confections of a serial baker

okay, so i know the phrase should be “like mother, like daughter”, but the loving bond between mother and daughter made me feel like the title warranted love. i know, i know…awwww! how cheesy. in any case, i have mentioned before that i developed my love of baking by helping my mom out when i was a kid, so i wanted to highlight a cake that my mom made for a work event this week.

vanilla and chocolate and pudding….AND chocolate covered strawberries, OH MY!! This cake has whipped cream icing- custard filling with fresh strawberries and bananas – chocolate and yellow pudding cakes- and chocolate covered strawberries cut in half dipped on both sides so the juices don’t run on the whipped cream. looks delicious, and i hear it was! i should point out that my sister is an amazing baker as well and has made some awesome cakes for her daughters’ birthdays and other events, which i will undoubtedly show you in the future.

as for me… more snow for us in nj! since nobody is going much of anywhere, if i were to bake this week i would be forced to eat it all myself or let it go to waste, neither of which sounds like the best of ideas!

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ok, so you bought a few boxes of girl scout cookies from your niece, and one from the lady who sits next to you at work, and you just couldn’t resist when the cute little girls outside the grocery store asked if you would help support their troop. you thought to yourself you don’t know what you are going to do with all those cookies, but before you knew it…:::WHAM::: full-fledged addiction. now that the cookie selling season is coming to a close, what’s an addict to do?

for one, you can stock up on the edy’s/dreyer’s girl scout cookies flavored ice cream, which is delicious. but if you enjoy biting into the actual cookies, i suggest you do what i did and recreate them at home! i had looked up some girl scout cookie clone recipes a while ago but hadn’t gotten around to making them yet. this past weekend i looked in the fridge and found the caramel i had made last week, ya know the caramel that is good to store for a week in the fridge that i had no idea what to do with. unless you made my mississippi mud cupcakes, i think it is safe to assume that you do not have homemade caramel in your fridge, so i am going to post the recipe that bakingbites uses for these cookies rather than what i actually used.

i was going to make the cookie version, but i couldn’t find my donut nor plain circular shaped cookie cutters, and besides, bars are good! the reviews at work were that they lived up to the name of caramel delights! although the chocolate was darker than samoas, so they were slightly different, they were quite a hit! oh, and it says the dough will be crumbly, but mine wasn’t all that crumbly, so don’t be scared if yours isn’t either.

Recipe from BakingBites:

Homemade Samoas Bars
Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make the crust.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it’s easy to get it through the topping).
Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

Note: You can simply drizzle chocolate on top of the bars before slicing them up if you’re looking for yet an easier way to finish these off. You won’t need quite as much chocolate as noted above, and you won’t quite get the Samoas look, but the results will still be tasty.

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just in time for mardi gras–fat tuesday– something decadent enough to be celebrated! if you catch this early enough, you may have time to make them after work since they do not require any fancy ingredients (if you don’t have cream, there are work-arounds with other recipes).  i knew i was going to make these today, but was tripped up a bit schedule-wise since my morning was eaten up by the delivery of a brand-spankin-new washer and dryer (i am legitimately more excited about this than the cupcakes), and the majority of the late morning/afternoon spent with a dead car (after a very turbulent tow truck ride, it is being repaired and i have a loaner car). once i got back, i swung by the grocery store for a bag of marshmallows…the first trip in i bought a bunch of other stuff and forgot the marshmallows; i thankfully realized this as soon as i exited the store rather than once i got home like i usually do.

in any case…time for another work team birthday! hurrah! since tim was at macworld last week and had off today, he will be celebrating his serial baker style birthday on tuesday. i considered making something apple related, since his job is to increase our apple business and he is a mac fanboy…and i of course considered a themed cake for one of the tv shows he enjoys, and a number of other things…but then i recalled a request he had a while ago– his aunt used to make amazing mississippi mud brownies, and as he described them to me his eyes lit up and i am not sure, but i may have seen the beginnings of drool.

i don’t know if i will be able to live up to his memory, but i sure hope so! rather than brownies, i decided to go with cupcakes… not only because people tend to equate cake/cupcake with birthdays, and i think piling all this sweetness on to a dense brownie might be overwhelming during the work day, but i think i may have overloaded everyone with brownies during the perfect brownie search. although i did not end up going with any of the recipes i found online, the reviews of the ones i did read mentioned that unless you only half-fill the cupcake liners, it is near impossible to keep the marshmallows and any toppings in place. this seemed like the perfect excuse for the fancy folded paper liners i had bought last year and planned to use for muffins with superduper streusel. don’t worry, i will still be using more of them on said muffins!

i went with a standard chocolate cupcake recipe that got good reviews on allrecipes, topping them with marshmallows with a few minutes left of baking. unfortunately, the cupcakes needed more than just a couple more minutes, as the tester did not come out clean until the marshmallows were melted. i considered throwing them in the broiler or torching them, but i figured i would just leave them alone at this point since they would be covered anyway. i will admit, i am a bit concerned about how the marshmallows will be tomorrow (too tough/chewy?), and i think if i make these again and they will not be served the same day i will use fluff instead.

when it came to the topping, i was stuck with a decision to make: buttercream with chocolate and caramel drizzled, chocolate buttercream with caramel drizzled, or caramel buttercream with chocolate drizzled. i went with what appeared to be the general consensus on the brownies: chocolate icing with caramel drizzled. i veered from tradition though with the omission of the pecans since the birthday boy doesn’t eat them.

i am not much of a caramel fan, but it is pretty neat to make it from scratch…watching the white sugar turn into an amber liquid feeds my inner science geek. i wasn’t sure how much to make so i halved the recipe and well, i now possess enough caramel to top the macchiatos of every starbucks customer for a day. no, seriously, i have a ton of this stuff! it says it is good for a few days so i have to figure out a use for it. if you happen to have a good suggestion other than ice cream or bananas, please let me know!

I am vegetarian and therefore don’t eat marshmallows (fluff doesn’t have gelatin, so that is another reason to make the substitution next time), so i can’t taste test these….but they look and smell good. i will try to follow up with some reviews so that you know what modifications might be suggested. (update: two big ol’ thumbs up on these! and the marshmallow didn’t get too hard. woohoo!)

Recipe:

Chocolate Cupcakes (from AllRecipes)-

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups mini marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 1/2-3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 minutes then top with marshmallows and return to oven for an additional 3 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Chocolate Buttercream (adapted from the basic buttercream from both Domino Sugar and Magnolia Bakery)-

3-4 cups confectioner’s sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 milk

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Combine all ingredients (start with 3 cups of the sugar) on medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth. Add additional sugar until the proper consistency is achieved. If it is too stiff, add a small amount more milk.

Caramel Drizzle (from Yummy Cakes by Lynn, i halved the recipe for my use, but here is a full recipe- divide as you see fit, depending on your additional uses)-

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
• Pinch of salt

Cook sugar in heavy bottomed high-sided pan on medium heat, until it begins to melt around the edges, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook and stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is melted and has turned golden amber about 3 minutes longer.
Carefully pour the cream down the side of the pan in a slow, steady stream, it will bubble and splatter. Stir constantly until completely smooth. Stir in salt; pour into heatproof bowl to cool completely before using.
It can be stored in airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week; bring to room temperature before using.

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buttercream, caramel, chocolate, cupcakes, marshmallow, mississippi mud

so, i will be one of the first to admit that valentine’s day is a bogus holiday. no… this isn’t just because i am single; ever since i learned the origin of the holiday and the story of saint valentine i couldn’t help but think the holiday just wasn’t right. there are, however, a few nice things about it:

1. for those couples that have been together for what seems like forever and they are always focused on the kids, the mundane daily routine, etc, it is a nice reminder to be romantic
2. it is kinda cute to see kids reveal their crushes by giving the “good” valentine from the box to the one they like (do kids still even give those boxed valentines?)
3. the treats!!! i mean, come on people- that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? holidays are a great excuse to eat delicious goodies and not feel much guilt

with valentine’s day falling on a sunday, and monday being a day a lot of people are off work, i decided to do my valentine’s day baking for friday. i decided this thursday evening around 7.30pm. since the roads were covered in snow and ice i had to work with what i had in the house, so some improvising was in order.

when i am trying to avoid the buttermilk predicament i always consider listening to those substitution lists that say you can add lemon juice or vinegar to milk and it will work, but i am always so skeptical. this time though, unless i wanted to deal with the roads and make my late start even later, this was the time to experiment. i didn’t have any milk, but i did have soy milk. oy. i was not only substituting, but i was making a substitution within the substitution…needless to say there was a lot of “oh geez, i hope this works” going on in my kitchen.

i have made red velvet before (most notably the zombie cupcakes), but decided to try out a different recipe– one from magnolia bakery because, well, YUM. even though i knew i wanted to make red velvet, i seemed to have forgotten to make sure i had enough red food coloring. i am not telling you this just to embarrass myself, but i want to assure you that although the recipe calls for a ton of coloring, if say, suppose you only had half that amount, you would be okay.  the recipe was simple enough, but one part threw me for a bit of a loop. remember as a kid mixing vinegar and baking soda to make a volcano? yeah, well, it made me a bit nervous when i saw that one of the steps was mixing these two things! while it did not create an explosion it did create some fizzy foam, which i do not recall making in any of the other recipes i tried, but my memory could be slipping. in any case, the buttermilk substitution worked just fine– the flavor wasn’t as rich, but they were still tasty!

i tried the icing recipe that went with it but was not at all pleased with it, so i went with a classic cream cheese icing. of course when i went to make the icing i found that i was almost all out of confectioner’s sugar. how this happened, i am not sure, but i had to make a quarter of the recipe, spread it sparingly instead of piping a nice swirl, and only ice half of them. luckily, timing worked out and the first dozen were eaten before lunch, so on my break i went to the grocery store to pick up some sugar, made more icing, slathered it on, and brought them back into work for round 2. this second dozen was all gone within two hours except one, which i quickly found a home for when it was time for me to leave.

Recipe:

Cupcakes (from More From Magnolia: Recipes From The World-Famous Bakery and Magnolia’s Home Kitchen):

3 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

6 tablespoons red food coloring

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour three 9- by 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

To make the cake: In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.

In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter among 24 cupcake liners. Bake for 18-22  minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing (from AllRecipes):

2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups confectioners’ sugar (or less- use your discretion until it gets to the right consistency)

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and salt until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Store frosting in the refrigerator.

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chocolate, cream cheese, cupcakes, red velvet

no, not trouble, and not love….i am in deep with this heavy, slightly icy white stuff- SNOW! in a winter that has hit the mid-atlantic, ny metro area, and some unsuspecting southern states harder than the typical victims (chicago, buffalo, boston, etc), one can’t help but wonder what is going on (they say it is the el nino winds). to say washington dc is being pummeled repeatedly would be an understatement; reports i am reading estimate that they have gotten upwards of 75 inches so far this winter! my folks down in nashville, and friends in texas have seen more snow than they can ever recall. the scary thing about washington dc getting hit hard is that the gov has been shut down since last week! one of my friends who works for a gov agency in dc commented yesterday that if terrorists get a giant snow machine we are in big trouble! one of my other friends reminded me that things have come a long way since cloud-seeding, and it would be very plausible for someone to start messing with our weather. now, i don’t think the terrorists are behind the el nino forces driving this storm… just saying it isn’t as much of a “what-if” ridiculous statement that it sounds at first thought.

i have worked at my company for 5 years and i think we may have had one snow day, though it may have only been a half day; my department is also not allowed to work from home, despite having full access to everything we need through our laptops and work-issued smartphones. yesterday though, we finally had a snow day, and my team worked from home. let me just tell you, i was infinitely more productive working from home since there were very little distractions– nobody stopping by my desk; nobody stopping me in the kitchen to ask a work question, resulting in a 20 minute conversation i cannot walk away from (that could have easily been covered in a short e-mail); no meetings in a conference room (i did my meetings via conference call instead, which allowed me to get work done while i talked)… and i even managed to run the dishwasher and throw a couple of loads of laundry in, and be comfortable in sweatpants- ahhhh!!!! i think the company would find that most honest employees, that are not responsible for taking care of children while they do so, are much more productive from home, and would cut down on resources used in the office. but that is neither here nor there.

i didn’t want to get stuck shoveling all 20+ inches of jersey snow in one shot, and the snowblower is in nashville (good place for it, i know– but this winter it actually came in handy for them!), i ended up shoveling 3 or 4 times yesterday. the frustrating part was that it just kept coming– by the time i was done with half my tiny driveway and the bottom where i kept getting plowed in there would be another inch or more on the ground! and i was running out of places to put it! at a staggering 5′4″ there is only so high i can reach. my driveway is right next to my neighbor’s, so when i tried to shovel out the passenger side, i was trying to be very careful not to just dump it all on their side, and then on the other side it was already piled up at least 4 feet. at that point i had done as much as i could and gave up.

i figured that “the day after tomorrow” would be an appropriate  movie to put on…but it turns out, a little too appropriate. i have watched the movie several times but as i saw the snow piling up against my door, i thought perhaps i will watch it another day, and switched over to the brothers bloom. much less anxiety-inducing! i contemplated baking since my friend alan sent me a great recipe for orange poppy bread… but with the glaze i don’t foresee it packaging up well and i could not be trusted with the whole loaf to myself!

this morning we had a “delayed opening”, however it was only half an hour after my start time, which meant i had to leave at my normal time in order to get there in time for the delay. i got up early to clean off my car, and reshovel where they plowed me in last night. it was obvious that the main (non-highway) roads had not been plowed since yesterday afternoon, and it appeared as if they had not been salted or sanded…at all. i have all wheel drive, snow mode, and all weather tires, but the scary part was the other cars… oh, and braking was definitely not an option! i am not sure if there was ice on the road, or snow caught between my brakes, but wow- the inability to brake sure will wake you up in the morning!!

i hope wherever you are, you are staying warm and enjoying some sledding, hot cocoa, movies, and time with your loved ones! what are your favorite snowy day activities? would you rather crawl under the covers with some movies? play outdoors? if you built any interesting snow sculptures please feel free to share!

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as we all sit down to watch the saints go marching in, the colts go for a stampede, and some hilarious commercials, i cant help but wonder which will be better: the super bowl, or the super bowl of cookies i have here. i am definitely a football fan, but i have no loyalty nor disdain for either team; i am also definitely a cookie fan, and i do have some loyalty to oatmeal, chocolate and cinnamon.

yesterday my friend shannon posted on her facebook status that she just made the most delicious cookies ever, which of course resulted in me inquiring about what kind they were. she had modified the standard quaker oatmeal vanishing cookie recipe by swapping out cocoa powder for 1/3 of the flour, craisins for raisins, and added chocolate chips. while i do love craisins (i eat them in trail mix on most days), i am not wild about them with chocolate, and a lot of people in my office do not like fruit in their cookies. so… i took that recipe and threw in white chocolate chips in place of the dried fruit. i contemplated leaving the cinnamon out, but then i remembered how good the cinnamon chocolate hazelnut oat bars were–yum!!! while i am glad i left the cinnamon in, it may be a little too much for some people, so adjust to your liking.

these cookies came out wonderfully- not too chewy, not too soft, not too crunchy, not too flat, and not too puffy. the batter looked almost identical to the pudding cookies until i put the oats in, so that may explain why i like these so much. if you liked the pudding cookies and enjoy oatmeal, these are the cookies for you!

Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies Recipe:

1/2 lb (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened.
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (this may be too much if you do not like spiced chocolate)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups Quaker Oats
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Beat together magarine/butter and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
Add combined flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
Stir in oats, then chocolate chips, mixing until everything is incorporated, scraping sides of bowl to make sure you get all possible goodness.
Drop by rounded tablespoonful (I use a Pampered Chef scoop) onto ungreased (or parchment paper covered) cookie sheet.
Bake 12 minutes- the cookies will be set, but still moist; Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.
Makes 3-4 dozen, depending on your “tablespoonfuls.” Store in airtight container, if they last that long.

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chocolate, cinnamon, cookies, oatmeal, white chocolate

ok, so as you know, i bake for the birthdays of my employees. i try to make them all as individualized as i can, like lauren’s gigundo poptart or andy’s zombie cupcakes. so when carlos’ birthday came up i knew i had to do something around the yankees since he is a die-hard fan. i thought about shaping a cake into the yankees logo, or putting a baseball diamond on top of a cake… but then i remembered that i kinda stink at that sort of thing. i am a good baker and a mediocre decorator; as you can see in the pictures here, i couldn’t even get the icing smooth- tho i am letting myself off the hook because i used marshmallow fluff icing, which is much harder to spread.

one of my work friends though… she is a decorating phenom! being someone who likes to give credit where credit is due, melissa is due a *ton* of credit, so i suggest you check out her cakes and join me in my amazement. the more recent cakes are in the bottom album . now that you have seen these, you may understand a little better where i am coming from. but, i know my role… and even though i will never be able to decorate like she does, that doesn’t mean i can’t make a lovely cake!

in any case, the evening before his birthday i had a ton to do, so i had to get a little creative with the process– i knew that if i wanted to ice a cake i would need to bake it on lunch to allow time for it to cool and me to decorate it in the evening. taking this into account, plus his sister telling me he likes chocolate chip cookies, and my desire to make the applying of all-over icing as quick and simple as possible, i chose the flattest cake i know of- the cookie cake.

i have made several cookie cakes with my mother, but apparently it has been a long time, as i forgot about the panic that ensues when you drop the dough into the pan and find that it doesn’t even cover half of it. since i only had about 40 minutes to make and bake this cake during my lunch (i get a hour, but had to drive back and forth), i decided to call my mother and make sure that she only uses one batch of dough to fill it. she confirmed that yes, it is one batch of dough, and yes, it will seem an impossible task but to just keep pushing it down and moving it around. i felt like i had pushed it down as much as i could and i still had large holes in the dough; i really didn’t understand how it could be done. i momentarily considered throwing it into a 9″ cake pan instead of the 16″ pizza pan i was using, but as we learned last week- your mother tends to be right, so i kept working the dough until it finally filled the pan. i took a moment to be proud of myself, then threw it into the oven since i was running short on time.

when it came out of the oven it was golden and had risen up covering the few thin patches i had settled on. -whew- i allowed it to cool, then when i got home from work i carefully flipped it over onto a rack, then very very carefully into the pizza box i was using to transport it in. since i love the way fluff icing works in sandwich cookies, i figured it would be delightful as the base icing on a cookie cake. i had to modify the original recipe by adding a little bit of butter, as well as more confectioner’s sugar and milk until i go to the right consistency. really, this was a cross between buttercream and fluff. for the decorating, i used a straight buttercream since i know that pipes pretty well (though i still have not mastered neat releases with it). overall, i was pretty happy with the way it turned out, and it got great reviews! of course, there were some folks disappointed to find that there was no pizza in the pizza box!

as for the recipe… i just used the one on the back of the nestle tollhouse bag, and i didn’t keep track of how much sugar and milk i ended up using in my modified version of the oatmeal cream pie icing.

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birthday, cake, chocolate chip, cookie

first and foremost, for those of us that watch LOST…. merry lostmas! the wait is finally over! i am a major lost junkie– i am one of those people who you will find pouring over every single literary, mathematical, scientific, musical, etc reference that they make and tying a theory into it; yes, that person who pays attention to every single detail and will pause the show if the phone rings (or just not answer it– seriously, who calls during lost?). i will hopefully have the time to juggle my lost blog this year, as last year i didnt write up my thoughts on a few episodes because i was just too busy.

okay, back to business, sorry about that. it has been downright frigid here in nj, and even my folks down in nashville got a good six inches of snow this past weekend, so i decided to transport us to a tropical place if only for the minute that we bite into these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. i honestly wasn’t thinking about the lost island when i made these, but now that i think about it, these would be the perfect treat to nibble on during tonight’s premiere. so, go out to the grocery store on your lunch break to pick up some macadamia nuts if you don’t have any, and throw a batch of these in the oven when you get home.

i had narrowed my search down to three recipes and ended up going with the one titled The BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Recipe because, well, nothing but the best for you! the reviews were good and they looked delicious. i will admit, these cookies are delicious and it is difficult to eat just one, but i do not think they are the best i have ever had. i will point out that reason though, because for some of you it might be the thing that makes you like them more: they were a little too buttery for a traditional white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. the nuts and the chocolate carry enough flavor and have enough fat content, so having an extra buttery flavor wasn’t necessary. still delicious, just not necessary. oh, and since they were buttery, only the ones that i left in the fridge for a solid half hour before baking didn’t spread. the ones that did spread were still very tasty, they just didn’t look as pretty. i think next time i make these, i might try them with margarine.

oh, and sorry for not posting this on sunday, for those of you that enjoy having things to read on sunday night/monday morning– my reason was three-fold:

1. i was exhausted
2. it wasn’t february yet, so it seemed wrong to post the cookie of the month (especially since the recipients would not be receiving their package until today)
3. i was crocheting this weekend, which left my hands in pain and claw-like, so i decided to give them a rest and not type

Recipe:

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
10 ounces white chocolate (chips or bars cut in chunks)
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped into chunks

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 F. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt with electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, and the baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture,beating until well blended. Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. (Edges are golden brown and center is set.) Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely.

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buttery, cookies, macadamia, nut, tropical, white chocolate

remember how your mother always told you that it is what’s inside that counts? well, after eating these cookies, I am quite certain that you will call your mother up and tell her that she was right.

they don’t call these bad boys “magic peanut butter middles” for nothing. there is certainly something magical about biting into a seemingly innocent chocolate cookie to find your mouth full of peanut butter deliciousness! and the crunchy sugar sure doesn’t hurt! yes, i know, by now you realize that i am incredibly biased and will say great things when it comes to just about all things peanut butter. yes, i admit that these are probably about the same level of goodness as most other things i make, but i am living in the now here…i am not comparing them, just enjoying them! i took great pleasure in watching my friend ed pick up the largest one of the bunch, holding it in both hands and eating it like a burger, with his eyes lighting up and asking if he can have more!

after i finished making erica’s fluffernutter cupcakes i got to work on these. as you may remember me briefly mentioning, i had made the peanut butter middles before i headed off to the doctor and threw them in the fridge to solidify so they were ready to go (if you did read that i am sure you were wondering what happened to them– i decided to wait a couple days to spread out my posts, plus i have been pretty busy). this was of course after the attempt at 3-D stomach ache wore off enough(btw, the doctor called me up and wants me to come back– he said my reaction was a sign that with therapy it will work). anyway, these cookies were very easy to make, but the one thing i was very conscious of was getting the proportion of cookie to filling right. i had read reviews on allrecipes and it seems a lot of people said that they had a bunch of peanut butter balls left over so i made absolute certain that i used small pieces of the dough and flattened them as much as i could. this attention to detail paid off because i had the perfect amount of everything! and the cookies came out fabulous– definitely had a bunch of folks come back for seconds and thirds! just a note: instead of going with the whole glass dipped in sugar thing, i dipped the tops of them into a bowl of sugar and then flattened them. in the past i have not been too pleased with the results when trying the glass method of putting sugar on cookies.

…and for those of you counting- 5 days until LOST!!!! (and for those of you looking at the time stamp, you may have noticed that it is 4am here. i have apparently stopped sleeping. i have had trouble sleeping on and off for the past few years, but we are on day eleven here. i have tried everything i can think of… anyone got ideas? short of having someone hit me over the head with a shovel that is…)

Recipe (from AllRecipes)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

1. In small bowl blend flour, cocoa and baking soda. Mix until well blended.
2. In large bowl beat sugar, butter or margarine and 1/4 cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.
3. To make Filling: Combine confectioner’s sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Blend well.
4. Roll filling into 30 – 1 inch balls. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tablespoon of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked.

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chocolate, cookies, filled cookies, peanut butter, peanut butter magic middles