By:
Chocolate Bytes 0 days 15 hours 4 minutes ago Channel: Food & WineLiving
Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!
NCCD always falls on May 15th and is intended to celebrate the wonderfulness that is chocolate chips and their popularity in our cooking and baking. While there is no congressional record or proclamation that today is officially a “national” anything, it’s still a valid holiday in my book! And of course, there are ecards.
The above video gives you some great tips on how chocolate chips should be added to baked goods. I’ve always kept my chocolate chips in the freezer by default (they get too melty in the cupboard), so I was glad to see that mentioned!
What’s your favorite recipe involving chocolate chips? What is your favorite brand of chocolate chips to use?
By:
Chocolate Bytes 1 days 14 hours 51 minutes ago Channel: Food & WineLiving
Dreena Burton hosts an episode of Everyday Dish: Vegan Cooking and demonstrates how she makes her easy vegan chocolate chip cookies!
The recipe is below the cut:
Vegan Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (see note)
1 teaspoon baking powder
12 teaspoon baking soda
14 cup unrefined sugar
14 teaspoon sea salt
13 cup pure maple syrup
14 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
1 1 12 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
14 cup canola oil (a little generous)
13 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F (176C). In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not over-mix). Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little. Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out). Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack.
Note: Unbleached all-purpose flour or spelt flour produces a more classic cookie taste and texture, but you can use whole-wheat pastry flour and still get a delicious cookie. For a wheat-free version, use spelt flour, but add an extra 2-4 tablespoons of the spelt flour to the dry mix (the amount needed varies with brand of spelt flour and whether you are using a refined spelt flour versus a less processed spelt flour).
Note: If, as you are mixing together your batter it appears quite floury and thick, simply mix together a couple of teaspoons more canola and maple syrup and incorporate it into the batter. Sometimes humidity, type of flour used, and other factors can affect the density of the batter and so a touch more liquid may be needed.
By:
Chocolate Bytes 2 days 14 hours 4 minutes ago Channel: Food & WineLiving
I totally spaced on yesterday being National Nutty Fudge Day! Did you celebrate?
Nutty Fudge
1 1/2 Sticks butter
1/3 c Evaporated milk
1/4 c Sugar
1 c Milk chocolate
1 c Semi-sweet chocolate
1 c Marshmallow cream
1 c Peanut butter chips
1/2 c Chopped peanuts
Blend butter, milk and sugar in a med. saucepan. bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 miniutes. add both chocolates and the marshmallow and blend. Let cool. Then add the peanut butter chips and peanuts. Place in a buttered and foil lined pan. Chill at least 1 hour and serve.
By:
Chocolate Bytes 3 days 13 hours 34 minutes ago Channel: Food & WineLiving
Everyone remembers the red dye #3 cancer scare from the early 90’s and the subsequent bags of redless M&M’s or cans of cherry-less fruit cocktail.
It was found that large amounts of it caused cancer in lab rats, but as more research was done it was determined that small amounts of it were safe and the health risks were small, though certain uses are still banned today. Many manufacturers switched to a different red dye anyway.
However, a recent study has found that some dyes might be good for you and could actually protect against cancer!
A researcher in Oregon added aflatoxin (a highly toxic carcinogenic) with and without the dye to food pellets that were given to trout. Nine months later she found that those who were given the aflatoxin with the dyes had 50% fewer liver tumors, 50% lower incidence of stomach cancer and a 40% lower incidence of liver cancer compared with those that had been exposed to just the aflatoxin alone.
Obviously a lot more research needs to be done, but it sounds like an interesting breakthrough! What do you think?
