Brownie Cookies

What do you do when you're home alone on a Tuesday afternoon, writing blog posts when an overwhelming craving for chocolate comes over you?  You make a batch of brownie cookies and eat them warm hot out of the oven.

I was posting pictures for my Master Chocolate Chip Cookies when I just had to get up from the computer and find some chocolate - FAST.  (Power of suggestion I guess.)  My go to chocolate fix is chocolate chips but on this particular day, that was just not going to cut it.  I needed something deep, rich, dark and chocolaty to sink my teeth into.  Then it hit me - I had a recipe for brownie cookies saved to one of my pinterest boards.  Yep - a chocolate brownie cookie was exactly what I was craving. 

I pulled up the recipe from pastryaffair.com and started baking.  These were even easier to make than I thought.  Almost too easy really - this recipe could be dangerous.  I better have a batch ready the next time I need to write a blog post about chocolate.

Brownie Cookies
Yields about 18 cookies

4 tablespoons (56 grams) butter
3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 ounces (55 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (150 grams) brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (85 grams) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and chopped chocolate over low heat until smooth.
 

Remove from heat. Stir in the eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.




 
Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Allow the batter to cool to room temperature before adding the chocolate chips.






Drop batter by the tablespoon onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, or until set.

Cool for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Add a glass of milk - chocolate perfection.

 Chocolate craving?  Not this girl.  I've got brownie cookies.

Once I have my cookie in hand, I could keep going on the Christmas decorations.  I've got a few more things to put up before I can officially declare this house "decorated" but I've got a pretty good start on it. 

I may be taking this Christmas decorating too far - I decorated Mia!  (She secretly loves wearing her jingle bells.)  This weekend we will put up our tree and then the decorating will be finished. 

Ciao!

Fajita Pizza

I'm calling this my hat trick.  I made a grilled skirt steak and I was able to use it for three different meals!  The first meal that I made was grilled skirt steak served over a spinach salad.  For my second skirt steak meal I simply reheated the beef and served it with tortillas and fresh avocado salsa.  I guess you could this the third meal in the grilled skirt steak trilogy.  Nobody in my family even suspected that they were being served leftovers. (Shhhhh)

The idea for fajita pizza recipe came from my Cook's Country magazine.   I made some modifications to the original recipe to make it even easier to put together.  This was a super quick weeknight meal that we all enjoyed.

Grilled Steak Fajita Pizza
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon chipolte chili powder
1 can diced tomatoes
8 ounces skirt steak
1 poblano chili
1 sweet onion
1 pizza dough
8 ounces shredded Mexican cheese






Combine oregano, chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Pulse tomatoes along with spice mixture in the food processor until smooth.






Slice poblano and onion into thin strips.  Place in grill basket and grill until browned.

Slice steak and add to grill basket along with peppers and onions.  Cook until heated through.

Roll dough into a 12 inch circle.  (I bought a dough from the supermarket to save time.)

Place the dough on a preheated pizza stone on the Big Green Egg.  (or in a preheated oven)  Top with vegetable/steak mixture.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Close the lid on the grill and let cook until bottom of the crust is golden brown.  Remove from the pizza stone with a pizza peel.

Slice into wedges and serve.

Leftovers never tasted so good.

Ciao!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Anybody familiar with the automatic speed detectors that are set up along roadsides?

One of these machines was recently set up in my neighborhood.  It would appear from this photo that I was clearly driving under the recommended speed limit BUT that was not the case.  In fact - I was not driving at all.  That speed, my friends, is the speed at which my son can run.  You see, as soon as this device was operational, the discussions between Ben and Ryan began...  Who could clock the fastest time while running past the machine?  This was the topic of our dinner conversation for several nights in a row.  No kidding.










Driving home one evening from a soccer game, the boys decided to jump out of the car and settle their dispute once and for all.  (And as luck would have it, I had my camera in hand.)

 Ben was up first.

Then it was Ryan's turn.

Both boys ran way faster than I could have ever run.  (Not sure the radar would have even picked up on my slow pace.)  In case your curious, Ryan ran just a little bit faster -- but only by a very small margin.  Because the Davis men are ultra competitive - Ben went back the following day and tied Ryan's speed record. 

So what does that have to do with the recipe of the day?  Nothing really.  It was just so funny that I couldn't help but post it on the blog. 

This recipe for chocolate chip muffins came from homeiswheretheysendus.com.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup melted butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (real stuff)
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (you can use regular or mini)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Set pan aside.
2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt.




 
 



3. In medium bowl stir together melted butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract until well blended. 






 





Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the liquid mixture into the well and gently stir until combined. 





Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Spoon batter into muffins cups. 

  
Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove muffins from the oven and allow to cool before serving.

Do you like my Disney princess baking cups?  (Trying to use up some of the old supplies in my baking box.)  Enjoy friends.

Ciao!