Recipes of the week

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

From Joy the Baker

My first taste of cookie dough was in Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, and ever since then, I've been hooked. Most of the time they taste delicious, albeit artificial, (like Kit Kat Cookie Dough) and sometimes I can't get over the rawness of it. When I tried Baskin Robbins' chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in Sydney, it had a really eggy taste to it that put me off. Still, I like the sound of cookie dough and any recipe with it always catches my eye.

Nutty White Chocolate Blondies

From Chow

In five words: big chunks of white chocolate.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

From Jamie Cooks It Up

What attracted me to this recipe was the use of mayonnaise to make these sweet muffins. I've heard of zucchini, chili and bacon used in chocolate recipes, but not mayonnaise. Apparently the mayonnaise gives the muffins a moist texture. The recipe even says you can substitute mayonnaise for salad dressing if you don't have a tub of mayo handy. 

Banana Caramel Cupcakes

From Bakers Royale

Continuing with bananas, these cupcakes look and sound absolutely delicious. There are a number of ingredients involved but these are readily available in your pantry (with the exception of heavy cream for the filling). This recipe seems similar to the banana cupcakes Natalie and I baked that were meant to be accompanied with a toffee icing. But this one is a lot harder to assemble, but I would presume to be a lot tastier. 

David Leibovitz's Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Serious Eats

Chocolate chip cookies so famous it needs an equally famous chef's name in front of it. But I don't know who David Leibovitz is (although his name sounds familiar). I may have heard of him from watching Top Chef or this recipe has been circling around the food blogosphere. I think it's the latter. Everyday a recipe for chocolate chip cookies would feature on FoodGawker or TasteSpotting, with posters claiming theirs is the chunkiest, richest, sweetest, chewiest chocolate chip cookie. On the same site, there is a taste test to see which are the best chocolate chips to use for chocolate chip cookies. To me, chocolate chip cookies are plain and boring, and are not something I would bake. But if it's David Leibovitz's Chocolate Chip Cookies, I just might.

Take a piece of my heart, and other bad heart puns

If you have been following us on Twitter, you may have noticed one tweet that read, "Screw you foodgawker!". It's rather self-explanatory; Nat and I heart food porn available on FoodGawker and TasteSpotting. These sites have to have the highest standard of photos so that people would actually want to gawk at them (therefore becoming food porn).

While that's absolutely wonderful for viewers, it sucks for people like us who have no patience for food photography. Sure, I'm currently taking a University course in photography, but food photography is a whole other skill.

Anyway, this post is another big "screw you" to FoodGawker and TasteSpotting, because before you stand the most unflattering and technically-incorrect photos I've ever taken. The photos really do injustice to the blondies I've baked though. So don't let the ghastly photos fool you, these blondies are really worth trying...

Stuck inside your heart-shaped pan

Can you tell I took this photo at night under unnatural lighting?

Broken heart

White and Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Blondies
(Recipe adapted from Cupcake Rehab)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup salted roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
• Extra salted roasted peanuts
• Extra white and/or dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180° C. Line an 8″x8″x2″ metal pan with baking paper.
2. Whisk flour and baking soda in a medium bowl to blend.
3. Melt butter in a heavy large saucepan over low heat (or use a microwave). Remove from heat; add sugar and whisk until smooth.
4. Cool mixture for 2 minutes, then whisk in eggs and vanilla.
5. Using a flexible spatula, stir in flour mixture, then peanuts and chocolate chips.
6. Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle with extra chocolate chips and peanuts.
7. Bake blondies until golden, tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and edges just begin to pull away from sides of pan; about 30 minutes.
8. Cool completely in pan on rack; then cut into 16 squares and serve.

Print-friendly recipe here.

The blondies came out a tad dry but they tasted good. So don't be disheartened to whip up a batch, just have the patience (and the skill) to take proper photos.