Lovin' From the Oven

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

by 35 Comments




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.

Ask me anything on Formspring

White Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Slivered Almonds

by 12 Comments






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.


Ask me anything on Formspring

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

by 19 Comments







I feel like all I want to eat is sweets ever since my surgery. Maybe while they were poking around my insides, they took out the need to eat regular food and substituted it with tons of sugar. That would explain it.

Also, ever since I came back from New York, I can’t stop thinking of that darned cookie from Levain Bakery. It was seriously the best cookie I’ve ever had and the best part of it is that they served it warm! I can’t recall one bakery that serves any of their baked goods warm. It was also probably the biggest cookie that anyone’s ever served me and I dream of it every night. Don’t judge me.
So the moment I came across this recipe on My Baking Addiction, I HAD to give it a shot. If there was any chance this recipe was anything like Levain’s, I’d be in heaven. Sure enough, this is one good cookie. Even better when you make them extra large, as I did. I adapted it just a bit, and here’s what I did:

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 2 1/4 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
  • just unter 1 cup chopped walnuts
  1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mix in vanilla and beat until well incorporated.
  2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips/chunks and nuts.
  3. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  5. Roll cookie dough into individual balls. Make them HUGE! I got 12 cookies from this batch.
  6. Place each on sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven 15-20 minutes depending on how gooey and rawish you like the interior, until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Mine took 16 minutes.
  7. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container.

For all of you near the LA area, I’m glad to say that I’ll be participating in this year’s Eat my Blog charity bake sale! Do drop by and say hello if you can, there will be plenty of great desserts and great bloggers supporting a great cause!

Ask me anything on Formspring

Categories