Archive for the 'sweet' Category

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Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 8, 2011

I was such a tease last year.  I kept promising cookie recipes for holiday parties and cookie exchanges, but I never did.  Oh sure, I got around to the pastries and candies and this spectacular centerpiece.  But never actually posted anything about the dessert that screams this time of year.

This year, my friends, things are going to change.  Starting from today.  And here we have it, starting with the basic chocolate chip cookie.  The foundation of any cookie tray, the mecca of cookie lovers everywhere.  Ah, but it has a twist!

Like oh so many people, I’m a chewy chocolate chip cookie kind of girl, but sometimes all I want is a bit of crunch.  Those big bakery-like crispy cookies are always so intriguing and surprisingly look so satisfying!  But I always have thought that the lack of chew would mean lack of flavor.

Turns out (as anyone but me would suspect) that chewiness and tastiness have nothing to do with each other!  You can really taste the butter and the oats, and it does not at all lack in chocolate.  This is basically the perfect dunking cookie.  It’s the ideal cookie for transport.  And will look lovely on your cookie tray.  Chewy chocolate chip cookie lovers, watch out.  This cookie may bring you over to the other side.

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Serious Eats)

  • 1 1/3 cups (6 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup (1.5 ounces) quick rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1.75 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (2 ounces) light corn syrup
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 7 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 generous cup chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.  Combine the flour and baking soda in a small bowl and mix together thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, oats, sugars, corn syrup, milk, and salt.  Mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chunks into the cooled batter.

Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces.  Line baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Arrange 5 pieces of dough, remembering that the cookies will spread.  Flatten each piece of dough until it is about 4 inches across.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cookies are thin and very brown.  Rotate the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time.  Slide the foil with cookies onto racks to cool completely before removing the cookies from the foil.  Repeat with the third batch.   Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing.

Posted in chocolate, cookies, sweet, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Baklava

December 6, 2011

I was on a search for the greatest baklava ever.  You see, when I was younger, a family friend would send a huge box of assorted baklava during the holidays.  It was the best baklava I had ever tasted.  But we moved, and the assorted baklava boxes stopped arriving, and I had been on a search ever since.

But then.  I went to Greece.  Where I found no baklava, because, as my Greek friend assured me, baklava is definitively from Turkey.  So, of course, then I went to Turkey.   I needed to find the best baklava, people!  Baklava was basically thrown in my face, it was so abundant.  And every place was just so delicious.  There were so many flavors (like the Obama Baraklava below) that it was very difficult to choose the best one.

Two (amazing) trips and several years later, I have come to realize that if you want the best baklava, just look at your plate.  Or look at your plate after you’ve made it.  Because baklava is so so simple to put together, and it just tastes so splendidly delectable when it’s fresh.  It’s still flaky and crunchy, and the warm nuts ooze into the syrup you have just poured over it.  It’s seriously amazing.  This was a definite game changer in my search for the best baklava.  And I think that I’ve found it.

Baklava (slightly adapted from Simply Recipes)

I used Athens brand filo pastry sheets, which was so helpful because they have already cut the sheets into 9 x 13 rectangles, so you don’t have to do the cutting yourself.  Also, I used a mix of walnuts and almonds in this baklava.  I wanted to use pistachios as well, but couldn’t find unsalted ones.  I’m sure that pecans would also be a nice twist.

For Baklva:

1/2 pound filo dough, thawed as per the directions on the box

1 lb. chopped nuts

2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. all spice

1 cup butter, melted

For syrup:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey or agave

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp. rose water

1 tbsp. lemon juice

Lightly grease a 9×13 pan and set the oven to 350°F.

If the filo dough is not already cut, cut the dough in half so the sheets will fit in the pan.  Cover the sheets with a damp towel to keep it from drying out.

Process the nuts until in small, even sized pieces.  You can also chop the nuts by hand.  Combine nuts with sugar, cinnamon, and all spice.

Carefully place a sheet of phyllo dough into the pan.  Using a pastry brush, brush the phyllo sheet with melted butter – just a light layer will do, but make sure that you have covered the entire sheet.  Repeat 5 more times until it is 6 sheets thick, brushing each sheet with butter along the way.

Spoon on a thin layer of the nut mixture.  It will be about 3-4 tablespoons worth of nuts.  Cover with two more sheets of phyllo, brushing each one with butter. Continue to repeat the nut mixture and two buttered sheets of phyllo until the nut mixture is all used up.  When all of the nuts have been used, place 6 filo sheets on top, brushing each one with more butter.

Using a sharp knife and cutting diagonally down one side of the pan, and then the other to make diamond shapes, cut through the baklava, making sure that you don’t cut all the way through the bottom layer of filo.  Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until lightly golden brown, and edges appear slightly crisp.

While the baklava is baking, make the syrup.  Combine the cinnamon stick, sugar, lemon juice, honey, rose water and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium low and let simmer for about 15 minutes, or until it’s slightly thickened.  Remove the cinnamon stick and let cool.

Pour the cooled syrup over the hot baklava, making sure that the syrup reaches each corner.  Let cool for at least four hours, and cut the baklava again, making sure that it cuts through the last layer of filo this time.

** The Obama Baraklava picture was taken by Hannah Mellman during our search for the best baklava in Turkey.

Posted in sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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Apple Cider Doughnuts

December 1, 2011

Doughnuts!  Fried cake!  Fried cake covered in cinnamon and sugar!  Do I need to say more?!

These apple cider doughnuts need no introduction, friends!  Just look at them!  From start to finish, they took no more than an hour.  And at the end, we were eating warm, cinnamony, fluffy, cakey doughnuts that seriously cannot be described.

So totally worth everything you think that is usually not worth it.  They will be devoured in seconds.

**Oops!  Sorry about the picture posted prematurely.  Let’s just say it was supposed to be more of an enticement for you to make these!

Apple Cider Doughnuts (slightly adapted from Desserts for Breakfast)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. butter, softened

1/8 cup sugar

1/8 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup buttermilk

oil for frying

For coating:

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

Over medium heat, simmer the apple cider until it has reduced to about 2 tbsp.  It will take about 10-15 minutes.  In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the sugars and butter until well combined.  Add the apple cider and buttermilk and mix.  Beat in the flour mixture until everything has been incorporated.  Dump the dough on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper, sprinkled with flour.  Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough.  Using another sheet of waxed paper on top, pat down the dough into a rectangle until it is 1/2 in thick.  Freeze for 20 minutes.

Take the dough out, and using either two biscuit cutters (for the larger circle and the doughnut hole), or a doughnut cutter, cut out as many doughnuts as possible, rerolling the scrape to cut more.  Lay the doughnut circles and doughnut holes on a waxed paper lined baking sheet and freeze for another 20 minutes.

Heat oil to 350 degrees.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon coating in a shallow pan.  Frying 2 at a time, fry each doughnuts for about 60 seconds on one side, and an additional 30 seconds on the other until it has turned a deep golden brown.  Place the doughnuts on a paper towel for 10 seconds and immediately place into the sugar and cinnamon coating.  Continue until all of the doughnuts have been fried and coated.

Posted in breakfast, sweet, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Last Minute Thanksgiving Ideas

November 23, 2011

One more day until the big feast!  I’m sure that you have your menus planned and everything is going exactly according to plan.  But juuuust in case you need any last minute ideas for side dishes, desserts, or even for breakfast the next day (early the next day, before shopping, of course), here are a few:

Appetizers and Side Dishes


Baked Rice Balls

Caramelized Onion, Basil, Tomato, Goat Cheese Quiche

Brazilian Cheese Bread

Cheeseless Mac and Cheese

Zucchini Ricotta Galette

Corn Muffin Stuffing

Desserts

White Chocolate Cheesecake

Lemon Ginger Yogurt Tart

Fig Galette

Fresh Apple Layer Cake

Sweet Potato Pudding Cake

Pecan Cornmeal Cake

French Apple Tart

Breakfast on Friday Morning!

Blackberry, Almond, White Chocolate, Lemon Loaf

Pan de Mallorca

Almond Anise Biscotti

Carrot Cake Breakfast Bread

Barley Scones with Strawberry Balsamic Jam

Nutmeg Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Bread

Corn Muffins

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday!

Posted in savory, sweet, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
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French Apple Tart

November 22, 2011

This tart is basically the perfect last minute Thanksgiving dessert.  It’s perfect because it basically takes seconds to make (okay, about 30 minutes, if you make your own pie crust – which I will encourage!  It’s Thanksgiving, after all).  It’s super pretty – it looks like it came directly from a bakery.  And it has “French” in the name!  There literally is nothing else in a dessert that will impress a crowd.

But oh man, the flavor is what will impress the most!  This is an apple pastry in all that a pastry should be.  It has all of its ingredients highlighted in their purest form: apple, butter, sugar, so you can be sure to really taste all of them.  This is a true apple dessert.

I mean, let’s talk about this.  I’m not gonna lie.  I am a cinnamon fiend.  I will sprinkle cinnamon on just about everything, and to me, an apple pie isn’t real until it gets some spices to really dress the apples.  But no, this was apple at its best, and if I dare say it, my favorite apple dessert to date.  Make it.  Today, actually, because you don’t have much time left until Thursday!  Your guests will love you.

French Apple Tart (ever so slightly adapted from Saveur)

A couple notes: I had a 9 inch tart pan, so I made a big tart and a mini tart out of this.  But, how about not making a tart at all?!  I think that you could easily make this into a galette.  Also, the original recipe called for 7 apples.  I definitely did not need all 7, but make sure that you use the 4 listed.

Pie Dough

1 1/4 cup flour

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cubed, divided

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup sugar + 1 tbsp., divided

3 tbsp. ice water

4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 cup apricot jam

Whiz flour, 8 tbsp. butter, salt, and 1 tbsp. sugar in a food processor until it’s crumbly like cornmeal.  Add the iced water and process until the dough forms into a ball.  Take out of food processor and wrap in plastic wrap for about an hour.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a 13 inch circle.  It will be thin.  Transfer to an 11 inch tart pan.  Trim the edges and chill for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 375.  Tightly layer the apple slices to form any design you want.  Make it tight enough so you use all of the apples.  Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup sugar and dot with the remaining 4 tbsp. of butter.

Bake for about 60 minutes, or until the apples and the crust has turned a deep golden brown.

Warm the apricot jam in a small saucepan over low heat, until it is loose.  Pour through a strainer.  After the apple tart has cooled for about 10 minutes, brush the warmed jam on top of the apples as a glaze.  Let cool completely before slicing.

Posted in fruit, pies and tarts, sweet, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Corn Muffins (Stuffing – Part 1)

November 17, 2011

I don’t know a single person that doesn’t love Thanksgiving (it’s in a week, you must have heard).  And while I love Thanksgiving with all of my heart and soul, I have come here to admit that I have never had stuffing before!  I know!  Insanity.  For some reason, Thanksgiving at our household has always been a strange conglomerate of Indian dishes, Thanksgiving-y vegetarian side dishes, and whatever other recipes that I wanted to try because I had many guinea pigs around.  There was never a year when stuffing made the cut.

I have to say that I’m not completely surprised though.  There are some pretty stellar Thanksgiving vegetarian side dishes that sound much more appealing than stuffing.  Hello – caramelized brussels sprouts salad?  Goat cheese mashed potatoes?  Brown sugar glazed yams?!  You can’t blame me here.  Especially because if you think about it, stuffing is essentially dried out bread that you make soggy with eggs and broth and then put right back in the oven to try to crisp up again.  Why?  Why would anyone go through all of this just to get back to the same point you were at before?

But here I am, willing to try this age old tradition, asking my family to be guinea pigs once again.  So, in this two part post about stuffing, I will first make the cornbread for my cornbread stuffing.  I decided on cornbread stuffing, because, as you all know, I love all things corn.  But more than that, the sweet/salty combo intrigued me.  So instead of making standard cornbread, I knew that I wanted to use sweeter corn muffins, especially because this meant that I got more crispy edges in my actual stuffing.  Did I mention that I don’t like the idea of soggy bread?

Also, muffins get stale pretty quickly, and apparently, to ensure the best possible stuffing, you need the stalest bread.  See why this has always been such a confusing dish to me?  Come back this weekend when I post about putting this whole dish together!  I’m excited to be proven wrong about my thoughts on stuffing.  Hopefully.

Corn Muffins (from Baking from My Home to Yours)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (I used canned – I rinsed the kernels and then blotted them off on a paper towel)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Brush a standard 12 mold muffin tin with butter (you could also spray the muffin tin, but the butter will ensure really crispy edges).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you’re using it. In a another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended.  Mix in the corn kernels.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.  After the muffins have cooled completely, cut each one into quarters and spread out onto a baking sheet.  Don’t snack on them!  Place in a switched-off oven for two days to dry out before making stuffing.

Posted in breakfast, sweet, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
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Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Bread

November 10, 2011

We all know that the next several weeks will be about eating.  Pies and stuffing and cookies and other delicious stuff that I plan to write about!  But for today, I’d like for you to think of the following: you will need a snack whilst you cook all of these yummy things.  You know, to keep the energy up so you will be alert and ready when it’s actually time to eat.

And what a snack this will be!  Pumpkin bread and cheesecake!  Two entities that are individually in and of themselves so satisfying and delicious.  But together!  And not together like a pumpkin cheesecake, which could never be a snack because of its heaviness.  But together like a perfect balance of a just-enough cheesecake layer atop a lovely spiced, light bread.  A snack that will allow you to eat and stir at the same time.  It is a perfect merriment of flavors and layers that will whet your appetite for the meal you will be preparing.

So go ahead and make this ahead of time.  Have it ready when the Thanksgiving crazy cooking begins.  Your family will appreciate your foresight and gobble it down.  You will appreciate the lovely bread you will have made.  And everyone will appreciate not being cranky by dinnertime.

Pumpkin & Cheese Spice Bread (slightly adapted from An Edible Mosaic)

For the Cheesecake Layer:

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature, lightly beaten

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Pumpkin Bread:

3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

2 large eggs

3/4 cup (1/2 can) pumpkin puree

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

For the Cheesecake Layer:  Use a handheld electric mixer to beat together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

For the Pumpkin Bread:  Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, beat together the brown sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.  Mix in pumpkin, oil, and vanilla.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together until just combined, being careful not to overmix.  Pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan.  Pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the loaf.

Bake until golden around the edges, about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in the pans, then remove from the pans and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Posted in breakfast, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Chocolate Coconut Candy Bars

November 3, 2011

I always do this.  I always post recipes just a little bit after they are most relevant.  I posted cookie recipes immediately after the holidays last year, I wrote about a great football-watching snack exactly one week after the Superbowl, and now, here I am, posting a candy recipe just days after Halloween.  I can’t stop.

In my defense, though, no one ever gives out homemade candy to young trick-o-treaters.  In fact, if I remember correctly, kids are taught to never open those homemade treats (isn’t there some kind of rhyme for that?).  And you are probably so sick of the store-bought orange and black wrapped generic candies anyway that you’re probably ready to turn to something homemade.

Well, these are homemade and delicious, I must say.  This is unlike any candy I’ve ever made: nothing to boil, no candy thermometers, no risk of burning sugar…or burning yourself.  This is more like an amped up blondie that tastes, well, just like candy when it’s all said and done.  Spectacular, homemade candy.  Actually, spectacular, homemade candy that takes less than 30 minutes to make.  I would even go so far as to say that these are even time appropriate, maybe even a bit early – everyone makes candy during the holiday season!  I knew I’d come through eventually.

Chocolate Coconut Candy Bars (recipe from Saveur)

If you are like me, you will take one look at these ingredients and think that these bars are going to turn out way too sweet.  But then, if you think about it, candy bars usually don’t have much salt in them; they are 100% sweet and that works out just fine.  So, going again my instinct of adding just a 1/2 tsp of salt, I followed this recipe exactly.  And these were wonderful.

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1⁄2 cup melted butter
1⁄2 cup sugar
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1  14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp. shortening

1. Heat oven to 350°.   Stir together graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in a medium bowl. Transfer crumb mixture to a 9″ × 13″ baking pan and press down with your fingers to form an even layer. Bake until just golden around the edges, 10–12 minutes. Set aside.

2. Put coconut and condensed milk into a bowl and stir well. Transfer the coconut mixture to the baking pan with the prepared crust and spread it out evenly over the hot crust. Return pan to oven and bake until golden brown around the edges, 15–17 minutes more. Set the pan aside to let cool completely.

3. Put chocolate chips, peanut butter, and shortening into a medium pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until completely smooth, 3–4 minutes. Pour chocolate mixture over coconut layer in the pan and use a rubber spatula to spread out to the edges to form a thin layer. Set aside in a cool spot to let cool completely.

4. After the candy has come to room temperature, stick the pan in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.  This will make cutting the bars easier.  Cut the bars unto 48 squares.

Posted in chocolate, sweet, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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Gulab Jamun

October 27, 2011

I’m about to tell you about this recipe where just 1 of the ingredients takes 3 hours to make.

Hello?  Is anyone still out there?

Let me back up.  Happy Diwali!  Diwali may mean fireworks and candles and new beginnings to some folk.  To me it means, make all the food you can…from scratch.  No shortcuts for Diwali; only the most traditional.  So I picked my favorite Indian sweet, that was decidedly the most time consuming to make, cleared my schedule for the day, made it, devoured it, and wished that I had made another batch of the 3 hour ingredient, because we all wanted more.  So I made it again the next day.  Because it’s Diwali, after all.

Don’t you worry, friends.  I’ll give you a short cut recipe for when you do try this.  Because you should most definitely try this.  Think of this as reversed doughnuts: an unsweetened dough dropped in a sugar syrup with a hint of rose and saffron, in order for it to get all soaked up, served warmed.  Sounds divine, doesn’t it?  Make the short cut version – it will be tasty, I’m sure.  But try the real deal during Diwali – it’s supposed to be that way.  A very happy new year to all!

Gulab Jamun (adapted from here)

As much as cardamom is considered an Indian spice, and even though I love it in my spice cookies and breads, I don’t really care for it in my Indian sweets.  But if you prefer that punch, add 1/4 tsp cardamom powder to the dough and knead it in.

For the shortcut version, use dry milk powder instead of the mawo.  Mix the dry ingredients together and then gradually add milk until a dough forms.  You can follow the remaining instructions after that.

1 batch mawo (recipe to follow)

1 cup all purpose flour

scant 1/2 tsp. baking soda

ghee, oil, or a mix for frying

1-2 teaspoons rose water

5-6 strands saffron

3 cups sugar

2 cups water

Knead together the mawo, flour and baking soda (and cardamom, if using) until the dough is completely smooth.  Form tablespoon-size balls.  Roll each ball until it’s completely smooth – no cracks should be on the surface of these balls.  Heat ghee or oil until it reaches 350 degrees.  Fry the dough balls, about 4-5 at a time, until they are golden brown.  Drain on a paper towel.

Combine the sugar and water in a medium pot.  Heat on medium heat until sugar is completely melted and dissolved.  Turn the heat to low and add the rose water and saffron.  Turn heat off.

Add the fried dough to the pot with the sugar syrup.  Transfer everything to a serving bowl and let it sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours, to let the dough soak the sugar.  You can serve this at room temperature, or slightly warmed.

Mawo (recipe from here)

1/2 gallon whole milk

Heat the milk, in a non-stick pan over medium high heat.  Stir occasionally until it comes to a boil, and then turn the heat to low/medium-low.  Keep an eye on the milk as it thickens.  It will need a stir every 20 minutes or so, to make sure that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, or burn.  Eventually, after about 2 hours, there will be minimal liquid left.  Keep stirring until you have a very dry mixture.

It will start by looking like this:

And will end, about 3.5 hours later, looking like this:

Posted in sweet, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
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Homemade Oreos

October 20, 2011

I love nostalgic foods.  I love cookies that can be dunked in milk.  In the Venn diagram of these two finite sets, the only intersection that shows the logical relation between the two are oreos.  I also love Venn diagrams.

Let me explain: oreos are so nostalgic.  I don’t know of anyone that does not immediately think of their childhood when eating an oreo.  But it’s also such a unique cookie.  Contrary to what you may believe, all cookies were not created equal.  You may think that you can dunk just any cookie into milk for tasty satisfaction, but that just isn’t the case.  For a cookie to be fully absorbed by the milk and become soft, as the milk was intended to do, the cookie must be dry.  Sure, there are a lot of dry cookies out there, but the beauty of an oreo is that it also has the creamy, white filling.  It’s not affected by the milk, but it adds to the consistency of the dunked cookie that leads to, well, perfection.

These cookies have the exact properties of that nostalgic oreo: the crumbly, dry, chocolatey wafer-like outside, with the creamy, vanilla-esque center.  I will say, though, that this is a much more grown-up version than the one you’re used to.  The chocolate flavor is much more intense, and the filling much creamier.  Rather than not being able to stop at one, with these, you are quite satisfied with half.

But live with the times, I say!  You are not a child anymore anyway.  So go ahead.  Make these.  Eat these matured oreos.  And dunk away!

Homemade Oreos (from Flour)

This recipe, as with every other recipe that I found, called for Dutch processed cocoa.  I thought that this would be pretty simple to find, but not so much the case.  I looked at five different grocery stores without any luck.  Then I read that a dark chocolate cocoa has a mix of natural and Dutch processed.  I used that and it was fine.  So if you can’t find Dutch processed, go with this.  Don’t take a grocery store tour of your town.

1 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips, melted and slightly cooled

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa (see note above)

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Mix together butter and sugar in a bowl, until well-blended.  Mix in the vanilla and melted chocolate.  Last, add the egg and whisk until everything is well combined.

In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until everything is well incorporated.  Let the dough sit at room temperature for an hour so it has time to get firm.

Place the cooled dough on a large sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper.  Guiding the dough with your hands, roll the dough into a log, about 10 inches long, and 2 inches in diameter.  Wrap the excess paper around the dough and twist the ends.  When the dough is covered with the paper, roll into a smoother log and place into the refrigerator until firm – about 1.5 hours.  Every 15 minutes of those 1.5 hours, reroll the log to make sure that the dough doesn’t settle and have a flat side.

Preheat the oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice the dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and place them on the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the center is firm to the touch.  Let cool on the baking sheet.

Filling (from Retro Desserts)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat the butter and shortening until soft and smooth.  Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is perfectly smooth.

To assemble: Place a tablespoon-full of the filling in the center of one of the cookies.  Press down with another cookie until the filling has spread to the edges.  Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Posted in chocolate, cookies, sweet, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

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