Nutella Mint Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

Aka "OH-MY-GOD CHRISTMAS!!!!" Cookies :)

Sorry Santa, I'm not sure I'm sharing :)

This recipe was inspired by the Double White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel cookies that I sometimes make (P.S. you should try them. They're amazing!)... And the fact that I accidentally bought mint chocolate chips instead of regular ones. Oops. What do you mean they were clearly marked? I declare shenanigans, or the dangers of shopping while tired.

This actually brings up an interesting side point.  If you ever see Bourbon Vanilla, you should buy it. I found this at Loblaw's (President's Choice Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract).  It makes way more of a difference than you would expect!

So anyway, I wanted to make something similar to the peanut butter pretzel cookies, but with candy canes and lost of chocolate.  I majorly lucked out on Google with a recipe based off of the Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which is pretty similar to the recipe my grandmother taught me, come to think of it.

Anyway, so here's what I found and why I want all new clothes for Christmas!

Nutella Mint Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies
from: Oh Joy blog: http://ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog/2012/12/chocolate-chip-nutella-candy-cane-cookies.html
Makes ~3 dozen cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose, unsifted flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup Nutella (or similar chocolate hazelnut spread, if you must)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp (bourbon) vanilla extract
2 large eggs (preferably also at room temperature)
1 cup semi-sweet mint chocolate chips
~8 regular sized candy canes (or 1/2 cup crushed)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix together dry ingredients  (flour, salt and baking soda) in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Using your mixers (this is not a fun recipe to do by hand), cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and Nutella on medium speed
4. Add eggs (one at a time) and vanilla. Mix until combined.
5. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix at low speed until well combined.
6. In a plastic bag, mortar and pestle, or whatever you come up with, smash your candy canes into little itty bitty pieces.  If you planned ahead, you could try crushing them in your food processor, but I thought it might turn into dust.
7. Add crushed candy canes and (mint) chocolate chips, stir to combine.
8. Using a tablespoon, put cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for ~10 minutes.*
9. Let cool slightly on baking tray (~1 minute?), and then transfer to wire rack.

*PS: I baked a dozen of these delicious cookies, and then I had to leave the house, so I put cling wrap on top of the bowl of leftover dough and put it in the fridge for a few hours.  The second batch of cookies was delicious and a little less flat than the first.  So that's always a good idea, if you plan ahead.

Don't you just want to eat that dough with a spoon? 'cause I did. Also - never eat cookie dough raw because it contains raw eggs which are a common source of Salmonella food poisoning and that's bad (and the subject of my PhD Thesis!)

Itty bitty bits of candy cane deliciousness. I used an empty wine bottle to smash the candy cane in a freezer safe Ziploc bag.  I haven't unpacked my rolling pin yet.

Is it strange that no matter what type of cookies I'm making, or what size of baking tray, I always put a dozen cookies on each tray?

I can't even describe how amazing these are to you. You have to try then for yourself!

Flourless Chocolate Brownies

The other weekend, I was invited to a dinner party. The hostess said "oh, don't bring anything", but I can't just do that. It's way too weird. So I decided to bring desserts (I don't think they're big drinkers, so the standard bottle of wine wasn't my first choice).

First I made some Double White Chocolate and Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt, which is a recipe I absolutely adore and have made many many times. It's from the ever-awesome Picky-Palate.com.  Then I had a moment of sheer panic, what if someone at the party couldn't eat peanuts? What if someone has a gluten allergy? I don't wanna be THAT guy (girl, whatever), so I browsed through my pantry trying to find something, anything else I could make. A second batch of cookies seemed weird, and I didn't have enough chocolate chips left anyway, but I had a big bar of dark chocolate in my freezer which I could use to make chocolate chunks. OR..... BROWNIES.

Definitely brownies.

But I didn't have all the ingredients for my mother's brownie recipe, so I hit the internet and found this recipe, also from Picky-Palate.com  then I cut it down because I only had 2 eggs left.

Flourless Chocolate Brownies
3 1/2 oz dark chocolate
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened, for baking)
icing sugar, to decorate

1. Preheat oven to 375F/185C.
2. Break chocolate into smallish chunks.
3. Start a double boiler.  I use a small sauce pan with a pyrex bowl ontop. It's heatsafe and easy to clean. Make sure the water isn't touching the bottom of the bowl if you use this method.
4. Put butter and chocolate in double boiler, stir until melted.
5. Set aside and let cool for 5-10 minutes (put in a clean mixing bowl if you've used a real double boiler, otherwise your pyrex bowl will be fine).
6. Using a wire whisk, add eggs, sugar and cocoa to chocolate and stir until combined.
7. Pour into cake tin/slice pan/pie dish (I used a pyrex pie dish).
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until done.
9. Let sit to cool for 10-15 minutes.
10. I recommend either using or creating a stencil and decorating with icing sugar once it's cooled. To create a stencil, take a clean piece of paper, fold it and cut out designs as if you're back in kindergarten making snowflakes with your safety scissors. Place the stencil on top of room-temperature brownies. Lightly sprinkle icing sugar on top of stencil (I used a sifting sieve to get even distribution) and then remove stencil and ooh and ahh at your beautiful design.

Note: this does not rise. So, use a pan or tin that will give you your desired thickness. This recipe, in a 9" pie tin, was about 1/2-3/4" thick.  And sinfully delicious.

People will tell you that you can add raisins or nuts to your brownies, but I never do. Mostly because raisins don't belong in brownies and I don't really like nuts in anything.

Sorry that there are no pictures of this, but I was in such a rush that the brownies only came out of the oven about 5 minutes before we left the house, and then they got eaten.

And FYI - I have another blog post (for more unhealthy desserts) in the queue, it should go up later today or tomorrow.  I haven't been posting because I've been boring in the kitchen lately. Or rather, I've been revisiting recipes. I made another two batches of focaccia, using a slightly different recipe for my office. It was a hit.  I also made a batch of mini-bagels last night, to go with breakfast for dinner.  But I'm afraid it's mostly been straight forward pasta or steamed veg with grilled meat. Nothing worth writing home about, or blogging about I suppose.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Red Velvet cupcakes.  What a perfect Valentine's Day treat, right? It's red, it's chocolate, it's delicious, what else can you ask for?

So, that's what I made. I found a recipe for these delicious red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing over at The Cake Mistress, and it looked both delicious and easy, which it was.

Tilt shift does not really add anything to photos of mini cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Makes 12
Cupcakes
60 g (~3T)  unsalted butter, at room temperature
150 g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
1 large egg
10 g cocoa powder*
20 ml red food colouring**
1/2 t vanilla extract
120 mL (1/2 cup) buttermilk
150 g (1 1/4 cup) plain flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t bicarb (baking) soda
1 1/2 t white wine vinegar***

Cream Cheese Icing
300 g (2 cups) icing sugar, sifted ****
50 g (2 1/2 T) unsalted butter, room temperature
125g cream cheese, softened (half a standard Philadelphia block)
1 t vanilla extract

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 170C/340F and line cupcake tin with cupcake papers.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light in colour and fluffy.
3. Mix egg in a small bowl and gradually add to butter and sugar mix, beating until thoroughly mixed.
4. In another small bowl, mix cocoa powder, food colour and vanilla extract, mixing colour throughout and forming a paste.
5. Add paste to butter mixture and beat until mixed throughout. Scrape the sides of the mixing bowl down with a spatula as needed.  The batter will be a dark-ish pink colour at this point.
6. Beating on a low setting, add half the butter milk, mix, then add half the flour, repeat until all ingredients are combined.
7. Add the vinegar, salt and bicarb and beat until just combined.
8. Spoon mixture into paper cases in cupcake tin, filling until ~2/3 full.
9. Bake 20-25 minutes in centre of oven.

Icing

1. Beat icing sugar and butter until grainy and well mixed.
2. Cut cream cheese into small cubes and add them individually.
3. Add vanilla.
4. Beat mixture until desired texture (should be light and fluffy).
5. Transfer to piping bag or use a butter knife to decorate cupcakes once they've cooled to room temperature.

* There is a difference between baking cocoa and drinking cocoa, a huge difference. I also recommend, if your grocers carries it, to get the 70% or 80% Green and Black Organic baking cocoa, because it is the absolute best.  I could only find some Cadbury this time.
** Food colouring - I recommend using the liquid food colouring, but this may also be because I more often than not have it lying around the house so its easy
*** Many recipes I've looked at called for plain white vinegar, so this could be used as a substitute if you're not a vinegar snob like me.
**** Wow, this is a lot of notes. So, I never used to sift ingredients until I made this one cake, and then all of a sudden I realised it DID make a difference.  That being said, my icing sugar got half sifted half food-processed, because the icing sugar at the store was ALL bricklike

A helpful hint - take out the egg and butter ahead of time and let sit on counter for 1-2 hours while you enjoy a cup of coffee and a few chapters of a good book. I tend to do this with anything I cook anyways, room temperature eggs always make recipes taste better.

Another note to add here, using an icing bag is way more fun for icing cupcakes, you can make beautiful swirls, or something that is supposed to be a swirl, and you end up with way more icing on each cupcake. This is a good thing. However, if you're pressed for time, lazy, or trying to make a sad attempt to make your cupcakes healthier by having less icing on them, you can spread the icing on using a butter knife. You can still make the cupcakes pretty using this method, and is especially good if you plan on adding sparkles or chocolate shavings or etc on top of the icing.  I actually went back and added more icing after these photos were taken, and I still have leftover icing in the fridge. I wonder what I shall do with it.. wait, where's that spoon?

I made these for a special Valentines desert for the boyfriend, we enjoyed them, and the leftovers that I took to my office lasted less than an hour (no surprise there).

Chocolate Rice Krispies Squares with Chocolate Chips

Right, so debating on the title for this, boyfriend says they should be "something squared, because its chocolate squared and they're squares"... Sometimes I wonder. Then again, it's not like my title is much better.

Anyways, Australians are strange. They don't know what "Rice Krispies Squares" are, but they have chocolate nests, which are essentially Rice Krispies Treats with chocolate and coconut.  It might also be because the cereal is actually called Rice Bubbles here. Aussies are strange like that, must be all the sun.

Chocolate Rice Krispies Squares with Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup butter

1/4 t vanilla

2 heaping teaspoons cocoa powder

5 cups marshmallows (North American marshmallows are best, European ones don't work at all)

6 cups Rice Krispies

1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Melt butter and marshmallows (over double boiler, or in heat-safe bowl ontop of small saucepan best to avoid burning), adding cocoa powder and stirring well.
2. Add vanilla, rice krispies and chocolate chips
3. Stir until well coated
4. Pat into well buttered pan.
5. Allow to set at least 2 hours, I usually refrigerate overnight.
6. Before serving, cut into appropriate squares or rectangles, can be placed in wax paper or cupcake papers for a prettier presentation.

While the actual recipe I based this on was the Rice Krispies Squares recipe my mum wrote down in my recipe book, I'm pretty sure she got it off the back of the cereal box, so for the original (non-chocolate recipe) and a few others, check out the Rice Krispies website:  http://www.ricekrispies.com/ to find their "Original Rice Krispies Treats" recipe.  The bonus to this recipe, Rice Krispies will keep FOREVER in your cupboard.  Even after the expiry date, they still make good desserts.  Err, I mean, don't eat expired food.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bowl coated with melted marshmallow to lick wash clean.

Nanaimo Bars

This is actually a recipe I made back in July, and unless you're Canadian, you've probably never heard of Nanaimo bars... but rest assured, they're worth the effort.  Funny story - I hate dessicated coconut, it makes me feel sick - it makes my throat scratchy and sore - but I love these things.  Since they make me sick, it's a nice 'safe' treat to have around because I'm guaranteed not to eat too many.

Regardless, these are a Canadian institution - the recipe is said to have originated in Nanaimo, British Columbia (near Vancouver).  This recipe, in fact, is from the City of Nanaimo's website.  I browsed through a whole bunch of recipes online and decided this one was the easiest and would probably be the tastiest. It turned out really well, so here goes, try it and enjoy.

Nanaimo Bars
Bottom Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 T cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cup graham wafer crumbs*
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds (optional)**
1 c coconut (dessicated)

Second Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 T + 2 t cream
2T vanilla custard powder
2 cup icing sugar

Third Layer
4 sq (4 oz) semi-sweet chocolate
2 T unsalted butter

Bottom Layer

1. Melt Butter, sugar and cocoa in double boiler.
2. Add egg and stir, allow to thicken while cooking.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in crumbs, coconut and nuts.
5. Press into greased 8" x 8" pan (I used a pie dish, but a square dish would be best)

Second Layer

1. Cream butter, cream, custard powder and icing sugar using beaters or a food processor until light.
2. Spread over bottom layer in dish.

Third Layer

1. Melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring frequently to mix.
2. Set aside to cool.
3. Once cooled but still viscous, pour over second layer.
4. Place dish in fridge to cool for several hours.
5. Once cooled, slice into bars, optionally wrapping in cupcake wrappers or wax paper.

* In Australia, they don't seem to have graham crackers or graham crumbs, so I bought some Marie biscuits instead - anything in a plain, sweet biscuit should do.  Just put the cookies in a bag and break them up with a rolling pin, bottle or sheer determination.
** I'm gonna be honest, I almost always leave nuts out of recipes. I'm not a big fan, and when I'm baking for others I'm always paranoid I'm going to hospitalize someone with a nut allergy (although, they probably should ask what they're eating first, so....)

You might notice, poking out from under the half finished pie, my satchel of Weight Watchers custard powder.  That makes it healthy, right?  Seriously though, Australia is weird about ingredients sometimes - not only do they not have graham cracker (or even know what they are), but they don't have powdered custards like I'm used to.  Sure, you can go to the dairy aisle and find a wide variety of custards in milk cartons... but if you want it powdered? You're SOL.  They don't even have Jello pudding powder.  Or Jello of any sort (it's Aeroplane jelly here).  

Poor Bill Cosby would be so sad here - no Jello pudding?

Chocolate-Filled Biscuits

So I was at Costco a few weeks ago, and if you bought a box of 4 bottles of Wyndham Estates red wine (which is delicious) it came with a free Donna Hay Simple Essentials cookbook. And I love cookbooks. And wine. So, yay!

And since I try to bring a new and different baked good to the office every week, this week I tried something new out of the cookbook.  These are tiny cookies though. It's hard to see it... but they're SOOOOO tiny. And delicious.

Chocolate-Filled Biscuits
Biscuits
65g (2 1/4 oz) cold butter, chopped
1/4 cup (40g, 1 1/2 oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar -- sifted
1/2 cup (75g, 2 1/2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 1/2 t cornflour (cornstarch)
1 T cocoa powder
1 egg yolk

Chocolate Ganache (make half this recipe, and you'll have plenty leftovers)
1 1/2 cups (375 mL, 12 fl oz) cream (single or pouring)
340 g (12 oz) finely chopped dark chocolate


Chocolate Ganache (Make this first)

1. Heat cream in small saucepan over medium heat and bring to boil.
2. Remove from heat and stir in dark chocolate.
3. Let melt, then stir until glossy and smooth (and delicious!).
4. Set aside to cool.

Biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Put butter, icing sugar, flour, cornflour, cocoa and egg yolk in food processor (I used hand blenders, would have been better in a food processor). Mix until soft dough forms
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
4. Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls, place on baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and flatten slightly.
5. Bake 5-7 minutes until bases are lightly cooked.
6. Cool on trays.
7. Sandwich biscuits with chocolate ganache.

(makes 22)

My thoughts on this recipe:

Firstly, I have never actually sifted ingredients. Apparently you need to own a sieve to do this, and I don't. Generally I don't notice a difference, however with the icing sugar it does make a difference. My icing sugar was a bit hard so even after mixing it was a bit chunky and I ended up with biscuits that had little white 'chunks' in it of icing sugar.  Tasted good - looked nasty. 

Secondly, even with the halving of the recipe, I still have a bowl with most of the ganache leftover sitting in my fridge, I'm still not sure what to do with it.  

Third,  I'd highly recommend doubling the biscuit recipe - I ended up with only like... 15 cookies?  I think mine were a bit bigger than they were supposed to be, even though I actually used a teaspoon to measure them out. I think it was a combination of my butter not being cold enough and my oven not heating evenly. 

Anyways, these were delicious, and my office mates had many compliments :D

Mexican Chocolate Cake with Chilli Ganache

I like weird recipes.  This is a true story.  From banana burgers to steak with balsamic strawberry glaze to double white chocolate and pretzel peanut butter cookies with sea salt. I really like weird recipes.  Especially things that combine sweet and savoury, or involve otherwise unusual flavour combinations.

To that effect, I was just so excited when I stumbled across a recipe for some "Sweet Heat" in the June 2011 issue of Super Food Ideas magazine, I was ecstatic.  It seemed to be the perfect baking idea for my weekly writing group.  I try to bring a new treat each week, so I asked around and borrowed a round cake pan (shock and horror, I don't own one!) and got to shopping.

I wish I had a photo of this cake, but it disappeared far too quickly. (Edit: hey, I found a photo. It's not very exciting, in fact... it's a cake on my desk covered in saran wrap. Anyway. It's a picture.)  However, the comments I got were very positive. People were surprised by the gentle heat of the ganache and the spices in the cake.  I also learned that 'ganache' means icing.  I learn something new every day.  Ok enough of the rambling, check out this cake recipe.

Mexican chocolate cake with chilli ganache

Cake
180g dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup sour cream
250g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cardamom
dark chocolate curls, to serve


Chilli Ganache
180 dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup sour cream
1 t honey
1/2 t ground chilli (hot)


Preparing the Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced (~350F).
2. Grease 8 1/2" (22cm) round cake pan, line base and sides with baking paper.
3. Put chocolate and sour cream in heat proof, microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave on MED-HI (75%) for 2 mins, stirring with a metal spoon ever 30s or until smooth.  Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add 1 egg at a time, beating well.
5. Add chocolate mixture, beat until just combined (~1 minute).
6. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture gradually, stirring with a wooden spoon until just combined.
7. Pour into pan and smooth top.
8. Bake for 1 hour 25 minutes or until skewer comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it.  Allow to cool in pan (~10 minutes) before turning out onto wire rack.

Ganache

1. Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on MED-HI (75%) for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds with a metal spoon or until smooth.
2. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes, or until spreadable.  Spread on cake. Top with curls.

My cake came out pretty lumpy on top, which is pretty typical. Our oven rack sits on a slant and our oven distributes heat unevenly.  These things happen.  I'm told that to counteract this, you should simply take a sharp knife and slice off the 'wobbly bits' on top.  I didn't think to try that until after I'd spread the ganache on.  Or, to prevent it, turn your oven down.  I'm told turning it down by 25F should 'eliminate the hump' (thanks Jen, excellent terminology).  Apparently this is what them fancy professional-type bakers will do.

A few side notes to this recipe:  

First - oh my god this is good and I don't even like chocolate cake all that much, or cake in general.  

Second - I didn't add the chocolate curls, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I was sharing it at the office so the garnish seemed silly.  I don't do garnish. My cooking is not very pretty.

Third - don't be afraid of the chilli.  The amount of hot chilli called for in the recipe does not make it 'spicy', it gives it a slow and smoky burn that is completely tolerable (and pleasant) even to people who have no tolerance for spicy foods. I know the next time I make this recipe, I will probably double the chilli, but I couldn't tell you how that will work out, yet.  If you're using regular chilli powder, I would suggest using maybe 3/4 t instead of 1/2 t.... By the way, "t" is teaspoon, "T" is tablespoon. 

Enjoy :)