TWD: Baking Chez Moi June Catch-up!

More catching up to do!  The first recipe for June was Chocolate-Cherry Brownies, found on pages 322-323 of Baking Chez Moi.  Though I do have a favorite brownie recipe, I am certainly willing to try new recipes, especially when in a cookbook written by Dorie!  And this recipe certainly did not disappoint!  Truly, if you use good quality bittersweet chocolate and tart dried cherries that have been soaked in port wine until nice and plump, you cannot go wrong!  Mmmm.  I love tart cherries and when paired with bittersweet chocolate, it is just divine.  These brownies are a one-bowl recipe, which makes them quick to both make and clean up!  Oh, and they will quickly disappear as well!
 

See the nice crackly top?  That is an important brownie element for me - the nice crackle top before the moist and chocolatey inside.  Mmmm.  Kinda makes me want to bake these again...  Good thing they are so easy!


Our second June recipe was Strawberry Shortcakes, Franco-American Style, on pages 338-340 of Baking Chez Moi.  Instead of using a biscuit, Dorie uses round ladyfingers.  They are nice and light and crunchy and elevate the dessert to something elegant! 

In addition to the ladyfinger substitution, Dorie also recommended using roasted strawberries in lieu of traditional macerated or plain strawberries.  This recipe can be found on page 458 of the book, and essentially involves mixing sliced strawberries with sugar, cloves, olive oil and thick balsamic vinegar and then roasting them in the oven until nice and soft.  I used the roasted strawberries in the middle of my shortcakes, but only for the adults.  I figured the kiddos were better off with typical plain strawberries.  The roasted strawberries provided a nice fancy taste to the dessert.  It was like a surprise with each bite as I don't generally associate those flavors with strawberry shortcake, but it was so good! 

This is definitely a dessert to be eaten as soon as it is made.  I am not sure how the ladyfingers would last, maybe okay in an airtight container for a day or so?  But you might as well just eat it up at once.  Strawberry shortcakes are too good to be left around! 

My summer baking is way off schedule, but I'm catching up, slowly but surely!  Hope you've been enjoying whatever summer treats come your way!!

TWD: Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars (BCM)

I'm back!  I did not post with TWD last week, as (1) I was on vacation in Florida (yeah, me!) and (2) when I looked for barley flour in the grocery store I couldn't find it and decided it wasn't worth the stress of getting "pebble bread" done before vacation.  But I am back this week with Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars, from Baking Chez Moi. 

This cookie is sort of like a super-fancy rice-crispy treat, but better!  My family was not a big fan of the marshmallow-y rice-crispy treat, so my mom made them with peanut butter instead.  This was definitely an improvement, but nothing compared to working with CARAMELIZED rice crispies!  Yes, caramelized.  That even sounds better, right?

The base of this cookie is what I think a sugar cookie would taste like if made with brown sugar instead of white.  Though Dorie says that the cookie layer is thin and chewy, mine was more crunchy, but not overly hard.  Many fellow bloggers had warned about baking the cookie layer too long, so I kept a close eye on mine and took it out as soon as it started getting golden brown.  I maybe should have taken it out sooner to get the chewy texture Dorie describes...

On top of the cookie is a thin layer of dark chocolate.  You literally chop it into small pieces and spread them over the cookie bottom when it is still hot from the oven.  Pop it into the still-warm oven for a few moments and then spread that melted chocolate all over the cookie.  Mmmm.

Now, it is the top layer that is the most important.  This is where the caramelized rice crispies come into play.  Before starting this entire project, the caramelized rice crispies are prepared and allowed to form a sort of brittle.  This crunchy deliciousness is crumbled on top of the melted chocolate and then the entire thing is refrigerated until the chocolate hardens.

What you end up with is a crunchy, fun sweet treat!  This would be fun for a school bake sale - a surprising upgrade from your typical rice crispy treat.  The end result is pretty sweet, and you could probably get away with cutting them into smaller pieces, to be honest.  But they are fun to eat and oh, that caramelized topping.  I'll be making more of that to put on ice cream and such!

These bars are a bit hard to cut and eat, as bits of caramelized rice crispies fly off in every direction.  But finding those little bits of goodness makes it all fine in the end!

The recipe for Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars can be found on pages 324-325 of Baking Chez Moi.  If you google the recipe, you will find some people who have posted the recipe on their blogs, but you might just want to buy the book instead...  It's a good one!

TWD: Baking Chez Moi - Lemon Madeleines

Lemon Madeleines, from Baking Chez Moi.  Yes, the glaze is a bit drippy looking.  Let's just ignore that, shall we?  I should probably entitled this "looks can be deceiving" or something, as that would certainly be appropriate.  

My madeleines don't look anything like the glorious picture in the book.  They were supposed to be a bit more golden instead of brown, and have a lovely hump on the underside.  My oven temp seems to be off, which would explain the darkness of the madeleine.  Plus I super overfilled the pan, as the recipe said it would make 12 so I just used all of the batter in the 12 madeleine holes, instead of getting out my second pan and putting some in there.  They certainly would have looked prettier if they hadn't overflowed the pan.

This recipe was supposed to GUARANTEE a lovely  hump on the non-grooved side, which mine did not get.  This also could be due to overfilling the pan, I suppose.

However, looks aren't everything, because these are delicious little lemony treats.  I want to make a cup of tea and devour the entire bunch.  I will make these again someday.  That time I'll use more pans and see if that makes a difference.  But really, looks aren't everything.  These taste delicious, which is what it's really about!

The recipe for the Lemon Madeleines can be found on pages 212 -213 on Baking Chez Moi. 

Yummy Chocolate Chip Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

I regularly get a hankering for chocolate chips cookies.  Very very regularly.  This time my hankering took a different turn... I wanted oatmeal, too.  Weird, as I am often a chocolate chip cookie purist, but I had to go with the craving.  What else was I to do?  So I found a recipe that I thought might just  be what I "needed", and boy was I right!  Whooey, these are some delicious cookies!  I changed the recipe a bit by adding chopped toasted pecans to the batter (if I am going to get crazy with my cookies, I might as well go all the way)!  Holey moley, these are so good I wonder if I will still make my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe as often....?  We'll see!

Here is an awesome trick I tried with this recipe.....  FREEZE cookie balls, then just pop a few in the oven when you start eating dinner to have FRESH BAKED cookies whenever you want them!!!  Oh, heaven...   Why haven't I done this before???

Chocolate Chip Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
adapted a bit from King Arthur Flour
yield depends.... see below

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 TB vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats (quick cooking would work, too)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon regular salt)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the butter and sugars together until they are smooth.  Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Decide what size cookies you want.  I used my new 3/4 oz. cookie scoop (1 1/2 TB) and ended up with approximately 36 cookies.  If you use a muffin scoop (1/4 cup) you'll end up with about 20 cookies.  A tablespoon cookie scoop will give you around 50 cookies. 

Scoop the dough onto the parchment covered sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.  Scoop as many as you want to bake right now onto that sheet.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies are a light golden brown and slightly darker on the edges.  Remove from the oven and let them sit on the pan for around 5 minutes, until fully set.  Transfer to racks to cool.

Scoop the remaining batter onto another parchment covered sheet, as close together as you want.  This pan will go into the freezer so the spacing does not matter.  Freeze  until the cookie balls are solid, then remove the pan from the freezer and place all of the cookie balls into a freezer zip-lock bag.  Mark on the bag that you will want to bake these at 325F for around 14-16 minutes (a tad longer because they start from frozen).  When you are ready for more fresh cookies, place some cookie balls onto a parchment covered sheet and bake! 
Printable Recipe

These cookies are finger-licking good!  Yum.  Another benefit of having frozen cookie dough?  You have fewer actual cookies sitting around, so it is harder to act on impulse and eat a cookie.  You have to actually heat the oven and wait, instead of just popping your hand into the cookie jar.  That extra step is SUPER helpful to me and my complete lack of self control when it comes to chocolate chip cookies in the house!

I will be very sad when my freezer bag is empty.  Knowing that there are cookie balls in my freezer is very comforting to me.  All is right with the world.  It's a good thing the ingredients for this cookie are items I always have on hand!

Animal Cookies

Aren't these just the cutest little cookies ever?  Homemade animal cookies, my friend.  Simple and DELICIOUS and without the random multi-syllable chemical ingredients and random preservatives that the store-bought ones have.  You don't actually NEED the special animal cookies cutters, but they are super awesome and, let's face it, ADORABLE.  If you want a set, you can find them here.  The awesome thing about these cutters is that they have a pop-up button.  You place the cutter on the dough and then press a little button that lowers a piece that presses the detail into the animal.  SOLD.  I have way way too many cookie cutters, but these are WORTH IT.  I wish I could find more like this!  Tip:  flour the heck out of these cutters before use!

Anyway, back to the actual cookies.  I have always loved animal crackers (as they were called when I was growing up).  They used to come in that little red box that looked like a circus car or something, remember?  Ahh, I am probably aging myself.  Anyway, when I received a set of the animal cookie cutters as a gift, I clearly needed to make my own batch of these little treats.

And, no surprise here, the homemade ones are WORLDS better than the ones from the store!  They aren't as break-your-tooth hard, and they have a delicious flavor.  Yum.  The recipe is from King Arthur Flour, and it calls for one of their specific extracts, Princess Cake and Cookie Flavor.  I do not have this so I substituted vanilla extract and lemon extract, on the advice of one of the people who reviewed the recipe on the KAF site.  I have no idea what the Princess flavor tastes like, but supposedly it is vanilla/lemon-ish.  Regardless, my substitution was delicious, so it worked for me! 

Animal Cookies
makes a ton (recipe says 80-90), I got way more than that!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 TB honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Princess Cake and Cookie Flavor, OR 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract + 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup oat flour, or finely ground rolled oats

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, honey, salt, baking soda and flavor/extracts until combined.  Add the flour and oat flour and mix to combine.  Divide the dough in half and make into flattened disks.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line several baking sheets with parchment.

Take one piece of dough out of the refrigerator, leaving the other in to stay cool.  Place it on a lightly floured surface and roll the dough 1/4 inch thick.  (Mine were probably thinner, thus my zillion cookies!)

Dip the animal cookie cutters in flour (very important!) then cut the dough and transfer to prepared baking sheets.  You can place these pretty close together, as they don't spread much at all.  Place the cookie sheet with the cut out cookies in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  This helps the cookies retain their shape and details.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until they are lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, until they are set.  Transfer the cookies to a rack and allow to cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining dough.
Printable Recipe

These are delicious.  They are dangerously small, making it very easy to justify eating 4-5 in a sitting, or popping in a few every time you walk near the kitchen.  The clever boy LOVED them.  They will become a regular item in our house!

The Brownie Test

We recently had a function at my church wherein I offered to contribute approximately 130 brownies.  Yeah, a ton, right?  But they were supposed to be bite sized, so it wasn't SO terrible of an undertaking.  This gave me the opportunity to (A) purchase a kit of numerous circle biscuit cutters (FUN!) and (B) put my super awesome brownie recipe to the test.  Ha! 

Here is the thing.  Lots of people think that some particular brownie recipe is THE BEST.  Right?  Well, I do too.  I think I have the best brownie recipe.  In fact, there are some random people in my neighborhood who know me as "the brownie lady" because ONE TIME, MANY YEARS AGO, I brought these brownies to a wine tasting event and was identified as the person who made the brownies.  When these random people see me in the neighborhood, they will mention those brownies and how they still remember them.  It is kind of bizarre, really.  But also, a testament to how incredible these brownies are, right?!? 

Recently, someone whose blog I follow (who will remain unidentified) mentioned a brownie recipe that she had found that was THE BEST.  Humph, I thought.  But I followed her link to another blog and checked out the recipe.  And I printed it out because then I was curious.  These were described as the perfect brownie, and the more I read, the more it piqued my interest. 

Since I had to make a truck-load of brownies for church, I decided that this was my opportunity to put the brownie recipes to the test.  We will call the blog recipe A, and my recipe B, okay?  There were a few big differences between the two recipes, the major one being in the chocolate itself.  My recipe (B) uses Dutch cocoa powder and chocolate chips.  The other recipe (A) used bittersweet chocolate melted with chocolate chips.  Note something here:  Both used chocolate chips, but in one recipe they are melted.  Another big difference is in the treatment of the butter.  In both recipes they are melted, but they are treated differently.  In my recipe (B), the butter is melted, then sugar is added, and the mixture is heated again.  In the other recipe (A), the butter is melted with the bittersweet chocolate and chocolate chips.  The only other difference that I think is significant is in salt.  Recipe B used more salt.

Here are the two pans before they went into the oven.  Recipe B is on the left, and A is on the right.  (Sorry everything is backwards here, with B always being first, but it relates to the brownies in the first picture for the taste test, K?)  Recipe A was written for an 8x8-inch pan and I did not want to double the recipe to make it a 9x11, for pure testing purposes.  Hence, one smaller pan.  Here is something brilliant about that Recipe A, however.  See that foil?  You lay foil into the pan and then spray it with cooking spray, then when you are ready to slice, you can just lift the foil out of the pan, straighten it out, and cut the brownies on a cutting board.  Nice.  And easy cleanup!  Love that.

Here they are freshly out of the oven.

To make this a fair test, I made it blind for my Mr. Clever Mom, because he has an obvious bias.  And I texted my neighbors to see if they wanted to partake in the test as well.  They came running!  I love those neighbors!  

So, scroll back up and look at the taste test photo.  The brownies are labeled accurately, so the blog recipe is A, on the left, and my recipe is B, on the right.

MY RECIPE WON HANDS DOWN.  It was unanimous!  Don't get me wrong, both brownies are yummy and delicious.  We are splitting hairs here, ok?  But here are the reasons I got:  My recipe (B) has more depth of flavor ("A is more one-note chocolate") and the whole chocolate chips that are in the recipe give you an extra chocolate-y burst when you bite in.  Also, my recipe has that nice crackle on the top, the layer that sort of shatters as you bite into it.  I believe that the differences I pointed out above are the reasons for the success of Recipe B.  Obviously, the whole chocolate chips.  I think the extra salt also brings out more flavor in the brownie.  Finally, by melting the sugar a little in the butter, you get the crackly top.  

It was a fun experiment!  This doesn't mean that I won't test other brownie recipes.  I may find more interesting recipes and give them a shot sometime.  But for now, my original recipe remains THE BOMB-DIGGITY BROWNIE.  Want to make it yourself?  Here's the recipe!  You might get a silly happy-bliss smile on your face after eating one of these brownies, just warning you. 

Salted Nut Bars

Holy-Moley!  These are some incredible cookies.  They hit all of the right notes for me:  salty, sweet, crunchy, soft....  Mmmm.  I could eat the entire batch.  And this recipe makes a TON of cookies, so eating the entire batch is a very bad idea.  Though, it might just happen, as I cannot seem to stop myself from opening the cookie bin and grabbing another one every time I am anywhere near my kitchen.  And since our house is really open and the kitchen is pretty much in the center, you could say that I am near the kitchen almost all of the time.  Very very dangerous.  Extremely.

To be honest, looking at the ingredients, I would not know that I would have this dangerous attraction to these cookies.  I'm not really one for butterscotch chips, to be honest.  But they make this cookie heavenly, trust me. Thank you to my mother-in-law who found this recipe and made it one year.  Well, thanks, I think....  I'll let you know after I eat an entire batch of these things!

Here we go...

The crust of this cookie is  made of flour, brown sugar, butter and salt.  Throw it all in the mixer bowl and mix until it is crumbly.

Dump the crumbly mixture into a parchment covered half-sheet pan (13x18-inch).  Spread it around the pan as evenly as you can.  Then place a piece of plastic wrap on top if it all and use something to roll it out flat.  (The recipe does not say to do this, but it is a fast, easy way to get it all out into the pan and evenly pressed down.  I used a large kids vitamin bottle for rolling.  If you get vitamins at Costco or Sams and have one of these giant bottles, this will work for you too!

Bake this at 350F for 10-12 minutes, until it is golden on top.  If you bake it too long, it will be too crunchy and very hard to cut when you get to the cutting point.  I baked mine for 10 minutes and could have probably done 11 but was nervous about getting to the "too crunchy" point.

In the mean time, measure out your nuts (4c) and set them aside.  Then make the caramel...  Butterscotch chips, butter, and corn syrup, melted together in a saucepan.  Again, trust me, the butterscotch chips are really good here!

Stir a lot to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pan, and to help the butterscotch chips melt.  Timing wise, you want to this to be ready just as you are taking the bottom layer out of the oven.

Pull the crust out and sprinkle the nuts relatively evenly all over.  Immediately pour the caramel over the top, getting it as even as you can.  Then back into the oven it goes, for another 10-12 minutes.

And it will come out looking like this.  Mmmm.  Let it sit on a rack for about an hour to cool.  You don't want them to be gooey when you try to slice them.  Cut them into bars about 1x2 inches.  Small is good with these.  Then you get to eat more of them over time.  I ended up with 98 bars, having 14 rows across the wide part of the pan and 7 across the top.  Obviously they were not quite all 1x2 inches, but that is okay with me!

Salted Nut Bars
adapted from The Baking Sheet, King Arthur Flour

Ingredients
Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt

Topping:
4 cups salted mixed nuts
3/4 cup corn syrup (I used almost all light, but ran low so used about 1 1/2 TB dark)
3 TB  unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips (I just dumped in the entire 11 oz bag, which was about 1 2/3 c)

Directions
Crust:
Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a half-sheet pan (13x18-inch) with parchment paper, letting the paper go up the sides of the pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, butter and salt in a mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment.  Mix until crumbly.  Pat the mixture into your prepared pan.  For a fast method, spread out the mixture with your hand, then cover with plastic wrap and use some sort of small roller to roll it all out and pressing into the corners and edges.  I used a big vitamin bottle.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly brown.  Allow to cool for a few minutes while you start on the topping, and then spread the nuts over the top.

Topping:
Combine the corn syrup, butter and butterscotch chips in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Allow to come to a boil, stirring constantly.   Boil until all of the butterscotch chips are melted.  As soon as the chips are melted, pour the mixture evenly over the nuts.  Do not let the mixture cool first, as it will harden and become impossible to work with.

Bake for another 10-12 minutes.  The longer you bake them, the more candy-like the caramel will become, less chewy.  You need to find your perfect spot of chewy with some crunch.  I baked mine for 11 min. and they were fine. 

Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack for at least one hour.  Lay a fresh parchment paper over the top of the pan and flip the pan over onto the counter.  Then flip it back the right way so the nuts are on top. Slice with a sharp knife into 1x2-inch bars.  Store in an airtight container.
Printable Recipe


You need to try this out.  And then call me so I can come over and "test" them for you...

Sugar Cookies!

When the kiddos have parties in their classrooms at school, I generally try to sign up to bring the cookies.  Besides the fact that I have a baking compulsion, I also prefer to ensure that my kids eat homemade cookies, not random store-bought cookies with strangely colored icing or other yuckiness.  This year was no different, other than the fact that since the clever boy is now in a Mother's Day Out program one day a week, I had two class parties to deal with - his and the clever girl's!  I thought sugar cookies would be the best plan - what kid doesn't like sugar cookies??

Now, I have found that sugar cookies can be a hard recipe to perfect.  Not that they are difficult to make, but that many recipes are just not what I want.  They are too crispy, too soft, too sweet, too....  You get the picture! This year I turned to my trusty Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook, as I knew Dorie would not steer me wrong.  And she didn't!  Mmmm.  These cookies are the perfect sugar cookie in my opinion.  They are crisp on the outside but just a little soft on the inside.  They are buttery and delicious.  I did not want to do actual cut-outs with cookie cutters (even though I have a ginormous quantity of cookie cutters, especially Christmas ones).  To expedite things, I rolled the dough into a log and did slice-and-bake cookies.  Before slicing, I rolled the logs in Christmas sprinkles so the edges would be nice and festive, and I'd still have a nice surface for sprinkling vanilla sugar when they came out of the oven.  I did change one thing in Dorie's recipe, in that I added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.  I just like that flavor, especially when combined with vanilla.  But you could leave it out if you wanted!  You could add some lemon or orange zest, or nuts or something too, or just leave them plain!  Because even if they are plain, they will make you smile!  Yum. 
 

You can find this recipe here, on Dorie's blog.  And it's in Baking: From My Home to Yours on pages 146-147.  It is a great baking book, if you have a desire to bake more!  I made a double batch of cookies and ended up with 85.  My logs were about 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter, I think.  These are easy, and if you do the slice-and-bake method, they are fast (except for the chilling time).  And a definite winner!  Even the teachers remarked about how delicious the cookies were! 

Any Christmas baking in your plans this year??

TWD: Baking with Julia - Chocolate-Mint Nightcaps

We are back to Baking with Julia this week, with Chocolate-Mint Nightcaps.  Had I not watched a video of Marcel Desaulniers making these cookies with Julia, I would have never figured out the "nightcap" part.  See that swirl on the top of the cookie?  It is supposed to look like an old-fashioned nightcap.  Whatever.  Personally, aesthetically, I am not thrilled at the nightcap swirl.  It too closely resembles things that are not food and should never be confused with food, in my opinion.

However, let's not judge a book by it's cover, okay?  Let's talk about the cookies themselves.  I made half of the recipe, and ended up with 16 cookies.  The clever girl called these "cookie cakes".  The actual cookie part is quite cake-like.  Soft like a moon-pie. I would prefer a little more texture, since the ganache is also soft, but they are nice and soft and airy. 

The ganache is where the mint comes into play, or where it is SUPPOSED to come into play.  You heat cream with some fresh chopped mint, and then strain the cream into a bowl of chopped chocolate (which was supposed to be semi-sweet, but I used 2/3 semi-sweet and 1/3 70% dark chocolate).  The mint flavor did not come through as much as I would have liked.  I think to get a better mint flavor, you would have to heat the cream with the mint and then let it steep for a while, 20 minutes or so, and then heat the cream back up to then strain into the chopped chocolate.  The mint needs a bit longer to release its flavor into the cream.  You could also just add some peppermint extract...

Also regarding the ganache - the recipe says to spread the hot ganache on a sheet pan and refrigerate it to chill completely.  Well, at that point, it is unworkable so you then have to leave it out at room temperature for a while.  I initially thought I'd be lazy, so instead of getting out a piping bag and tip, I just scooped the ganache into a ziplock bag and trimmed the corner to pipe onto the cookies.  Maybe it was just that the ganache was still to firm to use, but it did not work for me.  It was a mess and then somehow the ziplock bag got a hole in another random spot so chocolate was oozing out all over the place!  (This is not always a bad thing, mind you, but in this case I was trying to convince said chocolate to behave and swirl out onto cookies for filling!)  So I went ahead and got the piping bag and a proper tip and suddenly the ganache knew I meant business so it complied and piped out nicely.  I'll show that ganache who is boss!  HA!

Overall, these are yummy and would be really great on a party tray.  You are sure to get oohs and aahs with cookies filled and topped with ganache!  I would probably try to bake the cookies a bit longer next time, and try to extract more mint flavor into the ganache.

This recipe can be found on pages 307-308 of Baking with Julia.  Check out what our other bakers did by clicking here!

TWD: Baking Chez Moi - Rugelach

This Tuesday is a "Baking Chez Moi" week, not to be confused with the "Baking With Julia" weeks.  If you aren't confused, congratulations, because I sure am!  I can't keep it all straight!  Hopefully I get the hang if this soon....  Surely I will, right?  I mean, RIGHT??

Anyway, the recipe this week was Rugelach, and if you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you will know that rugelach is an important cookie in my house.  We have had them at Christmas for as long as I can remember, and for as long as my sister can remember, and let me tell you, that girl remembers EVERYTHING.  It is amazing, really.  Isn't it crazy how some people remember the details of so many things?  My memory seems to have a quota, so as new memories get in, others get dumped.  Maybe I need ginko biloba or something...

ANYWAY, this is all to clarify why a new rugelach recipe is up to a big test in my house.  We did another rugelach recipe for the Baking with Julia book, so this is rugelach recipe number 3.  I discuss more about the history of Rugelach and the other recipes in the other posts, if you are interested.  According to Dorie, this is the Rugelach that Won Over France.  But will it win over my rugelach-loving house??? 

"My" rugelach recipe rolls the cookies into crescents, as opposed logs that are sliced like in this recipe and the BWJ recipe.  The benefit to the crescent?  You get  more cookie!!  Each cookie is more substantial.  I give that two thumbs up.

This particular recipe uses a dough that is rolled very thin, and then a filling of coconut, dried cherries, toasted pecans and semi-sweet (bittersweet) chocolate is spread across and it is all rolled into a log.  This filling is DELISH.  I will definitely be incorporating it into my family's rugelach when I make it for Christmas this year.  Can you go wrong with that combination?  I say not.  I did switch the semi-sweet chocolate to bittersweet, just because that is how we do things in my house, but I am sure it is delicious the other way too, for those who prefer semi-sweet.

To go back to the substantial-ness of the cookie....  Yes, that is probably not really a word but I think you know what I mean.  The BCM rugelach cookies are TINY.  So yes, it makes like 4 dozen, but they are 4 dozen TINY little cookies.  My rugelach recipe makes about 5 dozen, and they are actual cookies.  So with this recipe, you might want to eat a handful (or two honestly) because you can convince your brain that one or two cookies is just ridiculous and you certainly deserve more than that.  OR, if you have much more self discipline than I, you could only eat your two cookies and be so proud of yourself for really "cutting back" during the holidays. 

This cookies is like a middle ground between the BWJ rugelach and my rugelach.  And it is a very happy, yummy middle.  I still love my rugelach the best (totally biased, I know) so I will stick to that recipe HOWEVER with the addition of this new filling.  This is too good not to share with the rest of my family!!

For other baker's thoughts on this recipe, visit the TWD blog and click on "LYL:  Rugelach".   The recipe can be found on pages 301-302 of Baking Chez Moi. 

(P.S.  I did actually make the previous BCM recipe, Cranberry Crackle Tart, for Thanksgiving this year.  It was dive-bombed before I got photos taken, and I wasn't in love with the recipe, so I didn't bother to post anything.)

TWD: Baking with Julia - Amaretti

We made Amaretti this week with Baking with Julia!  Now, I have to admit, I had no idea what amaretti actually were when this recipe was chosen.  I  mean, I knew it had to contain almonds, but I had never heard of amaretti before.  Essentially it is an almond flavored macaron.

Here are my thoughts on amaretti:
1)  They are super easy to make.  Literally, there are 3 ingredients:  almond paste, sugar, egg whites.  Yes there is a pine nut on top so that is technically ingredient number 4 but it isn't actually IN the cookie, just pressed on top so I don't count that one.  It's essentially decoration.
2)  They are gluten-free for the many people who sadly cannot digest gluten well.
3)  Weird technique alert:  After piping the cookies onto the cookie sheet, you dab them with a wet tea-towel to smooth out the tops.  That's a new one for me!
4)  They are crisp on the outside and chewy inside.
5)  They are one of the weirdest cookies I have ever eaten.
6)  However, I can't stop eating them!  I am constantly lifting up the lid on their container and eating another one!!  And each time, I think, "huh, these are weird, but good, too!"

Truly, I think I would enjoy anything involving almond paste.  I love almond flavor so that is right up my alley.  If you DO NOT like almond flavor, these would NOT be the cookie for you!  But if you do, yum.  Get yourself a nice hot mug of tea and a couple of these cookies on a plate and put your feet up.  Well, only put your feet up if the cookie tin is nearby, so you don't have to get up to get more.  Because you might want to do that, and it would be a fat bummer to get all comfy with your cookies and tea and then  have to get up again just to get more!

I might try to reduce the sugar a bit in these next time.  And I am not sure if I really need the pine nut on top.  Why not a slivered almond?  Too much almond?  Maybe do a sprinkle of big-grain sugar?  

Check out the TWD blog under "LYL:  Amaretti" to see what the other bloggers thought about amaretti!

TWD: Baking Chez Moi - Palets de Dames

Welcome to the first recipe in a new baking adventure!  The Tuesdays with Dorie group has taken on a new cookbook!  See, Dorie Greenspan published a new cookbook, Baking Chez Moi, so we couldn't let this awesome event pass us by.  We are taking it on, while continuing with our other cookbook, Baking with Julia.   Honestly, this is an undertaking that I am not certain I will be able to totally complete, as it means that we are baking and posting something for every Tuesday.  And while you know I have a compulsion to bake, I have other things I want to bake/cook/post about as well, so this could get tricky.  But I will do my best and I hope you'll stick with me!

So, our first recipe is Palets de Dames.  They are a cakey cookie with a delicate vanilla flavor that is brightened with a lemony-sweet icing on top.  The batter for this cookie is really like cake batter.  Very soft and sticky.  It refrigerates for at least an hour, which helps it firm up to be a bit more cookie-dough-ish.   It is then scooped out in little balls onto the cookie sheet.  Dorie recommends using a 2-teaspoon cookie scoop for such an endeavor.  That lady is smart.  I don't have one so I just used 2 teaspoons-worth of dough and rolled it in my hands.  This was sticky and messy.  Doable, of course, but don't you think I should purchase some cookie scoops?  I think it is definitely a good idea.  You can never have too many baking gadgets, can you?  (Hint: The correct answer is "No, of COURSE not!")

While these cookies are cute, and tasty, I am not sure I'll make them again.  They aren't a cookie that call to me every time I walk near the kitchen, "come have a treat...." which, actually, is probably a good thing.  However if anyone asks for iced cookies, I'd make these in a heartbeat.  They really are easy and tasty.  Oh, and I added the sprinkles.  They aren't a necessity for these cookies, but they sure make them cute, huh?  And trust me, sprinkles take them OVER THE TOP for 6-year old girls! 
 

You can find this recipe on pages 272-274 of Baking Chez Moi.  Since this is my first recipe out of this book, I can't say much about the book as a whole yet.  However, based on the brilliance of Baking: From My Home to Yours and my complete admiration for Dorie Greenspan, I suspect that this cookbook will be fantastic!  I was able to pre-order it before it was published, so it arrived on my doorstep the exact day it came out!  I have to admit that I grabbed the book from my porch, ran into the house, and slowly but eagerly looked through every page.  I'm such a dork. 

If you want to see what other bakers thought of this recipe, head to the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and click on LYL:  Palets de Dames.

Coconut and Chocolate Macaroons

When life gives you lots of egg whites, make macaroons!  That's what I decided, anyway.  You may wonder when life gives you lots of egg whites.  In my life, it happens when I make ice cream.  Ice cream recipes tend to call for lots of egg yolks, and then you have whites left over.  So I suggest making good use of those whites and making macaroons!  (You can also freeze egg whites, I have read, but I haven't actually done that before.... great idea though!)

These are actually really easy to make.  And yet they look as though you did something very complicated!  First, you gently cook some egg whites, sugar, salt, honey, coconut and flour in a large skillet, add some vanilla, and then let it cool.  I plopped mine in the refrigerator and finished up another day.  When you are ready to bake, moisten your hands with water and roll the coconut mixture into balls, place them on a baking sheet, and slide them into the oven.  If you want to dip them in chocolate (why wouldn't you want to do that??) melt the chocolate in a double boiler, dip each macaroon in the melted chocolate, and place on a baking sheet covered in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate until set.  DONE.  It really is that easy. 

You have to try this!

Coconut and Chocolate Macaroons
adapted from David Lebovitz, Ready for Dessert
makes approximately 30 cookies
Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 TB honey
2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces (or amount of your choosing) bittersweet (or semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped

Directions:
Mix together the egg whites, sugar, salt, honey, coconut and flour in a large skillet.  Heat over low to medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to scorch on the bottom.  Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.  Place mixture in a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.  You can now refrigerate the mixture for up to a week, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Moisten your hands with water (this is important - it helps the coconut mixture stick to itself and not to you!).  Make mounds that are approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter and place them evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool completely.

Melt chocolate in a double-boiler set over simmering water.  Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap.  Dip each cookie into the chocolate and place on the baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes, until the chocolate it set.
NOTE:  You should be able to find unsweetened flaked coconut in the baking aisle of a large grocery store.  I think mine was "Bob's Red Mill" brand.  It tends to come in tinier flakes than your typical sweetened coconut, and the bag is more rectangular instead of flat.  If you can't find it there, check your local natural foods store or Whole Foods type market.
Printable Recipe

These were a HUGE hit in my house.  Mr. Clever Mom thought the kids must have done something very special to warrant macaroons.  He wanted to know what the special occasion might be.  I just let him guess.....

Baby in a trance of coconut/chocolate bliss....

They are messy if you eat them before the chocolate sets! 

Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies

Since we are on an almond/cherry kick this week, I'll continue with some Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies.  This recipe comes from Loaves and Stitches, which is another crafting/baking blog that I enjoy.  When she posted this recipe, I printed it immediately because I knew I would have to make these!  The cookies are nice and soft and chocolatey and then the dried tart cherries give you a delicious zing in your mouth!  Mmm.  Add in the bits of crunch from the almonds and you have one delicious cookie!

Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies
adapted from Loaves and Stitches
makes about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup dried tart cherries
1 TB kirsch, cherry juice, rum, or water
1 cup light brown sugar
12 TB unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 TB sour cherry jam (I left this out, unfortunately couldn't find any, and substituted some concentrated sour cherry juice instead)
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/4 cups dark chocolate, chopped into bits, or chocolate chips
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Directions:
Center your oven rack and preheat the oven to 350F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the dried cherries and kirsch/cherry juice/rum/water in a bowl.  Since my cherry juice was concentrated and a thick syrupy liquid, I also added in a TB water.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave for 45-60 minutes or until the liquid boils.  Remove from the microwave (caution - it is HOT) and give the bowl a little shake before letting it cool to room temperature.  Keep the plastic wrap over the cherries as it cools. 

Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the cherry jam, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.  Mix until evenly distributed.

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.  Add all at once to the butter mixture and mix on low speed  until almost completely incorporated.  Add the chocolate, almonds and macerated cherries (make sure these are cool when you add them or they'll melt the dough!).  Mix just until evenly distributed.

Scoop the dough into large tablespoon-sized balls and place them 2-3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Press the balls down lightly with moistened hands, until they are about 1/2-inch thick.  Bake one pan at a time for 12-15 minutes.  The cookies should be firm around the edges but soft in the middle.  Cool on the pans. 

For some spur-of-the-moment cookies, you can freeze these and bake them as you get a desire for fresh cookies!  To do this, scoop out the dough onto the baking sheets as described above, but space them as close together as you want for now.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap and press lightly to ensure that all of the balls are pressed into 1/2-inch disks.  Freeze the pan for 1-2 hours.  Once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag and store in freezer for up to 6 months.  When ready to bake, follow the instructions above for spacing and add a few minutes to the baking time. 
Printable Recipe

This was a fantastic change from the typical chocolate-chip cookies that you will often find at our house.  They are luxurious tasting, with that beautiful combination of chocolate, almond and tart cherry.  What could be wrong with that?  NOTHING!  Mmmm. And the idea of freezing some to have a nice warm cookie whenever you want some?  That is nothing short of brilliant! I will be doing this with cookie dough from now on!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Cantuccini

Today, Tuesday's with Dorie brings you Cantuccini.  Cantuccini looks exactly like biscotti, for the simple fact that it IS biscotti.  In fact, this is generally what you think of, when you think of biscotti.  As it turns out, the term "biscotti" is used for ALL cookies in Italian, and cantuccini are this particular form.  Ah, a bit of cookie education to start off the day!

These cookies are amazingly fast and easy to make.  There is no special equipment, and it is all mixed in one bowl, by hand!  You will likely be done preparing the cookies before your oven is pre-heated.  The dough is a bit sticky, so be ready to have some pretty darned messy hands, but I found that keeping my hands damp with water helped tremendously.  The recipe in the book claimed to make 8 DOZEN biscotti, and since I am not trying to open a coffee or tea shop here, I made 1/3 of the recipe and ended up with 18 cookies.  Perfect. 

Now, I will admit that at times my measurements for 1/3 of a recipe were simply pretty good guesses.  I did not take the time to weigh out the ingredients, I just approximated some of them.  So, my measurement for 1/3 of 1/2 of a teaspoon of cinnamon might have been a bit off, but I decided it was close enough!  If I make this again, I may change up a few things...  Instead of using vanilla extract, I would use almond extract (though a bit less as almond is more potent than vanilla).  Also, I think they would benefit greatly from a drizzle of dark chocolate.  How could it not? 

If you are looking for a good traditional biscotti recipe, I would suggest giving this one a try.  They are nice and crunchy, but not in the break-your-tooth family of crunchiness as I have found with some other purchased biscotti.  I had mine with a mug of tea, and it was a lovely complement.  Alas, I am not a coffee drinker, so I cannot attest to how the cookie pairs with coffee.  The recipe suggests serving with "vin santo", an Italian dessert wine.  That is definitely worth trying!

You can find the recipe for Cantuccini on pages 313 - 314 of Baking with Julia, or by going here. 

Salted Browned Butter Blondies

Lately, I have been in the mood for blondies.  So I whipped up a batch of these Salted Browned Butter Blondies that I found over at The Spiced Life.  Yum.  Let's think of the components here:  browned butter - yum.  Light and dark brown sugar - yum.  Chocolate chips - yum.  Sprinkle some coarse salt on top of that and you are guaranteed a good dose of yummy goodness!   These blondies take the best aspects of blondies - the butterscotch-y rich flavor and throw in chocolate and salt for good measure.  Delish!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

In my opinion, chocolate and peanut butter just go together.  And Peanut Butter Blossoms are those perfect cookies that make the best of this beautiful union.  They have been around forever and they will continue to be around forever.  My mom made them for my sister and I, I made them for the clever girl, and she'll probably make them for someone in the future too.  They are eternal.  There are about a zillion renditions of this recipe out there, but I chose to make the one from Joy of Baking.  I liked the ratios better (some had equal amounts of butter, peanut butter and sugar) and this one had vanilla extract which is always a winner.  However, according to the recipe, you should yield about 4 dozen cookies.... but I ended up with 75!  Total, not 75 dozen.  I must have made mine a lot smaller than suggested, which gave me a higher chocolate to peanut butter ratio.  That works for me.  Plus, it so happens that a bag of Hershey's kisses had 75 kisses inside, so it was perfect.  Meant to be, I say.

You have to have a bit of patience to make these cookies, only because the peanut butter part has to chill for about an hour.  But it is only an hour and that is totally doable.  It was longer in my case, as I ended up taking the clever baby to the ER that night...when he gets croup he can't breathe, which is so scary!  Many hours later, including a breathing treatment and steroid dose, his airways were open and we came home.  Thus the cookies had to wait until the next day.  This mom needed sleep!  These cookies were a lovely reward after a scary night.

Daring Bakers: Peppermint Whoopie Pies!

Well, I am a few days late for my whoopie pie post, but I promise, they were done on time!  I just got delayed with my posting, what with the holidays, lots of family in town, and a bit of sickness that kept getting me down.  But, I am feeling better now and ready to think about food again!

The December Daring Bakers' Challenge had us all cheering - the lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavors we chose... What else is there to say but "Whoopie!"

I can honestly say that I have never had a true whoopie pie - the kind you would get in the New England area with a vanilla marshmallow filling.  However, I have made them before for the clever girl's Halloween party at school.  That version was a pumpkin whoopie pie.  This time I thought I'd holiday-it-up a bit and do a peppermint/candy cane version.  Because chocolate and peppermint are meant to go together.  It is a match made in heaven!

Nibby Pecan Cookies

Take a look at the cookies above.  They may not look like much but they are life altering.  They are Nibby Pecan Cookies, a recipe created by Alice Medrich.  First of all, Alice Medrich is known for her brilliance with chocolate, which pretty much, in my opinion, guarantees that her recipes will be great.  But this one seriously goes beyond great.  It is DIVINE.

I found this recipe because another blog that I follow, Loaves and Stitches, is doing a cookie countdown right now and this recipe was on that blog.  As soon as I saw them, I was hooked.  First of all, they use an ingredient I have never used before - cocoa nibs!  Cocoa nibs are tiny pieces of the roasted cocoa bean, raw, when the beans are READY to be made into chocolate but it hasn't yet happened.  So they have a great cocoa flavor but do not have extra sugar, butter, etc in them.  And they have a fabulous CRUNCH.  How come I never knew about these amazing things?  I have been enlightened!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Gingersnaps

This is the Baking with Julia version of Gingersnaps.  

WARNING:  This blog post will break one of my rules about reviewing recipes - don't critique a recipe if you have changed it up and don't like it.  You didn't actually try the recipe so you shouldn't critique it.  This is one of my rules and I am breaking it right now for this recipe.  There are reasons that I tried to jazz up this recipe!  I checked out the comments on the TWD blog from people who had already baked the cookies, and the overall consensus was that there was not enough ginger, that the cookie dough was way too sticky, and that the cookies did not "snap".  So, here is my thoughts on this cookie for whatever it is worth!

Personally, I don't recommend this recipe.  Sorry.  I just have this idea that gingersnaps should have two basic components:

(1) they should contain ginger

(2) they should snap after baking, as in crunch

Ginger and Snap.  Shouldn't be that unusual of a requirement, right?