holy cow!

let’s start by saying that the entire family has, or has had, strep throat. yay! that means we are quarantined, at least for the first 24 hours of antibiotics. we reached that point at 3 pm today. however, i am still suffering from a sore throat and froggy voice. just in time for our trip to seattle this week! i’m sure i’ll be feeling better by then though!

so yesterday we focused on staying inside, resting up, and doing what we love. that’s right! cooking & baking.

i made a totally awesome recipe for a beef stew type of dish with mashed potatoes that was the perfect comfort food in our time of need. i took some pictures but they really didn’t do the dish justice and my kitchen lighting is totally terrible. in fact, the overwhelming beigeness (is that even a word?) of my house makes for terrible lighting overall. i’ve been thinking lately that it must change... but that’s another post entirely. i think this means i need to get out of the dang house! i might be losing my grip.

oh, but i almost forgot! the dessert! 
i’ve been hanging onto this recipe for quite some time now. not really sure why i haven’t gotten off my bootie and just tried it. but i did yesterday! oh, man. they are called Chocolate Decedence Cookies, and are, by coincidence, GLUTEN FREE... which is why i picked up the recipe in the first place. and maybe it was my perception that gluten free cookies probably can’t be quite as good as the real deal. so, it took me a few months of staring at it, flipping past it, and flat-out ignoring it before i made them.

the Lord knew i needed these cookies yesterday. he saved them for just the right moment.
chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. heaven.
my husband calls them “steamers” for obvious reasons.

Adapted from LemonPi and based on Alice Medrich’s recipe from Bittersweet
here’s the recipe:


Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice flour (I used Mochiko by Blue Star)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar 2

teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup pecans

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

2 sheets parchment paper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together, set aside.  Place 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips and butter in a med. microwavable bowl and heat for 1 minute.  Stir the chocolate butter mixture and microwave again for 30 seconds.  Continue to microwave and stir until the chips have melted and your mixture is smooth, set aside.  In a heatproof bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla thoroughly and set the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water using it like a double broiler.  Continue to whisk everything until the mixture is lukewarm.  Combine the egg mixture and the chocolate mixture (should be lukewarm as well) stirring until they are well combined.  Add the flour mixture, 6oz choc. chips, and pecans.  Your batter will look like thick cake batter.  Do not fear, after they bake they will look like and taste like cookies!  Scoop dough (it will look very wet and sloppy) into rounded tablespoons on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 2 inches apart from each other.  Bake for 14 minutes until the surface of the cookies look dry and set.  With the cookies still on the parchment paper, slide them onto racks to cool.  Gently peel the parchment paper back after cookies have cooled for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!