These cookies are absolutely amazing. I made them for Christmas (posting these a little late, I am aware) and I have never had such success with a chocolate cookie! Previous experiences have turned out ugly, flat cookies, but these look just as awesome as they taste.

I tried the slice-n-bake option Deb suggested but I got frustrated and had an easier time scooping these cookies after letting the dough sit in the fridge for an hour or two. I am so incredibly pleased with how they turned out, and they didn't last very long at all - they were devoured in about a day or two. MAKE THESE COOKIES!

Oh, and I recommend sprinkling them with just a touch of sea salt before putting them in the oven - the sea salt pairs nicely with the intense chocolate flavor.

Chocolate Toffee Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath), coarsely chopped
1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional, but recommended!)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto sheets, spacing two inches apart. Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if you’re using it. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

I know that it will be impossible to let them cool completely, but they really taste a lot better cool, as they continue baking once they come out of the oven.

Slice and bake option: Roll the dough into a log 1.5 inches in diameter and chill it. When you're ready to bake the cookies, cut your log into 1/2-inch slices. You can store the dough log in the freezer, wrapped in waxed paper and then two layers of plastic wrap for up to a month, just baking the cookies off as you need. Cookies baked straight from the freezer may need an additional minute or two in the oven, depending on their thickness.

Labels: chocolate, cookies, toffee

These cookies look and taste great, but not quite how I was expecting them to taste. The coconut flavor is very subdued and I would add more of it (I also used flaked coconut so I didn't bother putting it in the food processor because it was already small enough, and I should have toasted mine longer) I would also suggest using a high quality butter for these because the butter flavor is very intense - I used Organic Valley butter and was very pleased. These remind me very much of a tea biscuit, although I have yet to try them with tea.

Deb suggests spreading these with jam to make linzer cookies or dipping them in chocolate for added flavor - great suggestions for next time!

Toasted Coconut Shortbread
Adapted from Bon Appetit, April 2004

1/2 cup (about 1.5 ounces) unsweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (I used 1/2 tsp of coarse sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread coconut on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until coconut is light golden, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Cool completely, then grind in a coffee grinder, food processor or blender until coarsely ground.

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Mix in salt and vanilla. Beat in flour in 2 additions. Stir in toasted coconut. Gather dough together, flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic. Chill at least 1 hour. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out dough disk on lightly floured work surface to scant 1/4-inch thickness. Using 1 3/4- to 2-inch-diameter cookie cutters, cut dough into rounds. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather dough scraps and reroll; cut out additional cookies.

Bake cookies until light golden, about 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. (Can be made ahead. Store airtight at room temperature up to 1 week.)

Labels: butter cookies, coconut, shortbread

HELLO! I'm horrible at not going months between updates, aren't I? Please don't answer that...


I've had to push myself a bit to bake more at home these days because I spend so much time at work that the last thing I want to do on my days off is bake some more, but I know my family craves those home-baked goods! This post is full of cookies because I don't have the energy to devote time to things a little more time-consuming lately, but I'm trying to stray away from the ordinary, so these are far from being your grandmother's chocolate chip cookies!

Deb's blog Smitten Kitchen is one of my absolute favorites, I always have such success with the recipes she finds and I enjoy her little add-ins. The three recipes that follow are all from there. Actually, I'll just throw some pictures in this post and then make an individual post for each cookie so as not to throw too many recipes in one post...

Labels: cookies

Since my last entry the pastry apprenticeship I was doing ended due to unexpected circumstances and I started working for Starbucks full-time. It was slightly off-putting at first because I always told myself I'd never work for a corporate company of that size, but I quickly grew to love the company and the wonderful team of people I was working with. Just after I was offered a promotion there, I got a phone call from the pastry chef with whom I did my apprenticeship and he offered me a full-time position as a pastry line-cook in their kitchen; me, the girl with a huge passion for baking but no formal experience or culinary school degree - this opportunity was too good to pass up so of course I agreed. I said a sad good-bye to my Starbucks co-workers yesterday and today I'll give a warm hello to the team I already grew to love during my apprenticeship a few months ago.

I thought the least I could do for my fellow Starbucks employees was bake them some cookies as a farewell gift, and after seeing them all pounce on some peanut butter cookies at our holiday meeting, I figured peanut butter must be the way to go. I had recently come across a recipe on Smitten Kitchen for peanut butter crispie bars and I was sold. Apparently, so was everyone at Starbucks - these were a big hit!

Peanut Butter Crispy Bars
From Deb at Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Deb's wise words of advice: These bars are sticky and indulgent and not good for you in any way, so before you even ask, perhaps you can make them with organic, low-fat peanut butter, whole grain bio-crisped rice cereal or a sugar substitute but you shouldn’t. Nobody likes a party pooper.

For the crispy crust
1 3/4 cups crisped rice cereal
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the milk chocolate peanut butter layer
5 ounces good-quality milk or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter

For the chocolate icing
3 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72 percent cocoa), coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter

Make the crispy crust: Lightly spray a paper towel with nonstick cooking spray and use it to rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan.

Put the cereal in a large bowl and set aside.

Pour 1/4 cup water into a small saucepan. Gently add the sugar and corn syrup (do not let any sugar or syrup get on the sides of the pan) and use a small wooden spoon to stir the mixture until just combined. Put a candy thermometer in the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil; cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage, 235 degrees F.

Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, and pour the mixture over the cereal. Working quickly, stir until the cereal is thoroughly coated, then pour it into the prepared pan. Using your hands, press the mixture into the bottom of the pan (do not press up the sides). Let the crust cool to room temperature while you make the next layer.

Make the milk chocolate peanut butter layer: In a large nonreactive metal bowl, stir together the chocolate and the peanut butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust. Put the pan in the refridgerator for 1 hour, or until the top layer hardens.

Make the chocolate icing: In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter.

Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the chilled milk chocolate peanut butter layer and spread (I went with Deb's suggestion to just roll it around until it coated smoothly, avoiding the risk of picking up any of the peanut butter layer with it) into an even layer. Put the pan into the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the topping hardens.

Cut into 16 squares and serve. The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, covered tightly, for up to 4 days.

Labels: chocolate, peanut butter, rice krispies

I really love the combination of peanut butter and honey, especially in sandwich form. But sometimes you don't want to eat a whole sandwich and a simple cookie would suffice - I've been wanting to make these cookies for a while now, but I was afraid I would be the only one eating them since the rest of my family does not share my enthusiasm for peanut butter. After staring at the recipe repeatedly for weeks, I decided to set my anxieties aside and make them anyway... and what a surprise, my family loved these cookies; I think they ate more of them than I did! After just one bite my sister claimed it was the best peanut butter cookie she'd ever eaten and my dad went back for seconds soon after his first.

The honey adds a touch of sweetness to the overall peanut butter taste and is more noticeable than I thought it would be, and the chopped nuts on the outside make for a fantastically crunchy exterior in contrast to the smooth intense peanut butter interior. It's a bit of a long process rolling all the different parts out, but it's interesting to see how it all comes together in the end. I believe my oven temperature may have been set a little too high though because the cookies came out darker and firmer than I was happy with, even though I cut the baking time down to ten minutes. I would keep an eye on these as they're baking because if you over-bake them they harden like rocks after a day or two of sitting in an airtight container. These are definitely cookies to devour the same day they're baked.

Double Delight Peanut Butter-Honey Cookies
from The Crepes of Wrath

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey

Coating
2/3 cup finely chopped honey roasted peanuts (or any mixture of nuts - I used salted walnuts, almond, peanuts, cashews, and hazelnuts)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and honey, until creamy (about 1-2 minutes).
3. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. Gradually beat in flour until well combined. Place dough in freezer for 15 minutes, stir, and freeze for an additional 15 minutes (I just put mine in the freezer for as long as it took me to make the filling and coating).
4. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Sift confectioners’ sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl. Beat confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, and honey until well combined.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a large sheet pan with cooking spray or line it.
6. Make the coating by stirring together nuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl, until well combined.
7. Remove bowl from freezer. Take each piece of dough, roll into a ball and then flatten with your hand, place a peanut butter ball in the center, and wrap dough around ball. Roll ball in your hands to shape better. Roll balls in nut mixture, to coat completely; place on prepared sheet pan. Coat the bottom of a glass with cooking spray and flatten cookies. Don’t flatten too much, though!
8. Bake at 375 degrees F for 13-15 minutes, or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Labels: cookies, honey, peanut butter