Failure: Southern Chocolate Chewies

Updating bi-monthly didn't happen for the month of May. It'll be made up this month. Lots of stuff happened -- the end of school, friends graduating, the computer being put in the computer hospital, a ruined internet connection, a business trip… it was busy, and not a lot of time was spent around a computer. I think the worst part was the fact that I didn't bake at all in May (or, at least, not cookies!). I spent the end of April pulling together a handful of recipes, though, so have plenty to post, and now that it's summer, finally the time to do so.

When I was first thinking about starting up this blog my friends agreed that, besides posting delicious things I've made and blabbing about my love for baking cookies, they'd also like to see failures, and hear about the woes of the kitchen. Let me be the first to throw out the idea that everything I make is good -- heck, sometimes it's downright awful. The only way to get something good is to experiment and poke around with recipes; take risks, get in there with an idea and go for it, and suffer the horrible repercussions or revel in delicious rewards. The more you mess around with things, the more comfortable you get with doing it.

Some of my favorite foods are the ones that would, quite honestly, push my comfort zone to make. I am an avid Southern food lover, something about its seasonings and love for richness is something the resonates with me. I'm not from the South, though -- I was raised with Californian-fresh fare, and any gaps were filled with my mom's Chicagoan-Italian cooking. This sometimes makes the kitchen a dangerous place for me.

Enter Southern Chocolate Chewies. My love. My nemesis.

Delicate, fudgy, dense cookies with a crispy, hard shell and sticky insides, usually studded with walnuts. It is a dream. It's a cookie that is SO chocolatey and rich that it makes one sick to eat more than a couple, and yet the batch only lasts a couple days before hardening up.

I cannot make these cookies. I tried, and failed.



Total cookie failure! Chewies are supposed to be a little hard on the outside and thick, chewy, almost sticky, on the inside. These were not that. They were cracked shells on the outside and gooshy on the inside. GOOSHY. (Think mousse-texture, but eggier.) What's more, the cherries added for texture made them bitter and gross. (When chocolate/cherry goes bad! What a horrible day!) Oh well, not every cookie can be a success the first time around.

They'll be hitting the kitchen again, I have to make them. One day I'll conquer them. This time? Not so much.

But next time? These cookies are mine!

Hot Mouth-Sex Cookies

…or Triple Chocolate Raspberry Cookies.

These are probably the most decadent, over-the-top cookies I've ever made. They're indulgence. They're almost sinful.

They're for rare occasions -- they're too much to eat more than maybe two, and are meant to be shared. They usually get made as gifts or when I want a general crowd pleaser, assuming the crowd love chocolate (and if a crowd doesn't love chocolate, I'm not sure I want to be in that crowd).

The original recipe (and name) for these cookies was given to me by an online friend who I often shared and swapped recipes with. I made it once when I got it, two years ago, and it was pretty damn good. Last year, though, I discovered that the ingredients used no longer existed, so I had to improvise/modify the recipe. I believe these modifications led to an even tastier cookie, but none of it would be possible without Jen.

Originally there were no real raspberries in these cookies -- the old raspberry-chocolate swirl chips were all that lent these cookies their bittersweet berry tang. I added raspberry extract to even out that flavor and keep it sweet.

And honestly, take a clue from the name -- serve these warm, if you can.



Hot Mouth-Sex Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter -- softened
3/4 cup baker's/superfine white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp raspberry extract
2 eggs -- room temperature

1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 oz. crushed Just Raspberries

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1/2 bag high-quality ilk chocolate chips (I prefer Guittard over any other brand, for size, fat content, and flavor)
1/2 bag Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. Cream the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
   
3. Add the vanilla and raspberry extracts and eggs. Cream smooth.
   
4. Slowly add the cocoa powder and Just Raspberries to the mixture. Be careful, if you mix this on too high of a speed or put too much in, you'll be inhaling chocolate and raspberry dust. Mix evenly into the creamed mixture so that it is again smooth.
   
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture one cup at a time, mixing by hand.
   
6. One half-bag at a time, mix in the chocolate chips. Mix evenly.
   
7. Place in tablespoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for approximately 9 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lavender Shortbread

Ever since visiting France in the summer of 2004 and sampling a large range of floral-flavored and infused treats, a couple friends and I have challenged ourselves to incorporate the less popular flavours here in our cooking at home. From violet ice cream to ginger-lavender cake, we are always looking for new ways to enjoy the powerful, clean taste of flowers.

These slices of shortbread are light and crumbly, buttery and fragrant. If you're a fan of lavender scented things, you might like these. Criticized for tasting like soap or smelling of old ladies, lavender as a cooking spice has a lot to overcome. But there's a good reason these cliché ideas are what come to mind when you hear lavender -- it's strong and fresh, a clean herby scent.

The texture is kept light while the lavender permeates it. The butter balances the sharpness of the flower and the biscuit is only lightly sweet so as not to overwhelm the palate. It's a refreshing cookie perfect for Spring.



Lavender Shortbread

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup superfine/bakers' sugar
2 Tablespoons dried lavender, finely ground
1 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup coarse sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
   
2. Combine flour, sugar, and lavender in medium bowl.
   
3. Using a fork, mix in the butter. The mixture should be evenly grainy looking and loose, not clumpy.
   
4. When mixed, transfer the mixture into a non-stick baking pan. I use an 8"x8" pan because I like my shortbread a little thicker. Spread evely.
   
5. Press the mixture down firmly.
   
6. With the tines of a fork, poke holes throughout the shortbread to vent it and prevent it from cracking.
   
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or til the edges brown just a touch.
   
8. Remove from the oven and immediately cut the shortbread. I did three columns and about 7 rows. Leave it in the pan to cool, on a cooling rack.
   
9. When cooled, pop the shortbread out of the pan by turning it over.
   
10. Since it's not an extremely sweet biscuit, dot the top surface of the biscuits with water and lightly sprinkle coarse sugar.

Enjoy!

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies

While studying abroad in Brighton, England, a good friend and I became addicted to a British dessert served at our favourite vegetarian restaurant, Wai Kika Moo Kau. The dessert? Sticky toffee pudding.

It was a small bread-based pudding, like the texture of a warmed brownie, served with toffee sauce. It was delicious. We asked for a recipe but there was none to be given, they were an ordered food, not house-made, so we wrote down characteristics and ingredients we thought we could taste, and the owner of the restaurant wrote down the ingredients on the box; we were mostly right, we only missed the preservatives. Still, that wasn't enough. When I got home I knew I had to re-create this food for my friend, or at least the flavour.

Buttery, brown sugary, and date-studded, these are best served warm.



Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c dark brown sugar + 1/4 c reserved to coat outside of cookies
1/4 c dark corn syrup/golden syrup
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

2 oz finely chopped dates

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.
   
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 c dark brown sugar together. Add dark corn syrup, eggs, and vanilla extract. Beat until well incorporated.
   
4. Gradually add dry ingredients. Blend until even and smooth.
   
5. Place in freezer with scooping spoon for approximately 15 minutes – this dough needs to firm up to be rolled into balls.
   
6. Set aside a small dish with about 1/4 c dark brown sugar – the reserved sugar – for coating. Scoop dough balls out with a teaspoon and drop onto non-stick cookie sheet.
   
7. Lightly press dough balls down. Top with light dusting of brown sugar.
   
8. Bake for 8 minutes (at 0 sea level).

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

I should just move to the south, I think. There's pretty much nothing I love more than southern cuisine, including (especially?) the regional peculiarities and delights. This is one reason I am a huge fan of the Red Velvet Cake.

Somehow that delightful southern dessert has made its way into the spotlight pretty recently – I've seen it popping up a lot in the last couple years, and now it seems every restaurant or bakery you patron offers their variation on it. This is, of course, good and bad; it's become a bit of a Red Velvet crapshoot.

I'm lucky to live just a couple miles from Phoenix's award-winning "Best Red Velvet Cake" winner, Lo Lo's Chicken and Waffles. It's enough to compete with the best I've had while in the south. It's amazing.

But… it's time to make a confession: I hate cake. Red Velvet Cake is pretty much the only cake I like, and it really has to be dense and moist for me to attempt to eat it (luckily, Lo Lo's is!). And what's the alternative, cupcakes? The frosting-to-cake ratio always makes me a little queasy, especially the more upscale the cupcake shop, where there always seems to be an icing competition going on; the greater the mountain of instant-diabetes piled on the top of a good-sized hunk of denser cake does not determine a better cupcake and, frankly, I think it downplays the deliciousness (and star!), the cake part. Now that everyone's churning out their own version it's easy to find it, but they often miss their mark. That's why I played with this recipe a bit and tried to make something combining my favourite parts.

A friend asked for a Red Velvet Cookie of some sort for her birthday. I knew I wanted something that was a nod to the original but played more to the proportions I liked: 1/3 frosting, 2/3 Red Velvet. I wanted to work with a different texture and still keep it portable. I wanted the tang of the cream cheese frosting (don't even talk to me about Red Velvet if you're a buttercream fan… it has to be cream cheese base! I'm a purist!). I wanted a bastardized (but delicious!) version of one of the southern comfort classics. It's more portable and digestible -- it's small but still filling and completely over-indulgent. That's how these cookies came to be.





Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

COOKIES

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt


1 cup superfine/bakers' sugar
1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
2 Tablespoons buttermilk

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (heaping)
4 Tablespoons red food colouring

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. Mix the dry ingredients, the first group of ingredients. Set aside.
   
3. Cream first group of wet ingredients, the soft butter and sugar. Add the egg and buttermilk after it's creamed. Blend well.
   
4. Add the third group of ingredients to the other wet ingredients; add cocoa powder, slowly. Be careful, if you add it too fast or blend it too quickly you will be breathing this stuff in. When it is well incorporated, add the red food colouring to the creamed mixture. The 4 Tbl is an approximation; I had a small bottle of colouring and simply added the whole thing, the point is to make it very red. Blend well.
   
5. Add the last ingredients to the wet mixture. To do this, combine the baking soda and vinegar in a small dish and mix well until the reaction is done (Science experiment in the kitchen! Anyone feeling the urge to papier mache a volcano?). Add the vanilla to that well-mixed paste. Combine the mixed vanilla, vinegar, and baking soda into the wet bowl. Blend well.
   
6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ones.
   
7. Form teaspoon-sized balls of batter and roll into small balls with your hands. Squash the ball down a bit with the ball of your hand before popping the baking sheet into the oven.
   
8. Bake for 7 minutes.
   
9. Allow to cool.
   
10. Layer frosting (recipe following) between two cookies and eat!
    

FROSTING (Thanks, Pinch My Salt! I'll only ever use your recipe, it's the tangiest!)

Ingredients:
16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
   
2. Blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract into creamed mixture.
   
3. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy.
   
4. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).
   

Enjoy!