Sandwich-a-licious Cookies

I bet you guys thought I was long gone. Well... I was for a while, but I'm back, I promise! In fact, to make up for my long gone-ness, I have an awesome recipe that any self-respecting cookie lover should have in their collection.

Now, what comes to mind when you hear the phrase, 'America's favorite cookie?' apart from a nice warm, chocolate chip cookie, that is. You know, that one well-known name brand that will forever cause family divisions over the table about what's better, the creme or the cookie. Ringing any bells? Good, because I have one that's even better.That's right, you read that correctly. I've found a recipe that will make it easy to walk right on by that classic blue package without a pause.

Look at these beauties: crunchy cookies with a deep, rich chocolate flavor and and smooth, creamy vanilla center. Makes you just want to pour a tall glass of milk and have at 'em. Well, soon you'll be able to. I tried out three different recipes that all boasted having the best texture and flavor.

One had melted butter and chocolate, the second was a classic sounding recipe using the classic cocoa powder and creamed butter technique, and the last recipe used powdered sugar. One full day of shifting things around in my overstuffed fridge to precariously balance a cookie sheet to cool rolled dough and cutting little circles as fast as I could to avoid the stifling heat in the kitchen finally gave way to three very different cookies.

The recipe that involved powdered sugar was the worst. It was too sticky and took forever to cool down only to result in dry cookies with all the oomph of an old piece of toast. It wasn't even worth a picture, so it was out of the running as soon as it left the oven.

Next was the classic cocoa powder and creamed butter recipe, which was okay, but okay isn't going to make people demand more of these every time dessert comes around. I didn't bother with any filling for them, but they did earn a picture:

And then, just as I was losing hope, the first recipe I'd chosen came out of the oven and even the color was perfect. Add the heavenly smell and I was sure I had a winner. Once I tasted them I did a little dance, they were so good. It was a recipe I found in the flour cookbook, by Joanne Chang, who owns Boston's Flour + Cafe, and I have to say, this woman is an excellent storyteller. Every recipe has a tale and the whole book balances the perfect line between a bakery recipe book and enough details to work well for the home baker. She's got a creme filling recipe in the book to for these cookies, but I chose to make my own with coconut oil instead of butter, which gave it the perfect consistency.

Before you go and jump into making this recipe, know that you can go with two different techniques. Either rolling the dough into a log and storing it in the fridge until it is hard enough to slice into circles (a quicker method for sure, but for some reason one I've never really been able to pull off. Eh, apparently I'm not happy unless I'm doing things in the most difficult way possible.) 

Or, you could do it the long, hard and time-consuming, but more precise method (for me, at least) of rolling out to 1/8" thick and cutting out circles with a cookie cutter. And the cookies look so much prettier and uniform if you refrigerate the dough before cutting it and before it goes in the oven. This will prevent the cookies from spreading and bubbling as they bake.

Here's the recipe along with both the original creme and my own substitute. (I know, I know, took me long enough.)

Homemade Oreos from flour by Joanne Chang

1 C unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly

1 egg

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour (unbleached is best)

3/4 C dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until well combined. Whisk in the vanilla and chocolate. Add the egg and whisk until thoroughly incorporated.

- Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Mix well until fully incorporated. The dough with pull together and become easier to finish mixing by hand. It should have the consistency of play-doh. If the temperature of your kitchen is on the cool side, leave the dough to sit for about an hour to set up, if not, move right onto the next step.

- Now drop onto a sheet of parchment and either roll into a log about 10 inches long and about 2 1/2" thick, roll in parchment and twist ends to seal. Or, set another sheet of parchment/wax paper on top and roll out to 1/8" thick, slide onto a baking sheet and place in fridge (or freezer if you are short on time.)

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and ready a baking sheet pan with either spray or parchment/wax paper

- When cooled enough to be firm, pull dough out and either slice to 1/8" thick slices, or use a 2 1/2" cookie cutter to make circles and place on ready baking pan. 

- Bake for 10-15 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through the baking time. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Vanilla Cream Filling

1/2 C unsalted butter

1 2/3 C confectioner's (powdered) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

pinch of salt

- While the cookies are cooling, grab a spoon and beat the butter in a medium mixing bowl. Add half the sugar and mix completely. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Then add milk and salt along with the rest of the sugar and mix until smooth again.

- Scoop by rounded tablespoon onto the bottom side of one cookie, then top with a second cookie, bottom-side down and press gently to spread filling out to the edge. Repeat with until all of the cookies are filled.

BakerNerd's Vanilla Cream Filling

1/2 C expeller-pressed coconut oil (raw or virgin coconut oil tastes like coconut while expeller-pressed has a very neutral taste, which is better for flavoring. But if you want coconut flavor, feel free to go with raw or virgin coconut oil.)

1 C confectioner's sugar

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: coconut oil is best beaten with a whisk and using as few additional liquids (such as extracts and flavors) and do NOT mix with milk, it will make a curdled mess. I know, because I tried it. It was ugly.

- While the cookies are cooling, grab a whisk and beat the coconut oil in a medium mixing bowl. Add half the sugar and mix completely. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Then the rest of the sugar and mix until smooth again. thickness will depend on how warm the mixture is so try cooling it a bit in the refrigerator if it is too thin. If still too thin, ad a bit more confectioner's sugar until it reaches a consistency you like.

- Scoop by rounded tablespoon onto the bottom side of one cookie, then top with a second cookie, bottom-side down and press gently to spread filling out to the edge. Repeat with until all of the cookies are filled.

Grab a glass of milk, and maybe a spoon to smack away sneaky cookie-snatching fingers, and enjoy!

And the two shall become one...

Man, has it been a crazy few weeks since I last posted! Finishing up my semester and getting my camera fixed for picture posting are just a part of it.

Anyhow, I had to make some cupcakes for a teacher who was leaving due to family emergencies, and to send him off I had to make something different. The usual just wouldn't cut it this time. So I set off to find something comforting, delicious and maybe a bit surprising as well.

After the wildly successful coconut cupcakes, I took another browse through Julie Hasson's book, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes for something new. As I was flipping through the pages, somthing caught my eye.

It couldn't be, I thought, quickly turning back to make sure I'd not been hallucinating. But there it was, the Chocolate Brownie Cupcake. So simple, yet I hadn't though about it before, all the familiar comforts of a brownie with the lighter texture of a cupcake. How would it taste, would the cake become too dense, or would it be so airy as to deny its brownie integrity? I had to know.

Busting out the bowls, sifter, and wooden spoon, I set to work. bout 45 minutes later I pulled these pretties out of the oven.

Don't worry if they sink in the middle, just use the toothpick test to check if they're finished. They should also have a brownie-like crust over the top, it is more obvious once the cupcakes are completely cooled.

Here's another, closer look. Sorry about the lack of frosting, but the camera was still acting up and I couldn't get any pictures of these once they were frosted. They're not the prettiest cupcakes you'll ever see, but they won every taste test hands down.

I iced them with a coffee frosting (they only need a little) made the same way as described in my other post, the Tin Tin Surprise. Just halve the recipe to avoid making too much.

My worries about texture were proven insubstantial as these babies were not too cakey and not too dense, the perfect combo of cupcake and brownie, pcked full of chocolate flavor and then some chocolate chips. This one's a keeper for sure!

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes (125 Best Cupcake Recipes, by Julie Hasson)
Ingredients:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt (only if using unsalted butter)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract (I don’t use this, I just add more vanilla, but that’s optional)
3 eggs
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about ½ of one 12 oz bag)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. In a medium sixed bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt
3. In a larger bowl, whisk together (or use a good ol’ wooden spoon) granulated and brown sugars and butter until smooth. Mix in the extracts and then beat in the eggs one at a time until combined.
4. Add flour mixture until just combine and there are no clumps, stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop batter into lined cupcake pan (I use an ice cream scoop) and bake for 28 minutes, turning pan halfway through for even cooking. When toothpick tester inserted into center cupcake comes out with a few crumbs and melted chocolate (from the chips,) cupcakes are done. The tops will not spring back when pressed. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before finish cooling on a wire rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting of choice (I use coffee) and enjoy!

Tin Tin surprise

So this past Sunday was my mother's birthday. She's Belgian and a HUGE fan of TinTin.

For anyone who doesn't know who TinTin is, he's a comic book sleuth, and very famous throughout Europe. The comic series originated in Belgium around the 1930's.

Here's a quick peek of the characters:

TinTin and his trusty sidekick, Snowy (Milou in the original french version)

The characters I used for my mom's gift are the five in the middle. Starting on the left, the bearded man in the blue sweater is Captain Haddock, then TinTin, Snowy and the identical not-brothers Dupond and Dupont (in english, they're called Thompson and Thomson.)I made fondant silouettes of the character's profiles and put them on cupcakes.


My mom was pretty psyched about the whole thing, bringing them in to the office to show them off to all of her co-workers. Mission birthday present was a success!

I used mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream. The cupcakes were a little lacking, but the buttercream was a definate keeper! On the sweet side, but you can always use less sugar than the recipe calls for.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
4 tablespoons hot water

Cream the butter until smooth. In a smaller bowl, dissolve coffee granules in the hot water. Slowly add sugar 1 cup at a time to butter, alternating with sugar, vanilla, sugar, coffee, and finally sugar. Mix until smooth and spread onto cooled cupcakes of your choice.

This frosting is pretty sweet, so make sure to ice your cupcakes in moderation.

I wish I had some coffee beans to decorate these with! Alas, but oh well.

That's all for now!

Double the chocolate, double the fun!

This was supposed to be last weeks post, but I ran a little short on time, so this week is Double post time!

Today we have Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sounds good already, doesn't it?

Now, this recipe is much easier to mix with a machine, but seem to get a kick out of getting hand cramps. I usually ignore my shiny mixer for a good old fashioned wooden spoon. Please use some of the sense that I am clearly lacking and use an electric mixer.

On to the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened (salted, if using unsalted, add 1 tsp salt to flour)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (or 1 12 oz bag) white chocolate chips

Anyhow, you'll want to start with creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

In a sperate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda (and salt if needed.)

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined, mix in the chocolate chips.

It should look something like this:
Maybe not quite as appetizing as the last chocolate chip cookie dough, but just you wait.

You can make mini cookies like these...

Or larger cookies for those times when you need a fix...
Any way you make them, they're always delicious.

Yum.

Roll Out!

Well, I was going to work on oatmeal cookies... but then I decided to nerd out a little bit. I decided to knock out two things at once: trying out a new cupcake recipe and working with fondant (small scale.) I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, unfortunately, I'm not very good with fondant. A little practice was in order. Here's how they turned out!

Transformers! Both the Autobots and the Decepticons need some love, chocolate cupcake love.Not too shabby for a first timer, huh? We'll just ignore the ridiculous amount of time these took...

I will keep working on a way to do these in less time. If anyone's got any tips, I'd love to hear them! Oh and here's the cupcake recipe:

Ingredients:
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (only if you use unsalted butter)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time with vanilla extract, beat until smooth.
3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt (only if using unsalted butter) and baking powder and mix half into the butter and eggs, pour in milk and stir until smooth. Add in second half of flour mixture and stir until smooth.
4. set cupcake pan with cupcake liners and use an ice cream scoop to fill liners (scoop size will vary depending on the size of your cupcakes, batter should fill 2/3 of the cupcake liner otherwise it will overflow.)
5. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.Ice and enjoy!

Sooner or later, I'll post a good icing recipe, but until then, just use your favorite.