Posts Tagged ‘chocolate’

Easy Crunchy Rich Butter Cookies (vegetarian)

I was supposed to post this recipe up a few weeks ago but somehow, time got away with me and I never did get around to it. So, now that I have some time to spare, I better get to it before I forget again and get distracted by something else.butter cookies

These are great with coffee, milo, hot chocolate, milk or just as it is! The great things about these cookies are that it’s easy to bake, use very few ingredients and it’s vegetarian!

beat butter and sugar till fluffy

You first beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

then add the flour and use hands to work it into a dough

Then you add in plain flour and use your hands to mix it in and knead into a smooth dough.

roll the dough into a sausage shape

Then you roll it into a log / sausage shape. Place on a sheet of grease proof paper and sprinkle some brown sugar on the paper. Roll the dough over the sugar. Alternatively, you can use icing sugar, cinnamon powder, ground almonds, chopped peanuts or anything you fancy. You can then shape the log into squarish shape or even triangular, up to you.

Then you wrap it up and put it into the fridge to chill till firm. That should be about 30 minutes or so. In fact, you can make this and then keep it in the fridge till you are free to bake it.

cut thick slices to be baked

Once the dough is firm, remove from fridge, and cut it into thick slices. Then, you can decorate it with chocolate chips, sugared hearts or leave it plain. Bake it for about 20 minutes at 160°C or till it turns brown at the edges. Remove from oven, leave to cool and then keep in air tight container. Keeps well for a week or so.

you can pat the rolled dough into triangle shape

When I bake it, I shaped it into triangular shape and then after cutting it, I decorated it with sugared hearts. So pretty and nice to serve to guests. Or..

chocolate chips to decorate

Use chocolate chips to press into the slices before baking and it will turn out just as nice. See?

rich, buttery and crunchy cookies

The best thing about these cookies is that you can also add other ingredients like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, chopped dried fruits, raisins and various flavouring to jazz it up if you don’t want it to be too plain.

Here’s the recipe:

Crunchy Butter Cookies (vegetarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup superfine sugar (or brown sugar if you like)

3/4 cup butter, softened and diced

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/2 cup plain flour

butter cookies

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla essence.

2. Add the flour and knead into a smooth dough. If you don’t want it to be too plain, you can add chocolate chips or chopped nuts or chopped dates or candied cherries or grated lemon rind or ground cinnamon or almond essence, whatever you fancy.

3.Then roll it into a sausage shape. You can either pat the sides to make it a square log or a triangular log.

4. Sprinkle some brown sugar on a greaseproof paper and then roll the dough over it. Wrap up the dough and refrigerate it till firm (about 30 mins).

5. Remove from fridge, cut into thick slices. You can also decorate the slices with sugared hearts or chocolate chips.

6. Preheat oven to 160°C and bake the cookies for about 20 mins or until it browned  at the edges.

If you want it to be less sweet, you can also reduce the amount of sugar to 1/4 cup or use molasses for a healthier option.

Related posts:

  1. The Cookie Monster Bakes Part 2 – Chocolate Filled Double Peanut Butter Cookies If there’s anything I love more than chocolate, it’s peanut…
  2. Extra rich, soft-baked double chocolate cookies I posted this entry quite a while back but because…
  3. Cookie Monster Bakes Part 3: Peanut Butter Cookies with Nutella filling Before I start, let me first tell you one great…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

View full post on The Food Site

Spotlight Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These healthy banana chocolate chip muffins work for breakfast, brunch or dessert. They’re easy to make and a healthy way to get your chocolate fix.



** This is only a summary of our content.**

View full post on Healthy Eats

Red wine and dark chocolate cancer killers: researcher (AFP)

AFP – Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to research presented here Wednesday.

View full post on Y! Health Nutrition News

Red wine and dark chocolate cancer killers: researcher (AFP)

AFP – Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to research presented here Wednesday.

View full post on Y! Health Nutrition News

Red wine and dark chocolate cancer killers: researcher (AFP)

AFP – Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to research presented here Wednesday.

View full post on Y! Health Nutrition News

Red wine and dark chocolate cancer killers: researcher (AFP)

AFP – Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to research presented here Wednesday.

View full post on Y! Health Nutrition News

Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

I have several chocolate recipe books and one of it is The Australian Women’s Weekly Sweet and Simple Chocolate recipe book. It has quite a few great recipes that are really sweet and simple. One of it is the Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe. I tried it out and it was absolutely great! The best thing about it is that it doesn’t need that much sugar too.

Fruit and nut choc chip cookies

It contains dates, almonds, rolled oats and chocolate chips, that’s why it doesn’t need that much sugar.

the ingredients for the cookie

The actual recipe used chopped pecans and since I don’t have that, I substituted with almonds. All you really need to do is to beat the butter, sugar and egg together and then stir in the rolled oats, seeded dates, almonds and choc chips.

Just stir in the rest of the ingredients

Then scoop spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking tray and bake. You will get these…

Fruit and nut choc chip cookies

Here is the recipe:

Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

fruit and nut choc chip cookie

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cup self-raising flour (or use plain flour and add 1 tsp baking powder)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped seeded dates

1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds (or pecans)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg until smooth.

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Roll batter into small balls and place on greased baking sheet. Flatten it slightly with a floured fork.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes.

5. Stand for 5 mins before placing on wire rack to cool.

The cookies contain very little sugar compared to other cookie recipes BUT it is still quite sweet because of the dates and the chocolate chips. The rolled oats definitely added some texture to it and the toasted nuts gave it the extra crunch.

Related posts:

  1. The Cookie Monster Bakes – Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Do you ever get that sudden chocolate cookie craving which…
  2. The Cookie Monster Bakes Part 2 – Chocolate Filled Double Peanut Butter Cookies If there’s anything I love more than chocolate, it’s peanut…
  3. Cookie Monster Bakes Part 3: Peanut Butter Cookies with Nutella filling Before I start, let me first tell you one great…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

View full post on The Food Site

Very Low Fat Brownies

Whoever said that if you are on a strict diet, you can never have dessert? Especially chocolate brownies. Well, I absolutely LOVE love love brownies. So, now that I am trying to lose a few kgs (ok, ok, I have about 10kg to shed, not only a few!), having to cut out dessert and sweet stuffs will be especially torturous.

Imagine my delight when I found a low fat brownie recipe. OMG. I can be on a diet and still eat brownies. It is a life saver, I tell you. Now, this recipe may be low fat, it is not exactly healthy either. It still has sugar and flour and calories. So, do enjoy it but don’t sit right down and eat the whole pan of brownies no matter how tempting it is and no matter how long you’ve been on a diet. Trust me. It is damn tempting but will-power, please. If you finish it in one go, then there won’t be any left tomorrow, right? So, here it is. Just salivate over it.

low fat chocolate brownies

The low fat chocolate brownies are low fat but the topping is not. It is very simple to make. Really.

flour and cocoa powder

Just sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl.

two eggs

We need two eggs.

Use brown sugar

I used brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Add yogurt, egg, vegetable oil and vanilla essence to the dry mixture

Then, add the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla and eggs (lightly beaten) to the flour and sugar mixture. Stir till very well mixed.

pour the mixture into the prelined pan to bake

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan for baking. After about 20 minutes….

very low fat chocolate brownies

You get this!

Here’s the recipe proper:

Very Low Fat Brownies Recipe

low fat brownies

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used blueberry yogurt)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the baking pan with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.

3. Then mix in the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. Combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes.

5. Leave in the pan to cool.

Now, for the icing / topping. It is NOT low fat but damn good. If you are really on a diet, don’t use this!

Rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

6 tbsp dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp low fat milk

3 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

1. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in the microwave for about a minute.

2. Stir and mix the dark chocolate and butter. Add the peanut butter, milk and sugar.

3. Combine well and you will get a smooth, chocolate paste.

4. Scoop onto the brownies and serve.

low fat brownies with rich chocolate peanut butter icing

Related posts:

  1. Extra Rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies Now that I got your attention… Another of my…
  2. Simple Rich Butter Cake I know I should have posted this recipe up a…
  3. I baked my own birthday cake which is not a cake but the best ever chocolate brownie I’ve loved chocolate brownies for the longest time ever so…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

View full post on The Food Site

Truffles mmmmm….

Every year in our neighborhood families get together and create a Halloween celebration without the added corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and FD&C reds, blues, etc. We make home made treats or crafts and our kids go from house to house gathering their treats. This year I had a request for these chocolate truffles. You can make them in a food processor or a high speed blender. They are easy, I promise! I added cacao/cocoa powder to make chocolate truffles but you could omit the chocolate, add more coconut, dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, anything you might like. Its hard to mess it up with this base of ingredients here. Enjoy!
P.S. I notice a number of my posts are on chocolate (must be getting towards the holiday season). Don’t get me wrong, I love it and there are numerous health benefits. I do however limit my consumption of it and try not to feast on it everyday!

Raw Truffles

1/4 cup coconut butter softened (I put mine in my dehydrator at 115 for 30 minutes or so, you could do it on the stove or rest the jar in a bowl of hot water)
1/2 cup agave or to taste
2-3 tsp maple sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 vanilla bean seeded
pinch of sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a vitamix, blendtec, or food processor. Once combined and as smooth as you can get it transfer to a bowl and add:
1 cup of cocoa/cacao powder
and/or
Any chopped dried fruits, nuts, spices you might like.
Place bowl in refrigerator for about 30 minutes until the mixture has set and can be easily formed in to balls. Using a 1/2 teaspoon measure out and roll into small truffles. I like to roll mine in extra cocoa/cacao powder or coconut. Yum.