Double Chocolate Biscotti

In honor of Priyanka and Reza's birthdays at work they requested "something chocolate" for their group meeting birthday treat.  I always want to try new recipes, so I decided that biscotti would be a fun thing to try and would be perfect for our afternoon group meeting.  Interestingly, very few of my group members had heard of biscotti, so I looked up the official definition and found that biscotti is of Italian origin and by definition must be "twice baked."  I didn't want my biscotti to be quite as hard as traditional biscotti so I modified the baking directions a bit.  If I had more time I would have melted some white chocolate and drizzled it on the side to make them prettier.  I think these would make a great holiday gift, are really easy to make and can be modified by adding nuts, white chocolate chips, etc.

Double Chocolate Biscotti
1/2 C butter, softened
2/3 C white sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 3/4 C AP flour
3/4 C semisweet chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually beat in cocoa and baking powder, then beat on medium high speed for 2 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in flour at low speed until combined and then stir in chocolate chips.
5. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray.
7. Divide dough in half and form into two 9-inch logs.  Pat down slightly to about 1 inch thickness.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Turn oven off and cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes.
10. Carefully cut into 1/2 in slices using a sharp knife and turn each slice so cut side is facing up.
11. Set oven to 325 degrees and bake again for 5 minutes.
12.  Remove from oven, carefully flip each slice to the other side and bake an additional 5-7 minutes.
13.  Place on cooling rack to cool completely.  Store in air tight container.

Difficulty: Medium
Debbie's Rating: 8.5

Can't Believe They're Kosher for Passover Brownies

It's Passover time again, so I thought I would write about the dessert that I made for the first seder this year. My mom got this recipe for Passover brownies from a cooking class she took at our synagogue on Pittsburgh. The goal of Passover desserts is always to make something that doesn't taste like it's for Passover, which is hard, considering you can't use any flour! These brownies are actually really good and went over well at the seder. They are not the healthiest but hey, when you can't use flour, you end up using a lot of eggs and butter to get structure.

Passover Fudge Brownies

4 eggs

2 C sugar

1 C melted butter, slightly cooled

½ tsp salt

6 tbsp matzah cake meal

1 C cocoa

1 cup ground nuts (optional)

KP non-stick spray

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Sift matzah cake meal and cocoa. Set aside.

3. Beat eggs on medium high speed. Add sugar gradually and beat well.

4. Beat in melted butter and salt.

5. Add dry ingredients slowly, beating until fully combined. Stir in nuts.

6. Pour into a greased 9” x 13” metal pan.

7. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 min until a toothpick comes out clean.

Difficulty: Easy

Debbie's Rating: 9

Hirsh's Rating: 9 (10 on a passover scale)

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Well, it has been a while since I blogged- almost a year! Work has been quite busy, but I felt inspired tonight, so here you go, a new blog post!! While I haven't been blogging for a while, I still have been trying new recipes and having fun in the kitchen. So hopefully I will make a few of the new recipes again and post them soon. :-)

One of the best avenues for trying new recipes this year as been my group meeting birthday tradition. Every time someone in my subgroup has a birthday, I ask them what they want and make it for group meeting that week. This past year I made: apple walnut cookies, almond cookies, peanut butter fudge, coffee muffins, banana nut muffins and raspberry/blueberry muffins just to name a few (can you tell we switched from a pm meeting to am meeting?) Well, it's been a full year and I'm back to the beginning with Shufeng. Shufeng really loves the birthday treat idea and actually picked this recipe for me to make. I was pretty skeptical since I am used to the creaming method for cookies and this recipe actually melts the butter, but the 600 positive reviews on allrecipies.com encouraged me to make them anyways (with a few tweaks of course). I have to say, I was quite impressed with how they turned out!! I would call them the grown up version of thin mints. :-)

Chocolate Mint Cookies

3/4 stick butter (6 tbsp)

3/4 C packed brown sugar

1 tbsp water

1 C semisweet chocolate chips

1 egg

1/8 tsp mint extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

5/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

18 Andees mints, broken in half

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.

2. Stir in brown sugar and water until combined.

3. Add chocolate chips and stir until they begin to melt. Take off heat and stir until chips are completely melted.

4. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

5. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.

6. Beat egg and mint extract into chocolate mixture on high speed.

7. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined.

8. Scrape dough down into center of bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

9. Preheat oven to 350.

10. Use a cookie scoop to portion dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter.

11. Bake for 8 minutes.

12. Place 1/2 Andees mint on each cookie and bake 1 more minute.

13. Swirl mint and then remove cookies from cookie sheet.

14. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate briefly to set topping.

15. Enjoy!

Makes ~3 dozen

Healthy Lemon Raspberry Muffins

Always on the search for fun, healthy muffin recipes, I decided that I wanted to try raspberry muffins. I found this recipe online and modified it a bit (the original recipe mixed everything in a food processor which turned out, as I guessed to be very unnecessary). The muffins turned out really well and I will definitely make them again, maybe substituting some of the oil with yogurt or apple sauce to make them even healthier.

Healthy Lemon Raspberry Muffins

1 lemon

1/2 C sugar

1 C nonfat buttermilk, or 1 tbsp lemon juiced mixed in 1 C skim milk (I used this substitution since I forgot to buy buttermilk)

1/3 C canola oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C whole-wheat flour

1 C all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 small container fresh raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Combine zest of lemon, sugar, buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla in one bowl. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold in until just combined.

4. Gently fold in raspberries.

5. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool 5 minutes before turning out of pan. Makes 12 muffins.

Difficulty: Easy

Debbie's Rating: 9

Apple Walnut Spice Cookies

After bringing in cookies a few times to group meeting and seeing how much my group members enjoyed my baking, I decided that it would be fun to bring in a treat each time we had a birthday. For my boss's birthday in January, I brought in chocolate chip cookies. Recently, I decided that it would be an even better idea to have the birthday person choose their favorite cookie, brownie, bar, muffin, etc, and I would bring it in for their birthday. Shufeng's birthday was the first one on the list and he wasn't sure what kind of cookies he liked. Luckily his wife helped him find some recipes online and he sent me a few. I chose cookies called "apple hermits," a cookie that I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. They turned out really well- spicy from the cloves and nutmeg, soft from the apples, and they were a huge hit at group meeting. I sent a dozen home with Shufeng, and he said that his wife and son loved them too. I can't wait to make the next birthday treat!

Apple Walnut Spice Cookies

2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup peeled, chopped granny smith apples

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and beat to combine.

4. Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture until fully incorporated.

5. Fold in apples and walnuts by hand.

6. Form dough into 1 tbsp balls by hand (dough was fairly crumbly, so press the balls together)

7. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

8. Enjoy! (Note: Best to eat within 1-3 days as the apples start letting out moisture)

Difficulty: Medium

Debbie's Rating: 9

Shufeng's Rating: "It just tastes far beyond what I can imagine"

Ice cream cake

Hirsh and I wanted to make a fun dessert for our dinner club so Hirsh thought of making a homemade ice cream cake. I searched the internet for assembly instructions and found some really strange suggestions like making the cake out of ice cream sandwiches and cutting ice cream in half with dental floss. After more searching, I found these directions. While it was pretty time consuming due to all of the freezing steps, it turned out really well and tasted really good! I know we will be making this one again, and with different cake, ice cream and icing flavors, the possibilities are endless!

Ice Cream Cake

1 recipe or mix for 9 in round layer cake

1/2 gallon ice cream of choice (we used Edy's slow churned cookies and cream)

Icing and topping of choice

(layer cake and icing recipes here)

1. Soften ice cream at room temperature until soft, but not melted.

2. Line 1 round cake pan with saran wrap, enough to cover ice cream.

3. Press ice cream into pan with a flexible spatula and cover with saran wrap. Put ice cream in freezer to harden in pan.

4. After a few hours, take ice cream wrapped in saran wrap out of pan and store flat in the freezer. Make layer cake in 2 cake pans. Cool completely, wrap each layer in saran wrap and freeze for 3+ hours.

5. Make icing immediatley before you are ready to assemble the cake.

6. Place cake layer, ice cream layer and second cake layer in a stack. Trim off any excess ice cream with a sharp knife. Working VERY quickly, frost the cake and decorate.
7. Put cake back in freezer until ready to serve.

8. Take out for a few minutes and then slice and serve!
Difficulty: Medium
Debbie's Rating: 10

Hirsh's Rating: 9.75 (When asked why he didn't rate it a 10, he said, "It's not a 10 because we could have added peanut butter" when I asked "where, in the ice cream?" he responded, "no everywhere!")

Supper Club at the Goldberg's

Recently we started a "supper club" with a some friends. Each couple takes a turn hosting and makes a big feast for everyone. Hirsh and I brainstormed the menu and decided on brisket, kugel and carrots for the main course. It was definitely a lot of work, but we were able to make most of it the day before and all of the "mmm's" made it very worthwhile. The brisket and kugel recipes I got from my mom and the carrots were from my cousin Marcy. We even got to use my grandma's china and our flatware from our wedding, which made it even more fun and special.

Yummy Brisket

This was our first time making brisket and it turned out to be a lot easier than we thought and tasted delicious! We will definitely make this recipe again.

4-6 lbs brisket (get several smaller flat cut briskets for the best results)

3 packets lipton onion soup

1 1/2 C ketchup

3 C gingerale

1 large covered roasting pan

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange briskets in a large roasting pan.

1. Combine 2 packets onion soup mix, 1 cup ketchup and 2 cups gingerale with a whisk. Pour over briskets.

4. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 2 to 2.5 hours, basting every 30 minutes.

5. Cool until room temperature and then put in refrigerator and chill overnight.

6. Remove any solidified fat (ew gross!) and remove brisket onto a cutting board.

7. Slice against the grain, removing fat and put in a casserole dish in the refrigerator.

8. An hour before you are ready to reheat, take the brisket out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. Combine 1/2 C ketchup, 1 C gingerale and one onion soup packet to make additional sauce.

9. Reheat at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

10. Serve and enjoy! Makes great leftovers if you have any (which we didn't!)

Sweet Cinnamon Kugel

A classic Jewish dish, this kugel goes great with beef or chicken. Not the healthiest side dish, but for holidays and special occasions it's great.

1 pound (16 oz.) of medium egg noodles, cooked

8 eggs, separated; Use 6 yolks, 8 whites

1 cup sugar

4 oz. orange juice

2 tsp. vanilla

2 sticks butter, softened at room temperature

1 C crushed corn flakes

4 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Butter

1. Cream sugar and margarine.

2. Add 6 egg yolks, orange juice and vanilla and mix until combined.

3. Add batter to cooked noodles and set aside.

4. Clean bowl well and whip 8 egg whites to medium peaks (white, puffy eggwhite cloud should fill about 3/4 of the bowl on a kitchenaid mixer.)

5. Carefully fold egg whites into noodles until just combined.

6. Grease 9x13 glass baking dish with butter and add noodles. If you can't fit all of the noddles in, that's okay.

7. Top with crushed corn flakes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Dot with butter.

8. Bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes.

9. Can be stored for 1 day in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature and then reheat at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

10. Cut in squares and serve.

Orange Ginger Carrots

This recipe was super easy to make an a fun veggie side dish that is different than traditional green beans or broccoli.

2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

1 C orange juice

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger

1. Combine carrots, orange juice, sugar, butter and ginger in a large skillet over medium high heat.

2. Heat until boiling, cover and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Uncover and simmer until liquid glazes carrots and carrots are tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper if desired and serve.