Chonky Boys: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches that Scream Summer!

-
Image
Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of.  If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these!  These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch.  They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream.  And those mini chips?  You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner.  This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur.   Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookie...

Banana Bread Biscotti Recipe Redux ~
A Tale of 3 Bad Bananas

-

What do you do when a banana goes bad?  Several years ago I addressed this culinary conundrum by creating a recipe for Banana Bread Biscotti.  Today, confronted by yet another unseemly trio of bananas that had gone to the dark side, I decided to revisit my original recipe and made a few improvements in the process.  

So, without further ado, here's Banana Bread Biscotti, take II.

Banana Bread Biscotti

makes approx. 4 dozen

5 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar (loose, not packed)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 overripe bananas (the blacker the better)
3 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup toasted & finely chopped pecans
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
 
8 oz. good quality chocolate, chopped and melted at low heat


Preheat oven to 350.


In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, mix bananas, oil, vanilla and eggs on medium speed for five minutes.  Add dry ingredients and pecans and mix until just combined.  Dough will be thick.  Turn out on a floured surface and divide into four equal pieces.  Shape each piece into rectangles, flattened to a 1/2" thickness.  Place the four dough rectangles on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Remove rectangles from baking sheet and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Cut each rectangle vertically into 1/2" slices.  Place slices, cut sides down, divided between two baking sheets.  


Reduce oven to 275 and bake for another 15 minutes*. Turn cookies over; bake an additional 15 minutes*.  Cookies will be very lightly browned and still slightly soft, but will harden as they cool. Remove from baking sheet and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  

Line baking sheets with wax paper.  Melt chocolate in a small bowl; place in a pastry bag or freezer bag with a small hole snipped from one corner, then drizzle over the biscotti.  Refrigerate or set in a cool place until chocolate has set (approx. 5 minutes).  

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. 

*Increase baking times to 20 minutes for a crunchier biscotti.


Popular posts from this blog

Vintage Folk Art Style Paper Mache Snowman Tutorial

-
Image
With the Christmas tree curbside, and the ornaments all neatly packed away, I'm thankful for my small collection of winter decorations that can be left out a bit longer to grace my home with their snowy sparkle and winter whimsy. I would have loved to have had the time to share this sweet little tutorial earlier in the season, but the holidays were busy (as they always are).  Now that things have slowed down, this may be, perhaps the best time of all to fix yourself a mug of cocoa or coffee and enjoy the process of creating a vintage style paper mache snowman at your leisure.  He is sure to bring smiles to all that behold him, all winter long! This is the snowman that my 7-year old made. The real stick arms were her wonderful idea! This is a fun project t o do with children as well. The process is very simple , versatile, and inexpensive.  The fram e for the figure is ma de from aluminum foil which can be worked into the shape of characters for any occas...
Read more

Recipe: New World German Brown Bread -- "Squaw Bread"

-
Image
I recall, as a child, going to The Chart House restaurant and looking forward to the basket of freshly baked breads.  My favorite was always the dark brown, slightly sweet bread that the servers called "Squaw Bread".  I've heard that a similar bread is served at The Cheesecake Factory.  The name has gone out of fashion, since "squaw" is a derogatory term for a Native American woman.   The history of this bread can in fact trace its roots to Native American origins when German pioneers combined their traditional German Brown Bread recipe with ingredients available to them through trades with the native people during their westward travels. No matter how you slice it, this New World German Brown Bread is easy to bake and so wonderfully delicious to eat.   Print With Image Without Image New World German Brown Bread Yield: 1 large loaf Author: Jenn Erickson Prep time: 1 H & 50 M Cook time: 45 M Total time: 1 ...
Read more

Nostalgia Food: Old Fashioned Apple Hand Pies

-
Image
Who doesn't love a pie that you can eat with one hand while vacuuming, updating a resume, getting a child down for a nap, helping another child with a history report, and folding laundry with the other?  Clearly, only people who don't like pie, and this isn't for them.  This is for us: Pie People. For me, the pocket pie obsession started in childhood with the iconic, mouth scalding  MacDonalds apple pies.  If you were around in the 1970s, you'll remember: crisp & flaky, buttery & slightly salty, with blistered crusts that concealed a molten center of perfect apple pie filling.  If you possessed the willpower to wait for the lava interior to cool, you were rewarded with the greatest American invention since the fast food burger AND the apple pie together, which in a weird sort of way, they were; after all, they were fried in beef fat.  Those things were pure magic (or at least that's what my 6-year old self thought). These da...
Read more