fauwhopper cookies

first off, can we please take a moment of silence for the beloved tastespotting.com?  i will miss your lust-inducing food photos and witty captions.  i will miss stalking you with the same intensity and fervor of facebook.  what am i going to do now, my deceased web friend, at work everyday? work!?

(note: should my coworkers/boss read this, that’s toootally a joke.  i do nothing, nothing but work diligently all day long.)

now, push your tears aside… and, speaking of work, that brings me to my next topic.  the fauwhopper cookies you see to the left. a malty, chocolately cookie o’fun. 

it is currently summer intern season.  the old interns hit the road, and the new ones wander in.  since my coworkers have discovered that i am the one secretly leaving tupperwares full of cookies in the kitchen, they asked me to make some sort of baked good for our interns to say, “yo, welcome dudes.”  because that is how we talk here.  we like to keep it real, hang ten, and the like.

these cookies are “technically” the chocolate malted whopper drops of dorie greenspan creation.  they call for whoppers, but for some reason that escapes me entirely, my stop-and-shop does not carry them!  yes, i was forced to go with the faux store-brand whopper like chocolate malt balls.  perfectly acceptable… except it means a name change (ie: fauwhopper cookies), which may or may not actually add a little air of mystique to the cookie.

what you’ll need: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup malted milk powder (like ovaltine), 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 11 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp), 2/3 cup sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1/4 cup whole milk (i used 1%), 2 cups (6 ounces) chocolate-covered malted milk balls (coarsely chopped), 1 cup chocolate chips/chunks

1. position racks into thirds and preheat oven to 350 degrees. line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. sift together flour, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

hold.

pour.

sift.

 3. beat butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until very smooth. add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.

4. beat in vanilla.  (don’t worry if it looks curdled. it will even out once the dry goods are added.)

5. reduce mixer to low speed and add half of the dry ingredients. mixing until it just disappears in the batter.

5. mix in milk.

 …then remaining dry ingredients.  mix only until incorporated. batter will look more like fudgy frosting than cookie dough.  but no worries my dears!

(quick timeout: make sure you keep your handy dishwasher around.  clean as ya go, that’s my motto. by which i mean, that’s what my mom pounded in to my head growing up. nic here thinks she is posing for photos and sampling batter, when in reality she is giving that mixer a good ole spit cleaning. i’m incredibly devious.)

6. alright, forget that sidetrack.  i am a sidetrack queen.  time to mix in the malted milk balls (fauwhoopers!) and chopped chocolate.

but of course you can’t forget the actual chopping!

alright, now that that is settled, we can do the mixing. phew.

7. drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto sheets.

leave about 2 inches between each. bake 11 to 13 minutes and rotate from top to bottom, front to back after 6 minutes.  when done, cookies will be puffed and set,  but slightly soft to the touch.  let the cookies rest for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

(fab guest shot  from miss nic!)

now, this is very hush hush.  but i feel compelled to share.  i just wouldn’t feel right if i didn’t.  i have a secret ingredient that i add to all of my baked goods.  don’t tell anyone.  only a select few (anyone with internet access) is deigned worthy of the privilege of learning my tricks… my secret ingredient?

MAGIC! alakazaam!  here nic demonstrates the proper top secret voodoo dance used to enhance my baked treats.

if that isn’t as effective as necessary…

there is always “encouragement” given through taunting, jeering, and all around belittling.  it works in the locker room, it works in the kitchen.  “you call yourself a COOKIE?! you are BISCOTTI!! puff up and act like a cookie!!”

the verdict?

the photo speaks for itself.  glorious malted cookie joy.

also, just an fyi, they tasted best right out of the oven.  so definitely sample asap!

mmmmm cookie!

(boo bad nail polish job.)

my achy “unbakey” heart

today’s post is a bit of a change of pace.  rather than bake, i “unbaked.”  raw food seems to be incredibly hip and trendy as of late.  and seeing as how i like to pretend that i am also hip and trendy, i decided it was high time i jumped on the bandwagon.  j’s mom is pretty much the raw master (mistress?) and agreed to help me out with this little project.  so j and i hopped in the car and took a ride to marblehead (seriously adorable town on the mass coast), to meet up with her mom and simba (seriously adorable pooch on the mass coast).

for those of you not in the know, the raw food movement basically involves the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed foods.  apparently by leaving your food “raw” it keeps a lot of important enzymes around, which would otherwise be killed off.  assuming you can kill an enzyme, which, for the purpose of this post, you can.  some raw foodists say that eating this way helps with weight loss and healing/preventing different sicknesses/chronic diseases. (more info…)

so for today’s raw treat, the j fam and i made a cacao nib pecan pie with a cashew, coconut crust.  serious yum folks.  it was a lot of fun and really easy to make.  it was a little touch and go as j and i fought over the proper way to pronounce pecan.  i still maintain that it is pee-con, not pee-can.  crazy new englanders and their pee-cans.  not to be confused with a toilet, which just popped into my brain, and i felt compelled to relay to the blogging community. despite the fact that toilets are totally inappropriate talk for food blogs. (sheesh kell, we are reading about food here!) alright just look back at the pretty pic and forget this written detour ever happened…

Cacao Nib Pecan Pie w/ Cashew, Coconut Crust

the crust: from “pecan chai pie on cashew crust” in ani’s raw food kitchen by ani phyo

 what you’ll need: 1 cup cashew (dry), 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (we used pure tahitan vanilla extract), 1 tsp sea salt, 1 1/2 cups pitted dates (medjool), 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

1. pulse cashews, vanilla, salt, and coconut in a food processor.

2. slowly add dates and process into a dough-like consistency.

(in case you don’t have pitted dates, have no fear… it is so simple to pit them yourself, these photos are pretty much pointless to post.  but i took them, so regard and pretend to learn…)

break in half, pull out pit, and…

wabam!  one pitless date…

so back to the dough making.

add dates… and make dough…

stir it around a bit… then process some more…

the dough wasn’t quite coming together. so we added a bit of water to make it stickier.

that is how your dough should look when done…

3. “flour” the bottom of a pie pan with coconut.

4. press cashew crust mix masterpiece into “floured” pan.

(you may recognize my hands, which are at the moment artfully smooshing dough into a pie pan.  its rough taking photos when both hands are smooshing/covered in date juice… so thanks j for your master photog skills.)

the filling: we first tried out ani’s recipe that accompanied this crust, but decided it tasted umm…not so good.  so… we scrapped that and came up with this concoction.  i wish i could take credit, but j’s mom is the genius behind the filling.  (coming soon to a computer near you, a food blog by j’s mom herself.)

what you’ll need: 1 orange (zested, peeled, and seeded), 1 cup dates, 1/3 cup raisins, pinch of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1 tblsp maple syrup, 2 tblsp water, 4 cups pecans (unpictured due to mysterious circumstances. just wonder on that one.), handful of cacao nibs

1. in a blender, blend (ah duh) orange pulp, dates, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, maple syrup, salt, vanilla, and raisins.

now side note… how does one get this orange pulp with minimal wear and tear? first before we begin this, zest the orange and set aside. then to get the pulp, we will ”supreme” the orange, which let me just say, is “supremely” cool (har har).

slice off the top and bottom of the orange. then slice off the sides.

then you slice the pulp out of the little orange skin thingamajiggers. and ta da! orange pulp!

2. once the syrup is blended, you will add it to the pecans, cacao nibs, and 1 tblsp of orange zest. mix it together well.

and then spoon into the pie crust.

3. chill in fridge for about 30 minutes. and then you will have a lovely raw pie to eat and enjoy!  store in fridge.

the verdict: very yummy.  after our photo shoot and sampling, we decided it might be good to also process the pecans in the filling, rather than keeping them whole.  then keep some unchopped to decorate the top. but regardless, this tastes very good.  other fun bonuses: this is vegan! enzyme-packed! nutty! orangey! coconutty! and, not to mention, hip and trendy!