Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Hey all! Its garden season! Which can only mean that it is stupid hot outside and that you can bake anything by simply going into your (or your parents, or your friends etc) garden and picking your main ingredient :)
I tasted chocolate zucchini bread for the first time last year. It was like biting into a huge soft chewy melted chocolate bar. I mean seriously, what could be better than that! And!!! It is healthy! ha!! Check it out cupcakes...make this recipe and then invite me over for a piece ;)

Chocolate Zucchini Bread (adapted from Eating Well)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts - optional (i opted against this step)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cups sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted

2 cups grated zucchini, (1 medium)

3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips

Preparation

1.Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.

2.Spread walnuts in a pie pan and bake until fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside to cool. (if using)

3.Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

4.Whisk eggs, sugar, applesauce, oil, vanilla and melted chocolate in another large bowl until blended. Add to the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, smoothing the tops.

5.Bake the loaves 45 to 55 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.
 
This makes 2 loaves and only gets better as it sits so wrap one up and give it to your favs!
smooches! gigi

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

I LOOOOVE coffee cakes, and i love blueberries. After every summer season, i have a freezer packed with frozen blueberries that i failed to use up when they were fresh - which is why recipes like this are perfect! I know it seems like i used a lot of liquid in this recipe, but i made it the first time without the additional 1/3 cup of yogurt and it was super dry, like so dry that it took you a while to swallow. ick. grrrr. Dry + coffee cake = unhappy Gigi. No worries, the extra liquid does the trick.
Now, go blueberry shopping, buy too many, freeze a bunch and make this cake!!!

Streusel -
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Batter -
5 T unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
1 3/4 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a 9-inch spring form pan.

To prepare streusel: In a medium bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter with your pastry blender or fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts. Set aside.

To prepare batter: Cream the sugar and butter together, then add the eggs, vanilla, buttermilk or yogurt and milk, afterward, slowly add the dry ingredients until everything is included (except blueberries) in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pan and scatter blueberries over the top.

Sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over blueberries. Bake for 1 hour (check at 50 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake for 15 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove side of pan and cool for another hour before serving.

Take a megabite of these chocolate chip cookies.

I know i said last time that i found my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe on my previous post. i lied. i sooo lied. I found this great site http://www.takeamegabite.com/ by a nice young lady named Megan. I asked her for a chocolate chip cookie recipe and she came through. Oh my gosh did she come through. I'm obsessed. I've already eaten 4 and i just took them out of the oven like 2 minutes ago :-/  These are my new favorite. They are the best chocolate chip cookies i have eaten in my life. ever.  Go to her recipe and fall in love.
Here is her website and a link to this recipe:
http://www.takeamegabite.com/?p=3105

I'd write more but i'm currently covered in chocolate... Here is the recipe, which i have changed a bit to suit my liking.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup butter flavored crisco
3/4 cup sugar
3/4  cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
3 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup cholate chunks
(i added hazelnuts to 1/2 the batch...holy yum)

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Using a hand mixer cream the butter, crisco and sugars together until fluffy - about 4-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix until all combined.

2.In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, in 3 different batches and beat slowely until your ingredients are combined. As always, DO NOT overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips and chunks and nuts if you are using them. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or over night.

3.Place heaping teaspoons of cookie dough a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12  minutes or until the  edges are golden and the center is light still, but no longer shiny. Remove cookies from the oven and transfer to a wire rack until cool.
 
I also froze some batter so that i can bake them anytime i want because when you eat them warm, the chocolate ooooozes out. Omg. These are best cookies EVER. Thank you so much for this recipe megan!! go to her site! http://www.takeamegabyte.com/

Melted Butter Cookies hmmm

So, there is this debate about using melted butter vs. creaming butter for your cookies. I'm not going to lie, i have always used the cream butter method - so much so, that i was really quite prejudice against the melted butter method. But, alas, i finally gave in and gave it a shot. What did i find out? WELL! Holy Moley! I LOOOVE chewy cookies. Love them. And lemme tell you, if you want a chewy cookie - melted butter is the way to go. Hands down. No competition. In fact, this is going to be my go to chewy choc chip cookie recipe from now on. I mean? i cannot believe i haven't tried this before! The secret though, is chilling the batter for at least 30 minutes before baking - otherwise you are going to have a mess on your hands.
I used butterscotch chips - which i HATE but, my very  handsome cookie eater loves them, so...needless to say, i was happy to use them. Also, i've seen this recipe a million places but  i've adapted this one from allrecipes.com. Here ya go!

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cups butterscotch chips

Directions


1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.


2.Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.


3. Melt the butter in a heavy stainless steel saucepan.


4. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.


5. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.


6. Drop heaping soup spoons of cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. ( I fit about 6 cookies per sheet) Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
7 .Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Now! If you have too much batter for one baking (which i did), simply arrange dollops onto a cookie sheet, like you would to bake them, stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes. Take them out of the freezer and pack them into a container, separating the layers with parchment paper, and stick them in the freezer. This way, you can have fresh cookies anytime you want! Impressive or what!!!!!!! Ha!
Smooches
gigi

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!

Barbie's Made Up Milanos!

This great recipe and the pictures are courtesy of one of my bestest friends Barbie!!!  She did such an awsome job! I cannot wait to try and make these too!!

I love Pepperidge Farm Milanos, I just hate paying all that money for such a simple cookie.

So in my quest to simplify life and save some pennies I put this simple recipe together.


The best part is that there are only 5 ingredients!!

YOU WILL NEED:
1 cup flour

¼ cup butter (melted) unsalted

1 egg

¼ sugar

Nutella

Combine the above ingrediants and mix till forms a somewhat crumbly dough.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Take a small bit of the mix and roll the dough in your hands until a small ball is formed

Use the palm of your hand to flatten the dough balls on your baking sheet

Place in oven

Bake at 350 F for 6 minuets

After 6 minuets flip the cookies over, and bake for another 6 minuets

The cookies wil be slightly golden.

Let cool completely. Once the cookies are room temp, the fun begins!
Use a table spoon to dollop some of the nutella on half the cookies. Now take the ones that do not have nutella on them and sandwich them together. Let the nutella set and VOILA yummy Milanos!!

Irish Soda Bread.

Mmmm,

This post is dedicated to my Irish friend Colleen who requested an Irish recipe for St. Patty's day :) I volunteer at a legal aid clinic about once or twice per month. The clinic is located in the rectory of an Irish Catholic Church. Every year around St. Patricks day they have Soda Bread from an Irish Bakery that is located in a suburb of Detroit. I tasted it for the first time about 3 years ago and fell in LOVE. It's dense and chewy and crumbly and sweet but salty at the same time. It is heaven. HEAVEN. I finally decided to make some from myself and found an awsome recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marilyn-oreillys-irish-soda-bread-recipe/index.html

Special thanks to my friend Cybelle for the amazing photos!!! You can see all her amazing photography at http://www.cybellecodish.blogspot.com/

Wow it is so good. And! SOOO easy. Make this. Immediately!! YUMMMMM!!!
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons caraway seeds, optional (i didn't use these)
1 cup currants (the recipe called for raisins but, i dont like them so i used currants and a bit of dried cranberries)
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Directions

Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt and stir well to mix.
Add the butter and rub in until the butter disappears into the dry ingredients.
Stir in the currants and cranberries.
In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk and egg together and mix into the dough mixture with a rubber spatula.

Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and fold it over on itself several times, shaping it into a round loaf. Transfer the loaf to one cookie sheet or jelly roll pan covered with parchment or foil and cut a cross in the top. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes more, until well colored and a toothpick plunged into the center emerges clean.

Cool the soda bread on a rack. Serve this slathered in TONS of butter to your lovely friends. It is sooo good.

smooches!
gigi

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

So, i get TONS of requests for these cookies. However, the problem is that i HATE white chocolate. I cannot stand the stuff. It never did anything to me, but, its just not my thing. I'm a milk chocolate kinda girl.

However! These cookies are PHENOM! They are so pretty, sooo moist and bursting with nuts and chocolate. This is by FAR the best white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe that exists. Trust me on this one. You must try these. I still hate white chocolate, but it certainly didn't keep me from sneaking a few of these to put under my pillow ;)


Ingrediants:
1 cup of butter (softened)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (feel free to use less, these cookies are uber sweet)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2.5 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until smooth.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
4. Combine flour, baking soda and salt and gradually stir into the mixture *DO NOT OVERMIX!
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookies sheets
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Wrap them up in pretty packages and pass them out to all of your fabulous friends!
Smooches!
gigi

Pumpkin Bread

Two of my very best friends had babies in the last couple of months, and one of them even had twins! I love to visit them and the new additions - Sasha, Rocco and Marianna. And, because they are new moms (cindy and kelly), i like to bring them baskets filled with goodies and love. I came across this awesome recipe as i was browsing around some blogs one freezing cold Michigan evening. I love this recipe, first because i LOVE pumpkin and second because it makes 2 loaves with virtually no effort. The best part though, i guarantee you will have these ingredients at home already! Now, i did make some changes, and you will see them in parenthesis next to the ingredient. I hope you love this recipe. Make a loaf for someone you love! It is sooo good!




Pumpkin Bread Recipe (from: zuccherodolce.blogspot.com)


1 can (about 2 cups) canned pumpkin (or homemade pumpkin puree)
3 cups sugar (i only used 2 cups)
1 cup water
1 cup Canola oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cloves (i didn't have any, so i didn't use them)


Preheat the oven to 350 F.


Spray two 9" x 5" loaf pans with baking spray.

Combine pumpkin, sugar, water, oil, and eggs in the bowl of a standmixer (or in a large bowl if you'll be using a hand mixer).


Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder,cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves.

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then cool on rack.

Wrap up with a pretty ribbon and deliver with love to make someones day :)

smooches, gigi

Love in a potato.

One of my bff's growing up, Yvonne used to make this for me alllll the time. Its so so delish. And more that that, its pretty much the easiest thing on the planet. So much so that my other bff, Cybelle made it and took these photos of her result :) (check out her blog, its FAB! www.cybellecodish.blogspot.com)

MMMMM, now how can you not make it for your bffs?

Recipe:

1 package of frozen potatoes (not hash browns but like the square ones)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 stick butter melted

1 big sour cream

1 onion finely chopped.

2 cups Cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients except for the cheese. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees covered with foil in a 9x13 baking dish. After 1 hour remove the foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake an additional 15 minutes or until it looks like the pictures above. (this recipe also doubles very well)

Enjoy :) and nice job bella!

love, gigi