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.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars - December 5, 2009

If you like peanut butter blondies, you'd probably like this recipe. It's quick and easy to make and it tastes like a typical blondie but it's peanut butter instead of brown sugar. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan so for me, this was just okay (there's that being picky thing again). I would prefer the milk chocolate and peanut butter brownies from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans that I posted previously. That's probably my favorite peanut butter brownie.

Perhaps blondies in general just aren't my thing. Most of them are too sweet. This one isn't because it's got the peanut butter to offset the sweetness but blondies also tend to be cakey and when I eat a bar cookie, I prefer something fudgy and chewy. Am I unenthusiastic enough about this one yet? LOL. This was another recipe from Rosie's All-Butter..... baking book. If the award-winning brownies were a 10, I'd give this one a 5.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup commercial smooth peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (tightly packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease an 11 x 7-inch baking pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a medium-size mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter, peanut butter, both sugars and the vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1 ½ minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat on medium speed until partially blended after each addition, about 10 seconds. After the last addition, beat until blended, about 30 seconds, stopping the mixer twice to scrape the bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Then mix on low speed until blended, 7 to 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl, especially the bottom.
6. Add the chocolate chips and blend for several seconds. Scrape the bowl. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
7. Bake the bars on the center oven rack until the edges are deep golden and the center is lightly golden and slightly puffy, 25 to 30 minutes. The center will drop when the bars are taken out of the oven, creating a chewy texture. Cut the bars into squares after they have cooled a bit on the rack.

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies - December 5, 2009

When I went to Boston for vacation back in October, my friend Hildy told me I had to try Rosie's Bakery. Obliging - and sucker for bakeries that I am, especially when traveling, I visited one of the Rosie's Bakeries in Boston, this one located in Cambridge (see post on Boston baked goods). Since then, I've been looking up the 3 baking books published by Judy Rosenberg who started Rosie's Bakery. Yeah, I was supposed to be on a cookbook buying ban through the end of 2009 but I lasted a year already. No need to go for sainthood.

Anyway, I found one of her baking books, Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book on eBay for a Buy It Now price of $1 and a reasonable shipping charge so one click of the mouse later, that sucker was mine. I got it in the mail last week and immediately tried a few recipes from it. This was one of the first and yowza, it was good. Now bear in mind, over the course of my baking life, I've tried literally hundreds of different brownie recipes. Not because I was searching for the perfect "one" (unlike men and the idea of a Mr. Right, there's no harm in having more than one brownie favorite....really), but because I love brownies and like trying new recipes.

When I made this one, I tried the taste test piece when it was still barely lukewarm and I had frosted it with another one of Rosie's recipes (she called it a Chocolate Orgasm which is basically the brownie recipe plus frosting). Best.Brownie.Ever. Maybe I was just in the mood at the moment for something rich and chocolatey. Maybe nothing beats a very fresh brownie. The texture was fudgy without being overly mushy. The chocolate was a dark chocolate offset by the sweeter frosting. Much as I dislike Rachel Ray's mannerisms, I have to admit it was a "yumm-o" moment. I had another piece the next day to see if it was as good. Unfortunately I might've come down from my brownie high by then. It was still good but not as orgasmic as something called a Chocolate Orgasm might be. But remember, I've been told I'm overly picky (and I'll cop to it). So give them a whirl and see what you think.

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water. Cool the mixture for 5 minutes.
3. Place the sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl and pour in the chocolate mixture. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, mix until blended, about 25 seconds. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the vanilla. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition until the yolk is broken and dispersed, about 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl after the last egg and blend until velvety, about 15 more seconds.
5. Add the flour on low speed and mix for 20 seconds; finish the mixing by hand, being certain to mix in any flour at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in ½ cup of the nuts.
6. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of nuts over the top.
7. Bake the brownies on the center oven rack until a thin crust forms on top and a tester inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb, about 35 minutes. (The center of the brownies should never quite rise to the height of the edges.)
8. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a rack to cool for 1 hour before cutting the brownies. Serve the next day (it takes a day for the flavor to set).

Chocolate Orgasms

1 recipe Rosie’s Award-Winning Brownies
1 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup sugar

1. Prepare brownies and allow them to cool completely. Don’t cut them yet.
2. To prepare the frosting, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water.
3. Pour the evaporated milk into an electric blended and add the sugar and the melted chocolate. Blend the frosting on medium-low speed until it thickens, about 50 seconds (the sound of the machine will change when this process occurs.
4. Using a frosting spatula, spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the cooled brownie and allow them to sit for 1 hour before cutting.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - December 2, 2009

Think of this as a brown sugar cupcake with chocolate chips. It's very tasty but the texture was a bit dense once the cupcakes cooled. I find cupcakes are also tricky because if you bake them too long, they become dry. If you don't bake them long enough, they're heavy. You have to nab them at the just-right stage which isn't always easy to do. I always tend to err on the side of underbaking so my cupcakes are sometimes on the heavy side. They're the perfect texture when they're warm out of the oven but dense up a bit when they cool.

But, here's a trick - warm them up before serving them. This is also tricky if your cupcakes are already frosted but you just have to monitor them closely in the microwave. It also depends on your frosting. Buttercreams and cream cheese-type frostings will melt very easily. I used a chocolate butter frosting with these and they held up well to having the cupcakes heated slightly. Just microwave them for 10 seconds at a time and check to see if that's enough or if they can withstand a little more heat. I wasn't wild about how the frosting turned out because it was a little too stiff and didn't look very nice once it was frosted onto the cupcake - talk about amateur hour when I finished frosting the cupcakes. I should've added more milk to the frosting to get it to more of a spreading consistency. But it was late when I was making them because I got home late from work that night and I was dead on my feet and just wanted to get them done so I went with what I had and called it a day. I served them at work and to my Fantasy Football league at lunch the next day.

The frosting recipe I used isn't the same one below since I wasn't in the mood for a glaze on these - I wanted a frosting. But I'll post the original glaze recipe anyway since that's what the recipe called for. Someday I'll make these cupcakes again and try them properly with the glaze.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans - made December 2, 2009

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup whole milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup Chocolate Fudge Glaze, slightly warm

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Line 18 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.
2. Make the cupcakes: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, mix the flour, brown sugar, and baking soda to blend them. Add the butter and mix until the butter pieces are the size of peas, about 2 minutes. You will still see some loose flour. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in the egg and vanilla. The batter will still look dry. Mix in the sour cream and milk until the batter looks evenly moistened; you may still see some lumps of butter. Mix in the chocolate chips.
3. Fill each paper liner with about a generous ¼ cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch from the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. If the toothpick penetrates a chocolate chip, test another spot. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pans on wire racks,.
4. 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. Repeat with the second pan of cupcakes.
5. Add the chocolate glaze: Use a fork to generously drizzle thin lines of the topping over each cupcake. Let the cupcakes sit at room temperature until the glaze is firm, or refrigerate the cupcakes for about 15 minutes to firm the topping quickly. Serve at room temperature.
The cupcakes can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Yield: 18 cupcakes

Chocolate Glaze

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
9 ounces (1 ½ cups) semisweet chocolate chips
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter (and corn syrup, if making the glaze) over low heat until the cream is hot and the butter has melted. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and measure about 175˚F on a thermometer; do not let it boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate chips and let them sit in the hot cream for about 30 seconds to soften. Add the vanilla and whisk the sauce until it is smooth and all of the chocolate is melted.
2. You can use the sauce warm or let it sit at room temperature until it reaches the thickness desired. To store it, pour the cooled sauce into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Reheat as much sauce as is needed by spooning it into a saucepan and heating over low heat to soften or melt. For the glaze, let it sit at room temperature just until it is thick enough to spread.

Yield: Scant 2 cups glaze