Lovin' From the Oven

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I baked a whole bunch for my boyfriend’s grandma’s 70th birthday. Let me tell you, the Argentinians sure do know how to throw a party AND party. They went all out and hired a company that cooks the meat in your backyard. Literally. They made their own huge fire pit to roast all of the meat on. The caterers cooked from noon til nearly eight o’ clock at night, and they serve it to you fresh off the grill. The first round was chicken and pork ribs, so naturally, I nearly stuffed my face full. Little did I know that that was only the appetizer! There was still two rounds of beef afterward and I couldn’t eat another bite! Such a shame. 🙁

Regardless of how great the food is, I’m the girl that’s always waiting for dessert. No matter how much food I eat, I always have room for dessert. How can you not? The dessert table at the party didn’t disappoint, either. Gabe’s other grandma made home-made tiramisu and dulce de leche. She also made alfajores (which is so time consuming!) to top it all off. I need to have a observing day to sit in the kitchen and watch her make everything so that I can learn all of her secrets. Her flan is to die for!

Out of all the cookies I baked, this one was my favorite. I actually have never tried nutella until I met Gabe. We somehow came onto the topic of nutella on our first date, and he found out that I’ve never tried it. He instantly drove me to his house, opened up the can of nutella in his pantry, and grabbed a spoonful for me to taste. Umm, hello? How have I been missing out on this hazelnut goodness all my life? Ever since then, I could never turn it down. I keep asking my mom to buy the Costco sized nutella jar cause the ones at the grocery store are just so gosh darn expensive and I go through it like I go through flour and sugar.

I first saw this recipe over at Sugar Cooking and decided to use her version instead of the original one that she linked to. The original uses chopped hazelnuts instead of chocolate chips, but I didn’t have any on hand. The result was a very chewy and moist cookie with nutella as the main flavor. I’m really glad the chocolate didn’t overpower the hazelnut taste. I also used the whole stick of butter instead of 7 tbsp (who the heck uses just a tbsp shy of a whole stick of butter?! Not me!).

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temp.
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.
  2. Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.
  3. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips.
  4. Chill for at least 1 hour.
  5. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

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White Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Slivered Almonds

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I had a weekend full of meat. Have I ever told you how my boyfriend doesn’t eat any vegetables? Like, zip. nada. zelch. He won’t touch anything that’s green, with spinach being the only exception. Even so, he’ll only eat like three bites of spinach and he’ll be done for the month. Our relationship works out perfectly because I eat all of his vegetables and he finishes all of my meat.

What’s even better is that he fits into my family perfectly. My dad made a comment to my older sister and me that we couldn’t find normal boyfriends.. we had to find ones with weird eating habits (joking, of course). But it worked out in the end because my older sister’s boyfriend is vegan. Everything he doesn’t eat, my boyfriend eats. Everything my boyfriend doesn’t eat, my sister’s boyfriend will eat. Put the two together and they can finish an entire plate. Works out perfectly, right?

These cookies have some great ingredients that work well together. They were crispy on the edges and the oats made it chewy on the inside. I just wish that they were turned out a bit thicker. A bit of tweaking and this recipe could do wonders. Recipe’s from Dash and Bella.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
directions:
Place butter in the bowl of the electric mixture and allow to soften for a few hours if it’s not room temperature already.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a new bowl, mix together chocolate chips, dried cranberries, almonds, and oats. Set aside. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a whisk to make sure baking soda and salt are evenly distributed. Set aside.
Add both sugars to the butter and beat like crazy for a few minutes. Scrape down the sides. Add 1 egg. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd egg and mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla. Mix for about 3 seconds. Scrape down sides. Add 1/3 of the flour mixtures, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Now add the final 1/3 of the flour mixture PLUS the chocolate chip/oat/cranberry/almond mixture. Mix briefly until flour is just incorporated. At this point all the chips, nuts, oats, and cranberries should be evenly distributed as well.
Use an ice cream scoop. Scoop out balls of dough (a bit bigger than a golf ball). Don’t flatten them. Keep them spherical. This way the center will stay gooey and the edges while the edges get crisp. Place a few inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake in the middle rack of the oven.
Bake 10-12 minutes. But don’t go according to time. Instead, keep an eye on the cookies. When the center (quarter-sized) is still raw, take the cookies out. Leave them on the sheet pan for a few minutes. Move to a rack and let cool. Or just cool them on the cookie sheet.

Freeze balls of dough for up to 6 months in a ziploc bag. You can place the frozen cookie balls onto a cookie sheet and right into a preheated oven.


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S’mores Brownies

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these babies definitely weren’t pretty out of the pan, they stuck to everything! proof:I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! I spent the day working (since we’re only closed three days of the year and sadly, the 4th of July is not one of them) and then bbq’ing with my boyfriend and family. Afterwards, my parents, my bf and I went to the top of a hill and watched the fireworks picnic-style. It was really quite pleasant and I love spending time with my parents. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have them and I can only hope to have even half of the relationship that they have one day.

Because of work, I wasn’t able to bake any 4th of July themed goodies, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t bake this past weekend. I was craving summer and baked some s’mores brownies to satisfy by summer craving. These were delicious! I may have overdone it with the extra graham crackers that I threw in, but no harm done there. These pictures may not look as scrumptious, but I guarantee that they are! I had to give away half of the pan so I wouldn’t eat them myself. My boyfriend’s co-workers devoured them in two minutes. No joke.

The only difference that I would have made is to add the marshmallows on halfway through baking rather than at the beginning. They cooked for a little bit too long and became a bit burnt. The final product was also extremely sticky and nearly impossible to cut without making a mess, so let it cool completely before cutting!

I used my normal brownie base and just added some throw-ins to create this concoction. The brownie is always a winner in my books! You can also use a brownie box mix if you’re short on time; it works just as well.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups sugar (white)
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • about 1 cup graham crackers pieces, broken by hand(I used 4 sheets of graham crackers)
  • half a bag of large marshmallows
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
  2. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Once melted remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend together.
  3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix well. Add broken graham crackers and mix.
  4. Pour into greased pan. Place marshmallows over the poured batter, I used about 15 large marshmallows, but you can do more or less depending on your taste. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

P.S. I have been getting a ton of emails recently and I’m sorry if I have not responded! I’m so behind on that and I just want you guys to know that I do take the time to read every single one. If I still don’t respond, please feel free to bug me until I do so! 🙂

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