Italian Sausage Orzo from Salt and Lavender

Italian Sausage Orzo - made August 5, 2022 from Salt and Lavender

17.6 ounces Italian sausages, removed from casings

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flavor

1 cup uncooked orzo pasta

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 cups fresh baby spinach, packed

salt and pepper to taste.

1. In a large saucepan set over medium heat, crumble sausage and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.
2. Add onion and cook another 5 minutes until sausage is browned and onions are soft.
3. Stir in the garlic, red pepper flakes and orzo, stirring for 30 seconds.
4. Stir in the chicken broth and cream. Once it starts to bubble, continue cooking for 10 minutes, uncovered, stirring constantly. Lower the heat so the mixture gently bubbles, not boils. 
5. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the parmesan and spinach and cover the pot for 3-5 minutes or until sauce has thickened and spinach is soft. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

I love simple, one-dish meals. Even better if I can sneak in something a little healthy and eat it without choking. Of course I refer to the spinach above. I don't love spinach but I can usually eat it raw (with other stuff) or cooked (with other stuff). It's one of the few vegetables I'll eat cooked as I prefer the few veggies I do eat to be raw. But cook down some spinach in a quiche or a cream-based dish, I'm good. Yes, I know that takes away from the nutritious value of spinach but oh well.

I don't usually cook with orzo but this seemed so easy to make (and it was), that I wanted to try it.

This is a great dish if you want something easy and quick to make. The Italian sausage adds some spice and protein to the dish and okay, fine, the heavy cream and parmesan cheese don't make it that healthy but hey, spinach.

Turns out I like orzo because it seems like a good cross between rice and pasta. Plus it's easy to cook with. And even the spinach goes down easy in this dish.

Alice Medrich's Blondies with Toffee Bits

Alice Medrich's Blondies - made July 31, 2022 from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt in Your Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich  

1 cup (4.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (6.125 ounces) packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon dark rum or bourbon, optional

2/3 cup (2.33 ounces) coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or 1/2 cup toffee bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the brown sugar. Use a wooden spoon to beat in the egg, vanilla and rum, if using. Stir in the flour mixture followed by half the walnuts, if using. Spread the batter in the pan. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts and the toffee bits evenly over the top.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the nuts look toasted, the top is golden brown and the edges have pulled way from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a rack before cutting and serving.

Every once in awhile, I remind myself I have a ton of baking books I should be using. I literally have full bookshelves of them. And that's after I culled a lot of them out and donated them to my local libraries prior to my last two moves. So I should make more of an effort to use them since I've only tried a fraction of the recipes from those books. That reminder usually comes when I catch myself looking at new ones and almost buying them. Before the mental slap of "use what you already have" comes around.

So with this recipe, I did. I've had good luck with recipes from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy baking book and this was no exception. Her original recipe calls for adding nuts and chocolate chips into these blondies. I don't like nuts inside most baked goods and I don't really see the point of adding chocolate into blondies. If I wanted chocolate in a bar cookie, I'd make brownies.

Instead, I added toffee bits for a little extra flavor and a bit of a crunch that delivers better than nuts would inside baked goods (nuts steam and soften in baking, hence losing most of their crunch). These blondies were really, really good. I only had a sliver as I was packing them up for Soldiers Angels care packages and the recipe only makes an 8-inch pan's worth of blondies. But I had enough to love the flavor. Surprisingly, I think it was due to the rum. I don't drink but I have rum on hand for baking and it worked really well in this recipe. It cuts the sweetness and adds a flavor you may not guess unless you know it's rum. My non-alcoholic palate wouldn't have known but I thought it was perfect in this blondie.

Crumbl Cookies review #27: Coconut Rainbow Cake, Macadmia Nut and Sugar Shark

Crumbl Cookies review #27: Coconut Rainbow Cake, Macadamia Nut and Sugar Shark

This was a week of flavors where I was only going to get one single cookie or a 4-pack. That was the plan anyway. I failed in that plan as I ended up getting three cookies instead. Economically, it's cheaper per cookie to get 4 cookies. The 4th cookie I had planned to get was the pineapple upside down cake cookie but I'd read too many mixed reviews online about it being dry, mushy, soggy, dry again, no flavor, great flavor, etc. Normally I like to make up my own mind but since I've discovered my local Crumbls don't have that much turnover in their cookies and I always seem to get cookies that have been in the warmer too long, I was afraid I'd get one of the ones that are dry. No thanks.

So I went with my original plan to just get the Coconut Rainbow Cake. The nod to the rainbow was the scrap of rainbow sour licorice (?) garnish. I tried the garnish and didn't like it. They could've just called this a Frosted Coconut Cookie and that would have been fine with me.

I thought this cookie was excellent but then again, I love all things coconut. The outer edge were a bit crisp (that too long in the warmer thing again) but the middle of the cookie had a great, soft texture. I also liked the flavor. For me, it wasn't an overwhelming coconut but more like a sugar cookie with coconut flakes. There was still too much frosting for me so I scraped most of it off and enjoyed the cookie. This was from my first Crumbl visit of the week.

Later the same week, I was taking my mom out to do her grocery shopping and we ended up at an Asian grocery store that had a different Crumbl nearby that I hadn't gone to before. Wanting to test my too-long-in-the-warmer theory that unfortunately holds up too often in the other Crumbls I've gone to closer to my house, I thought I'd try this new one and see what they were like. They're a little too far to go just for cookies (12 miles vs 2.5 miles to my closest one) but since I was already there in the same parking lot for another reason, might as well check it out, right?

I'm glad I did as their cookies were the perfect level of underbaked that had lured me to Crumbl in the first place. Not too mushy but soft and chewy/cakey/just right. 

The macadamia nut was perfectly made, good brown sugar flavor, generous amount of white chocolate and macadamia nuts. I can make my own macadamia nut white chocolate cookies that are also pretty good (my favorite recipe here) but I always like trying Crumbl's version, at least once. I don't need to get this one again but I'm glad I tried it from a good location.

The Sugar Shark is basically their vanilla sugar with blue frosting and gummy sharks on top. I knew that going in but I love their vanilla sugar and like to get it when it's available. Plus I was still in test-my-theory-about-the-warmer mode and this seemed like a safe one to get.

It was a good decision as this too was perfectly made and just as good as the vanilla sugar I got from the Sparks, NV Crumbl store back before I moved. I didn't care for the gummy sharks and threw them out (not worth the chewing effort or the calories) but I loved every crumb of the cookie. I even ate most of the frosting since they didn't spread it too thick.

Now I know, next time Crumbl has a good lineup of flavors, I'll have to gather up all the errands I need to do in that neighborhood and drive the extra distance to the Henderson, NV Crumbl.

White Chocolate Toasted Coconut Cookies from Baking with Blondie

White Chocolate Toasted Coconut Cookies - made dough July 16, 2022 from Baking with Blondie 

1 cup unsalted butter, cubed and cold

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup toasted coconut

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter for 1 minute until smooth and creamy. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar, mixing on high speed until well combined, 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla, mixing well after each addition.
4. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt in two additions, mixing until just combined after each addition. Reserve a handful of white chocolate chips before adding the rest to the dough. Add toasted coconut and mix on low speed.
5. Portion dough into 8 equal-sized dough balls. Evenly space four dough balls per baking sheet. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, for 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press reserved white chocolate chips over the tops of the cookies. Let cookies rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

If anyone's keeping track, this is the 4th recipe I've tried from Baking with Blondie's list of big cookie recipes. And, like the others, this was also delicious. In fact, this comes a close second, or even a near tie with her Biscoff White Chocolate Chip cookies. 

I can't even tell you why this one stands out since the base recipe is the same as the others. Perhaps it's the toasted coconut that gives it texture but, almost surprisingly, I really liked the white chocolate in it. And I'm not a white chocolate fan. But it worked extremely well in this cookie.

The (large) tester cookie

Inside the tester cookie

The inside of the tester cookie looks a little raw in the picture above as I broke it apart when it was still a little warm. But the picture below is when it was completely cool and you can see it's got the perfect (to me) texture. I loved this cookie.

Crumbl Cookies review #26: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Maple Glaze

Crumbl Cookies review #26: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Maple Glaze, July 23, 2022

I only bought the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip this week as that's all I really wanted to try but someone brought my sister a 4-pack so I split the Maple Glaze with my niece and gave her and her boyfriend the other cookies (Oreo and Chocolate Mallow Cupcake).

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

I probably could've skipped this week. I like Oatmeal Chocolate Chip but it didn't strike me as a special flavor and is one I could make myself. But apparently that Crumbl habit is hard to break. I was supposed to be on a Crumbl break, remember? Yeah, that's not working out.

The main reason I got it was not only to try a different Crumbl cookie I hadn't had before but also because they use milk chocolate chips. Among Crumbl consumers, there's quite the heated debate about milk chocolate vs semisweet. Like suit-up-for-battle worthy online debates between keyboard warriors (sorry, but *eyeroll*). They're cookies and chocolate chips. Eat what you enjoy and let others do the same. Don't buy what you don't like. Buy what you do. Okay, off my soapbox. In any case, milk chocolate is what led me to buy this cookie. A purchase in support of milk chocolate usage is worth more than furious typing between online strangers.

I did enjoy this cookie. It's not quite as oatmeal-ish as a regular oatmeal cookie. It was more like their regular milk chocolate chip with some oatmeal and a little cinnamon thrown in. It was good. Not sure I need to get it again now that I've tried it but I enjoyed it.

Maple Glaze

I didn't enjoy the Maple Glaze as much. I'm not a big maple fan in the first place, although I don't mind some good Vermont maple syrup on my pancakes. But it wasn't the maple that bothered me in this cookie since it was just a glaze drizzle.

No, it was more all the brown sugar on top. I'm not one who shies away from sugar, as years of blogging about baked goods will prove, but I didn't love the brown sugar in its purest form all over the top of the cookie. That made it too sweet. You can imagine I don’t say that too often. This goes in the glad I tried it, wouldn't get it again category.

White Chocolate Chip Biscoff Cookies from Baking with Blondie

White Chocolate Chip Biscoff Cookies - made July 22, 2022 from Baking with Blondie 

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1/2 cup biscoff spread

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, cold

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (can also substitute half cake flour)

10 whole Biscoff cookies, crushed to a powder in a food processor or with a rolling pin

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

6 biscoff cookies, crumbled for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for 1 minute, until light and fluffy. Add biscoff spread, brown sugar and granulated sugar, mixing at high speed until well combined, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Add the flour, Biscoff cookie power, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, mixing on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Reserve a handful of the white chocolate chips and fold remaining chips into dough. Portion dough into 8 equally-sized large dough balls. Place 4 dough balls on each baking sheet and press Biscoff cookie crumbles on top of each cookie.
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes; remove from oven and immediately press reserved white chocolate chips on top. Let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm getting a little obsessed with the recipes for big cookies on Baking with Blondie's blog. The base recipe seems to be the same or close enough for most of them with a few variations depending on the flavor. Which means they're all turning out reliably, consistently delicious.

This one was no exception. If you're a cookie butter lover, turn on your oven and break out your mixer. These are freaking delicious. If you like big, soft, chewy cookies, that is. If you like your cookies thin, flat and crispy, sorry, these won't be to your taste. But if you like your cookie texture somewhere between cookie dough-like and soft cakey-chewy cookie, loosen that waistband and dig in.

What I love about her recipes is the cookie dough always handles beautifully, not too soft or sticky and not dry or crumbly, despite the hefty amount of dry ingredients. I made 3 baseball-sized behemoth cookies first then portioned the dough into normal-people and care package-sized cookies. 

I sent 2 of the big cookies in a care package to a coworker friend and her husband on the East Coast and kept the third big cookie as my taste test cookie. Like a Crumbl cookie, I did cut it into fourths and ate a fourth for the taste test (the other 3/4 went into the freezer to be doled out on my running workout days).  That's how I could swear blind this is one of the best cookie butter cookies I've eaten. The white chocolate complements it perfectly, the cookie butter flavor comes through and the garnish of cookie butter cookies add a great crunch. This jumps straight to my holiday baking list. Yes, they're that good.