ABC - February 2017: The Browniest Cookies

This month's ABC recipe was fun, quick and delicious: The Browniest Cookies from the blog Smitten Kitchen. Fearing that the cookies would be "too chocolate-y", I made only half the recipe because I didn't want to be "stuck" eating all of them :) You may remember that hubby is not a huge (dark) chocolate fan.

Oh so delicious!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Homemade Salted Caramels

Although this September post for the Avid Baker's Challenge project is late, it is absolutely delicious and worth the wait. I love caramel candies, especially homemade ones. We had two options: salted caramels or pumpkin spiced salted caramels. I opted for the "plain" ones but then at the last minute decided to add mini chocolate chips for a speckled effect.

I really love pumpkin spice, so I made a quick mixture of cinnamon, ginger and cloves (a tiny pinch each) and then rolled small pieces of leftover caramel (from scraping the pan) in it. Mmmmm, that was wonderful!! Will definitely try that sometime.

Chocolate chip salted caramels

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Brown Butter Banana Bread

This is a super late blog post but as they say, better late than never :) It will also be super short. Things have been hectic lately but in a fun way (long overseas vacation, mom currently visiting me).

Moist brown butter banana bread

Our ABC recipe for the month of May, Brown Butter Banana Bread, was made a while ago. Having baked numerous banana breads, I was intrigued by the brown butter aspect in this recipe. The process of making browned butter (or beurre noisette as it's called in Fancy Land), is mesmerizing. I have to admit that the browned butter flavor was lost in the end, overwhelmed by the chocolate and banana. It was still a lovely banana bread though, moist and not too dense.

I like to use mini chocolate chips for better chocolate flavor distribution

Moist and airy

Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers' results.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

When I selected this recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread a few months ago, I anticipated my garden producing more zucchini than we could possibly eat and share. Unfortunately, the weather this year has been a bit off, and our zucchini plants didn't react to it too well. The only ones that survived were those that produced yellow squash. I briefly considered using them but then I thought, having yellow specks in the chocolate bread might look weird. The green specks sort of blend in. Luckily, I found some zucchini at the store that was locally grown , so that's what I went with. I've had zucchini bread before, with the usual spices, but I had never combined it with chocolate until now :o) This was another winner by King Arthur Flour.

Double chocolate zucchini muffins and mini loaves!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

SMS #11 - Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Almonds

Guess who picked this week's SMS recipe? Ok, you'll NEVER guess. Melissa Murphy!! Yes, the author of the book, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, we all bake from each week. Melissa picked the bakery's favorite cookie, the Chocolate Chip Cookie with Toasted Almonds. YES! Such a welcome change from the usual walnuts, which I can't eat due to allergies (don't ask me why I can eat almonds but not walnuts).

I almost sat this week's recipe out but then decided to go for it after all. So around midnight on Saturday I made the dough and decided to use a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips (4 ounces each). What can I say? It was too late to be chopping chocolate. And instead of roasting natural almonds, I used those ready-to-eat salted/roasted almonds, which worked great.


I'm glad I didn't skip this week. These cookies were chewy in the middle and crispy around the edges with a great buttery taste, just the way I like them. I love the crunch of the almonds which I gave a very rough chop. I only wish my cookies turned out as this thick as Melissa's. Maybe I'll add a bit more flour next time. Check out the recipe here. Thanks for picking a great cookie recipe, Melissa. No wonder it's a favorite at the bakery.


Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby and I enjoyed these cookies. He gave it an 8 out of 10. His only dislike was that the cookie left his fingers more "oily" than usual. I might add a tablespoon of flour to hopefully fix that issue.
  
• Using butterscotch chips and chocolate chips was a last-minute decision. To my taste, the cookie was a tad too sweet. I'm sure it would have been the right amount of sweetness if I had used chocolate chips only. So next time, I'd use a tad less sugar when using butterscotch chips.
• I added a teaspoon of molasses to the dough to enhance the brown sugar flavor in the cookie. It also adds to the browning of the cookie.
• Unfortunately, I read this tip a bit too late but I thought I'd share it with you all for next time. Place your wrapped cookie dough inside of an empty paper towel roll so that you don't get that flat underside. I got this tip from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.
• Don't forget to check out the SMS blogroll to see how other SMS bakers liked this cookie.