Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

It's been so long since I downloaded the PDF of this flourless peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie recipe for that I don't even remember where I found it (almost 2 years to be exact). Finally decided to try it as part of a birthday present for a friend.

I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except I left out the peanut chunks. I made a double batch so that I'd have some for myself too. They are more crumbly than a normal cookie. I generally prefer chewy cookies but I guess with no flour and no butter, that's not really going to happen. I also overcooked a few of them, as you can see in the last picture, but oh well. Still very tasty!

Chocolate Nibby Espresso Cookies

Recently took Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate, which is all about cooking with really good dark chocolate, out of the library after having made brownies from the book as posted by one of my favorite blogs Smitten Kitchen. Not too many of the recipes really struck me, but I scanned a few to save, this being one of them. I had bought some cocoa nibs not long ago and had no idea what to do with them, so this recipe seemed perfect. The "espresso" comes from ground coffee beans. I didn't have unsweetened chocolate, but luckily she provides substitution instructions for using 70%, etc., chocolate instead.

When I made the dough on Saturday, I was worried because it was more like a batter than a cookie dough. But the recipe called for it to sit in the fridge anywhere from an hour to four days. So I figured we'd see how it turned out overnight.

Of course, it had a lot of melted butter and chocolate in it so I knew it would harden, and of course, it hardened too much so I left it out to warm up a bit. Then I got impatient so I made a mess digging and scooping and whatnot. Anyway, this is what they looked like beforehand:

Cooked them about 9 min.....as you can see they spread a bit and blistered a little on the top, but I could tell they were still quite soft inside. Fine by me, I'd rather undercook than overcook.

Tried putting some chocolate covered coffee beans I had lying around in some of them while they were still hot...

Needless to say, they're amazing. There's not quite enough coffee flavor, but it's there. And the nibs add a cocoa-y crunch. Delicious.

Welcome!

I've been talking a lot about food lately. I've also been getting more into photography. So I thought, why not chronicle my quest for food perfection with a little blog? When I make something interesting or find something interesting in the markets, I can photograph it here using the techniques I'm studying and share it (it will improve when I get a new camera, so til then bear with me!).

I know, you're probably wondering, who the heck is she and why should I care, there are a million food blogs out there? I think what makes me different is that I'm a picky foodie. No, REALLY picky. I hate cooked vegetables, I hate most sauces, I hate things mixed together, I hate all seafood - yes all seafood, I hate fruit and chocolate/dessert mixed and the list just goes on and on and on. I don't even like wine.

So you are asking, what DOES she like? I like meat, yeah I do, especially beef (prime rib would be my ultimate dinner of choice). I also like random things like olives (I'm obsessed, I admit it), chocolate (only dark!), I love most fruits and vegetables (but only raw!), I like spicy things, pasta, I loooooove pizza, and pickles, and cheese and most kinds of salty chip-like foods, and the list goes on!

So to get it started, here are a few things i've made recently. the way I'll do it is if I use a recipe, I'll link to or post the recipe in case people are interested in trying it :) Have fun and please comment!

Margherita Pizza (Ingredients: Trader Joe's pizza dough, Trader Joe's Italian Tomato Starter Sauce (which they seem to be out of now, so substitute the marinara sauce in the green can), and WHOLE MILK mozzarella - sliced THIN. And that's it. the secret is a super thin crust, super hot oven, not too much sauce and cheese, and a pizza stone.


Tried these Nutella Cookies from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe I had seen a while back. I changed it up a bit by making them bigger than her recipe called for (I did 1.5 ounces each) and I didn't use any of the sugar. Also instead of a Kiss in the middle I used a Dove Dark Chocolate square. I also cooked them a bit less (about 10 min, and then just 1 min after I put the candy in). This combined with the larger cookie size resulted in a really lovely soft cookie that stayed soft for days. yyyyyuuuuuum.


Bucatini all'amatriciana (ingredients: Bucatini (available at TJ's now as 'bucati'), good tomato sauce, some bacon with fat removed, a little onion, garlic, and lots of grated cheese).

Had this dish in Rome in the Jewish Ghetto overlooking the Teatro Marcellus, what a memory. A traditional Roman dish, my recreation comes close. I don't like onion much, so I leave it out for the most part. Next time I make it I'm going to try some Pancetta cubes I bought in TJ's. Mine's not perfect, of course, but it's also not bad :P



So anyway, this is the kind of thing I'll keep posting. I hope you enjoy! And if not, it's at least a way for me to chronicle my discoveries and creations for myself ;)