Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars - December 19, 2009

I'm doing a lot of baking to give out to church friends tomorrow (Sunday) and for my coworkers (Monday). When you need to bake for a large number of people and want to have a variety of stuff to give away, bar cookies that are easy to make and turn out well are a godsend. I don't like to make large batches of the same thing but prefer smaller amounts of different things. When I bake so much, making the same thing over and over again would drive me crazy because I like baking all sorts of different stuff. Which is why I probably wouldn't do well baking as a job as that's what 95% of those jobs are.

This recipe is especially easy to make, especially when you're pressed for time, because it starts with a cake mix. The additions of toffee bits, chocolate chips and nuts liven up the texture and flavor of this bar cookie. Do yourself a favor though and strain the cake mix before you use it. Boxed cake mixes are notoriously lumpy and if you use it without straining it first, you're forever trying to mash out the lumps in the batter. I always run mine through a large sieve I got when I was in culinary school. It makes sifting a breeze and is well worth the time up front to get it right. Last thing you want when you bite into a bar cookie, cake or whatever is a lump of flour (or cake mix).

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars - made December 19, 2009 from Cake Mix Cookies by Camilla V. Saulsbury

1 18.25-ounce package yellow cake mix
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 large egg
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (e.g. walnuts, pecans or peanuts)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 10-ounce package toffee baking bits, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (or 325°F for dark-coated metal pan). Position oven rack in middle of oven. Spray the bottom only of a 9 x 13-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray (or foil line pan).
2. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, softened butter, and egg with an electric mixer set on medium speed until blended and crumbly; stir in nuts and 1 ½ cups chocolate chips. Set aside 1 ½ cups of the crumb mixture. Firmly press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes.
3. Pour condensed milk evenly over partially baked crust; top with 1 ½ cups of the toffee bits. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture and remaining ½ cup chocolate chips evenly over top.
4. Bake 25-28 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup toffee bits. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely. Cut into bars.

Brownie Shortbread

Brownie Shortbread - December 16, 2009

While I don't like to try new recipes around the holidays since I'm pressed for time and can't afford failures I can't use, I did take the risk with this one as it seemed like it would turn out. Crisp shortbread base with a brownie layer on top - what could go wrong? When I first read the recipe though, I thought there must be a typo as the brownie layer doesn't contain any flour. So it seemed like it would be supremely fudgy or like a flourless chocolate cake on top. And so it was. It still turned out pretty well as the shortbread layer was crisp and provided a nice contrast to the soft brownie layer. The texture did seem a bit grainy to me though and I think I would have preferred a little flour in it for a more robust brownie. But this is one of those cases where I'm my own worst critic and my coworkers would probably roll their eyes at how picky I am. Because the plate I left out at work pretty much disappeared in under an hour which is always a sign that people like something. So I guess it wasn't that bad.

The only thing I didn't follow to the letter in the recipe was using a food processor to make the shortbread dough. I was feeling lazy about bringing mine out and cleaning it up later so instead I chose to cut the butter into the flour and sugar with two sharp knives. This is how I made the shortbread crust for my lemon bar recipe and that one always turns out so I figured doing it that way for this one would still be okay. And it was.

Brownie Shortbread - made on December 16, 2009 from All-Butter, Fresh-Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book by Rosie’s Bakery

Base
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 8 pieces

Topping
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease an 11 x 7-inch baking pan with butter.
2. For the base, process the flour and sugar in a food processor about 15 seconds. Add the butter and process until the dough comes together, 20 to 30 seconds.
3. Pat the dough gently over the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake on the center oven rack until it is lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Place the base in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool completely. Keep the oven on.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the topping: melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Cool slightly.
5. Beat the eggs, sugar, and baking powder together in a medium-size bowl with a whisk. Add the chocolate mixture and stir vigorously with the whisk until the batter is blended. Spread the chocolate mixture evenly over the base.
6. Bake the bars until the top rises and forms a very thin crust, about 20 minutes. The center will drop as it cools. (A tester inserted in the middle may come out with a fudgy, crumbly batter on it, but it should not be liquidy.) Cool completely on a rack. Cut the shortbread with a thin knife.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies - December 14, 2009

You'd think with all the baking I've been doing that I would be adding more to this blog but I've been baking so much I haven't had time. I've also been going out almost every night this week so every spare moment is spent in actually baking instead of writing about it. Plus some of the stuff I've been baking I've already posted about. During the frenzied holiday baking season, I don't try out a lot of new recipes in case they don't turn out. Case in point, I tried a new fudge recipe last night and it didn't turn out. Too grainy and didn't have that creamy texture I was going for. I should know better than to try a recipe on the package of the jar of marshmallow cream.

This one is a tried and true recipe - Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson. I like that it doesn't spread much and stays thick and chewy. I used the Guittard milk chocolate chips for this one as they're bigger than the Nestle tollhouse morsels. I tend to make a lot of cookie doughs ahead of time so I can bake them off at the last-minute when I need them. This is especially crucial when I'm not home much between working and going out. This past week, no matter what time I've gotten home, I've turned my oven on the minute I walk in the door and start pulling cookie dough out of the freezer to get ready for the next day's social events. It's so much easier to get things done when I have stuff prepped ahead of time.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/3 cup quick cooking (not instant) rolled oats
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons unsifted bleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ pound (8 tablespoons or 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar, sieved if lumpy
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
2 large eggs
2 ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line the cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper; set aside. The baking sheets need to be heavy to prevent from the bottoms of the cookies from overbrowning. Double pan the sheets if necessary.
2. Place the rolled oats in a food processor fitted with the steel knife. Cover and process, using the 3-second on-off bursts, until reduced to moderately fine bits, like a coarse-textured powder. Set aside.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl.
4. Cream the softened butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderately low speed for 2 minutes. Add the light brown sugar and beat for 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat for 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract and melted, tepid butter. Blend in the eggs. Remove the mixing bowl from the stand. Mix in the processed oats. Add the whisked flour mixture, chocolate chips and coconut and stir to form a dense but somewhat sticky dough, using a wooden spoon or a flat wooden paddle.
5. Take up generous 3 tablespoon-size mounds of dough and form into rough mounds about 1 ¾” in diameter by 2 inches tall. The height of the mounds is important if the cookies are to bake up pudgy and chewy textured.
6. Place the mounds on the lined cookie sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Place nine mounds of dough on each sheet.
7. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes, or until softly set, pale golden around the edges and a spotty pale golden on top. The bottoms of the cookies will be light golden-colored. Let the cookies stand on the sheets on cooling racks for 10 minutes, then remove them to sheets of parchment papers, using a wide, offset metal spatula. Cool completely.

Freshly baked, the cookies keep for 2 days.

Chocolate Peanut Buttercups

Chocolate Peanut Buttercups - December 13, 2009

The title pretty much says it all - this has a graham cracker peanut crust which supports a chocolate cake filled with a peanut butter cream cheese filling and topped with chocolate ganache. You're supposed to garnish it with chopped peanuts but I ran out. Overall, this was pretty good. I ran out of chocolate cake batter though so had to stretch it out towards the end. The peanut butter cream cheese filling was also a little stiff compared to the softer cake batter so getting it in as an even dollop of filling was problematic. I admit I didn't try that hard either.

This is one of those recipes I'd like to make in smaller pans, like muffin tins with removable bottoms. The only pan I have with removable bottoms is my molten chocolate cake pan and it makes for some big peanut buttercups. I made smaller ones in a regular muffin tin but I had to line each one with aluminum foil so I could take it out of the pan easily. Those didn't look as pretty as the ones in the molten chocolate cake pan.

The recipe calls for ganache which I made but I'm not a fan of ganache. Ganache is simple chocolate and heavy cream melted and whisked together. While a boon for serious chocoholics, I don't find it sweet enough for me and would prefer a more traditional chocolate frosting. But still, this is a cute little cake to make for holiday baking.

Chocolate Peanut Buttercups - recipe from the July 1999 issue of Chocolatier Magazine

Peanut-graham cracker crust
1 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped
½ cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate batter
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Peanut butter batter
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk

Chocolate glaze
¼ cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Garnish
1 tablespoon dry roasted peanuts

1. Make the peanut-graham cracker crust: Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350˚F. Place twelve 4-ounce metal baking cups or ceramic ramekins on a baking sheet. In a medium bowl stir together the peanuts, graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter until well-combined. Press 2 tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the bottom of each baking cup. Bake until slightly firm, about 5 to 7 minutes. Reserve.
2. Make the chocolate batter: In a medium saucepan over low heat, stir together the butter, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate until melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat; cool 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well-combined. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour and salt until just incorporated. Reserve.
4. Make the peanut butter batter: In small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, and yolk until combined.
5. Assemble the chocolate peanut butter cups: Drop 2 tablespoons of the chocolate batter on top of the peanut crust; level with a small spatula. Form 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter batter into a disc; place over the chocolate batter. Top peanut butter batter with 2 more tablespoons of the chocolate batter. Repeat this process for the remaining baking cups. Bake 18 minutes on a baking sheet until the centers are set. Transfer baking cups to a wire rack; cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
6. Make the chocolate glaze: In a small, heavy saucepan over high heat, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat; stir in the chocolate. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Transfer the ganache to a bowl; cool until thick enough to spread, about 15 to 20 minutes. Place baking cups over low heat for 5 to 10 seconds if necessary to loosen the bottom. Unmold and place crust-side-down on a serving platter. With an offset spatula spread 1 heaping tablespoon of the glaze over top of each chocolate-peanut butter cup. Garnish with peanut halves.

Lemon Orange Sour Cream Cookies

Lemon Orange Sour Cream Cookies - December 13, 2009

It's a busy social week this week as I have lunch and dinner with different friends nearly every day this week. I like to bring goodie bags of things I've baked for my friends whenever I see them so I have a mountain of baking to do. I'm somewhat prepared by having cookie dough in my freezer ready to bake off at the last minute before a social gathering and I have brownies baked in the last few days that I've already cut up, packaged and have in the freezer, also ready to go at a moment's notice. But still, I have more baking to do. This morning I woke up early before church to tackle this recipe. It's from the 2nd of Rosie's Bakery's cookbooks that I got recently called Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich, No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book. With that title, what's not to love?

In any case, I decided to give this recipe a try to contrast with the chocolate treats I've already baked. The recipe contains sour cream which past experience tells me this will make a cakey cookie. And so it did. I didn't have any oranges in the house but plenty of lemons so I used lemon zest and made it an all-lemon cookie. I baked the first batch for precisely 10 minutes which is what the recipe calls for. It seemed to be a bit early to take out but I always err on the side of underbaking. Good thing too because once they were cool, they tasted perfect. I left the last cookie sheet in there a minute or so longer and they were overbaked. The thing with cakey cookies is they don't necessarily taste dry but their flavor definitely seems to bake out of the cookie. So don't overbake these.

I also ran out of the glaze since I treated it more as a frosting - once it cools, it thickens/hardens. So if you make this, double the glaze recipe for 1 cookie recipe. Either that or I just had a heavy hand with the frosting. The cookies themselves weren't too lemony but the frosting was and added a nice touch. These cookies are pretty fragile though so once again, not suitable for mailing.

Lemon Orange Sour Cream Cookies

The Cookie
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons grated orange zest
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons sour cream

The Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease them with vegetable oil.
2. Sift both flours, the baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter, sugar, orange zest, and vanilla in a medium-size bowl until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape the bowl.
4. Add the egg and mix on medium speed until blended, about 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl.
5. Add the sour cream and mix on medium-low until blended, about 8 seconds.
6. Fold in the flour mixture by hand. Then blend with the mixer on low speed for 5 seconds. Scrape the bowl with the rubber spatula, and mix on low speed until the batter is smooth and velvety, 10 seconds. Give the batter a stir or two with the spatula.
7. Drop the batter by large rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake until the cookies have puffed up, are firm to the touch and are just beginning to turn golden around the edges, 10 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 2 to 3 minutes. Then slide the sheet of parchment onto the counter (or, using a spatula, carefully transfer each cookie to a sheet of aluminum foil or waxed paper on the counter), and let them cool further.
9. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze: Place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the butter and lemon juice, and beat vigorously with a whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
10. Once the cookies have cooled, drop generously rounded ½ teaspoons of the glaze onto each cookie and spread with small butter knife. Allow them to sit until the glaze hardens, about 2 hours (or pop them into the refrigerator for 1 hour).
11. If you plan to eat the cookies that day, leave them sitting out. To store them, place them in an airtight plastic container with plastic wrap, parchment, or waxed paper between the layers. Store them in the refrigerator if you plan to eat them the next day. Otherwise, place the container in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Bring the cookies to room temperature before eating.

Makes about 24 cookies

Coconut Black Bottom Bars

Coconut Black Bottom Bars - December 11, 2009

If you like coconut, cream cheese and chocolate, this is the brownie for you. It's made like a typical cream cheese swirl brownie but you add coconut and chocolate chips to the cream cheese batter. I use mini chocolate chips for the cream cheese batter as the regular-size ones seem too big with a batter as soft as cream cheese. But I do use the normal chocolate chips for the chocolate brownie batter. Although the recipe calls for baking for 30 minutes, this actually takes up to 45-50 minutes in my oven. At 30 minutes, the toothpick comes out with raw batter on it, even close to the sides. But don't wait for the toothpick to come out clean or it'll be overbaked by then. At 45-50 minutes, it's still moist but not raw and remember the chocolate sets when it cools.



Coconut Black Bottom Bars from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson

Coconut Cream Cheese Topping
2 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Fudge Bar Cookie Batter
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons bleached cake flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
14 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
4 large eggs
1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Film the inside of a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the topping: Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl on moderately low speed until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Blend in the coconut and chocolate chips.
3. Mix the batter: Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper. In a small bowl, toss the chocolate chips with ½ teaspoon of the sifted mixture.
4. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate until smooth. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, about 15 to 20 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk until combined, about 30 seconds. Blend in the vanilla extract and melted butter-chocolate mixture. Sift the flour mixture over and stir to form a batter, mixing thoroughly until the particles of flour are absorbed, using a whisk or flat wooden paddle. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
6. Assemble and swirl the sweet: Spoon the coconut cream cheese mixture on top of the fudge batter. Carefully swirl together the cream cheese mixture and chocolate batter, using the tip of a round-edged table knife. When swirling the two mixtures, do so in careful gliding movements. Overswirling the batter will create a muddy look.
7. Bake, cool and cut the sweet into bars: Bake the sweet in the preheated oven for up to 30 minutes, or until set. Let the sweet stand in the pan on a cooling rack for 3 hours. Refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes, or until firm enough to cut. With a small, sharp knife, cut the sweet into quarters, then cut each quarter into 6 bars. Remove the bars from the baking pan, using a small offset metal spatula.
8. Refrigerate all bars not served on baking day in an airtight container.
Bake and serve within 3 days

Margaret's Oatmeal Hotcakes

Margaret's Oatmeal Hotcakes - December 11, 2009

I have no idea who Margaret is but this was the name of the recipe from Bread for Breakfast. If you ever need to use up leftover buttermilk, this is a good way to use it. I will often try out recipes that call for buttermilk but I usually only need a cup or 1/2 cup or less and I hate to waste ingredients so I try to combine what I make to use up what I have. This one uses 2 cups and is easy to make in a pinch. Be warned though - this doesn't make light, fluffy pancakes. With this much oatmeal, you can expect it to be pretty hardy. One normal-sized pancake fills me up for most of the morning. I cook the entire batch then freeze them, separated by wax paper and warm one up for breakfast on the weekends (need protein during the weekdays). What I like about these is they're tasty enough on their own that I can actually eat them without butter or syrup so it helps keep the calories down. But then again, I also have pretty bland tastebuds so maybe it's just me. I've never made the syrup recipe below so you're on your own with that one.

Margaret's Oatmeal Hotcakes from Bread for Breakfast

2 cups cultured buttermilk
1 ¾ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup light olive oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots (or combination of the two)

Warm maple pancake syrup
1 cup pure maple syrup
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden rum (optional)

1. Mix together the buttermilk and oats in a medium bowl (I use one with a plastic lid). Refrigerate overnight.
2. In the morning, remove the mixture from the refrigerator. Sprinkle the flours and sugar over the oats. Add the eggs, oil, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk into the oatmeal mixture. The batter will be thick; thin it with a little more buttermilk, if you like. Stir in the cranberries or the apricots.
3. Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until a drop of water skates over the surface and lightly grease. Using a ¼ cup measure for each pancake, ladle the batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, the edges are dry and the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn once, cooking the other side until golden, about 1 minute. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 200° oven until ready to serve.
4. To make the warm pancake syrup, combine the maple syrup, butter, and rum in a small saucepan or microwave-proof bowl. Heat slowly until the butter is melted. Serve immediately.

Makes 6-8 hotcakes

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Scones

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Scones - December 10, 2009

I normally don't eat scones. I have nothing against them, especially warm from the oven and slathered with butter. But as traditional breakfast fare, I don't eat a lot of carbs first thing in the morning and prefer protein (eggs, sausage, etc) for breakfast. Plus many scones are often larger portions and once you have one, they tend to sit in your stomach like a rock - not the best way to start the day. Yeah, I don't have to eat the whole thing but it's there.

There are two things I like about this recipe. First it's got a tender crumb and isn't heavy or "bread-y" like a typical scone. In fact, it's almost like an oatmeal cake. Second, it's got oatmeal and makes me feel like I'm eating somewhat healthy as long as I ignore the sugar, flour and butter that's also in the recipe. This scone is so buttery from the butter and buttermilk that you don't even need to slather butter on it. I love to eat it warm from the oven but it also tastes good at room temperature. These are a bit fragile and not like one of those scones that can be thrown like a rock. The recipe calls for kneading them, shaping and cutting them but I take the easy way out and drop spoonfuls of the dough/batter into a mini scone pan. One recipe will fill all the cavities of the pan so it's perfect. Oh, and I also leave out the currants since I don't like them and I didn't need to add any extra buttermilk.

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Scones - made December 10, 2009 from Bread for Breakfast

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar or raw sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) butter, cut into small pieces
1 ¼ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
½ cup currants
1 cup cold buttermilk, plus more, as needed

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl or in the workbowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the all-purpose and whole wheat flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a fork or with the electric mixer on low speed, cut in the butter until it has the texture of soft crumbs. Add the oatmeal and currants, and toss to combine.
3. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough forms in a soft, shaggy ball, adding more buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently about 10 times, or just until the dough comes together. Roll or pat out the dough into a rectangle 1 inch thick, 9 inches wide and 12 inches long. Cut with a sharp knife or pastry wheel to form 12 squares (3 cuts across and 4 cuts down).
5. Place the pieces ½ inch apart on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and cool to the desired temperature on the baking sheet. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Triple Chocolate Devil Drops

Triple Chocolate Devil Drops - December 8, 2009

Technically, this is only a double chocolate devil drop because the third chocolate was meant to be melted white chocolate drizzled over the chocolate chocolate chip cookie. But I baked these last night and I don't have that kind of time on the weeknights to mesh with garnishes. I made the dough last weekend, portioned it into dough balls and put them in ziploc bags in the freezer. The dough was pretty soft so I had to shape them into balls, put them on a plastic plate and freeze them first before they were firm enough to be placed in ziploc freezer bags.

These came out pretty well - they were soft and moist and I got a couple of comments at work that they were like "little cakes" or "little devil's food cakes". Good enough for me. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookie books: The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle. The only drawback is they're pretty fragile and are a bit too moist to stack well. I wouldn't recommend them as a care package cookie for mailing. Time these carefully in the oven. I underbaked a batch and they came out a tad too mushy. Otherwise, they're nice, rich and chocolatey.

Dark Chocolate Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup nonalkalized cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

White Chocolate Drizzle
4 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped

Make the cookies
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Gently whisk together to blend.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until light, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix in the vanilla extract. At low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating them with the sour cream in two additions, and mixing until just combined. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 1 inch apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 12 to 15 minutes, or until no impression is left when you touch a cookie very lightly with a finger. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.
Garnish the cookies
5. In a double boiler, melt the white chocolate over barely simmering water, stirring frequently. Scrape the melted chocolate into a small sealable plastic bag and seal the bag. Using scissors, cut a tiny hole in one of the bottom corners of the bag.
6. Arrange the cookies on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Drizzle white chocolate over the cookies in thin parallel lines. Refrigerate the cookies for 5 minutes, or just until the chocolate is set.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.

Sunken Kisses

Sunken Kisses - December 7, 2009

Note to self: when you plan to make a peanut butter and chocolate kiss cookie, make sure you have Hershey's chocolate kisses. I had made the cookie dough this past weekend but didn't bake them off until last night to bring into work for a meeting this morning. But when I got home last night, I discovered I had exactly 5 Hershey's chocolate kisses, not a whole unopened bag like I had thought. Or if I had said bag, I've hidden it so cleverly that I can't actually find it.

Fortunately, I did have Reese's miniature peanut butter cups from Halloween so I used those instead. They might look a little weird in the picture but they did just fine. Not being overly enamoured of peanut butter, I don't care for Reese's so my taste test cookie was with one of the 5 remaining Hershey kisses. Baker's privilege.

I mentioned in an early post how I had a recipe for these that I've been making for years (the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Kiss Cookies link) so I don't often try new recipe variations for it since I liked the recipe I had. This one isn't that different from my original recipe and it turned out pretty well. This is also from Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book. As you can guess, once I get a new baking book, I obsess over it for awhile so expect more recipes to be tried from that book in the near future.

This one was well-received at work and I got more than a few comments on how moist the cookies were. Hmmmm. Not to brag but I try to always make my cookies moist :). A dry cookie is a waste of calories and chewing effort. If your recipe for a peanut butter cookie calls for butter and peanut butter with no shortening, it's easy to make moist cookies. Make sure you don't overbake it either.

Sunken Kisses

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (lightly packed) light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar, divided
½ cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature
48 Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, removed from their wrappers

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them lightly with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter, brown sugar, ¼ cup of the granulated sugar, the peanut butter and vanilla in a medium-size mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Stop the mixer twice to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the egg and blend on medium speed until it is almost incorporated, about 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients on low speed and blend 15 seconds. Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl and paddle then blend until the dough is smooth, about 5 seconds more.
6. Measure out 48 rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough and roll them into balls with your hands.
7. Dip one side of each ball in the remaining ½ cup granulated sugar (optional) and place them 2 inches apart and sugar side up on the prepared cookie sheets.
8. Bake the cookies until they are light gold, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the sheets from the oven. Immediately top each cookie with a Chocolate Kiss, wide side down, and press it firmly in the center of the cookie to imbed the kiss.
9. Carefully remove the cookies from the sheets and place them on a plate or cooling rack.