Fresh Mint Brownies

I told you that I would be making a lot of recipes from my new cookbook. I normally don’t like mint chocolate, but these brownies are divine!

Fresh Mint Brownies

Yield: 16 brownies

Brownies

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 6 ounces (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons water
• ½ cup finely chopped fresh mint
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Candied Mint Leaves

•  Organic fresh mint leaves, at least one leaf per brownie
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten until foamy
• ¾ cup granulated sugar

To make the brownies:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F.  Line a 9×9 square baking pan with aluminum foil.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment.  Set aside.
3. In a large heavy saucepan set over medium heat, melt together the butter and the chocolate over very low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from the heat and add in the water and the mint.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Press chocolate mixture through a medium mesh sieve into a large bowl; discard the mint.  Stir in the sugar and the eggs with a wooden spoon until well blended.  Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, spreading evenly with the bottom of a spatula.  Bake for 42-45 minutes, or until the top is no longer shiny and a thin crust appears.  Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack before cutting.  

To make the candied mint leaves:

1. Rinse leaves under cool water and dry thoroughly with paper towels.  Line a small baking sheet that will fit in your fridge with aluminum foil; set aside. Have the egg white and the sugar ready in small bowls. 
2. Using a clean small paint or pastry brush, “paint” each leaf, front and back, with the egg white.  Dip the mint leaf in the sugar. As each leaf is coated, place it on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Let the leaves dry in the fridge for at least one hour or up to three days.

To serve:

1. Using the edges of the foil as handles, transfer the entire brownie slab to your cutting board.  Cut into 16 even squares with a large chef’s knife.
2. Top each brownie with a candied mint leaf.  Brownines will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Nancy’s Brown Butter Buttons

I got a new cookbook!!! 

It’s the most beautiful baking book I’ve seen in a very long time.  The pages are thick and glossy, the recipes mouthwatering, and it’s nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award for best cookbook in the baking category!  I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of recipes inspired by/adapted from/straight up ganked from this book.  I hope to learn a lot from Ms. Braker and her fantastic collection of  recipes. 

The first recipe I tried didn’t dissapoint.  These cookies are luxuriously-crumbly-melt-in-your-mouth delicous.  They’re not the prettiest thing to look at, but you won’t care as soon as you take your first bite.

Nancy’s Brown Butter Buttons

Nancy's Brown Butter Buttons

Yield: 3½ dozen cookies

• 1 cup  (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy 1½ quart saucepan over medium-low heat and heat just until it begins to turn a delicate brown, about 8 minutes.  Remove from the heat and pour into a medium bowl.  Set the butter aside to cool slightly, about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, sift together the flour and baking soda onto a piece of parchment paper; set aside.
3. Add the vanilla to the butter, and then stir in half of the sugar, blending well before adding the remaining sugar.  Add the flour mixture in two additions, blending well after each addition.  Set the mixture aside for 10 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the ingredients.
4. To shape each cookie, measure about 1½ teaspoons of the dough, or scoop up the dough with an ice cream scoop about 1¼ inches in diameter (#70).  Work the crumbly dough between your palms to form cohesive balls, and place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about ½ inch apart.  
5. Bake the cookies until they puff up, crack a bit on top, and are golden on the bottom, 15-18 minutes.  Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool on the pan for about 5 minutes.  Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Flo Braker’s Baking for All Occasions

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Uneventful Day + Delicous Cookies = Fairly Boring Blog Post

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1¼ cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to body temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 cups rice krispies

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together onto a piece of parchment paper (it’s reusable and you don’t have to wash a bowl!). Set aside.
3. In the bowl of  stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cooled melted butter and sugars together on medium speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.  Add in the egg and vanilla extract, beat until smooth.  Reduce the mixer speed to low; slowly add in the flour mixture  and stir until just combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips and rice krispies.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 10 minutes (or up to 6 hours) to firm up.
4. Drop the  dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet about 3 inches apart (the dough is very crumbly–you may have to form the dough into balls with your hands).  Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes, or until pale golden around the edges.  Let cookies rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Pecan Sandies

Saturdays are hard!! I should consider starting a new rule that Saturday’s cookies shouldn’t take more than an hour to mix, bake, and blog about, or I will epically fail at this project. 

Also, check out this “personalized” add that my g-mail gave me!

Wow.

Pecan Sandies

Pecan Sandies

Yield: 60 Cookies

• 1½ cups all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• ½ cup firmly packed light  brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1½ cups pecans, finely crushed, plus 60 nice looking halves for garnish

1. Combine flour and salt in a small bowl.  Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg yolk; beat well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if needed.  Add in the flour mixture and stir on low speed until just incorporated. Fold in the finely crushed pecans.
3. Divide the dough in half.  Turn one half onto a sheet of parchment paper and shape it, rolling it inside the paper, into a log about 10 inches long by 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and slide inside  an empty paper towel tube to maintain the shape.  Refrigerate the dough logs for at least 2 hours and up to one day.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
5. Slice the dough into 1/3 inch thick rounds, rotating the log often so as not to flatten any one side.  Place dough rounds onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between each.  Place a pecan half in the center of each cookie.  Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until pale golden around the edges.  Let  cookies rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Butterfly Cookies

I do not have the patience for decorating.  I was envisioning wedgewood china, and I ended up with this:

Ugly Butterflies

Maybe one day when I have actual pastry bags instead of modified ziploc baggies, I’ll put forth the effort to make my cookies professional looking.  Until then, they’ll look a little “interesting.”

Butterfly Cookies

Butterfly Cookie

Yield: 30 cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Food Coloring.

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
2. Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium high speed until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg and vanilla extract; beat until smooth. Add in any desired food coloring (I used 20 drops blue and 10 drops green); beat until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. There is no need to chill dough.  Just plough on through to step 4.
4. Divide dough in half.  Roll each half into a ball.  Working with one ball at a time, roll out to a ¼ inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface.  Cut out butterfly shapes and place on prepared baking sheets.  
5. Bake for 6 minutes. Don’t let the cookies brown at all. Let cookies rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
6. Decorate with Royal Icing if desired.

Royal Icing

• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat egg white on medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy.  
2. Add in the powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form.  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Cover with a dampened paper towel until ready to use.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mixer is broken.  But on the plus side  we have a new coffee table.  On the down side, my mixer is broken and my boyfriend is being a belligerent asshole.  Oh beer pong, how I hate thee.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup sour cream (full fat is tastier)
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.  Set aside.
3. Cream butter, sour cream, and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and vanilla extract.  Beat well. Slowly add in the flour mixture; beat until just incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Place bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
4. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets 3 inches apart.  Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until pale golden.  Let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

What have I done????

I broke my mixer.

It won’t stay locked in the down position anymore, and the knob came off of the lever today while I was mixing and broke in half.

This is almost as bad as the time that I broke the oven.

The wreckage.

No-Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I think that this is the only no bake oatmeal raisin cookie recipe in existence.  And I created it all by myself!!!!

No-Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Yield: 2 dozenish

• 1¾ cup sugar
• 1 stick butter
• ½ cup water or milk
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups regular or old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup raisins

1. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat bring sugar, butter, water (or milk!), and cinnamon to a rolling boil.  Boil for two minutes.  Stir in the vanilla extract.  Stir in the oats and raisins.
2. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a sheet of parchment or wax paper.  Let harden for 10 minutes before eating.
3. While cookies are hardening, scrape every last bit of goodness off of the pot.

Black Gold Cookies

I’ve been slacking.  I’ve been working an ungodly amount of hours at the sushi place and consequently haven’t been fulfilling my self-imposed baking commitment.  Resentment Cookies, as funny and effective (Andrew and the roommates fixed almost everything that I documented before I got home from work that night!!! It was really very sweet and completely unexpected) as they may be, don’t really count as actual cookies.  And I completely missed Saturday’s post–it’s very hard to do anything other than collapse into bed after working a twelve hour shift  (I didn’t yet know how to correctly utilize my 45 minute break–on Monday I went home and whipped up the cookie dough and got it in the fridge before I went back to the restaurant and worked another six hours).

I have a new work friend! She’s a very talented artist who makes sculptures out of lace, and she is unusually good at keeping her part-time job a part-time job so she can spend her time working on what’s truly important–her art. I wish I had the courage to say “enough is enough!,” but I’m still very new and I don’t want to jeopardize my position.  Also, the money I’m raking in tempts me with its siren song of a better life (i.e., paying off my credit cards and buying a food processor).

I’m going to make up for this past weekend’s transgressions by baking a few extra batches of delicous real (not like last Friday’s Abomination) cookies this next week.  I’ll start off on the right foot with these unusual chocolate laden delights.  Beware! These are not for the faint of  heart; they are extremely rich (both in calories and flavor), and they certainly take a toll on both your kitchen’s cleanliness and on your grocery bill.  But you will be justly rewarded for your efforts when you take your first bite.

Black Gold Cookies

Gourmet|June 1996

Yield: 40 cookies

1. Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
2. In a double boiler (store-bought or jimmy rigged), melt the unsweetened chocolate, half the semi-sweet chocolate, and the butter, stirring occasionally.  When mixture is melted, remove top portion of the double boiler and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sift flour, salt, and baking powder together; set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together eggs and sugar on medium speed until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy.  Add in the chocolate mixture, instant espresso (instant coffee), and vanilla extract; beat until smooth.  Reduce mixer speed to low; add in the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Stir in the nuts and the remaining 9 ounces of the chopped semi-sweet chocolate.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet.  Flatten dough with the palm of your hand and smush into a circle.  Place sheet on center rack and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until cookies are crackly on top. Do not over-bake.  Let cookies rest on baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Maple Pecan Cookies

I have a lot of catching up to do.  Tomorrow is a day of epic baking.

Maple Pecan Cookies

Yield: 40 cookies

• 2½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ¾ cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
2. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and maple syrup on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add in the eggs and vanilla extract; beat until combined. Reduce the speed to low; slowly stir in the flour mixture.  Fold in the nuts.
4. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared bakng sheets.Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden.  Let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.