The Queen of Tarts

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are countless recipes for chocolate chip cookies - everyone seems to have their favorite, and of course there is the great debate over chewy or crispy. I have always loved chocolate chip cookies, and truth be told, I have never EVER met anyone who did not like them. They come in all shapes and sizes and textures as well. I remember driving around in the summer as a child and eating Famous Amos cookies from the brown bags they came in. There was something delectable about that crunch from such a small cookie. The very first time I had a Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookie was in La Jolla, CA and I was about 14 years old - friends of my parents let me have one, and to this day it stands out as being one of the best cookies I have ever had (or maybe it just tasted better because I had a major crush on their son...) To this day I have never had a Mrs. Fields that tastes as good as the ones I had back in La Jolla.

I have made many versions of this American classic, and the ones that remain chewy are preferable. In recent weeks I have turned back to baking as the weather in our new home, Abu Dhabi, has started to cool enough for me to even want to contenplate turning the oven on. I found a recipe in Cooks Illustrated for chewy chocolate chip cookies, and provided me with a full-on reason as to WHY they reminded chewy (the melted butter and extra egg yolk). I could not resist. Of course like almost every other recipe, I put in my edits. For example, I used three different kinds of chocolate from chocolate bars (which I chopped up) instead of chips. I like the uneven melting and the subtle flavor differences. I am also very heavy handed with the vanilla, and tend to cut back a bit on the sugar. I also doubled the recipe, which turned the whole thing into a bit of a math project due to the metric conversions over here. However, they are amazing, and it is hard to not eat the all of the dough from the bowl.

Enjoy! 

4 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

24 tbsp salted butter melted and cooled

2 cup packed brown sugar (light)

2 large egg plus 2 egg yolks

3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups chopped chocolate (for best flavor, mix up the variety with milk, semi-sweet, and dark)

Preheat oven to 325 F and line baking sheets (2) with parchment paper or cooking spray. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and set aside. Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl and then beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Add the dry ingredients until all incorporated. Finally, add in the chips. Use either a measuring cup or a cookie scoop and measure out about 1/4 cup for each cookie and shape into a ball. Pull the ball apart with your hands, and rotate the hands 90 degrees so the jagged ends are facing up - then press together. Place the dough on the cookie sheet jaggedside up about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11-13 minutes until about golden brown. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 16 large cookies.

Chocolate Creme Cookies...aka "Oreos"

Sure I liked oreos when I was a kid, but they were by no means my favorite cookie.  I did not like how crunchy the cookie was, it crumbled everywhere and made a mess.  I also never found the cookie too satisfying.  I tend to lean toward double chocolate chip, chocolate chip, molasses ginger, or even the vanilla oreo cookies.  I just had a problem with the chocolate cookie - I preferred the chocolate covered cookies with the thin mint cream inside - fresh from the freezer.  But people go crazy over these little oreos.

We never really had them around the house when I was a kid.  Occasionally, I would eat a few of the double-stuffed oreos, but once the cream filling was gone, I left the chocolate cookies on the plate with the half-empty glass of milk and I went about my business.  About two months Dr. H and I stopped by Flour to bring a box of treats to my parents' house and I saw a plate of gorgeous chocolate cream-filled cookies.  Joanne Chang had outdone herself again with her rendition of the oreo. These were definitely NOT the oreos that I grew up with.  The crust was sweet, crunchy, and had a hint of salt.  The cream was silky and ultra rich.  And the two together tasted like lust and the most gorgeous dirty secret your best friend ever told you.  I mean these were so good that my father was thinking about how to make them last - should we freeze them, and eat them frozen?  Should we try to cut them in half?  And then I found him and my nephew hidden reading books and sitting together with a plate of the cookies like 2 yrs old laughing.  They were nothing less than pure joy.

About two weeks ago I received King Arthur Flour's weekly email and the message contained a recipe for "Faux-Reos" and let me tell you, there is nothing FAUX about these cookies.  They tasted quite a bit like Ms. Chang's and this is the highest compliment.  After reading through the recipe, I figured out that they were easy enough to make and would probably make a great hostess gift to a dinner party that Dr. H and I were attending.  So, the decision was made.

The cookie itself is dark chocolate and cold also be used for a pie crust (think ice cream cake, cheese cake, etc). And as for the cream filling?  Well it tasted almost exactly like my wedding cake frosting which left me speechless - in the best possible way.  Do not overmix the frosting, or it will become too soft.  Less is more here.  However, you can always put it in the fridge to stiffen up.  We decided that these taste the best the day after as the filling has the chance to soften the cookies a bit and stiffen up.  I also like the combination of sweet/savory so I increased the salt from the King Arthur Flour recipe.

Cookie: (makes about 22-25 cookies - or 11 to 12 sandwiches)

1 cup sugar

¾ cup butter

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 large egg

1 tablespoon cold water

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour

3/4 cup black cocoa (can be found at King Arthur Flour)or Dutch-process cocoa (I like a combination of ½ C of black cocoa & ¼ C of dutch-processed)

Cream Filling:

2 ½ cups confectioners' sugar

½ cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons cold water

Preheat the oven to 325F.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or use a silpat sheet.

Mix together the butter, sugar, salt, and espresso powder in a bowl.  Once combined, add in the egg, water, vanilla, flour, and cocoa powder (the dough will be very stiff).  Once the dough is mixed, start to fill the cookie sheet.  Each cookie should be about 2 tablespoons worth of dough.  I like to use a cookie scoop to make this easier.  Roll each piece into a ball.  Line the sheets with the dough leaving about 1 1/2 inches in between each cookie.  

 

Use the bottom of a glass to flatten out the cookies.  If you place a piece of wax paper underneath the glass, the cookie will not stick to the glass.  

Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes.  It is important that you do not over bake them, as they will be too crunchy once you assemble them.

As the cookies are baking, you can make the filling.  Beat together the sugar, shortening, and vanilla until smooth (again, do not over mix).  If needed, add the water.  You want to have a stiff frosting. Once the cookies have cooled completely, you can fill them.  Put about 1 1/2 tablespoons of frosting in between each cookie.

Enjoy!

End of Summer Sweet Tahinis

We were sitting around the table over a multi-course Middle Eastern dinner the other night discussing food.  Rather appropriate to discuss food as we were eating it... Over hummus, watermelon and feta salad, baba ganoush, quinoa with cilantro, whole wheat pita seasoned with za'atar, and chicken with a yogurt cumin marinade, the topic of baking emerged.

I tend to bake less often in the summer months.  This summer in particular, the oven has seldom reached a temperature of 350F and received one of my tray of cookie dough or loaves of buttermilk raisin nut bread.  We got married, we traveled, and the heat in Boston has made it less than appealing to turn on the gas stove.  However, September is only days away, and my cookbooks are quickly collecting dust.  Several hours before our dinner, I thought that I should make some kind of dessert to round out the night's Middle Eastern theme, and since the watermelon was already used in a salad, I dusted off the Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book.  I am pretty much fine eating food that contains gluten, and as you can see from above, I am not a vegan.  However, I do love to experiment with new recipes and ingredients.

Jennifer Katzinger's book takes ingredients that might be considered by some strange or bizarre, and turns them into staple home items:  brown rice flour, almond meal, agave nectar, palm oil, coconut oil, organic whole cane sugar, and garbanzo bean flour.  I find my shelves full of these items since I also own the Baby Cakes cookbook.

Katzinger's book goes beyond sweets, and opens a door to savory, meals, and overall baking.  She takes out the mystery behind gluten free baking and the end result is delicious.  I leafed through the book and found what I was looking for..."Sweet Tahinis".  A cookie that contained tahini oil would perfect for my Middle Eastern themed dinner.

This recipe is adapted from Katzinger's recipe.  The cookies are soft, and have the smoky tahini-flavor that I have come to love.  Whether you eat gluten free or not, they are sure to please!

Make 16 Large Cookies

Preheat Oven to 375F

2 C Brown Rice Flour (I could not find my brown rice flour, but used white rice instead...)

1 tsp baking power

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 C tahini (found in most supermarkets these days)

1/2 Palm oil or coconut oil (I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening)

scant 1 C whole cane sugar (just under 1 cup)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C agave nectar

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  Mix the tahini, oil, sugar, and vanilla in a standing mixer with a paddle attachment under well blended.  Add the dry ingredients slowly in 2 batches until well incorporated.  When the wet and dry are mixed, slowly add the agave nectar.

Scoop the batter out onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and make sure that you have about 1 1/2 inches in between each cookie since they spread while baking.  Press the cookies down with the top of a fork and bake for about 15-17 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on tray for about 2 minutes before removing to cookie rack.  The cookies are soft and fragile, so take care as you transfer them from the tray to the rack.

Best when eaten following a Middle Eastern meal...

Double Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Every time I make a batch of cookies, I am thrown back into my mother's kitchen, or the kitchen's of my mother's friends growing up in Providence.  Cooking, aside from having small children and working, seemed to be a common thread that kept everyone together and coming around the table for more. When we would sit down for a family dinner or lunch, it was not just our four-some immediate family, but often a group much larger that brought in parents, grandparents, and children from all over.  Many a meal ended with oversized cookies served on a large platter:  mocha chip, chocolate orange, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, lemon shortbread, and linzer.  As many ideas as my mother had in her head, she could create a recipe for them.  I still think about those cookies and genius behind many of the recipes. While variations on the traditional chocolate chip cookie are still my favorite, I recently started to experiment with new flours and recipes to see what could come up with that would break from the norm.  Several months back I made a coconut chocolate chip cookie that combined both whole wheat and white flours, canola oil, coconut milk, and agave nectar, chocolate chips, and salt for an "oatey" crunch that had just the right balance of sweetness from the chocolate and salt.

I recently read about Teff Flour in the Flying Apron Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Book and bought some at Whole Foods Market.  One of the great things about Bob's Red Mills products, is that the back of the packages often have a few recipes.  And this is what inspired me to make these double nut chocolate chip cookies.  I knew that Teff Flour was from Ethiopia, but I had never used it before.  Worst case scenario was that I made the batch, and then threw the whole thing out.  It is something that I am rather used to in the trial and error thing called cooking.

These cookies are both gluten-free and vegan, and they are reminiscent of good old fashioned peanut butter cookies.  They have a wonderful nutty texture, and satisfy both a sweet and chocolate craving - one (or maybe 2) cookies should take care you.  Plus, they are packed with good stuff, and do not require a lot of fuss to make!  So I have both my mom and Bob from Bob's Red Mills to thank for this recipe!

Double Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies 

(Inspired by Bob's Red Mills Teff Peanut Butter Cookies)

1 1/2 C Teff Flour

3/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 C agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C canola oil

1/2 C peanut butter (I used salted, chunky, all natural)

1/2 C almond butter (I make my own almond butter, but it is smooth and salted)

1 C dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F and set aside an ungreased cookie sheet.  Combine dry ingredients in a mixer. In a food processor, combine the nut butters, agave, and canola oil until well mixed.  Pour into the dry mixture, and turn the mixer on low speed.  Gradually add the chips and vanilla.  I use a cookie scoop (1 inch) and place the balls on the cookie sheet and gently press down with the palm of my hand and then use the tines of a fork to press down a little harder to flatten the dough.  (yields about 26 cookies) Bake for about 12-14 minutes (I like my cookies slightly under done...)

Please note - these cookies can crumble - they are delicate, but freeze well and after cooling, if you freeze them, they will hold their form better.

Flying Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have never meet anyone who has not liked chocolate chip cookies.  I have met many people whose opinion differs as to what kind of chocolate chip cookie they like - chewy, crispy, full of chips, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, etc.  But never, ever, have I met anyone who has not liked them.  With this post, I am sure that they will make themselves known, but until they do, I will hold tight to my convictions.

I have tried many, many different kinds of chocolate chip cookie recipes in my 30+ years, and have found some that I like more than others.  Perhaps the best kind are those that are made with someone else, whether it be a good friend, or the help of little hands...

I recently started baking with more non-traditional ingredients and incorporating these into my cookies, cakes, and confections.  Whether it be agave nectar for sugar, whole wheat flour for white flour, or even coconut oil for butter, I wanted to see what I could do to "bake better" for myself.  Sure, I am positive that many people would disagree, and tell me that it is a waste of time, money, and energy to stray away from butter and eggs and good old flour.  But I actually enjoy the chemistry that goes into finding out why the ingredients react - or fail to react - based on what goes into the mix.  I also tell myself that I am doing something good for myself, and whether this is the case or not, that is my story, and I am sticking to it so there!

It actually all started with a chocolate chip cookie you know... A coconut chocolate chip cookie that led me down the path to baking without eggs, and trying out alternative recipes.  I then stumbled on the Baby Cakes NYC Cookbook and made several batches of those cupcakes, which are perfect little snacks (I make mini unfrosted ones, keep them in the freezer, and defrost a few when I need something sweet).  For full disclosure, following my Baby Cakes post, I was contacted by a publicist for the new cookbook "The Flying Apron", which is a vegan and gluten free bakery out in Seattle.  I received a copy of the book, and looked through it nightly for several weeks until today, when I opened it up and finally decided to make the chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I had the ingredients all collected, so I really had no excuse to not give it a go.

Following recipes to the 1/8 of a teaspoon in gluten free / vegan baking is critical, and I tend to not be the best at that.  I like to add a little here and a little there, and make things up as I go.  However, if I plan to post things on a blog, and expect people to follow a recipe, that will not really work.  So, when I opened up the Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book I already started to see substitutes for ingredients listed in my mind... coconut oil instead of the recommended canola oil.  Agave nectar instead of the recommended organic cane sugar, almond milk instead of the recommended rice milk etc.  So there was really only one solution - I have both recipes below for you... you can do either one, or you can make them both!  I made the one in purple, and the cookie is not the crispy one that you might find with heaps of butter, but the result is a cookie, a substantial cookie, with a small hint of the coconut and crispy edges, with a soft middle.  Enjoy, from the bottom of my heart...

Flying Apron Chocolate Chip Cookies (with adaptations...)

2 3/4 cups brown rice flour

1 1/2 cups + 1tbsp garbanzo bean flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp sea salt

1 c canola oil [1/2 c canola oil+1/2 c coconut oil]

1 c organic whole cane sugar [2/3 c agave nectar]

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c rice milk [1 c almond milk]

1 c vegan chocolate chips [1 1/2 c vegan chocolate chips]

optional: 1/4 c chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  The a standing bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment add the oil(s), sugar (agave nectar), and vanilla and combine until well mixed.  With the speed on low, add the flour mixture and the milk (almond or rice) and mix until well combined - this will take about 2 minutes.  Add in the chocolate and nuts if you are using them.  Scoop out the dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart...

and bake for about 14-16 minutes until the top is golden brown. (I like to under bake my cookies, so I bake them for 14 minutes).

Recession - of the Daring Kind

I never expected it to happen.  I can honestly say that I never saw it coming.  For years I have been so careful with the numbers, and I have reviewed every single step.  I still cannot believe that it happened to me.  It started with the walls.  They held the smallest cracks that grew deeper until they could not support the roof.  Piece by piece they started to fall. Now really, how could this have happened?  I might spend a bit more than I should on certain things, and I do like name brand items, but as I reviewed the history, the steps, the process, and I everything I did along the way to get to this point, I could not figure out the hows and the whys.  I would have to start over - from the beginning, and build it all over again, from scratch.

And that is exactly what I did.  Upon starting all over again, I learned that I should NOT attempt a recipe while recovering from the flu and in the midst of pneumonia - because that is exactly what I did.  And I neglected to count and measure accurately and that is when it happened... the recession affected Gingerbread Land.  Sad, so very sad.  So after I paid the price of screwing up, really screwing up and admitting defeat, I started all over again.  From the beginning, and I yielded a much more promising recipe.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I chose to follow Y of Lemonpi, and here goes (note: follow the recipe EXACTLY!)

Y's Recipe:
Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas http://astore.amazon.com/thedarkit-20/detail/0816634963

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface (the dough will be tough at first).  Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, etc.  You can do a search on line for houses, and place the paper up against the house and cut around the edges.  I then placed each piece of the house on a cookie sheet and baked.  It will be easiest if you use a spatula to place the pieces on a cookie sheet so that when you pick the pieces up they do not rip.

Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe the icing on the pieces if you want to make windows, a door, siding, etc, and allow to dry before assembling (otherwise it will run down the house!) If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.  If you want to add decorations, use slightly dried (but still wet) icing as this will allow the decoration (candy) to better stick to the house.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Sugar and Spice and Toblerone makes it extra nice

 

Sugar cookies are really the perfect holiday cookies.  Years ago my aunt held the most incredible Christmas parties in the world and had a table set aside for the kids.  The table was filled with sugar cookies of all shapes and sizes on one side, and the other side had icing, edible glitter, and dragees that would inevitably end up all over the floor as we piled them on top of the cookies.  While the decorating was fun, eating the cookies was even better.  However this year I decided to take a sugar cookie recipe and make it a little more fun.  I had several dozen mini-Toblerone chocolate bars and thought that placing layers of Toblerone in between the sugar cookie cookies would make for the perfect holiday treat.

Happy Holidays!

Toblerone Sugar Cookies (based off of the Classic Sugar Cookie Recipe by Carole Walter, Great Cookies)

Prehear oven to 350 F (Makes 2 dozen cookies)

8 mini Toblerone milk chocolate bars(break into separate triangles)

3 C Cake flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 C sugar

Mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.  Mix the butter and salt in an electric stand mixer until pale and fluffy on medium speed.  Add in the egg and the vanilla.  Scrap down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add in half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix until well incorporated, then add in the remaining ingredients.  Once mixed, take the dough and form into a log shape and wrap in wax paper.  Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.  If needed, reform the dough into a log shape so that you can cut circles.  You should have enough dough for 4 dozen cookies, but you will be layering them so your recipe will actually yield 24 cookies.  Once you cut a cookie, lay it on a lined cookie sheet, place 2 pieces of the Toblerone on top and then another layer of cookie dough.  You do not need to press down on the cookie as it will fold down on its own. 

 

Bake the cookies for about 12-14 minutes and then remove from the oven.  If you want to make the cookies a little over the top, drizzle with melted dark chocolate...

Holiday Cheer

For the past five years Hector and I have held a holiday party.  It started with a simple little idea - why don't we just have a few friends over?  And from then, the parties have become quite an event.  Each year there is a core group of friends who come and are able to compare one party to the next, and then we find new friends who we bring into our close circle.  It is an amazing evening and one that takes weeks of preparation.  It starts with the invitations, the menu, and then I begin to work my magic.  I turn into the Sugar Plum Fairy and see what delights I can create to dazzle our friends.  I think that this year, despite not feeling 100% and the party falling on the 3rd anniversary of my open-heart surgery, was our best yet.

Dozens of frosted sugar cookies set the holiday tone. 

Salted caramel chocolates were one of the high points.

Molasses cookies covered in dark chocolate added some spice.

Sugar Cookies with toblerone layered in the middle added a nice surprise.

Macaroons layered with various fillings including chocolate amaretto ganache, rum coconut buttercream, and salted caramel were the hit of the party.

Yes, I would say that Holiday Party #5 was a great success - so much so that before the last guest left I was already planning our next event.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Flying Saucers... Also known as the Daring Bakers' Challenge

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I still remember the first time I tasted a French macaroon...  We were in Paris, and I was in grade school.  A trip to Fauchon had my sister and I peering into the windows and staring at all sorts of gorgeous delicacies that we could not even begin to imagine in our wildest dreams.  I still remember pointing to the macaroons and having the woman behind the counter fill a box with the different colored round treats - each one a different flavor.  We bought so many, we had enough to take some back home on the plane with us (this was of course before the airlines restrictions that are now in place, at that point people could bring on full four-course meals!)  Lemon, pistachio, orange, mocha, and on and on.  My sister referred to them as flying saucers, and she had a point.  From that point on, every time I saw these treats, I thought (and still think) of the trip to Paris.

While my attempt to recreate macaroons from Paris was nowhere near as stellar (I never achieved the "feet"), the taste exceeded my expectations.  I filled them with salted caramel.  Instead of a blanched almond flour, I had whole ground almond flour, which made for a nuttier and coarser texture, but the cookie came out soft and as I remembered.

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable) or ziploc plastic bags
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients. (I became increasingly frustrated and stopped sifting and just dumped in the flour/sugar mixture...)
4. You can put the mixture down on the sheet in a few ways...you can spoon the mixture into a pastry bag (fitted with a plain half-inch tip -Ateco #806), or you can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. 
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen - Mine yielded closer to 4 dozen, but I made them a bit too big...

Mint Milano Cookies

It was time again for the Daring Baker's Challenge from the Daring Kitchen.  I messed up last month.  I posted my lemon-frangipane tart a few weeks too early.  I am trying to play by the rule now, and so here it is, officially posted, on 27 July 2009.  The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

And there I was...choosing between one of my favorite cookies (milanos - as in Pepperidge Farm) and a cookie that had marshmallow.  Since marshmallow is something that makes its way into my kitchen quite often, I stayed with the milano recipe.  I based it off of the recipe given to us, but added mint extract since I am a HUGE fan of mint and chocolate together.  The combination just works for me - and works quite well.  I also wanted to try a different shape for the cookies, so I piped them into squares and used square cookie cutters when they were hot and just coming out of the oven.  For some of the cookies, I went a bit over the top.  I layered the chocolate in between two cookies.  I then covered the cookies in chocolate and layered them in between two other cookies - kind of like a double-stuffed milano.  The result:  absolute minty-decadence!  True love at first bite.

Recipe adapted from Gail Gand - the FoodNetwork site
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies (or more...)

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 6 lg egg whites
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp peppermint extract

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. (You can also use a plastic food storage/sandwich bag and cut the corner off so that you squeeze the batter out of the corner.)  The batter is quite thin, almost like cake batter.  IT WILL SPREAD!  If you want to shape the cookies into shapes like squares, do so once they come out of the oven with a cookie cutter.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add peppermint extract and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.
11. If you want to make a double stuffed cookie, complete as above, then emerge the cookie into the chocolate, let cool, and place in between two other cookies.  I think the double-stuffed are the best - yes, they are entirely TOO decadent, but if you are going to eat these butter-laden cookies, why the hell not!