Sass & Veracity

Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Orange Mascarpone Cream

kellypea — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:51:58 +0000

It was only a matter of time before I gave into temptation and changed one of the cookie recipes I’ve been sampling from Bon Appetit’s Holiday Cookie assortment this year. Actually, that’s only partially true. The collection includes several mix and drop cookies, and I strayed early on to experiment with a recipe for the perfect oatmeal cookie that I may share, but I digress.

When I saw the festive-looking Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, I truly wanted to try them — but without the peppermint. I decided that if a hazelnut chocolate chip cookie could be classified as a holiday cookie, then why not chocolate and caramel? All I needed to do was find a different filling for them since peppermint and caramel aren’t flavors I’d want to sample in one bite.

There happened to be some mascarpone in the fridge, and if I used a few drops of…

Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Orange Mascarpone Cream

For the cookies…

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

For the filling…

4 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter at room temp
4 oz. mascarpone or cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. orange extract

One bad of hard caramel candies, crushed

Directions for the cookies…

Whisk flour, cocoa, and salt in medium bowl. In electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until well blended. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients; beat until blended. Chill dough at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Scoop out dough by level tablespoonfuls, then roll into smooth balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Using bottom of a decorative mold or drinking glass, flatten each ball to 2-inch round (edges will crack). Bake until cookies no longer look wet and small indentation appears when tops of cookies are lightly touched with fingers, about 11 minutes (do not overbake or cookies will become too crisp). Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer chocolate cookies to racks and cool completely.

Directions for the filling…

Mix the butter and cheese until well blended. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Pour in the flavorings and whip until fluffy

Spread about 2 T of filling on to one cookie and gently press with a second. Roll the cookie in the crushed caramel candies and enjoy.

Notes:

I have quite a few old metal gelatin and cookie molds that are sadly quite under used so I was happy to be able to use the outside of one to create the swirl effect in the cookie. Ironically, the pattern reminds me of the swirl on a peppermint candy.
The cookies are chewy, so work nicely with the texture of the filling.
I used Werther’s hard caramel candies and the end of my rolling pin to gently tap and crush. They shatter a bit too effectively and if you’re not careful, you’ll have dust.
The mascarpone cream recipe was adapted from this one sans the orange extract. I halved the recipe in this write up because I have quite a bit of it left over. If you’re going to use the orange — which is good — use only a tiny bit.
The caramels provide a pleasant crunch to the cookie, but the flavor gets a bit lost in all the sweetness of the filling. Honestly, a nice buttercream would be more work, but a better filling. I’m just not a fan of powdered sugar anything.
It would be fun to roll these in other types of hard candy, nuts, jimmies, or whatever strikes your sweet holiday baking fancy.

Don’t forget to check out my fellow cookie bakers this holiday season. Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen, Courtney of Coco Cooks, and Judy of No Fear Entertaining who are all returning this year, and Michelle of Big Black Dog, Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook, Renee of Flamingo Musings, and Tiffany of The Nesting Project who will be joining us this year. A special nod goes to Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes who started the group last year, but cannot join in on the craziness this year.

Chocolate Mint Cookies I’m not sure what it is about mint, but...
Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

kellypea — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:11:38 +0000

The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12 days; this is December 11th; tomorrow is the last day; and I have posted five cookies. Five. Bear in mind that I’ve made eight, and have dough for a ninth sitting in the fridge just waiting for several hours of time so that I can play my favorite holiday music, spread out my materials, and decorate cookies. Trust me when I say that time between the hours of 6 and 10 p.m. does not count as an available chunk. Once upon a time I could have been extremely productive at that time of day, but no longer. It’s easy to conclude then that I will be engaging more in a month of cookies, or something like that. And perhaps I’ll throw in a holiday bread or two. Maybe.

Nevertheless, here are my Hazelnut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, which not only look like ordinary chocolate chippers, they taste like ordinary chocolate chippers. That isn’t a bad thing if you’re me, because chocolate chip cookies will always be my favorite cookie even though I’d never consider it a holiday cookie.

I had hazelnuts in the pantry, so decided to make my own hazelnut butter for these. It’s not complicated if you have a Cuisinart, 10 minutes, and don’t mind telling your neighbors to prepare for the sound of nuts clacking crazily against plastic.

Hazelnut-Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy unsalted hazelnut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-12-ounce package semisweet mini chocolate chips (2 cups)

The directions can be found here.

Notes:

There are several “recipes” for hazelnut butter to be found on line. I chose one after comparing several. If you’re used to natural peanut butter, then you know that the consistency isn’t anything like Skippy Super Chunk. The oil does separate from the nut meat and the mixture needs to be stirred before using. I chilled mine for about 30 minutes before I used it in the recipe and had only a couple of tablespoons left from the batch I made after making the cookie dough.
I looked for mini-chocolate chips. I swear I did. I couldn’t find them, so went with Guittard’s baking chips which are actually quite large. Tasty, too, if you’re a dark chocolate lover.
On the dough: It’s a bit odd in its consistency. The texture is somewhat oily and it acts like it doesn’t want to hold together very well, so I did make balls with semi-chilled dough, and they baked nicely for the required time of 12 minutes without much spread. They do benefit from the cooling time as they tend to fall apart if you handle them at all right from the oven. When completely cooled, keep them in a well-sealed plastic bag at room temperature.
For what it’s worth, outside of the novelty of making my own nut butter (and I do love hazelnuts) regular chocolate chip cookies are just fine by me. I will admit that there is a healthier element to these as the nut butter replaces some butter.
I sampled the hazelnut butter on toast with honey and it was wonderful. The roasty flavor of the nuts truly comes through. There is so little sugar in the mix that if you’re someone who truly enjoys sweet peanut butter, you may have a different opinion about this.
To make the nut butter: Roast the hazelnuts, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spread 2 cups nuts in a single layer on a jellyroll pan. Roast for 10 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn. When they’re done, the skin should be cracked and peeling, with the meat beneath beginning to turn gold. Allow to cool briefly, then process in the Cuisinart for 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and with the motor running, add 1/4 tsp. salt and 3/4 tsp. sugar. Allow to process continuously for 7 minutes. Scrape into a bowl and chill for 30 minutes before adding to the cookie recipe.

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies Each year that the holiday cookie spreads come out...
Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Chocolate Chip Peanutbutter Chewies or Vote Pimpin’ Cookies I know. You've already been to the Well Fed Network. ...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

kellypea — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:20:20 +0000

I’m not sure what it is about mint, but it’s never been one of my favorite flavors. I could blame it on the Junior Mints I ate too many of one afternoon in at a matinee when I was a kid. But then again, it might have been the time that my grandparents took us to Howard Johnson’s to have ice cream and I chose a double scoop of peppermint and apple streudel which, if you think the way I now do, don’t exactly go well with one another. Sadly, those cheerful red and white hard candy disks never quite appealed to me and just the thought of York Peppermint patties made my teeth ache. Mint tea has no appeal whether I’m under the weather or not, and mint juleps remind me of cough medicine.

Mention Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints, however, and you’ll have my undivided attention. It has to be the crunch. These holiday cookies may not be Thin Mints, but they come very, very close.

I’ll have to give them a good dunk in the chocolate next time instead of making a big mess slinging chocolate all over my kitchen.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 large egg

6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions can be found here.

Notes:

Am I mistaken, or were these called refrigerator cookies once upon a time?
I used pure peppermint extract and the quantity called for could actually be increased a bit. The minty taste in the finished cookie is very subtle, so they’re perfect for a non-mint lover like myself. The uncooked dough is something I might be caught sneaking from the fridge at night when no one is looking.
These are terrifically easy to make. Roll the dough in the plastic and it’s easier to even out the shape before refrigeration.
There is absolutely no spread on these cookies. Zero. It’s interesting. I’m sure it’s some kind of divine retribution for all the cookie spreading disasters I’ve survived.
I had left over chocolate from two other recipes, so reheated that and drizzled it over the top of the cooled cookies. If you’re going to reheat chocolate in a microwave, do so on the lowest power possible for one minute at a time and then stir well before deciding to put it back in the microwave.
I coated a couple of the cookies that didn’t quite look as hockey puckish as the others and did note when I sank my teeth into one, that the chocolate does soften the cookie just the slightest bit. Maybe a complete dunking is in order? Wait. Perhaps fill them, then give them a dunk. Goodness, but wouldn’t that be decadent?
These would be terrific cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with. They’re sturdy little things.

Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12...
Flourless Chocolate Almond Spice Cookies This is my last official 12 Days of Cookies...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

kellypea — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:38:10 +0000

Each year that the holiday cookie spreads come out in food magazines, the Linzer cookies catch my eye. Most often, they appear in bar form, constructed on a sheet pan, spread with jam, covered with a lattice top, and perhaps sprinkled with powdered sugar. Thinking about the attraction now, it was the pastry that caught my attention, and when I made them, they were always a favorite.

With that interest, I chose Hazelnut Linzer Cookies as my first choice for our holiday bake fest. Although nothing like the Linzertorte I’ve enjoyed in the past, these cookies are a pleasant combination of nutty crunch and sweet, tart jam.

If they’re so satisfying and the first to be baked, why not the first to be shared? My notes tell the story.

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar plus more for decorating
5 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
3 large egg yolks
1-1/4 cups hazelnuts, finely ground in processor (about 1-1/2 cups ground)
blackberry jam

The directions can be found here.

Notes:

I was so excited to make these cookies and unfortunately, they were the biggest disappointment. The dough is again a very soft one, and so I did make sure they were refrigerated well. In between gathering and re-rolling, for smaller quantities, I usually rely on the freezer which normally works quite well.
The directions call for rack switching about half way through the cooking time and although I don’t normally do this (I almost always use convection settings on my oven — the heated air swirls quite effectively through the sheets) I decided to follow the directions exactly.
Although I usually bake cookies on my well-worn jellyroll pans, I happened onto some Calphalon cookie sheets at a local discount store and thought, What the heck! They are more thin in their construction than my sturdy jellyroll pans, but I used silicone liners, and was switching racks, so never gave it a thought that I’d have to worry about anything burning.
HALF the batch burned — burned as in a nice, rich shade of espresso which I am quite attached to on furniture and accessories, but cookies? Not so much. Duly noted that there may have been some inconsistencies in the thickness of the cut outs. Between batches, I did try the non-convection oven instead just to make sure my oven was calibrated correctly (although I haven’t had problems with anything else lately), and I reduced the temperature from 325 degrees F to 315 degrees F, and baking time from 22 minutes to 15. Unfortunately, the cookies still sported a high brown. I ended up with the nine whole cookies you see on the plate. Nine. Unbelievable. I’ll take the blame for the mishap, but at this point, I truly haven’t figured out what went wrong.
To fill the cookies, I used lingonberry jam I found at IKEA of all places. It was tart and wonderful — almost good enough to make up for the waste of all those unusable halves.
Let me know if these work for you. In the meantime, I’m off to consider a traditional linzertorte or perhaps another linzer cookie recipe just for comparison. Then maybe my ego will be restored.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12...
Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Snowball Cookies Well, it certainly didn’t take long for me to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Snowball Cookies

kellypea — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:25:22 +0000

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for me to fall behind on posting my holiday cookies, did it? As much as I am able to plan which cookies I’d like to bake, shoot photos, and edit, I run out of time when it comes to posting — especially when the new lights I’ve been using for my night photography aren’t quite delivering the results I’d like, but I continue to learn. I’ve also never been good at planning a variety of posts and lining them all up to auto-publish, but I’ll have to work on that, too.

In the meantime, I’ll share these snowball cookies with you. They’re my favorites so far of those I’ve made this season: a pleasant bite of citrus with the coolness that a dusting of powdered sugar always provides.

They’re just about the only thing remotely snowy I’ll ever see in our extreme southwest corner of the country!

Coconut-Orange Snowball Cookies

1-1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2-1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon salt

The directions can be found here.

Notes:

For those of you who have stopped reading because you don’t like coconut, I can say that these have tricked a few people who just didn’t know the coconut was in them. I used unsweetened coconut, it’s toasted and cooled, then nearly ground with a rolling pin. It blends right in with the other ingredients.
I chose not to use coconut flavoring because I never enjoy artificial flavors in anything. I used organic orange extract instead and omitted the orange zest, although I’d include it next time to accent the orange flavor even more.
I’m used to cookies of this type having nuts, and I didn’t miss them in this variety but know they would be excellent.
You’ll definitely need to roll these in the powdered sugar more than twice after they’re out of the oven. I also gave them a healthy sprinkle after they were placed on the platter.

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies Each year that the holiday cookie spreads come out...
Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Chocolate-Glazed Mocha Fans

kellypea — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:01:16 +0000

I used to make quite a few holiday cookies. The prep routine went something like this: wallow through the recipes until the calendar pressured me into making choices; make sure there’s not only a variety of flavors, but textures and shapes as well; and vary the types to spark some interest, making sure to include pastry cookies, or bar cookies. I’d look forward to settling down with a cup of coffee and a notebook then make my master ingredient list. I couldn’t wait to begin, planning on who would receive my cookies and how I’d package them. Add two little boys under the age of five to the mix and wonder with me now how I managed to pull it off. Clearly, I was delusional.

I’ve no small children at home now, and haven’t for years. What I do have is a very pleasant senior in high school who wandered into our kitchen last Sunday as I was getting organized and asked, ” Mom. Do you need any help today?” as he bent his tall, willowy frame over to give me a hug. For a second, I wondered whether his dad, who was headed for the Chargers game had given him some direction before he left, perhaps feeling unnecessarily guilty for abandoning us on a Sunday, but it was only a fleeting second. For those of you who have not yet had your children grow up to be teenagers, please know I’ve raised three, and as much as they can be quite good at passive resistance, they’re also kind people.

Credit to aforementioned resident teen whose offer of assistance I accepted in making these Chocolate-Glazed Mocha Fans. He gets credit for having a hand steady enough to place the pearls.

Chocolate-Glazed Mocha Fans

For the fans…

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder or coffee powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

For the glaze…

3/4 cup whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions can be found here.

Notes:

These are quite easy to make, but definitely need the cooling time. I thought about using individual tart pans, but reconsidered when I thought about how rich they might be. I’m glad I chose the large pan. The wedges can be cut even smaller, but make sure you do so when the tart is still warm.
The kick comes from the combination of the dark chocolate and the espresso powder. I bought some cacao nibs to sprinkle on the top, but decided they already packed a potent punch. Delicious, but goodness, they’re chock-full of flavor.
The only thing I would consider changing about these is to include Chuao Spicy Maya chocolate in this recipe. I know it would be fabulous!
This recipe would add the shape, texture, and flavor I mentioned above. It would stand out in your cookie gift assortment.

Chocolate Almond Dipped Sandwich Cookies Last year at this time, our house was completely...
Chocolate Mint Cookies I’m not sure what it is about mint, but...
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies The math isn’t exactly challenging: 12 cookies in 12...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.