Easy Chocolate Chip cookie, and a prelude to a giveaway!

A food blog can never really be complete without at least one recipe of the 'perfect' chocolate chip cookie, or at least the journey to finding one. I was myself a bit surprised that the one that I had made many moons ago, was not posted yet on the blog. Partly because it wasn't that perfect soft, chewy, decadent, satisfying recipe that I had been on the lookout for. But it was a very very easy recipe . A simple one pot cookie recipe. I picked up this one from 'Two Peas and their pod' , who in turn had adapted it from the book 'The Weekend Baker'

One Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge in The Weekend Baker

Makes 26 cookies

8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces
½ cup (4 ounces/113 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (2 ½ ounces/71 grams) granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (6 ¾ ounces/191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces/170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips or if you are in Switzerland aka 'the-land-where-you-cant-buy-chocolate-chips', then a bar of chocolate broken into small chunks would be fine.

1 – Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners( eg. Silpat)

2 – Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 minutes.

3 – In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts, if using.

4 – Using a small ice-cream scoop (about 1 2/3 inches/4.25 cm in diameter) or 2 tablespoons, drop scant 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) apart. (At this point, the loaded cookie sheets can be slipped into the freezer until the cookies are frozen, about 1 hour. Then transfer the cookies to heavy-duty freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. To bake, remove from the freezer, arrange on lined cookie sheets, and leave on the counter to thaw slightly while the oven heats.)

5 – Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use a cooled sheet for the second batch until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 12 minutes. If these cookies are over baked, the won’t come out chewy. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Stay tuned for a giveaway in my next post!

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Almond Tuile..or is it a Taco!

I had discovered the 'tuiles aux amandes' while on a visit to Paris 2 years ago. I shall blog about it in another post, but since that day, I am in love with this yet another French treat! But a wonderful twist to this biscuit came in the form of a dessert at a restaurant here in Zurich. It was a giant tuile - probably better to call it a taco, filled with fresh fruits, served with some chocolate sauce! It was wonderful! And the tuile was very light! The entire dessert made for such a wonderful end to an excellent meal.
I looked up the net, and found just the perfect dessert for the odd day when I have a lot of fresh fruit that I want to deck up and serve. Here is the quick and easy (of course!) recipe

- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 3 tablespoons sugar(of course you could double or triple(quadruple?) the sugar!)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water
- Fresh fruit
- Chocolate sauce - either a ready made one - or melt your favourite chocolate!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, add in the almond meal (you could use almonds as well, and grind them to a powder), sugar, water and blitz for a few seconds. You should get a paste that is not too runny, but not stiff either - some sort of a goopy consistency means you are good to go. Line the baking sheet with wax/parchment paper. Drop the batter (batter?) onto the sheet, and spread it out into a thin circle - make the biscuit as thin as you can - the oven will do the rest.
Bake it for about 10 minutes. As soon as it is out of the oven, take the wax paper with the biscuit and make it into a U shape. Let it rest like that - you could place the sheet between 2 glasses or something. This is what will give you the taco shape.
Once cooled, place it on a plate with some chocolate sauce, fill in the taco with fruit, throw in a mint leaf for colour. There you have it. A light and refreshing dessert with all the goodness of almonds and chocolate. Share

Belgian Waffles and chocolate ice-cream

Waffles! Who doesn't love them. Served with warm chocolate sauce and if you like it even more chocolat-y - some belgian dark chocolate ice-cream! Whoa..somebody's mouth is watering, and then somebody's jealous..lol!

Anyways, on my trips to the different countries in Europe I have almost always managed to spot a Häagen-Dazs at some touristy place (much like the forbidden McDonalds always peeping out of every nook and corner of every city). Not that I go looking for it - I much prefer eating at the local trattoria or brasserie than a Häagen-Dazs. But once there, I just cannot ignore those enticing pictures of a bed of waffles with icecreams and nuts all over it! Also, being in Zurich doesn't help. You see in my almost 3 year long quest here, I have not been able to spot any decent place serving belgian waffles. Crepes, yes, pancakes too, but no waffles.
On my 2 day trip to Brussels, I had waffles for breakfast, lunch, snacks and then I think I wanted it for dinner too until my husband intervened!

So imagine my happiness when just walking past Bellevue (the lakeside) at Stadelhofen, I spot a picture saying 'Neu'(german way of writing 'New') at the Movenpick outlet. There they were - belgian waffles with ice-cream. Hubby and I tucked in a plateful each :-) Share

Chocolate and coffee truffles

Chocolate and coffee. Two of the greatest gifts to mankind. Bring the two together - and what you get is pure indulgence! To reduce the guilt, throw in some rolled oats, maybe some wheatgerm, and you have a wonderful excuse to have your daily dose of indulgen..erm..nutrition ;)
The recipe couldn't be simpler. Only a few ingredients, and hardly any time to cook, this one is ready in minutes. It keeps well for at least a week (I haven't had the chance to test it longer - it doesn't usually last more than a couple of a days!), and looks great too so makes for a very nice and easy gift. Here is the recipe.

- 2 1/2 tablespoon butter. You could use peanut butter or almond butter to up the nutrition factor - just remember to adjust the sugar accordingly
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar.
- 1/4 cup freshly brewed coffee
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.
- About a cup of rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon wheatgerm
And toppings of your choice.


Melt the butter. Add in the both the sugars, and let it simmer for a few minutes. Now add the coffee, and cocoa powder. Bring it to a boil, and take it off the heat. Put the oats and wheatgerm in a mixer and powder it. Once the coffee mixture is cool enough to work with - about 15 minutes, throw in the oats mixture and mix it up. Now get your hands dirty and start shaping the balls. (Maybe eat it a bit while you're at it). Roll these into the toppings of your choice. I used more cocoa powder(!), shredded coconut, and powdered sugar.
A word of warning - even though these babies are not all that bad for you, don't kid yourself and eat them all up. Save some for your friends and family ;D
I would be posting this for the 1x umrühren bitte's Event Share

Baileys, Mars and a banana

Bailey's Irish Cream, Mars chocolate bar, a ripe banana, butter. Now you can't possibly go wrong with that.

So this morning I woke up earlier than my usual weekend time - I was wide awake at 7 am! It's just a weekend thing - you can't sleep on Friday night, 'coz its Friday night. And since weekends are always sooooo small, I try (trust me I do try) to wake up early on weekends - just so the day seems bigger :)
So hubby and I went to the farmers market in the morning - ate some rustic looking butter bread with cranberries from one of the stalls for breakfast, came home and wanted to try something new, different and decadent. This one is mentioned in the Baileys website, and herez how it's made.




Heat up a tablespoon of butter (the more, the better, you could add 2), slice a banana lengthwise. Toss the banana in the butter, and let it cook until you just start getting a nicely golden brown colour on it. While thats browning, start melting a bar of Mars in a heavy bottomed pan on low heat. Once its gooey, remove from heat, let it cool a bit, and then add in 1 and half tablespoons of Baileys Irish Cream. Mix it so you have a sauce like consistency. Drizzle it over the cooked banana, and dig in! As you can probably tell, this combination is heavenly! Share