Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
(with cranberries)

I was reflecting on my posts from this time last year and unsurprisingly my thoughts are moving in a similar direction; panic about what the winter months have done to my waistline. How on earth will I fit in my summer clothes without too closely resembling the muffins I make?

So, when it came time for my monthly girls get together, and therefore another excuse for me to bake, I chose to take the high road. I pulled out my Food and Wine Magazine, March 2011 issue and there was the perfect healthier recipe. It hit all my requirements; wholesome and yet totally quick and easy.

The cookies do have some butter for flavor but also a little canola oil, plus they are made entirely with whole wheat pastry flour. If you can't get that, I would suggest white whole wheat flour or half and half regular flour with regular whole wheat flour. You can choose to bake them as bars (as I did) or cookies (a little more time than I had available). The original recipe calls for toasted chopped pecans in addition to the chocolate chips but I didn't have any so added some cranberries.

My guinea pig buddies were enthusiastic and the recipe was requested; a good sign of success I think. They are really quite like a blondie with an extra bite.

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used 60%)

1/2 cup cranberries 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Butter a 9 x 13" baking pan then line with parchment paper
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside
4. Using your mixer, beat the butter, oil and sugar until creamy
5. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth
6. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the dry ingredients until just incorporated
7. Finally add the chocolate chips and beat on low again until just mixed
8. Turn the dough out into the baking pan and smooth out the top evenly using a spatula 
9. Place the baking try in the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until golden and just set in the center
10. Cool the bars in the pan and then lift them out onto a cutting board
11. Peel away the parchment from the sides and cut into squares

Alternative substitutions that I think would be tasty: 

• white chocolate chips and chopped dried apricots
• Dark chocolate chips and cherries

You could successfully freeze the cookies in the pan prior to baking (if well wrapped) or after baking. After baking I would not cut them, leave them as a slab and triple wrap in cling film.

Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies, Cakes and Gingerbread Houses...

Happy Christmas to all or should I say Happy Baking Season! 

My homemade Peppermint bark to rival Williams Sonoma

I am from a long line of 'fill the biscuit tin, in case someone pops in' women. Traditionally we also delivered Christmas biscuits (cookies) to a few lucky folks at Christmas time. So when the calendar hits December, I start big time planning. Who am I kidding, it happens long before December.

So you'll understand, we've been busy in this house over the last few weeks. Like many others, I love to give cookies at Christmas. The giving list gets longer every year; and despite having some tried and true Christmas cookie recipes I always feel compelled to try out a few new ones.

This year I am linking the recipes I have used alongside a few snaps of the final products. This is as much for me next year as it is for any readers so apologies for poorer grammar than usual. I'm in a rush to get back to the kitchen action.

Here goes:

My particular favored new recipe is for Peppermint Bark. I was determined not to pay $25 a box this year at Williams Sonoma, so found a recipe for me to make my own. Success!!

I have a ginger obsession at this time of year so one of the many recipes I use is the following Ginger Chocolate Chip Blondies. They are so good...

Continuing on the theme and desperately trying to harness my control frickery, my girls and I got up to gingerbread men and house making, using the following healthier recipe from Heidi at 101 cookbooks. These are wholewheat gingerbread men!

This is the girls playing with the scraps at the end

House components and little guys

Decorating time

The finished product; again an exercise in self control for me!

My Mum usually makes me my Christmas cake, in fact, I'm ashamed to say, I've never made one before. This year I was going to skip it as we are not having any family visiting. However Nigella got the best of me with her Chocolate Fruit Cake from Feast. It looks amazing, is soaking in Kahlua as I type and boasts one of my favorite combinations prunes and chocolate. Haven't tasted yet but can't imagine it will disappoint. It did take me a whole morning on my own to complete though; even the lining of the tin requited a lot of concentration and 25 minutes! 

These little fellas below are ready to go out; in the packages are Chocolate Crackle Cookies, a recipe. surprisingly, from McKormick spices. They include Roasted Saigon Cinnamon and Ancho Chile Pepper but are basically a double chocolate cookie with a kick. Yummy adult cookies but my kids love them too. They freeze amazingly too.

The other cookies in the packages are a recipe from the boys at Baked. The cookies are Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate chip from "Baked; New Frontiers in Baking". Very delicious.

Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today, Nigella linked to her Christmas Chocolate Biscuits, and they looked so easy and sounded so simple, I just had to give them a go:

They're similar little chocolate shortbreads with chocolate frosting...mmm

One last link; as yet I've only made the dough (it's sitting in the fridge) but no mention of Christmas cookies/ biscuits whatever you want to call them, is complete without these. This recipe for Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies was posted by me way back in March, but it is "Christmas in a cookie" for me.

Happy Baking!

Merry Christmas! 

Happy Holidays!

Time for Birthday Cake!



Each time there is any sort of a celebration in our house, be it a festive holiday or a birthday, I habitually pull out my Nigella books. It's really a pleasure to have an excuse to browse through them again and "Feast" is invariably the winner when it comes to celebrations. I do love that book and quite honestly most of Nigellas recipes in general. I won't say it's a problem, but she's obviously not as driven to take the healthy option as me, so her recipes spell indulgence. All the more fun.

Anyway, my husband just caught up with me; he was 40 a couple of days ago. So I left out "Feast" for him to peruse and choose his cake. My strong pointers were the chocolate guinness cake or the chocolate orange (again that theme!). It's lucky he's a fan of chocolate too, or maybe we would not be a match!

Anyway, he chose the chocolate orange, which pleased me, not only because I adore the combination, but the cake has a very unusual composition as you'll see. I suppose it could be argued there's a nod to the healthy here; the cake has no butter or regular flour, but's it still a cake and tastes very decadent.

This cake suits my lifestyle very well; as I've mentioned before, I'm a planner, so the fact that the orange needs cooked for 2 hours and cooled, suited me fine. I did it the day before and kept it in the fridge. One less step on the big day. I also made my own ground almonds, as I was so outraged at the cost of pre-ground almonds in my supermarket. I just whizzed them up in the food processor with a little sugar which apparantly helps absorb the oil and they are then less likely to turn into almond butter.

As you'll see from the photos, the girls loved it too; my 4 year old actually requested it for her birthday too (although it's likely that request will be replaced many times in the next 6 months!).

Chocolate Orange Cake

adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson, Feast



Chocolate Orange Cake (with 2 year old hovering dangerously close)



Ingredients

2 small or 1 large, thin skinned orange

6 eggs

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups/ 200g ground almonds

1 1/4 cups/ 250g superfine or caster sugar

1/2 cup/ 50g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

Directions

1. Place the orange(s) in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 2 hours or until they are soft.
2. Drain the the orange and cool it. When the orange is cool, preheat the oven to 350°F
3. Butter an 8" springform pan, then line it with parchment paper.
4. Cut the orange in half to remove the seeds, and pulse the whole orange in the food processor.
5. To the orange, add the eggs, baking powder, baking soda, ground almonds, sugar and cocoa. Pulse until it is mixed thoroughly.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and place in the center of the oven for approximately 1 hour or until the tester comes out clean.
7. I loosely covered mine in foil for the last 20 minutes as it seemed to be cooking too quickly. (Nigella's tip)
8. Let the cake cool in the pan and when cold remove and decorate.







Now, here's the surprising thing, Nigella recommends just a few orange peels on top, but my children (and I quite frankly) objected. Just not birthday-ish enough. So I made a quick cream cheese frosting (low fat cream cheese and confectioner sugar) then added some zested orange. Smeared it all over and all good except we couldn't get a candle to stay upright, hence the candle in the orange.

Enjoy!



A last hurrah for overindulgence...

ahhh...chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies



I've come to the conclusion, after years and years of trying to lose a few pounds after the holidays, that it's impossible to address tubbiness, until March at the earliest. I find myself firmly in comfort mode until the first signs of Spring.

Well woo hoo, Spring has sprung in the north east of America. We have sightings of crocus (-i?) in our front garden, all the snow is gone and finally we seem both alarmingly and tantalizingly close to the skimpy clothes of summer time. Skimpy is all relative mind you; I am 40 now after all!

Speaking of which, this past weekend was the official celebration of my husband's and my 40th! We're like The Queen, you know, we have a real birthday and an official birthday (to celebrate with the masses). So some of our oldest friends and family kindly came over/up/across to help us celebrate. Such fun! Enough said; no details required! If you read my cousin's guest post at the weekend, you'll know there were good food and drinks involved (and a babysitter!)

So time to get serious with the healthy eating to really make a difference to the scales. I publicly declared last night that I'd had enough with the extra 5-7 lbs which have been hanging around like a bad smell for the last year. Huh? You're wondering; doesn't she always make healthy food? Mostly yes, but my love of food makes portion control difficult and I have a borderline addiction to chocolate and ice cream! Actually these pesky pounds mostly crept on, in a monumentally greedy 6 weeks over a year ago. I've just not been disciplined enough with my portion control since then, to kick them to touch.

So here's my last hurrah from the weekend past, then the decadence of the winter must be put in check.

This recipe, to be honest, is the first recipe I thought of putting on my blog. Every time I bake these cookies, they are eaten with such gusto and lip smacking that, without fail, the recipe is asked for. The recipe is a Martha Stewart one and largely unchanged. All I've added are a few extra tips as they can be a little bit tricky at times.They really are so worth the attention to detail though. Read on...

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

adapted from http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies

makes approx 20 cookies

Ingredients

7 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (I use ghirardelli 60%)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup/ 4 oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa, in a medium bowl
3. Using an electric mixer, with the paddle attached, beat the butter and grated ginger until they turn a light cream color.
4. Add the brown sugar, beat to combine and then add the molasses. Beat again until combined
5. Combine the baking soda with 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water and stir to dissolve. Mine never dissolves completely so don't worry.
6. With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture, then mix slowly to combine.
7. Then add the baking soda mixture, mix again.
8. Then add the remainder of the flour and mix again until combined.
9. Finally add the chocolate and mix one last time until just combined.
10. At any of these points only mix until combined. Over mixing will produce a tough cookie.
11. Scrape the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disc approx 2" thick.
12. Wrap up and place in the refrigerator for approx 2 hours or until firm. Sometimes I throw it in the freezer to speed up this process.
13. Heat the oven to 325°F
14. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll into balls of approx 1 1/2"
15. Place them on a cookie sheet and cool again in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
16. Put the sugar in a cereal sized bowl and roll the balls in it until completely covered.
17. Put them in the oven as soon as quickly as possible; if the dough is too warm it will spread and burn more easily.
18. Bake for approx 11 minutes or until the surface just begins to crack. They will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven.
19. Let them cool on the baking tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. If you move them too quickly they will fall apart.
20. Watch these cookies closely; they burn easily due to the molasses and dark brown sugar. It's 2 minutes between a perfectly baked cookie and a burnt bottom.

We made ice cream sandwiches with these last weekend, using vanilla ice cream. They were obscenely good!!

A couple more notes:

• I keep my fresh ginger in the freezer and grate it frozen. If you're doing that, add more than a tablespoon of ginger as it seems to grate up with more volume when frozen.
• Measure your molasses and boiling water very carefully for this recipe; if you overdo either your cookie will spread too much and burn easily.
• I use the Barefoot Contessa's (http://www.barefootcontessa.com/) method of measuring flour usually; I stir up the flour to lighten it and then scoop out the necessary amount. I use the handle of my spoon to scrape off the excess.

Enjoy!

Snacks...



We are big snackers in this house; I'm afraid I have inflicted the need for regular snacks on my children. Having said that, modern thinking is we should be eating 4-6 small meals a day so perhaps they won't throw that up at me, as childhood baggage, in 20 years time.

Anyway, I have long been perplexed by feeding my kids "kid snacks". Here in the US, there are so many foods marketed to kids with nothing close to real food in the ingredients. Apart from fruit, we eat a lot of crackers and granola bars for snacks. Finding a good recipe for a granola bar, has long been on my research list, but to date I have nothing that I'm particularly proud of, so nothing to share on that front today.

However, I've made it my mission in the next few months to share some really great snack recipes. I will continue to work on the granola bar and good cracker recipes, but in the meantime; I have a healthy muffin recipe to share.

You may notice there's a strong theme in my baking. My first inclination is always to seek out a way to "choclify" a recipe. The recipe below started as a blueberry muffin recipe, but I've justified a way to add chocolate by significantly reducing the sugar, adding orange juice and zest and increasing the whole grains.

I've been considering a chocolate orange muffin for a couple of months; I made a delicious attempt a few weeks ago, but I was not content with the amount of butter in them. So here's a healthier version which still reminds me of the original chocolate orange combination in my life; Terry's Chocolate Orange. Green and Blacks Maya Gold eat your heart out!

All in all, a very pleasing muffin according to my husband and kids. Sufficiently sweet for a instand lift but followed up with enough wholegrains to keep everyone going until the next meal.

Chocolate Orange Muffins

Yields approx 24 muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups/ 6oz/ 170g all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups/ 5.5 oz/  155g whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup/ 3.2oz/ 90g quick cooking oats (not instant) or place old fashioned oats in the processor for 10-15 pulses

1/2 cup/ 3.5 oz/ 100g  granulated sugar

1 tablespoon (yes!) baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups/  480ml low fat plain yogurt or buttermilk

1/2 cup/ 120ml orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed)

zest from 2 oranges

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg, beaten

3/4 cup chocolate chips (bittersweet, 60% or higher cacao)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°C/ 200°F
2. Grease or line 2 twelve cup muffin tins
3. Measure the first 7 dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine well. I actually used my clean hands to lightly mix because the oats make it more difficult to combine.
4. In another mixing bowl whisk together the buttermilk or yogurt, orange juice, zest and egg.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Do not overstir!
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffins tins to approx 2/3 full.
8. Place in the oven and bake for approx 15 minutes or until just turning golden on top.
9. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!!



Notes on the recipe:

• Tasty additions would be a 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a 1/4 of nutmeg. I will try this next time and report back.
• A word about flour when baking; 90% of the time you can substitute at least 1/2 whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour. I tend to use whole wheat pastry flour which is made from white wholewheat flour. The "white" does not mean that the flour has been stripped of it's "whole grain" quality, it's just a different variety of wheat. It makes a more tender baked product but still has the same amount of fiber. If you can't get that flour, feel free to replace with regular wholewheat flour, the result may just be slightly denser.
• A word about chocolate and chocolate chips; I always use bittersweet chocolate in my baked goods, unless otherwise specified. I usually buy the ghirardelli 60% chips and when they're on sale buys them in bulk!

Mini Sticky Chocolate Cakes



It was my (uh um) 40th birthday yesterday. 2 reasons I'm writing about that; cake and photography. For all those of you who have been offended by my amateurish photography to date; take heart. My girls got me a tripod and a book on food photography for my birthday. So hang on in there while I read up and all should improve!

Cake; well, my husband was totally at a loss as to what to do about cake. While he can cook, he really doesn't bake, so making one wasn't an option. Also, knowing my active membership in the "nasty ingredient police", he was nervous to buy one. A birthday cake filled with trans fat and artificial flavors is not my idea of a celebration.

So, no cake. I planned on making my own actually, call me nuts, but I'd have been happy to if I'd had a moment. Instead, I spent the afternoon with my kids at the merry go round and in the Disney store. When they're happy, I'm happy!

Anyway, I'll admit I have been thinking of cake rather a lot recently, and I have a chocolate and zucchini recipe for sticky chocolate cake, that I've been meaning to try for months.

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/05/sticky_chocolate_cake.php

Clotilde's recipes are amazing and always a little different. Check out her blog if you haven't before.

Anyway, lets talk more about the key to the stickiness; prunes, or to give them their "post rehab" name, dried plums! For those US readers, please read on. Give prunes another try. They are not only good for "getting things moving", if you know what I mean. They have an amazing depth of flavor which goes perfectly with chocolate, and when you use them you can invariably cut down the fat and sugar in the baked product. Quite honestly I love them on their own. They do not need to be dressed up, but dressed up they are, in the following recipe.

Many years ago, Delia Smith, (the UK's answer to Julia Child), introduced me to the pairing of chocolate and prunes, with her Chocolate Prune Brownies. Her "How to cook: Book 2" has a whole section on the pairing. The recipe became my "go to" brownie recipe of my 20's. Shortly after starting a new job here in NYC, I brought in a batch for a birthday celebration in work. I was so proud of my delicious brownies and they went down a storm in the office.

Then, I was asked what was my secret? Prunes, I innocently replied, unaware of the stigma attached to the prune in the US. Well, suffice to say, I went home with the rest of the brownies. My boss was most perturbed, as he had had 3 by this point; how to impress a new boss! They were all under the impression you should only eat prunes if your Doctor had recommended them! I can assure you, nobody's afternoon was ruined by too many prunes.

I have been amused in recent years here, to see the prune producers, changing their marketing strategy to "dried plums", in an effort to fool the US market into eating them again.

Anyway, my daughters were both at preschool this morning, so I ignored the housework and errands needing attention and made cakes. I suppose they're really muffins but they really are quite light and cake-like. Plus, since it's my birthday season, I just have to call them cakes!

As usual, I couldn't stick to the recipe; Clotilde recommends steeping the prunes in your favorite brandy; I used cranberry juice for my kids sake. I substituted half of the flour for whole wheat pastry and added molasses instead of maple syrup. I also used dark brown sugar instead of light, all in the hope of achieving a dark and delicious looking cake.

The cakes are totally delicious as they are, but I plan to build on this recipe in future. They would be amazing with chocolate ganache on top, and/or (nod to Delia) chocolate dipped prunes on top.
I also think they could accommodate more cocoa powder to good effect. When I try any of these ideas, I will add on to this post to share the love!

Mini Sticky Chocolate Cakes

Yields 12 muffins/ mini cakes

Ingredients

8 oz/ 230g prunes (dried plums), pitted

1/3 cup/ 80 ml cranberry juice (substitute brandy, pomegranate juice, black tea)

1/2 cup/ 120ml buttermilk or plain yogurt

1 egg lightly beaten

6 tablespoons/ 75 g dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons/ molasses (substitute maple syrup or treacle)

1/2 cup/ 60g all purpose flour

1/2 cup/ 60g whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted after measuring)

4 oz/ 115g bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped from a bar.

Directions

1. Place half of the prunes in the soaking liquid of choice and warm slightly. Leave to cool and soak. (Honestly, overnight would be best, but I didn't have the time)
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180°C
3. Grease the muffin pan
4. Place the remaining half of prunes and the buttermilk in the food processor and process until smooth
5. Transfer the prunes and buttermilk to a large mixing bowl and whisk in the eggs, then the sugar, then the molasses.
6. Cut the soaked prunes in half with scissors and set aside. Discard the remaining liquid.
7. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt.
8. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined. No not overstir.
9. Finally fold in the chocolate chips
10. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin tins to about 2/3 full. Then squish a few prune halves in on the top of the batter.
11. Bake in the center of the oven for 15-18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean

Enjoy!

p.s. I have just kicked these up a notch by smearing the tops with melted chocolate and a dollop of sour cream. Then I plopped another half prune on the top. Amazing.

Here's what they looked like



An Excuse for Double Chocolate....

Time to celebrate; my husband is home! Yippee! Single parenting is over for another day (yes he's away again tomorrow night). So bring on the cupcakes!

Actually truth be known, I mustn't steal the thunder from my friend Tammi; it's her birthday. It didn't seem fair to me that she hosts her own birthday/Super Bowl party, so the least I could do is bring her some birthday cakes!

I toyed with many different ideas for today's recipe, but it all comes back to a tried and tested chocolate cupcake recipe that I have made repeatedly for birthdays. These cupcakes are relatively light and keep well if you need to make them a day ahead. I produced 70 or so for my daughters' joint birthday party in the fall; not to mention sending them to school and making them for their actual birthdays! My point is, it's a well tested recipe! The base recipe comes from the Cooking Light, Quick Baking , 2010 issue, although as usual is given the "Kat ate that" treatment.

I had a peaceful morning on my own baking; that's the ultimate relaxation for me. My husband had taken the kids off campus, for a chunk of time, for me to "be" in my kitchen. After a leisurely breakfast without getting up and down 10 times to refill milk, mop up spills, etc. etc., I embarked on the cupcakes.

My only caution with this recipe is, that it only makes 10 cupcakes. I doubled the recipe for the Superbowl party this afternoon and scraped out only 21 cupcakes from the recipe. Fine for a normal day, but not enough for the party.

So, with an empty house, I realised I had the perfect opportunity to try out one of the boys at "Baked Explorations" creations; Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with cream cheese frosting. Does that not sound fabulous? I like to be on my own when trying out their recipes. I feel to do them justice, I don't want to manage the two tikes and where their fingers are, while baking a new and special recipe.

It's an interesting one; the oatmeal and butter are soaked/melted together with boiling water and left to stand for 30 minutes. Then they are added to the rest of the ingredients. The cake effectively turns into a cross between a blondie and and oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Divine!! I reduced the sugar, didn't add the suggested liquor (very unlike me!) and substituted some wholewheat flour. The Baked boys suggest a cream cheese frosting, although in my opinion it really makes the whole thing almost too sweet because there are a lot of chocolate chips in there. All a matter of taste though, and far be from me to criticise the Gods of baking.

Anyway, on to the results

Chocolate Cupcakes

Yields 10

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup/ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup low fat buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners
3. Spoon and level flour into the measuring cup and sift over a large bowl with the cocoa, baking soda and salt. Then whisk the ingredients to mix lightly
4. Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Beat until well combined
6. With the mixer on low and starting and ending with the flour, alternate adding the flour and buttermilk to the mixer bowl
7. Mix until just combined; over mixing will make a tough cupcake
8. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin pan and bake for approximately 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean
9. Cool in the pan for a couple of minutes then take the cupcakes out and cool completely on a wire rack

These are a fantastic vehicle for your favorite frosting; I love cream cheese (see below) but I have also gone the simple route in the past and dusted them with confectioner sugar; they looked just lovely.

Enjoy!



Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

based on a recipe in "Baked Explorations, classic American desserts reinvented"

http://bakednyc.com/



Yields one 9x13" pan

Ingredients

8 oz chocolate chips

1 cup plus 2 tablepoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup wholewheat pastry flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup/ 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (cold or softened)

1 1/4 cup boiling water

2 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Frosting

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

5 1/2 oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups sifted confectioner sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
2. Butter a 9 x 13 " baking dish. The Baked boys recommend a glass one but mine has a frozen sausage and bean casserole in it right now, so I baked in a regular metal baking pan
3. Soak the oatmeal and butter in the boiling water. Leave for 30 seconds before stirring then stir until the butter has melted. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes
4. Toss the chocolate chips in a bowl with the 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour (this prevents the chips from sinking when baked)
5. When the oatmeal mixture has cooled, whisk together by hand, the eggs, then add the sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon until combined
6. Fold in the cooled oatmeal mixture and then the flours
7. Finally, gently fold in the chocolate chips
8. Pour the batter into the baking pan
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes, turning gently, halfway through cooking. When done, a toothpick should come out clean

Directions to make the Frosting

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth
2. Add the cream cheese and beat on high until well combined
3. Sift in the confectioner sugar and beat until smooth
4. Refridgerate, covered,  for 30 minutes prior to using

A note on the frosting; make sure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature as they will not become smooth if too cold.

A frosted cake will keep up to 3 days if refridgerated.

Enjoy!