Today I am writing this post and I’m not hungry, but I have a feeling by the time I’m done talking about these Shrimp Rangoon Wonton Bites I’m going to be starving! I wanted to share a shrimp appetizer since firstly, shrimp is delicious, and secondly, I like having seafood as an appetizer especially if the main course is meat.

My inspiration for this recipe was the Crab Dip Puffs I posted forever ago. Also, can we briefly talk about those photos? I think I need to re-make and re-photograph them because that post is not doing the deliciousness of the Crab Dip Puffs justice! Anyways, I’m a sucker for crab rangoons and lately I’ve been seeing lobster rangoons on menus so I thought why couldn’t we just make shrimp rangoons?!

This recipe is so simple and the bites taste creamy and cheesy. Plus, they look extra fancy because of the little wonton cups. If you wanted to save time you could always bake the wonton cups the night before, but you don’t really need to save time because the whole recipe cooks in under fifteen minutes anyways.

We’re mixing up shrimp that we’ve cooked, cooled and chopped up, cream cheese, scallions, sour cream, shredded cheddar and garlic powder. I didn’t chop the shrimp too small because I wanted to get big bites of shrimp here and there. Feel free to use low fat cream cheese and sour cream if you would prefer.

Also, you can definitely use more shrimp if you would like. I only did four ounces because I was trying to keep it cost effective – cooking for a crowd can get expensive fast! If you aren’t concerned about that though feel free to pack in the shrimp. And like I thought, now I’m hungry! Happy Monday, everyone!

 

Lauren Uncategorized 4 Comments

This morning I am writing to you all to ask for your forgiveness. I owe you the biggest of apologies. Like, the biggest ever. You see, I’ve been making these Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies for a few years now. I know, I’m sorry! They are the most amazing cookie I’ve ever eaten and in fact, my absolute favorite dessert, but this is the first you’re hearing about it. It’s just every time I make them I want to eat and share them immediately so I never got around to taking decent photos for Lemon & Mocha. I’m hoping once you make and eat these cookies all will be forgiven. Unless that will just make you more angry with me when you taste how crazy delicious they are and realize you could have been enjoying them years sooner. So, for what it’s worth, I apologize.

The base of these cookies is my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies. What makes them so perfect is that they have a rich flavor from the browned butter, a satisfying chewiness from the brown sugar and additional egg yolk and excellent chocolatey-ness from all the chocolate chips. When you’re dealing with such an exceptional cookie the only possible way to improve it is with Nutella.

There’s a secret little pocket of Nutella inside these cookies so when you get into the center, creamy and nutty Nutella oozes out of the warm cookie. Or, if you’re like me and eat cookies cold out of the fridge, then you get an extra rich pocket of Nutella that’s softer than the chocolate chip bites providing a nice chocolate texture contrast. One of the biggest questions I get with these cookies is how to get the Nutella inside so I’m going to share my not-so-secret secret with you all. I find it super exciting, but that may just be because I find anything that helps me stuff Nutella into something super exciting.

Take a baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and line it with wax or parchment paper. Then, use a spoon to scoop teaspoon size balls onto the baking sheet. It’s okay if they aren’t exactly the same size and it’s also okay if they aren’t well-formed balls since they definitely won’t be. Keep going, making sure they aren’t touching, until you have about seventeen Nutella balls. Pop the baking sheet in the freezer and let the Nutella balls firm up for at least twenty minutes. When your cookie dough is ready, scoop a tablespoon and a half of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, keeping the dough balls about two inches apart. Slightly flatten each dough ball with your index and middle finger.

Now you’re ready for the firmed up Nutella blobs. Plop one onto each flattened cookie dough then scoop another tablespoon and a half of cookie dough on top of the Nutella balls.

Quickly bring the two dough halves together around the Nutella to form a cookie dough ball. Try not to touch any one cookie ball too much or they will get too warm.

While the cookies are baking, the Nutella melts, but stays in the center of the cookie. It’s like magic! The most delicious magic I’ve ever seen or tasted. I cannot wait until you try these Nutella Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies! I know you will love them as much as we do!

 

Lauren Uncategorized 2 Comments

This post was originally published on 5/20/2014. It has been updated with new photos and content.

I would be surprised if there is anyone who doesn’t have some sort of special memory related to chocolate chip cookies. They are just one of those foods that tend to remind you of home and comfort. My memory has to do with my grandma, as most of my food memories do. She was known throughout my family and friend group as having delicious chocolate chip cookies, so much in fact that they were dubbed “Babu Cookies.” (Side note: we call my grandma Babu, which is short for Babushka, or grandmother in Russian).

The best part was that there was always a batch of them somewhere in the house. Whether they were stocked in the freezer or a fresh batch was sitting warm and gooey on the cooling racks in the kitchen, Babu made sure we never were lacking chocolate chip cookies. I have not been able to perfect the Babu cookie as I remember it, slightly cakey and chewy, and part of that is probably because the memories associated with some foods can tend to elevate them in your mind. So instead, after much practice in the kitchen I now make my own delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Although I’m ice cream obsessed and having a very close relationship with my Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes, my favorite dessert is a chocolate chip cookie. If I’m going to be specific though, my absolute favorite dessert is my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies. I know, it sounds so egotistical, which is not me at all, but they are my ideal chocolate chip cookie. Chewy, soft, rich flavor and loaded with chocolate chips. They are also my favorite cookies to bake because there’s no resting time for the dough! This is ideal for whenever you are having a cookie craving, which is my usual state of being.

Chewy Texture

Having a higher percentage of brown sugar rather than granulated sugar, as well as an additional egg yolk, is what gives the cookies that chewy texture. Now, the secret with these cookies is that they are actually Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Rich Flavor

Browning the butter gives them a rich, deep flavor, and as an added bonus you don’t have to remember to let your butter come to room temperature!

Loaded with Chocolate

Really good chocolate chips are key and bring this cookie to a straight-up heavenly status. I stick to Ghiradelli or Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I’ve heard great reviews about Scharffen Berger and Guittard as well. If they are out of the Ghiradelli semi-sweet I use the bittersweet chocolate chips instead. Sometimes I even mix it up and do half chocolate chips and half chocolate chunks – yum!

I could eat the entire batch of these cookies, but Matt would never let me get away with not sharing. Even though it takes an enormous amount of willpower to not devour them as soon as they’re out of the oven, my favorite way to eat them is cold out of the fridge. So make these Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies and make some food memories. Or at least make your taste-buds extremely happy.

Extra Tips

• If you don’t already have one, get a cookie scoop. I promise it will make your life 10,388,772 times easier. I also use mine for scooping muffin and cupcake batter. It helps make your cookies the perfect uniform size every time and the dough doesn’t get soft from you touching it with your warm hands to make dough balls, resulting in thinner cookies that spread.
• Put the dough in the fridge after scooping out the first batch to go in the oven. If you leave it out the whole time your first batch is baking, the dough will be too soft and the cookies will spread a lot during your second batch. Even though the dough will only be in the fridge for just 5 or so minutes between batches, it really helps.
• Don’t overcook them! The cookies will be really soft when they come out of the oven and the centers will look not done. If you keep cooking them the cookies will get overcooked. Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet on a wire rack (not the stove-top, which is most likely warm from the oven) for 1-2 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire cooling rack. A cooling rack with grids is more stable for the cookies.

 

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

I ultimately settled on Soft Gingersnap Cookies, but I wasn’t really sure what to name these cookies. Technically they aren’t ginger“snap” cookies since they have none of the crunchy “snappy” texture that the traditional cookies have. Some people refer to the soft version of a gingersnap cookie as a molasses cookie, but since those typically have less ground ginger than these cookies, I felt Soft Gingersnap Cookies would do the trick.

I first made these cookies for the Lemon S’mores with Soft Gingersnap Cookies. Side note: If you are missing summer right now use some of these Soft Gingersnap Cookies to make yourself some Lemon S’mores and you will be feeling all the summer vibes. Normally, even with Christmas cookies I am all about the chocolate, but when I first made these Soft Gingersnap Cookies they kind of stole the show. Here I was sneaking into the kitchen to grab another cookie and thinking, who is this person dying to eat another cookie that’s not chocolate or lemon?

There’s a few factors in play here that account for my bizarre behavior. One, these cookies are so soft and chewy, which to me is the best kind of cookie. Two, the ginger, cinnamon, cloves and molasses all work together to make it taste like you’re literally taking a bite out of the holiday season. Finally, the cookies are rolled in sugar before being baked giving them that sweet crunch on the outside that is irresistible.

This recipe makes nice big cookies and like most drop cookies, they freeze really well. You could either freeze them baked in freezer bags or you could freeze the dough balls to make freshly baked Soft Gingersnap Cookies all December long.

To freeze dough balls, form the balls of dough, skipping the sugar rolling step, and place them on a parchment or wax paper lined tray that will fit in your freezer. Once firm, put the dough balls in a freezer bag. When you’re ready to bake them that is when you can roll them in the sugar. Use the recipe’s oven temperature and time and just add a couple more minutes to account for them being frozen. Do you ever freeze cookies or freeze cookie dough?

Recipe from Taste of Home.

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

Have you heard of Christmas Crack? It’s a layered candy dessert of saltines, toffee and chocolate that is sweet, salty and – you guessed it – seriously addictive. I wanted to turn this classic Christmas holiday treat into a new chocolate fudge variation. This recipe is similar to the Turtle Caramel Pecan Fudge I posted last week, but instead of pecans and caramel we’re loading the semisweet chocolate up with saltines and toffee bits.

The bottom layer is a layer of saltine crackers. I think a big reason this fudge is hard to stop eating is because of the saltines. I hadn’t eaten saltines in forever, but as soon as I opened the sleeve for this recipe I couldn’t stop munching them! So before we even add the chocolate we’re already in a losing battle. Unless your goal is to bring a dessert that gets wiped out first at the potluck, in which case you definitely would be winning that battle!

Anyways, on top of the salty cracker layer I added half a batch of the smoothest ever chocolate fudge that has been loaded with crunchy toffee bits. Why half a batch? Well that’s because we’re doing a second layer of saltines followed by the second half of fudge! Christmas Crack is normally very thin so I wanted to add two layers of saltines so the salty element of the treat would come through. On top we have more toffee bits. I think I went a little light on these; the sweet toffee flavor is so good so feel free to top it to your heart’s content!

I already find the original World’s Smoothest Chocolate Fudge addicting so having the salty saltines and sweet toffee bits made it that much harder to resist. So we just ate a bunch and then gave the rest away so we wouldn’t have to fight the urge to eat the whole batch. You’ve been warned! When you cut this fudge, the saltine crackers on the bottom break off everywhere so you could spread a thin layer of chocolate down first if you want, but I found it still had enough crackers making it the way I listed in the recipe below.

One other element of this recipe that I want to discuss is our method for making this fudge. If you’ve read or made any of my other fudge recipes you will know that I always use a double boiler to melt the chocolate evenly without it getting burnt. I use and love this universal double boiler since it’s inexpensive and fits on any pot. However, when I was making this last batch, I was thinking about how I make chocolate ganache by warming the liquid in a nonstick pot and then adding the chocolate chips and letting them melt. I figured I would give it a shot with the fudge since using the double boiler is easy, but if I could use just one pot instead of two, it would be even easier.

I’m so glad I tested it because it worked! I made sure to use low heat the entire time and I was constantly stirring the mixture to make sure none of the chocolate burned. So if you don’t have a double boiler and don’t feel like buying one then definitely give it a try with my new instructions below! Happy Friday, everyone!

Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission for my referral if you purchase something. This does not affect the retail cost of the item. Thank you for supporting Lemon & Mocha!

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments