Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

This may seem surprising when I tell you that I've never made made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. It's true, I wouldn't even know where to begin. So when a friend asked me to make them with walnuts as it was his favorite cookie ever, I ended up spending an entire afternoon sifting through recipes before I able to put together something that may just work with gluten free flours.

I'll go out on a limb here when I say that I think the first batch was amazing! I ended up eating 3 cookies as they came out of the oven... whoops probably should have saved some for the person that requested it....

There may be a few things I may substitute or change later on but for now I think this is a solid chocolate chip walnut cookie recipe that everyone should try!

{First batch!}

{I didn't used parchment paper the first round, but did the second time around. NOTE: USE PARCHMENT PAPER. Results will be much better.}

{Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts}

Ingredients:

- 1 stick of unsalted butter, soften

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 1/2 cup of brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 cup of gluten free all purpose baking flour

- 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum

- 1 egg

- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (dissolved in a teaspoon of hot water)

- 1 cup of chocolate chips

- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

- pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

3. Beat in egg and vanilla.

4. Add dissolved baking soda. 

5. Stir in flour and xanthan gum

6. Mix in chocolate chips and walnuts.

7. Bake for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Brussels Spout Slaw with Walnuts

I'm determine to incorporate brussels sprouts into my weekly menu! Why? The answer is simple, I read somewhere that brussels sprouts help with cancer prevention. While I'm not the type of person to be SUPER careful about what I eat and don't always eat healthy foods, I will try my best to keep my meals nice and balanced. 


We've been eating a lot of asparagus lately so switching it up with brussels sprouts was a change I was ready to embrace. This slaw was surprisingly tasty for a cold dish. My brussels sprouts are usually sauteed or roasted so I didn't know what to expect. I think many of you will be surprised as well with this tasty version that I found in Bon Appetit. I changed it up a little and used walnuts instead of pecans and I sliced it thinly as I didn't have a food processor to slice the sprouts for me. 


This is also another dish you can make ahead of time to take to a dinner party or when you're hosting one at home as the longer it sits in the dressing, the better it tastes!! So go to the store and pick some up and start fighting cancer!!

Brussels sprout slaw with walnuts

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of walnuts

- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

- 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus additional for seasoning

- 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper

- 1/4 cup whole grain dijon mustard (regular dijon mustard was just fine)

- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

- 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

- 1 tablespoon of sugar

- 1/4 cup of vegetable oil

- 1.5 lbs of brussels sprouts, trimmed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. 

2. Whisk maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Add walnuts, toss and coat well.

3. Spread in a single layer on a piece of parchment paper (or foil) lined baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, stir. Continue to make for another 6 minutes until the glaze is bubbly. Take the nuts out of the oven and let cook completely. This can be done ahead of time. 

4. Whisk mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar in a small bowl. Whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper. 

5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous about of salt. Add brussels sprouts. Cook until they are crisp but tender (about 5 minutes). Drain. Rinse with cold water. Cool on paper towels.

6. Slice into 1/4 inch disks and transfer to a large serving bowl. Cover and let chill in refrigerator. 

7. An hour before you are about read to serve, toss brussels sprouts with enough dressing to coat (not all is needed). Let marinate for 30-60 minutes. Mix in nuts. Enjoy!!

Banana bread with chocolate chips and walnuts

This week was the week I was going to come up with the best banana bread recipe ever! In the past I have tested out a few recipes but they always fell short of being great. The recipe that I tested out this week is now my go to recipe and one I will pass on to people cause it is THAT good. Non gluten free people everywhere will love this as well. In fact when my friend Kelsey was in the kitchen I asked her if she noticed that I baked some banana bread and she replied that she sure did and it was great and then paused to ask me "wait, was that gluten free?" That is the kind of response that makes me smile for days. 

First thing's first, survey all the gf ingredients that I currently have before assuming that I have everything to make this amazing banana bread. Looks like I didn't have as much brown rice flour as I anticipated but worked with the flours that I did have and it was a gamble that paid off!

* Please note that you can play around with different kinds of flours that you prefer as long as it adds up to 2 cups of sugar. You can easily just use 2 cups of gf all purpose flour. 

All ready to go in the oven!

Nice and brown crust.

Good looking loaf right there.

After the first slice. 

Banana bread with chocolate chips and walnuts

- 4 eggs

- 1/3 cup of canola oil 

- 3 or 4 ripe bananas

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla

- 1 cup of brown sugar

- 1/2 cup of brown rice flour

- 1 cup of sorghum sweet flour

- 1/2 cup of tapioca flour

- 3 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum 

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 cup walnuts

-1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

1. Lightly beat eggs with a mixer. 

2. Add bananas, sugar, canola oil, and vanilla and mix. 

3. Add flour (one cup at a time), salt, baking powder, and xanthan gum. 

4. Mix for a few minutes until well blended and all the ingredients are moist.

5. Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.

6. Lightly grease loaf pan and lightly coat the bottom with corn flour (any gf will do).

7. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for about 70 minutes. Until bread is no longer wet in the middle. Use a toothpick to gauge doneness. 

8. Let cool for about 10-15 minutes and then remove from from pan and let cool on wire rack. (I left the banana bread in pan and it was just fine.) Enjoy!

Browned butter brownie

I've gotten many questions in regards to when you can just do a straight up substitute from regular unbleached flour to GF all purpose flour. I don't have a solid answer to that question but I like to think if it's less than 1/2 cup that it probably won't make that huge of a difference. So when I saw this recipe exactly one year ago in the February 2011 of Bon Appetit I knew I had to make it!

I've made this many times before and I have to stress that it is very important that you let the brownies cool in the pan for about 2.5 hours before cutting into the brownies. The best part about these brownies is that you only need ONE pot and a whisk! This is what I call a one pot dessert, you only need one pot and one whisk and you're set to make the best brownies EVER!!!

Ingredients:
- Nonstick vegetable oil spray

- 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

- 1 1/4 cups sugar

- 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 large eggs, chilled

- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of GF all purpose flour

- 1 cup walnut pieces

- 2 teaspoon of water
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
1. Please rack on bottom third of oven.
2. Line 8x8x2 inch baking pan with foil (I used glass, and it worked out fine)
3. Coat foil with nonstick spray.
4. Melt butter in medium saucepan on medium heat. Continue cooking until cutter stops foaming and there are brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Stir often and make sure not to burn the butter. It'll take about 5 minutes. 
5. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa, water, sugar, vanilla, and salt. 
6. Set aside to cool for 5 more minutes. 
7. Add eggs 1 at a time, beat to blend after each egg. When mixture becomes thick and shiny, add flour and mix well. Beat in 60 strokes then add chopped walnuts. 
8. Transfer to prepared pan.
9. Bake for 25 minutes.
10. Let cook in pan on cooking rack for 2 hours before cutting.