Lime and coconut….

Sounds like a tropical party! Lime just adds the perfect amount of zest and fragrance to cookies, I LOVE it! I just never seem to have any limes in my house. However, last thursday I had two juicy limes in my house just begging to be used up. I made these Lime, Coconut, and White Chocolate oatmeal cookies and brought them for my last day on the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). They were gone by noon, it was crazy! Everyone highly approved…so you should make them too some time =)

Lime Coconut and White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (the recipe is copied into my little recipe binder and I have no idea where I originally got it…oops!)

1/2 C brown sugar
2/3 C white sugar
1/2 C unsalted butter – room temp
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1-2 limes ( I just used 1…zesting is hard!)
couple drops of fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 C AP flour
1 1/4 C oats
~ 3/4 C coconut
~ 1 C white chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit.

Cream butter with the sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla. Finally, add lime zest and juice, mixing briefly.

In a seperate bowl, combine salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Add this to the wet ingredients, mixing just until blended. Then add oats, chocolate, and coconut.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes. I made 36 cookies.

What the world needs now…is cookies, sweet cookies.

This past weekend, I was on friday/sunday call. Now, for those people who don’t know what that means…it means that I was working in the hospital, from 8 AM Friday morning, to 11 AM Saturday morning. I got one hour of sleep. And then…back to work Sunday 8 AM to 11 AM Monday morning. Needless to say, I was a little sleep deprived, and a whole lot of grumpy. So to offset the grumpiness, I made cookies after my nap on saturday afternoon. And yum, these cookies were good!!

I brought them to work and shared them with the nurses on sunday, and my team on monday. Unfortunately, the original recipe called for peanut butter chips, which I thought I had…but didn’t actually. So I substituted and put in toffee chips and more chocolate chips! Delicious variation, though I may try to original way with pb chips eventually.

Chewy Brownie Peanut Butter Chip Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour (I substituted for 1 C whole wheat, 1 C all-purpose)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar (I used about 2/3 cup sugar)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups combo of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips*or chopped up peanut butter cups (I used 1/2 cup of toffee chips, and 1 cup of combo of chopped dark chocolate and chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. With the mixer on low, beat in the flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, and continue to beat until all of the dry mix has been incorporated. Do this slowly to avoid dusting your kitchen with flour and cocoa. Stir in chocolate/toffee by hand.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet (dough balls were a bit larger than 1 inch in diameter). Leave about 2 to 3-inches between cookies to allow for spread.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set at the edges and tops are slightly cracked looking. Cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Makes about 4 dozen. (I got 46 cookies)

DELICIOUS!

Just add milk.

Chocolate is my biggest downfall. Well, chocolate and peanut butter. And tortilla chips. And ice cream of course. Oh dear, you can’t forget CUPCAKES!

…Okay, fine, chocolate is one of my biggest downfalls.

Joff left a box of those seashell chocolates in my Lloydminster house a week ago and they have slowly but steadily been dwindling in numbers. I snatch one before I go back to clinic in the afternoon as a “boost”. I sneak one before dinner to “tide me over”. I’ll have one at night to “appease my sweet tooth”. You get the idea. So I decided I had to get rid of them.

And cookies are a perfect way to get rid of them This is a simple, one-pot recipe, which is GREAT. The fewer the dishes the better! Instead of chocolate chips, I used a cup of the seashell chocolates, chopped up, and topped it up with about 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. This might be my go-to cookie recipe in the future, so yummy and easy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com)

1/2 C unsalted butter
1/2 C firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup your choice of chocolate

1 – Heat the oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment (I lined one baking sheet, but didn’t line the others)
2 – Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 minutes.
3 – In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4 – Using a tablespoon, drop dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) apart.
5 – Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use a cooled sheet for the second batch until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 11-12 minutes. If these cookies are over baked, the won’t come out chewy. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Makes 26 cookies.

How to catch a boy.

This recipe has the best title. I read it on Smitten Kitchen and knew that I had to make it, pretty much regardless what it looked like. It’s called Blueberry Boy Bait! So if you’re looking to catch yourself a boy (or a man…they don’t really grow up anyways), maybe you should test out this recipe =) I’ve already got one, but I’ll ask him if his feeling change (for the better) when he tries this one out tomorrow.

I actually made a hybrid between the raspberry buttermilk cake and blueberry boy bait, because I liked the sounds of both of them. So I halved the boy bait recipe and made stuff up along the way. Here’s my version:

Berry Boy Bait
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I’m obsessed with putting in at least a little bit of whole wheat flour into everything I make. I feel like it makes it healthier…and makes me feel better about grabbing a second piece!)
3/4 cup AP flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup butter, softened (It’s always crucial to make sure your butter is at room temperature. I forgot to take mine out of the fridge earlier in the evening, and probably should have let it sit at room temperature an hour longer, but I couldn’t wait!)
heaving 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (I’m too lazy to buy buttermilk – I always just make it out of regular milk – 1 cup milk:1 tbsp lemon juice ratio)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mixed berries (I used a mixture of frozen strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries)
Topping: Extra 1/2 cup berries

Adjust oven rack to middle and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 8×8 cake pan. Make your buttermilk and let sit at least 10 minutes (1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tbsp lemon juice). Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix sugars with lemon zest by hand (smells so good!). Then, with electric mixer, beat butter and sugar mixture on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add egg and beat until just incorporated.

Add vanilla to buttermilk. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of buttermilk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining buttermilk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss berries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle top of the cake with remaining 1/2 cup of berries.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until knife or toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then take it out and enjoy!

I also did some baking earlier in the day, since I didn’t have to be in clinic until the afternoon (man I love the free time in family med!) I brought most of them to clinic and they were demolished pretty quickly. I think I’m slowly winning the nurses and clinic staff over =)

I made this earlier in the year, before Christmas, and I love this recipe! I use Hershey’s caramel kisses and it’s just the best combination. Try not to eat all of them before they’ve cooled down…it’s hard. The mixture of peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel is a little bit orgasmic. Ha, I lied. A LOT orgasmic. They’re pretty easy to make, you just need to allow lots of time for them to cool down so that the kisses don’t get all wonky shaped.

Peanut Butter Blossoms (From Land O’ Lakes)
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 c. flour (again, I used 3/4 cup whole wheat, 1 cup AP)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Granulated sugar
at least 48 Kisses

Heat oven to 375°F. Combine 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and salt; continue beating until well mixed. Add flour and baking soda. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in 1/4 cup sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Push down a little.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until very lightly golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss in center of each cookie when you take them out. Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks. I only had 38 kisses left in the package I bought b/c I kept sneaking them all week /blush. So I only made 38 blossoms, and then I made an extra 16 regular peanut butter cookies! Just take the leftover dough if you don’t have enough kisses, roll in granulated sugar, and push down with a fork. They’re a crispier PB cookie by themselves and I usually like eating really soft PB cookies, but they’re still very tasty. This recipe makes TONS of cookies as you can see!

Happy Chinese New Years!

It was Chinese New Years this long weekend. And Family Day today. And Valentine’s Day yesterday. AND reading week (for those in university who are NOT in their clerkship /sniff) How many holidays can you pack in a week?!?

So in all this excitement, baking was indeed necessary. We just finished our obstetrics and gynecology rotation this friday, which didn’t leave a whole lot of time for baking! But to say farewell to the LDRP nurses, I made some special cookies for them =)

Brownie Rollout Cookies(From smitten kitchen)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour. (I chilled them overnight and baked them the next morning to bring in fresh to the hospital)

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter (make sure to flour the counter pretty well, otherwise these get sticky!). Cut into desired shapes – I used maple leafs in honour of the Winter Olympics, little hedgehogs, some cupcake-shaped (LOVE MY CUPCAKE COOKIE CUTTER), and some hearts). There may be extra flour from the floured counter, this doesn’t matter – just brush what you can of the extra deposits of flour off the top. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Decorate as you wish! Or use them for ice cream sandwiches. I melted mint-meltaways of various colours for the decorations on top. Mint and chocolate always go well together! Or leave them plain – they’re just as good that way!

I decorated some of them for Chinese New Years with Chinese characters! They say “spring festival” “tiger” (it’s the year of the tiger this year) “Good fortune to you” and “Happy New Year”.

Next I made a Skor cake for Amol for the last little stretch of Haitian Bake Sale. Thank you guys for your support =) My little bake sale has made over $340!
Yum yum. I made a 3 layer chocolate cake, added two layers of chocolate frosting, chopped up skor bar in between, and a vanilla whipped cream frosting to go between the layers as well as on top of the cake. Mmmmmm….diabetes. Delicious diabetes.

And finally, for the Chinese New Year’s Party, I made some chocolate covered strawberries!
Melt chocolate in a double boiler, I diluted it with some oil. Then I decorated with white chocolate.

Happy holiday-mania-week everyone!

Bake-bake-bake

I’ve felt so bad toting around my cupcake carrier when I see my celiac classmates. I feel like I’m waving it in their faces. HAHA NO CUPCAKES FOR YOUUUU. =(

So it made me oh-so-happy when Michael ordered some Gluten-Free baked treats for Kaitlin! So happy that I went out and bought some GF oat flour from Planet Organic:

I made these little Chocolate Cupcakes with that oat flour! When whisking it together, I didn’t feel like they’d be chocolatey enough. So I added about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. WHOA CHOCOLATE EXPLOSION! They’re somewhere halfway between cupcake and brownie. And have a more hearty texture because of the oat flour. And they’ll rise up in the oven, but then fall when you open it b/c of the lack of gluten. But aren’t they pretty when you add some simple white chocolate to the top?

Here’s the recipe (with my alterations):
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 shortening
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
Combine oat flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a bowl.
(Now this step says to combine the soymilk and vegan shortening in a bowl and mix. This did not work out very well for me, so I basically added them in separately)
Mix these together with the dry ingredients. Stir until blended. I added the mini chocolate chips at this point! And then bake for about 17-20 minutes (I may have underbaked these a tad). Let cool. Decorate how you want! I just wanted them to be simple on top since I already overloaded them with chocolate, but if you didn’t put chocolate chips in, you might consider a chocolate frosting. Or a vanilla frosting.

And for fun, I made little poop-drops. Hahaha or at least that’s what they look like to me. These are tasty, but not exactly the most aesthetically appealing. I think I’ll omit the chocolate chips and use a prettier star-tip pastry bag if I ever make them again. I didn’t use the star tip because I was afraid the chocolate chips would get stuck inside!

Chocolate Chip Meringue Drops (adapted from allrecipes.com)
* 2 egg whites
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (make sure it’s real vanilla extract, I’ve been told the artificial one has gluten!)
* 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In large bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (just like with the last meringue recipe! Whip it good!) Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat until they hold stiff peaks. Mix in the vanilla and cocoa on low speed, then fold in chocolate chips by hand. Drop small mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Dropping them on the baking sheet would probably have made actual cookies instead of poop-piles, but I had more fun my way
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn off oven, and leave the cookies in the oven for 2 more hours, or until centers are dry. Remove from pan and store in an airtight container. I just baked them for an hour or so and then left them in the oven overnight.

Et voila! POOP!

To froth or not to froth?

I let people in my rotation make requests about baked goods. Mike requested Meringue cookies and German Chocolate Cake. Haven’t gotten to the german chocolate cake yet, but it’s on my never-ending “to bake” list. Anyways, that’s not the point. The point is Meringue. Oh Meringue. Delicious. Not completely calorie-laden. And oh so tricky =(

The thing about meringue is the beating. You need to whip it good. Whip it long and hard. Okay I’ll stop there.

But seriously. This is what happened with take one, when I thought my handy, trusty kitchenaid mixer would do the trick. I think the bowl was too big and the mixer too high up to truly reach the eggs unfortunately. And so I waited for frothing:

And waited…

yeah no =(

So it didn’t work. And I was sad and slightly disheartened. But resolved to making these cookies nonetheless! So I started with a fresh pair of egg whites, a different bowl, and my handmixer instead. Ahhhh…so THIS is what it’s supposed to froth like!

Meringue is somewhat like a tiny miracle. Two little eggwhites, some cream of tartar, some salt, and some icing sugar. And BAM! ALL THAT MERINGUE! I used a large star tip to make pretty patterns (because meringue ghosts like on 101cookbooks is not exactly in season right now). Since they weren’t as high up as the ghosts, I got about 25-26 cookies. So remember when you’re beating to just keep on going, b/c you’ll need to have nice stiff meringue that makes a lot of cookies. I dipped the bottoms in dark chocolate and white orange chocolate.

Meringue Cookies (Adapted from 101cookbooks.com)

It is important to let your egg whites come to room temperature, this will help you get the most volume. Also, make sure all your bowls, whisk, etc are spotlessly clean and free of any grease.

2 egg whites, room temperature
tiny pinch of salt
tiny pinch of cream of tartar
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 dark chocolate bar, melted (optional)

Preheat oven to 200F, racks in the middle.

Get everything ready ahead of time. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat mat. Set up your pastry bag in a tall empty glass to make it easier to fill. Have a spatula on hand.

Place the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in a large, clean mixing bowl. Start whisking the egg whites at medium speed in a large bowl with an electric mixer. This stage is all about watching and letting the egg whites tell you what to do next and you have to be nice to them to get them to transform – so avoid turning your mixer on and off. When the whites are frothy and have a bit of volume to them, start sprinkling in the sugar a bit at a time over a minute or two – leaving the mixer on the entire time.

Keep mixing (it took about 15-20 minutes). The whites will become glossy and their appearance will resemble marshmallow cream, keep going. At this point you need much more volume out of the whites, try to imagine making a dozens of cookies out of the mixture. Whisk, whisk, whisk. You will start to see the volume really start to increase, the whisk will be leaving more definitive trail in the meringue. At this point I usually gradually slow down the whisk, and see if I can lift it out of the meringue leaving a stiff structured peak. Imagine, you are going to pipe this out onto the cookie sheets, so you need it to have lots of structure, if you don’t go far enough your shapes will just collapse into a puddle.

Working gently (but quickly) fill the pastry bay -or alternately, a large plastic freezer bag with the corner snipped off – using the spatula. Try to avoid lots of air pockets in the pastry bag, they make piping much more difficult. Close the bag by rolling the top down a few times. Now pipe onto the prepared baking sheets.

Place the meringue in the oven for an hour. After an hour, open the oven door an inch or two and cook for another 30 minutes. I usually touch one of them at this point, they shouldn’t be gummy or wobbly. If they are still too moist, leave them in the oven until they aren’t. Turn off the oven, and leave the meringues in there until it comes down to room temperature.
Dip in your favorite chocolate!

If you are storing them, do so in an air-tight container.

Mm mm good!

In with the new, out with the old!

So I lied when I said there’d be enough time in clerkship to post recipes constantly. I realize it’s been 3 months since I last posted. Oopsy daisy…

Good thing it hasn’t been 3 months since I last baked! Oh no, that would be a catastrophe. Unfortunately there just isn’t enough hours in the day to bake, study, wake up at 4:30AM for surgery, AND take pictures of said baking.

But it’s New Years Eve. Time to make resolutions. I will be better at posting, promise! At least one update per rotation haha. Life just passes by too fast these days. The last post I made, I was still riding high on my Pediatrics rotation, the land of happiness. Since then, I’ve already passed through surgery AND a gastroenterology elective. I have to say, it’s been a long tiring road that’s not going to end anytime soon…but it’s also been a blast. I wouldn’t trade clerkship for the world. There are times when I realize just how much I love medicine. I love learning about diseases, and diagnosing people, and helping people. So corny, but so true.

I guess I digress, this post should be about New Years Eve food. YUM! So here’s a little something to ring in 2010: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes and Ginger Oat cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

These cupcakes are yummmmy. Take chocolate cupcake batter. Add cookie dough. Bake. Frost. =)

I think if I make these again, I’ll try different combinations of cookie dough and batter. And put less cookie dough. But they’re good as is! The little tiny chocolate chip cookies on the top are the same as the dough inside.

For Chocolate Cupcake: (Adapted from Martha Stewart)
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake pan with liners. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking power and salt. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and water.
Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 full.

Then…

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: The Chewy (adapted from Alton Brown)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour (I just used AP flour)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough.

Roll the dough into small balls and put into the middle of the cupcake batter. BAKE @ 350 degrees for ~15-18 minutes. Take out and let cool.

Frost with your favorite frosting! I used a plain vanilla cream cheese frosting. And then baked those little tiny chocolate chip cookies (about 5 minutes) and put them on top for decorations!

Ginger Oat Cookies
These are my mom’s FAVORITE cookies! She love love loves the ginger taste, so we add TRIPLE the amount of ginger that the original recipe calls for. It adds a nice little punch to these crunchy guys. Crystallized ginger, freshly chopped ginger, and ground ginger. How can you go wrong?

GEORGIE HENDERSON’S GINGER OAT COOKIES
Makes 34 cookies (I got 40 cookies)

3/4 cup (175 mL) white sugar
8 ounces (225 g) margarine (or butter)
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
2-1/2 cups (625 mL) quick oats
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons (30 mL) hot water
1 tablespoon (15 mL) golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
2 heaping teaspoons (10 mL) ground ginger (I used a tablespoon of ground ginger, a 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, and 3 little discs of crystallized ginger – didn’t really measure that accurately! just toss it in!)

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).

In a large bowl, cream sugar and margarine until light. Add flour, oats and salt.
In a small bowl, mix water, syrup and soda. Stir into biscuit mixture along with the ginger.
Roll teaspoons of the dough into small balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork a couple times so they are flat. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on rack.

Enjoy! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2010. I’ve had a great 2009 filled with new learning experiences. There’s been plenty of shame-based and hands-on learning, new adventures had in Mexico, China, Spain, Portugal, France, and Las Vegas, old drama, new discoveries…and wonderful friends the whole way along. I love you all. <3

Peds love.

Argh, I have gotten so behind on the bake-sharing! Here are some of the latest yummies I have been stirring up. Picture to come later! I haven’t transferred yet! (Yes, I’m awful)

Oatmeal Banana Bread (Adapted from joythebaker.com)
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp canola or walnut oil
- 2 tsp applesauce
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 3 large bananas, ripe
- 1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil, applesauce, and whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick. Add cranberries (or nuts, or chocolate chips, or what-have-yous).

Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, ~45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. I sliced it pretty thin and got about 15 slices. YUMMY! This lasted me breakfasty and snacky times for about a week and a half.

I have had a hankering to make these since the first time I laid eyes on this recipe. Finely chopped macadamia nuts. Coconut. Lime. WOW is all I have to say!! Unfortunately, I never seem to have limes in my house. We just don’t really use them. And so every time I’ve had time to bake…I’ve had to turn to other recipes and while longingly staring at these puppies…put the recipe aside. But the last time I went grocery shopping, they were having a sale on limes and I snatched some up right away. AT LONG LAST!!! and yum. They were definitely worth the wait. So amazing fragrant. And even though they’re butter thins…they have a light taste to them. I wish I took a picture of the lime and sugar being massaged together. That was my favourite part.

Coconut Butter Thins (adapted from barefootkitchenwitch.com)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground coriander
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lime
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped macademia nuts (don’t be afraid to use salted nuts)

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt and coriander.

If you want to get a little more flavor out of the lime zest, put the sugar and zest in the mixer bowl and, using your fingertips, work the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and the mixture fragrant.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Add the coconut and nuts and pulse to incorporate them. There will probably be some dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl–don’t work them in with the mixer, just reach into the bowl and knead them in.

Transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9-x-10 1/2-inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the dough out onto the board (discard the bag), and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut it into 32 squares, each roughly 1 1/2 inches on a side. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them, and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies to the sheet.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and fromt to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool to room temperature.

The day before the real world begins

Tomorrow is the first day of clerkship. It seems like a momentous occasion, but I start with Pediatrics Emergency and I don’t have a shift until Tuesday night (midnight to 8 AM!)…so all I have tomorrow is an Orientation in the morning. I have no idea what to expect, and I have no idea what I should be doing to prepare myself!

…So I decided baking was as good a way as any. Right?

Apple Pie
I had a craving for apple pie. Nothing else would satisfy it. So my friend and I made apple pie for a BBQ. Let me tell you, rolling out that dough was quite a workout! I think I deserved a big slice after all that work I did. The calories even out in the end, right?

The filling came from The Hummingbird Bakery, which my friend brought over. The crust came from an old recipe of my mom’s that I am too lazy to go dig out right now =) I don’t think I made it quite the same as she did…more practice with pies will be necessary to perfect the technique, I believe! I’ll just post pictures. We used the leftover crust to make a mini-blueberry pie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
These cookies are QUITE tasty, especially when fresh out of the oven. They were more of a cakey-like consistency, and I think I personally prefer the more chewy-type…but they definitely hit the spot when paired with the delicious Rutherford Rose tea my friend’s mom got out for us. mmm…tea….

Ingredients:
2 sticks of good unsalted butter.
1 cup of white Sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 Eggs
2-3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2-3 Cups flour (I used 3)
Bag of quality chocolate chips. (I used 1/3 chopped Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate, and milk chocolate chips – I’d probably use even more next time)

1. Cream together for at least 5 minutes. (I creamed it good and long.) It takes at least 5 minutes sometimes more depending on the temp of the butter.
2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.
3. Add flour. Mix well. If needed add an additional 1/4 cup of flour but not too much (I didn’t add any more flour). Once the chips are in you can’t mix for too long so any flour you add may not get mixed in completely.
4. Bake at 350 for 9-12 minutes depending on size of cookie. We got about 51 cookies! Yummy!!

Turtle Brownies (From Martha Stewart)
* FOR THE BROWNIES
* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
* 3 ounces good-quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1/4 cup whole milk
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* FOR THE TOPPING
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/3 cup heavy cream
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans (about 4 ounches)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking dish with foil or parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set aside.
2. Make batter: Put chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in another medium bowl; set aside.
4. Put sugar and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture, milk, and vanilla, and mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until well combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared dish. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, 27 to 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
6. Make topping: Bring 1/3 cup water and the sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. When mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring, and wash down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to cook, swirling pan occasionally, until medium amber, 5 to 7 minutes.
7. Remove from heat, and immediately add cream,vanilla, and salt. Gently stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until smooth. Add pecans; stir until caramel begins to cool and thickens slightly, about 1 minute.

8. Pour caramel over cool brownies; spread with an offset spatula. Refrigerate until cold, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Let brownies stand at room temperature at least 15 minutes before serving. Lift out, and cut into 16 squares, wiping knife with a hot, damp cloth between each cut. Brownies can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 2 days.

DELICIOUS!!!!