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So it’s getting close to Christmas and so I have been planning what I will be baking in the upcoming season. I’ve been trying to gather together the classic cookie recipes that I remember having at Christmas. While I have been looking at my family classics, I always have my eyes on new recipes. I suppose it is a little early for this cookie, but I’ve been waiting to make these for almost a year. What are your favorite Christmas cookies? What ones are traditional in your family?
Chocolate and peppermint is a classic holiday combination. I made some chocolate mint cookies just a while ago, but these are quite different. They start with a refrigerator cookie that is slice and bake. This type of cookie is perfect for the busy holiday season since it only takes a couple minutes to make the dough. Stick it in the refrigerator to chill for a bit while you can go and do something else that needs to be done. (There’s always something that needs to be done!) Slice, bake, wait a bit to cool, and top with chocolate.
I doubled the cookie recipe, but didn’t double the chocolate topping and I had plenty of chocolate to top all of the cookies. It’s pretty messy to crush up candy canes, so I used some peppermint snow that I had purchased at Williams Sonoma. I’m an easy target for some of the special baking items that you can find this time of year! It looked so good in the package and it didn’t get all powdery like it does when you crush candy canes yourself. I cut some cookies thicker than others, and I think I like the thin ones best. I really liked this recipe, and I loved how easy it came together. I think I’ll add this to the Christmas cookie list of favorites.
1-1/2 sticks butter, softened
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
7 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
2/3 cup finely crushed peppermint candy canes or candies
Using an electric mixer beat the butter until soft. With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar until creamy, then beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt; add to the mixer about one-third at a time, beating at low speed until smooth.
Shape the dough into 12-inch-long cylinder. Wrap tightly in parchment or waxed paper and roll into a smooth, even log. Twist the ends to seal and refrigerate for 30 minutes; reshape the cylinder and refrigerate for 30 minutes more.
Preheat the oven to 350°; line cookie sheets with silicone baking mats. Unwrap the dough; using a sharp knife, slice into 1/3-inch-thick rounds. Place about 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets; bake until firm, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
In a bowl, combine two-thirds of the chopped chocolate with the oil; microwave for 30 seconds, then stir until smooth. (If needed, heat for additional 10-second intervals.) Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate until smooth. Spread a scant teaspoon of melted chocolate on top of each cookie. Sprinkle the peppermints on top and let stand until set, 2 to 3 hours.
Recipe from Pennies on a Platter, who got the recipe from Rachael Ray’s Magazine
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef. She selected Cran-Apple Crisps which are miniature apple crisps with fresh and dried cranberries. Check out Em's blog for the complete recipe. This is such a perfect recipe and the timing was just right. My local grocery stores have just started carrying fresh cranberries.
Apple crisp is right up there at the top of my lists of favorite desserts. I was so excited to make this since I love apple crisp so much. I like cranberries, too, so I figured that would be a good addition. They grow cranberries in Washington State, near the ocean, and a couple of summers ago my husband and I visited a working cranberry farm. It was very interesting. They harvest the fruit by flooding the fields and raking up the cranberries. Very hard work, but worth it in my opinion!
Like most crisps, this crisp was very easy to make. You make the crumb topping in the food processor, which is the easiest way to make crumb topping. This crumb topping includes coconut, which is a bit different and very good. The crisp is just apples, cranberries, sugar and a touch of flour. Nothing too unusual, but everything came together so well. I loved this crisp!
I halved the recipe and make 3 crisps. I wasn’t sure which baking vessel to use, but this worked out well. (I usually use these dishes to soften butter in the microwave, so it was nice to use them for something more adventurous.) They baked up perfectly and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. They aren’t too sweet and the cranberries add a good tartness. My husband and I ate these while they were still warm out of the oven and had the same reaction: this is a keeper!
Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 422.
So we always buy Halloween candy with the hope that we will have kids come to the door, but we never have any visitors. I don’t know where kids in my town go for trick or treating, but it certainly isn’t my neighborhood. I guess they go to the mall where they can hit many stores in a short amount of time.
As a result, we have a lot of leftover candy. Several baking sites that I visit have given suggestions as to how to use up the candy. I figured the easiest thing to do was to cut the candy into chunks and add it to brownies. For this recipe I used chocolate bars, peanut butter cups and almond joy bars. I think most chocolate candy would work. We also had Kit Kats, but my husband didn’t think that those would work in the brownies. I think he just wanted to eat the Kit Kats.
This recipe is based on the recipe for fudgy brownies, since I like fudgy brownies more than cakey brownies. Cakey brownies are just never chocolately enough. You make these in a saucepan, so they are very simple and quick. Some of the candy kind of melts into the batter, which is quite nice. These are quite fudgy, and perhaps they could have baked just a couple minutes more. They were so sticky when I cut them, but they taste very good. The peanut butter cups stand out the most, where the chocolate bars and the almond joy just melted into the brownie.
¾ cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cups chopped candy bars
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the head briefly, just until hot, but not to bubbling; it will become shiny looking as you stir it.
Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring just until smooth, and then add the flour and the chopped candy, stirring again until smooth. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.
Bake for 30-32 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a tiny amount of crumb clinging to it. Allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting.
Recipe adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Katya of Second Dinner. She chose the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake. As you can see from the title of this blog post, I detoured from the original recipe considerably. I had some issues in the process of making the recipe, plus some ingredients were too hard to find. I substituted ingredients I had on hand, with flavors that I knew I would like. I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think I have ever had a chestnut. So I wasn’t sure about this cake.
The cake calls for jarred chestnuts and chestnut puree. I knew that these ingredients would be harder to find but not impossible. My husband and I looked at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, the regular grocery store, but there were no chestnuts to be found. I finally went to another well-stocked market and I found jarred chestnuts, but they were $15. They had one version of chestnut puree, but not exactly what was specified in the recipe. Plus it was another $15 so I decided to pass and go with Plan B, which was using hazelnuts and hazelnut butter.
This recipe starts with you making caramel, which I have made a couple of times, but it just wasn’t happening this time! The first batch dried up totally, and then the second batch looked ok but then when I went to add the cream it was completely hard. I might have been able to salvage it, but I decided to give up for the night. I decided to leave out the caramel and just make a chocolate ganache (with butter) for the filling. I used gianduja (milk chocolate with hazelnut paste) for the milk chocolate, so the filling had a nice hazelnut flavor.
So I made quite a few changes, but I ended up with a wonderful cake. All of the layers are infused with hazelnut flavor, which I love. The cake is a bit crumbly, but it isn’t dry. The filling is to die for; it tastes like the filling of a really great candy bar. I will certainly make this again! I can envision using it for all sorts of cakes. This cake took a lot of work, but it was worth it in the end. I’m not sure if I would have liked it as much with chestnuts, I guess I will never know!
Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 269-272.
This is a guest post from my husband. My favorite cake is German Chocolate Cake and he wanted to make one for me since today is my birthday! He wanted to make something different, so he decided to make a chocolate pudding and then top it with the traditional coconut pecan frosting. It’s the frosting that really makes the cake so good.
This pudding recipe is from the BBC. Puddings are very common in England; in fact, “pudding” has become a synonym for “dessert.” A couple of the British cookbooks that we own have a pudding chapter, which includes all the dessert recipes. Puddings are typically cooked by steaming and we use a special pudding basin. It’s just a tapered ceramic bowl, and you could certainly use a heatproof bowl of any sort, it would just have a different shape. I’m sure it would still taste as good.
The pudding is quick to put together but then takes a while to steam, so you do have to have some patience. This pudding steamed for 1-1/2 hours, which seems like a long time but many puddings that he makes will steam for 3 hours. The pudding is nice and moist, but it still tastes a lot like a normal baked cake. The steaming ensures that it doesn’t dry out. It was nice and light and had a good chocolate flavor. It’s not too sweet, but the frosting is sweet so it works out well. The only drawback to a steamed pudding is that you have to eat it right away, but it makes about 4 servings so that’s not too hard to finish off. We enjoyed eating this pudding right up!
2 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
4 oz. plain flour
4 oz. sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
½ cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp grated nutmeg
3oz hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
Lightly grease a 2 pint pudding basin (or heatproof bowl) with butter. Fill a large pot with a steamer insert with water and bring to a boil. Melt the chocolate and set aside.
Combine the remaining ingredients, except for the hazelnuts, in a food processor or mixer and blend for one minute at low speed. Add the melted chocolate and blend for one minute at high speed. Fold in the hazelnuts. Spoon the batter into the basin. Cover with a lid or parchment paper tied securely with string.
Put the basin in the steamer insert of your pan. Cook over a medium heat for about 1-1½ hours or until a knife or skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean. Remove the pudding from the pan and allow to cool for ten minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen and invert on to a serving dish. Top with frosting and serve.
Frosting
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup white sugar
3 egg yolk, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut
In a large saucepan combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, margarine and vanilla. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Remove from heat and stir in pecans and coconut. Spread on cake while still warm.
Pudding recipe from BBC. Frosting recipe from All Recipes
As Halloween approaches, many of my friends are talking about their favorite Halloween candy. How is it that a day captures our imagination so much? I really like Halloween, even though I am not one for parties and I can never think of that perfect costume. I can always be a ballerina (not much of a stretch since I dance) or a graduate (I’ve graduated from many schools) but neither of those is all that creative. I still love Halloween. I love the candy. I swear I love candy more now as an adult than I did as a kid.
So what’s your favorite Halloween candy? I love 100 Grand Bars. I also love that I can get vanilla tootsie rolls at Halloween, since they are impossible to find the rest of the year. (Find these is you’ve never had them.) My all time favorite candy is from England, these green triangles that come in the Quality Street chocolates. I love them and luckily there are a few British stores around here that sell them. The green triangles are chocolate and hazelnut. I love chocolate and hazelnut together. I look for this combination whenever I can and I found this recipe through the Epicurious iphone application.
You make the dough for these cookies in a food processor, which I think is super easy and convenient. Just process everything together and go! The take a relatively long time to bake, since the ground hazelnuts primarily act as the “flour” in the dough. They don’t look all that different when they come out of the oven, so you just have to trust that they are done. The icing comes together in a snap, too.
They look rugged and maybe like they might be tough, but they aren’t at all. They are wonderfully chewy and the flavors blend together so well. The orange flavor is pronounced but the spice is just there in the background. They aren’t too sweet, just chewy and rich. These aren’t the prettiest cookies you might come across but they are sure good to eat. They don’t get stale very quickly and the flavors blend together as they age.
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon hazelnut-flavored liqueur
Icing
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon hazelnut-flavored liqueur
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats.
Place the hazelnuts, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves in a food processor. Pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Add the butter and the orange zest and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the orange juice and liqueur and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball. It will still be crumbly.
Form tablespoons of dough into balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until the cookies are puffed and slightly cracked. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Make the icing while the cookies cool.
To make the icing, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Spoon the icing on to the top of the cooled cookies.
Recipe from Epicurious, via their iphone application
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by April of Short + Rose. She selected the Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte and you can get the complete recipe on her blog. Dorie describes the inspiration for this cake as a Black Forest Cake, but it’s quite different. This has a dense chocolate brownie layer with dried cherries and chocolate chunks which is then topped with a mascarpone mousse. I love chocolate and cherry together so I was really excited to make this recipe.
I made this torte on a day when I was making quite a few other things, and I think that was a mistake. The recipe uses up a lot of dishes: a bowl for the flour, a saucepan, a double boiler, and two mixing bowls for my stand mixer. When I started this recipe, I think I had already done the dishes a few times, and I ended up doing the dishes a couple more times by the end of the day. I have to say that I prefer recipes that use fewer dishes! I was a little frustrated just reading through the recipe!
Once I got started, the cake wasn’t difficult, but it did have a lot of components. One of the main components is bringing cherries and cherry brandy to a boil and then setting it alight to burn off the alcohol. I’ve done this a couple times but it’s still a little scary. I lit mine and it seemed to burn for a really long time. I finally put a lid on my pan so the flames would go out. It had been a busy day and I didn’t really have the patience for a kitchen fire. I also was worried that I over mixed the batter, since it was hard to get the chocolate mixed in to the eggs. It still seemed fairly light and airy when I put it in the pan to bake, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
I refrigerated my torte overnight, and I would recommend doing that. It was a little hard to cut straight out of the refrigerator, but the mousse tastes best when it is really cold. This is super rich and you can’t eat a very big piece. I think you could take the brownie layer and bake it in a brownie pan and make some fine brownies. For the torte, I think the brownie later is a little too thick. I would also leave the chopped chocolate out, since the chunks were a bit too much. I loved the cherries though. I also loved the mousse, and I think it would work with so many different cakes. This torte would be a great choice for a fancy dinner as long as you have some patience (and maybe someone to do the dishes).
Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 284-285.
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