The Best Recipes of 2011

This year brought a lot of fun cooking adventures for me. I finally made a vegetable dish that Dr. Lazy Palate approved of and I made some excellent cheese. I got creative with strawberries and made some excellent sweet recipes with them. I also convinced Dr. Lazy Palate to try smoked brisket and now he can not get enough smoked brisket, and Dr. Lazy Palate’s favorite chili is made out of the leftover smoked brisket. To round off the year I made some excellent desserts that everyone in the family enjoyed. Personally I conquered tried some new flavor combinations with caramel and pineapples and got over my fear of making the caramel in a flan. Overall, this was an excellent year in the kitchen.

1. Texas Mesquite Smoked Brisket: This meal took me years to convince Dr. Lazy Palate to make try this meal. I have fond memories of eating smoked brisket in Texas, but Dr. Lazy Palate swore up and down to me that he is not a fan of smoked foods. He told me that he wants his meat to taste like meat and not like smoke. After years of begging him to try a smoked brisket he has emerged 2011 a changed man. Dr. Lazy Palate is now begging me to add more smoked briskets on the meal plan.

2. Texas Chuck Wagon Brisket Chili: This chili is made from leftovers of our Texas Mesquiete Smoked Brisket. Dr. Lazy Palate cannot get enough of this chili. We have made at least 4 large batches of this chili this year and froze it, but it still was not enough for Dr. Lazy Palate. He adored this mild chili for its complex, smoky flavor. This chili has become Dr. Lazy Palate’s favorite lunch.

3. Whole Strawberry Pâté de Fruit: Whole strawberry pâté is the best fruit candy that I have ever tasted. The strawberry flavor of the candy is very intense and sweet. The candy is very simple to make, but it takes a week to prepare with most of the time just being soaking in sugar water. The candy will last 6 months when stored in an air tight container, so a little work can go a long way.

4. Maple Bacon Wrapped Asparagus: Dr. Lazy Palate is not a fan of vegetables so when I find a vegetable dish that he will actually eat then I know the dish is a winner. This maple bacon wrapped asparagus was easy to prepare and delicious. Even the most reluctant vegetable eater will find a special place in their heart for this asparagus. I cannot wait for next spring when we can make this dish again.

5. Strawberry Almond Baklava: This unique dessert was a lot of fun to make and eat. The color of the baklava was pretty and strawberry syrup inside the baklava tasted amazing. If you want a unique dessert to impress some guests, then I would definitely whip up this unique strawberry dessert. To make the baklava easier and quicker to make, you could use store bought phyllo dough for an easy but impressive dessert.

6. Homemade Chevre Cheese and Pectin Free Strawberry Preserves: Chevre cheese is terribly expensive at our grocery store, so I decided to make some of my own chevre cheese. I do not know if I can ever go back to regular chevre cheese again. Fresh chevre cheese is creamy and very flavorful. The only thing that made the chevre cheese better was heirloom strawberry preserves. The sweet strawberry preserves complimented the chevre cheese perfectly making chevre cheese and strawberry preserves one of my flavor combinations of the year. As an added bonus, the chevre cheese can be frozen and the strawberry preserves can be canned to make all of your hard work last a lot longer.

7. Chocolate Marquise: While ice cream is an excellent summer time treat, sometimes you want something more formal for a summer time foray. That is where this chocolate marquise comes in handy. This fancy dessert is frozen chocolate mousse, topped with a meringue, and spiced nuts. The dessert looks amazing on a plate and can easily be prepared in advance.

8. Tamales de Dulce: I miss great tasting tamales, so I decided to do something about it and make some tamales myself. I decided to make some sweet tamales because I have not had any in years. These easy tamales de Dulce satisfied my tamale craving and they were a big hit with the kids who could not get enough of the tamales.

9. Pineapple flan: Flan was one of those desserts that I have always wanted to make, but I have never gotten around to it. Plus, I had a fear of burning the caramel, but as it turns out that flan is very simple to make and my caramel did not burn. As an added bonus my flan came out of the dish very easily. I also discovered the combination of caramel and pineapple is amazing. I would have never put pineapple and caramel together normally, but I really wanted to try a unique Mexican flavor; I am glad that I did.

10. Tomato Consomme: I have never had a consomme before, but I learned that I love tomato consomme. A consomme is a soup broth that is purified using an egg raft. The outcome is a clear soup that is meaty and delicous. The egg raft removed the acidic bite of tomato soup leaving a delicous yellow broth that tasted meaty and delicious.

Want to see my best recipes of 2010? Click here.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

2011 Canning Round Up

This is my favorite post of the year. I love looking back at everything that we canned for the year. I can not help but appreciate all the abundance of excellent tasting produce that we enjoyed this year. My family is enjoying a lot of excellent tasting canned items this year. We expanded our canning a lot this year with the addition of pressure canning which makes quick meals at home a breeze. Pressure canned food will last 3 years so I am secretely hoping that our corn supply will last us all next year as well so we do not have to can more corn next year but only time will tell if we have to make more corn or not next year. Here is a round up everything that we canned this year:

Vegetables:


Asparagus: 5 pints 1 ½ pint
Carrots: 19 quarts
Chinese long beans: 1 ½ pint
Corn: 126 quarts
Okra: 4 pints
Rhubarb: 1 pint, 1 ½ pint
Tomatillos: 1 quart 1 pint
Tomatoes: 5 quarts, 3 pints, 1 ½ pint

Fruits:

Blueberries in Apple Juice: 16 pints
Cherries in Apple Juice: 33 pints 1 ½ pint
Peaches: 52 quarts, 1 pint, 4 ½ pints
Pineapple: 1 quart, 15 pints, 4 ½ pints

Fruit Butter:

Blueberry butter: 5 ½ pints
Honey eyed tomato butter: 3 ½ pints
Peach butter: 6 ½ pints
Pear Apple Butter: 4 ½ pints
Plum butter: 1 pint

Jams, Jelly, and Marmalades:

Cherry Almond Jam: 5 ½ pints
Cherry marmalade: 4 ½ pints
Grape jelly, sugar free: 2 ½ pints
Heirloom Strawberry Preserves: 6 ½ pints
Herbed Garden Marmalade: 6 ½ pints
Pineapple jelly: 6 ½ pints
Plum orange jam: 8 ½ pints
Orange marmalade: 17 ½ pints
Strawberry key lime jam: 11 ½ pints
Strawberry lemon marmalade: 6 ½ pints
Strawberry rhubarb jam: 3 pints
Sugar free peach jam: 12 ½ pints
Sugar free raspberry jam: 7 ½ pints
Watermelon jam: 6 ½ pints

Juices:

Bloody Mary mix: 4 quarts 1 pint
Four fruit juice: 4 pints
Golden Nectar: 6 pint, 5 ½ pints
Grape Juice: 44 quarts

Syrups:

Blueberry syrup: 10 ½ pints
Strawberry syrup, low sugar: 13 ½ pints

Sauces:

Applesauce: 42 quarts
Cherry Cranberry Sauce: 2 1/2 pints
Cherry Danish sauce: 4 pints, 1 ½ pints
Chocolate Strawberry Sauce: 36 ½ pints
Peach BBQ sauce: 7 ½ pints
Peach Sauce: 17 quarts
Plum Sauce: 18 pint
Pizza Sauce: 18 ½ pints
Roasted Roma Tomato Sauce: 1 quart, 16 pints 7 ½ pints
Strawberry BBQ sauce: 8 ½ pints

Pie Fillings:

Apple pie filling: 9 quarts
Blueberry pie filling: 2 quarts, 1 ½ pint
Cherry pie filling: 3 quarts, 2 ½ pint
Ground cherry pie filling: 2 ½ pints
Peach pie filling: 5 quarts, 1 pint
Strawberry Pie Filling: 1 quart
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling: 2 quarts

Salsa:

Corn and Black Bean Salsa: 11 pints

Pickles:

Dill pickles: 5 pints

Soups:

Beef broth: 7 quarts 2 pint
Chicken broth: 4 quarts
Pork broth: 8 quarts 1 pint
Spicy chicken soup: 12 pints
Tomato and kale soup: 5 pints
Turkey broth: 4 quarts
Vegetable broth: 2 quarts

Other:

Bruschetta: 6 ½ pints
Corn relish: 1 pint
Curried fruit compote: 6 pints 9 ½ pints
Glazed carrots: 5 pints, 1 ½ pints
Ketchup: 4 ½ pints
Okra with Indian spices: 5 ½ pints
Roasted red pepper spread: 2 ½ pints
Strawberries in Red Wine: 4 pints
Strawberries in White Wine: 3 pints

Want to see what I canned in 2010? Click here.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Roll Out Cookies and Sugar Free Chocolate Roll Out Cookies Combine to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Pinwheels

It is cooking baking time at our house. During the holiday season I make and give out cookies to our friends and family. However, not everyone can enjoy a sugar filled cookie during the holiday season, so I am always trying to find good recipes for healthier cookies. Sugar free cookies can be a challenge because according to Krystina Castella author of, “Crazy About Cookies,”:

“Sugar serves three purposes in cookies: It sweetens them, it attracts water to give cookies a tender, moist texture, and it helps cookies spread (with the exception of confectioners’ sugar, which contains cornstarch and prevents spreading). When less or no sugar is used, you run the risk of dry, crumbly cookies, so the balance of the other ingredients is most important. When I am lowering the sugar content, I prefer to sweeten cookies with natural sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, fruit juices, and fruit. They are moister and sweeter than sugar replacements.” P 90

This explains the dilemma of why most sugar free cookies have an awful texture. When you add making cut out cookies to this mix you are looking at a dry, crumbly cookie with no flavor. Cut out cookies require extra flour to make rolling and cutting possible, so I had a lofty idea in my head to make sugar free chocolate peanut butter pinwheel cookies.

The odds were against me, but I am proud to say that I made a sugar free chocolate peanut butter pinwheel cookie that tasted good. The cookies were not as sweet as regular cookies and they were not moist as regular cookies, but for a sugar free cookie they were great. The sugar free rolled peanut butter cookie dough was awesome. The cookie dough rolled really easily and it was a breeze to work with. The peanut butter portion of the pinwheel was more like a regular cookie than the sugar free chocolate roll out dough and made a great choice for the outside of the pinwheel. The sugar free chocolate cookie dough did come out drier than the peanut butter dough, but it was not crumbly. There were some hair line cracks in the dough after baking, but they still looked very attractive for a sugar free cookie. The sugar free chocolate cookie dough did have to be very cold in order for it to roll out easily. The final pinwheel was a nice combination of chocolate and peanut butter that was mildly sweet for a cookie.

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Roll Out Cookies slightly modified from Crazy About Cookies p 80-81 (makes about 24 cookies)

3 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
¼ cup honey
¼ cup sugar free peanut butter (make sure the peanut butter has a little salt if you are using homemade peanut butter; I left my peanut butter a little chunky)

Directions

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat the applesauce, almond milk, and honey until the mixture is silky smooth.

3. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly while stirring.

4. Knead the dough a little until everything is well mixed.

5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap.

6. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight.

7. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

8. Roll the dough and cut into shapes or continue below to make sugar free chocolate peanut butter pinwheels.

9. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown.

Sugar Free Chocolate Cut Out Cookies inspired by tips from Krystina Castella (makes about 24 cookies)

3 cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (more can be added if your dough is too dry)
½ cup honey

Directions

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, applesauce, and honey until the mixture is well combined.

3. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly while stirring.

4. Knead the dough a little until everything is well mixed. If the dough is too dry, then add 1 tsp of applesauce at a time until dough feels like homemade play dough.

5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap.

6. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight. With this dough I found a longer chill time to work better.

7. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

8. Roll the dough and cut into shapes or continue below to make sugar free chocolate peanut butter pinwheels.

9. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown.

To Assemble the Sugar Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Pinwheels (makes 24 thick cookies or 48 medium size cookies):

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Roll the peanut butter dough into a large square.

3. Roll the chocolate cookie dough into a large square the same size as the peanut butter dough.

4. Place the chocolate dough on top of the peanut butter dough.

5. Slowly roll the dough into a log.

6. Slice the log.

7. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes for medium sized slices or 17-20 minutes for thicker slices. The cookies are done when the edges are golden brown. The cookies to bread a little so allow a little room for spreading.

Life Size Gingerbread House

We visited Purdue University to see their life size gingerbread house. The house is wood on the inside and is covered by giant gingerbread pieces and decorated with frosting and candy. My five year old could walk inside the house without crouching down. The gingerbread house smelled amazing. The house had a lot of fun details like a dog house and two puppies that Miss Bubbles loved.

Gingerbread puppies:

Santa in the chimney:

Christmas tree:

Stained glass:

Gingerbread family:

The huge real Christmas tree at Purdue University:

Pumpkin Biscotti

My grandmother used to make biscotti cookies every year for Christmas. They were some of my favorite holiday cookies. Now that I have my own home I get to make the biscotti cookies. I decided to combine two of my favorite things: pumpkin and biscotti this year. These cookies have a mild pumpkin flavor and a nice hint of ginger. The cookies are very crunchy and tasty.


I used fresh pumpkin puree these pumpkin biscotti cookies. My pumpkin may have been moister than canned pumpkin because I needed an additional ½ cup of flour to make the pumpkin biscotti dough workable and not a sticky mess. I left the recipe with the original amount of 2 ½ cups of flour in the recipe because I do not want someone who used canned pumpkin to end up with dough that is too dry. I also used fresh ginger instead of powdered ginger because I like the extra spicy flavor of fresh ginger over the powder.

 Pumpkin Biscotti Modified from Pâte à Chew

Makes 3 to 4 dozen

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (you may need additional flour)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
¼” piece of ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs + 1 egg white, room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup pumpkin purée (I used fresh pumpkin puree)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves in a large bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs, egg white, butter, pumpkin and vanilla in a small bow.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients slowly while stirring. The dough should be workable and not sticky. I had to add an extra ½ cup of flour to make my dough not sticky. Variations in the water content and humidity can impact how much flour your biscotti dough needs in order to be workable.

5. Separate half the dough and roll it into a log about 1 1/2 inches shorter than the length of your cookie sheet. Place the log on the cookie sheet and press down slightly to flatten the top of the log.

6. Repeat the process with the other half of the log.

7. Bake the pumpkin biscotti logs for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

8. Allow the logs to cool for about 10 minutes.

9. Slice the logs diagonally to make the cookies. You can cut the pumpkin biscotti as thick or thin as you would like. Thicker pumpkin biscotti will take longer to bake. Separate the cookies to speed up the baking time.

10. Reduce the heat of the oven to 300 degrees F.

11. Bake the pumpkin biscotti logs until crunchy and dry. This can take 30-60 minutes depending upon the thickness of the pumpkin biscotti. I cut my pumpkin biscotti into 24 cookies, and it took 50 minutes before my cookies were crunchy and dry all over.

Awesome Secret Santa Idea for a Chocolate Lover

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Dr. Lazy Palate has received one of the best secret Santa presents ever. Dr. Lazy Palate loves chocolate and requested chocolate from his secret Santa. His secret Santa not only delivered him chocolate, but he also got a pithy letter to accommodate his gift of chocolate. Another clue from his secret Santa is the misspelled word “thier.” Dr. Lazy Palate is wonderful at many things, but he cannot type worth anything, and he has undiagnosed dyslexia so he is constantly misspelling words in his documents. My guess is that his secret Santa has had to edit Dr. Lazy Palate’s documents before being sent off so they misspelled “thier” to make fun of him. This secret Santa gift would make a great a gift for any chocolate lover.

Posted on House of Hempworths, Catch a Glimpse,

Chocolate Jammers Filled with Chocolate Strawberry Sauce

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I am constantly looking for new and creative ways to use up my jams and jellies during winter. I love to use my jams and jellies in creative ways. When I came across this recipe for a thick short bread cookie with jam and a streusel topping by Dorie Greenspan, I knew I had to try them. I have no idea whom Dorie Greenspan is, but I have heard a lot of bloggers rave about her recipes and I am assuming that she has a television show, but I could be wrong. At any rate, Dorie Greenspan seems to be a very popular person in the cooking blog land, so I am going to jump on the bandwagon and try one of her recipes.


Originally this cookie was just a plain vanilla cookie, but I wanted to use a chocolate cookie to compliment my chocolate strawberry sauce. I also read that you have to bake the cookie in a muffin tin or in a metal cooking ring to help the cookie hold its shape. I decided to go with my own plan and use some of my regular mouth canning rings that I had lying around from empty jars of food. The canning ring lids worked perfectly for this purpose. The cookie held its shape beautifully, and I found it very easy to pop the cookies out of the rings.

The chocolate jammers were excellent. The chocolate short bread did not overshadow the chocolate strawberry sauce. Instead the cookie complimented the chocolate strawberry sauce and the streusel topping made a fun speckling effect on top of the cookies which was fun. These cookies were large, so you only need one cookie for a complete dessert. You could even leave these cookies in the ring upon serving and eat them with a fork.

Ingredients (makes 14 cookies) modified from Lottie + Doof

For the Shortbread

1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
2 large egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
½ pint chocolate strawberry sauce

For the Streusel Topping

3 tbsp butter, room temperature
½ cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar
¼ tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth and creamy.

3. Add the sugar and salt. Beat until well mixed. The mixture should be smooth but not fluffy.

4. Add the egg yolks and vanilla. Beat again until well mixed.

5. Add the flour into the mixture slowly while stirring. The dough should be soft and crumbly. Do not over work the dough.

6. Mold the dough into the canning lids on a greased cookie sheet leaving an indentation for the chocolate strawberry sauce.

7. Fill the chocolate jammers with chocolate strawberry sauce.

8. To make the streusel: Combine the butter, flour, sugar, and salt. Mix well. The mixture should feel like wet sand.

9. Sprinkle the streusel topping on top of the jammers.

10. Bake the jammers for 25-30 minutes or until the chocolate cookie is firm and cooked all the way through.

11. Let the jammers cool for 15 minutes before removing from the rings or serve warm in the rings with a fork.

Canning Cherry Cranberry Sauce

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Cranberries are my last canning project of the year. I am excited to finally let my pot get some rest. I am also excited to eat everything in my pantry. I refrain from eating our preserved food until November because I want us to enjoy fresh food from the garden for as long as possible. Cranberries are one of my favorite fruits, but they are only available for a short period of time, so I decided to can some cranberry sauce this year. Cranberry sauce is excellent with more than just turkey. I love cranberry sauce with pork and it is wonderful with chicken as well.


I had some beautiful dried cherries that I wanted to add to my cranberry sauce this year because I thought cherries and cranberries would make an excellent pair. I also added some cherry brandy that I had sitting in my cabinet for an extra cherry burst. I loved this cranberry sauce. This was an excellent end to an excellent year of canning.

Ingredients (makes about 5 half pints) from my own kitchen

3 cups cranberries
1 cup dried cherries
1 ½ cups sugar
1/2 cup cherry brandy
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
Pinch ground cloves

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepot. Mix well.

2. Boil the cranberry mixture while stirring.

3. Reduce the heat and simmer the cranberries uncovered over low heat for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

4. Bring the cranberry sauce back up to a boil and ladle into hot sterile jars leaving ¼ inch headspace.

5. Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Serve warm or chilled.

Canning Orange Marmalade and Peppermint Orange Cookies

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I love citrus fruit and so does Miss Bubbles. I decided to make some orange marmalade this year for Miss Bubbles. This marmalade gave me a hard time setting, so I ended up with thick orange syrup with orange peels after I canned it the first time, so I emptied out all the jars and re-boiled the orange marmalade and added a package of powdered pectin. The second time around I had success. The orange marmalade was slightly less dense than store bought marmalade and very easy to spread on a piece of bread. For the recipe that I wrote up I decided to keep the powdered pectin in the recipe to help ensure an easier canning process next year.


I have been looking for some creative ways to use my large collection of jams and jellies that I made this year. I decided to try my hand at using the orange marmalade in a cookie. I made peppermint orange cookies to celebrate the holiday season. Peppermint is a very strong flavor, so I went light on the peppermint extract since I did not want the peppermint to overwhelm the orange flavor. In the end, I got a very sweet soft cookie with a nice balance between the orange and peppermint flavors. Both kids loved these cookies. They are not spectacular to look at, but they taste great, and they are very easy to make.

Ingredients for Orange Marmalade (makes about 3 half pints) inspired by many Ball recipes

2/3 cup thinly sliced orange peel
1 1/3 cups orange pulp
Sugar
1 box powdered pectin (optional)

Directions

1. Boil the orange peels in a pot of water for 30 minutes or until clear.

2. Drain the water from the peel.

3. Add the orange pulp and 1 quart of water to the saucepot.

4. Boil for 10 minutes.

5. Cover the pot and let it stand for 12-18 hours.

6. Boil the fruit mixture and measure the amount of orange mixture.

7. For every cup of orange mixture, add 1 cup of sugar.

8. Boil the sugar and fruit mixture. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar.

9. Cook the orange mixture until the gelling point is reached. The gelling point can be determined when the orange marmalade covers the back of a spoon and drips off in large sheets. I had a very hard time getting the gelling point of this recipe. Even after I thought I reached the gelling point I still ended up with thick syrup and orange peels, so I added an extra box of pectin. Alternatively, you can use the quick method and add one box of pectin to the orange mixture and let it boil for 1 minute before placing the orange mixture in jars.

10. Fill sterile jars (I used half pint jars) leaving ¼ inch headspace.

11. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Peppermint Orange Cookies (makes about 3 dozen cookies) from my own kitchen

2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
¼ tsp peppermint extract
½ pint of orange marmalade

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

3. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and peppermint extract in a small bowl.

4. Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Stir well.

5. Add the orange marmalade to the cookie dough and mix well.

6. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

7. Drop 1 tbsp of cookie dough on a greased cookie sheet. Add more cookies until the cookie sheet is full. Allow enough room for the cookies to spread.

8. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until the edges start to turn a little golden brown.

9. Store the cooled cookies in an air tight container.

Chocolate Flourless Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

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I was in the mood for a good chocolate cookie a few weeks ago, and I decided to give some flourless chocolate cookies a try. I was excited about the rave review that people on Pinterest were giving them, but I was sorely disappointed when I pulled these out of the oven and dug in for the first flourless chocolate cookie. I love my cookies warm right out of the oven and these chocolate flourless cookies tasted like meringue cookies gone wrong when eat right out of the oven. I was frustrated. How could these cookies be so disappointing?


I finished making the rest of the cookies and then I left them on the counter. I did not even bother putting them in an air tight container because I was so frustrated. Then, the next day the kids asked for a cookie, and I let them have one. I decided that I should try the chocolate flourless cookie again since I did not want to waste the cookies. Eureka! The cookies had matured overnight and went from bad meringue to sweet, chewy, chocolate goodness. This is one of the few types of cookies that I have eaten where they are better after they have cooled and sat out overnight. It was amazing.

These cookies are perfect comfort food because they are simple to make you do not have to fret about putting them away right away. Sometimes you need a stress free cookie for a stressful time in your life. Annie over at Annie Eats unexpectedly lost her father the week of Thanksgiving. These flourless chocolate cookies are dedicated to her family in their time of grief. If you have never been to Annie’s blog, then this would be a great time to check out her blog. Annie has beautiful photography, and her writing style is very personable. When you read her blog, you get to know Annie and her lovely family. I am sorry for your loss, Annie.

Ingredients (makes 2 dozen cookies) modified from Chocolate and Carrots

3 cups powder sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 egg whites, lightly beaten at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl.

3. Add the egg whites and vanilla to the dry mix and mix well. The mix should resemble brownie batter. If the mixture is too thin, then add more powder sugar. If the mix is too thick, then add a tsp at a time of water until the mixture resembles brownie batter.

4. Add the white chocolate chips and mix well.

5. Place the batter on a greased cookie sheet in 1-1.5 tbsp quantities. Allow room for the cookies to spread.

6. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies appear shiny on top.

7. Allow the cookies to rest for several hours before eating.