Saturday, October 22 - Spicy Double Chocolate Mexican Diablo Cookies

Spicy Double Chocolate Mexican Diablo Cookies

I first had a similar cookie from a food truck in Vancouver, #Tacofino, that started out in Tofino. Their Fish Tacos are delicious!  Their cookies are huge sellers as well and often sell out.  They're lovely but expensive in my books, for a cookie. Of course, I wanted to have a more economical way to enjoy the chocolatey spiciness. Their recipe is on a few websites but it's cut down from their restaurant version and the proportions do not work very well. Whilst halving a recipe or cutting back a quarter may work.  It doesn't work as well to reduce by 90% by pure percentages for a home baker. When I followed the online recipe version, the batter (not dough) was as loose as cake batter. When I saw them on TV Eat St. on Foodnetwork, their dough was stiff enough to roll and press. Now my dough is stiffer but more like servable ice cream. I've also made changes to the Spices. The outcome is OUTSTANDING. Gooey, spicy, fudgy goodness.

Spicy Double Chocolate Mexican Diablo Cookies

1 3/4 c Flour (~upto 2 c depending on your Eggs and humidity)
1 c Cocoa
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Cinnamon
2 t Cayenne
1/4 t Nutmeg
1/2 t Instant Espresso (or powder fine Espresso grounds)

2 Eggs
1/3 c Canola Oil
1/4 c fresh grated Ginger
1 c Brown Sugar
3/4 c White Sugar
1/2 T Vanilla Extract (make your own with Vodka and Vanilla Beans)

1 c Dark Chocolate Chips/Chunks
1 T coarse Salt for topping

Preheat the oven to 375F

In a large mixing bowl, add the Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda and Spices. You could sift through a sieve but I thought it would be too messy and I was charging through these Cookies during lil T's morning nap. So instead, I used a small whisk to mix and break up any hard chunks.

In a smaller bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except the Chocolate Chunks and Salt. The grate the Ginger just use a small hand grater used for Parmesan/Nutmeg (not a microplane/rasp) or the small side on a box grater. No need to use a Ginger grater. I have one and do not find it works well.

Add the wets to the dry and fold together with a large Rubber Spatula. Do not over mix but make sure to sweep across the bottom to incorporate all the dry pockets. About 20 strokes give or take 5. I mixed these by hand. The mixer freaks Lil T out.

Place in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Dish out on a parchment or silicon lined baking sheet with a 2 oz scooper. Leave 2-3 inches between cookies. Sprinkle with a small pinch of Salt. Will yield 12 large 4-5 inch sized cookies. Do NOT flatten.


Bake 15 minutes. They'll be soft and cracked on top.  Allow to cool for a couple minutes on the pan, enough to allow them to move with a thin spatula. Cool completely on a rack.

YUMMO!!

Saturnday, October 8th - Wholewheat Oatmeal Everything Muffin

Wholewheat Oatmeal Everything Muffin

It's taken 6 months but I think I have managed to find a way to bake with a baby.  I pre mix the night before.  I don't combine the full batter because I don't like to activate the leavening too early but I assemble all the ingredients on the counter and mix the dries in a bowl and leave it covered.  It was particularly important to do this ahead because well, lil T's room is underneath the kitchen. 
Wholewheat Oatmeal Everything Muffin
1 c Wholewheat Flour
1 c Wheat Bran
1 c Rolled Oats, not quick Oats, milled fine
1 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Salt

1 ripe Banana
1 c Milk
1 t Vanilla Extract
1-2 T Vegetable Oil
1/2 c packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs

1/2 c each of Pecans, Dark Chocolate Chips, Macadamia Nuts, and dried Cranberries

So if you are starting the evening before to save time and minimise early morning noise then mill the Oats when baby is awake but perhaps in another room.  Lil T does not like the sound of the coffee grinder, blender or Baby Bullet.  In a mini food processor or your baby bullet with the flat milling blade on, grind your Oats until a floury consistency. 

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dries.  Cover and set aside until the next morning. 

In the morning. Preheat the oven to 400F. In a large 1 l mixing cup, mash the Banana with the Milk.  Add the rest of the Wet Ingredients (including sugar) but not the 'Everything' goodies.  You should have ~2c of Wet. 

Add to the Dry ingredients but do not over mix.  Gently fold by swooping around the bottom of the bowl and folding over to the middle of the top while turning the bowl.  Mix only just to combine.  Then fold in the add the 'Everything' goodies with only a handful of turns.  If you over mix, your Muffins will be tough and chewy. 

Spoon into lightly greased muffin tins.  Top with Pecan half (optional). Will make 12 medium muffins.  Place the filled muffin tin in the middle.  Close the door and reduce to 375F.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Check doness with a toothpick or skewer.  These were VERY FLUFFY and not dense like alot of 'healthier' muffins, even my own when I entirely eliminate most of the fat and eggs. 

Yummo!

Tuesday, October 11th - Watami Sushi - Affordable Fairview Go-To Lunch Sushi!

Watami Sushi - Sushi Combo Special

Being home in Fairview all day has forced me to find a new cheap go-to lunch-sushi. I'll admit that one does make some concessions on lunch-sushi. This particularly easy when the range and availability is what it is in Vancouver. So lunch-sushi isn't going to break the bank at Tojo's or Miku everyday but it needn't dip as low as mushy, fake sushi like the ones on Dunsmuir near Richards targeting the ESL kids. No, good lunch-sushi should sate the sushi addict affordably a few times a week yet have 1. decent rice flavour, 2. good filling to rice ratio, 3. fresh ingredients, 4. lunch combo specials, 5. size matters and a California roll should NOT be the same size as a Cucumber roll and 6. miso or tea included is only a bonus.

I've come to terms with the fact that there is no sushi a five minute pop-out between conference calls like when I was working downtown. Most of the Fairview joints are near Cambie. I tried a newer one today. It's so new it isn't on the google streetview. I'm pretty sure it's still showing an Indian place.

The cool offer here is that you can make your own lunch combo, actually all day. You can choose any three of 30 different Rolls or Cones and Miso is included for $5.95 plus taxes. There is no catch on that combo as I would have thought: no filler rolls like cucumber, no tiny rolls, no pre-made rolls. The rolls were only made to order and were all a decent size. I wasn't overwhelmed by too much rice. The rice was a good consistency though could have used more seasoning. Contrary to an earlier post, ingredients were fresh, possibly because turnover has increased or they responded to feedback or I ordered well.

I ordered the Spicy California Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll and Dynamite Roll. The Spiciness was a tad disappointing. It was basically a 'mild' flavoured Mayo added on top of a regular California and Salmon rather than spicing the filling itself. Other than that, the rolls were a nice size with very fresh Salmon. The Salmon, it should be noted, wasn't one of those tiny rolls often in these combos, the diameter of a lifesaver candy. The Dynamite roll was crispy and the Shrimp was not lost to the tempura.

The bonus Miso was the on the upper end of the range of lunch-sushi bonus miso. It had nice large pieces of the seaweed that led me to think it wasn't the insta-miso. As well, there were chunks of Krab (Pollock) in it.

I think I might have found my go-to lunch-sushi in Fairview. Service was fine but I was just taking out.

p.s. I went back a few days later and the Spicy Sauce was not drizzled on top but inside the sushi roll that time. :^D

Watami Sushi

(604) 708-8638
Fairview
514 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Z

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