Category: Cookies

It’s Complicated

January 20, 2011

Those two words sum up my relationship with my Baked cookbooks.  It’s complicated.

These books are like the almost perfect boyfriend from high school.  Handsome, smart, useful, interesting, even exciting.  But they can let you down when you least expect it.  And they are not reliable.  When they are good, they are very very good.  And when they are bad, well, sometimes there are tears.

Last weekend, I made the Grasshopper Cake from the first book for a friend’s birthday.  I love the Baked chocolate cake recipe.  It bakes up nice and tall and perfectly flat.  No domed top of slice off.  And it is moist with terrific chocolate flavor.  Adding a mint ganache and a mint buttercream frosting to that perfect cake seemed like a no-brainer.  Their buttercream recipe is not traditional and it did not turn out well for me at all.  I could not get the butter to incorporate no matter how long and how hard I whipped.  I was left with a frosting that tasted good but looked terrible.  There were flat pea sized pieces of butter throughout.  I only used about 1/3 of it – I just couldn’t pile it on – and I covered the cake with flat Dutch mints.  It ended up looking good and my husband and my friend Lauren, both of whom have eaten plenty of my cakes, said it was one of my best.  But throwing out about the equivalent of three sticks of butter made me mad.

Because I’m a girl and I had to come back for more, I decided to make Nutella scones from the new book.  How could you go wrong, right?  Wrong.  In spite of the authors’ warnings of not mixing the dough too much (a common warning with scones), I had to manhandle it and add much more cream than recommended to get anything even resembling a dough.  What came out of the oven did not look like the scones of my past.  They kind of toppled over on the themselves.  And they just didn’t taste good.  At first I thought it was because they weren’t sweet enough but no, they just weren’t good.  My kids were so excited – a chocolate scone! – but they didn’t like them either.  Rats.  And my brother Michael, the one who asks me to make the Nutella Pound Cake any time I offer dessert, he didn’t take a single one home with him.  That, my friends, is a failure.

Oh, but I went back for more.  Rather than break up with my books, I decided to make a cookie that sounded like a home run.  And it is, kind of.  There is almost too much chocolate for the dough (I never thought I would say that), and not quite enough pretzels for them to make sense being there.  If I’m going to have something salty in my cookie, I want to really notice it, not be like, “Huh?  What is a pretzel piece doing in my cookie?”.  But I will be back for more.  I just can’t quit you Baked.

One Year Ago:  Lasagne with Eggplant and Chard
Two Years Ago:  Sicilian Eggplant Spread with Crostini

Cowboy Cookies
Baked Explorations
Makes about 24 large cookies

1¾ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 cups rolled oats
14 tbsp. (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter, cool but not cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks (about 12 ounces)
¾ cup thin salty pretzels (about 1½ ounces) broken into tiny pieces but not crushed into dust

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add the oats and stir to combine.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy.  Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until the mixture looks light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add the vanilla, and beat for 5 seconds.  Dissolve the espresso powder in ¼ cup hot water and add it to the bowl, mixing until combined.

Add half the dry ingredients and mix for 15 seconds.  Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and fold in the chocolate chunks and ½ cup of the pretzel pieces.  Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop dough in 2 tablespoon-size balls (or use a tablespoon measure) and place the dough balls onto the prepared sheets about 1 inch apart.  Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup pretzel pieces over the dough balls.  Use the palm of your hand to press the dough down lightly; don’t small the cookie – you just want to slightly flatten the ball and push the pretzel pieces into the dough.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown or just starting to darken.

Set the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool.  Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.  They can be store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.



Change

January 15, 2011

Last week something amazing happened.  On Thursday, at around noon, I sat and had a lunch date with my husband.  In the 6½ years since we returned from London, we had never done that.  I don’t think we ever did it in London either for that matter.

The reason for the lack of lunch dates?  Randy worked at a very large company located across the lake from our house, a company well-known for a certain “culture”.  A company called Microsoft.  Perhaps you have heard of it?  Perhaps you know its reputation for asking a lot of their employees?

Randy is a self-described type Triple-A personality.  He works incredibly hard.  His trajectory since graduating from the Naval Academy in Annapolis goes a little something like this:

Go to flight school and graduate top of his class
Fly A-6 Intruders for a few years until they de-commission the aircraft
Go back to the Naval Academy to teach English
Get a Masters in Philosophy at nearby St. John’s at the same time
Go to Harvard for the MBA program
Move to Seattle to work at a start-up (this is when we met)
Get recruited by Microsoft

Basically, the guy has not slowed down since the day he was born.  Microsoft LOVES people like that.

All along, his career has afforded us a wonderful lifestyle but has also been hard on me and our family.  For the first five years of having children, he rarely saw them during the week.  Because of the commute, he was on the road before they were awake and home after they were in bed.  In the last year and a half, his office moved to the Seattle side of the lake and things got significantly better.  But then his travel schedule picked up dramatically and he was out of state 50-60% of the time.  He would come home and be exhausted from time changes plus the overall stress of travel and the job.

Periodically we would check in.  Is it worth it?  Are we ok?  Are the kids ok?  I would worry about him.  Waking up at 3am and not being able to fall back to sleep night after night because of stress is not sustainable.  To be fair, that was an extreme.  Most of the time, life as a Microsoft employee was challenging but not over the top.  He was very successful there and they recognized his hard work.  He was promoted steadily and received awards for the work he did.  And for the most part, he enjoyed his actual job, the work he did day to day.  He did not enjoy the constant “re-orging” and never being sure if the job he was doing that day would be there the next.

And then one day, Randy had had enough.  It was one request too many or one too many trips.  Maybe it was looking at Graham and thinking, “I have a six year old and I have not been here”.  Whatever it was, he reached a breaking point.  He reached out to his considerable network and started taking recruiting calls more seriously.  A company that had already approached him about a job twice re-appeared, this time with a friend of over 20 years as CEO.  Coffees, conversations, and number crunching happened.  As a family, we weighed the pros and cons.

I had always heard that term “golden handcuffs” but working through the decision, I really came to understand what it meant.  In all the years with Microsoft, we never paid a single cent for health care.  No monthly fees, no co-pays, no deductibles, no cost for drugs.  My two c-sections, Randy’s knee surgery, a herniated belly button surgery for Graham, four years of speech therapy, all the pediatric visits, and the two emergency room visits – we never paid a dime.  It is probably the best health care in the United States.  To me that was much more valuable than the stock left behind.

The fact that Randy would be taking a pay cut and our benefits would become more like most Americans (at least those who have health care) were the cons for the new job.  The pros list was less tangible and more emotional.  Working alongside two people he admires without question, an office 2.1 miles from our house, 25% travel at the most, a conscious decision to slow down – to be more present in our family.  It was that last one we really discussed.  For him to make this move, it had to be a lifestyle move, not just a job change.

I give him a lot of credit.  He was climbing the corporate ladder.  He had over 300 people reporting to him.  He had tremendous success.  And he decided that having lunch with his wife once a week was more important.  This new job is going to be very challenging.  He will still work very hard – he doesn’t know how to work any other way.  But he will go on field trips with Graham, he will be home at 6 (!) every night, he will sleep better, and learn from a trusted friend.

I have always loved the idea of sending Randy to work with a weekly treat.  But Randy has always worked in groups that were too large for it to make sense.  Now that he is at a much smaller company, the weekly treat tradition has begun.  His first week, I asked what he wanted me to make.  I knew it would either be the White Chocolate Almond Chunk Cookies or the Cowgirl Cookies, so I already had the Holly B’s cookbook in hand when I asked.  Sure enough, the Cowgirls won out.

This week, I made something new.  I was paging through my Tartine book, looking for the Lemon Cream recipe for last week’s party, when I happened upon this chocolate amazingness.  How is it that my chocolate loving self never made these?  I know they don’t look like much, but they are one of my most favorite cookies ever.  Essentially, they are a regular cocoa-based chocolate cookie to which you add a half pound of melted bittersweet chocolate.  The batter is like ganache and you pull the cookies out when they are just starting to set and the end result is like a chocolate pillow that you will want to sleep on forever.  As I was scooping them out, I thought a scattering of chocolate chips might be good for texture, but no no no!  No texture needed.  My only change is that I scattered a bit of sea salt (smoked Chardonnay if you must know) over the top of each cookie before baking and that was a good decision.

One Year Ago: Oatmeal Carmelitas

Deluxe Double Chocolate Cookies
Tartine
Makes about 24 large or 36 small cookies

These cookies are very soft when you take them out of the oven so I would advise letting them rest on their baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to the cooling rack.

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup + 1 tbsp. flour
½ cup + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar
2 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk
Sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Butter a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Pour water to a depth of about 2 inches into a saucepan, place over medium heat, and bring to a simmer.  Put the chocolate into a stainless-steel bowl that will rest securely in the rim of the pan and place it over, not touching, the water.  Make sure the pan is completely dry before you add the chocolate and that no moisture gets into the chocolate.  Moisture will cause the chocolate to seize, or develop lumps.  Heat, stirring occasionally, just until the chocolate melts and is smooth.  Remove from the heat and let cool.

Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a bowl.  Set aside.  Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until creamy.  Slowly add the sugar and mix until the mixture is completely smooth and soft.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition until incorporated before adding the next egg.  Beat in the salt and vanilla, and then add the melted chocolate and beat until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat until combined.  Finally, add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the prepared sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart.  Bake the cookies until they are just barely firm on top when lightly touched but are still very soft underneath, about 7 minutes.  They wil get firmer as they cool.  Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool.  They will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.



Holiday Biscotti

December 19, 2010

If you have not noticed, I’m not a big recipe round-up person.  Some food bloggers are really good about going back through their old posts and listing out, say, all the recipes that would work well for Christmas cookies.  I love reading those posts.  But me?  Writing one of my own?  Not so much.  I often get asked how I have time to keep up with this blog and the truth is that I have time because I make time.  Writing here and connecting with all of you is important to me, and so I make time.  It’s not that coming up with the perfect list of Christmas cookies isn’t important to me, but I’d rather use my precious blogging time to just write.  And avoid doing laundry.

You are most likely up to your eyeballs in cookie recipes these days but I thought I would send just one your way.  These are a favorite of mine.  I like that they look holiday-ish but aren’t the traditional cut-outs with frosting and sprinkles.  (I hate making those but my kids and husband love decorating and eating those, so guess who wins that battle?)  I made these a few years back for a cookie exchange with my preschool co-op friends and I was surprised at how quickly they flew off my tray.  They have been a staple ever since.  I have always dipped one end in the white chocolate but feel free to dip the whole bottom part in as Gaby did.  Much prettier.  And speaking of dipping, white chocolate can be a little temperamental.  I suggest buying the good stuff, like Lindt, which melts up better.


Holiday
Biscotti with Cranberries and Pistachios
Adapted from Bon Appétit
Makes about 3 dozen

2 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
6 tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. whole aniseed
1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
¾ cup natural unsalted pistachios (salted and roasted work fine too)
6 oz. white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Sift first three ingredients into a medium bowl.  Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl to blend well.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Mix in lemon peel, vanilla, and aniseed.  Beat in flour mixture just until blended.  Stir in cranberries and pistachios – dough will be sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Gather dough together; divide in half.  Flour your hands and pat each half into a 15-inch log, about 1 ¼ inches wide.  Carefully transfer logs to one of the prepared sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.  Bake logs until almost firm to touch but still pale, about 28 minutes.

Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes.  Maintain oven temperature.  Carefully transfer logs to cutting board, leaving the parchment paper on the baking sheet.  Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise into generous ½-inch slices.  Use a sawing motion to start each cut and then apply gentle pressure to finish, this will minimize crumbling.  Place slices, 1 cut side down, on the paper lined sheets.  Bake until firm and pale golden, about 12 minutes per side.  Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

Place the white chocolate in a tall deep bowl and place the bowl over simmering water.  Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.  Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally, and do not let any steam get into the bowl (that would make the chocolate seize.)  Remove from over water.  Dip 1 end of each cookie into melted chocolate, tilting bowl if necessary; shake off excess chocolate.  Place cookies on a waxed paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes.  (Can be made 5 days ahead.  Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)



The Best (?) Brownie

December 18, 2010

Okay.  Allllllll right.  Deep breath.

Ever since I can remember, I have adored the combination of chocolate and caramel.  I grew up in a house where my mom cooked good and healthy food almost every night.  But there were also cabinets that housed candy bars, chips, and cookies, and there were always several kinds of ice cream in the freezer.  For dessert each night, we could have candy if we chose and I knew where my priorities lay.  My favorite was a Marathon bar (whatever happened to those?) but I would gladly settle for Rolos, or the Rice Krispie studded $100,000 Bar.  Once in a great while, there would be a gigantic Carmello from which I was allowed to break off a row.  My mom favored Cadbury chocolate with nuts (something I still don’t understand), so the Carmello was mine and I loved every square of it.

Now, I don’t know who started the salted caramel frenzy but I think it might have been Fran.  Do you have Fran’s chocolate where you live?  She of the Gold Bar or the truffles or the simple salted caramels.  Fran started her empire in a small shop located in the neighborhood where I went to school.  There was no bus service and both my parents worked, so I had to wait until about 5pm if my mom could pick me up and until after 7pm if it was my dad.  On those long days, more often than not, I would walk up to Fran’s and treat myself to something.  Sometimes it was just a truffle (although nothing is ever just a truffle in my world) and when I was feeling flush, I had a mini chocolate torte.  This mound of heaven was a crisp chocolate shell with a layer of dark chocolate ganache inside and topped with a generous amount of chocolate mousse.  It was garnished with the most delicate of candied violets and it was served on the cool side so you could eat it out of hand without leaving tell-tale traces of mousse on your face.

Ahem.  Let’s bring it back around to the brownies, shall we?  I find brownies difficult to photograph.  And there is no way to make you understand through pictures how amazing these are.  Are they so very different than the original Baked brownies?  Not very.  But different enough for me to make them, write about them, and plan on making them again next week.  The caramel is subtle here but so welcome against the backdrop of the rich chocolate.  Maybe I’m not clear.  If I were to be offered a last meal, I would have a bit of a hard time deciding an entrée but dessert would be a brownie.  I love chocolate cake but there is something pure about a brownie.  And this brownie is the best.  At least I think it is.  Maybe I should have another one to make sure.

Oh, and by the way.  I have a back log of things I need to tell you about.  I’m thinking a post a day until Christmas.  What do you think?

One Year Ago: Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Two Years Ago: Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread

Sweet & Salty Brownie
Baked Explorations
Makes 12 large brownies or 24 small ones

For the filling
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp. fleur de sel
¼ cup sour cream

For the brownie
1¼ cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1½ cups sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the assembly
1½ tsp. fleur de sel
1 tsp. coarse sugar

Make the caramel
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with ¼ cup water, stirring them together carefully so you don’t splash the sides of the pan.  Cook over high heat until an instant-read thermometer reads 350ºF, or until the  mixture is dark amber in color (keep a close eye on the caramel at all times, as it goes from golden brown to black and burnt very quickly), 6 to 8 minutes.  Remove from the heat, and slowly add the cream (careful, it will bubble up) and then the fleur de sel.  Whisk in the sour cream.  Set aside to cool.

Make the brownie
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light-colored metal 9-by-13-inch pan.  Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper, and butter the parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of the double boiler set over a pan of simmering water, and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined.  Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both sugars.  Whisk until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan.  The mixture should be at room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined.  Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined.  Add the vanilla and stir until combined.  Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or the brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate.  Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture visible.

Assemble the Sweet & Salty Brownie
Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula.  Drizzle about ¾ cup of the caramel sauce over the brownie layer in a zigzag pattern, taking care to make sure the caramel does not come in contact with the edges of the pan or it will burn.  Use your offset spatula to spread the caramel evenly across the brownie layer.  In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the caramel layer.  Smooth the brownie batter gently to cover the caramel layer.

Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan.  The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and coarse sugar.  Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.  The brownies can be stored, tightly wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.  (DT: I find them easier to get out of the pan neatly when they have rested a bit in the refrigerator.)



Pumpkin Spice Cookies for Fall

October 31, 2010

When I mentioned to Graham that I was making pumpkin cookies for his kindergarten class Halloween party, I don’t think this is what he had in mind.  Say “pumpkin cookies” to an almost six year old and there are visions of giant round cookies with orange frosting and sprinkles.  I realized this later.

So no, this pumpkin cookie is not what Graham had in mind, but that did not stop him from devouring several.  And I have to say, they were a hit in the classroom with kids and adults alike.  Although we are just hours from trick or treating, I wanted to share this recipe because it really isn’t a Halloween recipe, it’s more of just a good fall recipe.  The cookies are really more like little cakes – very soft with the raisins providing bits of sweetness and a little texture.  The cookie itself is not all that sweet but that little bit of (easy) frosting really makes them a treat.

I have made these cookies for lots of different people over the years and everyone always seems to be delighted by them.  My only criticism is that they don’t keep well, so be sure to eat them within a day or so.  In my house, that is not a big problem.

Pumpkin Cookies Previously on Dana Treat: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
One Year Ago: Braided Challah (I’m making it this week!)
Two Years Ago: Zucchini Soup

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appétit
Makes about 2 dozen

I make my cookies on the large side using a release-mechanism ice cream scoop.  If you choose to make yours smaller, you will – of course – get more cookies.

Cookies
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (packed) light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp. pure maple syrup
1 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
1 tsp. grated orange peel
1 tsp. maple extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground allspice
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup raisins

Orange Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tsp. orange juice
1 tsp. grated orange peel

For the cookies
Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Line large heavy baking sheets with parchment paper.  Beat first 5 ingredients in large bowl until well blended.  Add pumpkin, orange peel, maple extract, cinnamon and allspice and beat to blend.  Mix flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.  Add to pumpkin mixture and beat until just combined.  Mix in raisins.

Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets.  Bake cookies until edges are golden brown and centers are firm to touch, about 10 to 12 minutes.  Transfer to racks and cool completely.

For the Glaze
Whisk all the ingredients for the glaze together in a small bowl.  You want a thick glaze but it should still be drizzle-able.  If it is too thick, add drops of orange juice to thin it out slightly.  Drizzle Orange Glaze over cookies.  Let stand until glaze sets, about 30 minutes.



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