack that incredible flakiness and that problem is even worse when you make a dairy free pie crust. This pie crust recipe is by far the best I've ever used and the secret ingredient is... vodka. Yeah I know that sounds strange and seems like it would add an awful taste but the truth is that the vodka increases the moisture content of the dough making it much easier to roll out but when it's cooked, the vodka evaporates quickly and leaves the crust incredibly flaky.

Crust:
3/4 cup and 1/2 cup flour separated
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons earth balance butter replacement (very cold and cubed)
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (cold and cut into two pieces)
2 tablespoons COLD water
2 tablespoons very cold vodka (please don't use cheap vodka like that crap consumed in college dorms)

Quiche:
6 eggs
4 tablespoons tofutti cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
vegetables of your choice

Topping:
1/2 tablespoon earthsmart butter
drizzle of truffle oil

For the crust, place the 3/4 cup flour, sugar, and salt in the food processor and give it 2 one second pulses. Then add the butter and shortening and blend for about 10 seconds. Then scrape down the sides and add remaining 1/2 cup flour and pulse about 5 one second intervals. Then remove the dough into a bowl and sprinkle the water and vodka over the dough.

This next part is important. Use a rubber spatula and press down on the liquid into the dough repeatedly until the liquid is incorporated. Then form into a ball and flatten into a 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days.

Then when you're ready, remove the disk and VERY GENEROUSLY FLOUR your service and roll out to about 1/8 inch and place in the pie pan and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Heat your oven to 425. Place the eggs in a bowl and beat at least 4 minutes and increased in volume (pale and yellow). Add the tofutti, garlic powder, and salt and beat for another minute until well incorporated.

Line your pie crust with the vegetables in whatever pattern you like best. Pour your egg mixture over top (I brushed my crust with egg wash but that's optional) and cook for 15 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 325 and cook for another 15 minutes until the quiche is set and jiggles very slightly.

Then after letting the quiche cool for about 15 minutes, melt the butter replacement and whisk in the truffle oil and then brush the top of the quiche evenly with the truffle butter. It gives this quiche amazing flavor and since we're not working with flavorful and creamy cheese, we've got to add flavor in other ways.