Fudgy Brownies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Fudgy Brownies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting - made November 28, 2014, adapted from Dear Crissy

When people ask me for “my favorite” brownie recipe or “a good brownie recipe you recommend”, I honestly don’t know how to answer that. They seem to expect me to whip out THE brownie recipe to end all brownie recipes. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you might know what a headscratcher that is for me.

Not because I don’t have any good ones but because I have too many. Literally, too many. Search for “brownies” on my blog and the results will max out at 8 pages. But rest assured I have more than 8 pages’ worth of brownie recipes in the 5+ years I’ve been blogging and in the decades I've been baking. And I keep adding more. Like this one. Much as I love brownies, I’m not actually looking for the perfect brownie recipes. I’ve made so many that I’ve come to realize it isn’t so much about the recipe as the quality of the ingredients and the baking technique. So I fall back onto timeless advice: use the best-quality ingredients you can afford (especially when it comes to chocolate) and don’t overbake the brownies. Seriously. That’s 99% of what you need to make a good brownie. 

With that reasoning, this was also a good fudgy brownies. The chocolate cream cheese frosting made as is was a little too tangy for me but that’s my taste buds being prejudiced against cream cheese. So I added an extra 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar to make it a little sweeter, ha. These freeze well and went into multiple goodie bags as part of my holiday gifts this month so they served their purpose admirably.

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 + 1/3 cup powdered sugar

1. Using a medium sauce pan, heat butter and unsweetened chocolate while stirring until smooth; set aside to cool. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees; line an 8x8x2-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. 
2. Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture. Add your eggs one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon just until combined. Stir in vanilla. In a small bowl stir together flour and baking soda. Add four mixture to chocolate mixture; stir just until combined. Spread batter evenly into the pan.
3. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack.
4. Frosting: using a small saucepan heat and stir semisweet chocolate pieces over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
5. In a medium bowl beat together 6 ounces of softened cream cheese and powdered sugar. Beat in melted chocolate until smooth then frost cooled brownies.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 6: Lemon Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust

Day 6: Lemon Tarts with Almond Shortbread Crust - made November 26, 2014

Here’s another technically-not-a-cookie recipe for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. I’m counting it as a “cookie” because it’s individual-size like a cookie and really, little tarts are just cookies with sides and a filling. 

I like to include something lemony when it comes to my holiday baked gifts because it offers a nice flavor contrast to more decadent desserts built around chocolate and I like variety. Plus my baking recipients seem to like lemon at any time of the year. Which is handy since that’s when lemons ripen where I live. This is a shot of my mom’s lemon tree. Mine is nowhere near as prolific. Hers have lemons clustered like fat grapes and they’re equally juicy. My mom has a serious green thumb.

A small section of my mom's lemon tree

These tarts are a marriage of the tart crust from the Almond Joy Tart and the filling from my go-to recipe for Lemon Bars. I made these for Thanksgiving and, in deference to my mom’s preference for that particular crust, I paired it with the lemon bar filling for foolproof tarts. If you want to make these for the holidays, these are great to do-ahead because you can make and refrigerate the crusts for a day then the filling takes only a few minutes to make when it’s time to bake them. During the heart of holiday frenzy (like now), I favor treats you can make ahead of time, make easily, and break up into easy-to-fit-in time periods. Bake these off the day you need them or the night before. Dust with confectioners’ sugar right before serving. If you want to add some extra lemony flavor, skip dusting the confectioners’ sugar on top and make a simple lemon glaze with confectioners’ sugar, fresh lemon juice and grated lemon zest to glaze the top of the filling instead.

Almond Tart Dough

1 large egg

¼ cup whole toasted almonds

¼ cup sugar

1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

Filling

¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons lemon juice
powdered sugar

1. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg and set it aside.
2. Put the almonds and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the almonds are finely ground.  Add flour and salt and pulse again just until mixed.  Add the butter and pulse just until sandy (about 6 to 10 quick pulses).  Pour in the egg and pulse just until the dough begins to cohere into a ball.  Form the dough into a disk, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. Dust a work surface with flour.  Place the disk of chilled dough on the work surface and divide it into 6 equal portions.  Shape each into a smooth disk. (Note: the dough will be sticky.  Make sure to turn it with a bench knife or offset spatula as needed and keep the working surface floured.)  Use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a 5 ½-inch circle just over 1/8 inch thick.  Very gently press each dough round into a 4-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
4. Place the tart pans in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375⁰F. 
5. Line the tart crusts with aluminum foil, and fill each one three-quarters full with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake them for 15 minutes then remove the foil and weights.
6. While the tart shells are baking, make lemon filling: in small mixer bowl combine all filling ingredients. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often until well mixed. Pour filling into tart shells, dividing evenly. Continue baking for 10-12 minutes or until filling is set. Sprinkle with powdered sugar; cool.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 5: Brownies topped with Nutella Crunch

Day 5: Brownies with Nutella Crunch - made November 29, 2014, recipe adapted from Cravings of a Lunatic

Ah, nutella crunch topping, how do I love thee? Let me count the multiple brownies I've made with you. All different brownie bases but only roped in so the nutella crunch topping has something to sit on. You might not consider a brownie to be a "cookie" but I'm taking liberties and counting it since technically, brownies are bar "cookies".

Seriously, it almost doesn't matter which brownie recipe you use for this as long as you use good quality chocolate (choose recipes that call for more semisweet or unsweetened chocolate in the base batter, not sweet or milk chocolate) and don't overbake it. Avoid cakey brownie recipes that call for beating the eggs a lot and/or use chemical leavening like baking powder or baking soda. You want fudgy brownies. And for once, I don't advocate making a thick brownie because the topping is literally another layer on top of it and too thick of a brownie layer plus the crunch topping layer makes for awkward eating and contortions of your mouth that just won't be pretty.

Fortunately, this recipe fit the bill. The brownie layer probably got a bit compressed when I was smoothing the crunch topping over it but that's okay. It contributes to the fudginess. If you want a smoother, more "flowy" topping, cut back on the chocolate chips and increase the nutella in equal proportions, i.e. decrease chocolate chips by 1/4 cup, increase nutella by 1/4 cup. I also like to cram in a fair amount of Rice Krispies, almost like I'm making Rice Krispie treats because I like the crunch.

8 tablespoons of butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Nutella Crunch Topping
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup Nutella
1 tablespoon butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal (more if you prefer)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 8 x 8 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together over low heat in a medium saucepan. Stir until melted and smooth. 
3. Remove from heat and add the sugar. Stir well. 
4. Add eggs and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Add chocolate chips, flour and vanilla salt. Stir until well blended. 
5. Pour into pan and place in oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes, toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs. Remove and cool on a rack.

Lofthouse-Style Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting

Lofthouse-Style Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting - made dough November 22, 2014 from Averie Cooks

We interrupt the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies posts to sneak in this cookie recipe I made for Thanksgiving. I made these because a) they're from Averie's blog and you can rarely go wrong trying out a recipe from there and b) to have an excuse to use up the autumn-themed sprinkles on frosted cookies for the kids.

It's best to think of these as soft sugar cookies with the peanut butter flavor coming from the peanut butter chips inside the cookies and the frosting topping the cookies. I didn't use as many peanut butter chips as the recipe called for, maybe only half a bag, since that's what I had and I'm not big on peanut butter anyway.

The frosting had a nice consistency and good flavor if you're a peanut butter lover. My ulterior motive was just to have something for the sprinkles to sit on so I could keep a Thanksgiving theme for my desserts.

I will say this is the type of cookie I like in terms of chubbiness (chubby cookie = good, chubby pastry chef = not so much) but make sure you bake it from frozen dough so it won't spread and stays obligingly rounded and thick after baking. The cookie is good even without the frosting but if you're going for the Lofthouse look, it probably needs the frosting to qualify. If you don't want to frost domed cookies and prefer them with a flat top but still thick, shape the dough into thick discs before freezing and baking. And if you want to adapt these for a Christmas-themed dessert, simply swap out the autumn sprinkles with red and green sprinkles (or blue and white for Hanukkah) on the frosting.

1 large egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4  teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
one 10-ounce bag peanut butter chips

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (not homemade or natural peanut butter)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (half of 1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
pinch salt, optional and to taste
splash cream or milk, if needed to achieve proper consistency (I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons cream)
chocolate sprinkles, optional for garnishing

1. For the Cookies - To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the first 5 ingredients (through vanilla) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the next 5 ingredients (through optional salt), and mix on low speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute; don't overmix.
3. Add the peanut butter chips and mix until just incorporated. 
4. Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping two-tablespoon mounds. Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. 
5. Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart and bake for about 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet  for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooking. 
6. For the Peanut Butter Frosting - To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the peanut butter and butter, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
7. Slowly add the sugar, optional salt, and mix until frosting comes together.
8. Add a splash of cream or milk as necessary to achieve desired consistency.
9. Add a generous dollop (about 2 tablespoons) to each cookie, and smooth it as desired with a knife or spatula.
10. Optionally garnish with sprinkles. Serve immediately.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 4: Chocolate Turtle Cookies

Day 4: Chocolate Turtle Cookies from Pixelated Crumb

I love these cookies. They're cute, chocolate, caramel and delicious. They're also perfect for the holidays because you can make the dough ahead of time, portion into dough balls, roll in toasted pecans or almonds (your choice), shape with the "thumbprint" indent in the middle and freeze until you're ready to bake them. Then while they're baking, you can make the caramel, fill the indents when the cookies come out, let cool and package them up or set them out if they're for a party.

During the busy holiday season, I typically focus on timesavers. I don't have long stretches of free time to bake as much as I need to bake but I break up the steps, do as much advance cookie dough making as I need whenever I can snatch pockets of time (15-20 minutes here and there) then bake cookies off at the last minute right before I need them, typically 20-30 minutes or so, depending on how much I'm baking. Easy. Plus, these are cute and little, perfect for a cookie swap, dessert party, and/or cookie plate for giving away. And look at that caramel. This is one of those cookies I have to give away immediately so I don't eat more than one. Maybe two.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, separated, plus 1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pecans, chopped fine 
14 soft caramel candies
3 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.
2. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk egg whites in bowl until frothy. Place pecans in another bowl. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, dip in egg whites, then roll in pecans. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using 1/2-teaspoon measure, make indentation in center of each ball. Bake until set, about 12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.
3. Microwave caramels and cream in bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Once cookies are removed from oven, gently re-press existing indentations. Fill each with 1/2 teaspoon caramel mixture. Cool 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 3: Red Velvet Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Day 3: Red Velvet Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies from I Am Baker

Another holiday favorite whenever I throw a holiday dessert party or give out holiday goodie bags is Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies. I have friends who always go for these first just to make sure they have room for them. Which I think is pretty funny. For the holidays, I went with I Am Baker's Christmas twist of making a red velvet version. Just as easy to make and the color scheme screams, "Hello, Christmas, what took you so long?"

To keep the red color front and center, I rolled the cookie dough balls in red sanding sugar ($5.95 from Williams Sonoma in the little jar beats the finer "crystals" of the cheap grocery store red sugar) before baking them. I thought they looked a bit prettier that way plus I like the additional crunch and sweetness from the sanding sugar.

1 bag Hershey's Kisses
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter 
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 egg 
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla 
1 teaspoon red gel food coloring (I used Schilling red food coloring)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda 
pinch salt
1/4 cup red sanding sugar

1. Beat butter, peanut butter, and sugar in stand mixer for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Reduce speed to low and add egg, milk, vanilla and red food coloring. Mix for about 30 seconds to incorporate, then increase speed to medium high and blend until light and fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl, sift cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat until just combined.
3. Shape dough into 1" balls. Chill for at least 1 hour. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
4. Pour red sanding sugar into shallow bowl. Roll dough balls in sanding sugar and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. While cookies are baking, unwrap Hershey Kisses. When cookies are done, remove from oven and immediately press Hershey Kiss lightly into the center of each cookie. Cool to room temperature.

Pumpkin Crumb Cake

Pumpkin Crumb Cake - made November 23, 2014 from Ldylvbgr

Interspersing this with the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies posts (don't worry, tomorrow's post will be the Day 3 cookie) since I made this earlier and want to get it posted.

If, in the rush of the holidays, you don’t have time to get fancy and want to do an easy but delicious cake, here you go. Making the streusel is the “hardest” part and even that isn’t difficult. Make it first so once you have the cake batter made and spread evenly in the pan, you can just drop the streusel over it. Try squeezing the streusel into big clumps with your hands then breaking the clumps into chunks before dropping it on top of the cake batter. I’ve always preferred chunky streusel to streusel dust.

The original directions say to bake this for 55 minutes so I thought I would be safe if I popped it into the oven and went to do a 30-minute workout. I swear I was only gone for 35 minutes, 40 max (hey, I had to cool down and wipe the sweat off), but when I did the toothpick test on the cake, the toothpick came out clean which was panic time as I thought I had overbaked it. 55 minutes, my left eye. Fortunately, it turns out I had baked it just right because once the cake had cooled and I tried a piece, the texture was soft and fluffy like a good little cake and was still moist. Score. I also liked the streusel crumb topping although next time I think I would add a bit more butter and brown sugar just to make more topping. Because you can’t have too much streusel.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To make the topping, combine 2/3 cup oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon in processor. Add butter and cut in until crumbly. Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons oats. Set aside. 
3. Sift the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. 
4. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually beat in the sugar and 1 egg at a time. Add the pumpkin and vanilla extract to the wet batter mix. 
5. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the batter. Slowly add the milk and stir in the walnuts, if using. 
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread with the topping. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes (check at 40 minutes and every 5 minutes after that). 
7. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a rack and cool completely.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 2: Holiday Caramel Treats

Day 2: Holiday Caramel Treats

There are two things I love about these "cookies" and what makes them suitable for the holidays. First, they're just cute to look at. In a sea of desserts, they stand out both because of the rounded toothpick speared through each one and because they can be garnished as cheerily as you wish, either with red and green sprinkles or, as I prefer, with chopped toasted almonds.

Second, the round cookie balls are easy and quick to make, always a good thing during the holidays when you're likely pressed for time. And lastly (okay, make that three things), if you have little helpers or even big helpers, this can be a multi-person baking project you can all share in and that's part of the fun of the holidays, right? Not just eating the final product but the memories you make in making them together. One person can make the dough, multiple people can roll into balls and the same helpers can spear the toothpicks in, dip into melted caramel and roll in sprinkles or nuts. I originally blogged about these here so please check that post for my original notes. Otherwise, here's the recipe - enjoy.

Cookies

¾ cup butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon liquid maple flavor or almond extract

Dash of salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

48 round wooden toothpicks

Coating

36 caramels, unwrapped

¼ cup milk

1 cup finely chopped peanuts, walnuts or almonds

1.   Heat oven to 350⁰F.  Have baking sheets ready.

2.   To make cookies, beat butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, maple flavor and salt.  On low speed, gradually beat in flour.  Form dough into forty-eight balls, about 1 inch in diameter.  Place 1 ½” apart on baking sheets.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes until balls are set, but not browned (tops may crack slightly).  Insert a toothpick into center of each.  Cool on wire racks.

3.   To make coating, melt caramels in milk, stirring often.  Keep warm over a pan of hot, not boiling water.  Dip each cookie into the caramel mixture, coating completely and drawing bottom of cookie across edge of pan to remove excess caramel.  Dip bottom of each in chopped nuts.  Place on sheet of wax paper to set.  Store loosely covered; best served within 24 hours.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 1: Copycat Panera Chocolate Chip Cookies

Copycat Panera Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough November 16, 2014 from The Pinning Mama

Let's kick off December with cookies. Over the next 12 posts (or so), I'm going to blog some of my favorite cookies for the holidays (and often year round). Some will be seasonal suitable for the occasion while others will simply just be great cookies to make for holiday parties, social gatherings, care packages and gifts. Regardless, they're my go-to recipes for the massive amount of baking I do during the holidays. And if you want to know what I mean by massive, here's a picture of the inventory from one of my pantry shelves that I took while I was taking stock to see what I already had and what I still needed (mini chocolate chips in case you were wondering from the picture). Have to get ready for my baking season.

Not pictured: 72-ounce bag of Tollhouse semisweet chocolate chips

As you may know, I’m a sucker for a new chocolate chip cookie recipe. Even though I have at least 3 I love (Bakery-StyleChocolate Chip Cookies, Alton Brown’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and Averie’s Softand Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies), I still keep trying out new recipes. My friend, Annie the Baker, says it’s because I haven’t found the perfect one. I say it’s because I’ve found 3 perfect ones and I still have recipe ADD. Plus any excuse to make chocolate chip cookies…. Even though chocolate chip cookies are not really seasonal like pumpkin pie, gingerbread men, snowflake cookies or anything eggnog, when I unleash my holiday baking extravaganza every December, chocolate chip cookies still rank as a top favorite and request amongst my baked goods recipients. Some things are just timeless. 

I have very picky requirements for trying out new chocolate chip cookie recipes though. If a picture accompanies the recipe, the pictured cookie must be thick, chubby and moist-looking like it’s chewy, not cakey. If it’s so thin that the chocolate chips make bumps out of the flattened cookie, I move on. It also must be a purist cookie, i.e. no nuts, oatmeal, coconut, peanut butter or any other foreign substance. I’ll still bake with those ingredients but then they’re not a chocolate chip cookie. Butter, sugar, brown sugar, flour, eggs, leavening, salt and chocolate chips. Maybe something innocuous like a vanilla pudding mix. Otherwise, that’s it and the only difference between the recipes is the proportion of ingredients and the baking method.

This copycat Panera recipe met my criteria so I added it to my cookie experiments. I used mini chocolate chips as the recipe suggested. I’ve seen that suggestion in many recipes; the point is you actually get more chocolate in each bite since the mini chips are plentiful and more evenly distributed throughout the cookie. I have no issues with that concept but, being a milk chocolate-crazed eater, I wish they made mini chocolate chips in milk chocolate instead of just semisweet. I’m sure if I looked hard enough I could find milk chocolate mini chocolate chips but I’m going to guess they’d cost me half an arm more than the normal Tollhouse mini chips.

Let's cut to the chase on this one. Remember how I said I had 3 favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes? Make that 4. Yep, this one is amazing too. The dough handles easily and does not spread very much, Not only did it remain thick and chewy but it was also moist and had the perfect texture. I didn't even mind that the chips were semisweet. This is a good cookie. Plus, look at 'em. Cute, right?? Just make sure you underbake these or you won't get the wonderful, moist, chewy texture pictured here.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix butter, shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. 
2. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until well combined. 
3. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and mix together. 
4. Mix dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients and blend well. Add in mini chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed. 
5. Using ¼ cup measure, scoop out dough and form into a thick disc (not a ball as these don't spread much). Continue until all dough is portioned out. Place dough in the freezer for 2 hours or overnight.
6. Place frozen cookies onto parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Let cool 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling

Almond Joy Tart

Almond Joy Tart - made November 22, 2014 from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

 As I gear up for holiday baking, I start thinking about tarts. I don’t know why except they’re a step away from pie (and Thanksgiving always seems to be about pie – except for me) and they can be classed up for the holidays. Plus, in all honesty, I was checking my “Still Need to Bake” files on my computer and I got sick of seeing the Almond Joy Tart file at the top all the time, mocking me that I hadn’t made it yet. Until now.

I still had some of the coconut pastry cream (my regular pastry cream recipe with coconut added to it) so it saved me the trouble of making the filling. I just had to make the dough which turned out to be the easiest thing ever. I don’t usually use my food processor to make dough but this came together so easily and quickly that I’m going to have to get over my aversion to use and clean my food processor (I live in terror of cutting myself on that wicked sharp blade) and just suck it up. Because this dough turned out fabulously in just a couple of minutes. Imagine that.

It was also very easy to work with. Because the dough was so malleable but not sticky, I ended up shaping it into the tart pans as soon as I had made it and then chilled it. Probably broke the Baked baking rules but I like to live on the edge.

Blind baked it then browned it, cooled it, spread the coconut pastry cream over it and poured the ganache over it. I do advise letting the ganache cool and thicken so it doesn’t run down the sides of the tart and look messy. Ahem. Yes, learn from my mistakes. Instead of garnishing with a whole almond, I ended up sprinkling chopped toasted almonds over the ganache and they added a nice crunch. Once again also scored on the parental taste buds as my mom praised the crust as “it’s not too sweet”. She even went so far as to suggest I use that crust recipe for anything else I make that requires a crust. Er, okay, Mom.

Someday I should probably make the filling from the original recipe but for now, I liked how this turned out. The crust was good, not too sweet (ha) or too buttery but with good flavor and texture, I always love the coconut pastry cream and the chocolate was just right as a blend of semisweet and milk chocolate. If you prefer more of a dark chocolate, ala Boston Crème Pie, you might want to make the ganache with all dark chocolate. If you bake this in individual-size tart pans like I did, it makes for a nice addition to a holiday care package or baked gift as it’s small enough to be part of a baked goods ensemble without dominating the gift pack.

Almond Tart Dough

1 large egg

¼ cup whole toasted almonds

¼ cup sugar

1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

Coconut Cream Filling

8 ounces good-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tablespoon light rum

Chocolate Glaze

2 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

½ cup heavy cream

6 whole toasted almonds

Make the Almond Tart Dough

1. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg and set it aside.
2. Put the almonds and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the almonds are finely ground.  Add flour and salt and pulse again just until mixed.  Add the butter and pulse just until sandy (about 6 to 10 quick pulses).  Pour in the egg and pulse just until the dough begins to cohere into a ball.  Form the dough into a disk, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Make the Coconut Cream Filling

1. Place the white chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.
2. In a small saucepan set over medium heat, heat the cream just to a boil.  Pour it over the white chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds.  Slowly, starting in the center of the bowl, whisk the cream and white chocolate until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate this ganache for 4 hours or overnight before proceeding.

Assemble the tart

1. Dust a work surface with flour.  Place the disk of chilled dough on the work surface and divide it into 6 equal portions.  Shape each into a smooth disk. (Note: the dough will be sticky.  Make sure to turn it with a bench knife or offset spatula as needed and keep the working surface floured.)  Use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a 5 ½-inch circle just over 1/8 inch thick.  Very gently press each dough round into a 4-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
2. Place the tart pans in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375⁰F. 
3. Line the tart crusts with aluminum foil, and fill each one three-quarters full with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake them for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Transfer the tart pans to a wire rack to cool.

Make the Coconut Cream Filling

1. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the white chocolate ganache at medium speed until soft peaks form.  Do not overwhip.  Gently fold in the coconut and the rum.  Divide the filling evenly among the cooled tart shells and place them in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate glaze.

Make the Chocolate Glaze

1. Place the milk and dark chocolates in a medium heatproof bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it is just about to boil.  Pour it over the chocolates and whisk to combine.  Let the mixture set for about 10 minutes.  Remove the tarts from the refrigerator and spoon the glaze evenly over each one.  Top each tart with one almond and refrigerate again until the glaze sets up, about 10 minutes.
3. The tarts can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.