Waffles, i love you

Saturday mornings are a special day at our house. It's always a great morning since we all get to have breakfast together and we have the time to actually cook something worthy of, well, Saturday morning. My sons ask for one of two things on this day - pancakes or waffles. So long as there is syrup involved, I think they would be happy. Yesterday, I got up a little early and decided it had been too long since I made my favorite waffle recipe. It's actually pretty basic but needs about 30 minutes to rest so a little patience and bribery may be required along the way.

I think most wafffle recipes fall into 2 categories: 1) not good 2) too time consuming. I said, most recipes, people! I know, there are a lot of great recipes out there, but there are also a lot of recipes that call for letting the batter rest overnight ( I'm talking to you, yeast waffle) or requiring beaten egg whites to be folded in. I love the idea of beaten egg whites but that extra step just irks me - there has to be a recipe out there that is really good without the hassle of separating eggs, beating egg whites, then folding them in just right. Then there are the easy buttermilk waffle recipes that come out tasting blah and soggy. For me, a waffle must be crisp to withstand the gallon of syrup I'm about to drench it with and must have a hint of vanilla flavor without overwhelming. They can't be too dense, either. That is critical. Several years ago, in my search to replicate my Dad's awesome waffle recipe (he uses Bisquick, egg whites, and soda water), I found this recipe on Food Network. The title made me nervous since it sounded too good to be true- Waffles of Insane Greatness. But they didn't disappoint and this recipe got tucked carefully away in my recipe file with an "A+" at the top. I've made them exactly according to the recipe for years ( although I double it for the 5 of us), but yesterday I decided to use white whole wheat flour to lessen the guilt. I can report to you that they were *almost* just as good as using white flour, which is so awesome when a recipe can handle that alteration since adding the whole wheat increases the protein content which can really affect the texture of the final product. Oh, and they freeze great, too. Can it be Saturday yet?

Waffle of Insane Greatness

Recipe courtesy Aretha Frankensteins

Prep Time:

5 min

Inactive Prep Time:

30 min

Cook Time:

15 min

Level:

Intermediate

Serves:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Butter and syrup, for serving

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Add the milk,vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat a waffle iron. Do not use non-stick spray on the waffle iron; the oil in the batter will allow the waffle to release easily. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and syrup.

Goat cheese, spinach and shrimp Quiche

I needed to bake today- after all, I'm 2 days away from being enslaved. But if I baked another cookie this week I was going to die of boredom. Plus, I needed a dinner game plan. What to make, what to bake? It came to me like a hallelujah moment- quiche!! I adore quiche, I was thinking. Does Jordan? Who cares! Its time to get working on what to put in my quiche. I knew I had limited items on deck, so I focused on recipes with goat cheese and spinach. I also referenced my Cooks Illustrated cookbook. What I came up with is my own recipe, that although decent, needs some work. Partly because I think I over-loaded the veggies and partly because there wasn't enough shrimp fanstastique. Here is my recipe. If you ever have time to tweak it, please let me know how I can make it better. Quiche is worth doing right :)

Goat cheese, spinach and shrimp Quiche

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 C milk (whole)
1/4 C cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
dash of nutmeg
1/4 C shaved parmesan

1/2 bag of frozen spinach, thawed, drained
2 large green onions, diced
1/2 yellow onion, small dice
1 Tbsp olive oil

8 shrimp, peppered and lightly salted
1 cooked, roasted gold potato (chilled, preferably), small dice
dashes of chili flakes

3 oz goat cheese, chopped into bits

Pie crust, pre-baked

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute shrimp in olive oil for several minutes until pink- season with cracked pepper and salt. Remove from heat and roughly chop. Set aside.

Saute the onions with olive oil for about 5-10 minutes over medium high hight, until very soft and somewhat browned. Add the spinach and sauté for another 5 minutes. Then add the chill flakes. Add the potatoes and shrimp for a quick stir. Remove from heat.

In a bowl, mix the egg and egg yolk with the milk and cream, salt and pepper, and nutmeg. Add the parmesan. Then add the spinach mixture to the eggs. Lastly, gently stir in the goat cheese. Pour all of mixture into a pre-baked pie shell (I will share my recipe later but a pate brisee is what you want) and bake for about 30-35 minutes until set like gelatin.

This recipe is decent, but needs some work from a quiche expert. Advice welcome. Thanks!

Peanut butter cookies

I've made lots of different types of PB cookies - ones with whole wheat flour, ones with no flour, ones with creamy and chunky PB, ones with chocolate chips, ones with honey, ones with shortening... you get the idea. And I'm sure somewhere along the way I made some really fine cookies, but I am also organizationally challenged to put it kindly. So that perfect recipe is long gone. And since this week has (not) accidentally turned into cookie-baking week, I needed to add some variety and thought, PB cookies would be perfect.

There was a PB cookie recipe I was dying to try from Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, My Father's Daughter, which got high marks on Epicurious.com.  I don't normally have much interest in celebrity cookbooks, but since I know her to be a true foodie and a sorta-friend to Jamie Oliver, plus hearing great things about her cookbook, I decided I needed to give her recipe a try. I was especially excited since it was based on her grandmother's recipe, which is sweet and reminds me of my grandma, etc, etc.

The only variations from the recipe were that I used all dark brown sugar and crunchy peanut butter, since those are my preferences. Everything else I did as suggested. These cookies are really, really good. Thank you, Gywneth!! They are perfect, I think. Thick, chewy and just the perfect PB flavor and I loved the throw-in of PB chips. I haven't done that in ages, and that puts them over-the-top. I can't wait for Jordan to try them tonight! He will definitely be honest - but I don't think he will find much to complain about with these bad boys. I'm adding this to my collection of classic, keeper, make-again recipes. You should, too.

Grandad Danner's PB cookies

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 organic large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugars. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour in thirds and stir until smooth. Fold in the peanut butter chips. Roll the mixture into golf ball–sized balls (about 1 1/2 tablespoons). At this point you can roll them in granulated sugar or you can press each cookie down with the tines of a fork. Either way, bake for 10 minutes, in a nonstick baking pan, rotating the pan halfway through baking time. Cool the cookies on a rack before serving.

Will I ever bake again....I mean between now and Sunday?

I am starting to get nervous that next week when I start my internship, I will never, gasp, be able to bake again. That's so dramatic, and so me. With all my fears I keep trying to pick what I will bake next- my big finale- but I am so consumed by its need for perfection that I can't decide what to make.  So I am just wasting time basically. Grrrreat, Katie.

I saw some goat cheese green onion scones that looked pretty incredible especially pared with a soup which would be so nice on a rainy night like tonight. But oh no. Didn't make em. In fact, I made nothing. I microwaved our dinner, how pathetic and paralyzed is that? Well, tomorrow is a new chance for me to take advantage of my dwindling days of freedom. I'm in the mood to bake something celebratory. Any ideas? I was thinking  Boston Cream Pie like my grandmother used to make or maybe a rich chocolate layer cake. Let me know if you have any amazing dessert recipes.

XO

Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Molasses Cookies

A while back I had the urge to use up some oat bran and molasses that needed to get out of my cupboard so I googled the ingredients looking for something sweet and kinda healthy. I landed on somebody's blog who made a cookie with loads of spices and chocolate chips and all kinds of pretty healthy stuff. And since I'm sorta a health nut, aside from my massive sweet tooth, I thought I should try the recipe out. It was pretty decent- and I knew I had the beginnings for a fantastic "healthy" alternative to my stand-by.  After several attempts, I came up with this version of the cookie, with no added spices (because to me, they belong with raisins, not chocolate), less butter, less molasses (I don't want to really taste it) and some tweaks to the fiber-load ingredients and the types of sugars. They are thick, chewy, hearty, and so worth every dimple on my butt. The true test is when my picky 4 year old will eat them without complaint and come looking for more. He hasn't a clue, the poor fool! As a side note, I think these would be good, but not as good, without the chocolate chips/chunks - but for texture I would probably add some chopped dried apricots or whatever you like, really.

Here is my version of this recipe.

Oat Bran Molasses Cookies

1 1/2 C flour (AP)
1/2 C wheat germ
1/2 C oats
1/4 C ground flax
3/4  C oat bran
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick softened butter, unsalted
1/4 C oil
2 Tbsp molasses
chocolate chips or chunks as you see fit (about a Cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix first 7 ingredients. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the butter, oil and sugars until well blended. Add egg and mix followed by vanilla and molasses. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients gradually and mix until incorporated. Then add the chocolate chips. Form large rounded mounds on cookie sheet- about 3 Tbsp per cookie (I never measure it, I just make them big) Bake for about 10 minutes or unit slightly browned at edges.

My chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are perhaps my favorite food in the world. I remember my mom baking them when I was young - the sound of the Kitchen Aid whipping butter and sugar, the crack of the egg against the bowl's edge, and the taste of the buttery batter loaded with chocolate chips. No nuts, ever.  Aside from childhood nostalgia, cookies are the perfect treat because they are so damn quick and easy to make and once they are done, they are incredibly portable. You just can't say that about a cupcake. Even brownies are a bit trickier because you have to do all that cutting afterwards and they take forever to bake. So annoying.

I started hunting for the ultimate chocolate chip recipe when I got married, about 6 years ago. I started with cookbooks but once I exhausted my collection I turned to the internet for help.  There have got to be thousands of recipes out there. Some are very similar and some are a bit annoying - like refrigerating the dough for 24-36 hours before baking. Come on, really? The truth is that anybody who is about to make chocolate chip cookies is on the verge of a crisis of some sort and needs butter, sugar, and chocolate like 5 minutes ago, not tomorrow night. Drives me nuts when I run across that recipe- and I'm sure you've all seen that fancy NY recipe, too. I actually tried it minus the wait time and it was no good at all. I can't imagine that some down time in the refrigerator could salvage that recipe, either. I've tried so so many recipes - all of which claimed to be the best cookie ever to be made, but most of which were just OK. I was about to give up on my search when I stumbled upon this recipe. This recipe is not to be confused with the Neiman Marcus $200 cookie recipe floating around out there. These are the real deal and are friggin' fantastic. I have yet to make a better cookie. It is a Royal Recipe for sure.

This recipe is, in the words of one of my favorite family members, AMAZEBALLS. The cookies are perfection- chewy, thick, buttery without being greasy, with a slight crunch around the edges. They are none of the things I dispise in a cookie: not dry, not cakey, not flimsy. I don't add the espresso powder anymore to the recipe because it just doesn't need it. But feel free to try it out and see what you think.When it comes to choc. chip cookies, I'm more of a purist and vanilla extract is about as crazy as I like to get for flavor. I also don't grease my cookie sheets- I use my beloved Silpats and have never had a problem with sticking or burning. One thing to note about the recipe is the low oven temperature (300 F) used during baking. I thought it was a typo but it isn't apparently. I used to work at a fancy restaurant, and one day I decided to ask the pastry chef about baking chewy cookies. Her tips? Low oven temperature and melted butter. That said, I don't melt the butter anymore because I don't really notice a difference in this particular recipe but maybe I need to experiment again- its been a while. 

I'm big on using high quality chocolate chips- I can't stand Toll House or Nestle semi-sweet choc. chips. Sorry if I've just offended anyone who adores those brands but they just aren't for me.  I don't know it I'm just snobby about my chocolate (entirely possible) or if I am just right.  I have used Ghiradelli and Guittard and those are OK in a bind. But the BEST chips are the semi-sweet chocolate chips from Trader Joe's, surprisingly. They are rich and chocolatey without being overly sugary, like Toll House is for me. My husband, the pickiest of taste-testers can tell when I don't use the TJs brand, so I know I'm not crazy here. I could write an entire post about semi-sweet vs. milk chocolate chips. Heck, maybe I will someday. But for now, just know that it's not even funny to joke about using milk chocolate in a cookie. I'm not even sure that qualifies as chocolate so don't waste your money, the calories, or the trouble on such inferiors chips!! Nuf said. 

Alright, so my advice is that you give my favorite recipe a try and let me know what you think. I can almost guarantee you will fall in love. And if you don't absolutely think its the best, please send me your recipe so that I can try it out. But I'm already telling you it won't hold a card :) 

Happy baking!

I decided not to use my Kitchen Aid mixer today. Wise decision when children are trying to nap. Never, even in the despairs of chocolate withdrawal, wake a sleeping baby. Ever. Never. Its always bad bad news.

This is actually more chips than I normally add- slippery little suckers jumped out of the bag today.

And our Peach approves!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

2. Place the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the work bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds, until the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla for 30 seconds longer, until well combined.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the mixer, while beating on slow speed. Beat for about 15 seconds, stir in the chocolate chips and espresso powder, and mix for 15 seconds longer.

4. Prepare a cookie sheet with about 2 tablespoons of shortening (or use a non-stick spray). Using a 1-ounce scoop, or using a 2 tablespoon measure, drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet in dollops about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into 2-inch circles; there should be room on the sheet for six or eight cookies at a time. Transfer to the oven in batches and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cookies are nicely browned around the edges. Bake for a little longer for crisper cookies.

Here's the link for the recipe:

http://leitesculinaria.com/3379/recipes-neiman-marcus-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Another attempt, slightly better

So last night was a disaster. Lowen, God love him, would NOT stay in his bed and I was so looking forward to getting into my bed, with my computer, a little under the weather, and just nerding out on my new blog. But it wasn't in the cards so I let it go. Today, I am really under the weather and now that all 3 kids are asleep for  naps, I feel obligated to write something but honestly, I need some sleep myself. Again, I postpone my foodie blog. But I have done some thinking about my first real post. I'm pretty sure I want to tell you all about my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'll fill you in later, but basically it's made me pretty famous and I have to say, they are the best I've tried. I'm also probably going to blog about  my brownies which are unreal and then my apple cake. So, because I can add pretty well, that's 3 posts that you can expect from me soon. Or not so soon, more likely.

first post ever

I've been wanting to do a food blog for a couple of years now.  I am trying to write something clever while my 2 year old screams his head off at my bedroom door. So, I will attempt this another time.