Kitchen Wench

I have many formative childhood memories involving my dad taking me to get chocolate malts, usually as a special treat after something crappy, traumatic experience (like the dentist).  If that’s not emotional eating, I don’t know what is.  But I digress.   The point is, I have deeply rooted positive associations with the taste of malt powder.  So when I saw The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for malted chocolate chip cookies, I let out a great squee of excitement and rushed home from work to bake these.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of these cookies.  You’re really not missing much, as they are surprisingly unattractive.  I presented one to a coworker and he said, “I’m not sure I want to put this in my mouth.”  But the ugliness becomes a moot point because as soon as you eat one, you find that it’s totally necessary to eat at least five more.  This is an exceptional cookie.  There’s only one slight flaw…

They don’t taste like malt.

The malt flavor is really strong in the dough, but somehow it morphs during baking into this warm toffee flavor.  Don’t get my wrong, these still taste awesome, and clearly the malt is doing something to give it that deeper flavor and a great crisp-chewy consistency.  (And I love that in a chocolate chip — none of that gooey, partially cooked center for me.)  But it didn’t taste like my childhood, which I realize is maybe a lot to ask from a humble baked good. Still, these cookies are fantastic, and I would 100% make them again.  And you should too.

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I recently wrote about paletas, a delicious Latin American version of the popsicle.  It’s been hot as balls in DC, so eating a frozen fruit bar is pretty much the perfect antidote to the heat.  And while you should all get yourselves to the Mt. Pleasant farmers’ market to try some of the paletas from the guys at Pleasant Pops, you can also make them at home.  That’s what I decided to do one night this week, mostly because our refrigerator is on the fritz but, thank god, the freezer still works.

I happened to have an overripe melon I needed to eat, but pretty much any fruit will do here.  You could also add milk, yogurt, or even pudding for something richer and more evocative of Bill Cosby.  I pureed my fruit, but you can mix in whole chunks for more texture.  There are no creative limits here (try adding different herbs, spices, maybe even vegetables?!), so have a little fun with it.

Also, since I didn’t add any sugar, I like to wishfully think that this counts as eating a serving of fruit. Read the rest of this entry �