Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles

I need to apologize for my lack of blog entries these days - Christmas is right around the corner, and while I've been cooking often, I haven't had much time to sit down in front of the computer proper.

As I'm writing this, I have chocolate chip cookie dough (sans eggs and with condensed milk to bind everything together) chilling on a cookie sheet in the car (my car doubles as a refrigerator in the winter). Once the dough sets (approximately 2 hours in the fridge, but about 45 minutes or so in sub-zero temperatures), I'll take them out and coat them in chocolate to make truffles.

I stumbled across this recipe by Paula Deen (lovely lady with great recipes that must seriously be tested in moderation as they can get pretty rich) last year, and thought it was genius. The elegant appearance of truffles combined with the familiar and comforting taste of chocolate chip cookies. What's not to love?

Of course, like most recipes, I had to tinker - mostly with the sugar, as I find most recipes too sweet.

My tinkerings:
- 300 ML of condensed milk (slightly less than 14 ounces)
- 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of 3/4 cup - condensed milk is already chock-full of sweetness - the brown sugar is for flavouring only
- 0.75 cups of mini chocolate chips (more than the 0.5 cups called for)
- 1.5 cups of pecans (up from the 1 cup called for)

The recipe is actually quite ingenious - no eggs, so you don't have to worry about salmonella poisoning - and it still retains all of the amazing flavours of the classic chocolate chip cookie.

I do have to say though, it is quite labour intensive. The dough was easy enough to make, but it was the chocolate dipping part that hurt the most.

Making chocolate is fun, but I'm definitely not an expert. Which means that dipping the cookie dough (which, BTW, were shaped with my awesome cookie dough scoop) into melted chocolate coating, taking it out and placing it onto waxed paper was quite painful for me.

Even with my chocolate dipping toolset, it still hurt. I definitely need more practice.

But the end results?  Not as bad as I thought.  Check it out:

While not perfectly dipped, I did manage to get the job done. Paula's recipe calls for 2 spoons if you don't have the right tools. Let's just say I did this last year and I would never, ever, ever, do this again.

Peanut butter granola bars

By now, you've probably realized that in a fearful way, I worship Martha Stewart. I didn't realize this until one day, I signed up for her daily newsletter. I also keep going back to her site for her recipes (note: I always tinker, but her recipes require minimal tinkering).

Case in point: granola bars. I'm a fan of granola bars but I never know what goes in them - plus store-bought ones tend to not be filling (or so I think). So in my quest for a granola bar recipe, I turned to Martha once again and found this recipe.

The recipe worked out really well, though if I were to attempt it again, I would leave out the vegetable oil. The oil in the peanut butter is enough to prevent anything from sticking to the parchment paper. I would also reduce the sugar from 1/2 cup to 1/3 of a cup.

After the granola mixture baked and cooled down, I had to cut the bars and package them (many of you also know that I rarely eat what I bake) to give away.
Like actual granola bars, I packaged each one in saran wrap and then placed them in a tin takeout box. The  fit was snug, and I was afraid to just shove them in the box - so I game up with a solution a la Martha: a pull tag!

All I can say is that I'm extremely proud of this.  Oh, and the granola bars were extremely yummy too.

New Korea Restaurant

Tucked away in the T&T Supermarket Food Court located at 5661 Steeles Avenue East in Scarborough is the New Korea Restaurant, a modest food stall offering exactly 10 menu items: one of them being spicy pork bone soup. Not knowing what to expect from a food court restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised at how perfectly spicy and delicious the soup was. The pork literally fell off the bone.

I was first introduced to pork bone soup by a friend (who is now back in South Korea). Fragrant, spicy and awesome for a cold winter day, I was surprised that something so simple could be so flavourful.

Boiling hot for a cold winter day

Now, I'm no expert on Korean food, but I have to say the soup I had today at New Korea Restaurant was good for this foodie's soul. Served with white rice (which I skipped) and a side of kimchi, the meal was really well priced ($8.95). The fact that it's easy-on-the-wallet is a definite bonus.

Restaurant rating: Definitely worth an extra hour or two at the gym.  (Not that I think you'd need it - the soup really does consist of a spicy broth).