Pretzel Cookies with Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chips

It seems like the culinary world has been slightly obsessed with the salty/sweet combination lately. I keep seeing salted caramel desserts and fleur de sel sprinkled on top of various desserts. I for one, am completely for this. Once I made the infamous NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe with sea salt sprinkled on top, I was hooked. So when I had a bunch of left over pretzel salt from making soft pretzels, I knew exactly what I would do with it.

These cookies were awesome. I loved what the pretzels added to the cookie. They stayed nice and crispy, which was a great contrast to the chewy cookie. And of course you can't go wrong with milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

I absolutely loved the combination of pretzel, milk chocolate, and peanut butter and I would make these again in a second. The only change I might make next time is to the base cookie recipe. I strayed from my normal recipe because I wanted to find a recipe that made less cookies (strange, I know). This recipe was good, but if you have a favorite cookie recipe feel free to use that instead.

Another note about these cookies is that they did not spread very much for me. The first batch barely spread at all, so I smushed down the second batch a little before putting them in the oven.

Recipe: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies
Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 tsp. of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces
• Preztel Salt or Sea Salt
  

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the flour mixture and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and preztels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
   
4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Leave about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10 minutes. If you prefer crispier cookies increase the baking time by 1-2 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing.

Chickpea Salad

This has become pretty much my favorite thing ever this summer. I love making it at the beginning of the week and having it to snack on when I get hungry. The chickpeas provide plenty of protein and the olives and feta give it a delicious saltiness.

This salad is really easy to make with whatever you have on hand. I had sun-dried tomatoes that I needed to use up but I think it would also be great with slow roasted cherry tomatoes. Some toasted pine nuts would also make a great addition.

Chickpea Salad
Ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas (about 15 oz), rinsed and drained
• 1 can of artichokes, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup of kalamata olives, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup of feta (I used reduced fat), diced
• 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbls basil, chopped
• 1 - 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbls red wine vinegar
• 1 tbls lemon juice, optional (just add a little vinegar if you don't have lemon)
  
• Salt & Pepper to taste
  

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir together. Add salt & pepper to taste. Refrigerate and serve cold or at room temperature.
   

Butterfly Cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes in this book, Hello Cupcake, a while back but never really had an occasion to make them.... until last Friday that is. My friend was having a party to celebrate Arts Fest that happens every summer in State College. I asked what I could bring and she said "an artsy dessert." Done!

Overall these cupcakes took a little bit of work, but they weren't hard, and they were a lot of fun to make. When I brought these to the party, everyone was really impressed and couldn't believe that I had actually made these.

Here's a rundown of the steps to make the wings:

1. Get/make a stencil of a butterfly wing to use as your template. I just freehanded mine with the brush tool in Photoshop, then made a word document with 6 sets of wings on 1 page. (See below)
2. Lay down your template, and put wax paper over it.
3. Melt the dark cocoa candy melts. I melted them in a bowl then poured the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle. I found the squeeze bottle was much easier to use when outlining the wing, and making antenna.
   
4. Place about 1/2 cup of colored candy melts in a plastic bag. Microwave in 10 second intervals, unsealed, massaging the candy melts in between, until the candy is completely melted and no lumps remain. Press out the excess air in the bag and seal. Push the mixture down to one corner of the bag and snip off a very small corner.
   
5. Trace the outline of the wing template with the dark cocoa melted candy. Do the wings one at a time otherwise it will be too set to swirl by the time you have outlined two wings.
6. Use the bag of colored candy melts to fill in the outline. Be generous, so that it will spread all the way to the sides.
7. Use a toothpick/chopstick to spread the colored candy to meet the outline.
8. Use a tooth pick to swirl the edges together slightly to form a pattern.
9. Sprinkle the top and bottom of each wing with a few white nonpareils.
10. Repeat this process until you have enough wings. I suggest making a few extra of each color, just in case.
11. Make antennas. Again, I just freehanded a template.
    

Note: You may need to remelt the candy a few times during this process. To do this, just pop it back in the microwave for 10 seconds.


Once you are finished making the wings, let them harden. I actually put mine in the fridge for a couple hours because it was HOT out that day! You can definitely make the wings a few days ahead of time if you want.

Once the wings have hardened, frost some cupcakes. Place the wings into the cupcakes leaving about 1/8th of an inch in between them. Use melted chocolate (again in a squeeze is probably easiest) to draw a body to connect the wings. Place the antenna in the cupcake.

I had a heck of a time getting the antenna into the cupcakes without breaking. Again, I blame the humidity. I actually ended up breaking about 10 antenna so make plenty extra. I found that placing the antenna in the freezer helped their stability.

Now, if you've seen these cupcakes before, you'll probably notice that mine look a little flat. That's because it was super hot and humid the day I decided to make these. I tired to get the butterfly to form a V and look a little more 3d but it just wasn't happening so I gave up and settled for flat butterflies. Pretty, flat butterflies.

If you want to see some more butterfly cupcakes and another tutorial check out Annies-Eats. Her tutorial is great and inspired me to try it on my own!

Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with Grilled Summer Vegetables

This summer, in an effort to eat healthier I've gotten in the habit of making side salads like this to have around the house. I'll make way more than I need, serve some of it as a side dish for dinner, then put the leftovers in the fridge. Salads like this are great cold and I love having them around any time I want something to munch on between meals. It's a lot easier to avoid junk food when you open the fridge and have a healthy, colorful, ready made snack staring you in the face.

(All the grilled veggies, chopped up and ready to get mixed into the couscous)

One great thing about this recipe is that it made me realize that I actually like peppers! I always thought I didn't care for peppers, but it turns out I just don't like green peppers or raw peppers. Marinated and grilled red/orange/yellow peppers are a completely different story! As a matter of fact, a lot of the peppers went straight from the grill to my mouth!

This is a Bobby Flay recipe that I found on FoodNetwork.com. It has great reviews all around and is incredibly adaptable. It's a perfect summer recipe with all those veggies, and it would make a great veggie drawer clean out recipe if you have vegetables that you need to use up before they go bad. I ended up changing it up quite a bit. Here are my notes on the recipe:

1. I ended up using almost the same amount of veggies as the original recipe, but much less couscous. The recipe calls for 1 pound of couscous and I ended up using about 6.3 oz because that was the only package of israeli couscous I could find. I think it works great better with a higher veggie to grain ratio. The directions for cooking the couscous in the recipe were pretty vague, so just use as much couscous as you want, just follow the directions on the package.
2. Instead of using water to cook the couscous, use vegetable stock or chicken broth to give it more flavor. I needed about 2 cups of liquid so I used 1 can of chicken broth and a little bit of water to get to 2 cups.
   
3. I added feta cheese because... well... feta makes everything feta.
4. The original recipe calls for asparagus which I'm not really a fan of so I left it out and added an extra pepper instead.
5. And finally, I'm a complete idiot and somehow managed to forget to add the fresh herbs to the couscous. It's suppose to have basil and parsley in it, which I'm sure would have made the salad even better, but it was still great without it.
   

Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with Grilled Summer Vegetables
Recipe: Adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 green zucchini, quartered lengthwise
• 1 yellow zucchini, quartered lengthwise
• 12 cherry tomatoes
  
• 1 red bell pepper, quartered and seeded
• 1 orange bell pepper, quartered and seeded
  
• 1 yellow bell pepper, quartered and seeded
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, chopped
  
• 2 tbls basil chiffonade (stack leaves, roll in a cigar shape and cut crosswise into thin strips)
• 2 tbls cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 package Israeli couscous, prepared according to package directions (See Recipe Notes above)
• Chicken broth or vegetable stock
  

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard and garlic, slowly add the olive oil and whisk until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Pour 1/2 the marinade over the vegetables and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
   
2. Preheat the grill. Remove the vegetables from the marinade and grill the vegetables until just cooked through.
3. Cut the zucchini and peppers into 1/2-inch pieces, cut the tomatoes in half. Set aside.
   
4. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, add the couscous and toast until lightly golden brown. Cover the couscous with the hot stock/hot water and bring to a boil, cook until al dente and drain well. Place in a large serving bowl, add the grilled vegetables, feta, and herbs and toss with the remaining vinaigrette. Serve at room temperature

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

Are you ready for the easiest cookie recipe ever? This is it. I feel silly looking back at all the times I've thrown away egg whites when the recipe calls for just yolks. Knowing how easy it is to make meringues pretty much guarantees that no egg white will go unused again!

I'm not gonna go so far as to call this a healthy cookie because there a decent amount of sugar in these, but as far as cookies go these are definitely on the healthy end of the spectrum. They are essentially fat free. No butter, no oil, no egg yolks. Just egg whites and sugar.

If you've never had a meringue before they are hard to explain. The exterior is crackly and crispy but the inside is so light and airy. I love the way it practically dissolves in your mouth when you take a bite.

A few notes about the recipe:

1. Make sure your egg white are at room temperature. Separate them when they are cold, then let the egg whites sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature.
2. Temperature. I saw some recipes that said to cook at 200 degrees for a long period of time (1.5 - 2 hours) and some recipes that said to cook at 300 degrees for a shorter period of time. I went right in the middle. I cooked them at 250 for about an hour. Then I turned off the oven and let them sit in the oven for about another hour.
3. Working with egg whites. Make sure your bowl is very clean and dry, otherwise you will never get your whites to stiffen.
   
4. Sugar. The recipe calls for extra fine sugar. I used regular sugar and pulsed it in the food processor for about 30 seconds. Don't overdo it though, you don't want powder.
   
5. Chocolate. I used mini chocolate chips and I took a knife to about 1/3 of them and chopped them really really finely. This gave the cookies more a of a speckled look which I liked.
   

Chocolate Chip Meringues
Recipe: Inspired from SmittenKitchen
Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 3/4 cups of superfine sugar
• 6 oz mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200°F.

2. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt, cream of tartar and vanilla, and beat mixture again until it holds soft peaks.
   

3. Add the sugar, gradually, beating the batter until it is stiff.
   

4. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon batter onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets (or pipe the batter if you want). Bake for 1 hour, rotating the pans half way through cooking. After 1 hour, turn off the oven. Let the meringues sit in the oven for 1 - 2 hours.
   

Blueberry Muffins with a No Fail Streusel Topping

I've been searching for the perfect blueberry muffin recipe for a while now. I've tried countless recipes on the internet and I've come really close a few times but there was always something off about each recipe I tried. Too dry, too dense, too flavorless, too sweet, not sweet enough. I finally turned to a cookbook that I've had on the shelf for a few years (shocking, I know) and there it was...when I was least expecting it, I found it, the perfect blueberry muffin.

This muffin uses buttermilk and lemon zest to add to the flavor. It is light and perfectly sweet and tastes exactly like a blueberry muffin should. And the streusel on top is just perfect. If you're looking for a recipe to use up some blueberries give this one a try... you won't be disappointed!

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins with Streusel Topping (Makes 14 Muffins)
Recipe: Adapted from "Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins, & More"
Ingredients:

• 1 recipe of streusel topping (recipe follows)
  
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Prepare the struesel topping (recipe follows).
2. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Heat teh oven to 375 F. Line fourteen muffin cups with paper or foil cupcake liners.
   
3. In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
4. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the lemon zest and mix on medium speed until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Add the sugar in a steady stream, then blend in the egg and vanilla, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, dividing the flour into three parts and the buttermilk into two, starting and ending with the flour. mix just until blended after each addition.
   
6. Gently fold in half of the blueberries.
   
7. Fill each cup about 2/3 full. Place a layer of blueberries evenly over the batter, then place a dollop of batter on top of the blueberries. it's okay for the berries to show. Take a handful of the streusel topping and crumble it over the batter and berries completely covering the tops of the muffins with the crumbs. Press gently to adhere. Brush any stray crumbs from the top of the muffin pans using a small pastry brush.
8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the streusel topping is golden brown. To ensure even baking, towards the end of baking time, rotate the pans top to bottom and front to back. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Struesel Topping
Recipe from: "Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins, & More"
Ingredients:

• 6 - 7 tbls unsalted butter (See note)
  
• 1 cup all purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbls finely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the butter in a 2 qt heavy bottomed saucepan and heat until almost melted; remove from heat and cool to tepid.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and nuts (if using). Add to the butter and stir with a fork until blended and mixture begins to form crumbs. Gently squeeze the mixture with your hand to form larger lumps, then break them apart with your fingertips. Before using, let the streusel stand for 10 to 15 minutes.

Note: Start with 6 tablespoons of butter. If the crumb mixture appears to be too dry or too crumbly add a bit more butter. If the mixture requires additional butter, push some of the crumbs aside and place the butter in the cleared spot. Place the saucepan on low heat, positioning it so that the butter is over the heat.

Tomato, Corn, Avocado Salsa

I'll pretty much eat anything if it has tomato and avocado in it. Now that it's summer and tomatoes are flavorful, plentiful, and cheap I find myself making salsas all the time. This is one of my favorite because it screams summer!
'
So what do I do with this salsa? Pretty much everything. I've thrown it on top of grilled mahi mahi. I've served it as an appetizer with some blue corn tortilla chips. Last night I served it with black bean quesadillas. And more often than not, I just eat it with a spoon.

The recipe is more of a guideline than a recipe. Feel free to add more jalepeno and onion if you want more heat. My only note: Don't be shy with the salt. All of the ingredients really need it to help their flavor come through.


Corn Tomato Avocado Salsa Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of diced tomato (I used about 4 roma tomatoes)
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 cup of corn (canned, fresh, or frozen)
• 1/4 of a small red onion, finely diced
• 1/2 of a jalepeno, seeded and diced
  
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbls chopped cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste