Eggless Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies Recipe

This recipe was actually a mistake. I had a pile full of recipes that I was working to adapt into something egg-free / corn-free for my son and I started to make what I thought was one cookie, but I realized midway through that it was not the right one. So, I kind of just went with it. They turned out nice and soft — almost like a brownie taste in a bite-sized cookie. Nice.

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons Kahlua
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda.
3. In another bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, sour cream, milk and Kahlua.
4. Mix in the flour mixture.
5. Add chocolate chips.
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a well-seasoned or nonstick cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Important to note here for allergy folks:

• As far as I know, everything in Kahlua is made from sugar (the alcohol is distilled from sugar) and my son has never reacted to it. Your mileage may vary, of course. I use Kahlua instead of vanilla in recipes since vanilla almost always contains corn-distilled alcohol. I’ve run out of my home brew (vanilla pods + spudka potato vodka) and didn’t think that the mere 1/2 cup sugar would give much vanilla flavor if I used our vanilla sugar… mess around with it and do what works for your own allergies / tastes.
• Daisy sour cream (full fat version) is the only kind I’ve found in my area that doesn’t add corn ingredients as thickeners or whatnot.
• Use a baking powder (like Hain’s Featherweight) that doesn’t have corn starch if making corn-free.

Interesting: Bread as Plate

I’m reading this eBook: Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the Renaissance Period by Paul Lacroix.

It has an interesting bit about bread. I guess this is one way to do without a plate:

“It must be stated that the custom of leavening the dough by the addition of a ferment was not universally adopted amongst the ancients. For this reason, as the dough without leaven could only produce a heavy and indigestible bread, they were careful, in order to secure their loaves being thoroughly cooked, to make them very thin. These loaves served as plates for cutting up the other food upon, and when they thus became saturated with the sauce and gravy they were eaten as cakes.”

Other interesting bits about food:

“…peas passed as a royal dish in the sixteenth century, when the custom was to eat them with salt pork.”

In reading some of Michael Pollan’s books (just finished In Defense of Food) it inspired me to try and figure out what people used to eat back in the day. Peas and salt pork. Go figure. Simple, but probably really delicious. I think pork enhances anything “green.” Ha.

“In the time of Bruyérin Champier, physician to Henry II., raspberries were still completely wild; the same author states that wood strawberries had only just at that time been introduced into gardens, ‘by which,’ he says, ‘they had attained a larger size, though they at the same time lost their quality.’ “

Sounds like modern agriculture, actually… sacrificing quality for quantity.

“Although the consumption of butchers’ meat was not so great in the Middle Ages as it is now, the trade of a butcher, to which extraordinary privileges were attached, was nevertheless one of the industries which realised the greatest profits.”

Not so much today… cheap meat and those working at the slaughterhouse are not held too high in our society, no?

Gold Rush Brownies

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 6 ounces chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix all ingredients and place in a buttered 8×8 pan.
3. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. Allow brownies to cool before cutting.

Hamburger Stroganoff Recipe

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can (8 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups cooked egg noodles or rice
• parsley (optional)

1. Brown beef and onion in butter a large skillet until onion is tender.
2. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Stir in flour, salt, pepper and mushrooms and cook 5 minutes more.
4. Stir in soup and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered.
5. Stir in sour cream until heated through.
6. Serve over noodles or rice, sprinkled with parsley.

Orange Sugar Cookies Recipe

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate
• 3 tablespoons orange zest
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Cream butter and half the sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well.
4. Add orange juice and 1 tablespoon of the orange zest.
5. Whisk together flour and baking powder and then add to the wet ingredients.
6. Wrap dough in wax paper and put in fridge for 2-4 hours.
7. Roll dough to about 1/4 inch.
8. Cut with a cookie cutter and bake on an oil-sprayed or nonstick cookie sheet.
9. Mix remaining sugar and orange zest and sprinkle on cookies.
10. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Garlic Butter Green Beans Recipe

So, I bought some fresh green beans, but I never really know what to do with them besides just steam them or whatnot. My boyfriend has a number of favorite things he likes in his food, so I thought, I wonder if I can come up with something that combines all of that… and well, here it is.

• 3 cups fresh green beans, cleaned, ends trimmed and snapped in half
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oi
• 2 strips bacon cooked and crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Add green beans and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Drain beans and set aside.
4. Return empty pot to stove and add butter and olive oil.
5. When butter is melted, add garlic and saute until it reaches the color you like (we like it nice and brown).
6. Add beans back to pan along with bacon crumbles and toss, heating throughout.
7. Add salt and pepper and serve.

Tahini Dressing Recipe

• 3 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste - this used to be hard to find but I’ve seen it at Wal-Mart even lately)
• 7 Tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• juice of one lemon
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

1. In a bowl, mix tahini and water until thoroughly blended.
2. Add garlic, lemon juice and parsley and whisk just a few times.
3. Sprinkle paprika over the mix.
4. Serve with a salad, with veggies or over fish.

Eggless, Dairy Free, Corn-Free Chocolate Chip Cake (or Muffins) Recipe

Another recipe I concocted for my kiddo and his allergies… (see this recipe for notes on Kahlua, etc.) I was really amazed at the moisture level of this cake. Really good stuff.

1. 2 cups flour
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. 1 cup chocolate chips
6. 1 cup club soda
7. 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
8. 2 teaspoons Kahlua

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Butter and flour an 8 x 8 or other similarly sized cake pan.
3. Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl.
4. Add sugar and chocolate chips and give a stir.
5. Make a well in the middle of the mix and add the club soda, vinegar and Kahlua.
6. Stir just until it’s all combined. Don’t overmix.
7. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Note: These make great muffins, too. Also, you could add a frosting, but we’ve found that with the chips and the general moisture level of this, it does not really need it.

Eggless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 - 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, sugars and vanilla together.
3. Add flour and salt to butter mix and blend well.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add to the sugar / flour mix.
5. Stir in oats, raisins and chocolate chips.
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

This was one of my favorite recipes when I was a kid because I was forbidden to turn the oven on when I was home alone.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Add butter, sugar, milk and cocoa to a pan and bring to a boil.
2. Boil for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats and vanilla.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto wax paper and allow to cool.

Hint: You may need more or less oats, so don’t be afraid to add more if the dough looks too thin or wet.