Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Pistachio Cookies

These cookies are the PERFECT blend of sweet and salty. I have recently acquired a taste for nuts in my desserts but even if you aren't a fan I think you will like these. The pistachios still retain their crunch after baking so there is this great combination of warm, soft cookie with a touch of sweet chocolate and a salty crunch of nut. 

Side note: I highly recommend buying shelled pistachios because time is money and pistachios are a pain the buttocks to shell. 

That's a scientific fact. 

Confession: I used semi-sweet chocolate chips since that was all I had on hand.  I don't think the integrity of the cookie was harmed by using the wrong chocolate. They were still dang delicious. 

Recipe adapted from Two Peas in their Pod
Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
¾ teaspoon baking powder 
½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup pistachios, shells removed and coarsely chopped

1 cup, chopped dark chocolate (or, ahem, semi-sweet chips)

sea salt, for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350* and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the chocolate and pistachios and stir until they're coated in the flour. 

Using a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars on high until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Turn mixer to low speed and add the egg and vanilla, then turn to high and whip for 2 more minutes. Scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl. With your mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. 

Pull out your cookie scoop and form tablespoon-size balls of dough. Place on your prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Get your hands wet with a little water, shake off the excess and then press down slightly on the tops of each dough ball. The water keeps your hands from sticking. Sprinkle each cookie with a little bit of sea salt.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. 

You may eat them as soon as you are no longer in danger of burning your tongue. IF you have the self-control. 

Perfect Burger Buns

These put the spongy and dry grocery store buns to shame. The dough is very sticky to work with but it ends up making soft and sturdy buns that are the perfect compliment to a cheeseburger. Mmmmm. Cheeseburgers. Also, to respect what we accept as common courtesy I will refrain from all of my butt cheek jokes when referring to these buns. But it's hard so please appreciate my sacrifice. 

Originally from Comme Ça via The New York Times
Makes 8 buns 

3 tablespoons warm milk
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 large egg
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Egg wash:
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water
Sesame seeds 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then set it aside. Also, lightly oil a large bowl and set that aside too. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt and egg. Mix briefly to combine. Add the flours to the bowl and mix until incorporated. Mix in the butter and then switch the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 6-8 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky but try your hardest not to add any flour. I promise, it will all be worth it. 

Spritz your hands with a little cooking spray, scrape the dough out of your mixer and then place it in your prepared bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 - 1½ hours. 

When it's ready, use a dough scraper to divide the dough into 8 equal parts. I usually put a little flour down at this point, to keep the dough from sticking to my counter top. Using your hands, gently roll each portion of the dough into a ball and place on your prepared baking sheet, 2-3 inches apart. Cover loosely with a piece of lightly-oiled plastic wrap (I usually just spray a little cooking spray on the top of the buns and then place the plastic wrap on top). Let rise again, about 1 hour, until puffed up and nearly doubled. 

Place a large metal pan of hot water (I use my 9x13 metal cake pan) on the lowest rack of your oven and then preheat it to 400 degrees, with the other rack in the center. Brush the tops of your buns lightly with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

Bake the buns for about 15 minutes, rotating half way through, until the tops are a beautiful golden brown. Transfer to a rack and cool completely. 

Eclairs Tutorial

I found a great tutorial on how to make eclairs from Martha Stewart. They are shockingly easy to make and once you nail the pate a choux dough, you can make cream puffs too. These would be fun to make for St. Patrick's day - you could dye the pastry cream green for a little surprise when you bite into the center. And that is my picture and those are my eclairs and I did eat all of them in one sitting and it was divine. Thank you.

Banana Crumb Muffins

Double the recipe and freeze the extras for a delicious and easy breakfast. Just pop one in the microwave and heat for 20 seconds. Also you should add chocolate chips, you know, for your health and all. 

Makes 1 dozen muffins

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

Crunch Topping
2 tablespoon AP flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat your muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk and set aside.

In another bowl, beat together the bananas, granulated sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until JUST combined. Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips if you so desire. Mix to incorporate.

Measure batter into prepared muffin cups (a heaping 1/4 cup of batter in each well).

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle over muffins.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, rotating the pan after 8 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Funfetti Cookies

There was a 2 month span where the only way I could get my oldest to eat...pretty much anything...was to put a couple sprinkles on the top. Broccoli? yep. Hamburger? guilty. Yogurt? Yep and it tasted suuuper good. When I saw this recipe on Two Peas and their Pod I just KNEW I had to make it with my boy. These really are the best cookies to make with little helper hands. Really I have no idea what it is about sprinkles but they are so magical to children. To be completely honest with you - these did not taste like the boxed funfetti cake mix, which I was kind of hoping they would. A little bit of a bummer but they still taste good, especially with the almond extract. 

Recipe from Two Peas and their Pod
Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup Butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 1/4 cups Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 egg
2 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 cup Cornstarch
3/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Rainbow Sprinkles (long skinnies)
2 tablespoons Nonpareil Sprinkles (little balls)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and almond extracts, and the egg. Beat until combined.

Turn your mixer down to the lowest speed and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. Mix in the sprinkles, being careful not to over-mix or the color will bleed into the dough.

Scoop onto your prepared cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes, but start to check them around 8 minutes. You want the cookies to be very lightly brown. Dark cookies mean crunchy cookies. Yuck.

Enjoy!

Soft Pretzels from Martha

Martha has an awesome tutorial for soft pretzels. Parker loved rolling out the "snakes" and then eating our hard work with a fruit smoothie. Awesome lunch. And snack. And pre-dinner.

Whole Wheat Bread

I bought a Bosch back in February and I've been trying to make my own bread since then. I meant to try several recipes but I started with this one and haven't had a desire to try another. This is delicious and SO easy. I love that the bread rises in the cold oven and only for 30 minutes, then it's as easy as removing the towel and turning the oven on. I can bake 3 loaves of bread in just a little over an hour from start to finish. 

photo taken by my lovely friend, Becca B. 

Recipe from my awesome sister, Jenn
Makes 3 loaves

Into your mixer place:
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 generous cups of VERY hot water
1/3 cup olive oil (or canola)
1/3 cup honey (or sugar)
2 teaspoons salt

Mix until well combined. Turn off mixer, cover with a clean towel and let sit for 10 minutes. While you are waiting, take 3 loaf pans and coat with cooking spray.

Once the ten minutes are up, remove the towel and add:
2 heaping tablespoons of yeast
3 heaping tablespoons of vital wheat gluten

Turn your mixer on and add:
1 1/2 cups bread flour

Continue mixing. In humid Texas I need to add a little more flour, usually 1/2 cup more, until the bread no longer sticks to the side of the bowl and forms a nice ball while mixing. Knead for 10 minutes.

Spritz hands with a little cooking spray and divide dough into thirds. Shape into loaves and place in pan, turning once to coat with oil. Place your loaf pans in the oven and cover with a towel. Let rise for 30 minutes.

REMOVE THE TOWEL BEFORE YOU CONTINUE

After the bread has risen for 30 minutes (the bread should be about double and almost to the top of the pan), turn your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes. My oven is a little hotter so the loaves are done closer to 30 minutes. If in doubt, use your instant-read thermometer. It should read 190 degrees. Remove the bread from the oven and then instantly remove it from the pan. Place the hot bread on a wire rack and let cool as long as you can before breaking into it.

I have no self control so I usually burn my mouth.

strawberry banana muffins

Get the strawberries roasting in the oven right away. 30 minutes into roasting, work on the bananas and then when there's about 15 minutes left on the timer, begin assembly of the muffin batter. The bananas can either be frozen or fresh but they must be very ripe. 

Inspired by America's Test Kitchen and Zoe Bakes but invented by yours truly. 
Makes 1 dozen muffins in a standard muffin tin

3/4 pound strawberries, roasted
1 1/4 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
3 overly ripe bananas
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sugar in the raw

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Rinse, dry and half the strawberries. Toss the berries with 1/4 cup sugar and place in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 1 hour. Remove from oven and the increase oven temperature to 425 degrees.

Take your bananas. You can use either very ripe bananas you have in your fruit bowl or I pulled out the  very ripe bananas I keep in my freezer for banana bread emergencies. If you freeze your bananas in their skins just microwave them for 45 seconds until you can separate the fruit from the skin. Place the peeled bananas in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and poke some vent holes in the top with a fork. Microwave the bananas for 4 minutes. Pour the contents of the bowl (careful it's hot!) into a  fine mesh strainer over another bowl and let it drain. Take the collected juice and put it into a small saucepan. Over medium heat, reduce the banana juice by half until it is nice and syrupy. This will concentrate the flavor. Trust me. Set the banana syrup and banana solids aside for use later.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and remaining 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar until well combined. Incorporate the buttermilk, vanilla and banana solids and syrup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until JUST combined. The mixture should be very lumpy and there should be several dry flour spots; that is the way of the muffin...so says Chris Kimball.

Take your strawberries and mash them up - use either a potato masher or an immersion blender. Make sure they're chunky. Pour your strawberries into the batter and fold in with a spatula. Only do 4-5 folds total. You want to strawberry incorporated but you don't want to lose the delicious swirls either.

Spray a standard muffin tin with cooking spray. Using your 1/3 measuring cup, scoop up a generous amount of batter and place into a muffin well. Repeat. The batter should come to the top of the well.

Take some raw sugar and sprinkle on the top of each muffin. Bake at 425 degrees until the tops are golden and just firm, about 18 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through baking time. Cool muffins in the tin for 5 minutes them remove to a cooling rack and let rest 5 more minutes before serving.