Double Chocolate Cookies: Ghost of a Chance

These cookies are the most decadent chocolate cookies I've tasted yet!  Perhaps a more appropriate name would be "death by chocolate" cookies just in time for October 31!

Tomorrow is Halloween so I had to get a good "ghostly" song in here.  Check out "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance" sung by Billie Holiday.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup baking cocoa

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat with electric mixer the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until creamy.
4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture.  Beat on low until thoroughly mixed.
5. Stir chocolate chips into dough with a spoon.
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Bake for 7-8 minutes.  Remove baking sheet from oven and let cookies set for 2 minutes.
8. Remove cookies from parchment paper onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Pecan Chicken Tenderloins with Cinnamon Honey Butter

This pecan chicken tenderloin recipe is this tastiest I've ever had!  The coating is a combination of pecans, sesame seeds, bread crumbs, and spices.  The chicken comes out really tender from the oven.

I immediately thought today's song should be the first jazz song I learned and performed when I was 10 years old: "God Bless the Child."  The third verse has a line that includes "crust of bread," so naturally, it fits here with this marvelous pecan crust on the chicken! So here is "God Bless the Child" sung by Billie Holiday.

PECAN CHICKEN TENDERLOINS

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon water

Dash Tabasco® Sauce

1 teaspoon Dijon honey mustard

1 cup pecan pieces

1 cup bread crumbs

½ cup sesame seeds

1 teaspoon basil

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

2 pounds chicken tenderloins

1. Prepare two large flat baking sheets by spreading each with 1½ teaspoons of olive.  Set aside.
2. Put flour in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. Put the eggs, water, Tabasco® Sauce, and mustard in a small bowl and whip with a fork.  Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, stir together pecans, bread crumbs, sesame seeds, basil, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper.  Set aside.
5. Cut chicken tenderloins into two slivers.
6. Set the bowls of flour, egg mixture, and pecan mixture in a row to the left of the slivered chicken tenderloins.
7. In assembly line fashion, dredge each tenderloin piece in flour, then the egg mixture then the pecan mixture.
8. Place on baking sheets so that they do not touch.
9. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
10. Bake for 5 minutes.  If chicken looks white rather than pink, remove from oven and turn each piece over.  Return to oven.
11. Bake for 5 more minutes.  If crust is crispy and the chicken is cooked, white and moist, remove from oven.
12. Serve with Cinnamon Honey Butter.

CINNAMON HONEY BUTTER

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

6 tablespoons honey

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a medium bowl, place butter and stir it slightly.  Add honey and cinnamon.  Stir but leave some butter clumps.
2. Serve chilled.

Raspberry Pie: All of Me

Fruit pies are classic, aren't they? But they are difficult to get just right. Sometimes they are too gelled and other times too runny. This pie cuts into pieces well once it is chilled!

And speaking of pieces, or rather parts, of a whole, here's Billie Holiday singing "All of Me."

RASPBERRY PIE

CRUST
2 ¼ cups flour

¾ cups cold butter, cut into small chunks

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon Splenda® or sugar

3 to 5 ounces icy cold water

FILLING

1 package (4 ¾ ounces) Junket® Raspberry Danish Dessert

1 ½ cups cold water

2 cups fresh raspberries

2 cups frozen raspberries

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In berry strainer, run cold water over frozen raspberries then spread them gently on several thicknesses of paper towels.  Rinse fresh raspberries then spread on a different set of several thicknesses of paper towels.
3. Make Junket® according to directions—but with only 1 ½ cups cold water.  Stir constantly.  Let cool for 10 minutes.
4. After Junket® has cooled for 10 minutes, add frozen raspberries and lemon juice.  Stir gently.  Then add fresh raspberries.  Set aside.
5. Make pie dough by stirring together the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the cold butter.  Use a pastry blender to combine until butter chunks are the size of large peas.
6. Add icy cold water, stirring with a fork.  Do not add too much. 
7. Knead with fingers, not palms of hands.  If too dry, add a little more icy cold water. 
8. Divide in half then take a large pinch from one half and increase the size of the other with it for the bottom crust.  Mold the bottom crust amount into a flat round ball.  Mold the top crust amount into a flat round ball.  On a floured surface, roll out bottom crust.  Lay into a large glass pie dish.  Cut off edges that overhang but do not poke holes in the crust.  Bake for 6-7 minutes or until it looks congealed and partially cooked.  Remove from oven. 
9. While bottom crust is baking, roll out the top crust on a floured surface. 
10. When bottom crust is partially cooked, pour Junket® mixture into pie crust.  Lay top crust over the top, cutting off any long hanging pieces so nothing hangs over the edges of the lip of the pie dish.
11. With a knife, make three holes in the top crust about 2 inches apart.
12. Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees and bake pie for 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.  If edges are getting too dark, put a silicone pie crust shield on after 20 minutes of baking time.  Or you could make a foil edge cover by crimping pieces of foil together in a long line then gently wrapped around the edges.