Dipped in Chocolate Gems

This recipe originated from Dorie Greenspan.  As it sometimes happens, the recipe takes over and the results are not you think they will be nor would the originator of that recipe.  Dorie, forgive me.

The cookie was supposed to be a normal cookie, one that had height to it.  Mine turned out to be almost like a lace cookie, but a little more dense.  I took advantage of that.  After a day of eating these gems, as they were, and loving every bite, I realized, I could turn them into an imitation of the lace cookie by partially dipping this into melted chocolate.

I had a success.  I am not sure exactly what they taste like but I keep thinking I am eating a lace cookie.  I think the taste is stronger than the traditional lace cookie and I think it is better.

Dipped in Chocolate Gems                                                                                     

1 1/6 cups gluten-free flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 plus 2 tablespoons margarine at room temperature
1/2  cup Brownulated sugar
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 egg beater egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

1 cup melted chocolate chips (I didn’t add anything.  I was so anxious to see what would happen, I just took the chips and used them alone.)

Method:

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. 

Mix with electric mixer in a large bowl, the margarine on medium speed until smooth and creamy.

Add the brownulated sugar and corn syrup and beat for 2 minutes or so to blend.

Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more.

Add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear. 

The dough will be a smooth, very soft dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap.

 Freeze for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the sugar in a small bowl.

Divide dough in small balls.

Roll each ball in the bowl of sugar.

Place them on the baking sheet.  

If you do not have a large sheet, use two baking sheets. 

These cookies spread a lot so leave at least two inches between each one.

Dip the bottom of a glass into the sugar and use it to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/8 inch thick.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10 – 12 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and, if the cookies have spread and are touching, use the edge of a metal spatula to separate them while they are still hot.

Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature. 

 When they are firm, dip one side of the cookie into a small bowl of melted chocolate and place on wax paper to set. 

When firm remove from wax paper and EAT.   You won’t be able to stop.

While, I was at it, I took some dried apricots and dipped them in chocolate also.  Yum. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dried Apricots and Chocolate Chip Cookies BSI

This week, Bloggers’ Secret Ingredient is dried fruits which I think is a terrific choice.  Thanks to Lindsey at Sound Eats, we got to explore the world of fruits in another form.  In truth, I often chop up whatever dried fruit, I have, on hand and throw it into a batter of some kind.  I did that again.   Thanks for hosting Lindsey.

I made a dried apricot and chocolate chip cookie.  This is a thin, almost crispy cookie and the crunch of the apricot against the softer chocolate chip blends well.    It is an easy cookie to make and even the baking time is short.

This makes about two dozen cookies.

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

1 cup gluten-free flour mixture

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup diced dried apricots

1/2 cup chocolate chips (My hand slipped and I have a little more than that and it is just fine.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream margarine, oil and sugar using hand mixer.

Using mixer, on medium speed add the egg and vanilla.

Add salt and baking soda.

Stir until you have a smooth batter.                          

Add the chocolate chips and apricots.

Using  a one teaspoon cookie scoop, drop the liquid batter onto cookie sheet.

Space two inches apart.  These do spread.

Bake for 8 minutes until light brown.  If you need more time, check each minute.  Mine barely took the eight minutes.  I might make it 7, next time.

Cookies should rest on baking sheets for a few minutes.

Transfer to wire racks until cool.

Eat and enjoy.  This is for Tasty Tuesday.

What can happen to carrot muffins? Ellie Krieger

I am going to submit this to Joy of Joy of Desserts  for her Save Room for Dessert.

The original recipe is from Ellie Krieger and can be found  here.

I will share my necessary alterations, one, of course being to make it gluten free.  The second reason I made changes was to get around my husband’s aversion to frosted cakes, yet doing something to make them stand alone.

This is what I ended with, three mini cakes, two round and one square.   Those are from my tiny pans.

The frst one is almond crusted rasberry orange cake.

The second is pistachio carrot-lime cake with orange filling.

The third is the carrot cake with a dusting of confectionarty sugar and one dried apricot.

 The carrot cake recipe is found in my Carrot Cupcake post.

These are took a few simple steps to make them into something hubby will eat.

1. almond crusted raspberry orange cake – a carrot cake with a glaze of raspberry jelly, topped with slivered almonds.  All I did was spread the jelly on top of the cake and put almonds on top.  Simple and good.

2. Pistachio carrot-lime cake.  I mixed some lime juice (teaspoon) with 1/4 cup orange spread.  I cut the square cake in the middle, making two layers.  I spread the orange-lime on the bottom piece.  Topped with the second half of the carrot cake.  Topped it with coconut and pistachios over more of the orange-lime spread.  The lime gives it the oomph.

The third is the simplest.  I sifted confectionary sugar on the top and placed one dried apricot to stand alone.  Those were my dozen carrot cupcakes.

The Purple Chicken

This week for BSI, selected by Healthy and Delicious, is plums.  I have never cooked with plums before and decided to skip this week until I came across, accidentally, a delicious looking plum crumble and thought I would change my mind and give it a try. 

I must comment before I get back to my plums, what a wonderful blog Healthy.Delicious is.  The most interesting recipes and stunning photographs shine on this site.  It is worth a visit for all of you.

Friday came and I had not started that crumble.  I don’t know why  because it sounded really good.  I found out later, when I was looking for a chicken recipe, with no boundaries. What popped on my screen was  a recipe for plum chicken cutlets.  What are the chances of such a recipe being the first one to appear? Out went the crumble, which I still want to make, and in came the Sabbath chicken recipe, which I have altered and changed to become, “Fruited Chicken with Apricots and Plums.”

For a while, I thought this was out the window also, not because of the taste but because, everything turned purple and I had the ugliest photos on the Internet.  There is nothing redeeming about my purple cutlets. 

Purple Chicken Before - not appetizing

 When we were eating them, I realized how nice they looked, cut open to the white of the meat, and saved a piece to take another photo tonight.  While not the greatest, is looks a lot  better than my purple concoction.

Fruited Chicken with apricots and plums

• 4 chicken cutlets
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 teaspoon Salt Sense 
• 1/2 teaspoon   ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• 1/4 cup wine (red was a mistake)
• 10 dried apricots    
• 3-4 fresh plums
• 1 tablespoons  cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water

Place cutlets into a large skillet and fry until deep golden brown.

 Sprinkle with salt and ginger while browning.

Add plums which are halved, lemon juice, and wine to the chicken .

It amazes me hot the photo shows the steam.

Cover and simmer 25-40 minutes until tender.

Remove chicken and put aside.

Stir cornstarch into the water and blend into juices in pan. Bring to a boil; stirring constantly until thickened.

Place chicken back into juices and serve over rice.

 

On the right are the plumped apricots with some pieces of rice floating around.

On the left you see the rice with tomatoes and basil which I will share in a later post.

It is interesting how the plums disintegrated and the apricots plumped up and were absolutely delicious.  The chicken simply turned purple.  The flavors came together nicely and it turned out to be a success, despite its color.  I have nothing against the color purple, by the way, just not in chicken.