Oatmeal Snickerdoodles

Here we combine three excellent cookies into one: oatmeal, snickerdoodle, chocolate chip. How can you go wrong with that? These are crunchy, not chewy cookies, with a bit of chocolate and cinnamon. I think they are what happens when you cross Mexico chocolate* with New England home-style.

If you have an electric mixer, these are very easy cookies to make.

Oatmeal Snickerdoodles
(makes about 50 cookies)

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda (½ teaspoon at sea level)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup sugar (⅜ cup at sea level)
⅓ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed (⅜ cup at sea level)
1 egg, at room temperature
¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
⅓ cup chocolate chips

Adjust the racks in your oven to ⅓ and ⅔. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, mix together butter and the sugars in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well combined. On low speed, gradually mix in the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl, then mixing slowly again just to combine. Stir in the oatmeal and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the foil, leaving 2" between cookies - they will spread. You will only be able to fit ½ the dough on 2 sheets, so you'll be baking these in 2 rounds. Place the cookie sheets in the oven and bake for 11-12 minutes until just lightly browned. Do not overbake. When done, slide off the foil and cookies onto 2 racks and let them cool for 5 minutes before trying to remove them. Let the cookie sheets cool to room temperature. Line with foil again and repeat portioning and baking with remaining dough. Store cookies in an airtight container to keep them crispy.

Adapted from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies by Maida Heatter, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

*Mexican chocolate is often flavored with cinnamon.

Molten Chocolate Cake

There are many versions of this incredibly rich, yet easy dessert. This version is from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of the most accomplished chefs on the planet. You may not be able to afford to eat at many of his restaurants, but you can make this. It has only four ingredients, so if you want it do be as wonderful as it can be, spring for high-quality bittersweet chocolate, which is not the same as semisweet chocolate (semisweet is too sweet). Look for chocolate with 62%-72% cacao. It won't be cheap, but it's worth it. This is one sumptuous Valentine's Day dessert!

You will need 4 ramekins or small glass dishes or cups. They should be big enough to hold 4 oz. of liquid. You can even use 7-8 oz. cans  (such as for tunafish or bamboo shoots), but they must be washed very well to remove any odor.

Molten Chocolate Cake
(serves 4, costs - really, isn't your honey worth it?)

1 stick unsalted butter plus a little more for greasing the ramekins
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate ( ⅔ cup chocolate chips)
2 whole large eggs
2 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour plus a little more for flouring the ramekins

Butter the dishes making sure to cover the inside completely. Add a spoonful of flour and shake it around to cover all the butter. Tap out any excess. Set aside.

Place a medium saucepan on medium heat and bring about 1" of water to just a simmer. Once the water gets hot, reduce the heat to low. Place the stick of butter and the chocolate in a medium bowl and place over the simmering water to melt them. While they are melting, beat together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a bowl. You can do this by hand but it goes much faster if you have an electric mixer. Beat until the mixture becomes light yellow and thick. Remove the melted chocolate/butter from the heat. Beat just to combine. Pour in the egg mixture and beat until the color is uniform. Add in the 2 teaspoons of flour and mix just to combine. Divide the batter among the 4 dishes and smooth the top. At this point, you can refrigerate them for a few hours. Remove them from the fridge an hour before baking so they can warm up.

When ready to eat them, preheat oven to 450°F. Place the dishes on a small rimmed cookie sheet (makes getting them in and out of the oven a lot easier). Bake for 8 minutes. The edges will be set but the center will still be soft. Remove from the oven. With hot mitts, carefully lift up a dish and invert onto a plate*. Repeat with remaining cakes. Remove the dish from the first cake you inverted (careful! it's hot). If your dishes were well-greased, it will fall right out. Repeat with the rest. Serve immediately, maybe with a dollop of whipped cream or with some rich vanilla ice cream.

* It's easy if you know how - with a hot mitt, pick up the dish by holding onto the top edges. With another hot mitt in your other hand, place the dish on that hand. Take a plate and place it, upside-down, on top of the dish. Flip the whole thing over.

Recipe adapted from Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman, Broadway Books, 1998.

Mug Fudge Cake

It rises up a lot more than that while cooking.You'll see. :-)

The final recipe from this week's class: Mug Fudge Cake. You mix everything in a big coffee mug, pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes, and poof! You have a delicious chocolate cake. You also get a thrill watching it cook because it rises straight up out of the mug while its cooking, and you'll be convinced it's going to overflow. But, if you use a large mug, it will not become a microwave disaster.

That's half, so 1 mug is plenty to share.

This serves 1 person very generously. We suggest sharing with a friend. The chips settle to the bottom, making a fudge-y layer so if you split it, cut in in half lengthwise, rather than taking the top off and giving it to a friend (but, it's chocolate so we understand if you hog the most fudge-y part).

Mug Fudge Cake
(serves 1-2)

4 Tablespoons all purpose flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons natural cocoa powder (like Hershey's brand)
3 Tablespoons milk
1 large egg
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (for a change, try white chocolate)
½ teaspoon vanilla

In a large mug (12 oz.), combine the flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder with a fork. Add the milk and egg, Mix well. Add the vegetable oil and mix with the fork until smooth and the oil is well-combined with the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and vanilla. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes. It will rise up very high(!), but it will not overflow the mug. Let sit a moment before digging in - it's really hot. Fantastic with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

This was dessert for my most recent cooking class. It doesn't get much easier than this when it comes to dessert. Since this is all about the strawberries and the chocolate, get ripe, fragrant strawberries and a good quality chocolate (milk, semisweet, or bittersweet depending on your preference). Most recipes recommend using long-stemmed strawberries because you can hold the berries by the stem to dip them. This isn't necessary. Stick a fork into the stem end and dip them to cover them until just below the stem end. Then gently push the berries off the fork from the stem end. Or do like my students: use your fingers and enjoy licking the chocolate off afterward!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
(covers about 1 dozen medium strawberries)

½ pound medium strawberries
½ cup chocolate chips or chocolate bar, chopped finely

Wash strawberries and dry thoroughly. This is important for getting the chocolate to hold on to the berries.

Line a small cookie sheet with aluminum foil or waxed paper.

Place the chocolate chips in a medium microwaveable bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave for another 1 minute, again at 50% power. Stir again. Microwave at 50% power for another 30-60 seconds until chocolate is liquid. You don't want to cook it too long because chocolate will burn.

Immediately dip the berries into the liquid chocolate and lay out on the foil lined sheet. When you've finished all the berries, place them in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. If you can wait that long...

Microwave Chocolate Pudding

Microwave Chocolate Pudding, garnished with a few extra chocolate chips. No such thing as too much chocolate.

With this recipe for a quick microwave chocolate pudding you can banish that box of instant pudding forever. This pudding is great hot, warm, or cold. It is deeply chocolate-y if you use high quality chocolate chips. Not chocolate flavored chips. Not chocolate with vegetable oil. Real chocolate.

Though we haven't tried it yet, we believe that this recipe would work just as well with other chips such as white chocolate, butterscotch, or milk chocolate.

Microwave Chocolate Pudding
(serves 1, costs 60¢)

1 ½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup milk
Scant ¼ cup chocolate chips
Pinch of salt

Place cornstarch in a 12 ounce mug or 2 cup glass measure.  Gradually, but briskly stir in milk with a whisk so there are no lumps.  Add chocolate chips and salt.  Microwave on high 1 minute or until hot but not boiling; stir briskly with rubber spatula, scraping down sides.  Mixture will look grainy.  Cook 30-45 seconds more until mixture just begins to boil.  Watch closely to avoid boil-over.

Need enough pudding to share with your friends? Here's the recipe for 4 servings:

2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 ⅔ cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips
⅛ teaspoon salt

Put  cornstarch in a 4-cup glass measure or deep 1-quart bowl.  Whisk in milk until smooth.  Add chocolate chips and salt.  Microwave on high 2 minutes and stir.  Then cook 2 minutes more until thickened around edges, but still liquid in center.  Stir with spatula, scraping down sides of bowl.  Cook 30 seconds-2 minutes until thickens to creamy, spoonable consistency.  Immediately place waxed paper or plastic wrap on surface of pudding to prevent skin.

When we made this recipe during the class in a small microwave, it took 2 minutes to thicken the pudding, for 6 minutes of total cooking. At home, in a high-powered microwave, it took a total of 5 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - just a few, please

[As you may know, School of Eating Good is two of us, Ronnie and Sharon. When you see "I," sometimes it's Ronnie and sometimes it's Sharon, though we collaborate on all the recipes. This recipe is totally Ronnie's creation, and it's a great piece of work that cookie lovers everywhere should celebrate.]

Sometimes I get in such a mood for cookies, I must make some.  But, I only want just a few.  Otherwise, I'll either be eating cookies non-stop for days, or worse, I'll put them in the freezer, forget about them, and eventually find them a broken, ice-laden mess several months later.

This recipe makes 6 good size (about 3") cookies.  Just perfect for a few snacks or to share with a friend.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 6

½ cup flour

⅛ teaspoon baking soda

⅛ teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon well-beaten egg (see Notes)

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips (regular size or mini-chips)

2 Tablespoons chunky peanut butter or 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)

Place the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Place the butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla and peanut butter, if using, in a medium size bowl and mix until well creamed with a spoon. Add the beaten egg and mix until well blended. Stir in the flour mixture; then stir in the chocolate chips (and peanut butter or nuts, if using). Refrigerate dough for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Scoop about 3 Tablespoons of the batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing the mounds 2½ to 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies until they are golden brown, 13 or 14 minutes. 

Notes: To measure out the egg, beat it first to combine the white and yolk, then measure.

Use a ¼ cup measure to scoop the dough out, not filling them completely, since ¼ cup is equal to 4 Tablespoons and you want to use about 3 Tablespoons per cookie.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

My daughter loves everything pumpkin – pumpkin pie, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin muffins, and especially pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  These are little cakey wonders, with a sweet, maple icing. The icing can be piped on (like in the picture above) or spread on the cookies after they cool.  Feel free to substitute chopped pecans for the chocolate chips and maybe put some in the icing, too.  But, first try them with chocolate chips and you’ll see why these are one of her favorites.

For the cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the icing:
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound (about 4 cups) powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

In a second large bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Use an electric mixer to beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the pumpkin, egg and vanilla, then mix until well combined. Add half the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the other half and mix again. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets in 1-Tablespoon mounds, arranging them 2 inches apart.  Bake for 14 minutes, or until lightly browned at the edges.  Midway through baking, rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back.

While the cookies bake, in a medium bowl combine the butter and maple syrup. Use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla.  Mix well. Add the powdered sugar and mix well, beating until fluffy. Set aside.

Once the cookies have baked, cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, either pipe or spread the frosting on them.  Makes about 50 cookies.