I know, I know… I’ve been a missing in action. I have been meaning to post but Winter sure does have a way of making me lazy! New York City makes me want to order delivery for every meal - delicious food at my beckoning call! It’s no excuse but I gotta say, it sure is convenient!
So it’s been warming up a bit… this weekend we had 50 degree weather. Spring is in the air and I am determined to blog more. This dreary cold has got me day dreaming of my days in sunny Sydney. One of my favorite snacks at the gazillion coffee shops I go to is banana bread, toasted with a little bit of butter. But of course I added chocolate chips to my version. YUM! I bought bananas specifically to wait until they are ripe to make banana bread. It’s definitely one of those things that you have to plan for.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, banana, bread, chocolate, cooking, desserts, food, loaf, recipe, recipes, sweets
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Packing up and selling all my belongings has got me in a bad mood. I haven’t been able to cook dinners lately or bake things or just eat normally. I looked at what’s left in my pantry and what’s left of my cooking toys… I have just enough to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. YAY! Finally something that won’t stress me out and something delicious to post! Can’t think of a better way to cheer myself up, peanut butter + chocolate.
I’ve been meaning to make peanut butter chocolate cookies for a while now, I think that’s why I have 2 extra tubs of peanut butter in the pantry. Luckily no one has bought my cookie sheets or mixing bowls yet. So a little whisking here, a little taste testing there… and we have peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Since I’m a sucker for ice cream sandwiches, I had to try these in ice cream sandwich form. I think they might better than my usual snickerdoodle option! It might be a while until my next cooking experiment post so I hope you enjoy it!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: american, baking, chocolate, cookies, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
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Mmmmm, chocolate chips with chocolate?! OH YEAH! I was thinking about making it a triple chocolate cookie by adding white chocolate chunks as well but the store was out! Double chocolate it is!
Vini’s coworker’s birthday is this weekend so I insisted on making some cookies for him to bring to work. I was told he likes chocolate, so here’s double the chocolate for ya! I hope they like it!
I played around with my chocolate chip recipe and came up with this. You might want to do a test on your first batch to see how you like them to come out. I did 11 minutes for the slightly chewier one and then 12 minutes was perfect for the completely cooked through ones. Test it out, have fun!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cookies, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
{6 comments}
I always thought red velvet cake was overrated. Well up until I had Sprinkle’s red velvet cupcakes several years ago. I basically fell in love with the idea of red cake. I mean it’s just food coloring but it makes this chocolate-vanilla cake absolutely magical. And then there’s the cream cheese frosting… I generally only like cream cheese on a bagel but for some reason the red cake makes it so irresistible. YUM!!
So instead of cupcakes, I figured it was about time I tried a layered cake. Not too shabby! I had to cut down the top of one of them so that it fit nicely on top of each other but all in all, a success! It’s not exactly wedding cake perfect… definitely far from that… but it held together and tasted great. I even cheated and skipped the crumbing layer during the frosting!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, sweets
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Well, tonight was a slight failure. I still don’t have an electric mixer so tonight’s frosting proved incredibly difficult. I’ve made frosting before without a mixer and it turned out fine but cream cheese is a difficult one! 
I’m a bit disappointed but the “frosting” ended up being a really good glaze, especially with sprinkles on top.
I actually prefer less frosting on my cupcakes… most of the time I scrape it off! And in keeping with my “health” kick… I used extra light cream cheese. I thought it would be easier to whisk but I think it might have affected the thickness. Oh well, light cream cheese glaze it is! Thick enough to hold as a glaze, perfect amount of sweetness to go with the yummy moist cupcake. Mmmmm.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cooking, cupcakes, food, recipe, recipes, sweets
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So part 2 of the brownie night experiment were these Espresso Brownies. I’ve made these several times before and they seem to be everyone’s favorite today at work. They’re a bit more cakey than fudgey and I think I’ve got to admit I actually like these. It’s because there’s a bit more flour and egg in it. And I think I like the slight hint of coffee taste to them. It’s very very subtle, so don’t worry, they’re not drenched with espresso.
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons or 115 grams of butter
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 cup of chocolate chips or disks for melting
3 eggs
Step 1: The prep!
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. In a 8×8in or 9×9in pan, butter the bottom and edges. Then line the pan with parchment baking paper, making sure the paper hangs off the sides a bit, and butter that.
Step 2: The dry stuff & the melting stuff.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside for later.
Over a pot of about 1 inch of simmering water, place a heatproof bowl over the water but make sure it’s not IN the pot just sitting nicely over it. You’re using the heat of the steam below to melt. In the bowl slowly stir and melt the butter and chocolate chips. Once all melted, set aside and let it cool to warm.
Step 3: The mixing stuff.
Once cooled to warm, you’re going to add in the sugar and mix well. Now add in the eggs, one at a time and mix fast because you don’t want the eggs to cook on the warm mixture. Once mixed thoroughly, add the flour and fold evening. Do not over mix! Just fold until everything is combined. Now add in the espresso, mix and pour in the lined baking pan.
Step 4: Bake!
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. To see if it’s done, poke a toothpick down the center and if it comes out with a few crumbs, you’re ready! Let that cool in the dish for 30 minutes. Remove using the parchment paper and let it cool on a rack for another 30 minutes. Cut on a chopping board with a serrated knife, sift some powdered sugar on top and you’re ready to eat!
There you have it, the most popular of the two brownie recipes. You can replace the espresso with 2 tablespoons of extremely strong brewed coffee if you’d like, that amount won’t effect the texture that much. In fact, it just makes it a bit more cakey. Enjoy!
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
{4 comments}
First, I’ve just gotta say that I generally don’t like brownies. I know I know blasphemy right? I just prefer other desserts and sweets than a brownie. It could be because I made so many in college, I kind of over did them. Maybe? That said, I still love making them and trying new things with them. I think I like it because it’s familiar. So tonight I thought I’d make these old time favorites.
This recipe I’ve emailed myself several times so I don’t forget and I remember what I’ve done. Somehow I seem to change the recipe a little bit every time. Sometimes I throw in chocolate chips, sometimes I make a marble top with melted white chocolate but this time I kept it traditional. I hope you like them as much as everyone else does!
Ingredients:
10 tablespoons or 180 grams of butter (about 1 1/4 American stick)
1 1/4 cup of sugar
3/4 & 2 tablespoon cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup of chopped walnuts
Step 1: The prep!
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. In a 8×8in or 9×9in pan, butter the bottom and edges. Then line the pan with parchment baking paper and butter that.
Step 2: Melt baby melt!
In a medium sauce pan bring about 1 inch of water to simmer and then lower the heat. Now place a heatproof bowl over that simmering water - it should be big enough to not fall in but sit nicely above the simmering water. In that bowl mix together the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Melt slowly, mix frequently and careful, it’s hot! Just mix until everything is combined and the butter is melted. Set aside to cool for about 8-10 minutes. Pour that into a large mixing bowl.
Step 3: Mix baby mix!
Now add in the vanilla and mix well. Now we’re going to mix in the eggs one at a time while whisking quickly. You don’t want the eggs to cook so you want to make sure you mix quick and it’s not too hot. Once you mix in both the eggs, add in the flour and mix well but do not over mix! Just make sure everything is combined. Now throw in the walnuts, fold so it’s all mixed together. Pour in the baking pan buttered and lined and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check if it’s done by poking a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out with a few moist crumbs - it’s done!
Let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes then cool on a rack for another 30 minutes before cutting.
While I’m not a big fan of brownies, I can’t really resist eating them with a nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Especially if it’s still warm!
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
{3 comments}
Wow yummy. Chocolate chip cookies have about a million recipes. The one that comes on the tollhouse chocolate chip bags is actually a really good one. This one however, was altered from Martha’s kitchen. These are the thin crumbly yet slightly chewy ones. I don’t really like cakey chocolate chip cookies, if it’s cakey, it should be a cake! I used wholemeal flour again (because I have a big bag of it) so it’s slightly good for you 
Ingredients:
2 cups of wholemeal all purpose flour (regular all purpose flour is the same portion as well)
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of butter (or shortening)
1 whole egg
1 egg white
2 cups of semisweet dark chocolate chips
preheat oven to 350°F or 170°C
Step 1: The Mixing
In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt. Then in a larger mixing bowl, mix together the butter/shortening with the sugars (the white and brown!). Add in the vanilla, whole egg and egg white. Now fold in the dry mix from before. Mix with a spatula until all combined and then fold in the chocolate chips. The chips should be last!
Step 2: The Baking
use 2 spoons to form dough balls about 1 inch in diameter and place them on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. they will spread so make sure you give enough space. bake for 12-15 mins - until golden brown. i like my cookies soft in the middle for some reason so i took them out at about 12 mins, keep them in there for another 1 -2 mins to get the middle solid. if you’re using 2 baking sheets, make sure you rotate the trays halfway through the baking time and switch levels.
Let the cookies cool on a cooling tray and enjoy! I actually made a few batches crunchier because Vini likes them crunchy - perfect for ice cream sandwiches just like diddy riese!
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cookies, cooking, food, recipe, recipes
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