Double Chocolate Biscotti

Biscotti, like macarons, are cookies that I went most of my life under the impression that I did not like it. I don’t know if this is because the only biscotti I’ve ever really seen was at a Starbucks or because most recipes I’ve seen have nuts; whatever the reason it is does not matter now.

In pastry school we made biscotti once and I was not completely frustrated with the process so I decided that I would some today so my mother could have some fresh biscotti waiting for her when she got home.

I myself am a chocolate fiend and since coffee and chocolate are a wonderful pair it seemed only natural that chocolate biscotti would be perfection.

Ingredients

• ½ stick of butter (soft)
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cup of AP flour
• ¾ cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and baking powder. Gradually add to the butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time allowing to fully incorporate before adding the next.
4. Fold in flour gradually by hand. The batter will start to come together and form a single mass.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to chill for 15 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
8. Divide the dough into 2 and roll into 9 inch logs (careful to avoid air pockets). Flatten the top slightly and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes rotating half way through.
10. Cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to allow to cool for 1 hour.
11.  Cut each loaf into ½ inch slices, and lay flat on a cookie sheet with new parchment. Beware chocolate chips that are on the outside edge though, every time I tried to cut through them my cookie would break and would have to be eaten (oh darn.)
12. Bake at 325 F for 9 minutes. Flip cookies and bake for another 9 minutes.
13. Allow to cool and enjoy.

What you are left with it a delicious chocolate cookie that isn’t overpowering or too sweet. They have a great snap and are perfect for dunking.  The only trouble I seem to have with biscotti is cutting them. It seems hitting a soft and gooey chocolate chip causes the piece to crumble. This recipe yielded roughly 2 ½ dozen cookies so I imagine without the causalities it would have made 3 dozen.

The beautiful thing about them also is that they are very quick to come together; the longest part of this recipe is waiting around for them to cool down just to bake them again. I think with the way I’ve been nibbling at them they might disappear pretty fast too.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Man Business school is such the time suck, but I cannot believe that I'm already half way through my last semester and just that much closer to culinary school...hopefully.

Unfortunately, this meant not too much baking was happening but then I was directed towards a recipe. A recope that makes you gain 5 pounds just from looking at the images.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough+Cheesecake bars=Love...and fat

These bars accomplish what I hope every baked good to accomplish. The eye close. That magical reaction to something that taste so good you have to close your eyes to just take in everything. I am please to note that everyone that I presented these beauties to did the same thing. Everyone did the eye close and to me that's amazing, but enough about how much people enjoyed these let's get onto the pictures and recipe!

Ingredients:
Crust:

• 1 1/2 Cups graham cracker crumbs


• 5 Tablespoons of melted butter

Cookie Dough:

• 5 Tablespoons of butter (room temp)


• 1/3 cup brown sugar


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract


• 3/4 Cup flour


• 1 Cup of chocolate chips

Cheesecake:

• 10 oz. creamcheese


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1 Large egg


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degress


2. Butter a 9x9 pan and line it with parchment paper (the butter keep the parchment paper in place) & leave enough to extend over the side.


3. Combine the crumbs and butter until moistened


4. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan and up the sides.


5. Bake for 6 minutes and allow to cool while you're making the next two parts.

For the cookie dough

1. Mix butter, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth


2. Drop to slow and add flour


3. Stir in the chips
4. 
   
5. Set aside...and maybe take a nibble for yourself.

For the Cheesecake

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.


2. Add egg and vanilla, beat until blended


3. Pour into that lovely crust!


4. Drop some cookie dough over the filling


5. Bake for 30 min.


6. Cool for 1 hour

That hour takes forever but I promise if you stick out you will be well rewarded, and what amazing is that since the cookie dough doesn't have any egg in it, it still deliciously doughy.

Chocolate Caramel Puff

My earliest memory where I knew I loved chocolate was watching Death by Chocolate with Marcel Desaulnier with my mother. So imagine my surprise when I found out we had a cookie cookbook by Marcel for 20 years without me knowing it!

I ended up reading the whole cookbook in one night (am I the only one that reads cookbooks like regular books?)

Ingredients for the Chocolate Pate Au Choux (puff dough):

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup of water
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift flour and Cocoa powder together then set aside.
3. Heat the water, butter, and Sugar. Once the mixture is hot stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil.
4. Remove from the heat and add the dry ingredients.
5. Stir with the Wooden Spoon to stir until the mixture comes together.
6. Once the mixture has come together add each egg one at a time after each on is incorporated.
   
7. Divide the dough into 24 portions and bake for 20 min.-when baking half way through the time switch and rotate your pans.

While those bake it's time to work on the Caramel Chocolate Ganache!

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped)
• 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (chopped)
  
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Splash of coffee

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the heavy cream and and butter over medium heat. You want to melt the butter and then allow the cream to simmer.
3. In a separate, saucepan combine the sugar and the lemon juice. Stir with a whisk to combine and caramelize for 7 to 8 minutes. This was especially exciting for me because I have never made caramel before, and at the 6 minute mark I was standing there thinking there's no way this is going to turn into caramel but lo and behold:
   
   
4. Pour 1/2 the hot cream into the sugar and stir with whisk until it stops bubbling. Then pour the rest and stir until smooth.
5. Pour over the chocolate and allow to sit for 5 minutes before stirring with whisk to stir. Here is where I add a splash of coffee because it really brings out the flavor of chocolate.
6. Allow to sit until the ganache gets thick.
7. Now that your puffs are out of the oven and your ganache is thick it's time to slice the puffs horizontally.
   
8. Pipe the ganache on the bottom half of a puff and top with the other half and then prepare yourself for heaven in your mouth.
   

I made these especially for my sweetie as an early valentines day sweet, and I was really happy with the outcome. These are perfect for the chocoholic in your life (or for yourself if you have a chocolate addiction like me.)

Green Tea Cookies

Ok so pixie is back and baking! Jeez, business school starts up and suddenly I cannot find a minute to bake.

So one flavor I have always loved is green tea. Green tea ice cream is my absolute favorite and then a friend of mine mentioned green tea cookies! I had thought about green tea cookies before but had never really found a recipe. Well thanks to Appetite for China. I found one!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon green tea matcha powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes

1. Mix the flour, sugars, green tea powder, and salt in a large bowl.
   
2. Add the vanilla, water and butter.
3. Mix them together until a dough forms. The dough will look a bit weird:
   
4. Just get in there with your hands and keep mixing until the dough fully forms!
5. Roll the dough into a log onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and shape the log until it is smooth.
6. Chill for 30 minutes.
7. After chilling slice the log in to cookie slices and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.
   
   
8. Let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!

The taste is definitely a green tea flavor, this will surely delight those who truely love green tea. However the taste can also be...interesting. Might have to tweak the recipe, perhaps add honey to make them sweeter, to make it delicious for non-green tea fiends.

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies

I am thoroughly convinced that there is no better taste combination than chocolate and peanut butter. So when my friend sami's grandmother asked me to make her 5 dozen cookies for her cookie exchange--and mentioned that chocolate chip was not an option but the cookies should be rather simple--I knew chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies were the answer.

Simple, delicious, and who doesn't love melting chocolate? And peanut butter cookies have to be the easiest cookies in the world. Unfortunately they are terribly difficult for Os--thick things like peanut butter...or butter for that matter make him turn into a grump old man.

I use a simple peanut butter cookie recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
  
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 12 oz for semisweet chocolate morsels
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat the Egg, peanut butter, and sugar until a dough forms.
3. Form the dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.
5. You can easily create a double boiler by simmering water in a pot and placing a glass bowl on top of it. Place your chocolate chips in the glass bowl and stir them around with a rubber spatula. Once the chocolate is halfway melted you can remove it from the heat and just continue to stir so the chocolate won't burn.
   

Once the cookies have cooled just dip them in the chocolate and let them sit in the fridge until you're ready to eat them.



The best thing about these cookies is how the chocolate melts in your mouth and then the soft center of the peanut butter cookie is just perfection.

That's why I love Sami. She is one of those people that no matter what sweet I make she'll eat it even if it's ridiculously simple like peanut butter cookies; however perhaps when it comes to cookies simple is always best.

I honestly cannot for the life of me remember why I used to think peanut butter cookies were so difficult. It might be because Os doesn't do well with them. Sometimes I'd rather use the Betty Crocker easy cookie mixes for peanut butter cookies, which I'm sure is some sort of baking sin, but it's a lot better than dealing with Os when he's being fussy.

Lemon Bars

I have to admit that 99.99% of my baking is usually for someone else. One of my favorite people to bake for is my brother Snorlax. My brother used to be a sane Chocoholic like myself but in recent years it seems that his love for chocolate has waned. As it turns out his sweet tooth is delighted by tart! Lemon, lemon, lemon!

So after raiding my mother's cookbook shelf I came upon Luscious Lemon Desserts, a collection of tartly delicious lemon recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup plus 2 tablespoons All-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8 baking pan
2. Whisk 1 cup of the flour, 1/4 cup of the confectioners' sugar, the zest, and the salt.
3. Cut the the butter into tiny cubes. The cookbook calls for a pastry blender or 2 knives used in scissors-fashion, but I cut the butter into tiny tiny pieces and it made no difference.
   
4. Mix with your best tool-a pair of clean hands!-until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and then keep kneading the mixture until the dough comes together.
   
5. Transfer the dough to the baking pan and press it evenly into the bottom. Bake for 25 minutes and allow it to cool while you make the filling
6. Whisk together the remaining confectioners' sugar (1 1/2 cups), the remaining flour (2 tablespoons) and the baking powder in a small bowl.
7. Beat the eggs on high for about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, add the sugar mixture, and beat just until blended, scraping down the side bowl.
   
8. Add the lemon juice and keep blending!
9. Pour the lemon mixture over the crust and bake for 18-20 minutes.
10. Let cool in the pan.

Cut and enjoy after they've cooled. Just before serving sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar.

A sure delight for anyone that likes lemon. I had a bite and could not believe the tartness. I feared that they might have been too tart but my brother loved them. I think next time I want to use the same recipe but instead of using a square baking pan I want to use tartlet pans. How amazing would mini lemon tarts be?

Root Beer Cookies

In Mike Judge's 2009 film Extract Jason Bateman reminisces about his family making root beer cookies. I had never heard of such a thing before this movie but my boyfriend, who I saw the movie with, is a root beer fiend and began nudging me during the movie as soon as the cookies were mentioned. So I went to the trustworthy internet and found a recipe. Tweaked it and they came out delicious.
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter


• 1 cup dark brown sugar


• 1 egg


• 2 teaspoons root beer extract (or a little more if you really want that rootbeer taste!)
  


• 1 3/4 cups flour


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Got your ingredients? Fantastic!

1. Cream the butter and dark brown sugar until it is light and fluffy.


2. Add the egg and beat well, once it is combined add the root beer extract.


3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then slowly add it to the butter mixture (and pray that your ancient mixer doesn't give out on you)


4. You'll be left with something resembling this:

Take a Taste! :D I love stealing just a bit of cookie dough and it's at this point that the dough really taste like Root beer. Once the dough is ready you'll want to cover it up and stick in the fridge for about an hour or so. Once that's done preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 6-8 minutes. Once they're done let them cool for about 20 minutes before putting on the Root Beer frosting.

Don't have root beer frosting? Make some!
Root Beer Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter


• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar


• 1 tsp root beer extract


• Few tablespoons of water (optional, I didn't really need it)

1. Beat the butter on high until it's nice and fluffy.


2. Add a little of the powdered sugar and the extract.


3. Continue adding the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

The water is only needed if you want a different consistency for your frosting. Make sure you keep the frosted cookies in the fridge as the frosting has a tendency to sweat.