12 for me, none for you!

And so it begins. The holiday that's full of eggs, matzo, and more eggs. Yes, folks, it's Passover time again. The first seder was last night and full of fantastic traditional foods - the brisket, the fried matzo, the charoset, etc. I had hoped to try out a new recipe involving berries, chocolate sponge cake and marscapone (yum!) but a few hours before I re-read the recipe and noticed it said make 24 hrs in advance (oops!) So there was matzo crack :D and a passover apricot bar. Today was a chance to try something new...flourless fudgy chocolate walnut cookies, totally Passover friendly. And they are suuuuper delish. This is going to be a year round favorite, I can tell.

This recipe from food&wine.com is perfection as is. I usually feel a need to tamper with a recipe but I really enjoyed this from the get go. I might be uber decadent and throw in some chocolate bits next time. This is a perfect chewy browniesque dessert bite, enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups walnut halves (9 ounces)
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°. Position 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

• Spread the walnut halves on a large rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 9 minutes, until they are golden and fragrant. Let cool slightly, then transfer the walnut halves to a work surface and finely chop them.

• In a large bowl, whisk the confectioners' sugar with the cocoa powder and salt. Whisk in the chopped walnuts. Add the egg whites and vanilla extract and beat just until the batter is moistened (be careful not to overbeat or it will stiffen). Spoon the batter onto the baking sheets in 12 evenly spaced mounds.

• Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are glossy and lightly cracked and feel firm to the touch; shift the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through.

• Slide the parchment paper (with the cookies) onto 2 wire racks to cool completely before serving.

The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Cookie Cravings

Every once in awhile I get a craving for Subway's white chocolate chip chocolate cookie. Oh, heck. Who am I kidding? I often get cravings for many different types of cookies. But the Subway one is a killer.....I can't often find them at my local sandwich shop...so I decided to try and make my own.

After copious internet searching (2 minutes on google) I found out that most of Subway's (and many other restaurants) cookies are made by Otis Spunkmeyer. I found a 'copycat' recipe for my beloved cookies. I tried the recipe as is (except only made a half recipe just in case they turned out truly heinous...and added some regular chocolate chips as well. I just can't help tinkering!!!) and will try to tweak it a bit next time. It might also be helpful to have real deal cookie near by for a blind tasting. According to my tastebuds these cookies were a little overly sweet, maybe I'll use salted butter next time, less sugar or a bit more salt. The texture seemed ok. We'll see how they hold up over the next day or so.

Almost Subway's White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookie Recipe
yield 1 and 1/2 dozen cookies

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. white chocolate chips
2/3 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F (175C)

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a different bowl. Stir into the butter/sugar mixture.

Fold in chocolate chips and drop by rounded teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes (I left them in the full 10 minutes) until set. Allow to cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes then move cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely.

IceCreamMonster strikes again!

I haven't been doing much cooking (except for that delicious Emeril Jambalaya!) or blogging lately...but I do follow bites and pieces of the foodie community. When I read how the Ben & Jerry's Flourless Chocolate Cake flavor was tough to find I HAD to hunt it down.

So today I trekked to our local SuperWalmart (the only place that is carrying this limited edition flavor) to snag myself a carton....or two. ;) I'm happy to report it's as delicious as anticipated. It's like the chocolate fudge brownie ice cream but awesomer. The cake pieces are not quite as chewy as the brownie chunks. I failed to find the 'chocolate frosting ribbon' but it was delicious despite that fact. I plan to do another more extensive tasting tonight and add to this review. Until then....