Cocoa Fudge Cookies and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Here are two no-fuss cookies from Nicole Weston's Baking bites I love how these are so easy to make... especially when I don't need to bother hand mixer to cream butter + sugar. Everything goes in the bowl, mix , scoop and then poof..f...f here come my babies.

My first baby, Cocoa Fudge Cookies, original recipe is from Cooking light magazine but my inspiration was from a handsome photo displayed on Nicole's website. Here is the recipe. Cocoa Fudge Cookies Recipe




I couldn't find dried tart cherry so I put in white chocolate bits from my last cookie batch. The dough, as seen above, came out just fine, not too gooey and was easy to shape. This recipe turns out to be a coffee mate, these two things compliment each other so well. If anyone has a coffee house, you can serve this cookie with espresso. I believe people would crave both (coffee + cookie) even more. However ,this maybe a little too sweet for those who are chocolate hard core'r like me. Next time I would use tard dried cherry as stated in recipe to cut sweetness.

The second no-fuss cookies, Banana Oatmeal Cookies. Oh I need to say, I don't know why lately I crave bananas. Am I transforming into a monkey or I'm becoming one , or I've become one??? Never before, that I like this fruit. Never mind, I bake this out of my love of cookies and bananas. :-> Again, inspiration is from Nicole's baking bites. Thanks Nicole for the recipe.

Here is recipe Banana Oatmeal Cookies





I baked these two black/white cookies, gave away to friends, spared half a dozen for myself in a ziplock bag. I was surprised how quick I could finish them in one day even though I thought they would last longer on the kitchen shelf. Obviously, I am a good planner but a bad implementor. Oh...my chewy babies don't you hide in that little zipbag!!! .

Outrageous chocolate cookies

This was my second effort after the first failure last month. What happened last time? It was a shame that I altered ingredients, as I was short of "real" chocolate and replaced with cocoa powder then added some butter intuitively. Result? weird pieces of hard cooked/bland biscuit. Lesson learned? YES. Don't be frugal on ingredients or alter the recipes unless you are experimenting a new one.

Okay then I promised I would decipline to what said in the recipe, and yes with all my respect (and from the failure last time) I measured up as accurate as I could. Sometimes you just trust your eyes and ears thinking that you've been baking for awhile and that measuring seems to be less necessary. Believe me, baking is art and science , the latter of which implies that you must follow instructions as much as possible.

I put loads of chocolate in. I love this recipe. It's easy, no fuss. While baking, my kitchen smelled like the house of chocolate. I love the look of cookies, cracky and crisp. They actually are very soft. The chocolate chucks are half melted inside, make you crave for a cup of coffee.

The orignal recipe is from Martha Stewart's website

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/deliciously-outrageous-chocolate-cookies?autonomy_kw=chocolate%20cookies&rsc=header_2

Makes 2 dozen

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.

I love the photo from this site. They close up the inner texture.
http://www.bakeorbreak.com/2008/02/14/outrageous-chocolate-cookies/

Bitter Chocolate Cheesecake

This is the third (or may be fourth) time I made cheesecake. The result is always heavenly decicious and I doubt it very much (I borrow this phrase from my freind, Kate, who always begins her conversation by sayting this) if I'm in love with it. Or I just dont' have a criteria to judge what is a good or a so-so cheesecake (just like when you fall in love with someone that you can always see good side of him/her). I reduced half of sugar from what recipe called for and doubled-up cocoa and espresso so that I would end up having super intense caffee-choco taste. And hey, I got what I'd hoped for.

Verdict: The texture is not as dense as new york cheese cake but firmer than the French one. I love it this way coz it's manageble and that you can sieve cocoa powder or anything on it withour worrying the moist would swallow it down.

The above photo is taken 4 days after I made it. Looks a little rough but it sure tastes even better in later days.

Here is recipe.

Ingredients (everything at room temperature)
700 g Cream chese (soften)
6 eggs
2 c yoghurt
80 g sugar
16 oz bitter sweet choc (melted)
2 shots of espresso
4 tablespoon of cocoa
1 tbsp flour

200 g Oreo or Chocolate biscuits
100 butter (soften)

Prepare the base, add togeter butter and oreo. Squees them to make a dough. Consistency check: if they stick together as a ball, it's ready to go in the tray. If not, add more butter.

Put wax paper on to 9inch base. Press biscuit firmly using back of spoon.

Befor you make filling, put 9x12 inch tray in the oven. Add hot water half way thru.

To make Filling

Sofen cream cheese. I used a big fork and whipped it down for 10 min. I toned up upper arms by the time it was soften. As I warned you, make sure it is warmed down at room temp so that you don't have to work hard stirring it. My kitchen temp is around 30 C. So, if yours are 10'ish, you'd better leave it in slightly warmed oven. Okay, then add sugar, muscle up you biceps once more, stir till well blend.

Then, add egg, one at a time, stir well in each addidtion. Now the texture is yogurt-liked, add yogurt. Stir til just blend. If you are thinking about using a whisk, forget it, coz it'll add excess air in the batter which is not good.

In a separte bowl, add melted chocolate, espresso and cocoal powder.

Pour coffee+chocolate into creamchees mixture, stir until well blended.

Now your baby is ready to go. Pour into 9-inch pan over oreo base. Put on the water-tray , bake for 60 minutes at 170-175 C. Dont' sneak peek, you've got to be decipline. :-0

Once done, let rest in the oven for anohter 60 min. Then, before you go shopping, put it in the fridge for a few hours before cut and serve.

Decoration: Make patterns with cocoa powder or Chocolate leaves. I love to use the real leaves but it was raining outside, so I used maple (plastic) template.

FYI - I left a few pieces in the fridge for a week. It didn't weep and tasted heavenly good. Belive it or not. That's why I call this one "my baby".

David lebovitz's Cookies

The cookies speak for themselves. Yummmmm.

Here is David's recipe.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/11/nick_malgieris.html

A revisit to Green Tea Red bean

This is a revisit to green tea cake…no specific reason. This time I planned to make it nicer than I did last time i.e. with fillings being tubed out of pastry bags, with pattern on top.

I love the sponge, its color and texture was just right. Although I didn’t measure up how much green tea I should add. I guess it just the matter of color so I played it by ears (actually by eyes). I don’t like artificial color with neon-light green kind of thing.

Whipping crème melted down a bit while I was taking photos. It’s summer and the kitchen was warm though not sweaty. Speaking of summer, I have to add a brownie point to winter that… cold weather makes my whipped crème form nicely on cake layer as it should be (despite the fact that I had to wear thick jacket while baking).

My friends reminded me of upcoming scuba diving and I wonder if I could fit in diving suit. Got to shed down on desserts then.