"chocolate chip" news and stories

• It's the holiday season, and here are some ideas for throwing the ultimate party.
• What's the best beer to serve with various Thanksgiving foods?
• This year, don't just take some plain frozen biscuits and throw them in the over. Do something different.
• The quince is an ugly fruit, but great to eat.
• Add some bourbon to your pecan pie.
• Miss Conduct answers the question: is it rude to pour salt & pepper on your food before you taste it?
• This week's recipes: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Roast Turkey Breast with Cider and Apples, Quince Tart, and Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread.

Partially influenced by low prices and partially by the fact that I rationalize by saying I could use any leftovers up in a recipe, I always buy a few too many bags of candy around this time of year. In particular, I like to buy the seasonally-colored candies, like holiday M&Ms or, in this case, Halloween/Fall Kissables. Instead of their usually rainbow-colored shells, the candies are all coated in orange and yellow.

Kissables have a crisp candy shell, and fall halfway between the size of a regular chocolate chip and a Hershey's kiss, so the crunch is quite substantial. They work very well in cookies, since most chocolate chip cookie recipes make a fairly chewy cookie and the crunch is a great addition to the overall texture. These particular cookies are buttery, crispy on the edges and slightly chewy in the center, though the will soften slightly after a day or two. If you don't want to use Kissables, M&Ms or any other similarly sized candy (cut up candy bars, etc) will work, too.

Read on for the recipe.

Blondies are bar cookies that are intended to have the same dense, somewhat fudgy texture of brownies, but without having a chocolate base and believe it or not, this is actually a Chocolate Chip Blondie, not a brownie. The reason that it looks so chocolaty is that mini chocolate chips were stirred into the batter in place of larger chocolate chips and, during baking, they melted right in. I doubt anyone complained before digging in, though.

This batch of blondies was baked by Vegan Core and it is completely vegan. She used a recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen for the basic blondies, then added a topping of cashews and chocolate ganache to make them a little bit more visually interesting and to add some crunch.

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Chocolate chip cookies are one of life's most simple pleasures, particularly if they're homemade. If I posted this picture without any text, you would never guess that these cookies are vegan. In fact, if I gave you one to taste, you wouldn't know it either. This batch was baked by the blogger who posts at Vegan Core, but I know how good they are first hand, since I've made this recipe, which is from the book Vive le Vegan, as well. The cookies are crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. You can find the recipe for my white chocolate macadamia variation here (although the white chocolate chips are not vegan).

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One of the cookbooks in my collection that I turn to over and over again is Mrs. Fields Best Cookie Book Ever! Though this book currently is out of print, and perhaps not as readily available as some of the books that we've mentioned here, it is worth it for one thing alone: it has the recipe for Mrs. Field's famous chocolate chip cookies. I have no idea if any of the other books authored by Debbie Fields have this recipe, too, but I frequently have people ask if I know where they can get the recipe or tell me that they've been trying to come up with a "clone" of the cookie. Let me stress that if you want they recipe, just find a copy of the book!

Moving away from the original chocolate chip cookies, the rest of the recipes are easy to follow and produce delicious results. There are lots of simple, but mouthwatering, variations on chocolate chip cookies (like white chocolate chocolate chip), as well as recipes for bar cookies and even a couple of fancier desserts in the "special treats" section. From the white chocolate raspberry tart to the malted milk cookies, there are lots of recipes to choose from and lots of great treats to enjoy in this book.

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