chocolate chips

Bacon Chocolate Chip Waffles

April 15, 2015

I have a new addiction. Oh baby, it’s a good one!

I can’t stop watching “Married At First Sight”. I just discovered it a few weeks ago so I am so into now. I am watching the latest episode as I write this. I know it’s going to take me 5x longer to write this post as I will be so distracted watching it.

ummm, 5 minutes just passed as my fingers rested on the keys as I watched…

It’s so interesting! It’s so weird. It’s so amazing. I mean, these 3 couples met each other at the alter. For real, they learned their names then. That’s insane, but cool.

I can’t figure out which couple I like the most. Or which one will actually continue on by committing to stay married after the ‘experiment’ phase.

All I do know is that I love to watch the current season and watching last season.

Anyway, I made these Bacon Chocolate Waffles a few years (ago and shared it then but I wanted to share it again as I had make some tweaks over the years. Mainly more bacon and more chocolate, obviously.

They do such a good job of combining the salty and sweet flavors. Every bite gets a bit of bacon and chocolate. I’ve made them with both regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini chips. It’s good both ways. When you make it with regular chips you get bigger bursts of chocolate in each bite, but with the mini chips you get more chocolate coverage. You can’t go wrong either way.

I insist that you make these! Plus, you gotta binge watch “Married at First Sight” so that we can catch up and dish on your favorite couple!!

Bacon Chocolate Waffles

Makes 12-14 (4″ Square) waffles

Ingredients

1/2 pound of bacon
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups of buttermilk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Process

Cut the bacon into small pieces. I suggest using a scissor. In a skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove and place on paper towels to drain away the excess fat.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.
Whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and buttermilk in a small bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and crumbled bacon.
Preheat your waffle iron. When ready, scoop a 1/3 Cup of batter into your waffle iron. Cook until the steam has finished escaping out the sides and the waffles are golden brown. Serve with syrup & fresh fruit.

*If you don’t have buttermilk on hand you can make your own with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar for every cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

March 23, 2015

Muffins make me super happy.

They are really so good. Just delightful. A great way to start your day. Or have as an afternoon snack. Taking the time to bake them up on the weekend just signifies taking the time to treat yourself. Plus, they make your house smell so good. That smell should be a candle. Well, it probably already is.

We haven’t been eating muffins as much as before as we have been following a more Paleo- friendly diet, but that hasn’t stopped me from making them. We bring them to work or Autumn’s daycare. Sharing is caring.

But the thing I love most about muffins now is that Autumn and I get to make them together. She really wants to be involved when I am in the kitchen. I’ve found that baking works pretty well as there are no sharp knives. Yeah, knives don’t really work with tiny toddler hands. But she likes when I count out the Tablespoons or Cups of ingredients. and he LOVES cracking eggs. Seriously loves to crack eggs. She loves when I make crustless quiche as she can crack a dozen eggs.

So when it came to picking the recipe for month’s Secret Recipe Club post I knew I would have to check out all the baking related recipes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories so I could keep Autumn envovled. And Karen has so so many awesome recipes. I enjoyed browsing through all of Karen’s bread recipes as her recipe annex is quite extensive and they all looked so good. I have bookmarked so many recipes like her Chocolate Walnut Babka, Overnight White Bread, and Transitional Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread.

While bread would have been delicious to make I wanted to make something that Autumn could really help with. So I turned back to her well organized recipe index to find another recipe. I saw these Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins and knew they would be a great muffin and something manageable to involve a toddler.

These muffins are a real breakfast treat as they have 2 kinds of chocolate in the batter. But some days you just need a treat. But the banana makes them healthy, right? ha! The recipe calls for the addition of sour cream to the batter, but I didn’t have that on hand and knew I wouldn’t use the rest of the container, so I used Greek yogurt. I thought the taste and texture of the muffins so I think the ingredient swap worked just fine.

I also added chocolate chips to the tops of the muffins as you can’t have too many chocolate chips. That’s a fact.

I really suggest that you whip up a batch of these Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins for, or even with, the ones you love. Thanks for such a good recipe Karen!! So yummy!

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword banana, chocolate, muffins

Servings 12 Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/3 Dutch process unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 Cup mashed banana about 2 medium previously frozen bananas
1/3 Cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
1 large egg
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/4 Cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Generous 1/2 C dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips and 60 more chips for the top of the muffins

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, whisk the banana and sour cream/yogurt until smooth.
Add the egg, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Fold in the flour mixture and chocolate chips until just combined.
Portion evenly into the muffin wrappers. Add 5 chocolate chips to the top of each muffin.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, and then on a wire rack.

Recipe Notes

Slightly Adapted from Karen's Kitchen Stories

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Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

December 29, 2014

The year is winding down. Just a few days to go!! I just can’t believe it. Time is flying.

Rolo Cookie Cups-1

Sure, sure, I can comment on how fast Autumn is growing but the real thing that ‘gets’ me is that the show Friends has been off the air for 10 years. And that it started 20 years ago. OMG.

That is just too much for my brain to comprehend. I mean, I still watch Friends A LOT.

I can tell you the story-line just by hearing the title of the episode... all of which start with “The One Where…”

I know random factoids about the show. I know silly little things about the cast, characters, and the show. I will kick some butt at Friends trivia. Kick butt!

I pride myself on that fact that I can quote a lot of it. “They don’t know, we know, they know!”

Anyway, when I was making these Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups, I remembered that Rolos are Joey’s favorite candy. Loved them so much that he ate them all over the apartment, including in his recliner, Rosita. I’m sure that he would love these babies.

I suggest that you make these guys for a party or cookie exchange as you get a lot from a batch. 60 cookies in fact! Hey, just invite Joey Tribbiani over. He will help you eat all these cookies. Or just eat them all yourself. I don’t judge.

These cookies are super simple to make. I actually had Autumn help me. She helped push some of the Rolos in the cookies. Aww! Anyway, the only thing that is ‘tricky’ about the cookies is that you need to wait until they are completely cooled before taking them out of the muffin tin. If you rush it the cookies will break apart or collapse in on itself. I ending up putting mine in the refrigerator for a bit so they were really cool before running my knife around them and just popping them out. I just put the chilled cookies in the microwave and nuked them for bout 15 seconds to get ooey gooey again. yum!!

So, enjoy some of these Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups while watching your favorite Friend’s episode.

What’s my favorite episode? ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!

Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Makes 60 cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 Cups mini chocolate chips
60 Rolos (you’ll need 2 12oz bags)

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini cupcake cookie tins with non-stick cooking spray.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels.
Spray your hands with cooking spray. Pinch off the dough to create balls just bigger than 1″ around. Roll in your hands and drop into your cupcake tins.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are set and golden brown.
While the cookie cups are baking, remove the wrappers off the Rolos.
As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, place a Rolo in the center of each cookie cup. Let cool, you may chill in your refrigerator to speed up the process. (If you remove the cookie cups while warm they will break apart and collapse.)

Cookie dough adapted from Nestle

Chocolate Mint Chip Sandwich Cookies

December 9, 2014

I’ve put in my time off requests for the holidays (and for our upcoming cruise in January)!! Once it was all signed off (by 4 diferent people) I almost danced around the office.

I am taking Christmas week off for some ME time… lots of PJ wearing, garlic noodle making, You’ve Got Mail watching, with some scrapbooking in the mix. Damn, I really miss scrapbooking. I could have a sob fest about it right now, but I will soilder on and focus on how I get 2 whole days to myself (the others will be with Miss Autumn) to make a mess with pictures, washi tape, stamps, and such. Bliss.

In the 9 days from when I leave work to return from the holidays I’m sure I’ll do some baking as well. Or plan on it and maybe I’ll just scrapbook instead. I dunno. I’m trying to stay quite focused on that so that I can zen out while I watch Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan exchange witty emails back and forth while I work on our 2014 project life.

I am thinking about making these babies again though. They are perfect. Minty. Chocoately. They scream winter to me. And there is plenty of minty frosting smack dab in btween 2 cookies. Aren’t cookie sandwiches the best?

I have a funny story about making these cookies.

It involves a thief (Price) who snagged a cookie while they were cooling before I had put a generious amount of frosting between the paired off cookies. So when I was a nearly done with the sandwiching, I noticed I was off. I searched the counter. I recounted. I looked on the dining table. A cookie was missing. I knew had made 13 pairs. And then I asked…

“Yeah, I took a cookie. Why?”

UGH!!! And that is why you must notify other thieves in your house when making sandwich cookies. ha!

I’m starting to think that all cookies should come in pairs with frosting in between. The world needs more cookie sandwiches. Def.

I brought they babies into work to share so I cut them up. They cut in half pretty easily as the cookies are delightfully soft, and yet dense to hold up to the frosting filling.

If you don’t feel like making sandwiches cookies then at least the cookies since they are so Christmasy good.

What are you doing for the holidays? Any movie marahons? Crafting? Cooking and baking? Traveling? Stuffing your face with cookie sandwiches and spiked nog?

Chocolate Mint Chip Sandwich Cookies

Makes 12-13 Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies

2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels

For the frosting

1/2 Cup butter, at room temperature
4 Cups of powered sugar
10-12 drops green food coloring
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1-2 Tablespoons milk

Process

To make the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper/ use a silpat.
Wisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl to combine. Set aside.
Combine the butter and sugars in bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture and beat until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until a dough as formed. Once the dough has combined add in the minty chocolate chips and continue to mix.
Divide the dough in half. From each half, scoop out even sized cookies until you have made 12 or 13 cookies (24 or 26 total).
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove cookie sheets from oven when the center of the cookie is still soft to the touch. Let cool and set up for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet prior to removing.
While the cookies are baking, make the sandwich cookie filling by beating the butter until light in color and fluffy in texture. Add the powdered sugar in small amounts and beat until combined. Add the food coloring, and extract. Add a bit of milk until you have reached your desired consistency, which should be thick but spreadable.
Once the cookies have cooled completely, put a big dollop or pipe the frosting on the underside of a cookie. Add another cookie to sandwich it off.

Pillowy Cream Cheesy Chocolate Chip Cookies

October 29, 2014

I have a project under construction that is in Miami that I needed to visit so I just ‘dragged’ Price and Autumn along with me this past weekend. Friday was a work day for me and the weather was down right crummy, but the weekend was beautiful so the trip was totally worth it.

Since I was working, Price and Autumn hung around the hotel in the morning and then they went to the Miami Children’s Museum in the afternoon. It was so cute to see their pics pop up on my phone while I was taking pics of stone tiles. Let me tell you, it’s a wee bit stressful to have to select pallets of stone tiles when each tile is about $120 each!! Anyway, Price suggests taking kids to the museum, it’s pretty cool.

After my site review, construction meeting, and nerve wrecking tile selection, the fun began for the weekend!! The weather got better and better so we got to enjoy the pool on Saturday. We took dips in the pool and splashed around with Autumn. And then while she took her afternoon nap in the room I snuck away for some solo lounge time!

I was initially really bummed that we didn’t go to Miami Beach but once we figured out the logics of getting from the hotel Downtown to the beach associated with the hotel (25 mins each way for a cab/1 hr each way on public transportation) and the cost (~$50 round trip for cabs & $15 per chair & umbrella), it was very clear that we made the right decision to stay at the hotel.

Plus, it gave us a chance to hang out on the hammocks, we couldn’t have done at the beach. I put Autumn in one and at first she was spooked but then she relaxed and settled in. Within just a few minutes her eyes began to flutter so I hopped in a different one and Price brought her to me and we snuggled while she (we) slept for about an hour. Pure bliss I tell you!!

Speaking of bliss… these cookies!

I’ve been recently making chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese since I had a 1/2 of an 8 oz block left over that was begging for me to use it in something. I was craving chocolate chip cookies and when I went to grab the butter out of the fridge I saw the cream cheese and figure ‘hey, why not!?’ I had made a 1/2 batch of cookies then since I knew I would have inhaled them all so the proportion worked out perfectly. Since then I’ve scaled back up to a full batch of cookies and a full 8 oz block of cream cheese.

The cream cheese just adds a bit of tang to the cookie, which goes well with the semi sweet chocolate chips. And since you don’t completely mix it in you get some streaks of it in the cookie which changes up the texture, but in a really good way. They are still super soft and not dense so they hold up their fluffy texture well, making them pillowy. I suggest eating them hot from the oven- well that holds true with any cookie, no? But they will last up to 2 days in an air-tight contianer.

PS- Sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on the top right before baking and it will knock your socks off.

Pillowy Cream Cheesy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 32 Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups chocolate chips

Process

Preheat oven to 375° F.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
Beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cream cheese and beat until just incorporated, it’s okay if it’s a bit streaky. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips.
Drop heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased non-stick baking sheets or onto non-stick baking mats.
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely.