Olive Oil & Sea Salt Brownie Cookies

Rich, fudgy, and a little chewy on the inside with an exterior that's slightly crisp and firm enough to keep the cookies together. These cookies are perfect for chocolate lovers and those with a sweet tooth! #brookies

Olive Oil & Sea Salt Brownie Cookies
recipe adapted from Butterlust and Nutmeg Nanny
makes approx. 13 cookies

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp hot coffee
1/4 cup (55g) olive oil
1/2 cup (100g) coconut palm sugar*
1 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/8 cup (42g) white whole wheat flour
3/8 cup (45g) cocoa powder
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/4 tsp sea salt, for sprinkling

*reduced to 80g and still a tad sweet; reduced to 50g next time.

If you prefer things less sweet, use DARK chocolate chips and UNSWEETENED dried blueberries!

Chill batter in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Scoop, flatten slightly, and sprinkle sea salt on top.

1. In a small bowl, mix together baking soda and hot coffee, set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together olive oil and sugar until well combined.
3.Mix in egg and vanilla extract.
4. Add flour, cocoa powder, and salt and beat until a dough forms - it should be the consistency of a thick brownie batter.
5. Add dissolved baking soda and coffee and beat until well combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips and dried blueberries.
7. Refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight.
8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets.
9. Use a cookie scoop to scoop out heaping tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, flatten slightly, and sprinkle with sea salt.
10. Bake for 10 minutes, or until edges are set.**
11. Let cool completely on the baking sheets then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

**My cookies were soft to touch and held its shape at 10 minutes. Baked for an additional 10 minutes to crisp them up.

Baked.

Note that they do spread a little so space them out when scooping.

The batter comes together quickly- no creaming or melting butter. Start by simply pouring some EVOO together with sugar. The batter can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated for up to a day. I might have over-baked mine with an additional 10 minutes. At the initial 10 minutes, the cookies were firm but had sticky bottoms. In hindsight, letting them cool completely then would've solve the problem. 

The sprinkle of sea salt is absolutely necessary both for flavor and aesthetic! I can't believe this is the first time I used it with my cookies. The salt is especially wonderful with these indulgent cookies. When the sweetness starts to get overwhelming, the salt hits just in time to reset the palette.

Maybe the bottoms won't stick if I've removed them from the silpat after they completely cooled??Since I already baked them longer, I didn't want them to continue baking out of the oven. I used a spatula to carefully pry them off.

There's a good amount of chocolate chips and dried blueberries in each cookie, making them a bit on the sweet side for me. I would probably sub a 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips with nuts or oats and use dark chocolate chips instead of milk.

Taste: 4 stars out of 5
Rich, indulgent chocolate goodness. Love the balance with the sea salt sprinkles.
Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5
Fresh from the oven, they had a thin crisp exterior and moist interior. Overtime, cookies softened.

Purple Sweet Potato Custard Cream Puffs

It's been a while since I made choux pastry and custard. I still remember how I struggled with them in the beginning of my baking days. Now, it's sort of second nature (even though I don't make them too often).

Look how far I've come.

The choux pastry recipe yielded perfectly golden brown and hollowed shells. And the pastry cream base turned out thick and creamy! The custard base was further blended with mashed sweet potato to make them purple sweet potato-y! I left some small chunks of sweet potato to give the custard an extra bite.

Choux Pastry
recipe adapted from Collecting Memories
makes about 30 mini puffs

65ml milk
65ml water
50g unsalted butter*
1/2tsp organic coconut palm sugar
pinch of salt
75g bread flour
2 eggs, beaten

*used salted butter and skipped salt

1. Preheat oven to 356F and line baking trays with parchment paper.
2. In saucepan over high heat, bring milk, water, butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil.
3. Remove from heat, add flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until smooth.
4. Return to a medium heat and stir constantly for 1 minute until the dough comes away from the sides, forms into a ball, and a thin white film forms at the bottom of the pan.
5. Remove from heat and transfer dough to to mixing bowl.
6. Beat and let cool slightly before whisking in eggs one at a time. Whisk eggs until fully incorporated, and the dough is smooth.
7. Transfer to piping bag, and pipe mounds of dough. Smooth out any pointed peaks with a moistened finger.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.
9. Transfer to a wire rack and cool before filling.

Step 2: bring to a boil.

Step 3&4: stir stir stir!

Step 5: remove from heat to mixing bowl.

Step 6: beat eggs in one at a time.

Step 7: pipe.

Smooth out any peaks with a moistened finger.

Post bake!

Look at that smooth bottoms! Get a Silpat!

Perfectly hollowed shells.

Purple Sweet Potato Pastry Cream/Custard

recipe adapted from A Busy Mom's Blog

makes enough for 30 mini puffs + a little more

3 egg yolks
250ml milk
50g organic coconut palm sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
30g cornstarch
pinch of salt
20g unsalted butter*
150g cooked purple sweet potato, mashed**

*used salted butter and skipped salt
**potato was first baked, peeled then boiled and mashed; probably yielded a drier mash than just simply boiling with skin on. Recommend boiling with skin on to preserve moisture and color.

1.Whisk together egg yolks, 60ml milk , sugar and vanilla extract. Mix in cornflour and salt.
2. In a saucepan, bring remaining 190ml milk to boil. Pour hot milk in small stream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Once incorporated, strain mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.
4. Over medium heat, whisk until mixture thickens up. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
5. Leave to cool. When cooled, blend in mashed purple sweet potato with a hand blender till mixture is smooth.
6. Cover with cling wrap, ensuring that the cling wrap touches the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate till ready to use.

Step 4: after addition of butter.

Step 5: blend in mashed potato.

*Purple sweet potato custard*

Assembly time!

Since the pastry cream turned out a bit thick, it didn't go through my small piping tip. I ended up cutting the tip out and piped straight from the bag to the halved shells. Finally time to eat!

Mini puffs ready for consumption!

Taste: 4 stars out of 5

Distinct sweet potato flavor and perfect sweetness.

Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5

Choux pastry shells softened as they cooled. Pastry cream was on the thick and dense side. Next time, I'd probably try another choux pastry recipe for crisp shells and lighten custard with some soft whipped cream.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Walnuts

Yasss! Chocolate for breakfast. And peanut butter. And banana too.. YAS YAS YAS!

This banana bread was a success with all the ingredients and flavors complementing each other and yielding a very tender and flavorful loaf. There's also a teaspoon of instant coffee powder making them no doubt breakfast appropriate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Walnuts
recipe adapted from Broma Bakery
makes 1 loaf

1/3 cup (85g) peanut butter, slightly melted
~1/4 cup (40g) organic coconut palm sugar
1 cup (262g) mashed bananas (about 2 1/2 bananas)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup (59g) cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (113g) white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup (85g) walnuts, chopped

optional (but highly recommended):

banana slices (about 1/2 banana)
3 tablespoon creamy peanut butter, melted

Mash them bananas!

Gather all wet ingredients (except eggs) + sugar..

and whisk!

Add eggs and whisk till combined.

Combine all dry ingredients, sift, and mix into wet.

Walnuts are always a good idea (:

Mix until no more dry flour.

Top with thinly sliced bananas and it is ready to bake!

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the slightly melted peanut butter, sugar, mashed bananas, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla..
3. Stir/sift in cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Stir/sift in flour.
5. Pour into loaf pan and top with thinly sliced banana pieces. Bake for roughly 55 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
6. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
7. Optional: top with peanut butter. Melt peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds, stir, and drizzle over loaf. Serve!

The white whole wheat flour added nutritious whole grain values and gave the loaf a loose/dry-ish crumb. I imagine the crumbs to be moist and tight if AP flour was used. Sugar was also drastically lowered from 150g in the original recipe to 40g. The sweetness was perfect for me after the reduction, especially when compensated with a generous drizzle of peanut butter. Ahh, let's just take a moment to admire the beautiful color contrast of the pb drizzle on the dark chocolate loaf!!

Taste: 4 stars out of 5

Rich complex chocolate mocha/pb/banana flavors.

Texture: 3.8 stars out of 5

Bread like; on the firm/dry side, but still very tender and moist as the crumbs loosen and dissolve with each bite. The exterior was crisp when fresh out the oven!

*Presentation: 5 out of 5

Absolutely in love with how aesthetically pleasing this loaf is. The thinly sliced bananas, peanut butter drizzles, and the dark color loaf.. so perfect. Tip: go generous with the peanut butter drizzles!

Matcha Mochi Waffles

Matcha and Mochi are probably my favorite M words.

The sub with coconut oil and that organic coconut palm syrup drizzle gave these waffles just the right hint of coconut. Next time, I'd probably up the matcha and glutinous rice flour to intensify the matcha flavor and chewiness.

Matcha Mochi Waffles
recipe adapted from Miss Hangry Pants
serves 4-5 (about 6 waffles)

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup mochiko *see notes
2 Tbsp sugar *see notes
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt *see notes
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp melted butter *see notes
1 cup buttermilk *see notes

*Notes: subbed mochiko with glutinous rice flour, sugar with organic coconut palm sugar, melted butter with coconut oil, buttermilk and 1 Tbsp lemon juice + milk to make 1 cup, and unintentionally skipped salt.

1. In a bowl, whisk/sift together dry ingredients (flour, mochiko, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, matcha powder, and salt).
2. In another bowl, lightly whisk together wet ingredients (egg, vanilla extract, melted butter, and buttermilk).
3. Add wet to dry and stir until no lumps.
4. Bake waffles according to waffle maker instructions on medium-high setting.
5. Cool slightly and enjoy waffles fresh!

On highest heat setting (5/5), waffles turned out dark and crisp with a fluffy interior. On medium-high setting (4/5) waffles were golden brown with an interior that was more chewy and mochi-like. I preferred mine on medium high or simply let them sit to soften. A belgian waffle maker would probably yield a better ratio of chewy interior to crisp edges.

Taste: 4 stars out of 5
Lightly sweetened and paired perfectly with a drizzle of organic coconut palm syrup. Matcha flavor was subtle.
Texture: 4 stars out of 5
Crisp and softens overtime to give that mochi bite.