Sunday, January 10, 2010

Salted Chocolate Vanilla Bean Cookies (something borrowed)




Salted Chocolate Vanilla Bean Cookies


These are my favourite lazy cookie. From start to finish this is a fairly simple recipe and thanks to the chilled dough, quite tidy as well. And if you've never tasted the amazing combination of salt and chocolate these are an excellent place to start.

Friday (or Saturday) brings a new recipe, likely with a bit of kick. We'll see how that goes.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Spanish Mocha Chocolate Chip


Inspired by the coffee concoction of a mostly similar name. These cookies are super chocolate-y with a nice dose of cinnamon warmth and some coffee in the background.



Ingredient List:

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup L. Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Large Egg
1/2 Cup Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Baking Cocoa Powder
1 pack (7 oz) of Instant Coffee
1 shot of Espresso or strong coffee
1 1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon
2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Yields 30+ if using a #40 scoop

How to Go About It:

1: Preheat the oven to 350 and let your butter soften.
2: Mix butter and sugars until creamy.
3: Mix in egg and vanilla.
4: (Optional) Fill a standard mug about halfway with chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp of butter. Microwave for 45-60 seconds, stir and reheat if necessary.
5: Mix in coffee, cinnamon, cocoa powder and if you made it, the melted chocolate.
6: Alternately sift in the remaining dry ingredients and the chocolate chips.

Here you can go two ways: instant gratification or the superior cookie* route.

If you're going for the superior route, scoop all your dough into a seal-able container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or more (overnight is perfectly reasonable) and then proceed with the rest of the steps.

7: In a small bowl mix about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 tbsp of cinnamon. You want a nice dark sandy appearance to it, so mix in more cinnamon as needed.
8: Use a #40 Ice Cream Scoop to scoop out walnut sized balls of dough and place them 1 1/2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9: After you have a full sheet, roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar until completely covered and place back on the sheet.
10: Bake for 10-12 minutes.
11: Allow to cool on the sheet for 60 seconds before transferring to a cooling rack.
12: Leave to cool as long as you can stand it.
13: Enjoy!


*The longer you let the dough cool and firm up, the puffier and soft the cookies will be upon baking. If those aren't your thing or you just don't care, bake them right away.

A Brief Introduction

I've been baking cookies for family and friends for about two years now. Towards the end of last year I realized I was tired of baking other people's (exceedingly delicious) cookies and set about concocting my own stable of cookie recipes. This blog will, theoretically, catalog them all as I bake them. Because I'm not some kind of baking genius, the new recipes will only arrive once every two weeks. On the off weeks I'll post some of my favourite recipes from other people.