I am currently navigating my way through some silly government bureaucracy, and if you’ve ever had the misfortune to be in that position, you probably know that (regardless of which government you’re dealing with) it can seem like an endless string of hoop jumping, inordinately long waiting periods, and many frustrating encounters with a wretched automated phone menu….
Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Third post containing chocolate in a row, my goodness! Actually I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner…
Have you made those peanut butter cookies that are just peanut butter, egg, and sugar? These almond butter cookies are like that, but better. Chewy, crisp, and buttery (but made without butter or flour), they also have maple syrup, chocolate chips and chunks of toasted almonds. Yum. They were so good and so easy!…
White Chocolate Orange Thinsees
When I was growing up, my Mum and I baked a lot of cookies together, and one of my favorites was the Chocolate Thinsees from a cookbook called Golde’s Homemade Cookies. These were a dark chocolate cookie made of a soft batter and topped with chopped nuts, and during baking they spread out thin and became satisfyingly chewy, yet soft, with a texture almost more like cake than cookie. Sounds odd, but I loved them and as soon as I was old enough to use the oven by myself, I made them all the time – they were totally addictive.
A few weeks ago I had some mandarin oranges languishing in my fruit bowl, and I decided that orange-flavoured cookies would be the best way to use them up. I pulled out my copy of Golde’s cookbook, and came across the Chocolate Thinsees recipe. Chocolate and orange is a tried and true combination, but I didn’t have any of the semi-sweet chocolate that the recipe called for. I did, however, have some white chocolate, so I decided to make White Chocolate Orange Thinsees and top them with Brazil nuts. It was a good call.
These thin, crisp cookies are sort of like French tuiles, but with a chewier texture. They weren’t quite as cake-like as I remember, but they were just as addictive – they barely lasted a whole day, and by the time the last batch came out of the oven, I had already eaten so many that I have no idea how many I actually made. Golde suggests that these make a great tea cookie. I suggest that you make them immediately and just try to stop yourself from eating them by the handful!
White Chocolate Orange Thinsees
Adapted from Golde’s Homemade Cookies by Golde Hoffman Soloway
Preheat oven to 300˚F.
In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt:
2 oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
Set aside to cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
When light and fluffy, stir in the melted white chocolate, then add:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix until well blended, then stir in:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
dash salt
Mix well. The batter will be quite soft.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. The cookies will spread a lot in the oven, so leave a few inches of room between them – I found six per sheet to be plenty. Sprinkle the cookies with chopped nuts (about 3/4 cup total) – I used Brazil nuts.
Bake in the 300˚F oven for 15-18 minutes, until light brown at the edges and set in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack with a thin spatula. If they have all run into each other to form one giant cookie, cut them apart with a sharp knife before removing them from the baking sheet.
I dare you not to eat them all in one day!
PS – It was brought to my attention that I’ve been nominated for the “Kreativ Blogger Award” by Sibella of Baking with Sibella. Thank you Sibella, I’m very flattered! However rather than listing seven things about myself and nominating seven other blogs, I would encourage you to visit Sibella’s lovely blog and check out her gorgeous baking – I’m especially taken with her Non Plus Ultra cookies.
Christmas Baking 2011: Eggnog Macarons
Merry Christmas! Here’s another way to enjoy some festive eggnog ;).
As I have previously mentioned, my first encounter with macarons was in Paris with my aunt when I was 18. I immediately fell in love, but I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to come back to Paris to ever taste them again, which would either be a) never, or b) a very very long time off. It never even occurred to me that I could make macarons at home – they seemed like some kind of impossibly complicated, intricate pastry that only the French could create – until I started noticing them popping up on food blogs a few years ago. However, it was also noted that the homemade macaron was a highly temperamental creation, and that the very techniques and methods that some people swore by were the same techniques and methods that others blamed for their macaron disasters.
Armed with the knowledge that macarons were possible in my own kitchen, I set out to scour the internet and learn as much as I could about making them. This may have been a mistake. Sometimes it’s better to go into things a bit blind, because you aren’t aware of every little thing that can go wrong and therfore totally paranoid about them. The whole process became overwhelming and a bit intimidating, so I put off making macarons for fear of failure.
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Perfect Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are the perfect marriage between a peanut butter cookie and a chocolate chip cookie. Both are classics in their own right, and this recipe somehow manages to combine the tastes and textures that makes each one great. Good peanut flavour, slightly chewy like a good chocolate chip cookie, and full of chocolate chips. Seriously, these are the best peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tried.
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If you have a chocolate craving…
… these chocolate-mocha-nut cookies will satisfy it. And if you’re like me, you crave chocolate on a near-daily basis. (This is why I exercise every day!) I was reminded of the awesomeness that are these cookies the last time I was on Salt Spring and Lynette’s mum, Elaine (of banana bread fame), made them… and I knew I had to make them myself, and soon! Luckily I already had the recipe, it just took me nearly two weeks to get my act together and actually make them! But the wait was worth it. They are SO GOOD.
These cookies are super chocolatey, with a chewy, fudgy texture, a good hit of mocha, and a nice crunch from the nuts. One batch gave me 18 large cookies, and they barely lasted past the first day. Seriously, if they last longer in your house, I take my hat off to you and your iron-clad will power!
The original recipe calls for walnuts, but I’ve had these cookies with almonds, and I made mine with pecans, so use whatever you prefer. The only changes I made to Elaine’s recipe were to toast the nuts and reduce the sugar by a little bit. I used chopped chocolate because I had a massive bar of dark chocolate in my baking cupboard, but chocolate chips are fine too. Now go make these!…
Churched-up Marshmallow Cereal Bars with Coconut and Pecans
I was looking through my baking cupboard yesterday and realized I had all of the necessary ingredients for these bars on hand: leftovers from a massive bag of marshmallows from a class camping trip, shredded coconut from making granola, pecans, and cereal. This morning when I actually pulled everything out and started to measure, however, I discovered that I didn’t have quite enough of anything. *Sigh*. By that point I was committed to making them, so half an hour and one trip to the store later, I *actually* had all of the necessary ingredients on hand and in the right amounts!
This recipe is courtesy of my trusted friend Martha, with a few tweaks by yours truly. They are essentially Rice Krispie Squares (cereal mixed with melted marshmallows and butter), however they are “churched-up” by the addition of toasted coconut and pecans. Originally the recipe called for cornflakes, but the first time I made them I used Kellog’s Just Right cereal, which has corn flakes, puffed rice, and toasted oats. They turned out really well and I have never made them with anything else. I also added vanilla, because everything is better with vanilla, right? Especially marshmallows!
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Chocolate Chip Cookies with Whole Wheat Flour
I have been on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie for as long as I have been baking cookies – which is to say, years and years and years. My go-to recipe has previously been the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe in the cookbook Golde’s Homemade Cookies, but I think I may have found a fierce contender for best chocolate chip cookie, and it’s made with whole wheat flour to boot!
This recipe comes from the book, “Good to the Grain – Baking with Whole-Grain Flours” by Kim Boyce. The recipes in the book all contain whole grain flour (obviously!) but nothing about them is sacrificed simply to make them healthier by using whole grains. Boyce talks about the different characteristics of a myriad of different flours – whole wheat, amaranth, oat, buckwheat, teff, rye, kamut, quinoa, the list goes one – and creates recipes that showcase their unique flavours and baking properties, rather than just substituting whole grain flour in a recipe developed using regular white flour, which is I think what turns people off when they hear “whole wheat cookies”….
Power Truffles
These are inspired by a blog post I came across on the lululemon website with several recipes for “energy balls”, but somehow that just doesn’t sound appetizing… so I’m calling my version “power truffles”. These are very tasty, packed with peanut butter, nuts, and seeds, and will be a great post-workout snack, which is what I made them for… but they would be equally good as just an afternoon snack 😉
To boost the energy content a little more, the rolled oats could be replaced with quinoa or amaranth flakes, both of which are high in protein. The cocoa powder makes these a little bit chocolatey, and due to the peanut butter and honey in them, they taste slightly like peanut butter and honey on toast, which I quite enjoy. To change things up, they would also be good with almond or cashew butter and perhaps agave syrup, which I haven’t experimented with yet. Oooh, I can imagine a version with almond butter, cocoa powder, and dried cranberries instead of raisins… or dried cherries maybe? Yum!
I made these in about 15 minutes total – no baking required. The most time-consuming part was rolling them, and even that was pretty darn easy.
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Christmas Baking 2010 – Part II
Hazelnut Shortbread – triangular cookie on the left
As promised is Part I, here is the recipe for Hazelnut Shortbread. As I said previously, this cookie has a beautiful crumbly texture, great hazelnut flavour, and is not overly sweet at all. It may have been my favorite cookie this year.
Again, when baking shortbread, using real unsalted butter is a must. Because there are so few ingredients, butter really plays a starring role, and the flavour will be worth it.
The original recipe directs you to press the dough into two 8-inch cake pans and then score into wedges. I wanted to yield more, smaller cookies, so I shaped the dough into a triangular log, stuck it in the fridge until firm, cut it into slices, and sprinkled each one with raw sugar. The baking time was shorter as well, but I can’t remember exactly how long I baked them for. I would start checking for doneness after about 10 minutes.
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