Nuvrei-Bakery Inspired Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Nuvrei Bakery makes these amazing chewy-chocolately cookies, which apparently do not have flour in them. When I first heard this I thought they must have some kind of flour, even if it were almond flour.

I scoured the net, and found some success with this posting. My coworker really liked them, I'm not a fan of this particular recipe yet- still too sugary. The texture is really difficult with this kind of cookie because the batter is just eggs and powdered sugar (therin lies the "sugary" problem).

Nuvrei makes these with nuts and without. I haven't yet figured out how to stabilize the cookie without nuts....

Combine in mixer:
3 cups powdered sugar (yikes a lot of sugar!)
½ C + 3 TB dutch cocoa powder
½ tea salt

Then add while mixer if running:
4 egg whites
1 TB vanilla

Mix on medium speed for 4 minutes. It will look like brown glue, which is not cookie-dough-ish at all, but do it anyway.

Fold in 2 C chopped nuts, pecans and walnuts are good

Cool the dough in the fridge or freezer. Don't skip this step, as with most cookies, it stabilizes the dough, and the cookies keep a better shape when baking.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Scoop chilled dough onto cookie sheet. Lower oven temp to 320 F, bake for 18 minutes, or until the middle is set (it will be hard to tell if they are cooked enough since the dough is dark).

Cool cookies on the pan for a couple minutes, then remove to foil or wire rack.

Pancakes

Not a very unique kind of recipe, but after downing a couple days of pancakes from Fullers restaurant in the Pearl district, I had to make some at home!

As always the Cooks Illustrated people have it all figured out, except for the "healthy" part, so I subbed in some whole wheat pastry flour. This is a great recipe, turned out much better than pancake mixes that I previously relied upon.

Melt 3 TB butter in a small ramekin in the microwave. Let sit to cool.

Mix together and let sit:
2 C milk (or combination of cream & rice milk works too)
1 TB lemon juice

Meanwhile, whisk together:
1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 TB sugar
2 tea baking powder
1/2 tea baking soda
1/2 tea salt

Add melted butter and 1 egg to the milk mixture. Whisk until egg is separated. It is okay if the butter clumps up when it cools in the milk.

Now add the milk/egg liquid to the flour mixture. Whisk gently just until incorporated-- it will be lumpy. Don't over mix.

Cook in medium hot skillet, with a tad bit of oil. Pour 1/4- 1/2 C batter per pancake and cook on each side until golden brown.

Optional: you can add frozen blueberries when you pour the batter into the skillet.

Strawberry Tart

This is a nice light dessert, fancy way to show off strawberries! Oregon's Hood Strawberries are in season (not for long though!) and they are soooo delicious! The pastry cream is quite good, you could even use it for a raspberry fool or pudding. I took base recipe from Cooks Illustrated, which has always had good dessert recipes.

This recipe uses a lot of egg yolks, so perfect to do when you want to make meringue, angel's food cake or flourless chocolate cookies which require the whites.

Make the pastry cream first, as it will take time to cool. Then you can make the tart dough, chill it, press into pans, chill again, and then blind bake. After all this, you combine with the fruit/strawberries-- the recipe takes a whole afternoon!

Pastry Cream
This goes fast, so be prepared to watch and stir this from start to end, no checking email while this is on the stove!

Warm over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally:
2 C half & half
6 TB sugar
pinch of salt

While that is warming, whisk 5 egg yolks in medium bowl until combined. Add 2TB sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolving, mixture will be creamy. Now whisk in 3 TB cornstarch, whisk until combined and thick.

When half and half is simmering, gradually whisk some half and half into the egg bowl and stir to temper the eggs (brings the temp of eggs up slowly, instead of cooking the eggs). Then pour from the egg bowl back into the cream pan on the stove. Return to a simmer over medium heat, whisk constantly for about 30 seconds. When the cream is glossy and thickened, remove from heat.

Whisk in:
4 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1.5 tea vanilla

Strain the pastry cream. Cover with plastic wrap and either refrigerate until cold or stick in the freezer to speed up the process- just don't let it freeze.

Tart Dough
Whisk together in small bowl:
1 egg yolk
1 TB cream or rice milk
1/2 tea vanilla

In food processor, combine:
1.25 C all purpose flour
2/3 C powdered sugar
1/4 tea salt

Add to food processor, and process until the butter is disseminated throughout, looks like "coarse meal":
8 TB cold unsalted butter cut into cubes

Now pour in the egg mixture while food processor is running, just to combine.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap, put in fridge for 1 hour, or freeze for 30 minutes.

Either roll out dough or press into tart pan. Then freeze for 30 minutes. Don't skip this step- there is so much butter in the dough that it will slide down the edges of the pan if it is room temp when it goes in the oven.

Fill the tart pan with aluminum foil and beans or pie weights, and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Check during the baking to make sure the crust isn't getting too brown.

Once finished baking, remove foil and weights, if you used beans, save them for the next pie/tart (you can't eat them now after being in the oven). Let tart shell cool.

Assembly
Spoon pastry cream into baked tart shell.
Hull and slice strawberries, arrange on pastry cream.
Serve!