Mini Nutella Cookie Cups

Mini Nutella Cookie Cups - made dough May 12, 2014 from Daisy Chubb

I'm a fan of mini cookie cups. They're like little cupcakes but in cookie form with a filling. If you need to bring cookies for an event or to give away, they're a little different than the norm and can look fancy but be very simple to make. In the case of these, you simply make the dough, portion into dough balls then drop into mini muffin tins. Don't worry about shaping them into "cups" until after they're baked. As soon as they come out of the oven, make an indent in the center. I used a tart tamper so it took only seconds to turn the puffy, muffin-shaped "cookies" into cookie cups. If you don't have a tart tamper, just use the rounded side of a teaspoon to press an indent in the center. Then you drop a dollop of nutella in the indents. You can top with the topping of your choice like mini chocolate chips, chopped toasted almonds or, like I did, with toffee bits.

When the cookie cups have cooled slightly and aren't so fragile, take them gently out of the muffin tins and let them cool completely. Don't let them cool all the way in the mini muffin tins or they'll be harder to take out as they will adhere more tightly to the muffin tin. Also, the moisture will absorb back into the cookie shells as they cool and make them soggy. These won't be crisp but will be chewy yet they shouldn't be wet/soggy.

I loved these because the cookie shell was a brown sugar cookie base (think of it like a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips) and it went perfectly with creamy, melt-y Nutella. The toffee added some nice crunch on top for a texture contrast. The only drawback, of course, is you can't stack these cookies or mail them without making a mess of the filling so I don't recommend doing either.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease mini muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Cream butter and both sugars in bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until incorporated. 
3. Gradually add dry ingredients until combined.
4. Roll dough into balls 1.5" thick.
5. Place in mini muffin tin and bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and let sit for about 2 minutes. Make wells in the center for the nutella with the back of a teaspoon or tablespoon (I used a tart shaper). Add 1 tablespoon of nutella to each cup. Let cool 15 - 20 minutes.

Restaurant Review: Big Ed's Buzzard BBQ

Big Ed's Buzzard BBQ - lunch on June 3, 2014

 I've been slacking on trying out new mom-and-pop restaurants lately, partly because I haven't had socializing time and partly because when I have gone out, I've fallen back to places I've gone to before. But I decided to make more of an effort to try something new and, as always, turned to yelp for suggestions. I chose Big Ed's Buzzard BBQ, not just because of the 4.5-star rating on yelp but, once I read their story on their website and confirmed they were a small, family-owned and operated business, that was a no-brainer for the kind of place I want to support and try out.

I'm not quite sure what I expected when I went in but it was a little surprising. They're in a business park, towards the back so they're not very visible from the street and I had a little trouble finding it. It's not a setting that really says "restaurant". It's more like "eatery". The inside is bisected with a few tables in each section and a counter where you place your order. The woman who took our order was very nice and when we asked for recommendations because it was our first time, she suggested the trio of sliders: beef brisket, tri-tip and pulled pork. It comes with a side order and the total was $10.82 so it was decently cheap. At each red-checkered-covered table was a plastic cylinder of barbecue sauce as the sliders and sandwiches come out plain, just the meat and the bread. That works just fine for me since I don't like a lot of "stuff" in my food and I'm a very plain eater.

My coworker thought it was all a bit dry, hence the need for adding as much barbecue sauce as you wish. I thought the meats were decently good although each of them could've used a little more flavor, even marinade, instead of relying just on the barbecue sauce. Of the trio, the brisket was the best one to me and the lady behind the counter said that's what they're most known for. In hindsight, I think it would've been better to have gotten just the brisket or the brisket sandwich. The bread to meat ratio with the sliders leaned too heavily towards the bread and there wasn't enough meat but as we were leaving, I saw someone else with a brisket order and their full-size sandwich was overflowing with brisket.

As always, I'm glad I tried it so now I know. As a lunch place, it's somewhere you go for the food or for cheap eats rather than the ambiance or the location. I don't know if I would've rated it as highly as the yelp reviewers but to be really fair, I probably need to try more than 1 order. Next time, I'll focus on the brisket.

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made dough May 25, 2014 from Sally's Baking Addiction

This is an easy-to-make, straightforward chocolate chip cookie recipe, ideal for novice bakers. You don't need a fancy mixer or special ingredients, just a bowl and a wooden spoon. Because you melt the butter, you also don't have to worry about softening it or having it be too cold or too soft. Just let it cool slightly after you melt it so it's not hot enough to cook the eggs when you mix it. The dough was a little soft after I mixed it and didn't hold a ball shape very well so I did chill it briefly first, just long enough for the dough to be firm enough to hold its shape before I portioned it into dough balls and put them in the freezer for baking later.

I had a slip of the tongue when I told my coworker, Queen of Cheap Eats, "it's really simple, you can make it". Oops, that came out wrong. But it is really easy.

This doesn't spread very much so you get nice, thick cookies. Bake just long enough for the edges to get golden and the middle/top doesn't look raw. It's okay if they seem a bit underdone. Once they cool completely, they'll have a nice chewy texture. If you get a "cakey" texture, they're overbaked. I used milk chocolate chips just because I prefer milk chocolate but feel free to use semisweet or dark chocolate if you wish.

2 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips or chunks

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg then the egg yolk. Whisk in vanilla.
3. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and mix together with a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours or up to 3 days. Alternatively, you can chill just until the dough is firm enough to portion into dough balls (3 tablespoons each) then chill or freeze the dough balls.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 8 balls of cookie dough onto each baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. If desired, press more chocolate chunks or chips on top of newly baked cookies while still warm. Allow to cool completely.

Beer Brownies

Beer Brownies - made May 26, 2014 from Texans United

It's June. Why is it June already???  2014 just started a few weeks ago; I'm sure of it. But suddenly it's June. Oy.

Remember my clueless adventure in buying beer for the French Dip recipe? I neglected to mention that I had to buy a 6-pack since they didn't sell single bottles (darn). So now I have 5 bottles of Heineken to get rid of. Well, make that 4 bottles now since I did use up one for this recipe. You gotta love pinterest because I just did a search of Beer Brownies and this one popped up immediately. It looked so moist and fudgy that I had to try it.

What's intriguing about this recipe is you melt the chocolate chips into the batter, including the white chocolate chips. I'm not sure of the purpose of that because there's absolutely no taste of white chocolate in these but I'm a good baking sheeple and followed the directions faithfully. The beer is added last and right before I added it, the batter smelled so good, very divinely chocolaty. Then I added the beer and cringed. It smelled beer-y and I wondered if I had just ruined a good batch of brownies. But I was banking on the alcohol burning off in baking so I trusted the recipe and went with it. Not to mention it was too late to do anything else anyway.

These actually turned out pretty well. I loved the texture because it was as moist and fudgy as any good brownie should be. I assume that was helped by the beer. I did taste the beer slightly but it was very muted and possibly also because I knew it was in there. If I hadn't known, I might not have given it a second thought. If you don't like the taste of beer, use a very dark cocoa like Pernigotti (Hershey's won't cut it) as well as dark chocolate for the bittersweet and semisweet. If you do like the taste of beer, use a dark beer and more of a mild cocoa. I was happy enough to taste very little beer in the brownie.

1 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups beer at room temperature, no foam
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Line a 9 x 13" pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa and salt until combined.
4. In a double boiler over low heat, melt butter, bittersweet and semisweet chocolates and white chocolate chips, stirring frequently until completely melted and smooth.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Temper the egg mixture with a little of the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Then pour all of the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and beat until combined.
6. Add the flour mixture slowly into the egg-chocolate mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the beer, followed by the semisweet chocolate chips and mix until combined.
7. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool completely before slicing and serving.

Lemon-Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

Lemon-Glazed Lemon Pound Cake - made May 24, 2014 from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans

I could not get a good picture of this cake to save my life but rest assured it looked better in person than in the pictures and it tastes awesome enough that it didn't matter what it looked like. This is one of those recipes I thought I'd made before but a fruitless search on my blog and in my recipe archives show no evidence of that. I had probably intended to make it for so long that I had convinced myself I had but I was wrong.

No matter. I finally made it because I had milk and lemons to use up. As with most citrus-flavored pound cakes, it's really the glaze that brings out the flavor so for once I advocate for the frosting. Fortunately, it isn't very thick. I did add some extra lemon zest to the cake batter for the lemon flavor but the glaze was still key.

The cake is a bit of a pain because it formed a meringue-like crust on top so loosening it from the pan also meant the near-crackly top was crumbly and the cake didn't come out very cleanly. It didn't break apart when I inverted it but it was a little craggy. Fortunately I can cover any amount of sins with the glaze.

And the inside makes it worth it because it had a soft, tender, buttery crumb that was delicious. It was the perfect pound cake texture without being too dense or too light. Fearless Baking has a number of great recipes that I've tried so far and this one is no exception.

Lemon Pound Cake
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) soft unsalted butter
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) shortening
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 cup whole milk

Thick Lemon Glaze
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a Bundt or tube pan or spray thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. 
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. Cream the butter, shortening and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until it looks creamy and forms fluff large clumps, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after adding each egg. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, mixing just to incorporate.
5. Decrease the speed to low and alternately add the flour and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Incorporate each addition before adding the next one. Mix until combined and uniform. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 50 minutes but begin checking the cake after 1 hour and 35 minutes. The cake is done as soon as a toothpick inserted in the center comes out free of batter but with a crumb or two of cake clinging to it.
7. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a small spatula or knife to loosen the cake from the sides and center tube of the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack or serving plate and re-invert right-side up.
8. Glaze: Put the melted butter, lemon juice, salt and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and stir together until the glaze looks smooth and the ingredients are blended. Spoon about two thirds of the glaze over the top of the warm cake, using a small metal spatula to spread it evenly over the top. Spread the remaining glaze over the sides and in the center hole of the cake. Cool cake thoroughly before slicing and serving.

Bakery Review: Schulzie's Bread Pudding

Schulzie's Bread Pudding - ordered May 19, 2014, received May 20, 2014 from Schulzie's

I always love discovering new foodie small businesses. Foody Direct is an awesome source for showcasing exactly that and how I discovered Smith Island Baking Company. Now I can credit them with putting Schulzie's Bread Pudding on my radar thanks to one of the promotional emails they sent me that showcased Schulzie's and their bread pudding offerings.

When I looked into the company, I was pleased to discover they're a small business with a storefront in San Francisco and in Venice, CA. Their website also talks about sourcing their ingredients from a local farmers' market and their efforts to be green from the biodegradable containers they use to donation of their green waste to local community gardens for compost. That's the type of business I like to support whenever possible. Plus, let's be honest, I love bread pudding.

So it didn't take much, like maybe a grand total of a few days, from the time I got the promotional email from Foody Direct to when I placed an online order with Schulzie's. The prices did make me blink though: $48 for 3 pints or $80 for a combo 6-pack plus shipping. Ouch. But all in support of a small business, right?

Original Schulzie's Bread Pudding

Since I was close to their San Francisco location, I was fortunate that I got my order very quickly. I placed the order online on Monday morning and received my shipment on Tuesday afternoon. At first I was just going to get a 3-pack but I thought I would only be able to get one flavor (I missed some of the 3-pack combos on the site) and that didn't seem like much of a trial if I was only sampling one flavor. Plus it was a flat shipping rate of $9.95 to my area so it seemed a shame not to "load up", as it were. So I got the 2-flavor, 6-pack combo instead and selected the original (always have to try the original) and the caramel.

Original Schulzie's Bread Pudding

These pictures don't really do the bread pudding justice. The bread pudding is packed in 1-pint containers, clearly labeled with what flavor each pint was and the box contained instructions on how to serve and store the bread pudding (all FoodyDirect packages do). I tried a spoonful of the original one first and thought it was good. I love bread pudding and this one didn't disappoint but in all honesty, I've made equally good bread pudding for far less money. So I was somewhat resigned that I'd spent all this money in the name of research and small business support but I don't know if the original bread pudding was such a standout that I'd rave about it and crave it once my 3 pints were consumed.

Then I pried the lid off the Caramel Charisma bread pudding and took a spoonful of that. Oh. I took another spoonful just to make sure. Okay, yeah, that was really good. The caramel is represented as both a sauce on top that dribbled down the sides and to the bottom as well as ribboning through the bread pudding. In other words, delicious. Sometimes caramel can be overly sweet but not this time and not in this bread pudding. It was the perfect flavor to sweeten the bread pudding without making it cloying. And it was smooth creamy caramel.

Caramel Charisma bread pudding

It's still rich enough that I could only eat a few spoonfuls at a time (and had to hit the treadmill afterwards) but if you like a good bread pudding, Schulzie's doesn't disappoint. I still think it's rather expensive for what you get, even though it was delicious, but possibly because I've made my own bread pudding and can come close to what I just bought. However, I still like being able to support a small business with a great product and I'm not above ordering from them again, both for myself (I want to try a couple more flavors) and to send as gifts to other foodie friends. It's just going to have to be a sometime food, both for my waistline and my wallet.

Caramel Charisma bread pudding

Bibingkang Espesyal

Bibingkang Espesyal - made May 24, 2014 from Jun Belen

A Filipino coworker was asking me to troubleshoot her bibingka recipe because hers was coming out too dense. I didn't know what was in her recipe but I went through the bibingka recipes on my pin board with her to show the ratio of dry to wet ingredients. Oftentimes when a cake is too dense, it may not have enough liquid as compared to dry ingredients. Or it isn't beaten enough to incorporate air or there isn't any or enough chemical leavening like baking powder in it. Or it's been overbaked. It's hard to tell without seeing the recipe but going through the ones I'd pinned in earlier times inspired me to try one of them.

First, though I had to go to the Asian grocery store to get a few ingredients. 99 Ranch is the one closest to me but I hate going to this particular one because the parking is tight and the spaces are all meant for compact cars the size of Mini Coopers. Which I don't have. But I'll do anything for baking so I braved the parking lot and made my way into the store. 99 Ranch is what I consider a hardcore Asian grocery store; my hardcore Asian friends would laugh at me for that since they consider 99 Ranch the Americanized Asian grocery store. But, as an Americanized Asian, I'm often lost in the store and I have the hardest time finding anything because I can't read 90% of the packaging. They have some items from the Philippines and those I can read just fine but many of the items sport Chinese (or Japanese or Thai or Korean) characters without any English translation. So I easily get lost. And on this trip, in my confused meandering down the aisles, one of the food demo ladies started speaking to me in Chinese. I smiled lamely and looked blank but she still kept talking. I still kept not understanding what she was saying so I politely refused whatever she was offering (assuming that's what she was saying) and tried another aisle.

Even though it takes me twice as long to get a few items, I eventually end up finding what I need. There are some things I can only get at an Asian grocery store and usually their prices can't be beat which is why I go. Case in point, I needed banana leaves. Technically, you don't need to line the pan with banana leaves when making bibingka but I like the authentic touch. I eventually found the banana leaves in the freezer section - a whole slew of them for 79 cents a pack. Score. I also bought a can of coconut milk from Thailand ($1.79) for this recipe. I know mainstream grocery stores sell coconut milk in cartons but I only ever bake with the canned stuff. Don't ask me why; it just feels more authentic.

The bibingka I was planning to make is served with grated fresh coconut and I found a pack of that in the freezer aisle as well for $1.79. Since I was already there and I didn't want to have to come back (truly, I hate their parking), I also picked up a pack of frozen grated cassava ($1.49) and a small pack of tapioca flour ($.79) for other recipes I wanted to make in the future. Total purchase came to $6.15. This is why I make myself deal with the confusing abyss of 99 Ranch - it's cheap.

There are many types of bibingka. This is the cakey kind (as opposed to the sticky kind I'm more fond of). Traditionally, this cakey version of bibingka is baked with slices of salted duck egg and cheese on top. Filipinos often like that salty and sweet combo so I've left that in the directions below but I confess, I'm not one for the salty/sweet nor do I like duck egg or cheese in my cakes. Instead, I do the Americanized version - no duck egg and no cheese. So that makes this mostly a vanilla butter cake, slathered with melted butter when it's hot out of the oven, sprinkled with granulated sugar and covered in grated fresh coconut. Authentic or not, it's still good.

The whole point of this kind of bibingka is to eat it while it's still warm, the butter is melting on top, the sugar is crunchy and the grated fresh coconut adds texture and flavor. I wouldn't recommend substituting sweetened flaked coconut or shredded coconut for the fresh grated coconut. Grated coconut is how they serve it in the Philippines and while I was willing to forego the duck egg and cheese, I couldn't break that far from tradition and do anything less than fresh grated coconut; it's a much better taste and texture - another reason I had to brave 99 Ranch as that's the only place I've found it available.

If you're not going to serve this immediately but are baking it ahead of time, I advise not doing the topping until you do serve it. Right before serving, warm it up slightly then brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle the sugar and coconut (in that order) over it. This is still good at room temperature but the sugar will absorb into the butter the longer it sits and you'll lose the crunch. Instead the top will have more of a "wet" texture. So if you're going to try cakey bibingka for the first time, thrill your taste buds and eat this warm and freshly made.

Banana leaves, cut into two 10-inch circles

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling on top of cakes
1 1/4 cups coconut milk (I used canned)
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus additional for brushing on top of baked cakes
1 salted duck egg, sliced thinly, optional
1/4 cup grated Edam or cheddar cheese, optional
grated fresh coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line two 9-inch pie pans or round cake pans with banana leaves
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl; set aside.
4. Beat eggs in a bowl using a mixer on medium speed. Add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Alternate adding flour and coconut milk to the egg and sugar, mixing on medium speed after each addition. Add melted butter and mix well.
6. Divide batter equally into the two pans. Bake for 15 minutes then take out of the oven, lay slices of salted duck egg on top and sprinkle generously with grated cheese (skip this step if you're not using egg or cheese). Continue baking until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 10 minutes more. Turn the broiler to low and broil the cakes to brown the tops. Watch carefully to prevent burning.
7. Remove cakes from oven and brush with softened butter. Sprinkle with sugar and grated fresh coconut. Serve warm.

Happy Memorial Day - Vanilla Layer Cake

Vanilla Layer Cake - made May 26, 2014 from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson

I had another post planned for today but in honor of Memorial Day, I decided to make this Vanilla Layer Cake to showcase the red, white and blue sprinkles to commemorate the day. There's nothing "Memorial Day" about this cake other than the sprinkles but I wanted something to mark the day to honor the men and women of our armed forces. Memorial Day isn't just a day off but a time to honor those who serve. It's also a good reminder that, if you're inclined to make charitable donations, there are a lot of worthy organizations out there that serve our veterans and active service personnel.

Just a few examples (note: I'm not affiliated with any of these organizations other than donating to them in the past):
Fisher House Foundation
Wounded Warrior Project
Gary Sinise Foundation

As for the cake, this can be as simple or as fancy as you choose. If you're a vanilla lover, I'd keep it simple to stay true to the vanilla flavor. The original recipe called for frosting it with chocolate buttercream but I wanted to keep it purist vanilla so I made up my own vanilla frosting recipe. My frosting came out just a trifle too sweet, maybe because I'm not a frosting person even though I have sugar running through my veins. So I kept the frosting layer very thin. Because this was all about the cake. It was delicious. Light, fluffy and exactly the cake texture I've been trying to replicate in my quest for the perfect banana cake. But this was in vanilla form and I loved it. Once again, Lisa Yockelson's Baking by Flavor reigns supreme when it comes to fabulous recipes.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
seed scrapings for 1/2 vanilla bean
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk blended with 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Vanilla Frosting
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency (1-3 tablespoons, more or less)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray the inside of two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment rounds.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside.
3. Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 3 minutes. Add the sugar in three batches, beating for 1 minutes after each portion is incorporated. Blend in the vanilla bean seed scrapings and vanilla extract; beat for a minute longer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
4. On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in three additions with the milk-heavy cream blend in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly between them. Smooth tops witha small metal spatula.
6. Bake the layers for 25 to 30 minutes or until set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the layers in the pans on racks for 5 minutes. Invert each layer onto another cooling rack, peel off the parchment round then invert again to cool right side up. Cool completely before frosting.
8. Frosting: Beat butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract and enough milk to beat smooth for your desired consistency.

Browned Butter Cinnamon Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Browned Butter Cinnamon Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 16, 2014 from Cooking Classy

The original recipe from Cooking Classy called for dulce de leche but I had a jar of caramel from Angelina that I had bought in Paris that I wanted to use. I'm no stranger to stuffing chocolate chip cookies with something gooey and I have a deep abiding love for caramel. Especially caramel from Paris.

I modified the recipe slightly to make stuffing the cookies easier. I chilled the jar of caramel first. You don't want it liquidy and soft or it'll just flow around and make getting the cookie dough around it more difficult. Use a high quality caramel of course. And please make it real caramel, not caramel topping or butterscotch sauce. Caramel. I also used mostly mini chocolate chips and only a handful of regular-sized semisweet chocolate chips. With stuffed chocolate chip cookies where you encase the caramel inside the dough, larger chips become a liability because they create potential gaps around the cookie dough that the caramel stuffing can escape from. You don't want that. In this case, you also don't want too many chips, regardless of size, for the same reason. If you're the type of person who likes enough chocolate chips just to barely hold the dough together, instead of making these as regular "drop" cookies, place the dough in a ramekin, drop a dollop of caramel over it, cover with more dough then bake. That way you don't have to worry about the caramel leaking out and hardening during baking on a cookie sheet.

Caramel leakage --> misshapen cookie

If you prefer the more traditional stuffed cookie, just make sure you use enough dough to cover your filling completely and seal all the cracks. Once I had the cookies all stuffed, I froze them overnight. Don't even think about baking these from warm dough or they'll spread too much and your caramel has a higher likelihood of leaking out. Even with those precautions, I only had a 50% success rate in the caramel not leaking out during baking. I think I should've skipped the regular-size chocolate chips and stuck only to the mini chocolate chips. Still, these were divine. The cinnamon added a slightly different flavor than the standard chocolate chip cookie and of course, I loved the caramel. From Paris.

1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 cup dulce de leche or caramel, chilled

1. Brown butter in a medium saucepan until fragrant. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. Pour cooled brown butter into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using a rubber spatula to scrape out any excess. Add light brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla. With the paddle attachment, whip on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until combined. 
4. With mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30-60 minutes until firm. Scoop 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough, flatten into a thin bowl shape and add a heaping teaspoon of dulce de leche or caramel to the center of the dough. Wrap dough around dulce de leche, fully enclosing within the dough. Repeat with remaining dough.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place stuffed dough balls evenly spaced on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 - 12 minutes. Cool several minutes on baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, Anaheim, CA

Roy's - dinner on May 7, 2014, 4-star rating on yelp, 702 reviews

On my last night at our annual convention, I went with a few of my coworkers to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. Roy's is also within easy walking distance from our hotel and I'd gone there last year for the first time. Ironically, there's one much closer to me at home than a business trip a plane ride away but I've only gone to the I'm-on-a-business-trip one.

Appetizers at Roy's include a free plate of spiced edamame - it's like their version of a bread basket but healthier.

Edamame

However, we opted for lobster potstickers from the appetizer menu too. They were good but I'd have to give the nod to the lobster ravioli at The White House for being a tad bit better in terms of lobster filling and flavor. Still, it was a good choice for an appetizer.

Lobster Potstickers

One of my coworkers opted for the Butterfish. She'd been at Roy's the night before with her team, had gotten it then and got it again when we were there. I had a taste of her butterfish and had to admit I could see why she had it two nights in a row - it is good. The sauce they pour over it caramelizes in the cooking and it was delicious. The butterfish was also tender, not soft like a sole (I don't like soft-fleshed fish) but nowhere near as firm as a swordfish or halibut. From a Goldilocks and Three Bears standpoint, it was just right.

Misoyaki Butterfish - $34.95

Another coworker got the Lobster Pot Pie. My only brush with lobster pot pie was the one at Michael Mina's in Las Vegas and that one was $85 so I didn't get it. Roy's lobster pot pie was a bargain in comparison at less than half that price. I had a sample taste of that one as well and thought it was also good. They seemed pretty generous with the chunks of lobster in the pie and who doesn't like pie crust, whether it's a sweet or savory pie?

Lobster Pot Pie - $38.95

As for my own entree, I ordered the halibut. I love halibut and this one came with risotto. This was also tasty but I have to admit, compared to the butterfish, the halibut comes in second. The sauce and flavor of the butterfish was superior to the halibut. It was still a delicious choice but next time I go to a Roy's, I'm getting the butterfish.

Alaskan Halibut - $34.95

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

There were two desserts on the menu that our server said had to be ordered ahead of time and we opted to get both of them: the pineapple upside down cake and the molten chocolate cake. I expected the molten chocolate cake to be my favorite and it was good but, surprisingly, the only non-chocolate dessert we got, the pineapple upside down cake, turned out to be the winner for me. The cake itself was delicious, the baked pineapple was the perfect complement of tart yet sweet and it was served warm, yum. The accompanying pineapple-shaped cookie was cute but it was soft, not crisp so it wasn't to my taste. I'd go back to Roy's just for the pineapple upside down cake if that gives you an indication of how much I liked it. That and the butterfish.

Molten Chocolate Cake

The third dessert that the four of us split was the Kona Chocolate Bread Pudding. I like bread pudding and I love chocolate but, another surprise, this came in third for me. I don't know if it was the Kona flavor or what but I didn't love this bread pudding. I liked the texture but wasn't enamoured of the taste. No matter, that meant I could focus more exclusively on the molten chocolate cake and the pineapple upside down cake.

Kona Chocolate Bread Pudding

Roy's is another place that isn't cheap but it's nowhere near as expensive as Morton's and if you want somewhere a little nicer in the mid to high price range, it's a good option. Our server was extremely friendly, not to mention passionate about her job and the food she was serving which is always nice to see. The place does get crowded though, at least it was when we were there, so I also recommend making a reservation, either through Open Table or by calling them directly.