Month: January 2015

Macklesmores

Published on by Dawn11 Comments

Maclasmores

Macklemore is now a household name in most families with teenagers.  That’s what happens when you have a hit song.  He is even more of a hit in his hometown of Seattle.  People here love him, and he was a product of Seattle Public Schools – even better. My daughter may just end up at the high school he attended – which is now probably famous because of him.

Not far from where he went to high school is a cookie shop named Hello Robin – they sell delectable homemade cookies (that you can watch come out of the oven), along with Molly Moon’s Ice Cream (another Seattle icon).  We started going there last summer, and that’s where I saw the Macklesmores.  I was instantly obsessed – without even trying one.  It took me a few visits, but I finally broke down and bought one.  Oh my gosh – this was quite a cookie.  It was almost the best cookie I have ever had.  I had to make them for myself.

So one night when we were there, they were actually taking them out of the oven – so I asked the woman if I could get the recipe.  No can do – she said she really didn’t mix them up anyway, but she was pretty sure they used Honey Maid Grahams.  That’s all I got.  So – I was on my own to try and figure it out.  The first batch I made I decided to go with these cookies.  I thought they looked similar to the cookies in the store.  Unfortunately it was a bust – the cookies just almost melted over the grahams, and the marshmallows just melted into the cookies – they tasted great, but they were just sad looking.

That’s when I turned to my mother.  I needed a rustic cookie recipe that would be perfect for these grahams, and she had just the solution.  Her go-to cookie recipe.  Now, when she determines that something meets that type of standard, she has done her due diligence.  She doesn’t mess around when it comes to perfecting the best recipe.  Even though I knew this, as I was mixing them up, I was still worried – I made her call me from Paris just to make sure I was doing it right – and I was.  I followed the directions though completely – the most important of the steps is refrigerating the batter.  You MUST do that for these cookies to work, and for the marshmallows to stay intact.  These were outstanding…they looked exactly like the real thing.  Even if Hello Robin is frustrated right now…at hopefully Macklemore would approve.  After all, how many other Seattle legends have a cookie named after them?

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound sweet butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
  • Honey Maid Graham Crackers
  • Dark Chocolate cut into squares

Preparation

Melt the butter. Whisk in both sugars and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time and beat well. Stir in dry ingredients then chips, then wrap and chill 60 minutes.

Break the graham crackers in half, and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment.  Using a small ice cream scoop (a generous tablespoon), place a scoop on each of the graham crackers.  Bake 325 degrees convection until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Turn pan in oven when there’s 3 minutes left on the timer refrigerator between batches.

Makes about 40 cookies.

When cookies come out of the oven, place a square of chocolate in the middle of each chocolate, and lightly press.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Macklesmores

Celery Tonic

Published on by Dawn9 Comments

Celery Tonic 2

As I am writing this today, I am listening to my family agonize about what is going on with the Seahawks.  I am not much of a football fan, but I am a big Seattle fan, and anything that will make the city happy, I am in favor of.  My older daughter, who does happen to love the game is upstairs doing homework (she is a little superstitious), while my younger daughter has been lured downstairs to watch the game with her father.  They are going nuts right about now…

New Year’s is always a great time to try out new drinks, and I am finally getting around the post the fan favorite.  I remember seeing this cocktail in Bon Appetit and thinking that it looked very interesting – but I didn’t like that it was not green.  I knew if I was going to make this, I needed a really good muddler – to really extract out all of that delicious celery juice.  Fortunately for me the folks at Artic Chill had sent me a muddler to review months ago – and I was really hoping it would come through for me.

This muddler made it so easy to make this drink – and so easy to ensure that there was plenty of green celery juice for this drink.  This will now be my muddler of choice – it sure beats the end of the wooden spoon that I used to use. Ok, excuse me while I go downstairs to see how this ends…hopefully I will be making another round of these tonight to celebrate.

Ingredients

  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 2 ounces gin (substitute for tonic water if non-alcoholic)
  • Lemon twist (for serving)

Preparation

Muddle celery with sugar and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker, 1 minute. Add gin, fill shaker with ice, and shake until outside of shaker is frosty, about 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with a lemon twist.

Servings: Makes 1

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Celery Tonic

Jammin’ Oat Muffins

Published on by Dawn4 Comments

Music is almost as magical as food is.  It has those same powers that can get you to remember something – you can be going about your business and a song comes on, and it takes you to a different place.  Just like food can.  I used to be completely obsessed with music when I was growing up – and someone that has been replaced with food.  I still love music, but it is not what gets me up in the morning.

In college at parties, there was a lot of Bob Marley being played – especially when the weather was nice, and everyone was outside.  For some reason, whenever I get out my jam supplies I start singing Bob Marley’s “Jammin'” song:

Ooh, yeah! All right!
We’re jammin’:
I wanna jam it wid you.
We’re jammin’, jammin’,
And I hope you like jammin’, too.

Ain’t no rules, ain’t no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I’n’I will see you through,
‘Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice,
Jammin’ till the jam is through.

We’re jammin’ –
To think that jammin’ was a thing of the past;
We’re jammin’,
And I hope this jam is gonna last.

Yep – and even though he was not talking about making jam, the words seem to work perfectly for my hobby.  But seriously, it brings me back to those college days – did I ever think that someday this song would have a different meaning to me?  That must be it, this song was all about making jam – but no one knew it.

So needless to say, when I saw this recipe in Cooking Light, of course I went right back to that song.  And I sang it the entire time I was baking these as well. Of course I used my homemade raspberry jam for these, and they were fantastic.  They added the perfect amount of sweetness to these lovely muffins. Exactly what I need to get me out of bed in the morning…

Ingredients

  • Cooking spray
  • 6 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour (about 1 1/3 cups)
  • 3/4 cup quick-cooking steel-cut oats
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup 1% low-fat milk
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup raspberry preserves or jam

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray; set aside. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Crack egg into a medium bowl, and beat lightly with a fork. Add milk, oil, and maple syrup; mix well.

Pour egg mixture into flour mixture, and stir until combined (mixture should still be lumpy and very wet). Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup. Spoon 1 teaspoon preserves or jam into center of each cup of batter. Bake at 400° for 16 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in centers. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Place muffins on a wire rack. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Jammin’ Oat Muffins

Nan’s Fudge Sauce

Published on by Dawn2 Comments

Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Sauce

Nothing says Happy New Year quite like a good cocktail, or a nice piece of ice cream cake.  At least that’s what we decided this year.  After a week off from work, and we still had New Year’s to look forward to, things were looking good.  We had ample time to really think hard about the dessert we would prepare.  Normally I put that kind of thought into the cocktails that I make, but this year things were a little different.  I really put together the cocktail list in a matter of minutes, but we spent hours going back and forth on the dessert.

The dessert was really created around a centerpiece, and that was my grandmother’s chocolate sauce.  My mother had made some when she was visiting, and we still had a lot left over.  This is not your ordinary chocolate sauce either – I seriously could eat it with a spoon, it is so perfectly balanced.  So, it was not crazy at all that we had to create a dessert in order to incorporate her sauce.  Ice cream was of course the first thing we thought of – but it was New Year’s Eve – a special celebration – it had to be outrageous.  I am not sure whose idea it was to create a brownie bottom, but we debated the brownie bottom vs. the chocolate chip cookie bottom for quite some time – at one point we even had both in the dessert – but we ended up settling for the brownie.  Then it was time to choose the ice cream.  Mint chocolate chip was the clear winner for a while, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that some people don’t like mint.  Also – I thought that the richness of the brownie needed some type of vanilla in the ice cream.

It wasn’t until we were at the store – after spending 15 minutes with multiple selections in our cart, that we ended up with chocolate chip cookie dough.  We added a little whipped cream on top, and then poured the chocolate sauce all over.  Wow. That is just about all I can say.  Here’s to a New Year filled with health, happiness, delicious food and creative cocktails.  What more could you want?

Ingredients

Brownie

  • 3 19/50 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks, divided
  • 1/3 cup fat-free milk
  • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • Cooking spray

Chocolate Sauce

  • 1/4 pound butter
  • 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

  • half-gallon chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
  • whipped cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Combine 1/2 cup chocolate and milk in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and eggs. Add milk mixture and 1/2 cup chocolate; stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan with a piece of parchment paper that over hangs on two of the sides – then butter the parchment. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in the pan on a rack.

When brownies are completely cool, let the ice cream sit on the counter until it is slightly softened (so it is spreadable).  Spread the ice cream on top of the brownie in the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap, and put back in the freezer until frozen solid.

To make the fudge sauce, melt butter over medium heat.  Add unsweetened chocolate & melt, stirring. Add cocoa, sugar, and milk and stir well to combine. Boil a few minutes, stirring. Turn off the heat then add vanilla and salt. Stir to combine.  Keeps in refrigerator for a few weeks. Heat GENTLY in microwave to soften & serve.

When you are ready to serve, you can lift on the parchment paper and place the entire cake on a cutting board and cut into 16 squares.  Put some whipped cream on each piece, and top with warm chocolate sauce.  Enjoy!

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here: Nan’s Fudge Sauce