Stamped Butter Cookies (recipe 2)

Stamped Butter Cookies - made January 16, 2021 from Beyond the Butter

Another recipe as I am still on the hunt for the one that will keep the impression from an embossed rolling pin.

Speaking of embossed rolling pins, I have to confess, after Bennett gave me the first one, I went and bought four more from etsy. Told you it was the start of an obsession. Although to be fair, I bought one as a gift for a friend just so I could try to get someone else obsessed with them. So I'm not the only one with a new freak flag.

One of the three I kept for myself is this stars one pictured above. I wanted something with a patriotic flavor (very punny, right?) for the cookies I send in military care packages as a volunteer with Soldiers Angels. Cool, eh?

And because I saw it from the same Etsy seller that I got the stars rolling pin from, I also bought this Disney one. I thought it was cute and would be fun to cut out into Mickey-Mouse shapes.

Technically, I don't have a Mickey-Mouse-shaped cookie cutter but details....

These didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped though. It might be hard to see in the pictures but that's indicative as, in real life, the imprints weren't as clear either. At least not as clearly defined as the one from the embossed rolling pin Bennett gave me.

Evenly more sadly, as you can see below, this recipe didn't hold up well with keeping the impressions either. That could be partly my fault in that I didn't roll the dough thinly enough or bake the cookies long enough. I'm also learning the depth of the imprints from the rolling pin matters. I liked the stars embossing but the Disney one just didn't have enough depth or dimension. 

This recipe made so much dough that I did try it out with my new cookie stamps as well and, in fairness to the recipe, it did better with larger patterns. So I guess this isn't one to use for small patterns that have more detail as the finer details will bake out but with larger patterns, it holds its own decently well.

The flavor on these cookies was good but the hunt continues for a butter or shortbread recipe that holds the impressions and doesn't spread during baking.

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition until combine. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients in three additions, mixing briefly after each addition. Mix until no flour streaks remain; do not overbeat.
4. Divide dough in half and place each half on a large piece of parchment paper. Cover with another piece of parchment and roll each piece into a smooth and even thickness, 1/8 - 1/4" thick.
5. Chill in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
6. Once chilled, remove from refrigerator and remove top piece of parchment. Dust lightly with flour and roll embossed rolling pin, imprinting the dough. Cut into desired shapes, cover and chill again briefly, 15-20 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven, let rest on cookie sheets for 2-3 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 

Shortbread Stamped Cookies (recipe 1)

Shortbread Stamped Cookies - made December 30, 2020 from Roti N Rice

Last Christmas, my friend Bennett unexpectedly sent me this embossed rolling pin as a gift. Little did she (or I) know what a new obsession she was going to spark.

I have always wanted one of these but thought I had "enough" baking stuff. LOLOLOL. What a concept. An erroneous one as it turns out. I love this thing. Love.

But the tricky thing is finding a good recipe where the cookies don't spread and you don't lose the impressions from the embossing. Thus began my journey to find such a recipe. Be prepared for similar posts to come on this topic.

Thankfully, this one wasn't a bad one to start with. But before you can have the fun of embossing the dough, you have to roll it out perfectly smooth, even and flat. Thanks to Dorie Greenspan, I learned the trick of rolling out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. The parchment prevents sticking, allows you to roll out to an even thickness and you don't have to use a ton of flour to get it rolled out smoothly, thus enabling you not to add too much flour to the dough and potentially change the composition of the cookie texture.

Once you have your dough rolled out smoothly, make sure you chill it before and after the first rollout. This will help prevent (too much) sticking with the embossed rolling pin as well as make better impressions on the dough.

Did I mention how much I love this embossed rolling pin? Look how pretty the pattern is! Once you have the dough embossed, you can cut it out in any shape(s) you desired. I went with a round cutter with scalloped edges for a little more prettiness. I'm not good at decorating cakes or cookies so it's kinda exciting to turn out something this pretty. (Hey, I've been in lockdown for over a year, it doesn't take much to make me happy at this point - pretty cookies will do it.)

This was the scrap piece of dough which I couldn't resist embossing too

It's a bit hard to tell from the pictures but the pattern on the baked version, while not as sharply delineated as on the unbaked dough, didn't spread out too much and held up pretty well.

Here's what the underside looks like so you can see approximately what color you want to bake it until. As with most shortbread, you don't want to underbake too much or the texture won't be right but you also don't want to overbake it to too dark either. Flavor-wise, this was also good. It's hard to beat buttery shortbread.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup rice flour

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Combine all-purpose flour and rice flour in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and powdered sugar until creamy and blended. Add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing briefly after each addition until just combined.
2. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a disk. Place one disc in the center of a large piece of parchment paper. Cover with another large piece of parchment paper and roll out to an even thickness, about 1/8 - 1/4" thick. Place in refrigerator to chill for 30-60 minutes. Repeat with second disc.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Remove from refrigerator and peel off top sheet of parchment. Run over with embossed rolling pin or cookie stamp(s) and cut embossed dough into desired shapes. Space evenly onto prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake each baking sheet for 18-20 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Fudgy Nutella-Swirled Brownies (this could be my favorite)

Fudgy Nutella-Swirled Brownies - made February 26, 2021, modified from Baked by an Introvert

I have made dozens, if not hundreds, of brownie recipes in my baking lifetime. Eaten my fair share too. Usually I try out of a recipe, have a taste test piece, nod approvingly (9 times out of 10), give the rest away and move on.

People always ask me for a "favorite" brownie recipe but there are so many good ones out there that I usually look at them helplessly and suggest instead they focus on the quality of the ingredients and making sure not to overbake the brownies. You'll get good results. 

I still believe all that. However, I will also tell you that in this instance, it should tell you something that by the time I've posted this, I will already have made this particular recipe 6 times in a row. I never do that. Until now. That's how much I like this brownie.

Dark chocolate lovers, rejoice! This is a dark chocolate brownie. I "stuffed" it with Nutella to provide a little sweetness but if you're a dark chocolate purist, you can leave it out or add dark chocolate chips.

But look at that texture. Baked fudge, amiright? I have a bias towards brownies made with unsweetened chocolate rather than cocoa powder. Cocoa powder brownies tend to be lighter in texture since cocoa is a dry ingredient and you need to add liquid to the batter to prevent dry brownies. 

This recipe, with a full 8 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, doesn't have that issue. I love these brownies. And - no lie - I've had a "taste test" piece from almost every single batch I've made so far. Good thing I ship these out in Soldiers Angels care packages or I'd be eating taste test batches rather than taste test pieces.

As you can surmise from the pictures, these are rich so you might want to cut the pieces a little small. Or go do a double workout before and after and just enjoy a regular-size brownie. Either way, just enjoy.

1/2 cup unsalted butter

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Nutella for swirling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate, whisking until completely melted and smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, vanilla extract, salt and eggs until combined. Add melted chocolate and whisk until well combined. Fold in the flour and mix until just combined. Batter will be thick
4. Spread half of batter into prepared pan. Dollop generous spoonfuls of Nutella. Cover Nutella with remaining batter and smooth top. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (watch the Nutella). Cool brownies completely before cutting.

Pecan Sandies

Pecan Sandies - made February 4, 2021 from Everyday Eileen 

I don't make pecan sandies very often. Because you know, bias against nuts in cookies. But since I'm baking this for Soldiers Angels and sending in military care packages, I have to stop thinking about me, me, me and what I prefer.

Pecan sandies are easy to make. Every recipe I've tried for them turns into dough that's easy to work with, not too sticky or too dry. This was no exception. Plus you form the dough into a log, chill then slice and bake. Easy, especially when you're doing batch baking or making several kinds of baked goods to put in the package.

Two keys to a good pecan sandie: first, toast the pecans to bring out their flavor. Make sure you cool them completely before adding to the dough so you don't melt the butter incorporated into the dough. Second, bake them long enough to get a little crisp. For once, I don't advocate underbaking. You want to bake these until they're golden brown. A good pecan sandie should have a crisp snap of shortbread.

These were good. I'm still not a fan of nuts in cookies (exception for white chocolate macadamia nut or coconut macadamia cookies) but the toasted pecans worked here and they're pecan sandies for a reason.

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup pecans, chopped and lightly toasted

2 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and combined. Mix in egg, vanilla extract and salt. Blend in pecans. Add flour and mix until just combined.
2. Roll dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Remove log from refrigerator and slice into thick, even slices. Evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Cool completely.