Triple Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

When I discovered that my giant tin of oatmeal was expiring on New Year's Eve, the first thing I thought to make was oatmeal cookies. Not with raisins, which I hate, but with chocolate chips. I found a recipe and I was all set to start baking, when I realized that I had no chocolate chips. Luckily, my family has a lot of chocolate around the house leftover from Christmas (and also because we lovveeee chocolate), so I decided to get creative. I chopped up three kinds of chocolate: Hershey's kisses, a Ghirardelli semisweet baking bar, and a Trader Joe's Belgian dark chocolate bar. The cookies turned out amazingly. They are LOADED with chocolate, and of course are best straight out of the oven.

Seeing as this is my last post this year, I just wanted to say happy New Year to everyone! I can't wait for all the new recipes that 2014 will bring.

Triple Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 36 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

3 cups uncooked oatmeal

1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate

1/2 cup chopped semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Beat together butter and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
2. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking soda, and salt, and then add to wet ingredients in 2 batches, mixing until just combined before adding the next batch. Add oats and chocolate then mix until just combined.
3. Drop 2 tablespoons worth of dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper then flatten slightly and bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges and set on top. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
4. Eat.

Source: Iowa Girl Eats

Cheddar Cheese Soup with Irish Soda Bread

Here is another favorite from my College Vegetarian Cooking book: Cheddar Cheese Soup with Irish Soda Bread. The soup is more like a chowder because it's thick and creamy, and it's especially good when you dip the soda bread into the soup. Both the soup and the bread can be made in about an hour. It's great for a chilly winter's day (although California really doesn't have those!). The photo makes the soup look a little weird... don't worry. It's much more orange in person and less... icky looking.

My brother isn't a big fan of this soup because he doesn't like onions, but the rest of my family loves it. My mom especially likes the soda bread, which is flaky and soft. Here's a tip for the soda bread: use a stand mixer with a dough hook. It will save you time and frustration. I've made it a few times by hand and I always had to have my mom come help me mix it together, because it's a sticky dough and hard to work with. The stand mixer fixed that completely. I was worried that it would overmix the dough and cause it to be tough, but that was not the case. It turned out perfectly.

When I made this (a few days ago), I discovered that our tin of oats would be expiring on New Year's Eve, so that leads into my next recipe... Triple Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies. Oh yeah.
I've also made this recipe with white cheddar and it was fantastic, so you can decide which one you want to use. Or try using both!

Cheddar Cheese Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 onions

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 1/2 cups milk

Salt and pepper

2 cups Cheddar cheese (grated)

Instructions

1. Peel the onions and cut into thin slices.
2. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan, add the onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the flour and cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 minute. 
4. Stir in the broth and milk and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, add the cheese, and stir until completely melted.
6. Eat.

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

Oil or cooking spray

3 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal

1 t salt

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

8 oz. sour cream

3/4 cup milk

3 T sugar

5 T butter (melted)

Instructions

1. Lightly coat a baking sheet with oil or cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Combine the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
3. Combine the sour cream, milk, and sugar in another bowl. Add the sour cream mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just blended.
4. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. Turn the dough out onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into a mounded circle about 8 inches in diameter. Brush the top with the remaining butter.
5. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until browned.
6. Eat.

Source: College Vegetarian Cooking

Angel Food Cake

So I am WAY behind on posts, but tonight I'm posting a few more! A few days ago I made an angel food cake. I had a ton of egg whites left over from when I made the ice cream for Christmas, so what better to use them for than an angel food cake?
If you don't know what an angel food cake is, it's a white cake baked in a tube pan, and since it only has egg whites, no yolks or butter or oil, it's fat free! It's also super light and fluffy because you beat the egg whites. I had never made an angel food cake from scratch before, but it turned out beautifully. It was gone within 24 hours.

Angel food cake is great on its own, but I've also had it with chocolate sauce or fruit. The recipe I used called for using an almond glaze, but I left it plain. It was still fantastic.

Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 12)

1 1/2 t cream of tartar

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup flour

Instructions

1. Place the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla, and almond extract in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until soft peaks form (when the beaters are lifted out of the egg whites, they form peaks that fold over when the beaters pull away.)
2. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until stiff peaks form.
3. Gently fold the flour into the egg whites, 1/4 cup at a time, until just blended. Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan. Cut through the batter with a knife to remove any air bubbles.
4. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and invert onto the neck of a bottle to cool completely. (I didn't have a bottle that worked, so I turned it upside down on a cooling rack. It worked just fine)
5. Once the cake is cooled, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen it, then remove it from the pan.
6. Eat.

Source: Teens Cook Dessert

Fresh Ginger Cake

If you read my pumpkin ice cream post, then you know the story of the ginger cake, and you can skip the next paragraph.
One of my family's favorite restaurants is Chow, and my mom's favorite dessert is a ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. For Christmas this year, I was in charge of side dishes and the dessert, so I decided to recreate the ginger cake.
I found two recipes that seemed similar to the cake at Chow, so I decided to try them both and see which one I liked better. One of them was a bundt cake made with butter and only fresh ginger, no other spices. The one we liked better was this cake, made with oil and spices in addition to the fresh ginger. When we made it for my family on Christmas, we multiplied the amount of each of the spices by 1.5, and my mom thinks we should maybe even do more, but I think it's delicious just the way it is.
The original recipe called for using a 9 1/2 inch springform pan, but my springform pan is 10 1/2 inches, so I just baked it for a little less time. It still turned out beautifully. You can also make this recipe in a mini loaf pan, just bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you're willing to put in the extra time, this cake goes wonderfully with the pumpkin ice cream and some caramel sauce, but it's still great on its own. My mom has been eating it for breakfast. It's like a muffin... right?

Fresh Ginger Cake

Ingredients

4 oz fresh ginger

1 cup mild molasses

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

3/4 t ground cloves

3/4 t ground black pepper

1 cup water

2 t baking soda

2 eggs

Instructions

1. Line a 9 by 3 inch round cake pan or a 9 1/2 inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper.
2. Peel, slice, and chop the ginger very fine (I used my food processor for this). Mix together the molasses, sugar, and oil in a bowl. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper.
3. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and stir in the baking soda. Add the hot water to the molasses mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the ginger.
4. Gradually whisk the dry ingredients into the batter. Add the eggs, and continue mixing until everything is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
5. Cool the cake for at least 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan, and then remove the cake from the pan and remove the parchment paper.
6. Eat.

Source: David Lebovitz

Vanilla Ice Cream

Here is part two of the Christmas dessert extravaganza! Just because some of my family members are picky (I'm looking at you, Mikey), I decided to make some vanilla ice cream in addition to the pumpkin ice cream. It's delicious, it's not that hard, and homemade ice cream will make you never want to eat storebought again (although Ben and Jerry's is getting me through college).
Because this is VANILLA ice cream, you should really use high quality vanilla. This time I was not able to, but usually I use this really good Madagascar vanilla, which is so amazing.
Story time: a few years ago, my mom bought my uncle some of this vanilla as a Christmas present. My uncle is a foodie and really enjoys gourmet and quality ingredients, and he would not stop raving about this vanilla the next time we saw him. The next year, my mom bought him some Mexican vanilla, but apparently that wasn't as good as the Madagascar stuff. My mom and I were skeptical, but then she got me a bottle. And let me tell you, that vanilla is incredible. I made some creme brulee with it, and my mom, who doesn't normally like creme brulee, loved it. I now only use it in recipes where the vanilla really stands out, like in this ice cream. So, long story short, now my uncle and I get this vanilla every year for Christmas, and you should too.
That being said, I ran out of my fancy vanilla right before I made my vanilla ice cream, so I had to use generic stuff. It's still very good. And I got more vanilla in my stocking the next day.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

Pinch salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

5 egg yolks

4 t vanilla

Instructions:

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Put the cream into a bowl and set a fine mesh sieve over it.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Gradually pour some of the warm milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, and then pour the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and keeping it at a low simmer, until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 4-6 minutes. Strain though the sieve into the cream and add the vanilla, stirring to combine.
3. Cover the custard with plastic wrap (the plastic should be touching the top of the custard so a skin does not form) and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight. 
4. Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions. Transfer to a freezer safe container, cover, and freeze until firm.
5. Eat.

Source: David Lebovitz

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Wow! My blog hit 2000 views in the last day or two! I'm so happy :). And now that I'm home for winter break, I've been baking and cooking up a storm, particularly for Christmas. The problem with that, however, is that I forgot to take pictures of most of the recipes :(. Luckily, these are all recipes I will be making again, so photos will be posted when I do. But you're in for a treat: caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream, ginger cake, roasted butternut squash, vanilla extract, royal icing (the gingerbread cookies failed because my oven has been malfunctioning), and many more. I've got an angel food cake in the oven right now!
I made the angel food cake because I had a lot of leftover egg whites from when I made ice cream to go with my Christmas dessert. One of my family's favorite restaurants is Chow, and my mom's favorite dessert is a ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. For Christmas this year, I was in charge of side dishes and the dessert, so I decided to recreate the ginger cake. This is the pumpkin ice cream that went with it.
The bourbon listed in the ingredients (I used whiskey) is OPTIONAL. We used the recipe without trying it out and the alcohol was very potent, so if you don't want that, then leave it out. It's delicious even without the bourbon. If you're tasting it throughout the process, it will taste like pumpkin pie filling, even when it is at soft serve stage, but it will taste like ice cream after you freeze it. I promise.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart.

Ingredients:

1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

1 t vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

5 egg yolks

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground ginger

1/4 t salt

Pinch ground nutmeg

1 T bourbon (optional)

Instructions

1. In a bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree and the vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 8 hours.
2. In a heavy sauce pan over medium heat combine 1 1/2 cups of the cream and 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and cook until bubbles form around the edge, roughly 5 minutes.
3. In the meantime, whisk together the rest of the cream and brown sugar with the egg yolks, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg until smooth and the sugar starts to dissolve.
4. Remove the cream mixture from heat and gradually whisk about 1/2 cup of it into the egg mixture until smooth. Pour the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and keeping it at a low simmer, until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 4-6 minutes. Strain though a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
5. Whisk the pumpkin mixture into the custard and then cover with plastic wrap (the plastic should be touching the top of the custard so a skin does not form) and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight. 
6. Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions. Add the bourbon during the last minute of churning and then transfer to a freezer safe container, cover, and freeze until firm.
7. Eat.

Source: Williams Sonoma