Bittersweet Chocolate and Cashew Cookie Brittle

There is something about the words "cookie" and "brittle" that just mesmerize me.  Throw in "chocolate" and "cashews" and I am helpless...I walk directly into my kitchen and start making it.  Luckily for me it was somebody's birthday (I won't say whose birthday in order to protect the innocent), and so right after they were ready I put them all in a nice gift basket and whisked them out of the house.

Well, maybe not ALL of them.  Maybe I held back just a few.  Purely in the name of science, and chocolate, and cookie brittle.

Here's what you need to know: this is basically a spin on chocolate chip cookie dough, but because of the particular mixture of ingredients, it cooks up to be a little crunchier and more, well, brittle-like.  Once you have mixed up all the ingredients you press it into one thin layer onto a foil-lined cookie sheet (the foil will both make the brittle pop up easily and if you are really lucky, save you from washing the cookie sheet.  Things like that are my goal in life.  Less cookie-sheet-washing.

Make sure you make the brittle as thin as you can - the thinner it is, the more glorious it will be.  Press press press.  Then pop it into the oven and cook it up until it is a beautiful golden color.  Now comes the hard part...waiting until it is perfectly, totally cool before you break it up into brittle pieces.   After about 45 minutes I couldn't stand it anymore and I put it into the fridge, which cooled it right down.  Now lift the up the mass of brittle and start breaking it up into whatever size pieces you like.

After which you can give it away, keep it for yourself, or split the difference.  Just make sure you try at least one.  Or ten.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle, from Piece of Cake, who got it from The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook, Volume II

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted roasted cashews
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set a rack to the center position. Pour the melted butter into a large bowl, and stir in the vanilla.
2. With a wooden spoon (or your hands, if your prefer), add the sugar, salt and flour and mix to combine--the mixture will be somewhat crumbly, like a moist pie dough.
3. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Press the mixture in a thin, even layer onto an ungreased cookie sheet (use the chocolate chips as your guide--try to get them in as close to a single layer as possible throughout the dough, and you'll have the right thickness). You may not fill the entire sheet with the dough--that's okay.

4. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center). Let cool completely before breaking into whatever sized pieces you desire. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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Bacon Cashew Caramel Popcorn

Now you have to admit, I have been very well-behaved in terms of the bacon recipes lately.  I didn't put any bacon in the pumpkin granola, or the marshmallow frosted cupcakes, or even in the spaghetti tacos.  I am practically going through bacon withdrawel over here.  And the only antidote might be this CRAZILY good popcorn.  Bacon, cashews and popcorn, all held together with just a little bit of caramel and with a little red pepper tossed in just to keep you on your toes.  It's hard to describe how completely, totally, addictively good this is.  All I will say is, one minute that jar was full up with popcorn, and the next it was empty.  It's all kind of a blur to me.  A happy, sweet, salty blur.

This recipe comes via the wonderful Saveur magazine (who called out my little blog as one of their "Sites We Love," so I in turn will love them forever), and they got it from someplace in Denver called Colt and Gray.    I had never heard of Colt and Gray before this recipe, but based on this popcorn recipe alone, I love them too.  It's part of their bar menu (don't you just love bar menus???) and I could easily eat it for dinner all by itself.

Here's the deal.  Pop up about 15 cups of popcorn (which is about 1/2 cup of unpopped popcorn kernels, which doesn't make sense to me but it's true.)  This will mean your popcorn ends up with just a tiny bit of caramel on each kernel, which was perfect from my point of view, but if you like more caramel on your caramel corn, cut the popped popcorn down to 10 or 12 cups.  Cook up some bacon, crumble it up and toss it in with the popcorn.  Add in some cashews, some coarse salt and some red pepper.

Now comes the fun part: making the caramel.  You bring some cream to a boil with a tea bag, and let it sit for a while.  (Tea bag?  I don't know, and I wasn't going to ask any questions.)  Then you boil up some sugar, water and corn syrup in a large saucepan until the sugar melts and turns amber-colored.  Now comes the dramatic part: pour in the cream...it will bubble up and then before your eyes you will have a pan full of beautiful molten caramel.  Quickly pour it over your popcorn mixture, quickly stir it up to coat everything with just a touch of caramel loveliness.  Now turn the whole shebang onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and let it cool until the caramel hardens.  Then comes the hardest part of all: trying not to eat it all in one fell swoop.  Good luck with that part!

 Bacon Cashew Caramel Popcorn, adapted from Saveur

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels, popped to make 12-15 cups popcorn
• 6 ounces bacon, cooked and chopped
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tea bag (regular black tea)
• Cooking spray
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1. Combine popcorn, bacon and cashews in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and cayenne and toss to coat,.

2. Bring cream and tea bag just to the boil and remove from heat.  Let sit for 15 minutes, press on tea bag and remove.

3. Line baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.  Spray two large spoons with cooking spray as well.

4. Stir sugar, water and corn syrup in large saucepan over medium low heat until sugar dissolves.  Increase heat to high and boil without stirring until  syrup turns amber, occasionally swirling pan.  This will take about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and immediately add cream - mixture will bubble up - don't panic!

5. Immediately pour mixture over popcorn, being Very Careful - it's hot.  Toss with the sprayed spoons until well-combined  and transfer to baking sheet.  Cool completely and then break up into chunks.

Click here for printable recipe

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad

I can't remember the first time I discovered soba noodles, but once I did I kinda felt like I had won the food lottery. Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, and addition to being really, really tasty, they are actually pretty good for you, as far as pasta goes. And when you pair them with a scrumptious sauce and nestle a delicious cucumber cashew salad next to them...well, it's a good day when you can say you are having a super-delicious dinner and being virtuously healthy all at the same time. Right?

This quick cold noodle salad is another one from my week-long celebration of one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES, and if you haven't yet entered the giveaway for a signed copy of this fantastic book, click here. In the meantime, here's the scoop on this salad. The sauce is a speedy combo of garlic, ginger, scallions, tahini, chili paste, soy sauce and my personal favorite kitchen ingredient, peanut butter. You thin it down a little with some hot water from the cooking pasta, toss in some cilantro if you are a cilantro person, and that's it. The salad is a simple combo of chopped cucumber and cashews tossed with sesame oil and white vinegar with a little ground pepper.

All these exotic ingredients can usually be found in any decent supermarket. If you absolutely can't find soba noodles anywhere (and I promise you that Amazon will have them!), you can sub in linguine. You just won't get to feel as completely virtuous. All of this wonderfulness is fabulous on its own, and also the perfect accompaniment to grilled steak or chicken or fish.

Here's the delish recipe, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad, from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

# minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons chili paste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 eight ounce package soba noodles (or linguine)
Sesame seeds for garnish

1 seedless cucumber, chopped
3/5 cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice or white wine vinegar
Fresh ground pepper

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

2. In a large bowl, mix garlic, ginger and scallions. Mix in peanut butter and tahini. Add chili paste and soy sauce and stir well. Add 1/2 cup hot water from the pot and stir into sauce. Add cilantro.

3. Make salad by mixing cucumber, cashews, sesame oil and vinegar in a separate small bowl. Set aside.

4. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Drain again and toss with sauce until well-coated. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with cucumber salad on the side.

Click here for printable recipe

Cashew Brittle Chunks

This is one recipe that almost didn't get posted here, because it just didn't turn out the way I expected it to. The title of the original recipe was "No-Bake Cashew Brittle Bars," and the picture of them showed these nice neat little bars. Yes, there was a crumb or two in the picture, but overall? Nice organized little bar cookies.

Now, I am a cashew fiend, and I always have them around. And anything with the word "brittle" in it has me at hello. These also have a good amount of oatmeal in them, along with one of my all-time flavorings in the world, and that is molasses. I heart molasses. My grandmother's molasses cookies (which you can find here) are the single most popular item on this blog by a country mile, so I think a lot of you are with me on the whole molasses thing. Plus I like the bunny on the molasses bottle cap.

Anyway, I made these things last weekend and followed all the directions, and they looked and smelled just heavenly, and then came time to cut them into the nice little bars. I got out my trusty big chef's nice and made a nice slice down the middle.

C R A C K!

They broke apart into two uneven hunks, with some smaller chunks breaking off the the bigger pieces. Hey!! What happened to my nice even no-bake-cashew brittle-bars??? I tried again, working on the bigger of the two uneven hunks. Same thing. So at the end of the whole process I ended up with what I am now calling cashew brittle chunks. That's when the Southern husband walked into the kitchen. I guess I was looking a little aggravated, and I did have a big knife in my hand at the time, and he catches on really quickly...so he asked me ever-so-gently if there was anything wrong?

I launched into a whole rant about bars and chunks and following directions and what the picture looked like and what MY version looked like and at some point during my whole monologue I realized that he was nodding...and eating. And eating. And eating. Now, the Southern husband is not a big one for sweets. He'll eat a cookie if I hand it to him, but he doesn't seek them out. (I know. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. It's just not normal.) But he was munching away on those chunks, and so I picked up my own piece.

Oh my goodness. They might not be beautiful, but they sure do have a nice personality. YUM. They are like the love child of a granola bar and traditional nut brittle. Sweet and crunchy and just a tiny bit chewy and full of that sweet molasses and salty cashew taste. Now, if you (or I) really did want them to come out in organized, even little square shapes, the trick would be to cut them up after they had cooled just enough to handle, but not so much that they were fully hardened. I'd say a good ten minutes in the fridge would do it...cut them up and then pop them back in to finish hardening. I will try that next time, because there WILL be a next time. It might ruin the Southern husband's reputation but I must tell you that he ate all but one chunk that day. All but one.

Who leaves just ONE? I ask you now.

Cashew Brittle Chunks, from Martha Stewart.com

• 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup (about 5 ounces) salted cashews
• 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1. Line a 4 1/2-by-9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on each long side. Toast oats and cashews in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, until aromatic and just starting to turn golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl.
2. Add butter, sugar, cinnamon, corn syrup, molasses, and salt in the skillet, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until butter melts and mixture bubbles, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour hot mixture over oats and cashews, and stir to combine.
3. Transfer mixture to loaf pan. Using a spatula, press mixture into an even layer. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Remove chilled mixture from pan using parchment, discard parchment, and cut into 1-inch thick bars. Or chunks, as the case may be...

Click here for printable recipe

Warm Quinoa Salad with Shrimp and Asparagus

So, I was probably the last one to find out it is pronounced "keen-wah," and that it contains more protein than any other grain. You guys all knew that already, right? I just knew that it tastes dang good, and whenever I have had one too many Maple Butterscotch Macadamia Blondies and am needing an injection of healthy food, this is a great and yummy way to get some. It is chock-full of veggies -- asparagus, peas, sundried tomatoes -- flavored up with some scallions and a few salty cashews, and topped off with my favorite...delicious chopped up shrimp.

Even more happily, it all cooks up in one pot -- the quinoa first, then the veggies, topped with the shrimp. If I am feeling really crazy, I crumble some soft feta cheese onto the top right before I serve it.

This recipe comes from the Whole Foods website, which is (as you might guess) a great source for healthy and delicious food. I wouldn't go there looking for Cookie Truffle recipes, but if you are looking for stuff to make with quinoa, you're looking in the right place.

So there you go. Be healthy, people. Every now and then, anyway.

WARM QUINOA SALAD WITH SHRIMP AND ASPARAGUS, from Whole Foods

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, not reconstituted, julienned
1/2 cup vegetable broth or water
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1/2 cup roasted cashew pieces
6 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1. In a medium pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook for 3 minutes. Add sun-dried tomatoes and continue to cook for 1 more minute. Add broth, wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in quinoa and simmer on low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until quinoa is almost tender.

2. Arrange shrimp on top of quinoa in pot and simmer for 3 minutes. Add asparagus and peas on top of the shrimp and simmer for 3 more minutes. Top with cashews, green onions and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe