Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Well I am finally back to writing. Its been a while and I have been really busy baking and making a fair amount of goodies but really did not have the time to post any of it. Well this past weekend a few friends were going to come over to hang out at our place and I decided to do something quick, easy and full of chocolate – did I mention chocolate – yes and quite a lot of it!

These are really simple to make and are absolutely divine. I would say they last a while but that would be lying, they were mostly gone by the time everyone had left and then I helped myself to the last few.

Ingredients

Adapted from Fine Cooking – Chocolate Magazine

Makes 24-30 (depends on the size of your scoop)

• 12 oz chocolate (I used Costco’s chocolate chips)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• sea salt to sprinkle on top

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use a silicone liner (These are much easier to use).

Melt the butter, then pour it over the chocolate which is in a microwave safe bowl. Let it sit for a minute and then stir it. If it has not melted put it in the microwave for about 5 second bursts and stir after each burst. Once it has melted set it aside to cool.

With a stand mixture, whisk the eggs till nice and frothy. Then add the sugar and whisk on medium-high until the mixture thickens and is a lemon color. It will take about 6 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate to this and whisk to incorporate.

In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder and whisk with a hand whisk. Pour it over the chocolate mixture and fold it in. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out about a 3/4 scoop and pop it onto the baking sheet. The cookies will turn out to be about 2 inches wide. I have large cookie trays so I got about 8 cookies per tray. You can sprinkle just about 2 – 3 sea salt grains on top of each mound if you like at this point (totally optional)

Bake a single tray for about 10-11 minutes. When you pop the first tray out pop in the second one. Let the cookies cool and firm up a little before you remove them to a cooling rack.

Lace Cookies

Lace Cookies

Well here is another wonderful take on cookies. These are utterly butterly delicious (quoting the Amul butter line). The literally dissolve in your mouth. Of course, you need to forget calories etc when you eat them and one is really good enough. The only problem with them is that they are so light you really think you could go for just one more. They also do not transport well so you have to just serve them at home :-).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut up into cubes
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• seeds from 1 vanilla bean or one teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

The first step is to make brown butter. Put the cubes of butter in a small saucepan on medium heat until it has melted. Continue cooking until the solids on the bottom of the pan turn golden brown. Watch this carefully as you could end up with burnt butter. You will see a lot of foam on the top of the butter – do not worry about this. Let this mixture cool slightly.

Turn the oven on to 350F. Line at least two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicone. I use silicone liners and they work wonderfully and are reusable and clean up really well.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Slowly add the butter, stirring until well blended. You will have a very liquid batter. Drop a heaped teaspoons of batter on the prepared cookie sheet. I put only 4 per sheet as they spread a lot. Make sure you have at least about 3 inches between the batter drop. Bake until the cookies are golden brown about 7-8 minutes (You will see that the cookies pop like the top of a  bubbling soup) Let the cookies cool on the sheet then carefully transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat until you have used up all the batter.

Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Orange, Cointreau, Pecan, Biscotti

Orange Biscotti

This was the first time I ever tried making Biscotti and it was fairly easy. It was also (in my opinion) better than the store bought  variety as it was not that hard and dry. So you do not need to have them with coffee. I got the recipe from my fine cooking magazine. I did a bit of research on orange liqueur. Apparently they have made quite the comeback. There used to be only two major ones Grand Mariner and Cointreau. The former being more sweet and latter less. There are lot more that are being created specifically because of its pairing with Tequila’s. So go out there and explore.

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• Finely grated zest of two oranges
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 3 large eggs @ room temperature
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoon orange liquer (Cointreau)

Method

Line two large baking sheets with parchment. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl. Drop the zest in and use your fingers to rub the zest into the mixture. This ensures that the zest does not clump together. Add the pecans.

Whisk the wet ingredients together and then pour into the center of the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Flour your work surface well. Dump the sticky mixture onto the work surface. Trying to get it in the form of a disk. This will help you portion it out into six equal portions. Now roll each piece into a log about 12 inches long. Place three logs on each sheet. Lightly flatten each log so the width is about 1.5 to 2 inches wide. Make the ends angular (the reason for this is that you will be able to have all angled edges. You will be using that angle to cut the pastry).

Put both the trays in the oven. Bake the logs for 12 minutes. Switch the trays between racks as well as turn them around. Bake for another 12 minutes until the centers are fairly firm to the touch and the logs are golden. Take them out of the oven and let the cool on cooling racks. This will take about 20 minutes.

Put the cooled logs on a cutting board and using a serrated knife saw them on a diagonal about a half inch thick. This is parallel to the diagonal on the edge that you created when you flattened the logs. Arrange the slices on the baking sheets, cut sides down. Return to the oven and bake for 10 more minutes. Let them cool completely. You can store them in an airtight container.

Almond Cookies

Almond Crackle Cookies

Okay so I left the crackle out this time :-). If you like almonds you will love this cookie. They are really hard to resist right as they come out of the oven. You can even use them in desserts like mousse for example – just crumble them up and layer them with mousse. They hold their form and provide a lovely crunch when you get to them – and I mean mousses that are more like fruit mousses.

For the almonds, I normally soak them in hot water to help loosen their skins. Then pop them out of their skins and let them dry. Process them in a food processor until finely ground. At this stage you want to make sure you do not over process so that you end up with Almond butter. Or you can get almond flour from the stores – it makes these cookies go so much easier.

Recipe

Makes about 70

• 3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup finely ground almonds
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup  vegetable oil (canola)
• 1 tablespoon of pure almond extract
• 1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur
• Icing sugar, to coat

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder into a bowl. Add the ground almond and salt and stir.

Whisk the eggs and sugars together until well combined. Add the oil, extract and amaretto and continue whisking until everything is incorporated.

Add the flour mix to the batter and mix. I used my dough hook to knead the mixture. It becomes fairly thick but its still moist. Wrap it and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Use a small cookie scoop to scoop out portions of the dough. Roll each scoop into a ball and then roll to coat in the icing sugar. Dust off excess icing sugar. Place on prepared cookie sheet (lined with silicone or parchment). Space them about 1″ apart.

Bake at 375F for about 14 minutes until the sugar is cracked and the cookies have lightly browned on the bottom. The cookies will seem soft on the top – don’t worry they will harden up as they cool.  Take them out of the oven and then off the cookie sheet and let them cool on a rack.

Espresso Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Espresso Coffee Crackle

 

Its that time of year to bake oodles of goodies. As you can tell I love crackle cookies – I think they look super and these ones turn out cakey inside as well which is a nice surprise. I had ‘I love it’ and ‘It could be sweeter’ with this one. The espresso that I used could have been strong so these are definitely not your average sweet cookie – so if you do make it I would highly recommend using more sugar. However, the coffee lovers wolfed them down. Let me know what you do!

Recipe

• 4 tblsps unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsps instant espresso
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate morsels
• 1 (about) tablespoon milk
• Icing (confectioners) sugar, for coating

Method

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue beating until combined.

Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Sprinkle on the espresso powder and salt. Fold into the mixture.

Add the milk (you may need a little more if the batter is too stiff). Put the chocolate morsels in and stir.

Put this mixture into a bowl, cover it and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Using a cookie scoop (small), scoop out the batter, roll between your palms to form a ball and then roll in icing sugar to coat.

Place on a silicone or parchment lined cookie sheet.

Heat the oven to 350F. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes until they have spread and the sugar has cracked.

Let them cool on the tray for 3-4 mins before moving them to a wire rack.