Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (Updated)

My Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake...an easy, crisp-chewy cake with a toothsome crust, tender crumb, moist interior and complex, salty-sweet-smoky flavors owing to the olive oil, significant portions of brown sugar and kosher salt and the nuttiness of the white whole wheat flour.  

I made it again last night to nail down the recipe and the bake time.  The result was magnificent!

A crisp-chewy cake perfect for the cookie lover and cake needer alike.

This cake is so easy.  Everything goes into one big mixing bowl!

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

1 Cup Organic Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup Organic Brown Sugar (I use TJ's)

3/4 Cup Best Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil*

*I know! It's fantastic, trust me! This would be great with Colavita Private Selection Fruttato EVOO or the Colavita Argentinian Fruity EVOO...therefore, it is my entry into the Colavita Contest hosted by The Urban Vegan!  

1/4 Cup Organic, Unsweetened Applesauce

2 tsp. EnerG Egg Replacer Powder (just the powder)

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. Kosher Salt

2 and 1/3 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour--a whole grain! :-)

(I love King Arthur's brand here)

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 and 1/2 Cups Best Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 

(I like WF 365, Ghirardelli, etc.)

Optional: 1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts (if you are so inclined)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Combine Sugars through Kosher salt in a mixing bowl and blend with a hand mixer until thoroughly combined:

It will have a gel-like consistency.

Now, add your dry ingredients (I use a fine mesh sieve over the bowl to sift the dry stuff in and save a bowl!) and mix with a spoon or spatula until well combined.

It will look like this.  Like sticky pieces of sandy dough.

Now, add your chips!

It will look like this :-)

Now, press all the dough into a well-greased loaf pan.  This is a "large" NordicWare pan, it measures eight inches across the floor, and almost ten across the top.

Dough packed into the pan.  I pressed it in with a spatula.

Now, bake her at 375 for 20 minutes (the higher heat gives a nice crispy crust) then lower the heat to 350 (as not to dry it out) and bake another 25 minutes.  The edges will get a bit golden and a toothpick will come out clean.

This cake will not rise very much (hardly at all).  It is a dense, delicious olive-oil based cake (so tender! so rich!) so don't worry that it didn't puff up. 

Close up of the golden edges.  It's harder to tell how "golden" the edges are when using White Whole Wheat flour, but you can see it there.

Allow to cool, then cut and serve!  It's OK if it is still a little warm :-)

When you cut it, use a sharp paring knife as the outer crust will be crispy, but the inside is soft, moist and cookie-like.  

Pack it for lunches, too!

I wrap individual slices in foil then store them in a zipper freezer bag, too, for cookie cake anytime :-)

EVOO is sweet!

Enjoy, guys. This one is worth a splurge!

MoFo Post #8: Wine, Olive Oil, and Ice Cream

Last night was…Date Night! We had a BABYSITTER, and actually went out to dinner for the first time in four years (I am counting some of my pregnancy, because you cannot drink when you are toting around a developing fetus).  We have done dates during the day while he is at day care, school, etc. but never gotten a sitter for an evening before.  It was quite the revelation.

We got sushi, which I had been craving.  Question: why isn’t there more vegan sushi at sushi places? Like that awesome deep fried silken tofu I always get, can’t you put that in a roll with some avocado and carrots or something? Maybe next time I'll ask them to make me a fried tofu roll.  It was great regardless.

The place was a BYO and so we brought this great, yet very reasonably priced wine (It was a Dry Riesling from Chateau Ste Michelle) so I went crazy and drank two glasses of wine at dinner, and then we went to this store I’d been dying to go to for like months, A Taste of Olive.  I ended up spending $50 on olive oils and vinegar, but to me, that is the best fifty bucks that you can spend.  You can taste all (or at least as many as you can handle) of the oils and vinegars and once you choose one (or more!) they bottle it for you right there and seal it with their fun machine.

Yup, that's my cat's tail on the right, there.

So, the bottles have their logo on one side, and on the other they print out custom labels for whichever ambrosial liquids you chose to go inside:

 My husband's choice.

I needed a great, all-purpose balsamic vinegar.  This was it. I was difficult to go basic with the dozens of amazing vinegars they carry.

My choice of oil.

My husband and I each preferred a slightly different profile to our oils, so we got two.  He chose a Spanish oil, La Trinidad, which was grassy, fruity, and had a sharp, peppery finish that got you in the back of the throat.  I chose Kaldi, a Greek oil that had a lot of fruit up front and a peppery finish that didn’t linger too long on the back of the throat.  Anyway, I’ll get a flavored one next time, but it was so hard to choose, I went for the great all around oil.

So, today, we hit the Farmer's Market and then really wanted to use our new bottles.

Hubby made a fresh vegetable terrine with zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and fresh basil:

I mixed in some chickpeas, and some sauteed fresh spinach (hubby also made that, sauteed with leeks, from our farmer's market purchases).  I dressed it with my balsamic vinegar and my olive oil.  Hubby does not like balsamic vinegar, so I made a separate dish.  

We ate these over pasta: capellini dressed with garlic and oil. I'm sure you can imagine a better picture than I could have taken because I was starving!

And then, since it was like 75 degrees (Fahrenheit) today, I made some pumpkin ice cream.  I was trying to get a craving for Bassetts pumpkin ice cream out of my system:

It turned out exactly like my beloved Bassetts, but, better. And vegan.

If you guys want the recipe to either of these, comment below and I'll try to make it happen.

Have a great night (or day)!

<3 Dawn