Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip & Chunk Awesomeness. Hell yeah.

I have a favorite blog, besides this one. It is run by a lady named Joy, and she bakes. And her blog brings me great great joy.  Her recipe for Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip cookies brought me joy and a whole Lotta my friends Joy.   In fact, i am fairly certain, these morsels of goodness just wooed me into the heart of a very  very good looking cookie eater. SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! Eat them warm because when you bite into them, chocolate just starts oozing out. OMG. They are insane good. Meet Joy and fall in love with her here: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/  Then bake these. OMG. Do it.

I even gave some to Cybelle so she could take pictures for you because they were so good, i didn't trust anyone but a pro to take the pics so you could see the deliciousness that happened in my kitchen today. Thanks Belles (http://www.cybellecodish.blogspot.com/).

 Here is her recipe which i tweaked a bit, and my changes are in the parenthesis.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (i used butter flavored crisco so my cookies would be chewier)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups uncooked oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (i totally forgot to add this :-/ )
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips (i used 1 cup chocolate chunks, and 1 cup chips)
1 cup chopped pecans

Beat the sugar and butter in the bowl. Beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until blended.

(I added a handful of currants to 1/2 of the batch of these cookies. Why? because i had a bunch left from the soda bread i made earlier. And, because I'm a dare devil.)

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Add to the butter and egg mixture slowly beating on low speed until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans last in 3 separate batches. Go ahead and turn off your mixer and do the last mixing with a wooden spoon.

Dollop by heaping soup spoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 13 minutes or until they’ve reached your desired doneness. I like mine a little underdone and cook them for 10 minutes.
Wrap them up, give them to your friends, neighbors, family and watch their faces fill with smiles :) And! If you have a hunky cookie eater hanging out with you, go ahead and feed him a few of these bad boys. This was a good day :) Thanks Joy!!!
smooches
gigi

Chocolate Chip Crater Cake

My mom rules. RULES. Every time she sees a really neat baking book, new or used, she buys it for me. I have to tell you, i have got one of the coolest collection of baking books on the planet. No joke. This recipe comes from just one of those books. The book is "Hershey's Fabulous Desserts." The book is so old that it even has a telephone number for you to call or an address for you to write to, in case of questions. Brilliant.
Anyway, this cake is awesome for breakfast. So awesome in fact, that you appear to be the awesome-est person in the world when in less than 35 minutes, you go from nothing to this warm delicious chocolaty cake to serve for breakfast. Try, trust me,  you will rule.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose baking mix
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
and topping mix

Topping Mix Ingredients
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup baking mix
1/4 cup butte or margarine softened (i TOTALLY forgot this. :-/ but it still ruled)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
combine all in a small bowl


Directions:
Heat oven to 350degrees.
Grease an 8 inch square baking pan
In large mixer bowl, combine first 5 ingredients and mix until moistened.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into your baking pan and cover with the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining batter making sure your chocolate chips are covered.
Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Serve warm or completely cooled.
Sit back and enjoy!
Smooches!
gigi

Suzi's herb garlic bread!

I adore my cousin suzi. She's the best. When we were growing up, i used to think we looked like the band Heart because she was blonde and i was a brunette. Well, that and the fact that we were super ultra cool 10 year olds. (She was 10, so i was 8 - you get my drift). And, she makes the BEST bread. She was nice enough to share her delish garlic herb bread with me, and now, i am sharing it with you. It's sooo good. Bake it. Now! :)

Recipe:

Big Big Bread

8 cups (APF) All purpose Flour
2 pkg Rapid Rise Yeast
4 teaspoons salt
4 cups water (110-115 degrees)

Method:
Mix flour, yeast, salt together in a bowl. (use your hands or a whisk)

Pour in almost all the water. (about 3 cups)

Knead the mixture for about 15 minutes adding the rest of the water as needed. When your 15 minutes has elapsed, cover with a dry cloth and put it in the back of your dark closet for 1 hour.

After the hour has elapsed, punch dough down and knead it again for just a couple of minutes.

Shape it into 1 Big big bread or 3 loaves.

Put into desired baking dish and cover it again and allow it to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour again, in your closet. When it is time to bake, gently tuck in the sides. Oil the top with safflower oil or olive oil and sprinkle with garlic and herbs (dried).

Preheat oven to 500.

Gently place the bread in the oven and immediatley turn down the heat to 425 degrees. Do NOT slam the door. (Be loving to your bread, and it will love you right back :)

Bake for 25-25min until it is golden brown.

Invite your neighbors or friends over just as you are taking it out of the oven, and they will think that you are the most amazing person on the planet, like i think Suzi is!
enjoy!
smooches, gigi!