Happy Chanukah!

To my Jewish friends out there… and Happy December to my dear sweet friend spending time in Greece 🙂

Look what Farkle brought us!!!  He is too good to us!!

Ryan ( who really likes bubble wrap ) asked me if I could make him a bubble wrap Advent calendar.

Ok.. so it is a pathetic attempt, but I tried!

For today’s recipe I went waaaay back into my old recipe cards.

wasn’t my handwriting so innocent & sweet back in the early 90s?

I do not remember where I got the recipe from. Back then (way before I had the internet) I used to love Sunday mornings because PBS had cooking shows on all morning. I would curl up on the couch with my tea & a big yellow pad of paper that Scott would have snagged from work & copy down recipe after recipe.

*my* version of today’s Food Network

I remember not know what Mandelbrot was and since we didn’t have the internet, I never actually knew. I remember thinking that I was all trendy when I had actually heard of Biscotti a few years later.. It sounded like my Mandelbrot recipe!!

Well, when I dug it out today I discovered that it is actually a Jewish cookie! How appropriate & ironic that this is the cookie that I chose for today !

The Recipe:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons Cocoa  powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub a baking sheet with oil ( I use a silpat liner, but still rubbed it with oil).

In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, oil & vanilla for 2 mintues on low speed , stopping to scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula.

SLowly add the flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. Mix until incorporated. Mix in the nuts & chips just until the nuts slightly break up.

Spoon the dough onto the oil-lined cookie sheet & divide in half. Using your hands, mold each half into 2 flat logs 12×4.

Bake for 40 mintues.

Remove from oven & let cool for 5 mintues

Carefully transfer strips to a cutting board& using a serrated knife, cut the strips on a diagonal into 1/2 inch slices.

(when you cut them, you will have pieces crumble off, this is to be expected and welcomed)

WHY you ask?

so that you can collect it to sprinkle on ice cream or oatmeal 😉

Place slices cut side down on cookie sheet & bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove & cool.

Store in an airtight container.

 

or  dip & eat right away

~oxox

happy december!

 

 

And the winner of the puppy biscuits is….

Not Fenway… I took this pic a few days ago. She isn’t sad about wearing the hat.. she sad because she was out her home made biscuits. This was when she was a good girl…. Today, she was a bad girl….

I set the eggs & butter on the counter to get to room temperature for today’s recipe.. and.. she ate the 2 sticks of butter.  Good times in the Hagg household  😉

I was only mad for a minute..ok, maybe longer. She has been forgiven & I just gave her a biscuit ( … so it took me all day) Lucky for her I had another cup of butter in the fridge so that I could still make today’s cookie…

Double Chocolate Chunk cookies!

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened (far enough on counter so that your special loved ones can’t get to them)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups chocolate chunks ( chips would work as well…)

Ignore my apple in the bowl in the background..

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter & sugars together; add eggs, 1 at a time allowing each to fully incorporate. Add vanilla & cocoa powder.

In a large bowl, add flour, salt & baking soda. using a whisk, whisk together.

Ad flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 parts. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Drop by tablespoons ( I use a cookie scoop) onto parchment- lined cookies sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

This is a very tasty recipe.. Alison usually makes these for us, but since she was at school getting her learning on, I made them today 😉 Very fudgy… I’ll bet that you could just spread the dough in a 9 x13 inch pan ( greased)  and bake like brownies….

ok.. so the winner of the biscuits is

*insert picture of winning pup here*

Morgan!!!! ( Breezy’s pup!!)… I’ll be shipping out the biscuits tomorrow!  Congratulations!

I made a fresh batch last night,, this time I didn’t puree the carrots & peas mixture, just kind of rough chopped. I think that they look better. Fenway seems to like them. Much better than raw butter.

oxoxox
michelle

p.s. tomorrow I have a special guest for the ‘classic’ Christmas cookie!!!

And Jason & Amanda are still on the road … good thoughts are always welcomed 🙂

And so December has begun

Many years ago, when my children, now 14, 16 & 22 were little, I took the month of December and baked a different cookie recipe each day. I would freeze a good portion of the cookies… On Christmas Eve I pulled from my freezer a wonderful array of cookies!!   I had the kids in the kitchen helping me all the time.

Remembering that year with fond memories, I have decided to do that again this year, and I will share my recipes & experiences with you!!

oxox ~michelle

P.S… that adorable little Elf in the corner up there, is Farkle.. our elf on a shelf…. He is very good to us….

He surprised us with a lovely Advent Calendar on Monday..

 He magically fills it with all sorts of surprises!!!!!  

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