Christmas Cookie Party

To kick off the Christmas cookie baking season, I made these delicious chocolate crackle cookies a few weeks. True, to form, the holiday season has been a whirlwind ever since and my list of baking hopes and dreams remains very, very long. 

Last weekend, Alicia hosted a cookie baking/exchange party at her festive home. I love a good cookie, as well as the opportunity to sample an assortment. Last year, Alicia and I spent a joyous Sunday afternoon baking (8 or so different varieties of cookies) until our hearts were content. 

Adorning our festive aprons pre-baking last year

Admitting to ourselves that we may have slightly overdone things last year, we vowed to keep our recipes to a minimum and extended the invitation to the rest of our group as well. It ended up turning into more of a cookie exchange than baking due to the number of people participating, but it with Christmas music in the air, it was just the push I needed to kick-start my somewhat lagging Christmas spirit. 

Alicia and Dan's amazing Santa bathroom set made it impossible not to embrace my inner [very excited] child

Limiting myself to one type of cookie for this year's bake-off, I found myself returning to a recipe that I'd made last year during our day of Christmas cookies. This time, the addition of mini chocolate chips made the end result a little ball of chocolate happiness!

Hidden Hershey Kisses

Ingredients

Adapted from Tastebook

• Approx 48 Hershey's Kisses (I used a mix of hugs and the dark chocolate version)
• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Similar to the peppermint patty brownies, there was a lot of unwrapping involved

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375°F

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until well blended

3. Add flour to butter mixture; blend until smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips

4. Mold a tablespoon dough around each chocolate piece, covering completely. Shape into balls; place on ungreased cookie sheet

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool completely

6. After cookies have cooled, melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave bowl for 30 seconds, followed by 15 second intervals. Stir between each cook time until smooth

7. Drizzle chocolate over each cookie. Place cookies in refrigerator until chocolate hardens (about 30 minutes) or in the freezer (10 minutes) to speed up the process

Thanksgiving Recap: Part 2

Ok, I promise, this is my last Thanksgiving-related post. As much as it pains me to admit, fall has come and gone for another year. The ground was littered with leaves during my morning commute today and, despite the fact that I was listening to Christmas music, I cried a little on the inside. But, I have saved (in my not so humble opinion) the best for last. It's dessert time people! 

So, when last we left my Thanksgiving adventures, TF was joining my family for Thanksgiving dinner and I was all abuzz (to loosely summarize yesterday's post). After crafting some mad mac and cheese, it was dessert time. This is where my talents have always lied and, despite my improvements in the cooking arena, dessert is still where I shine. As I alluded to yesterday, I was both on a mission to outdo last-year-Gian, as well as impress TF with my rapidly improving culinary skills. And so, I committed with full confidence to make FOUR desserts for this year's feast....only one of which I'd made before. And so the madness began...

Dessert #1: Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Redo 

I made this one for the first time the week before Thanksgiving for my awesome day of work-Thanksgiving (also known as the day we got to spend most of the day eating Thanksgiving food outside the office...still one of the best work days ever). I made this one again because it was so delicious and I didn't get nearly enough of it the first time around. Also, I can't have Thanksgiving without something pumpkin-inspired on the table, I'm old school like that.

Dessert #2: Mini Apple Pies

I have a lot of food issues to take into account in my family. My sister and I are vegetarians, my aunt and grandmother can't eat chocolate, and my mom prefers her desserts to only be chocolate. Not sure that my grandmother would receive my pumpkin cheesecake well (she's 87 and pretty set in her ways), I wanted to make an additional chocolate-free item for her to try out. 

Next to pumpkin, apple is my favorite go-to fall baking ingredient. I made my first apple pie last Christmas, but since I was already juggling so many dishes I wanted something slightly easier....enter the mini apple pie. I only have two regrets with this dish--1) that I didn't make the crust from scratch (again, I had to pick my battles...I'm notorious for over-extending myself); and 2) I didn't have a tiny leaf cookie cutter to make the tops prettier. Live and learn. They were still delish...even my chocolate loving mother liked them! 

Ingredients [makes 12]

Original recipe found here

• 4 cups Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 12 Tbsps all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 4 tsps of cinnamon (I let them overflow a little because I LOVE cinnamon)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 4 Tbsps chilled butter, cut into 12 equal portions  
• 1 box (2 crusts) of Pillsbury pie crusts (next time I'm making my own!)

Preparation

1. Unroll your pie crust and begin to cut circles out. Continue this until you have 12 mini crusts. Save the excess dough to make to crust for the tops after the mini pies are filled

Oddly, one of my favorite parts--I used the top of a large glass, but a mason jar lid would work as well

2. Peel and dice apples. Unfortunately, I found this part to be the most tiresome as my mother, the anti-cook likes to keep her kitchen sans fun tools (no apple peeler or slicer for me) and I forgot to bring my own. I rallied though

No matter where I bake, my faithful assistant is always by my side :)

3. Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine apple pieces with cinnamon, flour, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Toss until thoroughly coated

4. Grease and flour muffin tin, then line with mini pie crusts. Nice trick the original creator shared, slightly pinch down the sides so that they stay afloat prior to being filled

5. Fill crusts with apple mixture and gentle push down into pan. Place slice of butter on top of each (I definitely forgot this step and had to yank them out of the oven midway through to add the butter to the top....this was my last dish of the day so my brain was a little fried). Top with excess dough to create a fun crust (this is where I wish I had a leaf cookie cutter)

6. Bake at 400 for 18 to 22 minutes or until crusts begin to brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Since we served these the next day, I stored them in the tin overnight, then covered them with foil and warmed for about 10 minutes in the oven to recreate the fresh from the oven taste!

Dessert #3: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Frosting and Mini Chocolate Chips

TF is a fairly picky eater as well (although I've made some progress in expanding his food horizons), but luckily he shares my mother's love of chocolate. When we last had Thanksgiving together I insisted that we bring dessert. TF has a couple baking specialties, but chocolate chip cookies are kind of what he's known for (at least in our circle ;)). While our creation used both a boxed cake mix and icing from a can (shake of head, shake of head), we did use homemade cookie dough...although it was not sans egg, so it's somewhat of a miracle no one got sick. Nevertheless, it was delicious and pretty much the biggest cake I've ever made. I would not be doing this story justice without some throwback pics...

TF adding the cookie dough filling on top of layer #1

I forgot about our brilliant idea to add chips to the middle as well....may need to do a remake of this cake in its entirety soon

Behold, the finished masterpiece. We gave away hunks of this cake to our law school classmates and it still took over a week to get rid of it all!

It was from this cake that I drew inspiration for the final two desserts of Thanksgiving 2012:

30 Minute Chocolate Cake Ingredients
Courtesy of a family recipe I discovered 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda (dissolved in buttermilk)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 sticks margarine
• 3 Tbsps cocoa powder
• 1 cup water

Chocolate Mousse Icing Ingredients

• I'll be honest, I kind of made this by accident. I was trying to recreate this one, but it came out super light and fluffy instead. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I did it (I think my butter was softened too much). So I'll just encourage you to experiment or trust google for this part :)

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 400 F

2. Mix sugar and flour in large bowl

3. Combine margarine, water, and cocoa in a small pot on the stove. Heat to a boil and mix until margarine is dissolved

4. Pour over flour and sugar, mix well

5. Add eggs, buttermilk/baking soda mix, and vanilla. Mix until combined

6. Pour into pan (I used a bundt pan for fun) and bake until cooked through (about 35 minutes)

7. Once cooled, icing and cover with as many mini chips as desired

Dessert #4: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffle Balls

Since mother doesn't share TF's love of cookie dough, I made these to incorporate the cookie dough element from the original cake into our dessert spread this year. Unlike the original, however, these were from an egg-less recipe, but so good that they were equally as addicting as the real thing.

Ingredients

Courtesy of Cooking Classy 

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, chopped (about 1/2 - 1/3 their original size)
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, for melting/drizzling 

Chopping the chocolate was more fun than I thought it would be....I seriously had so much fun cooking all these desserts, it's kind of ridiculous

Preparation

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt until pale and fluffy about 3 - 4 minutes
2. Stir in cream and vanilla extract. Add in flour and mix just until combine (dough will seem dry at first but it will come together)
3. Mix in chopped chocolate chips. Scoop dough out 1 equal tablespoon at a time and roll into balls
4. Place on parchment or wax paper and chill. I chilled mine overnight, but that was due mostly to time
5. If drizzling with chocolate, place 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave on 50% power in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth
6. Using a spoon, drizzle chocolate over cookie dough balls (or you can use a ziplock bag with a hole cut in the tip). I knew TF would care more about taste than presentation, so wasn't into dealing with the bag....and I was right

And so concludes Thanksgiving 2012. Congrats if you made it all the way through this epic post, I didn't realize how long it would end up being?! Now, onto many, many days of Christmas baking!!

Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

Many years ago, circa 2004, when I got my first apartment during my sophomore year of college, I was convinced there were certain things that I needed to make it feel complete. Among these were the basics: furniture, dishes, etc. And then there were the "fun" items. To this day, the "fun" item that stands out the most is a cookbook I found while browsing books at Goodwill. It was in near perfect condition and entirely devoted to one of my favorite things in the world: cookies! There's no way I wasn't buying it. 

If there's one thing I love in a recipe, it's a nice, colorful picture. I think that's why I was sucked into Pinterest so quickly...all the pictures mesmerize me! 

Unfortunately, since acquiring this book 8 years ago, I have maybe made one recipe out of it. Yes, you heard me correctly. I've made one out of 1,000 cookie recipes. The poor book has mostly been moved from kitchen to kitchen, and thousands of miles across the country but has yet to truly fulfill its life's purpose. Today, I took a step towards fixing that.

I'm off to Oklahoma next week for Labor Day weekend and had considered playing a little game with myself until then--no desserts. That game lasted, as it typically does, an incredibly short amount of time (until about 4:00 this afternoon). I was simply not meant to go dessert free. And so, I broke out my long-neglected cookie cookbook and began to scout.

As with most of my recipes, the one I settled on was driven by my current desire for double chocolate chip cookies. I've never attempted these and was hoping against hope that I could get them to rise to the level of the one that I often get from one of my favorite bakeries. For my first time out of the gate with these, I think I came pretty close! 

White Chocolate Biggies

[Adapted from The Great American Cookie Cookbook]

Yummy, yummy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder [I'm obsessed with Hershey's Special Dark]
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 package (10 ounces) white chocolate chips

The picture that caught my eye

Ready to go in the oven

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper
2. Beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl; blend into butter mixture until smooth. Stir in white chocolate chips
3. Drop dough by 1/3 cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing about 4 inches apart. Press each cookie to flatten slightly
4. Bake 12-14 minutes or until firm in center. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet, then remove to wire racks to cool completely

Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Twist

I love work from home days. Who wouldn’t right?! I don’t have to get dressed up in fancy clothes and, even more important this time of year,  get to avoid hiking to the metro in the blazing heat. It’s amazing how much better of a mood I’m in when I don’t have to start my day with sweat pouring off my face. Today was one of those heinously hot and humid mornings in DC that made me dread having to trek into the office. Surprisingly, it didn’t start out that way (Shepherd dog and I actually had a very nice walk, followed by an equally nice run for me through our nation’s Capitol), but by the time I was ready to leave for work the sun was high overhead and the air was so sticky that I was almost certain I would kill someone with my bare hands, or sweat to death, en route to the metro. Yes, the heat makes me slightly irritable…in case you couldn’t tell. Luckily, neither happened, although I did almost start shouting at people to move before ultimately slamming into someone en route to the train (aside from cooler weather, I most look forward to fall because it means the number of tourists in the city plummets back to more manageable levels).

Thankfully, yesterday was one of my weekly work from home days and thus I was able to avoid having to start my day in a dither. The other thing I love about work from home days is that they give me a chance to cook during the week, something I’m usually too tired to do with any level of creativity on a normal work day. For the past couple of weeks it seemed as though my sweet tooth had forsaken me, but I’m happy to report that it has since returned. Consequently, I’ve been all about baking cookies lately. Still slightly craving the fun butterscotch number I whipped up for my day trip with Mother to la playa (beach), I decided to see if I could find a comparable substitute. And I succeeded.

You may recall the time when I decided to be brave an venture into the chocolate chip cookie arena. Well, yesterday, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies with a twist. In conferring with one of the chocolate chip cookie makers extraordinaire in my life (TF), I was informed that my recipe name was stolen from him (although in all the years we’ve known each other I swear I’ve never heard him refer to them like that). Because my twist is different (and some may say more fun), however, I’m going to keep the title J These cookies combine two of my favorite baking ingredients—cinnamon and oats. And, for an additional bit of fun, use white chocolate chips. Yum, yum, YUM!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Twist

Ingredients
Adapted from How Sweet Eats-makes 15-20 cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined, about 2 minutes
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon with the mixer on medium speed. Beat in oats. Mix until dough comes together
4. Fold in chocolate chips
5. Remove dough from fridge and roll into big 1 1/2 inch balls. Set on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

Happy Belated 4th of July Part I

I've always enjoyed the 4th of July. Growing up, we were usually in Maryland for the 4th and would spend the day swimming and having a big family cookout, topped off by chasing each other around with sparkles. As Sister and I got older, we discovered the wonder that is fireworks. Sister's high school dance team always made the dancers and their families (thankfully, I was always spared from that nightmare due in part to my own summer job, and in part to my inability to deal with people in a friendly manner in the heat) work at the local fireworkstand as part of their fundraising activities. As a result, Sister got the inside scoop on the best fireworks of the season, allowing us to light up our cul-de-sac in celebration of America's freedom (and Sister's freedom from the stand).

Since moving to the District, my celebrations have consisted more of watching the fireworks from a rooftop rather than setting off my own, but the food has remained my favorite part. This year, since the 4th feel at the worst possible time (despite working from home on Thursday, returning to work at all after a holiday was nothing short of torturous) I got to have two celebrations (which was thrilling to me since we know how much I love to stretch out a holiday) and, more importantly, afforded me mulitple opportuntities to share my with cooking with the masses!

First up, a cookout and fireworks with friends on the "real" 4th. My usually dominant sweet tooth had hit a lull as of late, but to my joy, it returned just in time to inspire me to make a fun dessert creation for the cookout. My original inspiration was found here, but as I found myself lacking both m&ms and chocolate chips, I decided to put my own spin on the recipe, even topping it with a little buttercream for an extra sweet kick!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I chopped up some mini hershey's bars since I was out of chocolate chips)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 F and grease baking pan (I used an 8inch round cake pan)
2. Cream butter and sugar, then add in egg and vanilla extract and blend
3. Combine flour and baking soda in seperate bowl, then mix with butter/sugar mixture until completely incorporated
4. Fold in chocolate and spread into cake pan
5. Bake for 18-25 minutes (depending on oven temperature...my oven cooks faster than most recommended baking times)
6. Cool completely (I cooled mine overnight)
7. Once cooled, icing (once again, turning to my favorite buttercream recipe) and cut into bite size pieces (I also added some festive sprinkles for the occassion)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Sammies

The Mexican fiesta TF and I created did not disappoint our tastebuds or our stomaches. Since no good meal is complete without dessert (also known as my favorite part of any meal), we had to go big or go home if we wanted the dessert to be able to hold a candle to dinner.

There are two things you likely know about me by this point in my blogging: I love to be given a crowd for which I can try out a new dessert recipe and my chocolate chip cookie skills leave a lot to be desired. When we first started brainstorming the menu for this feast, I was lobbying for an opportunity to finally try my hand at some homemade whoopie pies. TF wasn't completely sold on the idea and wanted chocolate involved. As a compromise, I proposed another new treat I'd had laying in wait for a while: cookie sandwiches (or sammies as I more affectionately like to call them). He was sold. 

At first I was going to make chocolate chip cookies and fill them with my favorite buttercream frosting a la Martha, but then I realized I had one of the two chocolate chip cookie masters in my life at my disposal and it would be silly for us to waste our time with any other chocolate chip cookie! With that stroke of genius, our plan to turn everyone in the house into a diabetic by nightfall was almost complete (not really...but the finished product was definitely over the recommended daily sugar intake). 


Unfortunately, this is where the post gets a little anticlimactic. I can say with near 100% certainty that TF would kill me if I shared his chocolate chip cookie recipe. I value my life at the moment, so I'm going to have to keep that secret to myself (not that he's entrusted me with the recipe per se, but through years of serving in the role of assistant I have figured it out...shhhh). The icing infused in the middle of these sugary treats is, like I said, a la Martha, and one I turn to frequently as it never lets me down. I encourage you to try this super easy and delicious combo with your favorite cookie recipe, it'll will be well worth it. If you're looking to avoid a stomach ache, keep the cookies much smaller than we did!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge

For most of my cooking tenure, I have avoided chocolate chip cookies like the plague. This is not because I am anti-chocolate chip cookies, on the contrary, I love a good chocolate chip cookie (and even more, the raw dough...despite all the times my mother told me not to eat it growing up...and from time to time now). I avoid making chocolate chip cookies because two bakers very close to me (sister and TF) make some of the most epicly amazing chocolate chip cookies that have ever crossed my taste buds and I know I could never measure up to their impossibly high standards. Over the years, I've lived with both of them and having my own cookie baker on hand was a definite perk. Usually, if I asked nicely (or, if they were feeling defiant, whined) both could be persuaded to whip up a batch for me :) Unfortunately, from time to time, I'm pressured to say who's version I like best. I hate that game and in truth, there is no winner. Both are different in taste and ingredients and I continue to love them equally.


Now that my baking skills are evolving, and my current roommate has four paws and no baking skills to speak of (or at least none that she's decided to reveal to me), I decided it was time to conquer my fear of making chocolate chip cookies. I actually found this recipe a while back, made it and loved it, but forgot to photograph my finished product. Blogger fail. Luckily, I froze half the dough the first time around, so when I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies the other day, my photo redo opportunity presented itself and I can now share my attempt at chocolate chip cookies. Still not as good as the work sister and TF do in this area, but it's a good tie over when they aren't around to make the real thing.

Chocolate Chip Cookies a la Gian
Courtesy of All Recipes


Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely