Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s been a very long time, about 9 months, since I last posted. I am sorry, but I do have a good excuse for my absence. So much has happened during this time, and the big news is that almost 4 months ago I delivered a healthy baby girl. Lately I’ve missed the blog a lot and my intention is to get back to it and post as much as I can given my very busy halal-mama-of-five life.

You may not be very excited about another chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I am. I did not grow up eating and baking cookies of any kind. We are cake people. You crave something in the afternoon, you bake a cake and brew some coffee to have with it. However, since I have five kids and live in this country, I feel I should learn how to make cookies for bake sales and classroom parties. I had never, until now, made satisfactory chocolate chip cookies. For some reason they would always turn out very thin and crispy.

With Ramadan coming early this year, I feel pressed to learn fast some good cookie recipes to have some around for that time. I decided to start with a basic one by Dorie Greenspan as I have always been lucky with her recipes. Sure enough, it is a winner. So, here it is for you. Hope you come back soon to check new recipes that I am looking forward to sharing. As always, I would very much appreciate hearing from you here or via email, which I promise to go back to checking frequently again.

Rugelach

Since we have been posting quite a few healthy recipes lately, I thought it was time to post something sweet and rather decadent. Recently I decided to make rugelach since I had been craving these amazing cookies for awhile but hadn’t made them since… I guess, since last summer. Rugelach is quite easy to make but a bit time consuming as you have to refrigerate the dough twice during the process. This time around I made the dough in the evening and then put it in the refrigerator overnight and finished making the cookies in the short period of time the twins went to preschool. Part of the dough I kept in the fridge and part in the freezer. Although both worked fine, I thought the frozen portion worked a bit better as the dough tends to start getting too soft too easily. I took the dough out of the freezer and after about 20 minutes I was able to start working with it after first pummeling it a bit with a rolling pin.

Chocolate Orange Mousse

Along the lines of the dessert-a-palooza that has taken over my blog, here is another Ina Garten recipe that I made for the Thanksgiving Day Potluck.

Orangette

Unbelievable as it seems the end of another school year is less than two weeks away. This is about the time I get to thinking about what to get my childrens' teachers as a gift to express our thanks for all they have done throughout the year.

Brigadeiro

My taste in cuisine is just as diverse as my background. Having grown up in São Paulo, probably the most ethnically diverse city in Brazil, I have been exposed to a great variety of food from early in life. And, now, living in Chicago I find that not too far beyond my front door is authentic food from just about any country in the world. My passion for traveling and exploring different cultures have helped fuel what I like to cook and eat.