Amaretto Almond Biscotti

It's real talk story telling truth time and I have an embarrassing confession to make… I'm not quite what you would call a "sweets" person. Which is weird because one of my all-time favorite activities is baking (one could only assume after perusing around on my blog for even just a minute). Nothing melts away stress or puts a smile on my face faster than being elbow-deep in dough and listening to the whirling of my stand mixer whipping together fat and sugar.

It still doesn't mean I would pick it over a crusty loaf of bread with some goat cheese. Or peanut butter. Or figs. Or really, really, dark chocolate. Or… I've better stop myself now. Just know that the way to win me over is with bread and spicy curry. Not a candy bar.

But if you brought me some biscotti? Game over. I'm done, all yours for the taking. Biscotti is my biggest weakness - it's a crispy crunchy not-really-sweet dessert breakfast item. I love brunch. I love crunch. Put those two together and you got biscotti. My kryptonite. 

As I lean towards indecisiveness, I presented "A" with two options earlier this week: biscotti or cookies. This post kinda hints at what he chose. To keep my ravenous self at bay, I sent him off to work with a good sized Tupperware filled to the brim and told him to share. I hope he's at least getting popular...

If you want to be the coolest chap at the office, I recommend you make some too! Or just give them to me and I'll do your (evil) bidding.

Amaretto Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:

• 2 cups almonds
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon amaretto or 2 tablespoon rum with 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup cocoa nibs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spread the almonds in an even layer over a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until toasted, carefully stirring once halfway through to prevent burning. Let cool for 10 minutes.
3. In the bowl of your food processor, combine 1/2 cup toasted almonds, 1 tbs sugar and pulse until finely ground. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pulse three times to mix.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, vanilla, amaretto and remaining sugar on high until fluffy and thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture. Fold in the whole almonds and cocoa nibs.
5. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
6. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Wet your hands with water, divide the dough in half and form into two loaves, about 2″ by 10″ (the dough will be thick and sticky). Smooth the tops to create a flat surface and bake for 40 minutes, until golden.
7. Remove the loaves from the oven. Using a bread knife or a very sharp chefs knife, diagionally slice the loaves into 1/2″ cookies and bake for another 20 minutes, flipping cooking halfway through, until crispy.
8. Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing. To retain crispness, put the cookies in an airtight container as soon as they are completely cool. Biscotti may be stored airtight for several weeks.

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.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

So, Superbowl was how long ago?  A month?  Maybe a month and a half… oh, who really cares.  Better late than never, right?  I've proposed a lot of questions to in the first few sentences, but this is a fact, cookies are cookies and no matter what time of year it is and the only thing that changes is how they are decorated.


As I've already mentioned, the slew of food I made for the Superbowl will be the main focus of the next 6 or 7 posts.  Yes, I made a lot of food but what do you expect?  One of my favorite things to do is to cook for a large crowd and I think I even outdid myself this time.  There were 10 to 15 people crammed into a small Capitol Hill condo and we still had leftovers for the next week.

The reason these sugar cookies are the the typical color of your typical sugar cookies because I made them chocolate in an attempt to provide a decorating shortcut.  However, I realized that they were much darker than actual footballs and I still had to ice the whole thing.  Oh well, maybe it gave them a double dimension of awesomeness?  And yes, I did dye coconut green to make green for the pigskins to rest on.  I'm not an overachiever or ANYTHING... never.  Ever.

However, I thought the chocolate flavor of these was a litter blander than I would have hoped.  Maybe even a little flat.  Next time I make these, I think I am going to adjust the amount of cocoa powder and see if I can get the rick flavor I was striving for.

Lavender Macarons with Honey Dark Chocolate Ganache

These turned out perfectly.  As in, I had not a single issue.  Being that these are macarons we are talking about, I say this with much pleasure and pride.  The first time I made macarons was about year ago and I tried David Lebovitz's safe, trusted and true French chocolate macarons.  I thought those turned out well.  Ohh boy, was I wrong.  They were good, but not compared to these beauties.

As I mentioned in my previous post, it is very important to weigh all of your ingredients when making macarons as the wet to dry ingredient ratio must be perfectly balanced or things could start going tragically awry, i.e. causing the batter to be the incorrect consistency.  Even once you have the right proportions of ingredients, you need to treat them like your favorite child (not like people have them or anything…).  Don't over-beat the egg whites as it could cause the macarons to be all sorts of lumpy, lopsided and misshapen.  But there is a fine line you see because if you don't beat the egg whites enough, the macarons will fail to thrive and there is a good chance you won't get the prized feet.  I am in no way shape or form a master of the macaron, so I recommend you head over to Not So Humble Pie if you have more questions.

I took this picture a few days after I filled the shells because I'm a bad person.  If not a bad person, at least a cookie neglector.  I'm surprised it's not an offense punishable by food blogger law, or if it is and I just don't know it yet, please go easy on me!  I swear, I just got side tracked and I was packing for a trip down to Eugene!

You probably noticed, and if you didn't please make an eye doctors appointment, but the shells are bright purple.  No, there is not that much lavender in them… I just got a little happy with my super fancy, super concentrated food dye.  I was a big girl and bought something other than the squirt bottles you can find at the local Safeway.  Who knew that you only need to use a little bit to achieve the same result as using half a bottle of the supermarket stuff?  Apparently not me…

Now that you're well informed that these are not in fact mutant macarons, they are in my opinion only one notch below Laudree's and 5 notches above the ordinary.  The floral lavender is an unexpected delight to the tongue with the sharp contrast of the extra dark chocolate mellowing everything out.  I would like to note that the chocolate I bought was a smidgen too dark, so I added a little honey to the ganache as I was whipping it up.  Not only do honey and lavender pair wonderfully together, but it made the dark chocolate a little less harsh.

Next time I make these,  I might try a lemon curd filling, lemon, fig, olive oil or vanilla bean filling….hmmmm, suggestions?

Thin Mint Star Cookies

I bet you noticed something is a little different.  No, I didn't get a haircut.  No, I didn't lose 10 pounds (I wish!).  But YES, thank you for noticing, I did redesign The Ginger Cook.  I obviously wanted to keep the whole ginger (read: redhead) color present, but I wanted to strip everything down.  I worked to achieve this by making the background a crisp white and the accent colors two shades of "ginger" and gray.  I made all the "badges" and the header using pixelmator (i.e. Mac photoshop) and in my perfect little dream world, I'm going to update the banner for every season.  Let's see if this will actually happen or not.

All in all, I would say I am really happy with the redesign!  Yes, there are still some things that need to be worked out, but quite honestly, I really need to take a break from coding.  I am not a coder and will never be.  Screaming at my laptop at 2am happened more times than I would like to admit.  There was a lot of "BLERG!  Why won't the font just change??'  U of M, the few web design classes I took did not prepare me for doing it all on my own.  I'm sorry, but it's the truth.  I guess we can just call it even and say you gave me the life skills to be able to be mildly web savvy all by myself.

I would like you apologize, though, for posting a ('holiday') cookie recipe well after Christmas and while most of you are in the throes of your "get healthy" New Years resolutions.  I swear, I'm not trying to be cruel!  I'm trying to be healthy too.  Expect a lot of soups and lentil concoctions in the upcoming weeks.

Though, aren't thin mints good for the soul year round?  Yes, that's right.  These cookies taste almost exactly like thin mints!  We can't be completely dependent on Girl Scouts, they control the cookie market too heavily.  Break out of their controlling grasps and make to your own girl scout cookies - show them who's boss!!  Girl Scouts, I mean you no harm.  I was one until I was in middle school, but your cookies are too good to be seasonal.  It's very frustrating.

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!!

Michigan Sugar Cookies

Michigan: It's America's high-five.  Michigan: It makes an awesome hug (you know what I'm talking about, Bjoern!).  Michigan: Surrounded by lakes and home of many wonderful people and smiling faces.  Did you also know that it makes one cute cookie?

I first got the idea to send "Michigan" care packages off to "Michigan" people scattered across the country a few weeks ago.  Lucky me, I got a set of Michigan cookie cutters for graduation.  Of course there would have to be some Maize and Blue in the package, some sort of baked good (what can I say, I spoil my friends!) and a letter.  Side note: have I mentioned HOW many letters I've been writing this summer?  I love it!  And I love getting actual mail!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program...  I decided to combine two into one - Michigan shaped cookies in Michigan colors!  I'm a genius, you don't need to tell me.  I sent four packages out (flat rate shipping boxes are amazing for this sort of thing): to Zenka in San Diego, Bjoern in Houston, Jake T in Washington DC and one to two LV's, Sam and Alex, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in California (or that's where they were when they got the package).  Sadly, according to Bjoern, his package never got to him, so I wrote him a nice long letter tonight instead.  And if you're reading this Bjoern, I'm sending out more baked goods next week.  This time you WILL get it.

This is my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe.  The almond and lemon are perfectly balanced and the cookie is fluffy but still holds its shape when baked.  Is there anything else you could ask for?  Word to the wise, don't try to start piping royal icing at midnight.  I didn't go to bed until 2 am and still had to remake blue royal icing and re-pipe all the cookies the next morning (the icing wasn't high enough for flooding).

Thank you to all my friends and family who made my experience at the University of Michigan such a wonderful one and even if you didn't get a care package, know I would have sent you one if I had the money to do so! 

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 5 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Parchment Paper, for rolling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
4. Chill dough for 30 minutes in fridge. After chilled, divide the dough into two balls and roll out each one between two pieces of parchment paper.  Once dough is at about a ⅓ of an inch thickness, freeze the sheets of dough for about 20 minutes. Remove from freezer and cut out shapes.  Re-roll dough and re-freeze.  Repeat.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.

Royal Icing:
Ingredients:

• 1 egg white
• 1 & 5/8 cups of powdered sugar
• a few splashes of lemon juice
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Beat together egg white and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form and the icing is shiny.
2. Add in lemon juice and continue beating.  Beat in food coloring.
3. Either pipe icing or spread on cookies.

Lavender Honey Biscotti with a Lemon Glaze

I think next time I have tea with the queen, I'll make these.  They taste so elegant with a hint of the promise of sunny spring weather.  The main reason I made these is because I happened upon some culinary lavender and I really wanted to use it.  Most recipes out on the Internet with lavender are for shortbread cookies or syrups.  I get frustrated most times I make shortbread and I have no use for a syrup.  Then I saw this - wonderful!  I think this may be my favorite biscotti recipe now - it's still so crisp but it's not as sweet as most biscotti's.  And the lemon glaze I decided to top it off with?  Mmmm, I love the tang of lemon.  I brought this into The Environment Report this morning and they all loved it!  If you can recall, Lester challenged me to a "biscotti off" when I first started working there last August.  I wonder how these would fare in a biscotti off, part two...

Lavender Honey Biscotti with a Lemon Glaze

Adapted from bake.mix.stir

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons honey (I used a raspberry infused honey)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon dried lavender blossoms
• Juice of one large lemon
• Approx. ¾ cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until it achieves a light lemon color. Mix in honey, vanilla, zest and lavender. Sift dry ingredients over the wet mixture and mix just until dough is combined.
4. The dough will probably be a little sticky. Cut the dough in half and move one piece of dough to a parchment lined baking sheet. Using lightly floured or wet hands, stretch dough into a rough 13×2″ log. Repeat with remaining dough (you want them to be about 3″ apart on the baking sheet.) Pat down each dough a bit to flatten and to smooth the top. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until firm and golden brown – turning pan once halfway through.
5. Cool the loaves for 5-10 minutes – until you can handle them. Lower the oven temperature to 325.
6. Using a serrated knife, cut each loaf diagonally into 1/4 to 1/2″ slices. Lay slices back on the baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake 15 minutes, until dry, turning over after 7 minutes. Transfer biscotti to wire rack and cool completely.
7. In a bowl with lemon juice, add in powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time until glaze at at the consistency you want.  Drizzle on cooled biscotti and sit until dry to the touch.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies (aka Milk Dud Cookies)

Sorry I haven't been on-top of my blogging!  What's even even worse is that I have been cooking at lot of very healthy things and haven't documented them!  I made some roasted chickpeas (a wonderful snack), some vegetable soup (complete with purple potatoes), browned butter chocolate chip cookies with toasted coconut (for Jessi's farewell snack fest), and a simple pasta dish (for a quick dinner).  Sadly, school has been getting in the way of cooking and more importantly not taking photographs!  I think the biggest reason I've been falling behind is… THE OLYMPICS!  I can't even being to describe how much I LOVE the Winter Olympics.  I can honestly say I love it  more than the Summer Olympics… the snow, the skiing, the figuring skating… and seeing  Russia dominate everyone in hockey (don't worry, I'm still cheering for the USA).  Mainly, the Winter Olympics really make me miss ski racing… it makes me want to run a GS course again.

I have made a lot of desserts in my day (obviously) but all my housemates said that these were the BEST that I have ever made.  The flavor also reminded me of Milk Duds (hence the name).  They are amazing straight out of the oven because the caramel is so gooey, but you can also zap them in the microwave for 5 seconds to get the caramel all gooey again.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookie Recipe Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 bag of caramels, unwrap

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside.
3. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth.
4. Wrap dough ball in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
5. Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into roughly 1 1/2 – 2 inch diameter circles or squares (the shape and precision of the cut section doesn’t really matter since you will be wrapping it around the caramel anyway), brushing extra deposits of flour off the top.
6. Roll the dough around an unwrapped caramel.  Roll the dough back and forth in your hands until it forms a smooth ball.
7. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet (or silpat) for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are firm.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Thin Mints

Don't you hate it when you go to the store to get one or two ingredients that you need for a recipe (but you didn't write it down because you SWORE you knew exactly what you needed)…and then come home to realize that you are missing something?  Cut to yesterday evening.  I was all ready to try making 101 Cookbook's All Natural Dark Chocolate Thin Mints.  I had wanted to try making these forever.  Then after I already softened two sticks of butter, I realized that (uh oh!) I didn't have any powdered sugar!  Alas, my creative culinary skills to the rescue!  I have made chocolate cookies before and didn't use powdered sugar.  And by knowing the basics of recipe ratios, I had to make due with the ingredients I had… and I must say, my results weren't too shabby (I think delicious is the right word).  The wafers weren't as thin as I would have liked because I left the dough in the freezer for a half an hour too long, but as a result the "inside" of the thin mint was so soft and fluffy.  And as I always do with my regular Girl Scout Thin Mints, I might stick a few in the freezer to see how they taste too!

I would also like to note that I successfully tempered chocolate for the first time… AND it was even on accident!  WOW, I never knew tempered chocolate could be so much better; everything dipped smoothly, it dried so much faster and the chocolate was SO shiny!

And in the spirit of Single's Awareness Day, I made the thin mints heart shaped and topped some off with a little bit of red decorating sugar.  Now, to all the hungry boys out there… While I have only once had a true Valentine (not counting all my guy friends that will be my 'valentine' for a day and eat chocolate and watch TV with me), if I DID have a Valentine, he would be on such a sugar high of homemade treats and love… it would be the best Valentine's Day ever.  Just a hint for next year.

Heart Shaped Thin Mints

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cup white sugar
• 2 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon mint extract
• 1 pound of dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tsp (or more) peppermint extract

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add the sugar, and beat until mixed well. Beat in eggs one at a time, then the mint extract.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, and salt together into a small bowl. Add flour mixture by halves into creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.
3. Divide dough in half. Place into ziplock bags, flatten out, and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
5. Allow to thaw for a few minutes and roll out dough.  Cut into desired shapes and place on cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Melt ¾ of the chocolate in a double boiler (aka a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water).  When melted, remove from heat, add peppermint extract and stir some.  Then stir in remaining chocolate until melted.  Dip in cookies, making sure to evenly coat both sides, and tap off excess.  Allow to dry on a silpat, parchment paper, or any other non-stick surface.
7. Share with friends and Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Friday night after work all I wanted to do was bake cookies.  Before meeting Bjoern at Shalimar for lunch (it was Ann Arbor Restaurant Week - aka I can eat at places I usually can't afford), I stopped by Downtown Home & Garden to see if they had received their shipment of knife rolls.  While they didn't have any knife rolls, they DID have a perfect cookie scoop!  AND for $3 less than what it would have cost at Plum market!  So for the rest of the day all I wanted to do was try it out!  And the cool thing is (because the dough is so dense) the cookies looked like little scoops of ice cream!

Next time I make these cookies, I think I will use more peanut butter.  While the taste of peanut butter was present, the chocolate flavor was much more prominent.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (I used natural creamy peanut butter)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F,
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Once the butter and sugar are well combined, stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the peanut butter chips.
3. Drop cookies using a medium sized cookie scoop (or making 2 TBSP sized balls with your hands) onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
4. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until set. Cool on wire racks.

Homemade Caramel Delights (oh yes, they're that good)

I love girl scout cookies.  It becomes really hard for me to resist the girl scouts when they set-up camp outside of the diag - but it's amazing how quickly they drain your bank account!  But ah-ha, I have defeated you little girl scouts, I made my OWN Caramel Delights & I've made my own Thin Mints.  I never have to (but probably will) buy them again.  One tip for making these cookies - try if you can to buy unsweetened coconut.  This cookie is incredibly sweet and I feel that sweetened coconut would be too much.  I also recommend that you use dark chocolate (what I did) to balance out the flavors.  As I am going on a cruise in less than two months, these cookies needed to get out of the house ASAP.  Hence, I ran them over  505 as soon as the chocolate was set.

As a side note, I have been requested to give a shout out to John Truesdell ('The Trues') & Sam Giraud (Mono-Ped).  So, HOLLA Trues & Mono-Ped.

Homemade Caramel Delights

Adapted by Once Upon a Plate

Ingredients for Cookie Base:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• up to 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, next, the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk only as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (you may not need any at all). The dough should come together into a soft, pliable ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough seems sticky.
3. It's easiest to roll the dough out in 2 or 3 batches (between pieces of wax (or parchment) paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or a little thinner) using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined (or on silicone mat) baking sheet and make a hole in the center. I used the small end of a large round piping tip. Nicole comments that you can use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat until the dough is used up (it's okay to re-roll, this dough is shortbread-like and very forgiving.)
4. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are very lightly golden brown around the edges.
5. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, to allow them to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients for Topping: 


• 3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

• 12-ounces good-quality chewy caramels

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons milk

• 8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips will do)

Directions:

1. If you prefer milk chocolate, by all means use that.

 Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F)


Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Watch carefully, especially near the end of toasting time; the coconut toasts very quickly once it begins to become golden.
2. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.  Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it begins to firm up, to make it soft and spreadable once again.
3. 
While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Melt the chocolate using the double boiled method.  Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper.  Use a spoon to drizzle on remaining chocolate (you may need to melt more).
4. 
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Fluffy Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing/Sprinkles

I must regretfully say - I am kinda over the rolled sugar cookie thing.  The first time you roll out the cookies, they turn out well, and then you have to keep adding more and more flour to the board to keep the dough from sticking -- and the last few cookies are so thin and too crispy.  And let's not forget the decorating, oh the decorating.  The first few cookies are fun to decorate, and then you see that you have another 30 or so to carefully decorate.  But these cookies... they are so light, fluffy, and easy to make!  I liked making little "small" fluffy cookies, but feel free to make them into larger balls.  You may just have to adjust the time accordingly.  I pressed some festive Christmas sprinkles into some of them and the others I piped some blue royal icing on.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups granulated sugar*
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 14 Tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

Directions:

1. Spread 1/2 cup of the sugar* in a shallow dish for coating and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl & beaters as needed.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure dough is combined. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.
4. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Using palms, roll 2 Tablespoons of dough at a time into balls, then roll in sugar to coat. Place balls on baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart.
5. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and just beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Allow cookies to cook on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Royal Icing:

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white
• 1 & 5/8 cups of powdered sugar
• a few splashes of lemon juice
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Beat together egg white and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form and the icing is shiny.
2. Add in lemon juice and continue beating.  Beat in food coloring.
3. Either pipe icing or spread on cookies.

Russian Snowballs

Last night I went over to the boy's of 505 house and made THREE different types of christmas cookies.  These russian snowballs are easy to make (very few ingredients) but it was really beneficial to have a food processor to finely chop up the almonds - I can't even image doing that by hand....  These cookies have a nice little "crunch" on the outside but are SO smooth and buttery on the inside - flecked with bits of almonds... mmm.  This would make a great addition to any holiday cookie platter because they don't take long to make and only use one bowl.


Ingredients: 

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup finely chopped almonds or pecans

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Mix thoroughly butter, sugar and vanilla. Work in flour, salt and nuts until dough holds together. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased or parchment lined baking sheet.
2. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set, but not brown. While warm, roll in confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar again.

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Congratulations to all the recent initiates into the Les Voyageurs (i.e. Katie, Jill, Donald, & Brian)!!  I made these cookies for them Thursday night when they were down at The Cabin.  Everyone freaked out over how good they were.  Nate said, “What are these delicious globs of gooey-ness in the cookies?” (the chocolate chunks), Megan declared that these are now her favorite cookies, & I think the true proof of their deliciousness is that fact that they were all eaten in less than an hour.

What I really like about these cookies is that the chocolate chunks go well with the texture & flavor of the chewy gingerbread.  If you must, you can use chocolate chips, but chocolate chunks melt & ‘reform’ differently, complimenting the cookie.  I can tell you that these will now be a staple in my holiday cookie plate.  Also, this is a small-ish batch of cookies, so it's very easy to double.

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from “Martha Stewart’s Cookies”

(makes 2 dozen)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Power… what can I say?  Go dark chocolate or go home.)
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (I rarely actually have my butter at room temperature when a recipe calls for it – pop in the microwave for 15 seconds if you need to)
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated peeled ginger
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfered molasses (I used blackstrap unsulfered)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water
• 7 ounces best-quality semi-sweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (I rolled mine in some powdered sugar, next time I make these I might try raw sugar)

Directions:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and fresh ginger on medium speed until lightened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined
3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn onto plastic wrap. Pat out to a 1-inch thickness; seal with wrap. Refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Chill 20 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar. Bake until surfaces just begin to crack, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Cookies are best the day they are made, but can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies

I finally have my lightbox!  Well, a DIY lightbox that my dad made for me, but it is still fantastic!  Sadly, my cameras ISO was still set to 800 when I was taking pictures... so they are much grainer than I wish they'd be.  These cookies (along with the apple pumpkin muffins) were made with the fresh pumpkin puree that I whipped up yesterday.  These cookies have the texture of cake (see the picture!) but are definitely still a wonderful cookie!  Both my housemates and neighbors loved them (especially the Mickey Mouse shaped cookie for Zenka)!

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies with Dark Chocolate and Butterscotch Chips

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. 
4. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.
5. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips. 
6. Place heaping teaspoons full on batter on the prepared cookie sheet.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 14 minutes. 
8. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PUREE:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Snap the stem off of a pie pumpkin and cut down the middle.
3. In a large rosting or baking pan, place the cut side of the pumpkin down and roast for an hour, or until the pumpkin is soft.
4. Wait until the pumpkin is cool enough to hold and peel off the skin.  Place the pumpkin meat in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
5. Line a colander with cheese cloth and place pureed pumpkin in the colander and drain for at least 4 hours.
6. Use the pumpkin puree right away or freeze in freezer-safe bags and defrost before using.

Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

My mom, dad, and I went to the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market this past weekend and picked up some biscotti when we were there. While the biscotti was good.... it left us wanting more and something a little bit different. So, late last night I decided to make Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti. I brought it into work today (Bivouac), gave it to a neighbor (Mrs. Michaels), and donated some to my parents and it got rave reviews! So if you have a jones for some biscotti and chocolate... and have a little time on your hands, I recommend you make this! As always, I am available for questions on biscotti making and such.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon for the almonds
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
• 2 ounces dark chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup raw unsalted almonds, chopped and toasted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Chop almonds into small pieces using a chef's knife.
3. In a saute pan, on medium heat, toast almond pieces in one tablespoon of olive oil for approximately 2 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar. Mix in the vanilla, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, and eggs.
5. Add 1 cup of flour, then salt, and baking powder, then final 1/2 cup flour.
6. Mix the toasted nuts into the batter.
7. Divide dough in half. Form two logs on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 35 minutes, or until logs are slightly golden. Remove from oven, cool for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 275 degrees.
9. Cut logs at a diagonal angle (approximately 30 degrees) into 3/4″ thick slices.
10. Lay cookies on their sides on parchment cookie sheet. Bake 10 more minutes, flip over and bake for 10 more minutes, remove from oven, cool, and serve.

Makes about 24 biscotti.