Tuesdays with Dorie: Chipster-Topped Brownies
Both brownies and chocolate chip cookies would likely make an appearance on most people’s favorite sweets list. I know both show up on mine. So why not put them together and make Dorie Greenspan’s Chipster-Topped Brownies? This week for Tuesdays with Dorie we got to do exactly that.
The bottom layer is a bittersweet brownie.
The top layer is a chocolate chip cookie.
The end result is pure goodness.
This was a pretty painless recipe, there isn’t too much to say about it. I didn’t have any problems except having to wash a mixing bowl twice. I halved the recipe and baked in an 8×8 pan for about 40 minutes. The only changes I made were I left out the walnuts and used all bittersweet chocolate in the brownies as somehow Unsweetened Chocolate was nowhere to be found in my jammed packed pantry. I’m sure it’s in there… somewhere!
Chipster-topped brownies reminded me of something my Mom would’ve packed in my lunchbox growing up. It has an “on the go” type feel to it – something you could wrap in plastic wrap and enjoy away from home. Or bake for a bake sale. This type of thought was probably due to the fact that I preferred them at room temp instead of warm. Maybe vanilla ice cream would have changed my mind on the warm ones, though. Also, leaving out the nuts seemed to take away some of the crunch these would have had, the chocolate chips didn’t really come through as much of a textural difference. We did really like these though, the pan of brownies kept getting smaller and smaller as the day progressed.
Thanks to Beth of Supplicious for choosing Chipster-topped Brownies for the May 26th, 2009 week of Tuesdays with Dorie. Please stop by Supplicious for the recipe here or check out Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan on pages 94 and 95. Next week, Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares on pages 210 and 211. See you next Tuesday!
Coconut Butter Thins
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in Tuesdays with Dorie, it’s that Dorie Greenspan knows cookies. Some of my favorite recipes of hers have been cookies and I’ve stated before that if she were to do an entire book on them I’d be thrilled. And fat.
I’ve never made a Dorie cookie I didn’t love and this week was no exception. Coconut Butter Thins have a butter based dough with macadamia nuts, coriander, coconut and lime zest. There’s a lot of texture packed inside one thin little cookie. And they’re sort of tropical like in flavor which is a nice change from say, peanut butter or chocolate chip that we all might automatically gravitate to on a more regular basis.
The final baked product came out thin, crispy, crumbly, almost like a shortbread. The interesting thing is I actually liked these better pre-bake though. Not that anything was wrong with them post-bake, I just happen to like raw cookie dough a lot and thought on these the flavors and textures came through better on the cold, unbaked dough.
I only baked for 15 minutes instead of 18. I had some spreading issues during baking and my fork marks totally disappeared. No worries, I just poked them again once they came out of the oven. I wish mine held their shape a little more, perhaps freezing the dough in addition to chilling (24 hours in my case) would also help. These did remind me of the issues I had with the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbreads.
Please Dorie, more cookies! And thanks to Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch for choosing Coconut Butter Thins for the March 31, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. Next week, it’s Banana Cream Pie selected by Amy over at Sing For Your Supper. I’m happy. See you next Tuesday!
TFF: Semifreddo Cookies and Cream with Salted Caramel… and my 100th post!
Semifreddo in Italian means “half cold” and the term is reserved for any dessert that is chilled or partially frozen.
Semifreddo to me means “freakin’ good”.
In this case, cream and powdered sugar are whipped to soft peaks, pomegranate molasses is folded in and ramekins housing layers of cream and ginger snap cookies are frozen for about an hour. Top it off with Salted Caramel and oooh, mama!
I just mentioned pomegranate molasses, a traditional ingredient used in Middle Eastern cooking and one that I wasn’t familiar with yet. It seems it’s really gaining popularity since it adds something special to a wide variety of dishes. Don’t fear, if you don’t think you’ll be able to find it in your local store you can always make your own at home. It’s easy and inexpensive, it only takes pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon. Go here to check out an article with ingredients and instructions on how to do it yourself.
Now, this recipe wasn’t 100% fool proof as I had some minor problems. I’ve never made a semifreddo before and I’m definitely a fool, so it’s probably all my fault since I don’t know any better yet. Problem #1: The pomegranate molasses hardened immediately when folding into the whipped cream. Problem #2: I had problems with unmolding from the ramekin. Problem #3: I had unmolded two times to find the semifreddo was not set in the middle. Problem #4: The caramel hardened pretty fast also. Problem #5: My semifreddo looked a cold mess from all the molding and unmolding I did. The top cookie layer was wrecked. I added some more ginger snap pieces after the fact which made too much of a texture difference from the already softened cookies. Problem #6: I ate way too many ginger snap cookies out of the bag while waiting for this to be done.
And here is what I’d do to fix these problems next time: Possibly whip the cream into firmer peaks. Cook down the pomegranate juice to a much thinner consistency. Maybe add a few more cookies to the bottom layer. Let it in the freezer a little longer and not be so impatient so the unmolding would go easier. Get some willpower and learn how to say no to cookies.
This semifreddo was absolutely phenomenal though. It was light, but rich at the same time. The cream was flavored nicely and the pomegranate molasses added a unique, sweet taste. The original ginger snap cookies were moist and were a nice backdrop to the other components. And the salted caramel sauce… delicious. This would be a total winner if I could work out the kinks of this first attempt. It looked beautiful and the taste was right on… but my execution could have been a tad better.
Tyler Flrence’s Semifreddo Cookies and Cream with Salted Caramel
Show: Tyler’s Ultimate Episode: Ultimate Lasagna
Rated 4 out of 5 stars from 11 Food Network reviews
Ingredients
4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
15 gingersnap cookies
Salted caramel sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Click Here For Directions!
This is my fourth post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
On an exciting note, this represents my 100th post! It’s been entertaining to look back over some of my entries. I honestly don’t remember writing some of them. Thanks to all of you who commented, supported, commiserated and encouraged me along the way, I’ve truly appreciated all of the great feedback. Here’s to another 100 posts!
World Peace Cookies
Sometimes you’ll come across a recipe that everyone raves about. Like these World Peace Cookies, people just seem to go nuts about them. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about.
These slice-and-bake cookies have a chocolate dough with chunks of chocolate mixed throughout. Fleur de sel (a hand harvested sea salt), provides a salty contrast. This is one grown up little cookie.
The dough is mixed as little as possible and then is rolled up into a log and chilled (and can be frozen too) for at least three hours. It’s then sliced into 1/2 inch rounds and baked. The dough is crumbly and while I was slicing, my dough broke into little bits but it was easy to smoosh it back together to resemble circular cookies.
If you like chocolate, you really can’t go wrong with these. They were dark and chocolately with a great sandy texture. And the Fleur de Sel really added to the overall flavor. I thought these were better on day two. The saltiness really came through a lot more. I really hope Dorie Greenspan writes an all cookie book one day. Her cookie recipes are just so good.
Short post… I’m sick, tired and have had more computer, camera and memory card issues in the last 24 hours than I even want to think about right now. Plus Fringe is on tv. 
World Peace Cookies were chosen by Jessica from cookbookhabit for the February 3rd, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. For the full recipe, visit Jessica’s blog.
Next week, Shari of Whisk: A food blog has selected Floating Islands. I can’t wait to try this one.
TFF: Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Every baker probably is, or has at one time, been searching for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Opinions vary widely on what makes a Chocolate Chip Cookie good. Is it crispy or chewy? Is it loaded with nuts or nut free? Is the dough chilled before baking or not? To sea salt or not to sea salt? I mean, the list of “is it this or that” questions could go on and on and on.
I don’t have the perfect recipe yet so I’m always up for trying new ones. To be honest, I can be happy with Pillsbury’s ready to bake Big Deluxe Classics although I’m sure that’s probably not the right answer.
I saw this recipe for Tyler Florence’s Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies got a 5 out of 5 star review on Food Network. I was a bit intrigued and impressed by that score since we’re talking chocolate chip cookies here, but maybe it’s no big thing. At any rate, I couldn’t get these off my mind and while I’m supposed to be making more DINNERS at my house, I just couldn’t resist whipping these up on a Sunday morning.
The cookies were buttery, soft, and sort of puffy like but not cakey. I used a mix of bittersweet and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate. The recipe instructs you to use a 1/4 cup size to measure the cookies. I did that as well as used a tiny ice cream scoop, and the bigger cookies are definitely the way to go. As with every cookie I make, I baked the minimum amount of time (12 minutes in this case) and not a second longer. I like a little bit of crispiness on the edges with not all the way done middles.
The cookies were delicious and perfectly fine for my requirements of texture and taste. I’d use Tyler’s recipe again. When it comes right down to it, you might not ever find the “perfect” recipe for anything. But if whatever you make at home puts a smile on your face when you first taste it and doesn’t survive more than a couple hours in your house (like these cookies), you have a winner. And that’s all that matters.
There is a video of the making of these cookies here. It’s hard to ignore how cute Tyler is. I wish he’d come Food 911 at my house, too bad the show isn’t made anymore.
Tyler Florence’s Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Show: Food 911 Episode: Bake Sale Delights
5 out of 5 stars from 325 Food Network reviews
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
Click Here for Directions
These Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies are my second post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group dedicated to sharing their experiences with Tyler Florence’s recipes. You get to pick whatever it is that you want to make each week, a feature that I totally love.
Buttery Jam Cookies
Yeah, I’ll admit they don’t look like much. They’re probably a cookie you’d skip over if you had multiple ones presented to you to choose from. As for the taste, it’s subtle. It’s just a good butter cookie with jam mixed in and a little ginger to give the flavor a boost.
These cookies would be the perfect thing to make when you want something sweet but don’t feel like doing something complicated. Chances are, everything you need to make them is already in your house. And if you’re an avid jam and jelly buyer like me (can’t resist impulse buying because of all the different flavor combos, nice jars and cute labels? I feel ya.) you need a reason to use up all those jars in the fridge that you only taste tested once, maybe twice. This recipe could be the perfect outlet.
We did like these a lot. I liked them a little too much and had to hide them from myself. But since I knew where I hid them I was able to find them easily and eat the rest of them. Good thing I made a very small batch or I may have cried myself to sleep that night over doing that.
Thanks go to Heather for choosing Buttery Jam cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie for the week of December 16th, 2008. Please stop by Heather’s blog Randomosity and the Girl to check out the recipe and to see what she thought about her choice. Heather has the cutest dog named Charlie who makes regular appearances in her posts, it always makes me smile.
Next week it’s Butterscotch Pudding as chosen by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases. See you next Tuesday!
Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are near the top of my favorite cookies list. Cut-out sugar cookies with fancy icing decorating… even better. I was looking forward to Tuesdays with Dorie this week. I could use my “new” Christmas cookie cutter set that I’ve had for 10 years but never opened. I could have fun decorating all the different shapes I made. Well… yeah, my plans didn’t work out. This dough did not behave when I went to roll it out. It was way too soft. I did chill it enough, even chilled in between tries. I’m not sure what happened. I looked around at other people’s experiences with this recipe and most didn’t seem to have any problems. I’m starting to think me and Dorie’s doughs just don’t have the right chemistry. It’s only doughs that have to be manipulated like the pie crust, Rugelach and these cookies. It’s got to be all my fault, I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Since I don’t like to be stressed when I’m baking I just gave in and did the scoop and bake method. The cookies turned out great. They were very soft and the taste was up to my high sugar cookie standards.
I put some icing on in different Christmas colors and let them all run together. Not exactly my original decorating plans, but hey, it’s alright. Another time, perhaps.
Thanks to Ulrike for choosing Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies for the week of December 9th, 2008. Please check out Ulrike’s blog Küchenlatein for the recipe and to see what she thought of her choice. Next week, more cookies! Heather of Randomosity and the Girl has selected Buttery Jam Cookies for the group to test out.
Use it or lose it… (and my 40th TWD)
“Use it or lose it” may just be one of my favorite phrases right now. It’s the reason I’m currently on vacation instead of at work. It’s great to find out you still have a week’s worth of time off in the last month of the year. It makes things seem more do-able. Like I actually have time to Christmas shop, time to veg out during Netflix instant viewing, and time to make some cookies.
Here we have Linzer Sables. They are a tiny spiced cookie sandwich with a layer of jam in the middle and a powdered sugar dusting on top.
There are tons of flavor combinations you could decide on for these. Since the dough is made with ground nuts you could choose one or more different nuts to use. The jam in the middle leaves you open to almost any flavor of jam you could find. I chose to use almonds as my base with a raspberry jam for the filling.
These dough was pretty easy to roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap. I let the dough chill overnight for the first batch and two days for the second batch.
There are specific cookie cutters made just for these types of cookies. See here and here for examples. I just used a cutter that I already owned and a Wilton tip to cut out the hole in the middle.
I liked the taste of these. The spices in the cookie really come through and I liked the raspberry jam a lot with them. They were crispy, not really soft. I’m actually not sure I’d make these again, although I’m glad I gave them a try.
Linzer Sables were chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie for the week of December 2nd by Dennis of Living the Life. The recipe can be found on Living the Life here. This was my 40th TWD recipe. I’m proud of myself for sticking with something this long.
More cookies coming your way as soon as I can tear myself away from CSI Season 9 on Netflix.
Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies
Buttery Jam Cookies
Rugelach kicked my…
This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe was selected by Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal. I had never had or even heard of Rugelach before getting Baking: From my home to yours. I did some research and found that Rugelach is a traditional Jewish rolled cookie wrapped around fruit preserves, chocolate and nuts. Hmm, you can’t go wrong with that!
I used apricot preserves, dark chocolate chips, dark raisins and pecans. The dough is easy enough to mix together, but it needs at least a two hour chill time.
I’ll admit, the dough was a pain. It was crumbly and didn’t roll out easily. The longer it sat out the “easier” it became to work with, but I never even made it to the recommended size for the circle. There was too much sticking, ripping and tearing that went on.
The next three issues:
1.) I overfilled with the jam (didn’t see the THIN layer part until I had added it all) which led to…
2.) A hard time rolling them up which led to…
3). An EXPLOSION in the oven.
Well, at least it was a flavor explosion. But these bad boys leaked all over the cookie sheet, which was not easy to clean afterwards.
And only two of the cookies resembled anything like the rugelach in the book. The others were just ugly blobs. But the ugly ones tasted just as good as the prettier ones.
See… a *tad* too much jam…
Thanks go out to Piggy for choosing this recipe and opening me up to something new. I liked these and I’d be open to making them again to see if I could do better the second time around. I’m glad the group is still challenging me this far in (as this is my 39th recipe made from the book), it keeps it fun. Make sure to check out Piggy’s Cooking Journal here for the recipe and to see what she thought of her choice. Next week it’s Kugelhopf as selected by Yolanda of The All-purpose Girl. I’m excited for this one too, it’s another thing I’ve never made.
These are so good… I’m kind of scared!
Every so often I come across a recipe that really catches my eye. I put another little bookmark in my favorites folder and think to myself “crap, this list of stuff to make is getting huge!” The day these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies showed up in my reader from Peabody’s blog, I honed right in and quickly saved the link for future reference. A little while later, I saw them over at Susan’s blog and then again at Pamela’s and after reading all the good things being said about them, I knew this particular bookmark wouldn’t stay dormant in my folder for long.
Since I had exactly enough leftover pumpkin puree from my TWD Pumpkin Muffins to make a half a batch of pies, I got right to it. They took no time at all to put together and while I baked I made three different batches of the cream cheese filling: regular, Peabody’s maple version and Susan’s cinnamon version.
These are good. Too damn good. I ate way more than I should have. I started with one, then two, then… never mind. I had thought about bringing these in for my friends at work, but once I tasted the first one I quickly changed my mind. 
“Mine… allllll mine!” I said in an evil tone between bites.
The cake part was absolutely perfect. It was moist, had a great flavor and instantly I knew this recipe was a keeper. Once put together, I preferred the maple and cinnamon fillings although I couldn’t decide between the two which one was my favorite. As for the plain filling version, it was definitely too sickening sweet for me. It wasn’t bad or anything, but what a difference a little added flavoring made to mellow out the overly sweet taste.
These will definitely be added to my Fall recipe rotation. This was the first thing I’ve made in a while that I actually told someone about the next day. Like “I made these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies last night and damn, they were good! Oh right, I couldn’t bring you any because I ate them all. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
You must make these. You will not be disappointed. Though I’m warning you ahead of time that they are addicting. Head on over to Culinary Concoctions by Peabody for the recipe. If you’re interested in the cinnamon version of the filling stop by Susan’s She’s Becoming Doughmesstic! Maybe next time I make these I’ll be ready to share. But maybe not!
