Chocolate Chip Walnut Cocoa Nib Cherry Cookies

I finally got up the guts to blog a bit more. It's been a while, I know. I could make excuses until you felt like slapping me in the face but I won't. I'll save my face and your soul. Guys, I'm just kinda tired and my bedtime is ever so slowly creeping up to 7:00pm. Not that extreme, but definitely something like 10:00pm. A girl can dream.

But these cookies need little introduction. The cherry season was too short this season and my craving was never fully fulfilled. My pit spiting was never perfect and not enough cherry pies were made. I just had to work with what nature gave me and used some dried cherries. And the combination of cherry and chocolate.

I brought these suckers to "A's" work BBQ and I'm proud to say they were the first baked good to run out. As I've been in a bit of a baking lull lately, I've been riding that back-patting train for a while now. So I present with little comment some of the greatest "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" cookies this little Madison kitchen has ever produced.

  

Oatmeal Walnut Cherry Cocoa Nib Cookies

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) goat butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup cocoa nibs
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, add butter and sugars.  Beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beat in eggs.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for one minute on medium speed between each addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add flour mixture all at once to the butter and egg mixture.  Beat on low speed until the mixture just comes together, don't fret if there are still some pockets of flour (they'll be taken care of later.)
4. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. With a spatula, mix in the oats, walnuts, cherries, cocoa nibs, and chocolate chips. Make sure no flour pockets remain.
5. Scoop dough out by the tablespoonful onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes until toasted brown on top.  Remove from the oven.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Three days.  It took three days for me to make this batch of cookies.  No, it isn't because this is an overly complicated recipe that calls for tricks to get them just right.  Or just because I said so.  These cookies took three days to make because of one big thunderstorm and three days without power.
These cookies had the destiny of being a Father's Day present for my Grandpa.  He loves the flavor combination of mint and chocolate.  Mint Chocolate ice cream, mint chocolate cake, mint chocolate…. oh, you get the idea.  I knew I wouldn't have time to make them on Saturday, so I decided to make them Friday night with the hope of giving them to him Sunday morning.  Oh, how fate decided to intervene.  Around 8 pm on Friday night, with everything mise en place, I began mixing up all the ingredients.  As with all cookies I make, I stuck them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to work their magic.  If you're one of those people who can always predict the end of romantic comedies, you know what happens next.  The power went out.  Now this is Michigan, and I live in a neighborhood that's in the "country" (the suburban definition of country), so I didn't expect it to last long.  Maybe just a few hours of overnight.  Still, I couldn't open up the fridge, lest I let out some precious chilled air, to put plastic wrap over the bowl.  I went to bed dreaming of being able to bake the cookies in the morning.

I was wrong.  And severely disappointed.  The power was still not on, but my dad ran out to Home Depot at 7 am to buy a generator to save the food in our fridge.  It went on like this until when we came home from a Father's Day lunch on Sunday late afternoon.  While the power was on, I quickly baked the cookies and they turned out wonderfully.  They were so light and soft, but there was still a nice 'shell' around the cookie.  Ironically, the power went out again the next day (but only for a few hours) because DTE needed to fix something that was damaged during the storm.

So, the secret to making the perfect cookie?  Have the power go out, use a generator to power the refrigerator for three days and once the power goes on, frantically make the cookies before the power goes out again.

Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flower
• 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream the butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes until fluffy.  Add sugars and beat for 3 to 5 minutes.  This is crucial, the sugar crystals puncture tiny holes in the butter making it fluffy, ultimately resulting in a soft and fluffy cookies.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined.  Add in the salt, extracts and baking soda, beat in.
3. Add in the cocoa powder and beat in (if you're not confident is your stills to beat in cocoa powder without covering yourself with cocoa powder shrapnel spewing from the bowl, feel free to use a spatula).
4. Once combined, beat in the flour ½ cup at a time.  Once combined, stir and fold on chocolate chips.
5. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes.  During this time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
6. Using a small sized cookie scoop, or a tablespoon, make small balls of dough and place 1 ½ inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Happy Father's Day, Grandpa!!

Fudgey Brownies

I have a very sad story.  Last Tuesday my hard drive died; as in it froze, burnt out, stopped working and ceased to exist.  Then because the last time I used Time Machine to back-up my computer was March 16th, I lost two weeks worth of data, including 5 recipes worth of photos.  Needless to say I was stressed.  But in the time between my hard drive dying, getting a new one on, re-installing OS X and restoring my hard drive I decided I need to bake.

If you have been reading my blog, you would know that I love Mollie Katzen's "The New Moosewood Cookbook."  Her entrees are some of my favorite I have ever made, but I haven't made too many of her desserts.  I usually prefer to develop my own.  But these brownies, oh, they are amazing.  I think the last time I made them was two years ago when I was living out in New Mexico working at Philmont and I felt it was time to make them again.  These brownies are incredibly fluffy, while still being dense and fudgey, and the crumb has a wonderful texture.  To enhance them even further I added some chocolate chips and ground cinnamon (it adds an incredible depth to chocolate).

Moosewood's Fudgey Brownies
Adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook
Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 5 oz of baking chocolate
• 1 ¾ cups light brown sugar, packed
• 5 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Let soften 2 sticks of butter (don't melt it)
2. Melt the 5 oz. baking chocolate with a doubler boiler. Let cool.
3. Cream the butter with 1 3/4 cups (packed) light brown sugar and 5 eggs until light and fluffy. Add 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract. Beat in the melted, cooled chocolate.  Stir in flour, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 ½ cups of semisweet chocolate until just combined.
4. Spread into a buttered 9x13" baking pan. Bake 20-30 minutes (mine took more like 40 minutes, but once again, I have a student housing oven) at 350 degrees.
5. Cut immediately after removing from the oven and wait about 10 minutes until serving.

Double Dark Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

I have been challenged... Challenged by Lester Graham to a BISCOTTI BAKE-OFF! Don't know who Lester Graham is? Don't know why I was challenged? Well, I'll tell you. On Wednesday, I had my first day as the Production Assistant/Intern for The Environment Report, a syndicated public radio show that airs on public radio stations (including NPR) daily at 5:45 (I really recommend you tune in). Lester, who is the Host/Senior Editor saw my food blog, saw that I can make biscotti, and said that he is the master of biscotti baking. Never turning down the opportunity for a challenge, I bet Lester that I could bake a better biscotti than him, thus leading to the Environment Report Biscotti Bake-Off of 2009. Tomorrow morning around 10 am, the battle will commence and a winner should be announced by afternoon. Stay tuned for results...

Double Dark Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Adapted from Gourmet, December 1994

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a large baking sheet.
2. In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined well. Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough. Fold in/mush in with hands the walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. On prepared baking sheet with floured hands form dough into two slightly flattened logs, each 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.
4. On a cutting board cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Flip over the biscotti pieces and cook again for 10 minutes, until crispy. Cool biscotti on a rack