Holiday Cookies: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I made these cookies for the first time just this past weekend for a holiday party. The look all crunchy,  but don't you worry...these cookies resemble mini brownies. They have a slightly crispy outer shell and a perfectly soft inside (much like my personality hahahaha...not).

Okay, bad joke aside though, these cookies are pretty good. Plus, they look like snowy mountains, which as we all know is perfectly winter holiday appropriate. So if you live in a nice, warm, sunny city--I hate you (jk I love you all), but what that means is make these cookies stat. Heck, make them if you live in a cold city with tons of snow, or if you're like me and live in the mountains with NO snow. Just make them. I haven't worked on healthifying the recipe too much quite yet, but I will tell you there is no butter, and very little oil in this here recipe. Now if I could work on that sugar part...stevia maybe? If anyone tries it, let me know.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies: (Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com)

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips + 2 tablespoons milk (I used almond milk) warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds and mixed until melted and smooth
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 eggs  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (to roll the dough in)

• With a hand mixer, mix the sugars, vanilla extract and eggs until thicker and lighter in color.

• Add the melted chocolate and oil and mix

• With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the cocoa powder.

• Sift together, flour, baking powder and salt and add that to the mixture. Mix with the spoon or spatula until combined.

• Cover the bowl and dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until hard enough to scoop without it being sticky.

When dough is ready:

• Preheat oven to 350 F or 175 C

• Grease a cookie sheet with some vegetable oil.

• Scoop and roll dough into 1- 1 ½ inch balls. Roll ball in powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet.

• Bake for 8-10 minutes (Mine were done after 9 minutes, it’s okay if they’re a little soft, they will harden up when they cool)

• After they cool for about 3-4 minutes, press a hershey’s kiss into the center. Because the cookie is still hot, they will start to melt a little bit from the bottom… place cookies onto the cooling rack and place them in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes until Hershey kisses harden again. Take cookies out and bring them back to room temp.  

Enjoy!

Autumn Harvest Butternut Squash Soup

Call it what you like... Autumn, Fall, that time of the year when the leaves get crunchy enough to stop on (or don't  depending on where you live), pumpkin spice latte season...no matter WHAT you call this season... it's the perfect time for soup. And not just any soup...a soup that speaks to the season itself, to the harvest that it provides, and to the sweet and slightly spiced coolness that the air holds. 

This soup is relatively easy. It takes a bit of chopping and a tiny bit of sautéing, but the rest kinda cooks itself. Sorry I don't have many pictures; I decided after the fact that I was going to post it.

The soup itself is PLENTY creamy once blended, that I didn't feel the need to add any sort of cream. But if you decide you want some added richness, 1/4 of a cup canned coconut milk will pair perfectly with this soup. The great thing about this recipe is that a lot of it depends on your own personal taste, especially when it comes to the spices, so taste lots and adjust as you see fit. I adapted the recipe from here. Please leave me some love and let me know what you think if you try the recipe!  

Ingredients:

•     4 pounds whole butternut squash (about 2 medium), halved lengthwise and seeds    removed (I used one very large butternut squash
•     4-5 medium carrots
•    1 Tbsp coconut oil
•   1 medium Granny Smith apple peeled (I used a golden crisp apple…)
•   1 small or ¾ a medium yellow onion
•  1 Tbsp dried marjoram
•   6 cups low-sodium vegetable, chicken, or beef broth
•  Salt to taste
•  Freshly ground black pepper to taste
•  ¼-1/2 tsp nutmeg (start small and add more as needed)
•  Dash of cayenne pepper
•  Dash of chili powder
•   Drizzle of olive oil
•   ½-1 tsp ground cinnamon (start small and add more to until happy with flavor)
•  1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds or dried cranberries for garnish (optional)
•   ¼ cup coconut milk (optional)

Directions

• Cut tops off of butternut squash, cut in half, take seeds out, drizzle with tiny bit of olive oil, season with salt, some chili powder, and freshly cracked black pepper. Roast in the oven at 375 F until fully tender.
• While squash is roasting, dice onions and apples, and slice carrots into disks. Heat a large nonstick pot and add 1 tbsp coconut oil. Add onions and apples, sauté until slightly soft and browning. Add carrots, sauté for another 4-5 min.
• Add all broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low once it boils, cover, and let simmer until carrots and apples are completely cooked and soft.
• When carrots and apples are soft add the fully cooked butternut squash (scooped out of it’s skin)
• Add nutmeg, cinnamon, marjoram, freshly cracked pepper, dash of cayenne, dash of chili powder.
• Puree entire mixture in batches in a blender.
• Taste and adjust spices and salt as necessary.
• Optional: Mix in coconut milk (or cream) to make richer. I found it perfect without it, and had some plain yogurt on the side.
• Optional: When serving, garnish with dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Good ol' Blueberry Muffins (These are perfect)

Yes, it's been eons since I last posted. Things got crazy. The first year of this PhD program happened. It  seriously happened. (YAY!) Now don't get too excited... it's not quite over... I've got until the end of the summer before I can officially put a seal on year one, but it's as over as in no classes this summer at least. For some reason however...I still have trouble finding the time (and gathering the patience) to work as well as I want on my research--or my cooking/baking. This makes me sad. Just know that it makes me sad.

Tonight however, I made the best gosh darn blueberry muffins I have EVA made. I adapted the recipe from a blog written by what seems to be a wonderful woman with great talent! Her name is Chelsea and her blog is called "Making Home Base". I'll include the link to the original recipe below. 

I'm not one to brag about the moist-ness of baked goods. Partly (mostly) because I hate the word moist. But my word hatred aside... these are HELLA moist. All thanks to the greatness that is plain yogurt, and the wonderfulness that is science and all that jazz. 

Good ol' Blueberry Muffins

Adapted from Making Home Base

Ingredients for Muffins

**This recipe can easily be made vegan by using a coconut milk based yogurt (or just adding an extra 1/4 cup of the non-dairy milk + tsp of apple cider vinegar and eliminating the yogurt), substituting a flax egg for the egg, and using solidified coconut oil in place of the butter used in the topping. 

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar (feel free to substitute your sweetener of choice, but adjust amount accordingly)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup melted extra virgin coconut oil (feel free to use canola oil here)
• 1/3 cup "homemade buttermilk" (1/3 cup of ANY milk. I used Almond Breeze's unsweetened coconut almond milk + 1 tsp apple cider (or white) vinegar--allow this to rest for about 5 min before pouring it into the wet ingredients)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp plain yogurt (I would suggest NOT to use nonfat--but doing so won't necessarily mess things up.
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I used fresh ones that I had frozen myself)

Ingredients for Topping

• 1/4 cup butter softened
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 F
• Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl (First 5 ingredients)
• In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, and vanilla extract
• While continuously mixing add the oil, milk, and yogurt
• Before adding the wet ingredients to the dry ones, go ahead and make the topping by just combining the ingredients for it with a fork. It should look crumbly. Set aside
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine. Don't over-mix
• Fold in the blueberries (batter will be relatively thick, just make sure you disperse the blueberries across the whole batter)
• Spray a cupcake tray with non-stick spray and place about 1/4 cup batter in each space. Generously top each with the topping. Makes about 10-11 muffins. 
• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes--keeping an eye out during those last 5 minutes that it doesn't over-brown. Remove from the oven when tops are browned and toothpick inserted in the center of a few of them comes out clean. 
• Cool in pan for 5 minutes before placing them on a rack to cool completely. (Or if you're like me you'll burn your tongue trying to eat one 2 sec after it came out of the oven...no big deal.) 

I apologize for horrible pictures...