Fantastic Fudgewiches

Fantastic Fudgewiches - made March 9, 2011 from All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett (book #56)

Back to the chocolate and nutella baking lovefest with this one.  Although there isn't any nutella in this recipe, I decided to forego making the Quick Fudge filling and just used nutella instead.  Nutella and chocolate are a natural combination and, in this case, comes with the added advantage that I don't have to worry about having too much or too little filling for the sandwiches as I still have my Costco-sized jars of Nutella in the pantry.  I skipped the added effort of rolling out cookie dough and cutting out with cookie cutters/shapers.  Whenever I make sandwich cookies, I roll the dough into cylindrical or square logs, freeze them, then cut them into slices when I'm ready to bake them.  It's much faster that way with less fuss than using cookie cutters.  As long as you shape your cookie log uniformly, you should get similar size cookies.  The only trick is to make sure you cut the slices evenly.  I also like to make the logs with a fairly small diameter so the sandwich cookies aren't too big.  But I've posted the directions as is for anyone who wants to make them the cookie cutter way.

For the cocoa, make sure you're using a high-quality cocoa since that's where the chocolate flavor in the cookies are coming from.  As previously mentioned, I use Pernigotti cocoa from Williams Sonoma.  It's a bit pricey but worth it for the rich, dark flavor it imparts to baked goods. I always sift mine first, whether it's lumpy or not.  It's faster to sift in the beginning before you add the cocoa than it is to try and get out any lumps in the batter or dough later on.

Beat the butter first until it's a creamy consistency before you add the oil or anything else.  Otherwise you'll have butter lumps and those aren't any fun either.  The dough ended up being a bit soft to shape into logs but doable if you're patient.  Shape it on a large piece of waxed paper and don't make the logs too big.  It's easier to handle shorter logs and make them the diameter you want consistently throughout the log(s).  Once you have the logs formed, roll it up in the waxed paper and place in the freezer to firm up.  The advantage of the log method is you don't have to use a lot of flour or cocoa to roll out the dough and try to keep it from sticking.

These turned out pretty well - the cookies didn't spread so they kept their shape pretty well.  Once they cooled and I sandwiched them with the nutella, it was a nice little snack.  The edges were crisp but the middles were still a bit chewy so this isn't like a wafer cookie.  If you want them more uniformly crisp, I'd bake longer than the 9 minutes the recipe suggests.  For me, I liked them as they were although I'm glad I made them small as each one can pack a chocolate punch.  I liked them with nutella but I think these would also be good with the quick fudge filling for a pure chocolate experience.

(If you look closely at the cover of the recipe book, the Fantastic Fudgewiches are the 2nd cookie on the right, partially standing.)

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted after measuring, if lumpy

1 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup (1 sticks plus 2 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, slightly softened

2 tablespoons corn oil or other flavorless vegetable oil

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Scant ½ teaspoon salt

Quick Fudge

1 14-ounce sweetened condensed milk

1 ½ cups (9 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

1 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up or coarsely chopped

1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

About 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, for topping (optional)

1.     In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder; set aside.  In another large bowl, with an electric mixer on low, then medium, speed, beat together the butter, oil, and sugar until lightened and fluffy.  Add the egg, vanilla, and salt and beat until well blended and smooth.  Beat or stir in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated.

2.     Divide the dough in half.  Place each portion between large sheets of wax paper.  Roll out each portion 1/8 inch thick; check the underside of the dough and smooth out any wrinkles that form.  Stack the rolled portions (paper still attached) on a baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until chilled and firm but not hard or freeze for about 20 minutes to speed chilling.  (If desired, the dough may be held for up to 24 hours; let warm up slightly before using.)

3.     Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray. (I always line mine with parchment paper.)

4.     Working with one portion at a time and leaving the remaining dough chilled, gently peel away, then pat one sheet of wax paper back into place.  Flip dough over, then peel off and discard the second sheet.  Using a 2-inch round or square cutter, cut out the cookies.  If desired, using a mini cutter, the larger end of a pastry piping tip, or a thimble, cut away a small hole from the center of half the cookies.  (If at any point the dough softens too much to handle easily, transfer the paper and cookies to a baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until firm again.)

5.     Using a spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, spacing about 1 ½” apart.  Place the solid rounds on one sheet and the rounds with the cutaway centers on another.  Re-roll any dough scraps.  Continue cutting out the cookies until all the dough is used.

6.     Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 6 to 9 minutes, or until almost firm when pressed in the centers; cutaways will bake faster.  Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through baking to ensure even browning.  Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 1 to 2 minutes.  Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks.  Let stand until completely cooled.

7.     For the Fudge: In a 1-quart or similar heavy saucepan, stir together the condensed milk, chocolate morsels, unsweetened chocolate, and butter over medium-low heat.  Heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolates melt and the mixture is completely smooth; be careful not to burn.  Immediately remove from the heat.  Stir in the vanilla.  Let cool until thickened just enough to spread.  (The fudge may be prepared a day or so in advance then refrigerated in an airtight container.  Before using, reheat it over low heat, stirring until spreadable.)

8.     Immediately spread the fudge about 1/3” thick on the underside of each cookie bottom.  (If the fudge stiffens, as you work, warm it just slightly over low heat, stirring constantly.)  Center the tops over the bottoms.  Very lightly press down.  Lightly dust the cookie tops with cocoa powder, if desired.

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.  The cookies can be frozen for up to 1 month but should not be filled and sandwiched together until shortly before serving.

Pan de Campo (Mexican Camp Bread)

Pan de Campo - made March 8, 2011 from The Pastry Queen's Christmas by Rebecca Rather (book #55)

I hope those of you who celebrated it enjoyed Mardi Gras today.  Lots of revelry, King Cake, and other things I can't mention on my G-rated blog? :) But once it's over, what inevitably follows Fat Tuesday is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.  I'm not Catholic or of a religion that officially observes Lent but I did try to give up chocolate once.  Shoot.  Worst 10 minutes ever.

However, if you're made of stronger stuff than me and have given up chocolate or sweets in general, here's a fried bread recipe I tried in your honor.  (If you've given up bread or anything else that gives life meaning, sorry, this won't help you at all.)  Plus I finally got to use the cast iron skillet I'd bought ages ago.  Bonus!  This is probably one of the plainer recipes in The Pastry Queen's Christmas but I was still in a "fried bread-anything tastes good" mode so I thought I'd give it a go.  Although I will be back to this cookbook at some point in the future to try the Apple Spice Layer Cake with Caramel Icing because that just looked good.

The directions for this are very similar to making pie crust - combine the dry ingredients, cut in cold shortening then add the liquid gradually.  As with pie crust, it's best not to overhandle the ingredients because you don't want the dough to get tough or the shortening to melt into the flour.  I wasn't quite sure what I expected from this recipe and I was a little skeptical as I fried it, especially as my cast iron skillet kept smoking while the dough fried and I was afraid it was going to set off my fire alarm.  The outside browned okay but in less time than the 4-5 minutes I was supposed to fry each side so I took it off early.  Surprisingly, I liked the fried bread.  The outside was a little crisp, with a little flakiness like a tortilla (that's from those shortening pockets) and the inside was just like a dense bread.  You definitely don't want to undercook it though so don't be afraid of browning it too much.  The middle should be more cooked than doughy.  You might also want to make yours a bit thinner than mine for easier frying and eating.

I halved the recipe and it still made quite a bit so if you're not sure or you don't have a lot of mouths to feed, I suggest making only a half recipe or even a quarter.  It's easy enough to make again if you decide you like it and want more.

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening

1 ½ cups buttermilk

6 tablespoons unsalted butter for frying

1.     In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and sugar.  Use your hands or a pastry cutter to incorporate the shortening into the flour mixture until it is crumbly.  Add the buttermilk ¾ cup at a time and lightly stir until just mixed.

2.     Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and place on a lightly floured work surface.  Gently roll each portion into a quarter-inch-thick disk about 6 inches in diameter.

3.     Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a cast iron or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.  Add one of the disks and fry for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Repeat for the rest of the dough and serve immediately.

Leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and reheated in a skillet or toaster.

Buttermilk Beignets

Buttermilk Beignets - made March 7, 2011 from Dam Good Sweet by David Guas and Raquel Pelzel (book #54)

Do you have a foodie bucket list?  Every foodie I know has some sort of foodie bucket list - you know, both the food you want to eat before you die and where you want to eat it.  Some people want to eat at French Laundry, some want to take an Italian cooking course in Tuscany, etc.  I've done a fair number of things on my foodie bucket list - eaten a fresh baguette while strolling down the Champs Elysee in Paris, had gelato in Florence, lobster in Maine, fresh pineapple in Hawaii, noodles in Beijing, and pavlova in New Zealand, gone to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival, done a chocolate week in Belize, etc.

I still have a fair number of items on my foodie bucket list still to do, eat and visit.  Just below attending the National or World Pastry Championship, next on the list at the moment is to have beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.  Beignets are deep-fried dough but don't think they're doughnuts.  They're French.  They have to be more uppity than that.  The dough is usually not as sweet as doughnuts and their sweetness comes from the confectioners' sugar normally sprinkled on top.  I've done deep-fried bread concoctions before, my favorite being zeppoles (fried Italian dough balls made with ricotta cheese), but have never made beignets.  In honor of tomorrow being Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, I thought I'd give it a go.  The advantage of having 200-something recipe books is I likely have a recipe for everything.  It also helps that this particular recipe book has a sub-title of "Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style".

It was a last-minute decision to make the beignets as I didn't even realize it was Mardi Gras tomorrow until I got an email from a friend about it.  Fortunately I had most of the ingredients on hand so when I came home, I could throw it together.  Unfortunately, what I didn't have on hand was bread flour so I had to substitute all-purpose flour in this recipe.  I hate doing substitutions that may be key to the recipe but I thought I'd take a chance with it, especially since I had just come from the grocery store and didn't want to go back, not with the price of gas these days.  The problem with substitutions is it's hard to judge the original recipe itself or if it was the sub that threw it off.  The dough for this turned out to be pretty soft, almost more like batter than dough.  I ended up adding an extra 1/2 cup of flour to the mixture just to make it more the consistency of dough.  I don't know if it's because of the all-purpose flour or if even with bread flour, it would've still been soft.

In any case, this rose nicely but trying to roll it out, even with added flour for kneading, was almost impossible.  The dough was just too sticky and soft to manage well.  I ended up hacking some random chunks of dough to throw in the fryer but didn't try to shape or knead it any further.  It fried pretty well and turned a nice golden brown fairly quickly.  I turned them a few times to ensure even browning, drained them on paper towels, and sprinkled with powdered sugar before trying them.  I have to say, you almost can't go wrong with fried anything, especially warm fried dough.  I should've cooked it a little longer as the middles were a bit doughy but overall, these weren't bad.  The beignets themselves weren't that sweet.  Instead, the sweetness came from the powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  Having never made beignets before and the rare times I've tried them before they weren't warm, I'm not sure how this recipe stacks up.  I'm just going to have to go to Cafe du Monde and try their beignets so I can gauge the bar.

¾ cup whole milk

1 ½ cups buttermilk

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 ½ tablespoons sugar

3 ½ cups bread flour plus extra for flouring work surface

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

Peanut oil for frying

Confectioners’ sugar for serving, as much as you think you’ll need – then double that!

1.    Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until small bubbles form at the surface.  Remove from the heat, add the buttermilk and then pour into a stand mixer bowl.  Whisk in the yeast and the sugar and set aside for 5 minutes.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dry ingredients are moistened, 3 to 4 minutes.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough forms a loose ball and is still quite wet and tacky, 1 to 2 minutes longer.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside in a draft-free spot for 1 hour.

2.    Pour enough peanut oil into a large pot to fill it to a depth of 3 inches and bring to a temperature of 375⁰F over medium heat (this will take about 20 minutes).  Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.

3.    Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out onto it.  Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, gently press to flatten, fold it in half, and gently tuck the ends under to create a rough-shaped round.  Dust again and roll the dough out into a ½” to 1/3”-thick circle.  Let the dough rest for 1 minute before using a chef’s knife, a bench knife, or a pizza wheel to cut the dough into 1 ½” squares (you should get about 48).

4.    Gently stretch a beignet lengthwise and carefully drop it into the oil.  Add a few beignets (don’t overcrowd them) and fry until puffed up and golden brown, turning them often with a slotted spoon for 2 to 3 minutes.  Transfer to the prepared plate to drain while you cook the rest. Serve while still warm, buried under a mound of confectioners’ sugar, with hot coffee on the side.

Chocolate Chunkers

Chocolate Chunkers - made March 7, 2011 from Rosie's Bakery Delicious and Decadent Dessert Book by Judy Rosenberg (book #53)

I've been stepping up the baking experiments over the past few days.  I have more time to bake now but fewer people to eat my baking since I'm not going into the office anymore or working at the moment.  So I have to leverage when I do see people and can pawn off, er, share, my baking experiments.  Sometimes I email one (or two) of my ex-coworkers to see if they're around so I can do a dropoff of baked goods that they can share with the rest of the office. No way am I eating all this by myself.  I'm also finding I have a dismaying tendency these days to lose my sweet tooth.  Sometimes even a bite or two already satisfies.  While that may be good for the waistline, it's a little (frankly) irritating when my greedy taste buds wants something but the rest of me says, "hey, that's enough.  I'm good."  I almost feel betrayed.  By myself.

When I can, I like to make up cookie doughs and put them in the freezer for when I need them.  Sometimes I'm in the mood to bake and sometimes I'm not.  It's so much easier to always have cookie dough on hand ready to bake at a moment's notice when the occasion arises.  This one's a bit impractical to do that with since it calls for a glaze and you don't want to hang onto glaze too long.   However, I exercised a little creative license and instead of making the glaze, I frosted these with some nutella.  I bought the Costco-sized jars so it's almost inevitable that I'm going to be focused on making things with nutella in the immediate future.  I'm not big on ganache-type glazes anyway and nothing is simpler than warming up a little nutella for easier spreading.  It also has the added advantage that you can use as much or as little as you need from the jar without fussing over making a ganache and using it all at the same time.

The dough for this was pretty soft, almost the consistency of a brownie batter.  Let the melted chocolate and butter mixture cool slightly but not too much before you add the rest of the ingredients.  You want to add the flour before the chocolate sets or stiffens up and makes mixing harder.  The more you have to mix in the flour, the tougher your cookies will be so minimize the mixing as much as possible.  Once you have it mixed, let it sit for a few minutes to cool into more of a cookie dough texture then when you scoop it into dough balls, it'll hold its shape better. Lastly, I also omitted the nuts and substituted Heath milk chocolate toffee bits for the raisins.  There's no need to ruin a perfectly good chocolate cookie with raisins.  Seriously.

This came out pretty fudgy-moist, chocolaty and rich. I don't think I really needed to add the toffee as just chocolate chips would've done. For serious indulgent decadence, let these cool to just slightly warmer than lukewarm so that they're not so fragile but still warm enough to melt the nutella, top with a spoonful of nutella and enjoy blasting into the chocolate stratosphere.

The Cookie

3 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate (I used 4 ounces)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 whole large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 cup raisins (I substituted Heath toffee bits but you can omit entirely or add more chocolate chips)

¾ cup chopped pecans (optional)

4 ounces (¾ cup) semisweet chocolate chips

The glaze

½ cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped small

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1.     Preheat the oven to 325˚F.  Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.     Melt the unsweetened chocolate and the butter in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the top half of the double boiler touch the boiling water).  Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

3.     Sift the flour and baking powder together into a small bowl and set aside.

4.     Place the sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl, add the melted chocolate mixture, and blend for 10 seconds.  Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.

5.     Add the eggs and the yolk and mix until blended, stopping the bowl once to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula.

6.     Add the flour mixture on low speed and mix until blended, stopping the mixer once to scrape the bowl.

7.     Add the raisins and blend 5 seconds.  Then add the nuts and chocolate chips.  Finish the mixing by hand. (If the dough seems too soft, let stand for a few minutes and it'll cool to more of a dough consistency that'll hold its shape when you scoop into dough balls.)

8.     Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough and form them into mounds with your hands.  Arrange them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

9.     Bake the cookies until they form a thin crust, 20 to 25 minutes.  Allow them to cool on the sheets.

10.   Meanwhile, prepare the glaze: place the cream and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally.  Remove from the heat immediately.

11.   Add the chocolate and butter to the pan, cover, and let sit about 5 minutes until the chocolate melts.

12.   Stir the mixture with a whisk until it is shiny and velvety.

13.   Dip each cookie, upside down, in the glaze, coating the entire top.  Place right side up on cooling racks or on a sheet of parchment paper to set for several hours.

14.   Store the cookies in an airtight container, with parchment paper between the layers, for a couple of days in the refrigerator.  After that, store them in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 24 cookies

Quick and Easy Chicken Soup

Janelle's Quick and Easy Chicken Soup - made March 6, 2011 from The Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke (book #52)

Technically this isn't a real recipe book but rather the latest in the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke where Hannah finds a dead body, solves the mystery and juggles her love life between Mike, who's a rake and Norman who's too perfect to be real except he needs to grow a pair when it comes to the women in his life.  But it does come with a variety of recipes so I consider it fair game for my baking challenge.  While I wasn't captivated by the storyline (it was the usual formula and I'm getting tired of the Hannah/Mike/Norman love triangle), I did find several recipes I wanted to try from it.

Given the title of the book, you'd think I'd make the Devil's Food Cake recipe first.  All in good time.  This chicken soup recipe looked so easy that I figured it was just my speed.  Like Sandra Lee's semi-homemade cooking, this is just opening cans and boiling stuff together.  I can do that.  Plus on still-chilly March evenings, nothing beats a bowl of hot soup.

What I liked best about this recipe is it doesn't have a lot of "stuff" in it.  Meaning, as a carnivore, I appreciated that it's just noodles, chicken and soup.  I even left off the parsley but mostly because I didn't have any on hand.  I don't have the most discerning taste buds when it comes to "real food" so I thought this was just fine.  The soup part was a bit creamy, more like a chowder consistency than a clear soup. Some of you with fancier palates might like to add some peas, carrots, onions and other stuff.  The only thing I would do differently next time is make half the recipe.  This is going to keep me in soup for at least a couple of weeks.

ETA: once the soup had cooled down, the liquid thickened from the consistency of clam chowder to more like a creamy pasta sauce.  As in, it wasn't really soup any longer or even soupy pasta.  If you want this to remain soup, I'd advise cutting back the amount of pasta by at least a third to half or increasing the amount of chicken broth.

8 cups chicken broth or 2 quarts water (8 cups) and 8 chicken bouillon cubes

6 ½ cups uncooked wide egg noodles

2 cans (10 ¾ ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

Minced fresh parsley

1.    Bring broth or water and bouillon to a boil in a large pot.

2.    Add the noodles and cook, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are tender.  Do not drain the noodles.

3.    Lower the heat to medium and add the two cans of condensed cream of chicken soup.  Stir well.

4.    Add the cubed chicken and stir.

5.    Heat everything through, 5 to 10 minutes.  When the soup is hot, remove it from the heat.  Stir in the sour cream, sprinkle with fresh parsley and ladle into soup bowls.  Serve immediately.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies - made March 6, 2011 from Cookies, Brownies and Bars by Elinor Klivans

This doesn't count towards my baking challenge since I've already tried a recipe from this book (the awesome Caramel-Glazed Blondies) but I had some white chocolate and macadamias to use up and this recipe has been in my "Still Need to Make" file for months so I thought I might as well try it and knock it off the list, especially since I needed something to bring to my parents for the week and they prefer white chocolate cookies to regular chocolate chip cookies. 

Oh and remember how much I recommend a nut grinder for its time saving capabilities when you need to chop nuts?  I never use it with macadamia nuts because just about all the recipes I make with macadamia nuts calls them for to be big and chunky.  My nut grinder, even on the coarse grind, would make them too small.  The beauty and taste of the macadamia nuts is their size so I usually just do a (very) coarse chop.

I was a little concerned when I made the dough as it seemed rather soft.  I never bake cookie dough right after I make it but I always portion them into dough balls and freeze them first, preferably overnight.  That's to help with minimizing the cookie spread when they're baked.  But if your dough is too liquid, no matter how frozen the dough is to start with, some will still spread thin.  Of all the cookies I don't want to spread thin, anything with macadamia nuts is one of them because even coarsely chopped macadamia nuts can be sizable enough to stick out from a flat cookie.  You want the macadamia nuts to peek out shyly from the cookie, not wave their hands shrieking, "here we are!".

Unfortunately, I was right to be concerned about the soft cookie dough spreading.  Despite freezing the dough first and using the convection setting on my oven, these spread out more than I would've liked.  They baked more like a normal, soft-dough chocolate chip cookie and they were okay (crisp edges, moist, chewy middles) but not anything that different or special from a normal cookie.  With my jaded taste buds, these don't make the cut.  And yes, I can practically see my friends' rolling their eyes at me and saying, "I'm sure they're fine."  Maybe but in the white chocolate cookie category, I have to give the nod to Martha Stewart's recipe for White Chocolate Butterscotch cookies.  Now that's a cookie.  Next time, if I want to have less spread, I'd use half shortening, half butter for the recipe and go with dark brown sugar for a deeper flavor.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, cold

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups white chocolate chips

¾ cup unsalted roasted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

1.     Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350˚F.  Line 3 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2.     In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.  In a large bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.  Using a mixer on medium speed, beat until well blended, about 1 minute.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until the eggs are completely incorporated, scraping down the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula.  Slowly add the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated.  Add the white chocolate chips and nuts and beat just until distributed.

3.     Place heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookie tops are lightly golden in the center, 10-12 minutes.

4.     Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer to wire racks to cool completely, about 30 minutes.  Repeat to bake and cool the remaining cookies.  Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Fudge Ball Cupcakes

Fudge Ball Cupcakes - made March 4, 2011 from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans (book #51)

You can also call these little chocolate bombs.  Because they are the bomb.  This recipe calls for making these as 24 mini cupcakes. Once they're baked, you peel them out of the cupcake liners and all but the top is dipped in melted chocolate.  The cupcakes are turned upside down so that the uncoated top is the bottom then lightly dusted with cocoa powder once the chocolate coating is semi-firm and still sticky but not liquid.  Think of it as a truffle version of a cupcake.  For serious chocoholics.  Of which I am one.

The tricky thing with mini cupcakes is they bake quickly because of their small size so watch the timing on these and take them out when they're just barely done.  It's too easy for mini cupcakes to come out dry if they're left in the oven even a minute longer than necessary.  A dry cupcake is just a waste of calories and chewing time.  I took these out when there were still moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick but it wasn't liquid batter.  And curse me, but I forgot to time it.  I baked them for maybe 20 minutes?

They don't have any chemical leavening in them and you don't beat a lot of air into the batter so it's safe to fill the mini cupcake liners to the top and the cupcakes won't overflow.  They're more dense than the typical cupcake but that helps them stay moist as well.  I actually ended up with a little extra batter so I baked the extra in a small ramekin.  That's the tester piece below.  I didn't dust the tops with cocoa powder as the recipe suggested since they were plenty chocolate enough for me.  I did make only 2/3 of the melted chocolate coating because past experience has taught me following the normal recipe usually creates too much coating.  I was right.

Cupcakes

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 large eggs

1 ¼ cups sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Coating

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate (I only used 8 ounces)

3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil (I only used 2 tablespoons)

1.     Make the cupcakes: Position a rack in the middle of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 325˚F.  Line 2 mini-muffin tins that have 12 cups each with mini-paper liners.  Spray the paper liners with nonstick spray.

2.     Put the butter and unsweetened chocolate in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water (or the bottom of the double boiler).  Stir the butter and chocolate until melted and smooth.  Remove from the water and set aside to cool slightly.

3.     In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and salt to blend them thoroughly, about 1 minute.  Whisk in the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla to incorporate them.  Whisk in the flour just until no white streaks remain.

4.     Fill each paper liner with about 1 ½ tablespoons batter, to just below the top of the liner.  Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, about 24 minutes.  Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pans on wire racks.

5.     Using a small knife, loosen any cupcake tops that might have stuck to the pans.  Carefully place a wire rack on top of one pan of cupcakes.  Protecting your hands with pot holders and holding the pan and rack together, invert them to release the cupcakes onto the wire rack.  Turn the cupcakes top side up to cool completely.  If any cupcake tops separate from the cupcakes when you unmold them, simply press them back on; they will stick to these moist cupcakes. Repeat with the second pan of cupcakes.

6.     Make the chocolate coating: Put the chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water (or the bottom of a double boiler).  Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Scrape the chocolate coating into a small bowl.

7.     Remove the paper liners from the cooled cupcakes.  Holding the top of a cupcake with your fingers, dip all of the cupcake except the top in the chocolate coating.  Gently roll it in the chocolate to coat it thoroughly, then hold it over the bowl to let any excess drip off and return the cupcake to the wire rack, uncoated top down.  Repeat with the remaining cupcakes; do not let the coated cupcakes touch one another.  Let sit until the chocolate coating becomes just sticky to the touch but is no longer liquid.

8.     Use a strainer to dust the tops of the cupcakes lightly with cocoa powder.  (If the chocolate is at the semifirm, sticky stage, the cocoa powder will remain on the surface, not dissolve into it.)  Let the cupcakes sit at room temperature until the coating is firm; about 1 ½ hours.  Or, to speed the firming of the chocolate, refrigerate the fudge balls on the wire racks for about 10 minutes.

9.     When the chocolate is completely firm, put the fudge balls in clean paper liners.  Cover and refrigerate.  Serve cold or at room temperature.

10.   The cupcakes can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

11.   Choices: Instead of cocoa, sprinkle 1 cup toasted coconut, ½ cup chocolate sprinkles, or ¾ cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts over the chocolate-covered fudge balls.  To toast coconut, spread shredded, sweetened coconut on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated 325 F oven until golden, about 11 minutes, stirring the coconut twice to help it toast evenly.

Yield: 24 mini cupcakes

Double Chocolate Toffee Brownies

Double Chocolate Toffee Brownies - made March 1, 2011 from The Brownie Experience by Lisa Tanner (book #50)

The original name for these brownies was Double Chocolate Peanut Brownies but I couldn't bring myself to add peanuts to the batter, even though they do go on top.  Instead, I substituted Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits.  They add some crunch as well as the toffee flavor.  Because I skipped the peanuts which normally contain salt, I did add a pinch of salt to the batter itself to compensate.  The nice thing about baking basic brownies is you can dress them up or down as much as you please.

There isn't much batter to this brownie recipe so don't bake it in anything bigger than an 8" pan.  You might even want to go smaller if you want thicker brownies.  There's no chemical leavening in these so you can pretty much count on them being flat and fudgy. I baked these for just under 25 minutes since the toothpick came out clean then.  If I had baked them as the recipe suggested, I think they would've been dry.  Check them early since baking time will also depend on your oven.  These brownies are fudgy in texture but more sweet than rich chocolaty.

The Brownie Experience has the distinction of being the first all-brownie recipe book I remember buying and hails back to my college days so it's over 20 years old.  I'm now at book #50 in my baking challenge. It sounds like I've made a lot of progress but I think I'm only at the 25% mark in going through all my baking books and baking a recipe from each one.  And I've been at this for more than 4 months.  Oy.

½ cup butter, softened

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup flour

1/3 cup chopped toasted peanuts

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1.     Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Lightly butter an 8” square pan. 

2.     In a small saucepan, melt butter and chocolate together over low heat.  Remove from heat and beat in sugar, then egg and vanilla.  Stir in flour until well combined.  Spread in pan.  Combine peanuts and chocolate chips; sprinkle evenly over top of batter, pressing down lightly.

3.     Bake about 35 minutes, or until top springs back when lightly pressed with fingertip.  I baked for less than 25 minutes.  Check them at 20 minutes and make the judgment call.

4.     Cool completely in pan.  Cut into squares.

Makes 16 brownies

Double Chocolate Cookies

Double Chocolate Cookies - made March 1, 2011 from The Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball (book #49)

There are times when you just need a decadent chocolate cookie.  Why?  Well...why not?  I have several good recipes for chocolate cookies and the two things they have in common in how I make them are:

1) use the best quality chocolate you can.  I've said this before and it bears repeating.  Most chocolate cookies have chocolate in such high proportion to the other cookie ingredients that they can make or break a cookie.  If you have a great recipe, give it the honor it deserves by using great ingredients.  For this particular one, I used a combination of Lindt bars and Guittard chocolate buttons for the 8 ounces of melted chocolate.

2) Always underbake chocolate cookies.  Don't bake them longer than the recipe calls for and don't be afraid to take them out even if they look underbaked.  Chocolate will set once it's cool and you'll have a nice, fudgy chocolate cookie.  Think "baked fudge" more than "cookie".

This particular recipe is from the Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball who's one of the editors of Cook's Illustrated.  I don't use this book as much as you'd think, perhaps because I've had mixed results from the few I've tried.  But the lead in to each recipe, like in Cook's Illustrated, is always informative and worth reading.  And this recipe is one of the good ones.  Fudgy and rich - that's all I ask from a chocolate cookie.

The only thing that surprised me about this recipe is it didn't call for adding chocolate chips.  It's an individual choice, I suppose, but to me, a chocolate cookie without chocolate chips is like making oatmeal cookies without any oatmeal.  Just incomplete.  Because the cookie dough was already a dark chocolate cookie batter, I added milk chocolate chips, both because I prefer milk chocolate and to add a bit more sweetness to the rich chocolate taste.

Another recommendation: despite my infamous love and devotion to warm chocolate chip cookies 10 minutes out of the oven, I actually prefer chocolate cookies to be completely cool before I eat one.  You can taste the richness of the chocolate better that way and I like the fudgy texture when cool, not liquidy when warm.  These didn't spread much so they made a nice thick cookie.  In fact, it's the only time I'd sanction the word "chubby" when used to describe these cookies.  Bring on the chub.

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still firm

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

2 cups milk chocolate chips (you can use semisweet or white chocolate if you prefer)

1.     Melt chocolate either in a saucepan in a 250˚F oven for 15 minutes or in a glass bowl in a microwave oven at 50% power for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes.  If you like, the chocolate can also be melted in the top of a double boiler.  Set aside.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt onto a piece of waxed paper.  Set aside.  Heat oven to 350˚F.

2.     In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes or until very pale and fluffy.  Add the sugars and beat an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Lightly whisk an egg with a fork and then add to the creamed butter, beating 30 seconds.  Repeat with second egg.  Add vanilla and espresso powder and beat to incorporate for about 20 seconds.  Add the melted chocolate and beat another 30 seconds.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and beat on the lowest speed until well mixed. Note: once you add the melted chocolate, work quickly to incorporate the dry ingredients or the batter will stiffen up too much and make incorporating all of the dry ingredients more difficult.

3.     Using a small ice cream scoop or a large soup spoon, make balls of dough about 1 ¾ inches in diameter (the size of a golf ball).  Place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake about 10 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through cooking.  The cookies should be very soft and appear undercooked when they are removed from the oven.  Do not let the cookies become too browned on the bottom.  Remove to a cooling rack to set and cool.  Repeat with a new sheet of parchment paper until all the dough is baked.

Tri-Chocolate Brownies

Tri-Chocolate Brownies - made February 25, 2011 from Brownies to Die For by Bev Shaffer (book #48)

The only thing better than 2 kinds of chocolate in a brownie is 3 kinds of chocolate.  And the only thing better than that is some gianduja added in. Gianduja is a creamy chocolate hazelnut mixture or spread.  The one people are probably most familiar with is Nutella. Some folks use nutella like peanut butter and spread it on bread.  I like to bake with it (naturally).  The creamy texture in a fudgy brownie adds more flavor and texture to an otherwise plain brownie.

I took this basic brownie recipe and added a thin layer of the crema gianduja I bought from the little Italian grocery store on Lygon St in Melbourne's Little Italy. I layered half the brownie batter in the pan first, then the gianduja then the rest of the batter, covering the gianduja layer completely.  I needed a quick recipe to bring on a trip this weekend and of the dozens/hundreds of brownie recipes I have, I figured this one would do.  My palate is rather jaded when it comes to brownies.  People always ask me what my favorite recipe is or which one is the best or fudgiest.  I don't know that I have a favorite - that implies choosing one over another and I don't like to limit myself, haha.  I like certain types of brownies (fudgy as opposed to cakey, chocolaty as opposed to sweet) but I also love playing around with different variations of them and adding ingredients I like such as dulce de leche, caramel, and/or gianduja.  I'm on a gianduja kick at the moment so I'm looking for other desserts I could try that uses it.

One note on the directions - it says to cool the melted chocolates for 15 minutes then "whisk" in the softened butter.  I don't think butter can be successfully whisked in anywhere, especially in a somewhat solid form.  So I actually added the butter to the chocolates to be melted together.  I didn't wait 15 minutes after melting them but added the rest of the ingredients immediately.  Yes, living dangerously I am.

Overall, this was a decent brownie recipe.  It has more of a dark chocolate taste and is nicely fudgy.  The gianduja flavor didn't come out as much as I had hoped but it's still there.  Next time I may add some directly to the batter and mix it in then be a little more generous with the gianduja layer itself.  Some toasted chopped hazelnuts on top would also bring out more of the hazelnut flavor but I didn't have any on hand.  Next time....

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.    Heat oven to 350⁰F.  Lightly grease an 8” square pan.  Sprinkle bottom with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess.

2.    Combine the bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates in a double boiler set over simmering water.  Stir often, over low heat, until mixture is melted and smooth.

3.    Remove top of double boiler from heat, carefully wipe bottom, and set mixture aside to cool for 15 minutes.

4.    Whisk in the butter, sugar and vanilla until blended (note: I added the butter to be melted with the chocolates).  Whisk in eggs, beating until smooth.  Gently add in flour and salt just until mixture is combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spread into prepared pan.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.  Cool pan completely on a wire rack.  Cut into squares.

Makes about 1 ½ dozen