We’ll be visiting the farm of a dear friend tomorrow and I needed to make some treats to take along with us. I thought of Dorie Greenspan’s Apple Cheddar Scones. But I was craving something sweet and yummy and I only had a little bit of time on my hands. After flipping through some blogs I settled on a quick, easy and (sort of) healthy cookie on 101cookbooks.com

I made some modifications to suit what I had on hand and my sweet tooth, and unhealthy need for cookies with texture, has been satisfied. The child proclaims them A+ as well.

Cocoa-Nana White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (2 cups)
1-1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Olive oil
2-1/3 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut sweetened flaked coconut
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
3 teaspoons dark cocoa powder (I used Black’s Organic)
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces white chocolate chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment or use a silpat

1. mash the bananas, oil and vanilla in a large bowl.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (sans white choclate) in a seperate bowl.

3. Stir the dry into wet ingredients until combined
4. Fold in the white chocolate

5.Drop by rounded spoonful onto your cookie sheet…about ping pong ball, bite sized drops.

6. Place in the top third of the oven and bake for 15 minutes…do not overcook!

These are delightful, I will HIGHLY suggest you make a double batch and share them with someone you love

Have a wonderful Friday and do something delicious! (Like make a batch of cookies!)

Colleen

www.foodwineartdesign.com

PS. It seems my uber favorite chef (you are reading the sarcasm in that right?!?!? I think it’s pretty evident from posts on this blog how I feel about Rachel Ray) is opening a new restaurant! WOOO WOOO! And it will feature, what else? BURGERS! Here’s the link Isn’t it enough that I am getting like a gazzillion emails each week from readers who want to know what I think about her pet food?  (No, please don’t buy it. It’s made by  Dad’s, so just save yourself the money and buy that if you want  to feed an economy brand-of course I don’t recommend that either).

I think my head just exploded again.

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is Chocolate Pudding on page 383. It was chosen by Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen.

Pudding…much like Dorie Greenspan says herself in the book, my pudding experiences have all of the boxed variety. Be it instant or “real”, it was always J-e-l-l-o (typed with the little jingle going through my head). And regardless of the style chosen it was always less than remarkable. To me pudding was just, well, boring.

But then Dorie made it!!!!!!!!! It can’t be bad if Dorie made it!!!

And it was not bad, in fact it was incredible. The bittersweet chocolate and the deep rich cocoa mingle with the milk and tiny bit of sugar to create a rich, silken flavor that begs to be savored. The butter leaves the pudding glossy and deeply darkened, this is not gray Jello pudding my friends…it is the real deal.

What I would change

I wished that I had better bittersweet chocolate for this recipe. I had nothing in the house and with temperatures in the 90’s, having chocolate shipped requires that lovely $10 charge for cold packs and things of that nature. I made the judgment call that Ghiradelli 70% cocoa extra bittersweet was better than seized Valrhona or Guittard.

I would also be sure to follow my own mantra…mis en place! mis en place! This recipe seems harried when you don’t have everything ready and it would be VERY easy to miss a step or measure inaccurately. Dorie writes her recipes like mine so you don’t know ingredients are divided until you get going. Normally I read through the recipe 5 or 6 times and know what I am doing before I start. But l made these last night at nearly 9pm after a very long day.

Use a stick blender if you have one, rather than the FP or blender. I found the stick blender made it very simple to move from pot to bowl and easily blend the ingredients.

Please excuse the bad photo and messy pudding…I was far too tired to prop this and used my Fuji P&S.

I will make this pudding often. It seems trivial, even mundane I mean really? Pudding? How 1st grade. But this is good pudding, real pudding. Stand alone dessert worthy pudding. Try it…you’ll see.

serving the Greater Binghamton area in the lovely Southern Tier of NY. www.cateredbycolleen.com

Colleen is a private caterer and personal chef, she also hosts the internet’s favorite resource for the home wine maker at www.homemadewine.net. Her blog and websites are viewed by thousands each day who enjoy her simply explained, illustrated and photographed recipes and helpful tips