I’ve been told that my family has the chocolate gene.  The women in my family simply adore it.  Most desserts at family gatherings are chocolate and for years a birthday cake that wasn’t chocolate may as well have been considered blasphemy.  I had to chuckle when my cousin’s 8 year old son surveyed the dessert table at our last  family Christmas party with dismay and queried “Is there anything that isn’t chocolate?”  There were oreo truffles, chocolate cookies, doubly chocolate cookies and a host of other chocolate-containing cookies.  I think he settled on some sugar cookies, and possibly relented on Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Poor kid.

I can relate to my little cousin.  For years, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about.  Vanilla, fruit and mint flavors piqued my interest and tantalized my taste buds far more than chocolate ever could.  My family probably wondered what was wrong with me.  However, I can assure you that my chocolate gene has kicked on and my love of chocolate has shifted into high gear in recent years.  Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake is my absolute favorite cake recipe, and I keep a supply of Ghirardelli squares and Lindt truffles on hand for chocolate emergencies.

Even in my vanilla-loving hey-day, I adored these Hershey’s Doubly Chocolate Cookies.   They’re simply perfect:  soft and chewy, chocolaty and rich, but not overly so.  Each bite is full of chocolate flavor from the mellow cocoa and the perfectly sweet chocolate chips.  I’ve been baking these for years – first with my mother and then on my own.  They’re always part of my Christmas baking rotation and make numerous appearances throughout the year.  With two kinds of chocolate rolled up into one little cookie, you just can’t go wrong.  The only way to make them better would be to add more chocolate!

Hershey’s Doubly Chocolate Cookies
Yields approximately 4 1/2 dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups (12 oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just set. Cool for 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

When I first made these cookies, it was bright, sunny and warm.  My little container garden was in bloom and my mint plant was out of control.  I had been hesitant to bake, because I didn’t want to make the house any warmer than it already was!  I lounged on the deck in a sun-dress and flip-flops, enjoying my mint chocolate chip cookies with a cool glass of iced tea.

These days, my container garden is a distant memory and the extra heat from a warm oven is a welcome addition.  Freshly-baked cookies are best enjoyed with a piping hot cup of tea, a cozy blanked and a roaring fire.

Whenever you make these cookies, they are fantastic!  Buttery, sweet and minty, these cookies are studded with dark and mint chocolate chips and dotted with slivers of fresh mint leaves.

The original recipe from Betty Crocker Cookies calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I opted to use the seasonal Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels.  Now that I’ve run out, I’m using Guittard Mint Chips mixed with Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips.  Availability for the Mint Chips seems pretty limited, but Amazon has the best price.  The Ghirardelli chips can be found in many grocery stores and also on Amazon.  Feel free to experiment with different combinations and kind of baking chips – you really can’t go wrong!

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup mint chips
3/4 chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark chocolate)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter mint and eggs on medium speed until well-combined.
3. Mix in four, baking soda and salt.
4. Stir in baking chips.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving two inches between the cookies.
6. Bake 11-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

An open bag of Oreos is an incredibly dangerous thing.  I’m usually very well-behaved around sweets, but Oreos are a striking exception to the rule.  It starts off innocously enough: a single serving of 3 cookies.  But then I just grab just one more, and then another, and then another… you get the picture.  Open bags of Oreos don’t last very long in my house.

When I saw this recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cookies in December, I knew I had to make them.  Oreos?  Cream cheese?  I’m there!  The problem was that I had a large array of cookies already planned for Christmas gifts (and snacking!) and it just didn’t seem wise to add another variety to the mix.  So I tagged the recipe in my Google reader and waited until the perfect baking opportunity presented itself.

They were worth the wait!   The cookies are remarkably easy to make and taste outstanding.  The subtle sweet tanginess of the cheesecake cookie pairs beautifully with the rich, chocolate crunch of crushed Oreos.   Like Oreos, they’re just too easy to eat…it’s pretty much impossible to eat just one!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies
Yields about 30 cookies

8 tablespoons  unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (normal size is fine too)
1 cup oreo cookie sandwich crumbs (about 8 oreos)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees andline 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and salt on medium-low speed until smooth and creamy.
3. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy (1-2 minutes)
4. Beat in the vanilla and add the flour, mixing on low until just combined.
5.  Mix in the chocolate chips.
6.  Place Oreo crumbs in a shallow bowl.  Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and drop in the cookie crumbs, rolling to coat.  Place dough balls 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
7.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cookies are done when the edges just start to brown and the tops are set.  Cool for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

The last entry in my January (well, now early February) dip series is a Tex-Mex inspired black bean dip published (a few days late!)  in honor of that big football game, which as you all know was played in Dallas, Texas this year.  We are had a Superbowl party Sunday, and like many of you, we served up lots and lots of unhealthy (yet delicious) tidbits.  This dip, however, injects just a little bit of sense into our day of beer, fried cheese sticks, and mini pizza bagels, while bringing those favorite Tex-Mex spices to the party.  While it’s creamy and delicious, it is also low-fat as you will notice, and is also full of fiber and vegetables…although granted we ate it off of tortilla chips.  It made me feel just a little bit less gross at the end of the day.  This is another one of those recipes that you can throw together from things you have (or SHOULD have) in your pantry for a day such as Sunday, when the store ailes are clogged with confused single men looking for something to serve during the big game.  (My apologies if you are a single man – clearly if you are one who happens to be reading this blog, you are enlightened and do not fall into this category!) 

I modified the recipe from the original in several ways – first, I used a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles, as I wanted to have a spicier bean dip.  If you would rather something with less of a kick, you can certainly use plain tomatoes.  I also added some light cream cheese at the end to give it silky smoothness that I just love in mexican dips.

Spicy Black Bean Dip

Source: Ingrid, via allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2oz (1/4 of an 8oz block) light cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 2-3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Place black beans into a sturdy bowl, and mash! ( This takes a bit of elbow grease – don’t worry about getting the beans too smooth, the texture gives the dip character!)  In a skillet over medium heat coated with cooking spray, saute the onion and minced garlic together until the onions start to turn translucent.  Add mashed beans, frozen corn, tomatoes and chiles, and spices, stirring well, and cook until the mixture starts to thicken.  Add in the cream cheese cut into 2 or 3 chunks for ease of mixing, and the cheddar cheese.  Stir well.  Top with chopped cilantro.  Serve warm with your favorite chips!

As an aside – the leftovers made an AMAZING quesadilla filling.

Now this my friends brings me back to my childhood.  I grew up in southeastern Massachusetts where every year at Christmas, there was a fantastic Christmas Light display at LaSalette shrine – my family would go every year, and as part of the fun we’d have a hot toddy, and perhaps a nice slice of French Meat Pie.  Also known as a Tourtière,  this is a dish popular in French Canada and is in fact a traditional part of the Christmas dinner in Quebec.  Of course, it’s also delicious on any other night of the year as well!  As my co-blogger and her husband can attest to, many families have their own traditional recipes (sometimes more than one per family even!) for this dish that are passed down generation to generation, however given my Irish-Italian heritage, we do not have our own recipe so I had to go finding one on my own.  I put it on my list of 30 things to make while I am 30 because it combines two of my favorite things – pie, and meat. 

This recipe I found is very easy (particularly if you use a premade crust – I won’t tell if you won’t!) and makes a wonderful meal to eat on a snowy New England night – which we’ve had enough of these days to know all to well!  I did substitute the spices a bit because I am not a big fan of allspice, and it came out fantastic – just as I remembered from when I was 7 or 8 wandering around looking at Christmas lights.  The light flaky crust with the warm spicy filling goes quite well with a glass of red wine, a movie, and a lovely night in watching frozen precipitation accumulate.  It also is quite filling – but reheats very well in case you are unable to finish it all on the first attempt.

French Meat Pie

adapted from TasteOfHome, via allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.  Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and saute the onion until translucent.  Remove from skillet.  Brown ground pork and ground beef together in the same skillet.  Drain all the drippings.  Mix together the browned meat, onions, mashed potatoes, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.   Line  a pie plate with one crust, and place filling inside.  Top with the second crust.  Crimp the edges of the crust together, and cut several small slits in the top crust to let steam escape.   Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the top crust appears golden brown.  Enjoy!

I’m a little more than half way between 30 and 31, which means I should be half way through my 30 While 30 list.  Not quite.  Documenting this recipe gives me a 25% completion rate.  While I haven’t gotten very far, I’ve enjoyed trying new things… who knew that homemade hummus and pita would be so easy and delicious?

Of course, there have been some misses that haven’t been documented on Domestic Pursuits.  I made fudge two days before Christmas, following a very precise recipe by Alton Brown.  Something went wrong and I ended up with a grainy mess that didn’t set properly.  Oh well.  I’ll get there some day… besides, who says fudge is just for the holidays?  I also fully intended to decorate some of my Christmas sugar cookies with royal icing – I even bought the supplies.  With visions of snowmen, decorated trees and sparkling stars dancing in my head, I made the same sugar cookies that I’ve made my whole life…and left out the SUGAR.  Yum.  That was a bit of a setback that cut into my already tight timeline.  Look for some hearts or Easter eggs in the coming months.  Finally, there was the herbed asiago foccaccia that didn’t rise, but it sure made for some tasty breadsticks.  Take two will be attempted soon.

Getting back to the recipe at hand: this pita came together quickly and easily with very little attended preparation.  For the longest time, I was intimidated by yeast.  I can’t articulate why, but it just seemed so complicated.   I’m so glad I overcame my issues, because homemade bread products, including this pita, have a much fresher and more pronounced flavor then their store-bought counterparts.  Paired with homemade hummus, this pita is a fabulous snack.

Pita Bread

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing bowl
1 cup water, plus more as needed

1. Add flour, salt and yeast to the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process for 5 seconds.
2. Add the tablespoon of oil and water through the feed tube while the processor is running. Process for about 30 seconds, then turn off and remove the cover. At this point, the dough should be a well-defined ball that’s easy to handle and barely sticky. If it’s too dry, add more later 1 tablespoon at a time, processing for 5-10 seconds after each addition. If it’s too wet, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour, processing briefly after each addition.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 1 minute.
4. Lightly oil a large bowl. Place the dough in the oiled bowl and cover, letting it rise until it has doubled in bulk (about 2 hours).
5. Deflate the dough ball and divide into 6-12 even pieces. Make sure you keep all pieces lightly floured and covered.
6. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Place a baking stone in the oven as it preheats. If you do not have a stone, use a cookie sheet.
7. On a lightly floured surface, flatten each piece of dough into a disk and roll out into a 6-8 inch circle. Keep each completed circle lightly floured (on both sides) and covered. Do not stack the disks.
8. When the oven is preheated, place a few pitas on the stone (I could fit 4 on my pizza stone). In 2-3 minutes the dough will puff up. Remove from the oven and repeat the process until all of the dough has been baked.

I don’t know about you, but I am getting a little tired of winter.  We easily have 2.5 feet of snow on our lawn, and it seems the stream of various manners of frozezn precipitation and shovelling has been endless.  When picking out a recipe to bring to Beth’s for dessert this week then, I wanted to find one that made me think of 80 degree days, flowers and trees in bloom, and fresh fruit to get me through the next few months until we’re nearing the spring.  This recipe combines two of my favorite flavors – sweet raspberries and tart lemons into a tasty little sandwich.  This was my first attempt at a sandwich cookie, and I think it went quite well!  I had picked up this linzer cookie cutter set during the holidays and though I never got to using it in my Christmas baking, I was dying to give it a whirl, and this was the perfect opportunity.  I just love all the little fruit cut-outs – and a fruity recipe is surely needed to use it!  Certainly if you do not happen to have a linzer cookie cutter, you can just use a round cookie cutter with a smaller cookie cutter to create the little window in the top of the cookie.

All in all, these were very easy to make – the dough is very easy to work with compared to some other cut-out cookies I have made.  (I may in fact use this as my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on!)  I doubled the lemon zest in the original recipe to give this recipe even more summery taste – I think I could probably have gone even higher, as the lemon came through but was on the subtle side.  In addition, I somehow found myself out of powdered sugar for dusting – so I opted for a chocolate drizzle, which worked quite nicely.  

The cookies were a big hit on our relaxing evening with a nice spot of tea.  Even though the snow continued to fall on that chilly January evening, it made me feel like summer was right around the corner. 

Raspberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies

Source: Better Homes & Gardens

Ingredients:

• 1/3  cup  butter, softened
• 1/3  cup  shortening
• 3/4  cup  granulated sugar
• 1-1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1    egg
• 1  tablespoon  milk
• 1/2  teaspoon  vanilla
• 1  teaspoon lemon zest
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1/3  to 1/2 cup raspberry preserves or jam (or flavor of your choice)
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

• Directions:

  Using your stand mixer, cream together the butter and shortening on high speed.  Add in sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Scrape down sides of bowl and mix for an additional 1-2 minutes.  Add in egg, milk, vanilla and lemon zest on low speed for about 1 minute.  Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for an additional 1 minute or until smooth.  Gradually add flour to the bowl while mixing on low speed.  The mixture will form a somewhat dry dough.  Divide into two portions, and form the dough into 2 discs.  Wrap these in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hr in the refrigerator.  When ready to bake, remove dough from the refrigerator and roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness.  Use your cookie cutters to cut out the cookie halves.  The top halves should have a center window cut in them so the jam filling can peak through later.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes – the edges should be just faintly browned when they are fully baked.  Cool completely on a wire rack. 

  To assemble – spread a small amount of jam onto the base of the cookie, then press the cut-out top half of the cookie onto the base. 

  To make the chocolate drizzle – place chocolate chips into a small bowl and add canola oil, stirring to coat the chocolate chips.  Microwave on high at 10 second intervals, stirring between each, until the chocolate chips are melted and smooth.  Drizzle over the assembled cookies.  Enjoy!

New Englanders tend to swarm the grocery store anytime there’s snow in the forecast, clearing the shelves of bread, milk and other staples.  I guess memories of the Blizzard of ’78 die hard.  If there’s an approaching storm, I typically try to avoid the grocery store at all costs.  As a recent storm approached, I decided I wanted to take advantage of being snowed in the following day and make salsa, hummus and pita for our snacking enjoyment.   I was the crazy lady combing the aisles in search of tahini (found it with the olives!) and packing my basket with cilantro, jalapeños, garbanzo beans, canned tomato and a bag of flour…not exactly your typical snowstorm fare.

Alas, I was unable to carry out my culinary plans, as two downed telephone poles in the vicinity caused us to lose power for the better part of the day.   No internet or kitchen appliances…how unfortunate!  Tragic, even.

A few days later, I put my food processor through it’s paces and made all of the things that I had planned to enjoy on my snow day.  A dear friend described his wife’s stand mixer as something that “you put things in and food comes out.”  I have to say, this pretty much describes my sturdy 9-cup food processor too!  In mere minutes, I was able to throw together a tasty, custom batch of  hummus .  I used this recipe as a general basis for ingredients and quantities, but adjusted things quite a bit.

This really is the wonderful thing about making your own hummus – you can tweak the ingredients to your heart’s content.  Love garlic?  Throw in several cloves!  Prefer a tangier flavor?  Add some more lemon.   The options are endless.    Grab a can of garbanzo beans and tahini (try to avoid the snow storm crowds!) and get pureeing!

Hummus

1 14.5 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained (reserve the liquid)
2 tbsp tahini
1.5 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin

1. Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, olive oil and cumin in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
2. Add small amounts of water or liquid from the canned beans to the hummus, blending well to achieve desired consistency.

For some reason, I always found the idea of making guacamole intimidating until fairly recently.  I don’t know what it was, but the idea of peeling and mashing avocado just seemed too difficult.  But, for the 3rd recipe in my January dip series, I wanted to post my favorite guacamole recipe. 

Guacamole is one of those dishes that can be prepared in many ways to suit many tastes – I personally really enjoy the flavor of the avocado, so I try not to overwhelm it with many spices or other strong flavors, such as tomato.  Feel  free though to modify this however you see fit – I’ve tried it with the addition of diced tomato, with bacon, with cumin, and using lemon juice instead of lime.  You can make it spicy or tame.  No matter which modifications you make, it’s important to remember to make the guacamole shortly before you intend to eat it, or else it will develop a brown color like apples or bananas do when cut and then left out.  (Please note, though the color may be significantly less appetizing, it still tastes fine like this.)  Enjoy with chips or your favorite Mexican-inspired dish!

I think perhaps what intimidated me in the past about making guacamole was not knowing how to choose and prepare avocados – I find it nearly impossible to find a perfectly ripe avocado in the grocery store.  If your grocery store is like mine, the avocados are all firm as can be when you pick them up.  The trickiest part of making guacamole then is timing your avocado purchase accordingly.  If all you can find are firm, unripe avocados – place them into a paper bag and wait for a day or two.  Do not refrigerate them, or they stop ripening!  (On the other hand, if you happen to find ripe avocados and want to keep them from spoiling – put them in the fridge to halt the ripening process.)  To retrieve the flesh – slice the avocado in half lengthwise around the sizeable pit in the center.  Twist the halves of the avocado in different directions – this ought to loosen up the pit and allow you to pull one side away.  To remove the pit – there are a lot of different methods out there, but I would say that the safest is to pry it out with a spoon.  Scoop the flesh out of the tough, leathery peel using a tablespoon. 

Guacamole – original recipe by Lisa!

• Flesh of 2 medium sized avocados
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2-3 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro (1 tsp of dried cilantro can be substituted – but the flavor just isn’t the same!)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 of a lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mash the avocado in a bowl prior to adding any other ingredients.  It’s ok if it’s a little lumpy, that will make your avocado have body and character!  Stir in the minced onion and garlic.  Add olive oil and lime juice, stirring until the texture is even.  Add cilantro and stir well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!