Eat The Love

Chunky Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

These easy-to-make brown butter chunky chocolate chip shortbread cookies have a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt on top.

Stack of chocolate chip shortbread cookies on a plate with a glass of milk next to it.

Full honesty here, when I want a chocolate chip cookie, I usually want a thick chewy bakery-style chocolate chip cookie. Sometimes I want a variant of that style of cookie, like a sourdough chocolate chip cookie, a cookies and cream cookie, a mint chocolate chip cookie (which I developed to taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream) or even my reverse chocolate chip cookie. But I rarely opt for the chocolate chip shortbread cookie variety.

But every now and then I want something with a little crisper. A little more buttery. A little crumbly-in-the-mouth. And though I’ve tinkered with a bunch of various shortbread recipes, including a couple of super popular viral cookies, nothing really resonated with me until I came across Dorie Greenspan’s caramel chunky chocolate chip cookies from her cookbook Baking with Dorie (<- affiliate link).

Don’t be fooled by the name, there’s no caramel in the cookie. But I took her version as a jumping off point, and cranked it up a notch, using brown butter, more vanilla, more chocolate chunks, removed the nuts, and sprinkling on a bit of crunchy Maldon sea salt on top. Yeah, I was that guy who radically altered the recipe! But most importantly, I changed the preparation method a bit to make it easier to form each cookie as I found the slicing of the cold dough difficult to do. The result is the best and easiest to make chocolate chip shortbread cookie that I’ve found!

A hand reaching for chocolate chip shortbread cookies on a wire cooling rack.

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Pampushky, Ukrainian Garlic Bread

This pampushky recipe is a classic Ukrainian garlic bread that is typically served with borscht but goes well with almost any soup or stew.

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Fresh baked pampushky, Ukrainian garlic bread in a cast iron skillet

Lately I’ve been obsessed with baking breads from around the world. These include recipes like my Italian tomato focaccia made with a small boiled potato, traditional Bavarian pretzels dipped in lye, and Swedish cardamom buns to the less conventional mash-ups that I bake like my pretzel shakshuka. So, it’s no surprise that I have Ukraine on my mind and wanted to bake a traditional Ukrainian bread, which led me to making this pampushky recipe, a Ukrainian garlic bread.

It’s not a difficult bread to make, and its garlicky herby spice will have you reaching for another one after you finish your first one. Though it is typically served with a bowl of borscht soup, which is a beet soup, I found this bread goes well with nearly every soup and stew I make, from my easy-to-make chili, to Guinness beef stew to my Italian wedding soup.

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The Best Easy-to-Make Chili

This easy-to-make chili is the best chili recipe out there, with tips on customizing it to your taste, with suggestions of secret ingredients!

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Two bowls of chili surrounded by toppings like chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese and red onions.

My partner and I used to serve chili a lot, back when we casually entertained. It was our go-to dish for large gatherings along with homemade olive pizza, fried mac and cheese bites, and Taiwanese popcorn chicken, because you can easily double the recipe, add some cornbread and tons of fixing to it and it’s an automatic party! Even better, leftovers are better the next day! And strangely I realized I have never shared my chili recipe before here. After years of tinkering and playing around with it, this is my go-to recipe for the best and easiest chili, perfect for game day (if that’s your thing) or just for a cold winter day.

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Chocolate Banana Bread

This chocolate banana bread with chocolate chips has just the perfect balance of banana and chocolate to complement each other.

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A slice of chocolate banana bread on a plate with more banana bread on a cutting board next to it.

I’ve made sourdough banana bread and mocha swirled banana bread, before. And recently I developed an easy banana bread recipe for a client of mine. But my thoughts are “can you ever have enough banana bread?” especially since I’m the sort of guy that buys bananas with the idea of eating them or making a smoothie…and they just sit there until they are overripe. So, I decided to go all out and make a chocolate banana bread with chocolate chips.

Because sure, you can make banana bread and just throw some chocolate chips in it. But why stop there? You might as well give the banana bread batter some rich chocolate flavor and fold in the chocolate chips for the perfect balance of banana and chocolate!

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Orange Miso Glazed Carrots

This orange miso glazed carrots is an easy side dish that is absolutely spectacular served up any time of the year.

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A blue plate of miso glazed carrots topped with chopped green chives.

Dana Cowin, former editor-in-chief of Food and Wine magazine once called miso paste the “little black dress” of ingredients in the kitchen. Basically, you can add it to most anything and you’ll get something super sophisticated and delightful. I’m a firm believer that miso paste DOES add a little bit of funky umami salty depth that I absolutely love. I love adding as an unexpected ingredient to cookies like my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and my funky cranberry cookie, giving it an extra layer and dimension that is super addictive. But I’ve been tinkering a lot with miso spiced dishes and ended up developing this miso orange glazed carrots that are so good they’ll be a main staple on my dinner table as a quick and easy side dish!

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Striped Chewy Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies (with video)

These fun and whimsical striped chewy peppermint chocolate chip cookies are easier to make than they look with my step-by-step instructions!

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A hand reaching for a striped chewy peppermint chocolate chips cookie stacked on a wire cooling rack.

I’ve been tinkering with this idea of revisiting and revising my old white chocolate peppermint cookie with sea salt that uses leftover crushed candy canes for awhile. But honestly, my friend Steven made it recently and had texted me to tell me he loved it immensely. Which made think, why should I mess with a much beloved cookie recipe? Even if it’s much beloved by…one person. And though I adore the combo of chocolate and mint, like in my peppermint Texas sheet cake and in my mint chocolate chip cookies (that are designed to taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream) I knew I wanted to yet another riff on this flavor combo. So before I knew it, I was sketching and brainstorming these striped chewy peppermint chocolate chip cookies. They’re fun and whimsical, with me playing and combining different colored cookie doughs like in my rainbow chocolate chip cookies. And though they look complicated, I have step-by-step instructions and even a video to show you how to make them!

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