Next level chocolate chip date cookies · Monday April 18, 2022 by colin newell
I love the occasional chocolate chip cookie – and I have dabbled with a variety of recipes and approaches but have never really knocked it out of the park.
After catching a Bon Appetit YouTube video on the subject, I realized that maybe I have found what I was looking for. I was. These cookies use Olive Oil and Tahini and no butter. They are graced with sliced date and flaked sea salt. Honestly, one cookie could feed a sweet tooth for a week.
Let’s get to it.
The Dry Ingredients…
- 280G White flour
- 1 TSP Baking Soda
- 1 TSP Kosher Salt
- 1 TSP Cornstarch
Add ons…
- Dates
- Figs
- Flaked salt – Sel de Mar
Wet stuff…
- 1/2 Cup Olive oil (120G)
- 1/4 Cup Tahini (80G)
- 2 Eggs
- 2 TSP Vanilla
- 3/4 Cup White sugar
- 3/4 Cup Brown sugar
Instructions…
In a medium sized bowl add your flour, baking soda, kosher salt and cornstarch. Lightly whisk until these ingredients get to know each other.
In a bigger bowl, add Olive Oil, Tahini and 2 chilled eggs. Use electric blender and mix on medium-high speed for around 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla. Add sugars. Blend for 3 minutes more (give or take) or until the mixture is creamy with no sugary lumps.
Add dry to wet in two steps (add one half of the dry mix to the wet – and mix until 50-70% incorporated…)
Add the rest of the dry and mix until around 70% incorporated. Explanation to follow.
Add 1/2 cup of your preferred chocolate (seriously you can go crazy here with anything; light, dairy milk, dark, unsweetened… sky is the limit…)
Add 1/4 cup thinly sliced (and pitted dates…) or figs.
Mix until all the dry is absorbed and chill in the covered bowl for a minimum of 3 hours – ideally overnight or 12 hours.
Let’s bake…
Cookie sheets should (must) have a layer of parchment paper between the cookie dough and the pans!
I used an ice cream scoop to dose out the dough and this yields jumbo cookies – you have been warned!
You can dress the ready to bake formed dough with flake salt and a slice of date, fig or a lump of chocolate!
Bake for 16 – 18 minutes at 375 degrees (F) or 365 degrees (F) in convection mode.
Pay attention. Cookies are easy to burn.
Transfer to a drying grid as soon as you can handle them – the centre of the cookie may appear a bit “fluid” right out of the oven – but they set when they cool. You can eat them directly out of the oven but be aware of the fact that they are super hot and the chocolate is molten at this point. You have been warned.
Tech notes…
The cornstarch helps keep gluten strands from developing, yielding a chewier cookie.
All olive oils are not equal. I suggest starting with a milder all purpose olive oil.
Chilling overnight is almost a must — for the ingredients to get acquainted and the flavours to develop.
Conclusion…
I have made a lot of cookies over the years. These are the closest to Pure gourmet to my taste buds and give me a great template for experimentation. Do watch the video above. There may be some tips I missed.
Vitamix Vegan Avocado and Cacao Pudding · Monday January 31, 2022 by colin newell
There are few things more fun than the simplicity of a great recipe that whips up quick and satisfies unconditionally.
And for those of you that say, “…hang on! Avocado in a dessert, are you crazy?”
Avocado is a tasty and healthy way to add incredible texture to a pudding or dessert. Trust me.
This dessert comes together quickly with the Vitamix – its texture is Bistro quality and the taste is out of this World!
Let’s go!
Count them – 5 ingredients
2 Avocados, ripe (of course!)
Refrigerated 1/2 cup Almond (or Soy or Oat milk, unsweetened…)
1/2 cup Maple syrup
1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Garnish – Mint, Chocolate shavings, fresh fruit… Use you imagination.
Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend on high until the ingredients have broken down.
Give the pudding a good stir and continue blending until very smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust according to personal preference.
Garnish with shredded dark chocolate, a sprig of mint or a fresh strawberry.Serves 4 people
Short and sweet – you are welcome!
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and writer of words, recipes, kitchen inspirations and adult libations. His treatise on the edible and drinkable have populated these parts since the mid-1990’s. Dig in and enjoy.
Gorgonzola and peas in penne pasta - winter home cooking for the holidays · Monday January 3, 2022 by colin newell
We have some fav local eateries in Victoria like Cafe Brio – Il Covo Trattoria and Zambri’s – they are hard to beat for pure romance on date night. We have been doing a date night for 25+ years and put it down to the love for each other, the love of food and wine or the lack of children — I don’t know. It is a recipe that works for us.
And in this classic and massively tasty recipe (tried here for the first time!) we venture into the world of creamy, herbaceous, lightly seasoned and hugely tasty!
Sidebar on Gorgonzola over here – 100% Worth your time.
The basics
Pasta: We used Penne for this recipe, a tubular pasta that the creamy gorgonzola sauce clings to.
Oil and butter: For cooking. You can just use oil, but butter adds a nice richness.
Onion and garlic: For a nice base layer of flavour. Dice finely so that it mixes in well with the sauce.
Gorgonzola: This is a soft and creamy Italian blue cheese. It is milder in flavor than a hard blue cheese.
Whipping Cream: Use a heavy or whipping thick cream for a thick and rich sauce.
Peas: They add a nutty and herbaceous tang to the dish – as well as fresh parsley
Optional: Walnuts: Walnuts add a great flavor and texture to this pasta recipe, as well as some plant based protein.
Exact Ingredients
6 ounces Penne dried pasta
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 small onion finely diced
2 garlic cloves minced
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 ounces gorgonzola (85g)
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
Optional – 1 cup walnut pieces (125g)
1 cup green peas
Fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions
Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions.Cook the peas in the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking – yes, in the pasts pot! Drain and set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, you can start on the blue cheese sauce.
Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet on pot on a medium high heat.
Add in the onion and cook til soft.
Add in the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add in the salt and pepper, pour in the cream and crumble in the gorgonzola.
Simmer at a very low heat, for around 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the sauce has thickened.
Add the cooked pasta (and peas) and optional walnuts to the sauce. Toss to combine and coat the pasta.
Serve with a garnish of fresh parsley and serve with some of my legendary focaccia bread
Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident and food writer. His blogs go back to 2007 and as always, this food blog has no click bait, crap, ads or amazon links. We respect our readers so we only offer what you are looking for – recipes and no B.S.
Trust in life and you will see - The Movember series chapter one · Tuesday October 5, 2021 by colin newell
Way back in 2013, I was struggling with an assortment of things – as many people do.
Troubles: They come and go… in varying intensities for most of us.
That period of my life was particularly problematic with the loss of my dad, my mother-in-law, a brother-in-law and a close friend. Stuff like that can overwhelm. And the best thing you can do is talk about it to someone – seek professional help – or confide in someone you trust.
And from my circle of friends came some gentle and creative suggestions. One of which was to listen to (and watch) a few videos from a Jamaican-British spiritualist speaker by the name of Mooji. Many people have heard of him – and probably as many question the efficacy of spiritualist – new age – mumbo jumbo. That said, I gave one video a view – and then a repeated view – and it had me smiling. And it tweaked that “Hmmmm, is this video meant for me feeling?”
The whole point of my misery at the time was the fact that my World appeared to be spiralling out of control and there was nothing I could do about it – and yet at the end of each and every day during my personal crisis, things did seem “OK”. At least they balanced out as it were. The sky never fell. Nothing terrible befell me apart from that gnawing feeling of loss and constant unease.
When I combined my take away from this video and some similar to it – and added some meditative tools, like mindfulness and living in the moment, the darkness slowly started to ease and the skies cleared. Before long I felt joy again.
Now I know that one cannot feel happy all the time – it is no more complicated than looking around at the state of the Planet. It’s messed up. But each and every one of us have to live and keeping putting one foot ahead of the other. There are few other choices.
In this series of blog posts through the end of November, we are going to talk about emotional health, self care, smiling during a pandemic and growing a moustache for mental and physical wellness – something I have been doing for 12 years!
Stay tuned!
Some music – One of my favourite cover tunes is from my home studio – I’m singing and playing the guitar and piano and everything else… this epic old Rolling Stones songs resonates on so many levels and reminds us – sometimes exactly what you need is right in front of us. Enjoy! Be at peace… and find your own wellness.
You can’t always get what you want…
Download – You-Cannot-Always-get-what-you-want-v11.mp3
Book review On Borrowed Time by Gregor Craigie · Thursday September 30, 2021 by colin newell
Broadcast journalist Gregor Craigie has been on the radio; CBC Radio 1 Vancouver Island, CBS, the British Broadcasting Corporation and Public Radio International in the United States as well as CBC Television as a political reporter…
Audio snippet – the thinking behind the book
Vancouver Island’s largest historic earthquake was a magnitude 7.3 event that occurred at 10:13 a.m. on Sunday June 23, 1946. The epicentre was in the Forbidden Plateau area of central Vancouver Island, just to the west of Courtenay and Campbell River.
This earthquake caused considerable damage on Vancouver Island, felt as far away as Portland Oregon, and Prince Rupert B.C. and brought down 75% of the chimneys in the closest communities, Cumberland, Union Bay, and Courtenay and it inflicted damage in Comox, Port Alberni, and Powell River. Bricks and chimneys were shaken down in Victoria. Remarkably only two deaths were recorded, one due to drowning when a small boat capsized in an earthquake-generated wave, and the other from a heart attack in Seattle.
In 1973, I spoke to a neighbourhood couple who were eye witnesses…
“My boyfriend (and future husband) were 19 years old at the time and working on a farm near Cumberland. We had just wrapped up some morning chores when the ground started moving back and forth and then up and down. My first instinct was to drop to the ground. It was difficult to stand. The ground (and we could see a mile or so in every direction…) was undulating like a Northwest wind pushing waves on a lake. In a minute, maybe two, the worse was over…”
No one, ever, forgets the sensations, sounds and smells following or during a calamity. Earthquakes have that unique ability to wipe away everything we believe in and rely on in the World around us.
My personal experiences with ground shaking have been largely limited to Richter scale 6 temblors on Vancouver Island and in the Hawaiian Islands (during volcanic activity…) – and without exception, these were amongst the most frightening physical experiences of my life.
In Gregor Craigie’s debut book, “On Borrowed Time”, he takes us on an unrelenting journey through the physics and geology, topology and psychology of the earthquake. From San Francisco (1906 and 1989), Christchurch (2011), Alaska (1964), Indonesia (2004) and Japan (2011) and more.
Christchurch, New Zealand, a city that eerily matches Victoria, B.C. in layout, architecture and seismic vulnerability, takes centre stage…
The quake struck in the noon hour, when many office workers in Christchurch’s central business district were out looking for lunch. As earthquakes go, the February 2011 temblor was a relatively moderate magnitude-6.3 event, but that number hid the true terror. Accelerometers near the epicentre measured the peak ground acceleration at more than 2g, or twice the force of gravity. That’s roughly four times the peak ground force acceleration recorded in the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and roughly twenty times stronger than the force a passenger in a typical commercial airliner might feel during takeoff.
Gregor’s tireless research, natural curiosity, and experiences with calamity help shape this masterclass in the consequences of deferring the necessary improvements to infrastructure – action that will, without any doubt, save lives and bring peace of mind to residents of seismically active regions.
A decade in the works, Gregor interviewed scientists, engineers, researchers, disaster victims, civic leaders and city planners on the peril that faces over 100 million citizens in North America alone.
On Borrowed Time is not a breezy read. It is an exhausting and sobering treatise on the very nature of the Earth beneath our feet and the peril of neglecting the individual and collective community preparedness that must take place – if not now, then soon. In example after example (The Christchurch, New Zealand versus Victoria B.C. Canada comparisons for instance…) Gregor reminds us West Coast residents, “You see that place over there? Well, that could be just as easily here…”
The overarching point of Gregor’s work is: “Don’t lose hope or live in fear. Be prepared and take steps for you, your family and community. Earthquakes are inevitable. Staggering loss of life is not.”
On Borrowed Time is a runaway train that has to be ridden to the end of the line. My impression after two thoughtful reads is that this is a book that you are not going to want to read – it is a book that you must read – It’s a book that belongs in every school, in every workplace… on shelves that are well secured to the wall. On Borrowed Time is available at all book stores and online.
Colin Newell is a life long resident of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia.
Shake rattle and roll your thoughts to me
