Chocolate Monday! Chocolate-Cashew Crunch/ Cocoa Brownies/ Lo-fat Chocolate Cookies!!! 🌞

Chocolate Cashew Crunch

4 tablespoons ('A cup) unsalted butler
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup light com syrup
1/2 cup finely chopped salted cashews
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces milk chocolate chips (about 1 cup)

Yield: About 3 dozen

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a cookie sheet.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add
the brown sugar and corn syrup, then bring to a boil over
medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves,
1 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the cashews, flour, and vanilla. Drop the batter into
1/2-teaspoon mounds 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie
sheet. Using a small spatula, spread each mound into a circle.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned, rotating the pan
back to front after 4 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for
about 30 seconds, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

In a small bowl set over a small saucepan, melt the chocolate
over hot, not simmering, water. Dip the cookies halfway into
the chocolate and return to the racks to set.

From "Mrs. Field's I Love Chocolate!"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/532254.Mrs_Fields_I_Love_Chocolate_Cookbook

***********************************************************************

o
COCOA BROWNIES

These brownies are made with unsweetened cocoa powder,
so there's no chocolate to melt.

What You Need

small mixing bowl
large saucepan
potholder and spoon
measuring cups and spoons
rubber spatula
8" square baking pan
cake tester or toothpick
cooling rack
shortening or vegetable shortening spray to grease pan

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons lightly salted butter
(10 tablespoons in all)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts, if you like

What You Do

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (If you use a glass pan, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.)

2. Set out all your ingredients and equipment.

3. Lightly grease an 8" square baking pan. (Line it with foil first,
if you like.)

4. Measure cocoa powder and sugar into a small bowl and stir
together to blend well and break up any lumps in the cocoa
powder.

5. Place butter in saucepan over very low heat. Use a potholder
to hold the pan by the handle and gently swirl the
butter as it melts to keep it from burning. Turn off heat and
set pan on a surface that won't burn.

6. Carefully add cocoa-sugar mixture to melted butter. Stir to
mix well.

7. Break eggs into small bowl. Use a fork to beat the eggs just
enough to break the yolks and mix them lightly with the whites.

8. Add the eggs to the mixture in the saucepan and stir gently
to blend well.

9. Add vanilla extract and stir.

10. Add flour to pan and stir to mix well. Don't leave any lumps
of flour.

11. Stir In nuts, if you're using them.

12. Scrape batter into greased baking pan

13. Carefully place pan in preheated oven. Bake about 21-25
minutes. Use cake tester or toothpick to test for doneness.
A few crumbs may stick to the tester, but it shouldn't be
covered with wet batter.

14. Remove pan to cooling rack. Cool at least 30 minutes before
turning out of pan. Or cool completely and cut into bars
in pan. Brownies cut best after they are refrigerated. Wrap
brownies well and store in refrigerator or freeze.

Makes approximately 16 large or 32 small brownies


From "Chocolate Heaven"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/928640.Chocolate_Heaven

**************************************************************************


Low-Fat Chocolate Cookies

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup {packed) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

In a medium bow!, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer, blend the brown and
granulated sugars. Slowly beat in the oil. Beat in the applesauce, egg whites,
and vanilla, and blend on low speed until smooth.

Add the flour mixture and blend on low speed until the dough is just
combined. Refrigerate the dough imtil firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 300°.

Roll the dough into small (1-inch) balls, place on a cookie sheet and flatten
slightly. Sprinkle with the mini chocolate chips, then bake for 17 to 19
minutes (do not overbake; when the cookies cool they will get hard). Transfer
the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

From "Mrs. Field's I Love Chocolate!"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/532254.Mrs_Fields_I_Love_Chocolate_Cookbook


Enjoy Everyone!