Adapted Recipe for Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love staying at Double Tree Hotel because they provide these warm chocolate chip cookies at time of check in an in between during your entire stay. 
Well,  that is not the only reason I like to stay there but these cookies are out of this world.

On the way back, I googled the recipe on my phone and there they were.... so many of them and all were adapted from this one recipe that I am going to give credit to. This recipe was by "Jenny" and is posted on Foodgeeks.com.  I could not wait to try it, so as soon as we came back home, I tried it with the ingredients that  I had.

Here it is.. my modified version..

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats
2-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
1-1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice (I used lime juice)
2 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet, chocolate chips
2 dark  chocolate bars (5.29 oz each) by Choceur crushed in to chocolate chunks
2 cups chopped walnuts

Method:

* Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. 

* Combine the ground oats with the  baking soda,  brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

* Add chopped nuts.

* Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon/lime juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. 

* Add the eggs and mix until smooth. 

* Stir in flour and  the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well.  

* Add the chocolate chips and chunks to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well incorporated.

* Per original recipe for the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies. (but I did not have that much patience so I just baked them right away)
 
* Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions (I used an ice cream scoop) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (I used Silicone cookie sheet)

* Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. 

* Cool and store in a sealed container.

 

This recipe yields 20-21 large cookies.  
You may follow the original recipe,  I just modified to what I had in my pantry and also I did not want them very sweet so I cut down on granulated sugar and increased the amount of brown sugar instead.
If not using chocolate bar for chunks you may use 3 cups of semisweet chocolate chips instead.
Please note that the dark chocolate bars that I used are not very bitter like some dark chocolate, they are almost like milk chocolate but less sweet and with more cocoa.

Recipe adapted and modified by Surekha from this recipe by Jenny at http://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/doubletree-hotel-chocolate-chip-cookies-18302#

Photographs by Surekha.

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Jicama Salad

I had posted a recipe of Jicama Salad earlier, this is another version of this salad. This can be used as a side dish, or as one of the fillings for taco, burrito or fajita. You can mix it with your favorite salsa. I like it mixed in with my bean, corn, and mango salsa (recipe on this blog)
Here is some information on Jicama as I  mentioned on my earlier post."Pachyrhizus erosus, commonly known as jicama (hicama); Spanish jícama, Mexican yam, or Mexican turnip, is the name of a native Mexican vine although the name most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root. Spaniards spread cultivation of Jícama from Mexico to Philippines, from there it went to China and other parts of Southeast Asia.  Although I never had it in India, I found out that it is available in India and known as mishrikand.

The flavor is sweet and starchy, reminiscent of
some apples or raw green beans, or asian pear, and it is usually eaten raw, sometimes with salt, lemon, or lime juice and chili powder. It is also cooked in soups and stir-fried dishes. Jícama is often paired with chili powder, Cilantro, ginger, lemon, lime juice, orange, red onion, salsa, sesame oil, and soy sauce. The root's exterior is yellow and papery, while its inside is creamy white. It has a crisp texture that resembles raw potato or Asian pear

Jícama is high in carbohydrates in the form of dietary fiber. It is composed of 86-90% water; it contains only trace amounts of protein and lipids. Its sweet flavor comes from the oligofructose inulin  (also called fructo-oligosaccharide) which is a prebiotic. Jicama is high in vitamins C, A, and some Bs, along with calcium and phosphorus.

It should be stored dry, between 12 and 16°C (53 and 60°F). Colder temperatures will damage the root; do not refrigerate. A fresh root stored at an appropriate temperature will keep for a month or two.

In Mexico it is popular in salads, fresh fruit combinations, fruit bars, soups, and other cooked dishes. Just like in India, they sell cut cucumber  and guava as street food with salt, cumin, cayenne pepper and lime juice, this is sold the same way in Mexico as street food along wth strips of cucumber and pineapple.
In contrast to the root, the remainder of the Jícama plant is very poisonous, the seeds contain the toxin rotenone, which is used to poison insects and fish.

Ingredients: 
* 2 pounds of Jicama
* 1/4 cup of chopped Cilantro
* Freshly squeezed juice from 2 limes
* 1 large jalapeno pepper (or to taste)
* Salt to taste.
* 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper(or to taste)

Method: 
* Wash and cut Jicama in to two halves.
* Peel the skin off.
* Cut the  the peeled jicama in small cubes of desired size.
* Finely chop jalapeno pepper.
* Wash and finely chop cilantro.
* Fold the chopped jalapeno pepper and cilantro with cubed jicama. 

* Add lime juice, salt, and crushed red pepper.
* Toss all ingredients until well incorporated.
* Serve fresh you may refrigerate the rest.

 

Jicama information source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus

http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Brownie filled Chocolate Chips Cookies

I am very picky about kind of cookies I like. They have to be soft and chewy and not very sweet.  Have to have nuts in them and they should not smell of eggs.  Of course they have to be rich and not dry.   First time I tried the brownie filled chocolate chip cookies was from a local grocery store chain.  I absolutely loved them and was very much determined  and to make them more desirable to my palate. 

So I decided to experiment. And I must say for this first time trial they came out pretty good.  I will however post the suggestions through out the post  and at end of this post to improve the recipe.

Since I was going to make them for the first time I decided not to make them from scratch and decided to use boxed brownie and cookie mix.  Unfortunately or may be fortunately I did not have brownie mix in my pantry. I all had was chocolate cake box mix and chocolate chip cookie mix.  So I decided to make the brownies from chocolate cake box mix.

Basically I prepared the chocolate chip cookie dough first and chilled it while I prepared the brownies dough and baked the brownies. Then I sandwiched the baked brownies between the cookie dough and made the balls and baked them. This recipe would yield 11-12 giant cookies, I wanted to cut them in half to show off the brownie filling and quite frankly this cookie being so giant and rich you can only eat half of it, if you prefer you can make small cookies.

Oh,  I forgot to mention that I also wanted to ice the cookies with chocolate ganache just in case they were not rich enough :) To make the chocolate icing I used whatever I had in my fridge and pantry. You can go without the icing and or you can use ready made icing or you can use your imagination and come up with your own icing with any other flavor. Here are the ingredients and method in the order I baked these cookies.

 Ingredients for cookie dough

•  2 bags of  Chocolate Chip Mix
•  2 eggs
•  2 sticks of room temp softened butter
•  4 teaspoon of water

 Method:

• Beat the eggs, butter and water.
• Fold in the cookie mix.
• Mix it well, until all the ingredients are well incorporated
• Cover and place it in the fridge to chill. 

Suggestion:  

• Chill the dough for 2 hours for best results, especially if you want to make smaller cookies so you can work the dough better.
• I only chilled it for about 45 min which was not enough time that is why I ended up with giant cookies.

 

Ingredients for Brownies:

• 1 package chocolate cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick of butter or margarine melted
• 1/4 cup water

• 1 cup chopped nuts(I did not have walnuts which are more preferable for brownies, all I had was 1/2 cup of almonds so I decided to use almonds instead.)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbl spoon instant coffee 

 

Suggestion: Use one cup of chopped walnuts for best results 

 

 Method to make Brownies:

• Heat the over at 350 F.
• Chop nuts in food processor.
• In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, butter, water, instant coffee.
• Mix above ingredients in a mixer until well combined
• Add nuts.
• Press mix in a greased 9x13 baking pan (I used 10 x 10 silicone pan)
• Bake at 350 for 25 min or until toothpick comes out clean.
• DO NOT OVER BAKE !!
• Let the brownies cool and cut in small squares.

 

Method to make the Brownie filled Cookies: 

• Take the chilled dough out of fridge. 
• Lightly grease the palms of your hands.
• Make two balls of dough and sandwich  square of  brownie between two balls of dough and roll the dough in rounds so the brownies is in between the ball and completely covered.
• Place the ball on cookie sheet 2 " apart

• Heat oven at 350 F.
• Bake the cookies for 15-17 min for until the edges are golden brown.
• I bakes 6 cookies at a time therefore in two batches.
• Remove from oven and cool.

Ingredients for Icing for cookies: 

• 1/2 cup of semisweet white chocolate chip morsels
• 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chip morsels
• 5.29 oz (150 gm) of dark chocolate bar (I used Chococeur from Aldi's)
• You may use semisweet dark baking chocolate

• 1/4 cup of crunchy peanut butter (you can use Nutella if desired)
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 teaspoon of instant coffee (optional)

Method to make chocolate icing for cookies:

• Place all of the above ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.
• Heat in microwave  for 2-4 min stirring in between  until all the chocolate and butter is melted and is creamy and smooth in texture.
• Drizzle or coat the icing when the icing is still hot on cool cookies.
• It will harden as it cools on cookies.

Suggestions: 

• Again, I used whatever I had in my pantry, but you can be creative with icing
• You may totally omit the icing and or may lightly drizzle melted caramel or chocolate on the cookies.
• You may sprinkle nuts on top of icing if desired.

 

 Suggestions:  
I used ready made box cake mix for brownies, you may use the fudge brownie mix of can make these from scratch. 
Same goes for the chocolate chip cookies too, you may make the cookies from scratch or can use a recipe of Neiman Marcus cookies from this blog. 
And a word of caution, these are loaded with calories and very rich and can be very addictive !

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha

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