Nutella Swirl Chocolate Chip Cookies

I follow a chat list and we talk about all sorts of things. On the cooking board conversations usually center around cooking and baking, but we often drift in other directions, depending on what is going on in our lives! The conversations recently have focused on the Royal Wedding, which will have already happened by the time you read this post. Are you excited for the Royal Wedding? I think it’s a very happy occasion and I’m super excited to see the wedding dress, but I’m not infatuated.

I thought about baking something British for today’s recipe, but cookies, pardon, biscuits, aren’t what I first thing of when I think about British desserts. I think of steamed puddings, which my husband is fond of making. I did have a couple of tea cookies that I was going to post, but I decided against that plan. These cookies are about Plan C or Plan D for this week’s recipe, but no worries, they are a combination of things I like and my husband likes, so a winner all around.

I had made some other cookies that I was going to take to work but my oven is acting strange so they didn’t bake quite right. I had seen these cookies just today on Tastespotting and figured that I would have all of the ingredients to make them. Plus, my husband always wants me to make chocolate chips, so ok! These were quick to make, which I appreciated since it was getting late. They’re not super fancy, just chocolate chips with a subtle Nutella taste.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup Nutella
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar and the brown sugar. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix on medium speed until combined.

Stir in the flour mixture on low speed until combined. Using a spatula, stir in the Nutella, letting it swirl throughout the batter. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop dough into 1 inch balls and drop onto baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake for 8- 10 minutes until set. Remove cookies from the baking sheets and let them cool on wire racks.

Recipe from Mochi Thoughts, who adapted it from others

Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. She chose the Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies, which are shortbread cookies tweaked with the addition of cornmeal and citrus zest. I wasn’t sure what to think of these; I like shortbread, but I wasn’t sure how cornmeal would fit in the mix! You can get the recipe for these cookies on Valerie’s blog and also, you’ll want to check out the posts from the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.

My husband wanted me to try these with blue corn cornmeal, but I didn’t know. It doesn’t seem like blue food has a place in baking (ok, other than blueberries). The texture is a bit different, too. I’m sure it would have worked but I opted to go the traditional route. I had some very coarsely ground cornmeal already, but other bakers warned that would not be good for this recipe so I bought some cornmeal that was more finely ground. I also used lime zest instead of lemon zest, since that sounded like a good complement to cornmeal.

You make the dough and then squish it to fit in to a gallon-sized zippered bag. That makes a nice flat square of dough. I then use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares, since that is the easiest way to make them even. I found the dough to be fragile and it cracked if I wasn’t careful with it. They baked up fine, but they spread a little about the edges. I’m not exactly sure why. I baked them up but in the rush of all the other Easter baking, I didn’t give them a try until later. They look quite plain but they are really tasty! The cornmeal just adds some texture and the lime zest is subtle. They shine through as a wonderful buttery shortbread cookie!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 130

Cadbury Crème Egg Brownies

Happy Easter! I love Cadbury Crème Eggs! It’s too bad that you can only get them at Easter. Actually, when we were in England, I noticed that they had regular candy bars that were basically Crème Eggs turned into bar: a chocolate bar with pockets of the Crème filling! That was really great but it isn’t that convenient to go to England just to pick up some candy. I have to be content with eating the Eggs at Easter.

Right now blogs are filled with different recipes using Crème Eggs. Some of them look really fantastic but require a lot of work. I wanted to make something with the eggs, but still wanted to retain the spirit of the original Crème Egg. I opted to make these brownies, which I had first seen on Tastespotting. They looked pretty simple but decadent at the same time.

I ended up making these with Crème Eggs and also the Caramel variety. I know that one year they had Chocolate Orange Crème Eggs, but I couldn’t find those when I went to the store. These were quick to put together, and I was able to make them in the short time I have between ballet class and ballet rehearsal. (Yes, I know it is strange that I make such decadent things and also take ballet!) I was a bit worried about splitting the Crème Eggs, but it was pretty simple. I had a thin knife that I ran under hot water and worked that into the crease. All the eggs (except one) split perfectly. I loved making these and I hope you have a Happy Easter!

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup chocolate chips
4 1/2 Cadbury Crème Eggs (total of 9 halves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and butter the foil.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, mix together the brown sugar, sugar, melted butter and vanilla extract on medium speed. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes. While the brownies are baking, prepare the Crème Eggs.

Cut the Cadbury Eggs in half along the crease. You should have a total of 9 halves.

Once the brownies have baked for 25 minutes, remove them from the oven and carefully press the Cadbury Crème Eggs on top of the brownies, facing up. Bake the brownies for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, lift the brownies from the pan, peel away the foil and cut into squares.

Recipe from Gingerbread Bagels

Marionberry Streusel Bars

When we were at the ocean recently, we stopped by this great little restaurant that is there, 42nd Street Café. I don’t know how such a small town can have several nice restaurants, but it does! We’d been there before and the food was just as great this time. They serve bread with Marionberry conserve before your meal that is excellent! A conserve is a whole fruit jam that may also include dried fruit or nuts. This conserve has walnuts and orange peel. We picked up a jar of the conserve and I couldn’t wait to use it in some cookies.

I knew that I wanted to highlight the Marionberry conserve, so I wanted a fairly simple recipe. I went out on the web and searched for bar cookies with preserves and I found loads of recipes. This recipe was the closest to what I was envisioning, a simple base, the conserve/preserves, and then a streusel layer. I had hoped to find a recipe with nuts in the streusel, but no luck there. I swapped out some of the flour in the base and the streusel with some chopped walnuts, to highlight that aspect of the conserve. Of course, if you can’t get Marionberry conserve, just use your favorite type of preserves.

The base for these is quick, but a little tricky to press in the pan because it seemed to want to stick to my hands more than anything. I wet my hands a bit and that seemed to help. The conserve smelled divine when I heated it up to thin it. Yum! This makes a floury streusel rather than a chunky streusel, but that makes for a nice light topping. These cut beautifully and they are so tasty. Buttery, but the Marionberry conserve adds just a bit of tang to it, so it’s a nice combination of buttery, sweet, and slightly tangy. These are fantastic!

2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1-2/3cups flour
10 ounce jar Marionberry conserve

1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cold butter, cut in small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” baking pan.

In large mixer bowl, cream the butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the walnuts and flour. Stir until combined. Press the dough into the prepared pan.

Heat the Marionberry conserve until melted. Spread over the base to within ½-inch of edges.

Combine the walnuts, flour, and sugar in a small bowl. Add the butter and using a pastry blender or your hands, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the conserve.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Sweet Kat’s Kitchen

A Tourtely Pear Tart

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake. She chose A Tourtely Apple Tart, which is an apple tart with a beautiful almond cookie crust. I chose to make a pear tart, which worked just as well! If you’d like to give this recipe a try, you can visit Jeanette’s blog and get the complete recipe. You can also see how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers interpreted this recipe by visiting the “Leave your Links” post on the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

I decided to make smaller 3-1/2” tarts rather than one big one. I made the entire amount of filling, since I had bought that much fruit, but the filling is so good on its own that I have no doubt that it will disappear fairly quickly. I used three different types of pears: red, Bosc, and d’anjou. They were each a little different in texture and flavor, so I thought that would make the tarts even more interesting. I decided to leave the raisins out of the filling since I wasn’t sure that worked with the pears and I used apple brandy in place of apple cider. Since I was making small tarts, I did mash the filling a bit to break up the big pieces.

I was a little bit afraid of trying to roll out the pastry, since I had only used this pastry as a press in the pan pastry, but it rolled out with no problem. I thought about rushing the tart and not letting things chill as long as the recipe specified, but I’m glad I didn’t rush it. I make the filling and dough one day and then assembled it the next. It was certainly worth the wait as this is a fantastic tart. The crust is good enough to eat as a cookie and the filling is so good! I loved this recipe and I can’t wait to try it again with apples.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 306 and 307

Sailor Jack Muffins

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I spent a couple of days at Long Beach, Washington. The Washington coast is nice, very quiet and Long Beach even has a sandy beach, which is very rare in Washington. We’re used to rocky beaches! We had a lot of rain while we were there, but the mornings weren’t too bad and we were able to get in a couple of nice bike rides without getting too wet.

In town there is a great little bakery and one of the specialties that they have there are Sailor Jack muffins. I’d never seen these anywhere else and I was really interested in finding a recipe and making these. After a little Internet research, I discovered that these are a northwest specialty, especially popular on the coast and with the boating community. My guess is that they would last on a long boating journey, but I really have no idea. I found this recipe on the Pacific Northwest Boating website, so I trust that they are authentic!

These muffins are basically a molasses raisin spice cake, covered with a lemony glaze. You make the raisin spice mixture in advance and let it cool. It becomes quite strange in texture, kind of gooey, but don’t let that scare you. This uses oat and whole wheat flour, so they are very hearty. Another characteristic of these muffins is that you glaze and serve them upside down. Don’t fill the cups too full or you won’t be able to flip them over. I’m sure you could serve them normally if you wanted to! These are pretty spot on to the ones we had at the ocean. The spice mixture is just great and they will keep for a long time (unless you gobble them up right away!).

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup water
1/2 cup raisins
2 tablespoons molasses

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour (or process ½ cup oats in a food processor)
1/2 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons milk

In a sauce pan bring to a boil over medium heat the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, water, raisins and molasses. Simmer for 5 minutes and let cool. You can make this 24 hours in advance, if you’d like.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter about 15 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, oat, flour, oats, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in the raisin mixture, oil and egg. Stir to mix. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling just slightly more than half full. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. Cool in pan about 15 minutes, and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk in a bowl to create a glaze. Turn the muffins upside down and pour the glaze over the muffins.

Recipe from Pacific Northwest Boating

Chocolate Toffee Delights

I’ve mentioned recently that I was gone a week or so, partially for vacation and partially for work. Starting next week I will be making some recipes inspired by goodies I saw while traveling and ingredients that I purchased while away. Before I left, I visited my public library to pick up some magazines to read. My husband picked up a copy of Taste of Home, which usually has some good recipes. The issue he picked up happened to have the winners of their cookie recipe contest, which made me really happy. I photocopied all of those recipes and wanted to make this one right away.

This recipe is basically like Girl Scout Samoas cookies (or Caramel deLites, depending on where you live). I’ve seen quite a few recipes that replicate Girl Scout Cookies, but they are usually pretty labor intensive. This one wasn’t, plus I happened to have a jar of caramel ice cream topping in the cupboard that needed to be used up. This one you just make a shortbread-like crust and then top which chopped coconut, almonds and caramel. No rolling and cutting or fancy dipping in chocolate or anything like that.

These are a bit delicate, so you have to be careful when you cut them. They’re also pretty sticky, which shouldn’t be surprising since it has ice cream topping. I put them in the refrigerator to hopefully become a little less sticky, but it’s ok to have a sticky treat once in a while! The caramel is a bit soft to be really Girl Scout Cookie-like and the flavor is a little different, but these are really great on their own merit!

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
¾ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon coconut extract
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup flaked coconut
½ cup toasted sliced almonds
12 oz. caramel ice cream topping
¾ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9” x 13” pan.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and ½ cup sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the extracts. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, prick the crust with a fork and sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. (Or sprinkle with sugar and just bake for 25 minutes if you don’t read the instructions. Oops.)

While the crust is baking, combine the coconut and almonds in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Transfer this mixture to a bowl and stir in the caramel ice cream topping. Spread this mixture over the warm crust and bake for an additional 6-10 minutes, until the edges are bubbly. Cool.

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. Drizzle the chocolate over the cookies and allow to set before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Taste of Home

Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

I saw these muffins on the King Arthur Flour Bakers’ Banter blog and I had to make them right away. In fact, I think I made them the day I first saw them, which is rare for me! I usually bookmark things and come back to them later, but this time I wanted to make them immediately. I love King Arthur Flour. I pour over their baker’s catalog and love the recipes the post on their blog.

We were having company over so it seemed like the perfect occasion to make a breakfast treat. These are basically inside out carrot cake, with the cream cheese inside instead of having cream cheese frosting. How could that be bad? I couldn’t decide if they were muffin-like or cupcake-like, but I guess it doesn’t really make a difference. You make the filling and then layer it with the carrot cake batter to make pockets of cream cheese. These came together surprisingly well, and didn’t require anything too exotic.

I thought I followed the instructions exactly, but I must not have used enough filling. I didn’t have a big pocket of cream cheese, but more of a ripple of cream cheese. I also had lots of filling left over, which wasn’t the case if you read the blog entry on the King Arthur site. Oh well, still good, but not quite as dramatic when you bite into them. I think that the spice flavor was stronger than the carrot flavor, but I like spice cake! These were fun to make and they were enjoyed by all!

8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
A few drops of Fiori Di Sicilia flavor, optional

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated carrots, lightly packed

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners and grease the cups.

To make the filling: Microwave cream cheese on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and flavor. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, and oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the grated carrots.

Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom. Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling. Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups. The cups will be quite full.

Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one comes out clean, about 20 minutes. (Make sure you test the muffins and not the filling.) Remove the muffins from the oven, allow to cool slightly and then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands. She chose Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp. I have never baked with rhubarb so I was really looking forward to this. The recipe basically doubles the crisp topping and you add that to the bottom and the top. That’s usually the best part of a crisp so how could you go wrong? You can get the complete recipe on Sarah’s blog and you can also check out the links left by the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers for this week’s recipe.

Rhubarb is one of those quintessential spring items, but in the Seattle area it’s not yet very springy and I was worried about finding it in the store. Other bakers were also concerned about this and there were some conversations about possible substitutes. I went to the store and was able to find fresh rhubarb but it was really expensive. The store also had frozen rhubarb so I went with that. The package had a very similar recipe on the back so I figured I was on the right track.

I think the thing that made this recipe stand out was the addition of ground and crystallized ginger to the crisp topping. Oh my, that was so good! I need to figure out a way to transform the topping into a cookie it was so good! Mine baked up beautifully and the house smelled so good. You basically make a simple strawberry jam for the filling so my house smelled like strawberry jam. I loved the slight tartness of the rhubarb and the spiciness of the ginger added a lot. Eaten together, I thought that it was a little too sweet, but I think it just might have been me. I really enjoyed my first experience with rhubarb and I can’t wait to try other recipes.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 420 and 421

Turtle Chip Cookies

I’ve mentioned that I was away last week, both for business and pleasure. I was inspired by many treats that I saw on my travels. I have a big list of things that I’m looking forward to baking, but I need to get a bit organized. In the meantime, this is another “almost chocolate chip” cookie that I knew would be a hit. They’re drop cookies with chocolate chips, chopped pecans, and caramel bits: all the elements in a turtle candy.

These cookies do call for one special ingredient: Kraft caramel bits. I’d found these in the store when they first came out a couple of years ago, but after that they were nearly impossible to find. They are really convenient, since they don’t have to be unwrapped like regular caramels and the bits lend themselves to different applications. I looked online, but didn’t really want to buy a case of these. My husband (who is a better searcher that I am) found that the local Target store carried them. I was surprised but I went there and they were there on the shelf! What a nice surprise.

The mixing method for these cookies is a little bit different, in that you don’t add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the flour and add that as a mixture. It didn’t seem to make much difference, and I’m sure you could use the standard method if you wanted to. My dough was a bit crumbly in the bottom of the bowl, but that wasn’t much of a problem. The original recipe said that this made 2-1/2 dozen cookies and I had contemplated doubling the recipe, but I’m glad I didn’t! Those must have been some huge cookies as I made over four dozen regular-sized cookies. My husband said “These are almost like chocolate chip cookies!” A positive comment indeed.

1-1/2 sticks butter, softened
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel bits
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar and sugar until sugars are blended and the mixture is fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir until everything is well incorporated. Add flour and mix until dough comes together. Stir in chocolate chips, caramel bits, and the pecans.

Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Let cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then move to a rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Naturally Ella

New York-Style Crumb Cake

I’m so excited that the local farmer’s markets are going to start up fairly soon! While it’s still cold and rainy here in the Seattle area, I know that someday the weather will get better. I’ve picked up my fair share of interesting ingredients at the farmer’s market. My favorite vendor is one that sells really interesting preserves. I’ve used their raspberry orange chocolate preserves before and I have had 2 jars sitting at home waiting to be used: blueberry chocolate and raspberry chocolate.

I saw this recipe in a recent Martha Stewart Living magazine and I knew I had found a use for the blueberry chocolate sauce that I had. The picture in the magazine shows this crumb cake with a layer of jam between the cake and the crumble, but you have to read a tiny footnote to see the variation with the jam. It even recommends blueberry jam, so I was set!

This is a substantial cake, requiring an entire pound of butter and over 5 cups of flour! It came together fairly easily though. I was glad that the crumble was made with melted butter because it would have been really hard to cut that much butter into the flour. My blueberry chocolate sauce was a tad thinner than jam but it worked just fine. (And you could really add any sort of jam or preserves that you wanted.) This smelled so good when it was baking that I couldn’t wait for it to come out of the oven. This cake has it all: great aroma, flavor and texture. The chocolate from the blueberry chocolate sauce wasn’t very pronounced, but it added a little something extra.

3-1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2-1/2 sticks butter, melted

2-1/4 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1-1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup blueberry jam

Make the crumb topping: in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the mixture and mix, using your hands, until medium to large clumps form.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9" x 13” pan.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs and yolks, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Continue to beat until well combined.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Top with blueberry jam and then sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the batter.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe from Martha Stewart Living

Piña Colada Cake

I was away last week on vacation and for a conference, so I didn’t get a chance to make this week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie recipe. This week’s recipe was the Coffee Ice Cream Tart, selected by Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day of the Day. You can get the complete recipe on her blog and you can also check out how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers fared with this week’s recipe. I’m kind of sad that I didn’t have time to make this, because how could you go wrong with an almond-coffee-chocolate tart?

Instead I made this cake that I had bookmarked a couple of weeks ago. I knew I had to go to the store anyway, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make this. As it turned out, the only unusual ingredient that this required was the cream of coconut. I used Coco Lopez cream of coconut, because honestly that’s the only type I have ever seen in the store! I had to mix it together, as the oils had separated, but a little stirring was all that was needed. I’d not used cream of coconut before and I can just imagine all of the great things that I could make with this stuff.

I also got the opportunity to use the new dark rum that my husband had picked up recently. My husband and I ate lunch one day at our local brewery and we saw an ad for Rogue Brewery Rum. Well this place can sell the Rogue beers, but because of the alcohol laws in this state we could only buy rum at the liquor store. Luckily, they carried it so we were able to pick it up. I’d been substituting light rum for dark, so it was nice to have the proper ingredient. Enjoy!

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup cream of coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple
Additional dark rum, optional

1 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 to 3 tablespoons pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of waxed paper, then butter the paper.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, and then beat eggs, one at a time, and rum. Add cream of coconut and mix; don’t worry if the batter looks curdled. Add dry ingredients, in two portions, mixing and scraping down bowl between additions. Fold in the pineapple with a spatula.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard the waxed paper. If desired, brush the cake with additional dark rum.

Once the cake has cooled to room temperature, make the glaze. In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and salt. Stir in 1-1/2 tablespoons pineapple juice. Thin with additional pineapple juice if required, to make the glaze pourable. Pour glaze into middle of cake and spread it to the edges, covering the top of the cake completely.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Orange Almond Chocolate Cookies

My husband always asks me to make chocolate chip cookies, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one day when I asked him to find a chocolate cookie for me to make, he came up with a recipe that in many ways is very much a chocolate chip cookie. But this recipe is so much more than that, too, so I was excited to try it right away. I was also making these for a new group of folks, and sometimes you don’t want to get too adventurous the first time you bake for a new group of people!

My good friend from high school loves the combination of orange and chocolate, so I used to find and make those recipes all the time. We don’t see each other as often as our jobs are further apart, so I haven’t made any of those recipes in a long time. This recipe includes those flavors and adds ground almonds to the mix, which to me sounded like the best combination ever. The cookie seemed both simple and extravagant at the same time.

These came together quickly. You could use chocolate chips if you didn’t want to spend the time chopping the chocolate. The dough for these smelled wonderful; they smelled great when they were baking, and they taste so good! The ground almonds give the cookies a nice crunch and the chocolate and orange, of course, are great together! I think these are a big winner.

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest until well mixed but not fluffy. Add the egg yolk, almond extract and orange juice and stir until well combined.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, almonds and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix until most of the flour is absorbed. Add the chocolate and mix until well distributed. You may need to mix the final bit by hand with a spatula.

Scoop the cookies out by rounded tablespoons on the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 12 to 16 minutes, until the edges are just golden brown. Cool on the pan for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Evil Shenanigans