Cinnamon Rugelach

Anyone else around here need some comforting this week?

I don't know about you, but what with the earthquake, the hurricane, and my children being stricken by hives, digestive issues, and nasty viruses, it's been a rather trying week for me.

No complaining from this gal, though.

Funny how these sorts of experiences make you thankful for the small things in life.

I'm glad that our power is back (only 24 hours without it) and that we have running water and (mostly) unspoiled food.

I'm glad that my children are healing (slowly) and that school is starting next week. We'll be back to normal in no time.

And I'm glad we have wonderful treats like these to comfort us and nourish us and keep us happy.

Cinnamon Rugelach, adapted from Culinary Creations
Makes about 2 dozen cookies


DOUGH:
3 cups flour (more or less!)
1 1/2 sticks margarine
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (use extract if you don't have sugar)
a dash of salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (1/2 a packet)
1/2 cup orange juice

FILLING:
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
oil or margarine
egg yolk, for a wash
Turbinado sugar, optional

First, make the dough. Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer. Add more flour if needed, till the dough is smooth and not too sticky.

Let the dough rise for about an hour, till doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Split the dough into four even pieces. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Roll one of the pieces of dough into a large circle. Spread it evenly with some oil or margarine. Sprinkle with about 1/4 of the cinnamon-sugar mix, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Use a knife to cut the dough into triangles, pizza style.

Starting from the outside, roll each of the triangles inward to create a traditional rugela shape. Lay the rugelach on a baking sheet, leaving a little room for rising.

Repeat the process with the remaining pieces of dough.

Beat the egg yolk with a bit of water to make a wash. Brush the rugelach with the egg wash and then sprinkle with the Turbinado sugar, if you're using it. (It'll create a little sparkle and a nice crunch.)

Bake for about 25 minutes, till golden. Cool on racks and serve within 2-3 days. (Or freeze them and defrost at room temperature when you're ready to eat them. They freeze beautifully.)

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Rhubarb Ginger Muffins

I am not a big fan of tart foods. I like sweet and I like savory. Sour, tart foods just don't do it for me.

But the rhubarb at the farmer's market looked so fresh. So seasonal. So local. And it seems like lately all of my fellow food bloggers have been waxing eloquent on the subject of rhubarb lately. I guess I felt like the odd man out.

When my daughter saw the rhubarb, you know what she said? "Blech." (Not sure how you spell it but that's what she said.) "That stuff is sour."

Yeah, it is. But guess what? With enough sugar (and this recipe has plenty of it), it becomes downright tasty.

Rhubarb Ginger Muffins, adapted from Someone Who Bakes

1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb (about 4 stalks)

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon Turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 400*. 

In a small bowl, combine the rhubarb with the white sugar and set aside. 

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, vanilla, ginger, and egg. Stir to combine. 

 Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and mix until combined (don't over-mix). Add in the rhubarb and mix to combine. 

Scoop the batter into muffin tins sprayed with baking spray or lined with cups. You'll want to fill them about 3/4 of the way. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the muffins. 

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for a few minutes before removing.

Linking this up to Kosher on a Budget.

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Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies (Baking with Dorie)

It's every cook's nightmare. You buy a whole bunch of lemons. You run into one recipe after another that calls for lemon zest. The first calls for the zest of one lemon. The second calls for a teaspoon of zest. The third calls for six strips of lemon rind.

But here's where it falls apart.

There is suddenly a shortage of recipes that call for lemon juice. All of the vinaigrettes are vinegar based. The kids have no interest in lemonade. So all the lemons are hanging out, stripped of their zest, naked and exposed, waiting to be juiced.

It is a sad state of affairs. Anyway, the bad news is that if you're looking for a lemon juice recipe, you've come to the wrong place. This is yet another lemon zest recipe that will do nothing to help with your unfortunate predicament.

But it's a really good one. Lemony and incredibly textured. It's from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook - Baking: From My Home to Yours. In Dorie's words, it has an 'appealing tickle-your-tongue roughness.' Couldn't have said it better myself.


Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies, adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
The original recipe doesn't call for dipping in chocolate, but my kids laugh at me when I serve a dessert that doesn't have some chocolate. I left a few of the cookies un-dipped for some of the more boring adult members of the family. But the chocolate dipped ones are so much prettier!


1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 sticks margarine, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1/8 teaspoon oil
Non-pareils (optional)

Stir the flour, corn starch, salt and cornmeal together in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and zest into the bowl of your stand mixer. User your fingers to rub the two together till your hands smell lovely and the sugar is nice and moist. Add the margarine and vanilla to the same mixing bowl and use the paddle attachment of your mixer to mix well, on medium speed, for 3-4 minutes, scraping down a couple of times.

Turn off the mixer and pour in the dry ingredients. Mix on low for a minute or less, just to combine the ingredients. Don't over-mix, you want the dry ingredients JUST incorporated.

Scrape the dough into a large (1-gallon size) ziploc bag. Before you zip the bag shut, put it on a flat surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin. You should end up with a 10x10 inch (or so) rectangle.

Seal the bag and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, and up to 2 days.

When you're ready to bake, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350*.

Put the bag on a cutting board and use a serrated knife to slit it open. Turn the dough out onto the cutting board and discard the bag. Use a ruler to guide you, and cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Carefully prick each square with a fork so the fork goes all the way through to the cutting board.

Transfer the cookies to the baking sheets and place in the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 300* and bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes until just set.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave. Once it's melted, stir in the oil. Use a spoon or knife to smear the chocolate over half of each cookie. Before the chocolate has set, sprinkle some non-pareils over the cookies, if desired. Allow to set before eating.

Read my fellow bloggers' recipes over at Baking with Dorie! 

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Chocolate Mousse

Here's a Chocolate Mousse recipe that I came up with for Pesach which is great year-round too. During the year, you can replace the wine with rum.

3 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
3 tablespoons sweet red wine
3/4  cup sugar, divided
1 16-oz. container heavy whipping cream, divided

Separate the eggs, saving all three whites and just two of the yellows.

Whip the whites into a snow and set aside.

Put the chocolate chips into a heatproof bowl set over a pot of water on the stove. On medium heat, melt the chocolate chips. Add the two eggs yellows, wine, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the cream. Stir well and continue heating until the mixture is nice and hot but not boiling. Set aside to cool.

Whip the remaining heavy cream to create whipped cream. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and whip.

Put about half of the whipped cream in a large mixing bowl. Fold in the chocolate mixture and the egg whites.

Use the remaining whipped cream for serving, to top the mousse.

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Pesach Noodles

My absolute favorite Pesach dish is egg noodles, lukshen in Yiddish. Lukshen are, essentially, thickish egg crepes rolled up and sliced so they are shaped like fettuccine.

Lukshen are the highlight of the seder meal for me; they always have been. I remember looking forward to the meal for what seemed like hours, anxiously awaiting the once-a-year bowl of chicken soup with special Pesach lukshen. I always appraised everyone else's bowl as my mother brought out the soup. If anyone had even a strand more than me, I felt unloved. Deprived. (Never mind that there was no shortage and I could always get doubles if I asked.)

Now that I'm in charge, I make a quadruple recipe of lukshen so I can have at least three bowls of chicken soup filled to the brim with lukshen. I don't normally make labor intensive recipes like this one, but this is one of the few foods I'll go to this kind of trouble with.

Here's the recipe, and please accept my apologies again for the lack of photos. I'm feeling very guilty about that.... I'll be back in full swing after Pesach, I promise!

Pesach Lukshen
This is a single recipe, which makes enough noodles for about 6 bowls of soup. If you're cooking for a crowd, or for anyone who likes these as much as I do, make a double, triple, or quadruple recipe. Yes, it's labor intensive. But it's worth every bit of work in my book. 


1 cup cold water
1/3 cup potato starch

3 eggs

dash of salt
cottonseed oil (or any other basic Pesach oil)

Combine the water and potato starch in a cup. Mix very well. Pour them into a mixing bowl and add the eggs and salt. Use an electric mixer to mix the ingredients well.

If you have time, refrigerate the batter for about an hour. It'll thicken up a bit and become easier to work with.

When you're ready to prepare the crepes, heat a non-stick frying pan on medium-low heat. Brush with a bit of oil and heat again. Mix the batter well again with a fork.

When you think the pan's hot enough, test it by putting on a drop of batter - it should cook up immediately without burning.

Pour a small ladle full of batter into the pan. Lift the pan off the flame and tilt it this way and that to spread the batter over the entire pan. Put the pan back on the flame and let it heat for about a minute, till the crepe looks totally set and the edges are beginning to curl away from the pan.

Gently use your fingers to lift the crepe away from the pan and flip it over to cook the other side. Let it cook for just a few seconds before flipping the pan over and removing the crepe to a dry, clean plate or serving dish.

If the crepe seems too thin, add a little potato starch to the rest of the batter (dissolve the starch in some water first). If it seems too thick, thin the batter with a bit of water. The crepes should be firm enough that they handle well without falling apart, but not so thick that the insides don't get done.

Repeat with the remaining batter, replenishing the oil in the pan between every few crepes. Depending on the thickness of the crepes, you should end up with 6-8 crepes.

Let the crepes cool completely and then roll a small stack of them up, jelly roll style. Use a knife to cut the jelly roll into wide strips to make your lukshen!

Refrigerate for a couple of days, or freeze for longer. Defrost fully before using.

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Pesach Chocolate Cake

I've been in the throws of a food blogger's dilemma. On the one hand, my followers are relying on me to share a flood of simple Pesach recipes in anticipation of the upcoming holiday. Salads, soups, cakes. Fish, meat, poultry.

On the other hand, I am but an ordinary person - a working mom with way too little time on her hands. What with my job, my kids, and Pesach a week off, I barely have time to sleep, let alone photograph and blog and share my recipes. What's a blogger to do?

So, here's my compromise. I'm going to share my recipes this week. I'll post my favorites online, and hope you come back for more. But no photos. For one thing, my Pesach pots and dishes are none too glamorous. (We love them for what they are, but they're really not blog-worthy.) For another, I don't have the time to setup my equipment and shoot every dish. I've got to make it through the week with my sanity somewhat intact.

So, there you have it. Hope y'all understand. And if you have any favorites, please email them to me or share them by commenting below. I'm always looking for new recipes to add to my repertoire.

Super Simple Pesach Chocolate Cake (NOT GEBROKTS)
This recipe is my sister-in-law's and I owe her great thanks for it. I usually make three or four of these over the week of Pesach. They whip up in a snap and get eaten almost as quickly. A good basic chocolate cake. 


5 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup oil
1 pinch instant coffee grains
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup potato starch
1 1/2 cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In a large bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda till foamy.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer. Pour the batter into a 9x13 baking pan. (I use disposable aluminum.)

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Eat within a few days, or freeze for later.

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Super Crispy Fruit Crisp

There's an unspoken rule about homemade fruit crisps. Although everyone really wants more topping and less fruit, you just cannot succumb. You make the crisp as instructed, with just enough topping to cover the fruit.

When no one is looking, you might pick off a bit of the topping as you let the crisp cool on the counter (you are, after all, the maker of the crisp). When you help yourself to a piece, you might accidentally take a chunk of topping off the next person's slice.

But you would never make the crisp with extra topping, now, would you?

Well, just in case you would consider committing such a heinous crime, and just in case you don't have a very  clever  eight-year-old son (who has just finished learning fractions at school) to suggest that you make 1/3 more topping, I am providing a recipe here for a topping that will knock your socks off. It is crunchy. It is nutty. And it is plentiful. There will be lots to go around. You'll stop lurking around the kitchen when no one is looking, picking bits off the corners and sides. You'll stop yelling at your kids like a crazy person when you see them picking bits off the corners and sides. (Not that you would ever do those things, but I'm just saying.)

Super Crispy Fruit Crisp

This recipe makes enough topping for three crisps. I divide it in three parts, use one part immediately, and freeze the other two-thirds for another time. My current favorite combination of fruit is 3 granny smith apples, 2 pears, 2 peeled plums, and 1 cup frozen blueberries. But that'll change as the seasons do. In the summer, I can't get enough of fresh peach and blueberry crisp. Use whatever fruit you like. 

Fruit (enough for ONE crisp):

about 6 cups of your favorite fruit, pitted, peeled and sliced as necessary
2 tablespoons flour
juice of half a lemon
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional, if the fruit is tart or if you like a sweeter crisp

Topping (enough for THREE crisps):

4 sticks margarine

4 cups brown sugar
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
2 cups pecans, broken into small but not tiny pieces

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Combine the prepared fruit, lemon juice, flour and salt in a Pyrex pie plate. Mix well. (Here's my favorite on Amazon.)

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the margarine, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and nuts. Crumble the mixture with your fingers to make a coarse crumb. (This is my favorite part. I love how the grainy sugar feels against my hands.) 

Divide the topping into three parts. Use one part now, and freeze two parts for later. (When you're ready to use a frozen batch, just defrost it enough to soften (maybe 1/2 hour on the counter) and then continue with the rest of this recipe just as you would with fresh topping.) 

Scatter the part you are using now evenly over the fruit. Bake for about an hour, till the top is beginning to brown.

Serve warm or cool completely before covering with foil and refrigerating for up to three days. If you are refrigerating it, bring it back to room temperature before serving.

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Garlicky Vegetarian Stew

This is embarrassing. In telling you how this stew came to be, I'm going to have to admit that I ran out of onions. What self respecting housewife runs out of onions? At the beginning of the week?

Well, I did. I could pretend that I intentionally came up with an onion-less stew recipe. That I thought it would be an interesting challenge to prepare a stew without onions. But the truth is that I simply ran out of this very basic staple. And since onions forms the basis of almost every cooked item I prepare, I had to think outside of the mesh bag box. So I thought garlic. Lots and lots of garlic.

Since I buy garlic in bulk at Costco, there's (almost) never a shortage of it in my home. I peeled and peeled and then chopped and chopped. And guess what? It worked! Fifteen cloves later, this stew was amazingly rich and flavored. I recommend it even if you have a bag full of onions at hand (as every housewife should).

Indian Inspired Vegetable Stew
This was perfect served with plain Greek yogurt and tortilla chips. But then I'm always looking for any excuse to eat yogurt and tortilla chips at meals. It feels sinful. 

2 tablespoons olive oil
10-15 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon black or aleppo pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
an entire head of celery, chopped coarsely
6 carrots, peeled and chopped coarsely
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks (I like them nice and large)
1/2 cup barley
2 cans chickpeas, or 1/2 bag dried chickpeas soaked overnight

Heat the oil in a large pot (I used my Le Creuset stock pot) over medium-low heat. Add the chopped garlic and mustard and cumin seeds. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly until your kitchen is smelling lovely and the seeds are beginning to pop.

Add the remaining spices and the salt and cook for another minute, stirring, to incorporate all those lovely seasonings.

Add the vegetables, barley, chickpeas and enough water to cover. If you're using canned beans, cook for about 2 hours. Dried beans may need longer to really soften up (I cooked mine gently for close to four hours).

Serve as a main dish with some plain yogurt and tortilla chips.  Oh, did I mention that it freezes really well? Freeze anything you have left for another time. It's great a as a side dish next to meat or fish.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

I know. My last post featured decadent chocolate muffins. You'd expect that my chocolate craving would have been satisfied for a bit. At least for a day or two. But, alas. It was not.

If you are a true chocolate lover, you won't bat an eyelash when I tell you that I found myself craving more chocolate as soon as I finished my first muffin. If you enjoy chocolate like I do, you'll understand when I tell you that I needed a chocolate fix.

This time, it had to be salty-sweet. These cookies (another Dorie Greenspan Baking special) were just the thing. The hint of cocoa in the batter, plus the generous helping of chocolate chips, gave it just enough chocolatey richness. The fresh chopped peanuts plus the creamy peanut butter added a saltiness that complemented the cocoa. If you like Reeses' Peanut Butter cups, these will be just the thing for you. And you can make them pareve!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies, from Dorie Greenspan's Baking
I made a few tweaks to the recipe and am listing it here the way I tried it. If you have the cookbook and want to take a look at the original recipe, it's the Peanut Butter Crisscrosses recipe on page 78. I did the cocoa-peanut butter version. 

2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 sticks butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Jif)
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cups chopped salted peanuts
1 cup chocolate chips

About 1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350*. Line two cookie sheets with foil sprayed with Pam, or with parchment paper.

Cream the butter in a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the peanut butter and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the sugars and beat for 3-5 minutes longer, till light and fluffy. Add the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine briefly.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and, with the mixer on low speed, add the flour, cocoa, chopped peanuts and chocolate chips. Combine briefly. The dough will be soft and mushy.

Pour the 1/2 cup sugar into a small bowl. Working with about a tablespoonful of dough, roll the dough into balls and then drop each one into the sugar, rolling it to coat.

Place the balls on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Use a fork to gently flatten them first in one direction and then another, to create a crisscross indentation along the top.

Bake for about 13 minutes, until the cookies are done but still a bit soft. Let them cool for a few minutes on the sheets and then transfer to racks to cool completely.

When the cookie sheets are cool, repeat with the remaining cookies. (I got all of my cookies done with just 3 sheets.)

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Minestrone

This soup is not glamorous. It's humble, hearty, and not very spectacular looking. But it sure is good. I can't help but share this recipe with my dear readers. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Oh, and don't be tempted to make this pareve or to use water instead of stock. The stock is essential for a rich flavor, and the salty, briny parmesan is a really important finishing touch. In case you don't know my trick for fresh stock every week, here it is: All week long, whenever I peel a fruit or vegetable, I put the peels/cores/leftovers into a ziploc bag in the door of the freezer. I save onion and garlic skins; celery scraps; peels from carrots, potatoes, turnips and sweet potatoes; and apple and pear cores and peels. When the bag is totally full, I rinse the scraps really well in a colander and then I cook it up with a splash of soy sauce and some dried mushrooms for a rich pareve stock.

Minestrone Soup
I know, it seems like a lot of work, but the stock prepares itself while you're making the soup. It's such an easy way to get in more nutrients and flavors.  

STOCK

about 4 cups of vegetable scraps, such as onion and garlic skins; celery scraps; peels from carrots, potatoes, turnips and sweet potatoes; and apple and pear cores and peels

a handful of dried mushrooms

a splash of soy sauce 

8 cups water

3 bay leaves


SOUP
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, chopped coarse
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped coarse
3 stalks of celery, chopped coarse
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped coarse
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped coarse
1 large or 2 small zucchini, washed (not peeled), and chopped coarse
1 potato, peeled and chopped coarse
a handful of frozen spinach
1 head of garlic, unpeeled and left whole
1 teaspoon salt
1 can cannellini beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 box of your favorite large noodles, like rigatoni or shells, cooked and drained
grated parmesan for garnish
chopped parsley (optional) for garnish


First, start the stock. Wash the vegetable scraps very well in a colander. Combine them with the remaining ingredients in a very large pot. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top. Reduce to a simmer and let cook for about an hour. (Less is okay, but the flavor does get richer as it cooks.)

While the stock is simmering, prepare the vegetables for the soup. Heat the oil in a large soup pot  and saute the onion for a few minutes. Add the carrots and celery and cook for 10-15 minutes, till soft. Add the remaining vegetables and cook a few minutes longer.

When the stock is finished cooking, strain the stock - discarding the vegetables and reserving the liquid. (I simply put the colander over the stock pot with the cooking grated vegetables. I pour the stock right through the colander, leaving the vegetables behind and putting the stock right in with the grated vegetables.)

Add the stock to the cooking vegetables, along with the beans and salt, and cook for another 1/2 hour or so.

Stir the noodles into the individual bowls before serving, garnished with parmesan and/or parsley.

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My Signature Chocolate Chip Cookies (a.k.a. Rum CCC's)

Every homemaker should have a signature chocolate chip cookie. A signature cookie defines you as a cook. As a homemaker. Perhaps even as a person.

Your signature cookie should be uniquely you. When your friends and family taste it, they should think happy thoughts about you.

I came across this recipe about five years ago in Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate Chip Cookies. The first time I made it, I knew I had found it. My signature cookie. Wow.

This cookie is dense and thick. None of that light crispy business. None of that chewy mushy business. (Please don't take this personally if you like your cookies light and crispy or chewy and mushy. I have nothing against you - not much, anyway - but I am Very Particular about my cookies.) It is positively LOADED with chocolate chips. And it has a wonderful boozy flavor. Again, Wow.

Rum CCC's  (from Death by Chocolate)
These are called "Mrs. D's Chocolate Chip Cookies" in the original recipe. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Rum CCC's stands for Rum Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I have made just a couple of small tweaks over the years. First, I use light brown sugar instead of dark. And, when time allows, I refrigerate the dough for a few hours before shaping and baking. 

4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar (I use light)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum
24 ounces chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300*. Line two baking sheets with foil lightly sprayed with Pam, or with Silpat or parchment.

Place the margarine and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium for 4 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, rum and vanilla. Beat on medium for 2 minutes, scraping halfway through if needed.

Add the baking soda and salt, and then the flour. Mix on low speed just till combined.

Add the chocolate chips and mix briefly, till combined. If time allows, refrigerate the dough for a few hours (or as long as overnight). Don't sweat it if you don't have time for this step. The original recipe omits it but I think it enhances the flavor of these cookies.

Use an ice cream scoop or tablespoon to make 24 mounds of batters, 12 on each tray. (Each mound should have about 2 tablespoons of dough.) You'll get 24 cookies.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through to ensure even baking. Cool on racks.

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Chocolate Chip Banana Blondie Cake

Note to self. If a recipe calls for chocolate chips, put them in. Especially if the name of the recipe has "Chocolate Chip" in it.

I guess that's what happens when you try to bake a cake an hour before Shabbos. You're likely to miss at least one or two things. Lucky for me, I realized halfway through the baking, and simply poured the chips on top of the cake (and held my breath for the last half-hour of baking time).

Guess what? It was fine! We had ourselves a blog-worthy cake. One I would make again anytime. Next time, I'll mix the chips in as directed. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Blondie Cake

This recipe is taken from Evil Shenanigans with just a couple of changes. I changed the butter to oil, and replaced half of it with applesauce. I also doubled the recipe so I could put half in the freezer for another time, and I reduced the chocolate chips a bit. Fantastic!

1 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe banana (3-4 bananas)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350*. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl (I used a stand mixer), cream together the sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the eggs and bananas and mix until smooth.

Add the baking powder and salt and mix till combined. Then add the flour. Mix until the dry ingredients are just combined and moist. Add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for at least an hour before serving.

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