Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cherries and Pistachios

Halloween is fast approaching, and what better way to prepare than with a sinful treat? (No tricks, we promise!) This one comes from our new favorite recipe destination, Williams-Sonoma.com, and they call these their Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cherries and Pistachios.

First a warning - do not start eating this dough, or you will not be able to stop. Seriously, we clearly missed the part where it said we were actually adding crack to the dough. It must have been in the butter.

Let it be known that those pistachios and cherries came with a Williams-Sonoma price tag, but boy were they worth it! The cookies themselves were very easy to assemble. Beyond combining the powdered ingredients, the bulk of the recipe relied heavily on our old friend, the stand-mixer. Add, mix, add, mix, add, mix...you get the idea.

Placing the cookies on the prepared sheets was challenging, because the dough was a) sticky, and b) delicious. To save yourself a few extra hours on the elliptical, we recommend using two teaspoons to shape the dough into balls, flattening them with the palm of your hand, and quickly stashing both baking sheets in your oven. Then lick that mixing bowl clean!

Swapping the baking sheets midway through cooking creates a problem because those sheets are good and greased up. Your cookies will slide if you don't keep them level, so take your time!

We offer this caution because we, of course, did NOT take our time. Zombies must have eaten our brains last night, because one of us tried to perform the whole sheet-swapping task without setting down either baking sheet.

That's how we ended up with Mega-Cookie.

Most of Mega-Cookie was salvageable with a few quick cuts from the edge of a spatula, and one of us appreciated the excuse to sample some of our less attractive product.

The verdict? These. Cookies. Are. Delicious. In fact, we've already pulled the trigger and added them to our Christmas Party must-have list. They are so crammed full of delicious fall flavors that we could eat them all season. (And since W-S doesn't include nutritional information with their recipes, we just might!)

So make these. Make them now. This weekend, if you have to wait. And...have a tasty, treat-filled Halloween!

Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread

Let's sweeten up our Saturday, shall we? Last week for work, we attempted the Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread (Cooking Light, Oct 2010) for a coworker's birthday. Chocolate, bananas, more chocolate - it seemed like a recipe for success.

The bread was straightforward to put together and required mostly the kinds of staples we tend to keep around our kitchen. (What, you don't keep a bag of chocolate chips on hand at all times?) We popped it in the oven and sat down to relax while it baked the requisite 55 minutes.

It came out of the oven smelling a bit burned, which puzzled us. Generally, our oven temperature runs a little low, so we have to cook things a minute or two longer than stated by the recipe. When we went to pop the chocolate and milk topping mixture into the microwave, we realized why: the 5 tablespoons of melted butter that were supposed to go in the batter were still sitting in the microwave.

Heartbroken, we sliced off an end of the bread and gave it a taste...and, much to our surprise, it wasn't bad at all! Most likely, it was the addition of plain yogurt to the dough plus the bananas themselves that kept things moist and bound despite the lack of fat from the butter. Once we decided that this could still be served to coworkers without destroying our baking reputation, we went ahead with assembling the topping.

Perhaps it was the type of chocolate we used (Nestle semisweet mini chips) or the fat-free milk, but the topping wasn't nearly as thick as shown in the recipe image. But that - and our own inattention to detail! - was our only difficulty with this recipe. All in all, it receives our recommendation for a tasty, anytime treat.