Unassuming, but delicious.

This year I decided to participate in my first ever Cookie Swap!

This means that I sent out three boxes of cookies to three food bloggers and three other food bloggers will be hopefully sending me three boxes of goodies.

While I was mailing my boxes of cookies I did have this moment of thinking that this might be some very elaborate pyramid scheme to get millions of free holiday cookies for a few lucky people!

I had this vision of the creators (Lindsay and Julie) sitting around hundreds of boxes of collected cookies… laughing all the way to the dentist’s office.

Of course, that won’t really happen. Food bloggers are generally the nicest people ever and I have full faith that I’ll receive my delicious boxes of cookies.

This year I think something crazy like 700 food bloggers signed up for the cookie swap. I have no earthly idea how long it took Lindsay and Julie to organize and match that many people, but I do honestly hope they sent themselves a few free boxes of cookies just for the trouble!

If you want to sign up for next year’s cookie swap, there’s already a signup form for it.

These brown butter guys are the cookies I sent out to my matches!

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, browned
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant kind)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 Cup dried cherries, chopped
1 Cup chocolate chips

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Directions:

1) Add butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt butter, stirring slowly. After butter melts, continue to cook for a few minutes until the butter solids start to brown. It easy to tell this if you use a non-dark colored pan as you'll be able to actually see the brown bits on the bottom. You can also tell when the butter is browned by the smell. It will start to smell very nutty which means it's done!

2) Pour off browned butter carefully. Try to leave most of the browned solids in the pan, but it's okay if some go with the butter. Let this cool.

3) Cream together sugars with brown butter until they are smooth using a hand mixer or stand mixer.

4) Beat in eggs one at a time and vanilla extract.

5) In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips and cherries.

6) Slowly mix in dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

7) Stir in add-ins (chocolate and cherries).

8) Spoon large tablespoons of cookie dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

9) Bake cookies at 375 for 10-12 minutes until they are lightly browned around the edges.

10) Let cookies cool on a wire rack.

Butter, Browned

What I like about these cookies is that they are surprising. They look just like normal old oatmeal cookies, but they are jam-packed with flavor.

Step one to creating that flavor is to brown some butter. That gives the cookies a great nutty flavor that goes really well with the brown sugar.

If you’ve never browned butter before, it’s not all that hard. Just add your butter to a small saucepan and melt the butter over medium heat. Stir it frequently and after a few minutes the butter solids will separate out and sink to the bottom of the pan.

If you have a light colored saucepan, you’ll be able to actually start to see them brown a bit. You’ll also be able to smell the butter. When it’s done, it will have an intense nutty smell.

Start to finish, the butter browning process maybe takes 5-6 minutes.

Then you can pour off your browned butter. Try to leave behind most of the butter solids, but its okay if some get mixed in. It won’t affect the recipe at all.

Flavor town.

The Cookie Dough

Start this dough by mixing together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. If you can’t find oat flour, you can definitely use just all-purpose flour.

All the dry business.

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat together the browned butter and sugars until they are smooth and light. This should take a few minutes.

Then slowly mix in your eggs and your vanilla.

Once that is all mixed together, slowly mix in your dry ingredients, working in batches.

Try not to overmix this dough. When the flour is incorporated, it’s done!

Pretty simple.

The Add-ins

I figured these cookies would have lots of flavor and great texture as-is, but this is a cookie swap so I wanted to amp up the flavor even more.

So I mixed in some chocolate and dried cherries. I figured it’s hard to go wrong with these flavors.

Don't skimp on these!

Once those are mixed in your dough is done and you’re ready to make some cookies!

This makes a lot of cookies.

Baking the Cookies

Scoop large tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. You should get about 36 cookies out of this recipe.

Twelve cookies per baking sheet should be about right.

Ready to go!

Bake these guys at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

The should be lightly browned around the edges and still a bit soft in the center.

Let them cool on a wire rack if you have one.

If you’re photographing your cookies, here’s a TIP! Don’t photograph them on a counter that is almost exactly the same color as the cookies.

Talk about camouflage!

My counter is like camo for these...

The Packaging

I stressed out a lot about how to ship these cookies. I ended up letting the cookies cool completely and then sealing them well in a large freezer plastic bag.

Next I lined a large box with plastic wrap and filled the bottom with spicy kettle corn! I figured that would cushion the cookies a bit and also give the recipients a little extra treat.

The finished package!

Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Now I need to make another batch of these for myself!

Find me a better chocolate chip cookie. I'll wait.

Are you in desperate need of a raise, lover, friend, or just some general praise? These cookies, my friend, have the potential to get you all of those things. Ok. I can’t promise the raise, but ya never know!

Anybody can make a decent chocolate chip cookie right? The good news is that anybody can also make a better chocolate chip cookie because these little guys are better than the standard but still pretty straightforward to make.

There’s one trick and one secret ingredient that takes these cookies to the next level.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: Makes 24-30 cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/4 Cups bread flour (you can use all-purpose, but they'll lose some awesome chewiness)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 Cup sugar
1 1/4 Cups dark brown sugar (packed)
1 Tablespoon Half and Half or heavy cream
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 Cups chocolate chips

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Directions:

1) Mix flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

2) In a medium pot, add butter over medium heat and cook until melted. Turn heat down to low.

3) Cook, and whisk occasionally, until milk fats seperate out and slightly burn on the bottom of the pan. Little brown specks will appear and it will smell very nutty. This should take 15-20 minutes.

4) Let brown butter cool for a few minutes then add sugars and stir to combine. Let cool for a few more minutes until warm.

5) Add sugar/butter mixture to a stand mixer bowl or a bowl with a hand mixer and cream together on medium speed until slightly fluffy and combined, about 5 minutes.

6) Add egg and yolk, vanilla, half and half, and lemon juice.

7) Next add flour in a few batches and stir on low speed until well incorporated. Don't overmix though.

8) Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and store in the fridge for at least an hour, but you could store it for up to a week.

9) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Add large tablespoons of dough to a parchment sheet lined baking sheet. Roll dough into balls.

10) Bake for 9-10 minutes. Preferably underbake these.

11) Cool for a minute or two preferably on a wire rack and eat as soon as possible!

Adapted from a Recipe Girl recipe.

The Secret Ingredient

I haven’t seen many cookies that are made with bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. In fact, the first time I saw this recipe I thought it was a mistake.

But trust me. It’s not a mistake. This is the stuff you want.

Secret ingredient alert!

Bread flour has a slightly higher amount of gluten in it which is why it’s great for breads. It gives you that really chewy texture that you can’t reproduce with all-purpose flour. In fact, most bakeries use even a higher-gluten flour then bread flour which is pretty hard to find in stores.

Because of the bread flour, these cookies have a bit more chew to them then you’re probably used to. It makes for a fantastic texture.

Besides the flour, you’ll need some standard cookie stuff, including a lot of butter of course.

Butter and suga.

To start, mix your flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside for later. You don’t want to have to be worried about that at the last minute.

Browning the butter

I’ve made brown butter sugar cookies before and these are a similar process. The flavor is really boosted in these though because of the brown sugar, extra vanilla, and chocolate obviously. These are much more decadent.

The butter process is the same though. If you’ve never browned butter before, don’t stress about it. It’s really simple.

Start by adding your butter to a medium pot over medium-low heat and let it melt. Once it starts frothing, turn the heat down to low and whisk the butter. As the butter cooks, the water will evaporate from the butter leaving only the oil and the milk solids. Eventually, the milk solids will separate out and start to brown which gives it the distinct brown color and also the delicious nutty flavor.

It’ll take about 15-20 minutes for the butter to brown. Just whisk it every minute or so to make sure that it’s heating evenly. There’s no need to lord over it though.

You know your done when it smells very fragrant and nutty and looks like this!

Don't be nervous about this.

See those little brown specks at the bottom? Those are butter gold!

Let this cool for a minute and then add all your sugar to the brown butter. Stir it all together.

Basically this is a caramel sauce.

If we continued to heat this and melted all the sugar, you’d have a brown butter caramel sauce!

But we don’t want that. We want cookie dough, so it’s okay if your sugar and butter separate out some.

Let the butter/sugar mixture cool down before continuing since we are going to be adding eggs to them. You don’t want to cook the eggs!

Making the Dough

From here on out the process is the exact same as making any cookie dough. Add the butter/sugar mixture to a stand mixer or use a hand mixer (on medium) to cream the butter and sugar together. It should lighten up a bit and turn fluffy. My took about 4 minutes to get to the right point.

Then add your egg and egg yolk and continue to mix. Add the vanilla, half and half, and lemon juice, and eventually you’ll have a very smooth caramel colored mixture.

This is the stuff dream cookies are made of.

Again... caramel sauce.

Turn the mixer to low and stir in the bread flour mixture in a few batches just until it’s combined.

Then add in all the chocolate chips and stir again until they are evenly distributed. Try not to over-mix the dough.

Chillin

This dough needs to chill before you use it. Wrap it up in plastic wrap and store it in your fridge for an hour or two before baking.

You could keep it in your fridge for a week like this without a problem.

Baking the cookies

When you’re ready to bake, roll the dough into heaping Tablespoon sized balls and add them to a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

You can make these pretty big.

These will not spread out like some cookies do. Instead they will puff up! So you don’t need as much space between each cookie. Just an inch or so should do the trick.

Bake them at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes. Cookies are always better if they are slightly underbaked so I recommend pulling them out at 9 minutes.

Let them cool for a few minutes (move them to a rack if you have one handy), and then dig in!

BITE!

These are best right out of the oven, but they were actually still very good a day later.

I didn’t have any left to try after that point. If they make it longer than 24 hours without being consumed, you probably did something wrong!

BBQ. Meet nacho.

It’s no secret that Tex-Mex is way up there on my (and Betsy’s) list of favorite cuisines. I mean how can you go wrong? It’s spicy and cheesy and generally quick to make. Sometimes though I get a bit bored with the standard stuff (Betsy doesn’t). I’ve made some other types of nachos in the past but this is a new twist on them.

I really loved the BBQ sauce I made for this recipe. I’m not a huge fan of really ketchup-heavy BBQ sauces which means I generally don’t like store bought BBQ sauces (except for a few that I think are really good like Sweet Baby Ray’s). You could make this recipe really easy just by using your favorite store-bought sauce, but making your own BBQ can be really fun.

BBQ Chicken Nachos

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds (approx) chicken. I used chicken breasts for this version which are probably the easiest.
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 ounces smoked gouda, shredded
red onion, sliced
Cilantro, sliced
Optional stuff: sour cream, serrano peppers, avocado, hot sauce, salsa

BBQ Sauce:
1 onion, grated
1 serrano pepper, diced (or jalapeno)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon neutral oil
2/3 Cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons molasses
1/2 Cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup bourbon (optional)
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) To make the BBQ sauce, grate the onion over the big holes in a box grater. Also, dice the pepper and garlic.

2) Add oil to medium saucepan over medium-high heat and, when hot, add the onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until soft.

3) Add other BBQ ingredients and simmer on low until thick. Adjust to your tastes.

4) Meanwhile, poach chicken in lightly simmering water for 15 minutes until cooked through and tender.

5) Remove chicken from water and let cool. Then use two forks to shred the chicken.

6) Add the shredded chicken to the BBQ sauce and combine well.

7) Cover a baking sheet (or 2) with tortilla chips. Then top with the BBQ chicken mixture. Top with shredded cheese and sliced red onions.

8) Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted, probably 15 minutes.

9) Top with any addtional toppings and serve immediately!

Making the Sauce

The nice thing about making your own barbecue sauce is that you can, well, make it your own! I honestly make it a bit different every time but it usually has most of these guys in it. Not pictured below is some molasses that I decided to toss in at the last minute.

Make it your own people.

Prepping the veggies. One trick to help your sauce stay relatively smooth without having to blend or process it is to grate your onion instead of chop it. The grating makes it almost dissolve in the sauce and flavor it really nicely and evenly. Plus, grating it is actually easier than chopping it anyway.

I still chopped up my serrano and garlic as normal though.

Grated!

Start by adding the oil to a medium saucepan and once it’s hot, add the onions, pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the onion is soft, then add all the other sauce ingredients.

Stir this all together and let it start to simmer and cook down over medium-low heat. It doesn’t need to be really thick. It won’t be as sugary or thick as some bottle sauces that you see, but there’s a lot of flavor going on in there. If you want it thicker you can cook it down until it reaches a consistency that you like or add a bit more ketchup or brown sugar which will thicken it up as well.

I simmered mine for probably 10-15 minutes.

I like mine on the vinegary side.

The Chicken

The easiest way to cook the chicken for this dish is just to poach it in some softly simmering water. Get a big pot of water boiling and add a few pinches of salt. Once it’s simmering, add the chicken and cook, covered, for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through.

The good news about poaching chicken like this is that it’s basically impossible to overcook it. It’ll be nice and tender no matter what. Once it’s done, let the chicken cool for a bit before trying to handle it.

Perfectly poached.

The BBQ Chicken

Get a fork and use it to pull apart the chicken, shredding it to pieces. Then add all that shredded chicken straight into your BBQ sauce. Stir it all together and you have a big pot of deliciousness.

All mixed together.

As an aside, this chicken could be used for a number of things besides nachos (which is good because you’ll probably have leftovers). You could make a BBQ chicken sandwich with it, or a quesadilla, or a pizza… you get the idea.

If you’re making nachos though, just spread out a bunch of tortilla chips on a sheet pan and fork on a good amount of the BBQ chicken.

You probably know this part.

Next, add the shredded cheese. I used a combination of mozzarella and smoked gouda. The gouda works awesomely with the BBQ Chicken. I also sprinkled on some diced red onions to give it some bite.

Simple really.

Since the chicken is already cooked, just bake these guys at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. Should take about 15 minutes. Then sprinkle on some chopped cilantro and any other toppings you fancy.

Yum.

Betsy and I ate these without any toppings other than the cilantro actually and I thought they were really good but probably could have been even better with some hot sauce or maybe some diced avocado.

At the end of the day, this is a really flexible dish that is almost guaranteed to make some really good nachos. Do me a favor though and at least try to whip up some of your own BBQ sauce. You won’t be disappointed and might never go back to the bottled stuff.

So for the last cookie of the week, I wanted to do something simple. And these browned butter cookies are definitely simple to make. They also happen to be delicious.

I wish you could smell these.

Browned butter cookies are kind of the Holy Grail of holiday cookies. They may not look as colorful or shiny as some of the others, but it would be a horrible mistake to pass them up.

(For those Indiana Jones fans, please do not carry the analogy further than this. You will not turn to dust if you choose a different cookie.)

Brown Butter Cookies

Yield: Makes 16.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cups (1 1/2 Sticks) salted butter
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar (I used light and I wish I could have a do over.)
1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 Cups all-purpose flour
Demerara sugar, for coating cookies (or any other large grained sugar)

NOTE: If you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 Teaspoon of salt to the dough.

Directions:

1) Add butter to a small saucepan; place the pan over medium-low heat until it melts. Stir the butter and after a few minutes it will start to foam and then the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Keep stirring or swirling pan and eventually the butter will start to turn a light brown and give off a very delicious, nutty aroma.

2) Once the butter is brown, pour it into a dish and store it in the fridge for about an hour. It needs to be chilled and almost solid before continuing with the recipe. It’s okay if it’s a little liquid still, but it should be cold before you make the cookie dough.

3) Once butter is cool, add it to a bowl along with brown sugar.

4) Mix the butter and sugar together with a mixer (hand or stand) on medium until they light and airy for 3 to 4 minutes.

5) Add vanilla and slowly incorporate flour.

6) Either scoop onto a baking sheet or lie out dough on wax paper and wrap the wax paper around the dough and press down to form a cylinder. Using your hands, press on the one edge of the dough – sandwiching the cylinder of dough between the two sides of paper. As you press down, the cylinder gets longer (and narrower).

7) Sprinkle down a good amount of demerara sugar (or any very grainy sugar like sugar in the raw).

8) Roll dough log around in the sugar until it’s well coated.

9) Wrap dough up in the wax paper and stick it in the fridge for a few days without a problem or freeze it for a few weeks.

10) When you are ready to bake, take it out and slice off as many cookies as you need.

11) Before baking, sprinkle a bit more of the sugar on top of the cookies.

12) Bake them on an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly dark.

Adapted from a Gourmet recipe. RIP.

Making Brown Butter

There’s really no trick to making brown butter. It’s a lot easier than you might think considering how freakin’ delicious it is. Basically, just add your butter to a small saucepan.

Salted butter is good for this.

Then place the pan over medium-low heat until it melts. Stir the butter and after a few minutes it will start to foam and then the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Keep stirring or swirling your pan and eventually the butter will start to turn a light brown and give off a very delicious, nutty aroma.

That means it’s done.

Really the only way you can mess this up is to overcook it and turn your brown butter black. I actually think I overcooked mine a bit for this recipe because I was watching football and not watching my butter. Go figure.

This was my result which was just a tiny shade too dark I would say.

Maybe a tad too browned...

Cool the butter

Once you have your brown butter, pour it into a dish (above) and store it in the fridge for about an hour. You want it to be chilled and almost solid before continuing with the recipe.

It’s okay if it’s a little liquid still, but it should be cold before you make the cookie dough.

Annoying, but important step!

Making the Dough

Once your butter is cool, add it to a bowl along with your brown sugar. Don’t worry about the tiny particles of milk solids. You can add those also. They won’t hurt a soul.

I used light brown sugar because I had it on hand, but I think dark brown sugar would be a lot better. It would just hold up better to the brown butter flavor. It’d be worth a trip to the store in my opinion.

Anyway, mix the butter and sugar together with a mixer (hand or stand) on medium until they light and airy. That shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 minutes.

Shoulda used dark brown sugar.

Then add your vanilla and slowly incorporate your flour. This isn’t a very wet dough, but that’s okay.

I think you could just scoop these on a baking sheet and bake them without a problem but if you want to take it to the next level, lay out all your dough on some wax paper and wrap the wax paper around the dough and press down to form a cylinder.

I use my hands to kind of press on the one edge of the dough – sandwiching the cylinder of dough between the two sides of paper. As you press down, the cylinder gets longer (and narrower)! Get it?

Kind of like compound butter...

You can make your cylinder whatever size you want. The smaller you want your cookies, the narrower your cylinder should be. Mine was probably about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.

Next, sprinkle down a good amount of demerara sugar (or any very grainy sugar like sugar in the raw). Roll your dough log around in the sugar until it’s well coated.

Easy!

At this point you can wrap your dough up in the wax paper and stick it in the fridge for a few days without a problem or freeze it for a few weeks!

When you are ready to bake, just take it out and slice off as many cookies as you need.

Baking the cookies

Before baking, I like to sprinkle a bit more of the sugar on top of the cookies which just gives them a little more texture and sweetness.

Bake them on an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly dark.

Really flaky and flavorful!

I made two mild errors with these cookies (not using dark brown sugar and slightly overcooking my brown butter) and they still turned out very good. The final cookie is light and flaky and melts in your mouth.

Simple and very tasty!

Oh, and if anyone is paying attention, the thing I borrowed from yesterday’s cookie recipe is rolling in sugar!

I don’t really see that as a bad thing, but some weight loss people are crazy about eliminating carbs ever since this guy named Atkins… My goal with this post though was to make something is very delicious and slightly healthier than you might otherwise eat.

I came up with this delicious sweet potato gnocchi recipe that turned out much better than I thought it would.

Not too shabby!

It must be stated for the record that I originally thought about making an even healthier recipe by trying to make cauliflower gnocchi. When I told Betsy about my idea, she honestly replied, “That sounds disgusting.”

I decided she was right. Plus, I’m not sure that it would have technically worked. So I went with sweet potatoes. They are packed with flavor and are slightly healthier than normal potatoes (sweet potato vs. normal potato).

Since really gnocchi is just the veggie plus a bit of flour and an egg, it’s actually pretty healthy for you. Where people get in trouble with gnocchi is the sauce. More on that later!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled, boiled
1 1/2 - 2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
Pinch of salt

Sauce:
1 28 ounce can tomato sauce
3-4 tablespoons fresh basil
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Peel sweet potatoes and cut them into large 2 inch cubes.

2) Boil potatoes in a large pot of salted water (use approximately 1 tablespoon of kosher salt per gallon of water) Drop chunks of potatoes straight into the water and let them cook until they are very tender, about 20 minutes.

3) After cooking, move the potatoes to a bowl lined with paper towels (this will soak up a lot of water). Let them rest for a few minutes.

4) Add dried potatoes to a much larger bowl and mush them up with a fork.

5) Let potatoes cool completely by placing them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

6) For sauce, add a large can of tomatoes (28 ounces – you can use the juice and tomatoes if you want it even lighter) and a few Tablespoons of basil to a blender. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and some garlic and blend it up. This is your sauce.

7) Add one egg to the potatoes and mix well.

8) Slowly add flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, until the dough starts to come together (approximately 1.5 cups of flour total).

9) To form the gnocchi, take about 1/6 of the dough and add it to a well-floured surface. Turn it around to coat it completely in flour and then start slowly rolling it into a long snake.

10) Once you get the rope of gnocchi to the right width (about the width of your thumb), chop it into 1/2 inch sections.

11) Take each little gnocchi nugget and roll it gently over the tines of a fork to make gnocchi ridges. Place gnocchi on a lightly floured baking sheet.

12) Add gnocchi to a pot of simmering, water. When they float, they are done!

13) Serve with light tomato sauce or, if you can spare the calories, browned butter is the only way to go. Just toss the gnocchi into the browned butter when they float.

Making the gnocchi

As you can see there isn’t much to this recipe. It’s really all technique which you should not stress out about unless you work in a restaurant and are intending to sell your little pillows of flavor for actual cash money.

For me though, the goal was to produce something light and very tasty.

Start by peeling your sweet potatoes and cut them into large 2 inch cubes. Also, get a large pot of salted water boiling (I use about 1 Tablespoon of kosher salt per gallon of water).

Pretty big chunks are fine.

Drop these chunks of potatoes straight into the water and let them cook until they are very tender, about 20 minutes.

The key to making these gnocchi light is to ultimately add as little flour as possible to the dough. That means that you need to draw out as much water as possible from the cooked potatoes. After cooking, I suggest moving the potatoes to a bowl lined with paper towels which will soak up a lot of water. Let them rest for a few minutes.

Hot and mushy.

Then add your dried potatoes to a much larger bowl and mush them up with a fork. No need to bust out the mixer or anything. These mash much easier than normal potatoes. I tried to spread my potatoes out because they need to cool completely before we continue with the recipe.

A fork works perfectly.

The sauce issue

I was trying to think of a very low calorie sauce to serve with these guys. Normally, I would sauce them with a little browned butter, but I thought maybe a very light marinara would work.

Basically, I just added a large can of tomatoes (28 ounces – you can use the juice and tomatoes if you want it even lighter) and a few Tablespoons of basil to a blender. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and some garlic if you want and blend it up!

Notice that I left out cheese and any oil at all. I was still worried that the basil and tomato would overpower the sweet potato (which it did), but it was a very light sauce.

Ignore the anti-cat device in the background.

Ok. Back to the gnocchi dough. Once your sweet potatoes have cooled to at least room temperature (sticking them in the fridge for 30 minutes would be a good call), add your one egg and mix it well. Then slowly add your flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, until the dough starts to come together.

Ultimately, you want something that is very soft, but manageable. Something like loose Play-Doh. I ended up adding about 1.5 Cups flour to my dough. Knowing how much flour to add is where experience comes in. If you just follow the recipe you might end up with gnocchi that don’t hold together or are hard as rock.

Just work slowly. Eventually, your dough should look something like this.

Like loose play-doh.

Forming the gnocchi

To form the gnocchi, take about 1/6 of the dough and add it to a well floured surface. Turn it around to coat it completely in flour and then start slowly rolling it into a long snake.

Be gentle here people. Try to get it as even a thickness as possible. You’re going for about the thickness of your thumb. Going slowly, I was able to roll mine out to about an 18 inch string of sweet potato awesomeness. Again, you don’t want to add too much flour to the outside of the dough, but if it’s sticking don’t be afraid to sprinkle more down.

Once you get the rope of gnocchi to the right width, chop it into 1/2 inch sections!

I reckon you could just cook them like this.

Now. If you are doing a lazy man’s homemade gnocchi (is there such a thing?) you can just cook these as is, but if you want them to have a more traditional feel, you need to add the gnocchi ridges.

Take each little gnocchi nugget and roll it gently over the tines of a fork. The dough should be very soft and it won’t take much pressure to leave the impressions of the fork on the gnocchi.

Kind of tedious.

Once you make the ridges, set the gnocchi on a very lightly floured baking sheet while you do the others.

If I had to guess, I would say this recipe makes easily 100 gnocchi. Probably more. I never got into a perfect groove with my grooves. As you can see I’m very far from expert at this. I tried to objectively grade my gnocchi making below. I was all over the map.

I can't say that there was any pattern to my success.

Cooking the gnocchi

Cooking these guys couldn’t be easier once you have them made. Just add as many as you need to a pot of simmering, water. A rolling boil will destroy your work! When they float, they are done!

The photo at the beginning of this post is the version I made with the marinara (I simmered it for 5 minutes in a sauce pan just to heat it up and reduce it very slightly). It was good but the marinara definitely over powered the sweet potatoes. I might suggest just a drizzle of olive oil or maybe just eating them naked (the gnocchi, not you).

Storing the gnocchi

Gnocchi that you don’t eat immediately can be frozen for later. Just freeze them on the baking sheet and when they are completely frozen you can store them in a plastic bag for weeks without a problem. No need to thaw before cooking. Just add them straight to the boiling water.

However, if you can spare the calories, browned butter is the only way to go. Just toss the gnocchi into the browned butter when they float! If you need help with your browned butter sauce, check out this post.

The results: Awesome.

The calories are worth it people.

The gnocchi are delicious, but it’s hard to find a simple, healthy sauce that doesn’t completely mask the flavor of the sweet potatoes.

If I were doing it all over again, I might try it with the almond sauce that I used for this recipe.

What do you think? Any other ideas for a non-buttery sauce for these guys?

I decided to break one of my rules for this meal (don’t combine two things that you’re doing for the first time in any given recipe), and make a filling with the chestnuts for a ravioli. The chestnuts weren’t too terrible to prepare, but I think I need to work on my ravioli technique a bit. They were very tasty, but not the prettiest thing on the block.

No need for sauces! Well... except butter.

One killer about this recipe is that I don’t have a pasta roller which would make the whole thing easier, but there is something fun about making it by hand. I am no Italian grandmother though so mine just look a bit more, um, rustic.

Chestnut Ravioli

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Pasta: (From How to Cook Everything)
3 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour (you probably won't use all of it)
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 Teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 pound chestnuts (about 20)
8 ounces Mascarpone
Very tiny pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of salt

1 egg for egg wash (plus a Tablespoon of water)
4 Tablespoons butter for brown butter sauce

Helpful Equipment:
Pasta roller
Ravioli Mold

Directions:

1) For pasta, in a bowl, beat eggs and egg yolks together and then add salt. Then, on a clean surface, add 3-4 cups of flour and make a large well in the middle. Then pour egg mixture right in the middle.

2) Using a fork (or your fingers), gently stir the egg mixture around – slowly incorporate more flour into the mixture. Don’t worry if there are some lumps.

3) Work it with your hands, kneading it, for about 10 minutes. If it starts to get really sticky at any point, just add a bit more flour from your outer ring. You most likely will not use all the flour.

4) Once you have a smooth dough, wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least an hour in the fridge. You can make it 24 hours in advance without a problem.

5) For filling, heat your oven to 350 degrees.

6) Using a paring knife, make a small X on the flat side of each chestnut. Lay out all the chestnuts on a baking sheet as you work.

7) Roast the chestnuts for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

8) While chestnuts are warm, peel them. To keep the chestnuts warm while you peel them, leave batches in the oven at 200 degrees and pull out as needed. For those that don’t peel easily, treat them like a clove of garlic. Chop them in half and then give them a good smash with the side of the knife!

9) Add the peeled chestnuts to a bowl and mush them up a bit with a fork. Then add mascarpone cheese and the pinch of cinnamon and salt.

10) To make ravioli, cut dough ball into quarters. You should end up getting about 7 or 8 large ravioli from each quarter of dough. Then take each quarter and roll it out. Keep the dough well-floured so it doesn’t stick. If you want it to look nice, you can trim the edges of the dough with a knife so the edges are straight.

11) Place about a Tablespoon of filling on the right side of the dough. Leave about 1/2 inch in between each ball of filling.

12) Brush egg wash on all the edges and in between each filling piece. So basically there should be a square of egg wash around each ball of filling. Then fold the left half of dough over the right side and press down between each piece of ravioli. The key is to make sure you don’t have any air bubbles in each ravioli as those might cause your ravioli to explode while it’s boiling.

13) Use a knife to slice up your raviolis. If you have a ravioli mold, go around each piece to seal.

14) Get a large pot of salted water going. Once it’s boiling (gentle boil not rolling boil) toss in your ravioli. When they float, they’re done! It should only take a few minutes.

15) Melt some butter in a large pan and just when it was starting to brown, I tossed in my ravioli to coat them in the lovely brown butter sauce.

Making the Pasta Dough

I think the well method is the best for making pasta. In a bowl, beat your eggs and egg yolks together and then add your salt. Then, on a clean surface, add 3-4 cups of flour and make a large well in the middle. Then pour your egg mixture right in the middle.

Making a well.

Next, using a fork (or your fingers), gently stir the egg mixture around – slowly incorporate more flour into the mixture. Don’t worry if there are some lumps.

Use a fork to make this happen.

Eventually, you should end up with a fairly stiff dough that isn’t sticky, but isn’t dry at all. Then start working it with your hands, kneading it, for about 10 minutes. If it starts to get really sticky at any point, just add a bit more flour from your outer ring. You most likely will not use all the flour. This was my final product.

Don't rush this people.

Wrap that in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least an hour in the fridge. You can make it 24 hours in advance without a problem.

Making the filling

The first step in making the filling is to roast the chestnuts. You can roast as many as you want, they are great just to snack on. You’ll probably only need about 20-25 for the recipe though. To roast the chestnuts, heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Then, using a paring knife, make a small X on the flat side of each chestnut. Be very careful when doing this. The chestnut is kind of hard and it’s also kind of slippery. Those two factors can lead to massive wounds!

Just work slowly and you’ll get the hand of it.

Careful!

Lay out all the chestnuts on a baking sheet as you work. It took me maybe 5 or 10 minutes to get all these done once I got the hang of it.

Ready for the oven!

Roast the chestnuts for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. They should kind of bloom open. I’ve heard that you can also boil the chestnuts to remove the skins so that might be easier for you.

The trick to peeling

As the chestnuts cool, they kind of harden which makes them much harder to peel. So you want to peel the shell of each one while it is relatively warm. The way I did this was to turn my oven down to about 200 degrees just to keep them warm and then I worked in batches – pulling out 3 or 4 chestnuts at a time to peel.

In an ideal world, you should be able to easily pop the nut part out through the whole where the X was. If it pops out perfectly, it’ll look like this!

Ideal.

But a good number of them don’t pop out nicely. For these, I treated them like a clove of garlic. Chop them in half and then give them a good smash with the side of the knife!

It’s not as pretty, but it works.

Messy.

Once all your chestnuts are peeled, the filling is super easy to put together. Just add them all to a bowl and mush them up a bit with a fork. Then add your mascarpone cheese and the pinch of cinnamon and salt.

This was a really tasty filling.

Mixed with the mascarpone.

Making the Ravioli

This is where it got a bit dicey for me, but for my first try I was pretty happy with the result.

First, cut your dough ball into quarters. You should end up getting about 7 or 8 large ravioli from each quarter of dough.

After an hour of resting.

Then take each quarter and roll it out. Keep the dough well-floured so it doesn’t stick. I was able to get my about 20 inches long by 6 inches wide. If you want it to look nice, you can trim the edges of the dough with a knife so the edges are straight.

Then place about a Tablespoon of filling on the right side of the dough. Leave about 1/2 inch in between each ball of filling.

I made some large ravioli.

Then brush your egg wash on all the edges and in between each filling piece. So basically there should be a square of egg wash around each ball of filling. Then just fold the left half of dough over the right side and press down between each piece of ravioli. The key is to make sure you don’t have any air bubbles in each ravioli as those might cause your ravioli to explode while it’s boiling.

As far as cutting goes, just use a knife to slice up your raviolis! If you have a ravioli mold, that will make sure that all your edges are pressed together well, otherwise, it’s worth it to go around each piece after you cut them. A leak around the edge of your ravioli will not end well. I lost one little guy because of this.

Not going to lie. This took me a while. It probably took me 30 minutes to make all the ravioli. It would’ve been a lot faster if I had a pasta roller. I also think I’ll be better at it my second time around. But I was pretty happy with the end result.

This is actually a lot of food.

Cooking the Ravioli

If you want to store these ravioli, they freeze really nicely. Just wrap them in plastic wrap and then store them in an airtight plastic bag. They’ll keep for awhile in there without a problem.

If you want to cook them right away (and you will), just get a large pot of salted water going. Once it’s boiling (gentle boil not rolling boil) toss in your ravioli. When they float, they’re done! It should only take a few minutes.

As far as sauce goes, simple is best. I just melted some butter in a large pan and just when it was starting to brown, I tossed in my ravioli to coat them in the lovely brown butter sauce. That’s all the sauce you need.

A bite of heaven.

I loved this meal and it actually turned out pretty successful even though I was working with two new things. I think the ravioli could have been a bit more evenly shaped, but that’s okay. They still tasted fantastic!

Would I make these again? Any day of the week. But seriously. I’m buying a pasta roller.

Given the season, I thought I would make some delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes for Betsy to bring! I topped the pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting because I’m always looking for an excuse to top something in cream cheese frosting. I also threw on some candy corns left over from my cocktail adventures.

A good vessel for cream cheese frosting.

I got this recipe from a really good baker I know who has actually contributed to Macheesmo before. The pumpkin cupcakes are simple to make and have a very interesting twist on the normal cupcake recipe: brown butter. The nuttiness of the butter with the pumpkin and spices was a pretty amazing combo.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture:
340 g. all-purpose flour (2 3/4 cups)
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
2 Teaspoons ground clove
2 Teaspoons nutmeg (fresh grated is best)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt

Wet Mixture:
228 g. butter (1 Cup)
500 g. sugar (2 1/2 Cups)
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (be sure to get the 100% pumpkin puree, not the pumpkin pie filling.)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane (for nutmeg or buy it ground already)
Cupcake Pan
Digital Scale (Best tool you can buy to ensure consistent baking results)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well!

2) To make the brown butter, just put all of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

3) Strain this! If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter.

4) Then pour all the brown butter into a bowl with all of the sugar and cream it together until smooth. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

5) Once cool, add eggs and additional egg yolks to sugar mixture.

6) Add pumpkin puree and finally whisk in dry ingredients in two batches.

7) Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up the cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

8) Bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

9) Move cupcakes to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes and let cool completely (approximately one hour).

10) For frosting, mix butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add vanilla and finally sift in powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

11) Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The Dry Stuff

Get all of your dry ingredients ready. I think it’s pretty important to weigh baking ingredients as my cup of flour is going to be slightly different than your cup of flour, but grams are grams no matter what.

The dry goods.

Basically, just combine all of these ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well to make sure everything is combined!

The Wet Ingredients

For the future detectives reading, yes, there are three sticks of butter and three eggs and three egg yolks below, but only two of each in the recipe. That’s because I needed about 30 cupcakes, not 20.

The wet goods (plus some dry goods)

Making the brown butter

Most cake recipes require that you cream the butter which involves (normally) using a mixer to beat the crap out of the butter and sugar to make sure that every little grain of sugar is coated in butter.

This recipe uses a different approach though which I immediately fell in love with. You make a brown butter and then pour that over the sugar and stir it up! It adds an awesome level of flavor to the final cake and I think it’s easier than creaming the butter and sugar together, but gives you the same results.

Update: As a few commenters have pointed out, you can’t always substitute brown butter for creaming butter. In this recipe it works well, but it’s a different physical process.

To make the brown butter, just put all of your butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

Take it off the heat when it looks like this:

In. Love.

Strain this

You don’t want those little burned bits in your cupcakes, just the lovely browned butter. Straining it is key. If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter!

Then pour all your brown butter into a bowl with all of your sugar and mix it up. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

This one time I made brown sugar.

Finishing the Batter

The hardest part is over! Next, add your eggs and additional egg yolks to your sugar mixture. Then add your pumpkin puree and finally whisk in your dry ingredients in two batches. Don’t over mix the batter. Just make sure all your flour is incorporated well and then stop.

Very delicious. I know because I ate a spoonful of it.

Next, using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up your cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

Don't overfill!

Baking the Cupcakes

These need to bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I would check them at 20 – my oven is a bit unreliable I’ve learned.

Look at these beauties!

I made these. You can too.

After these come out, move them to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes, but make sure they are not hot or even warm before you frost. I let mine sit for about an hour before even trying to frost them. If they are even slightly warm you run the risk of melting your frosting and melted frosting makes for a very sad cupcake.

Speaking of frosting, let’s make that.

Mix your butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk I guess) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add your vanilla and finally sift in your powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

You’ll end up with a very smooth and sturdy frosting!

Heaven.

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Yum!

I must brag a little bit (even though it wasn’t my recipe) and say that Betsy reported these guys were the first thing to sell out at the bake sale and they were gone in about 20 minutes! How’s that for market research?!

If you’re looking for a solid dessert to make for a party this weekend and don’t feel like making your own gummy worms, these guys are surefire winners.