HELLO, HELLO!!
Whew, it has been quite a long week…
Last weekend, my sorority, GPhi, hosted our annual Mother’s weekend. My mom flew from Florida to Chicago on Thursday and drove up to Madison on Friday, with 10 stitches in her knee…!
Terr Bear is a SAVAGE !!
We inhaled tapas from the famous restaurant, A Pig In A Fur Coat, on Friday night, drooled all over our filets at Johnny Delmonico’s Steakhouse on Saturday, and just wine-d in between. 😉
After a weekend of dining and wine-ing, I had to hit the lib to write a paper which was due that Sunday night and CRAM for the biochem exam I had Tuesday night. One could say that I had the “Sunday Scaries“.
So… maybe this is why professors tell us to study a little bit every night so we don’t have a panic attack while cramming the weekend before an exam??
I wanted something to look forward to post-biochem exam; something to get my mind off of biochem.
I decided that I would treat myself to baking @RachaelsGoodEats Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet. I’ve seen this recipe ALL 👏🏼 OVER 👏🏼 my insta feed and have always had it in the back of my mind to make. It was also appropriate because on Wednesday, it was “National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day”! After a weekend of “Good Eats” with my mom, why not continue the “Good Eats” trend post midterm??
On Wednesday night, also National RDN day, and I created a list of ingredients that I would need for Rachael DeVaux’s recipe.
I had a mason jar of my Salted Vanilla Cashew Butter sitting in my pantry, so I checked that off the list.
Thursday night comes and I find myself baking a cookie skillet – sounds like a normal Thursday night for a college student, right??
When I started combining the wet ingredients, I hesitated to sacrifice the last 1/3 cup of Salted Vanilla Cashew Butter in my mason jar. IK, I’m weird. I just have an emotional attachment to eating my cashew butter off the spoon. I decided to substitute the cashew butter for another type of butter so I wouldn’t run out of my favorite spoonful.
( HINTY HINT HINT !! – this is foreshadowing the birth of the Irish cookie )
After whipping up the cookie dough, I treated myself to a bite or two of the dough. UGH, lemme tell you, this dough was WORTH 👏🏼 THE 👏🏼 RISK👏🏼 of eating a raw cookie dough.
I’m NOT suggesting that you risk it, I’m jussayin’…
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
SO.
GUESS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN U MIX A CERTAIN BUTTER WITH BAKING SODA…
… a st. patty’s day miracle …
I may only be 25% Irish, but my Irish ancestors were sending me a foodie blessing.
Can you guess what this ~MYSTERIOUS~ ingredient is?!
** This recipe is from Rachael’s Good Eats blog **
Recipe:
1 egg (or sub flax egg)
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
** 1/3 cup creamy SUNBUTTER
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
1 cup almond flour (Bob’s Red Mill finely ground almond flour works BEST!)
1/4 cup collagen peptides (optional) I use Vital Proteins. They dissolve right away in the batter!
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2-3/4 Dark Chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces
1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions:
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
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Whisk egg in large bowl then pour in maple syrup, melted coconut oil, SunButter, vanilla and almond milk to whisk again.
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Stir in almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon and some of the sea salt. Fold in chocolate chunks, leaving several chocolate chunks aside.
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Very lightly spray a 8 or 9-inch cast iron skillet (13-inch if doubling the recipe) with coconut oil then pour batter into the base and spread out evenly using a silicone spatula. Place the last several pieces of chocolate over the top, sprinkle sea salt, then place in the oven for 19 minutes on the center rack. Turn the oven on broil and cook 1- 1 1/2 additional minutes **keep a close eye on it because it can burn quickly!
Did ya think I added some special “Irish bev” to this??
NAH – what gives this recipe an Irish/Shamrock green is the chemical reactions between the SunButter and the baking soda. Sunflowers ( including the seeds ) contain chlorophyll, AKA “chlorogenic acid”. When this acid reacts with baking soda, it produces a green color! This color is evident when your baked good cools. This is completely harmless and it doesn’t affect the taste of the cookie.
It all comes back to ~ SCIENCE ~!!
Alright, that is ENOUGH biochemistry for me this week. I guess I couldn’t escape the biochemistry after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
xx hails ~ AKA the new “Bill Nye The Science Guy”