Real Chocolate Hot Chocolate

In Paris there is a cafe called Angelina's where they make hot chocolate from real melted dark chocolate. It is divine, and if you love chocolate and ever have the luck to go to Paris, go there. Seriously.

Anyway, this recipe is based on the delectable experience which is cocoa at Angelina's.

You will need:

2 cups whole milk (I like organic)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
water
1/4 tsp vanilla
Canned whipped cream (or make your own)

In a small to medium saucepot, heat the chips with just enough water to coat the bottom of the pan, on medium to medium-high. Whisk continuously while the chocolate melts. Add milk and vanilla and keep stirring until the milk steams. Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream.

Makes 2-3 mugs depending on size. For the size of mug in the picture it made two.

You can easily jazz this up with a tablespoon or two of your favorite fruit or mint liqueur, which you'd add instead of the vanilla, or you can use white chocolate chips, or some combination of those. Enjoy!

Soft Waffles with Raspberry Sauce

A few weeks ago I finally bought something I'd been wishing for for years: a waffle-maker. I don't know why it took me so long. It only cost $25 which we spend on pizza more often than is healthy for us. Not that I'm going to argue that waffles are healthy, mind you... just yummy.

The thing is, most recipes you find for waffles tend to make them crisp, at least on the outside. This is especially true if you use self-rising flour or a pancake mix. I have nothing against using self-rising flour in recipes--actually, I'm a fan. But when I was a teenager in France we used to make waffles for dinner sometimes (what Americans associate with breakfast and brunch is generally considered dinner food in France), and they were soft. So I developed this recipe through trial and error to try to recreate the waffles of my youth.

You will need:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup light Karo syrup
1 cup whole plain yoghurt
1/2 cup of half and half
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

For the raspberry sauce:
2 cups of frozen raspberries
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp butter

Can of whipped cream (I'll post a recipe for homemade Chantilly another day)

measuring cups
measuring spoons
waffle maker
whisk
mixing bowl
nonstick cooking spray
2 quart saucepan
wooden spoon

For the waffles:
Spray the waffle-maker with nonstick cooking spray and preheat.
Whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisking works as well as sifting in my kitchen.
Add the rest of the ingredients all at once. Whisk until smooth.

Pour directly from the bowl into the waffle-maker. When in doubt, use less batter--you don't want it to overflow, that makes a mess that's no fun to clean. Check after 5 minutes, although the waffle-maker I got lets you know its done when the light goes out again.

For the sauce:
Place all ingredients in the sauce pot and heat on medium high until it bubbles, then lower to low heat. Cook for at least ten minutes.

If you're concerned it's starting to stick to the pot or it's caramelizing, add a little water.

If you want to avoid getting seeds in your teeth you can use a strainer, but I don't do this as you lose a fair amount of the gooey heaven of the sauce that way.

Pour the raspberry sauce on the waffles and top with whipped cream. Makes three waffles. Enjoy!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was pregnant, I made these cookies at least once a week, and I couldn't keep my hands off of them. I have more restraint now, for some reason, but they are still yummy. The whole grain oat flour is what makes them stay soft even after they cool--and it's healthy for you, too. The only thing is, I advise you to avoid the gluten-free version unless you need to use it for allergy reasons. I tried it once and it made things unpleasant for me, digestion-wise. If you do use it, don't indulge in more than one cookie at a time.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of whole grain oat flour
1 tsp aluminum-free baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt (if it's not kosher, use 1/2 tsp)
2 sticks of softened margarine*, cut into pieces.
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

two mixing bowls
whisk
hand mixer
parchment paper
nonstick cooking spray
one or two cookie sheets
spatula
two small spoons

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the flours, baking soda, and salt in one bowl. If the two bowls are of different sizes, use the smaller one for the dry ingredients. Also, as an aside, I would never purchase plastic mixing bowls, because the day will come when you need to beat egg whites in them, and plastic makes it nearly impossible to get egg whites to stiffen. So if you're thinking of purchasing some mixing bowls, go with metal (copper if you can afford it--best, once again, for egg whites) or pyrex.

Whisk to remove lumps--I always do this rather than sifting, which takes too long for me and also tires out my hand. Once you're satisfied that the lumps are gone, add the chocolate chips and mix.

With the hand mixer, beat the margarine, sugars, and vanilla extract until fully blended. Add the eggs, beating them in. The margarine gives this mixture a strange, grainy quality, as in the photo.Gradually add in the flour mixture, perhaps in 3 parts, or 4.

Spray the cookie sheet(s) with nonstick cooking spray and then line with parchment paper--this makes removing the cookies easy later, and clean up is that much quicker. Using the two spoons, scoop cookie dough and put it in large dollops (just under the size of a golf ball) onto the parchment paper, taking care to keep them apart. These will spread, and run into each other, if they are too close together.

Bake for 10 minutes (although you should probably set your timer for 8 minutes with the first batch since my oven may be different from yours). Cookies are done when they are a medium brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet for about 7-9 minutes. If you are working with a second cookie sheet you can put it in, and use the spatula to move the baked cookies from their sheet to a plate about a minute or two before the next batch is ready.

Makes about 20-25 cookies.
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* I use Blue Bonnet. I don't know whether Blue Bonnet is the best margarine to use, but I will say that between choosing butter and stick margarine, I would choose stick margarine every time. It just tastes better.