Explosive Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever bought chocolate you didn't like? First of all, why on Earth would you buy chocolate for yourself that you didn't like? I'm sure you had your reasons but then changed your mind :) I can't be the only one that does this. Am I?

Recently, I bought a bag of individually wrapped chocolate squares for cupcake decorations. After hanging onto the bag for a month or so, I concluded I had no reason to make cupcakes any time soon so I decided to open the bag and start eating the chocolates. But I really didn't like them much. Sadly for me, I bought it at Costco so it was a really big bag of disappointment :( I'm sure other people like them but after being spoiled by quality Amedei chocolate and constantly snacking on Lindt chocolates, I just couldn't make myself eat the cheap Hershey's chocolates. The more I thought about them, the more I didn't want them. I even told my husband to take them all to his work and just give them out. Then, I had an idea.

What the heck can I do with chocolates I don't like to eat? Throw them in chocolate chip cookies, of course! Duh. I did this before when we had too much Halloween candy. Once, I even broke up pieces of Halloween candy to decorate the outside of a cake. Chocolates of any sort would work great inside a chocolate chip cookie. But seriously, pretty much anything will taste great inside of a chocolate chip cookie, right? :)

With regular chocolate squares.

Instead of breaking the cute chocolate squares and throwing the pieces into the cookie dough, I decided to just sandwich the thing. As lazy as it sounds, I actually thought it would turn out pretty cool. In fact, the cookie looked awesome! I used to think chocolate chip cookies were very boring looking but they really don't have to be.

Because each chocolate square added more chocolate to each cookie, I just reduced the amount of chocolate chips I used in the original recipe. You can use any chocolate chip recipe you want for this. The recipe I used was for my New York Times chocolate chip cookie. It's pretty simple really. Take some cookie dough and cover part of the chocolate square on top and on the bottom. Push down slightly. Place them on a cookie sheet with enough room to spread. Bake, then let them cool completely before removing them or they will fall apart.

Don't they look cool? I actually made them a couple of times now. The first time, I just used regular chocolate squares. The second time, I used flavored chocolate squares and they tasted great too. Since I didn't break them up, the flavors didn't mix so we had different flavored individual cookies.

With flavored chocolate squares.

Awesome, right? You know what else is awesome? Frozen chocolate chip cookies. I read that they can even taste better than room temperature ones. I used to freeze them anyway but instead of defrosting them now, I just eat them like that. Delicious!

Latte Art with Nespresso and Aeroccino Frother

We finally got our own Nespresso coffee machine! And with that, we now have a "latte factor." Yikes!

We discovered Nespresso maybe 4 or 5 years ago when we visited my parents-in-law in France. My father-in-law drinks a lot of espresso. An incredible amount actually. The Nespresso machine he had only produced espresso, supplied by Nespresso, and the coffee capsules were expensive. Even though the espresso looked, smelled, and tasted great, it just wasn't the machine for us at the time. In fact, we're not used to drinking espresso. We like to drink standard American coffees, lattes, and specialty coffees. Espressos are too small and too strong. Lol. But after a few Nespressos in France, my husband and I became big fans! But the Nespresso machines were still too expensive and too limited for us.

Shortly after we came back to Canada after trying Nespresso for the first time, we got a Tassimo machine. They were starting to get popular back then in Canada and with that machine, we got the price and versatility we were after. We were quite happy with our Tassimo machine until we moved to the USA. Here, you could find plenty of Keurig and Nespresso machines, but not Tassimo. At least not in Redmond, WA. That also meant that Tassimo brand coffee capsules were hard to find. Surprisingly, the capsules were more expensive than in Canada as well. I ended up giving our Tassimo machine to my sister to bring back to Canada and I took the plunge and got us a Nespresso machine. They're more affordable now and with the Aeroccino frother, we can have more than just espresso. As an added bonus, we can bring our used capsules to nearby recycling points so they don't end up in the local landfill.

With our Nespresso machine, we can now make one of the best tasting espressos in seconds with just a push of a button. The Aeroccino frother works amazingly fast to produce hot milk and froth. It can make cold froth too. That will come in handy for ice coffee drinks in the summer :) For months now, we have been enjoying espressos and lattes made with milk, soy milk, coconut milk, and rice milk. We even bought a few flavored syrups like pumpkin pie spice and gingerbread to give our lattes a holiday flavor. When we run out of capsules, we just go online at Nespresso and order more. You get delivery to your door within two days. Let's just say we no longer go out for coffee much anymore :)

Chocolatey sauce: 1 package of hot cocoa mix added to 1 decaf lungo espresso.

It's so easy, my 5 year old can even make me a great latte. But I wanted more. I wanted my latte to look pretty too. Is latte art possible with Nespresso? Well, it turns out it was actually hard to create latte art with Nespresso coffee and Aeroccino frothed milk. The milk gets way too frothy and bubbly, rather than creamy and thick. You really need the steam wand from a standard espresso machine to produce that hot velvety creamy smooth milk used for latte art. I tried it so many ways with so many different milks and it just wouldn't work. But I was determined to create something so I kept going.

The best design that would hold was the flower design. I needed to create more contrast so I used a chocolatey sauce, which I made by mixing a Lungo shot of decaffeinated espresso with a package of organic hot cocoa mix from Trader Joe's. It wasn't very thick like chocolate syrup but it worked alright :) I was really only after the design and I didn't want a sweet latte. I use 2% milk for my lattes now. Soy milk works well too but you get more froth with soy.

I got my 5 year old to help out in the video below. I started the recording and then handed it over to him to capture the rest while I prepared the latte. He was standing on a chair and he moved around a bit but the video turned out alright. Not a bad production for a 5 year old :) And he didn't even say a word the whole time!

Creating Latte Art with Nespresso.

Below are a few other fun attempts I tried at latte art using our Nespresso coffee. It's hard and they don't look great but they sure beat a plain old boring looking latte!

Do you own a Nespresso machine and Aeroccino frother? I'm still looking for more ways of decorating my lattes with art. If you have tried latte art using your machine, I would love to hear about it :)

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 40th Birthday to my Husband!

Darth Vader fights Obiwan.

A surprise for his dad. Art work by my 5 year old. I love it!

Darth Vader fights Luke.

Nutella cake with nutella swiss meringue buttercream & chocolate satin ice.

Chinese New Year 2014: Year of the Horse COOKIES

If you haven't figured it out yet, I pretty much mark every holiday and occasion with homemade sugar cookies. Since I started to learn how to make and decorate sugar cookies a few years ago, I have been somewhat addicted to it. The better and more comfortable I became with decorating, the more I wanted to do. Now, I honestly feel like I can make any custom cookie I want. It's definitely nice and convenient to have the skills to be able to create any design on a cookie, especially when it comes to birthday parties. The not so nice part is that it's a little too easy to gain weight. Lol. Making pretty sugar cookies is also time consuming but so is creating art. The difference is that we can eat the cookies afterward! Just don't forget to photograph them first before you gobble them all up :)

To mark the Year of the Horse 2014 this Friday, I decided do cookies with a painted horse. I threw in some Chinese lanterns and firecrackers too so that you would get the point :) It's been awhile since I painted cookies so it was a nice change. I was intrigued by a horse portrait my husband got from his grandma's cousin from Hanoi, Vietnam. I remembered it was displayed in our apartment back in 2001 when we were married. It was perfect and it didn't take very long to paint. It's so Chinese-y, which makes me like it even more :)

Kung Hei Fat Choy! May 2014 bring you peace, love, happiness, health, fortune and all that good stuff :)

Chocolate sugar cookie decorating in the works.

Tips and Tricks for Making Dutch Oven Bread

I have been making dutch oven bread for just over a year now. It still blows me away every time I take it out of the oven. I'm new to the bread making world but every loaf looks so amazing. The method is so easy that I feel guilty for taking full credit for it. But is it really that easy?

After several loaves of bread, I started to get lazy and I looked for shortcuts. Lol. It's a 5 minute recipe but I wanted it to be simpler. But seriously, here is the thing. I didn't like the fact that I was wasting so much parchment paper, I didn't like the mess, and sometimes I didn't even want to wait until the oven was 425 F. When I got lazy, I messed up here and there. A few times I even had problems with my bread not rising properly. The worst was when the resulting bread got stuck inside my dutch oven. I even scratched my new dutch oven a bit from removing the bread :( So sad. The bread still tasted great but it annoyed me!

My bread posts have actually become a few of my most popular posts on this blog. Today, I want to share a few tips and tricks I have learned since I first started making bread over a year ago. I love making tasty food but not if it means wasting time and making a mess. I like to get things done as quickly and effectively as possible and with only a minimal amount of mess. I tend to use very few kitchen supplies as well because I don't like to do the dishes. Lol. But that really falls under making a "minimal amount of mess." I'm as conservative as they get in the kitchen!

The following is my list of shortcuts and tips for making dutch oven bread.

• Use a big pot! Forget the parchment paper and towel. Contain the dough in a big pot and save yourself paper and a big mess. The lid of the pot covers the whole thing very well. When it comes time to dump the dough into the hot dutch oven, it all slides out nicely.
• Make sure to preheat both oven and dutch oven to 425F. If you don't and you get lazy like me and dump the dough in too early, the bread will get stuck inside your dutch oven. Trust me, it's a pain to remove the bread in one piece when it's done. I have learned that if the dutch oven is super hot, the dough starts to cook immediately once you put it in there and that's what you need. I actually thought my pots were getting old and used but when I started to heat my dutch oven more, the bread just slides out without a mess each time. Thank goodness!
• Leave the bread inside the dutch oven when done for at least 20 minutes. This helps to gradually cool down and steam it a bit, which makes it easier to slide out later.
• Check the expiry date of your yeast. When we moved over to Washington State, I thought the change of environment was the cause of my dough not rising. Apparently, my yeast was just getting old. When I left it out longer, it rose a bit more but it was definitely odd. It turned out that my yeast was nearing its expiry date. I got new yeast and everything was back to normal :)
• Add a bit of sugar if you want to "toast" your bread. A lot of people wonder why it's so hard to toast dutch oven bread. My husband has to toast it multiple times to give it the "toast bread" look. There is no sugar in white dutch oven bread and apparently you need sugar and heat to toast. When I added just 1/2 tbsp of sugar in the recipe, toasting improved. I might even try 1 tbsp next time. The idea is to add enough to help toasting along but not too much that you would actually taste sweet bread.
• Store bread in a plastic bag. Once the bread is at room temperature, store it in a plastic bag and seal it. You can leave it out at room temperature for 4-5 days. The bread will keep soft and fresh in the plastic bag. If there is bread left after 5 days, I would move the leftovers to the fridge. It will go moldy if you leave it at room temperature for too long.

Flour it well and cover again for 1-2 hours.

See? I got most of it out and not a big mess at all :)

Bread cleanly slides out. Dutch oven barely needs a wash.

Back of the bread.

Toasted just once.

The dutch ovens I use are Le Creuset Stoneware Covered Square Casserole (Cherry Red) (the 5 or 6 qt. version) and Martha Stewart Enameled Cast Iron 6 qt. Round Casserole and they are both very good. I can only speak from my experience with these dutch ovens. Below is the revised dutch oven bread recipe and instructions I now use.

Dutch Oven Artisan Bread
Serves 6-8
(Adapted from Frugal Living NW)

6 cups of all purpose flour
3 tbsp wheat gluten
1 tbsp salt
1/2 to 1 tbsp white sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp active dry yeast + 2 tbsp warm water
3 cup cold water

1/3 cup flour for forming into a ball later

Add the yeast to the luke warm water and let it sit in a cup. Measure and combine the flour, gluten, salt, and sugar in a big pot. I use my 8 quart pot. Add the cold water. Stir the yeast mixture a bit and then add the yeast to the large bowl as well. Using a big wooden spoon, just mix it all up until all the flour is incorporated. If you don't mix well, you could end up with pockets of dry flour inside the dough. That's it! Now cover with the pot lid and let it sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

Use the 1/3 cup of flour or more to flour your hands and the dough so that it doesn't stick too much to the pot. Let this sit for 1-2 hours so it can double in size.

Preheat oven to 425 F with your 6 quart dutch oven inside. When the temperature is reached, remove the dutch oven and quickly dump the dough inside. If you floured the dough enough, this should slide out pretty easily right into the dutch oven. Sprinkle the top a bit with some flour and cover. Bake covered for 45 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake for 10 minutes. Take out the bread and let it cool for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the bread and let it cool further on a cooling rack.

Being Grateful and Looking Forward to 2014

It's been four months now that we have left Canada and moved to the USA. We exchanged our old life for a completely new life. Everything changed. Our city, our house, our car, our friends, our jobs etc. After dealing with months and months of relocation and settling down business and then Christmas, I am finally getting the chance to sit down and think about other things for the new year. There are a gazillion different things that could happen this year. 2014 will definitely be an interesting one. Two things will happen for sure: 1) we're going to France for a family visit and 2) my 5 year old will start school in September. Two very exciting things! What's unclear is whether or not he will get full day or half day school, what daycare he will go to, and whether or not I will be working part time or full time for a Canadian or US company or not work at all.

I still have mixed feelings about being here but things are definitely better today than they were when we first moved over. I think we gave ourselves way too much stress by doing too much too soon. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end and now we can sit back and enjoy life a bit more.

The 2014 New Year's/Birthday cake I made.

I want things to get even better. Instead of fixating on all the things that we lost from moving over to the USA, I want to be more grateful for all the great things we have gained in return. Here are some of them:

• An exciting job for my husband
• A shopping paradise where things are cheaper and everything ships to the USA
• Cheap wine
• Cheap dairy
• Better travel options from Seattle
• A house we can afford
• Great English speaking schools for our boy
• More vegan food options for my husband
• Possibly more job opportunities for my field of work (assuming I can get sponsored)
• Slightly better weather
• Trader Joe's

Phew! Listing all that already makes me feel better! :) Okay, I kind of moved here against my will but things really aren't that bad I guess. We're home a lot and it's really nice to be home when home is nicer and bigger. We would never be able to afford something like this back home. Real estate is nuts in the Greater Vancouver region.

We finally got our house. Finally! And our new kitchen is a heck of a lot bigger than our old kitchen. We now have generous counter and storage space. Then again, our old place had a ridiculously tiny kitchen. It blows my mind every time I think about all the food that came out of that small space. It's challenging to make a lot of food when there is no space to do it. Trust me.

This was my old kitchen. With all the jars and spices removed.

My old work space was the size of a cutting board.

Kitchenaid mixer sits out now! Bliss :)

We love our new house and I am enjoying our new kitchen. Now, I can leave my Kitchenaid stand mixer out on the counter without carrying it in and out of storage. Yes, I had to do that every time in the past :( And the darn thing weighs a ton. Being able to leave it out makes me so happy. Honestly, you have no idea. It's the little things in life people :)

I now have room to lay out all my baking stuff in a single layer inside cupboards. At one point back at our old place, my baking supplies were stored in plastic bags stuffed under the stair storage. It was such a pain to find stuff. I cursed every time! So glad those days are gone.

Things are so much better now. I can generally cook and bake faster because I don't have to do dishes along the way to clear the counter space. I can also use my dishwasher now! We never could use our old dishwasher since we used it for storage space. It was packed to the rim with all sorts of kitchen crap. Terrible but true. And best of all, now I can separate my food from my housewares thanks to our pantry. Oh. Yeah. That room might have sold me the house. Seriously.

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good holiday break :) Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Dessert Buffet

Chocolate and almond sugar cookie trees.

My family came over from Vancouver and Victoria for a few days to spend their Christmas with us. There were ten of us in the house and although I pulled off another Christmas dinner and dessert buffet, I can't help but feel even more victorious at the fact that we never once ran out of hot water. How awesome is that?!

It was nice to see the family again and my 5 year old got to play nice with his two little cousins. Thank goodness. He's starting to adjust a lot better to our new life here in the USA. Christmas dinner was a bit different this year. I tried a few new dishes which had good potential. I bought myself another dutch oven so I was able to bake two dutch oven breads on the same day. TWO! One white bread for dinner and one fig anise bread for breakfast the next day. They both turned out great!

White round bread in my new dutch oven.

Below was our lovely menu, in case you are interested. There are a few links to the recipes as well. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures :( I was way too busy serving everyone. All the dishes went quite well together and there was a good variety for everyone. The leftovers fed us for a few days. Guess we got way too full on the wine.

Christmas Menu

Appetizers

• Hot horseradish crab dip
• Spinach and artichoke dip
• Various cheeses
• For dipping: Tortillas, dutch oven bread, and crackers
• Lots and lots of wine, Kirs, beers, cocktails

Main

• Turkey breast with kale and sausage stuffing
• Store bought smoked spiral ham
• Store bought apple/sage field roast (for my husband)
• Mashed butternut squash
• Steamed cauliflower, potatos, carrots
• Baked smashed potatos
• Coconut creamed spinach

Dessert Buffet

• Peppermint mocha cupcakes with mint ganache and mint buttercream
• Almond sugar cookies
• Rice krispie squares
• Soft almond chocolate toffee
• Chocolate chip cookies using 4 color chocolate chips

Displayed here is only about 1/3 of all our desserts.

I love cooking for Christmas but it's the baking that actually takes more time. All the cooking was done the day of but I started baking a couple of days before. I had to finish frosting the cupcakes Christmas morning. It seems like I made a lot of food but I actually wasn't overworked. I think it's because I have a bigger kitchen now and that makes it easier to organize and multitask.

Giant Santa cookies for the kids.

Glittery pearl airbrushed Christmas trees. I love these!

New York Times chocolate chip cookies.

Brown butter rice krispies.

Trader Joe's peppermint candies for the topping.

Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint ganache and peppermint swiss meringue buttercream.

It was fun but I'm ready to leave Christmas behind. Lol. I'm gearing up for New Year's and my birthday now. Is it just me or is Christmas way too close to the New Year's celebration? Luckily, it will only be a three-course meal for New Year's :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas and winter holiday!