Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bites

These little balls are like healthy no bake cookies - so efficient and yet so delicious.  You can make all sorts of different versions of them - I've tried cocoa powder to make them more chocolatey, dried fruit instead of chocolate chips one day I was feeling particularly healthy, and peanut butter chips - all pretty tasty.

Ingredients:
1 cup (dry) old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/2 cup almond or peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or dried fruit
1/3 cup honey or agave nectar
1 tablespoon chia seeds (if you feel like it)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour so that the dough gets a little more solid. Once chilled, roll into balls. (Mine were about 1" in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated.

Cherry Pie

Ingredients

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup very cold water, plus an additional tablespoon if needed

Filling
4 cups fresh or frozen tart cherries
1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (I used 1 cup and it seemed fine but not overly sweet)
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 tablespoon almond extract (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, to dot
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, to sprinkle

Directions

Crust
In the bottom of a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Work the butter into the flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles a coarse meal and the largest bits of butter are the size of tiny peas. Add 1/2 cup cold water and stir until large clumps form. Use your hands to knead the dough together, right in the bottom of the bowl. If necessary to bring the dough together, you can add the last tablespoon of water.

Wrap dough in a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, or up to 48 hours, or you can quick-firm this in the freezer for 15 minutes. Longer than 2 days, it’s best to freeze it until needed.

Divide the dough in half.  On a floured counter, roll each piece of dough out into a 12 to 13-inch circle (or anything close). Fold dough gently in quarters without creasing and transfer to a 9-inch standard (not deep-dish) pie plate. Unfold dough and trim overhang to about 1/2-inch. Fold overhang under edge of pie crust. Return to fridge until ready to fill.

Filling
Place cherries in medium saucepan and place over heat. Cover. After the cherries lose considerable juice, which may take a few minutes, remove from heat. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch together. Pour this mixture into the hot cherries and mix well. Add the almond extract, if desired, and mix. Return the mixture to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water, too thin, add a little more cornstarch.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour cooled cherry mixture into the crust. Dot with butter.  I had to google what it means to dot with butter because I didn’t understand if I was painting the crust with butter or what was happening with this so-called dotting.  Apparently it just means to put little pieces of butter on top of your filling before you add the top crust.  Weird.  Moisten edge of bottom crust. Place top crust on and flute the edge of the pie. Make a slit in the middle of the crust for steam to escape. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

I made this pie during the Thanksgiving festivities for the first time and I was worried about ruining a classic, but it turned out to be a pretty amazing pie.  I mean how can you go wrong adding chocolate to anything, especially with pecans, but I couldn't believe how delicious it was!

Ingredients

Crust
1 1/4 cups (155 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons (6 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) fine sea or table salt
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/4 cup (60 ml) very cold water, plus an additional tablespoon if needed

Filling

2 cups (about 7 ounces) pecans

3 large eggs

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons bourbon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions

Crust

In the bottom of a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Work the butter into the flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles a coarse meal and the largest bits of butter are the size of tiny peas. Add 1/4 cup cold water and stir until large clumps form. Use your hands to knead the dough together, right in the bottom of the bowl. If necessary to bring the dough together, you can add the last tablespoon of water.

Wrap dough in a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, or up to 48 hours, or you can quick-firm this in the freezer for 15 minutes. Longer than 2 days, it’s best to freeze it until needed.

On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a 12 to 13-inch circle (or anything close). Fold dough gently in quarters without creasing and transfer to a 9-inch standard (not deep-dish) pie plate. Unfold dough and trim overhang to about 1/2-inch. Fold overhang under edge of pie crust and crimp decoratively. Return to fridge until ready to fill.

Filling

Preheat the oven to 375°. On a rimmed baking sheet, toast the pecans for about 8 minutes, or until fragrant; coarsely chop. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter, bourbon and salt until blended. Stir in the pecans and chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Pour the filling into the pie shell. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for about 55 minutes, or until the center of the pie is set. Tent the crust with foil halfway through the baking time if the edge is browning too quickly. Transfer the pie to a rack and let cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

Best cheesecake ever

One Thanksgiving in Ghana, we were desperate for some American dessert but were having trouble getting the right ingredients for anything Thanksgivingy so I finally came up with this recipe to meet all of our weird requirements.  Anyway, I made it and it was such a hit that everyone I knew requested it for every single farewell party, Friday night movie night, birthday, and pretty much anything that could possibly require celebration in the form of a cheesecake.  So I thought I'd share the recipe because it is actually pretty amazing.

Ingredients

Crust:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
6 tablespoons cold butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:
5 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup whipping cream

Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pecans and lemon peel, cut in butter until crumbly. Combine egg yolk and vanilla; stir into flour mixture. Press onto the bottom of a greased 10-in. springform pan. Bake at 400 degrees F for 8-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
Fill a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish with 8 cups water; place on lowest oven rack. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar. Add the flour, vanilla and salt. Combine eggs and egg yolks; add to cream cheese mixture just until combined. Beat in cream just until combined. Pour over crust.

Bake on middle rack at 325 degrees F for 70-75 minutes or until center is almost set (top of cheesecake will crack, don't be scared). Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight (or for at least 4-5 hours).