Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Cookies

Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Cookies - made dough August 10, 2015, recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Remember the last white chocolate chip cookie recipe I posted was a little too sweet for me with the toffee and white chocolate chips? I decided to try a different version with macadamia nuts to cut the sweetness.

Macadamia nuts are that rare exception where I like nuts in cookies as long as they're macadamia nuts in a white chocolate and/or coconut cookie. Something about macadamia nuts pairs very well with both and makes me forgive their presence in a cookie. I can all too easily overeat macadamia nuts by themselves which is why I rarely have them except in cookies. They're expensive and we didn't have them often when I was growing up so they were in the rare-treat category, typically when someone was traveling or visiting from Hawaii and brought us a jar of Mauna Loa macadamia nuts or a box of chocolate-covered macadamias.

I had my usual reticence in using a cookie recipe with shortening in it but it had the saving grace of butter as well so I went with it. I know why the recipe authors did it this way; butter gives the flavor and the shortening prevents spreading. The dough was easy to work with even though it was warm when I made this so I had to work quickly to portion it into dough balls, porcupine it with white chocolate chips on the outside and freeze them.

I learned the porcupine trick awhile back for any cookie that has chips in it. You mix almost all of the chips into the batter but reserve a generous handful or two and stick the remaining chips on the outside of the cookie. When it bakes, you have a cookie visually bursting with chocolate chips.

This was a pretty standard white chocolate macadamia cookie (but remember I have high standards). It met my criteria in that it stayed thick enough to nicely incorporate the chunky macadamia nuts and the shortening, despite my prejudices, did its job in also adding a little crispness to the cookie as well as keeping its shape. The flavor of the brown sugar really makes the cookie to provide a good backdrop for the white chocolate. My only angst came from the browning of the white chocolate due to the heat and baking time. It didn't affect the flavor, just the appearance. There's no getting around it that I can figure out even if you try underbaking. You want to bake these long enough for the edges to brown and the middles to get chewy, not mushy. I actually advocate letting these cool completely instead of eating lukewarm or 10 minutes out of the oven. At freshly baked room temperature, they have a better texture. I took the pics at fully cooled an hour after they came out of the oven and really liked both the taste and texture.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts, toasted, rough chop

1. Cream butter and shortening together until blended. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until creamy. Add baking soda, salt, eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined.
2. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing until just blended.
3. Add white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, reserving a handful of each.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and press reserved chocolate chips and macadamia nuts on the outside of each. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours until firm.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls, about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling completely.

Bakery Review: Noe Valley Bakery

Noe Valley Bakery - July 20, 2015

This isn't really a bakery review since I've never personally been to Noe Valley Bakery in San Francisco so I can't comment on the bakery itself.

But my team at work brought in this red velvet cake from that bakery for my birthday last month and it was so good I thought it was worth a shout out on my blog.

I love red velvet cake. I love a moist red velvet cake even more and that's what this was. It was a 4-layer tower of goodness of moist, rich cake with just the right perfectly cakey texture that marks a good cake. Even better, the cream cheese frosting wasn't too tangy and had just the right amount of sweetness. I also liked the elegant simple presentation of the cake itself.

My coworkers and I enjoyed it thoroughly. From start to finish, I think we ended up at the empty plate below in a matter of minutes. I've now added Noe Valley Bakery to my list of must-visit bakeries in San Francisco; this cake alone is worth a visit.

Sweets Handmade Candies - Truckee, CA

Sweets Handmade Candies - visited July 18, 2015

After the visit to Cake Tahoe, we took a walking tour down the main street of Truckee and came upon Sweets Handmade Candies, a cute little confectionery shop. It reminded me of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory with the space at the front to showcase the fudge making then the rest of the shop was devoted to confections and chocolate.

I love poking around confectionery shops. My eyes get their fill of - haha - eye candy and my nose thanks me for all the mouthwatering smells found in your typical chocolate shop. And, I'm not going to lie, my taste buds sit up and start begging as I try to decide what to get. Never mind the two cupcakes I'd just bought from Cake Tahoe minutes before.

When we walked into Sweets, we were offered free samples of their homemade fudge. Fudge. We all know I like fudge, despite the sweetness. It's fudge. Sweets had a whole tray of small bits of fudge out for sampling for the customers (I think we were pretty much all tourists) milling around in the shop. I nipped up a sample to try. And I'm sorry but I wish I hadn't. I normally try to say positive things in a review and I have a pretty low bar for fudge to clear in order for me to like it. Unfortunately this didn't pass that bar. I don't know why but the flavor just wasn't there. The chocolate wasn't very chocolaty and the texture wasn't the rich smooth creaminess I expect from fudge. And I wasn't the only one who felt this way. We all tried it - my nieces and their boyfriends - and we all had the same reaction which my niece succinctly summed up as "it tastes like brownie mix fudge". Yup. Sorry.

By that token, I felt I had to buy something now so I could find something good about the shop that I liked better because I hate not being able to say something nice about it. It was a cute shop! And the Sweets counter people were very nice and friendly. But I wouldn't go for the fudge, I'm sorry.

Instead, I picked out a Sea Salt Caramel from the display case and I had one of my nieces pick out the truffle she wanted; she chose a cappuccino truffle enrobed in white chocolate.

Fudge making at the front of the shop

Fortunately, the chocolates we selected were way, way better than the fudge. I only caught a shot of the truffle as my nieces started eating it before I could take a picture ("wait!"). But they liked it.

I'm also happy to say the sea salt caramel covered in milk chocolate that I got was superb. The caramel was soft and chewy the way I like it but not too sticky or hard and the sea salt sprinkled on the chocolate was the perfect complement to the sweetness of the caramel. So you may not want to go for the fudge but if you do go to Sweets, try one of the confectionery chocolates instead.

Browned Butter White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Browned Butter White Chocolate Toffee Cookies - made dough July 11, 2015, recipe adapted from Baker by Nature

These cookies were part of my Tahoe weekend last month with my sister, my nieces and their boyfriends. Whenever I meet up with them, I know to bring banana bread for my sister's SO as well as my niece's boyfriend. I asked my other niece what else she wanted me to bring and her answer is always her favorite: white chocolate chip cookies.

Now I could just take a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and substitute white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips but why pass up a chance to try out another new recipe? Besides which, a true white chocolate chip cookie is actually different from a regular chocolate chip cookie. They lean more towards brown sugar than granulated sugar and the white chocolate pairs well with the caramel/butterscotch flavor of the cookie.

For this experiment, I went with this white chocolate toffee version but I mixed the batch and, before adding the toffee, scooped half of it into toffee-less cookie dough balls, added the toffee to the remaining cookie dough and finished mixing and portioning into what the cookies were originally meant to be. One of the boys is allergic to nuts and the commercially made toffee bits I added to the batter had a high probability of being made in a facility with nuts so I left it out of half the cookies to play it safe.

From appearances, this had all the earmarks of what I look for in a good cookie: it stayed thick, was chewy in the middle, had somewhat crisp edges and I loved the texture. However, it was a tad too sweet for me. I think it's partially because I've cut back on sugar a lot (I know, you probably can't tell from what I bake and blog but it's true) and whenever I do eat sugar, it's really sweet. I also think the toffee and white chocolate add more sweetness to the cookie since that's what they're there for. It's still a good cookie though so you could either portion them small, cut back on the toffee and/or white chocolate, add macadamia nuts for a texture and flavor contrast to cut the sweetness or just make as is and decide for yourself.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted until browned
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chocolate toffee bits

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 
2. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat melt butter, whisking constantly, until it reaches a golden brown color; remove from heat at once. Transfer melted butter to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. 
3. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and mix just until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, mixing just until combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips and toffee bits. 
5. Using a large ice cream scoop or a 2 tablespoon measuring spoon form golf-size balls with the dough. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight. 
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment and evenly space frozen cookie dough balls. Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the pan for even color and baking. 
7. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bakery Review: Cake Tahoe

Cake Tahoe - July 17 & 18, 2015

I went to Lake Tahoe for my birthday weekend last month. My sister rented a cabin for the weekend as her graduation gift to her kids and a birthday gift to me. We all met up there and I embarked early Friday afternoon, planning to get there around 4:30 or 5 in the afternoon. Google maps said the journey should take about 3 ½ hours and I left early afternoon, factoring in “a little traffic” and estimated I would get there in 4 hours. Ha. I arrived 6 ½ hours later. Ugh.

My niece’s boyfriend was grilling on the deck and since I got there later than I had planned, I was hungry enough to chew off my own arm. Fortunately, burgers were an alternative option so I indulged in one.  Or two. Okay, okay, it was two! Told ya I was hungry. I was pretty full afterward but then my nieces and my sister surprised with me half a dozen birthday cupcakes.

They’d gotten it from a local bakery called Cake Tahoe (Lake Tahoe, Cake Tahoe – get it?) in Truckee, CA. There were 6 different flavors and the 6 of us split 5 and swapped taste forkfuls from each cupcake. OMG. These cupcakes were amazing. I tried the creme brulee, red velvet, carrot, and chocolate cupcakes. The textures were perfectly fluffy and cakey as any great cupcakes should be. I’m not a frosting person but the frosting was a good complement to each cupcake to add some sweetness but also a creamy texture contrast to the fluffy cakes. If you like Sprinkles cupcakes but think they’re too “greasy” (I prefer to think of them of “moist”) then you might like Cake Tahoe’s cupcakes better because they were moist but not greasy and were even fluffier than Sprinkles.

Having enjoyed the cupcakes so much, I wanted to go see Cake Tahoe for myself and take pictures for my blog. At least that’s what I kept telling myself and everyone around me. I even brought my camera when we went the following day (see, it was the truth). It’s a cute little shop, definitely open for tourist business, at the end of the main drag for Truckee. The cupcakes were in a display case at the front of the shop where they rightfully took front and center, singing their siren song for hapless tourists with a sweet tooth. “Come to us,” they croon. “Buy me and the little cupcake next to me.”

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Confetti Cupcakes

I snapped some pics but then the inevitable happened. Since I “was there” anyway, might as well get a couple of cupcakes, right? You knew that was coming. I mean, they were singing and all.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Heath Bar Cupcake

I ended up with the Heath Bar and the Coconut cupcakes. I was full of virtue and didn’t even eat them right there. We wandered around Truckee for a bit, poked around at some of the shops, stopped off at a candy store reminiscent of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (more on that in a future post) then I dropped my nieces and their boyfriends off at the beach and headed back to the cupcakes, I mean, cabin.

Carrot Cupcakes

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Cupcakes (?)

I’ll spare you the song and dance of how long I did or didn’t resist but yes, I ended up eating both cupcakes over the course of the next 24 hours. The Heath Bar one calls for another “OMG”. Perfect, beautiful, fluffy cake texture, great flavor and the toffee added a great crunch. I even liked the frosting. I mean, hello, that’s huge. The coconut was delicious as well but if I had to be a grown up and pick because really, I shouldn’t be eating more than 1 cupcake, the Heath Bar would win for me. I think it was even better than the cupcakes I had the previous evening. Although that was due as much to not having eaten 2 burgers before eating a bite from each of 5 cupcakes but anyway, awesome cupcake.

Vanilla Cupcake

Coconut Cupcake

So if you’re ever in the Tahoe/Truckee area, stop by Cake Tahoe. They keep somewhat limited hours so you might want to time your visit but trust me, it’d be worth it. I’m already wondering when I’ll be back in the area. To visit my sister, of course. And get another cupcake.

Heath Bar Cupcake

Inside the Heath Bar Cupcake