National Dessert Day + Florentine Chocolate Bars

Last Thursday, October 14th, was National Dessert Day.  To celebrate the day, I baked several things:

Chocolate Pecan Biscotti • Carole Bloom - intensely chocolate

Florentine Shortbread bars • Fine Cooking Magazine

Lemon Drop Cookies • my recipe

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes • my recipes

The Florentine Shortbread Bar were "sick".  These bars are so good, that I couldn't decide it they were a cookie, a candy or a pastry.  They were  all that, wrapped into one.  I love a good Florentine cookies and have been known to make Rose Levy Beranbaum's from time to time.  I think it is the caramel aspect of it all.  Caramel is my 5th food group.  So, if I see caramel anything on a menu I am sure to order it.  Finding a recipe with a caramel element, is no different.

In honor of National Dessert Day, I salute all of you chefs, bakers, home cooks, cookbook authors, and fellow food bloggers who continue to inspire me and motivate me to get into my kitchen pretty much seven days a week!

Chocolate Drizzled Florentines
adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine
yield: about 60 pieces (depending upon how you cut them)

ingredients:
for the dough
14 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups ( 1lb. 5oz.) all-purpose flour

for the topping
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 Tbls. light corn syrup
7 oz. unsalted butter
3/4 cup honey
1 cup heavy cream
17 oz. sliced blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup chopped dried apricot
3 oz. each semisweet chocolate + bittersweet chocolate

instructions:
make the dough:
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, zest, sugar, and salt and beat until light and fluffy.  add the egg, scraping down the side of the bowl after mixing.
• add the flour, in three batches, mix until well blended.
• form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.  chill for 1 hour.
• preheat oven to 350*.
• line a jelly roll pan with heavy duty foil.  butter the foil and set aside.
• between two pieces of parchment, roll the dough to 1/4" thick.  remove the top layer of the parchment from the dough and flip it into your prepared pan.  once in the pan, remove the second sheet of parchment and with your fingers or with the palm of your hand, spread dough so it evenly rests inside the sheet pan.  make sure to get it into the corners of the pan.
• chill until firm.
• lay a piece of parchment on top of the chilled dough.  set a second jelly roll pan on top of the parchment lined dough (this is a better method than using pie weights) and press gently.  the second sheet pan acts as a weight, creating a very even crust when baked.
• bake for 20 minutes and then remove the foil and the sheet pan and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
• cool completely on a wire rack.

for the topping:
• in a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water and bring to a boil.  cook until the mixture becomes amber in color.
• the recipe in the magazine says 350* on your candy thermometer.  yet, I found that cooking it until about 315-320* was perfectly amber in color.  my was starting to smell "burnt" at this point, so I removed it from the heat.
• carefully add the butter and the honey, return to heat and stir until dissolved.
• bring the mixture back to a boil and carefully add the heavy cream ( it will bubble and this is very hot sugar, so be careful not to burn yourself).
• boil the mixture until it reaches 250* on a candy thermometer.
• remove from the heat and stir in the almonds and dried apricots.
• quickly pour the hot caramel over the cooked baked sugar cookie crust.  spread mixture evenly with a greased, off set spatula.
• bake until the top begins to bubble, about 20-25 minutes.
• let cool completely. once cool remove from pan and cut into desired size pieces.
• set cut Florentine bars on 2 parchment lined cookie sheets.
• melt both chocolates on top of a double boiler.  once melted add about a tablespoon of corn syrup.
• fill a pastry bag fitted with a very small tip, with the warm chocolate.  pipe chocolate onto cookies in whatever pattern you desire.
• set on wire racks so chocolate can set ( you may have to stick in the fridge for a bit).

Enjoy these bars!

Not your typical "bakery" cookie

I had a little bit of both chocolate butter cream (from here) and the dulce de leche butter cream (from here) left over, from last weeks creations.  If you know me, I don't throw much away.  My tomatoes almost gone bad turns into tortilla soup, at the end of the week, my veggie drawer turns into either a stir fry or a big hearty vegetable soup and if I have either (or both) zucchinis and leeks, I make an orzo, a farro salad or some some sort of fritter.

I am a planner.  I make lists, I plan a weeks worth of meals and shop accordingly (actually, Miguel shops accordingly- with a typed up list, broken down by market) and I always cook with the mind set that there needs to be something left over for lunch the next day.  Yeah, Miguel brown bags it!  However, I am guilty of not always following through with my "weekly meal plan" and there are those rare occasions where we call up Mulberry Pizza and order a huge pie.

So, when I had this left over butter cream sitting in the fridge, I couldn't toss it.  I found the perfect cookie to  embrace two very different butter creams.  We brought these to dinner at friends and all enjoyed them as we ate in their Sukkah, under a sky filled with lots and lots of stars.

Orange Rosettes
adapted from here

yield: 2 dozen sandwich cookies

ingredients:
12 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
zest from 2 oranges
1 Tbls. orange juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch

instructions:
• preheat oven to 325*.  line 2 baking sheets with parchment
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, confectioner's sugar and the orange zest until smooth.
• add the orange juice and the vanilla.
• in a small bowl, combine the salt, flour, and cornstarch.  whisk to combine.  slowly add it to the mixer and combine thoroughly.
• place dough in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.  pipe small, one inch rosettes onto the parchment lined cookie sheets.
• bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
• allow to cool completely.
• pipe a small amount of butter cream on a rosette and make small rosette cookie sandwiches!

Giveaway Winner!

I want to thank all of you for commenting and sharing your favorite cookie recipes with me.  It was so fun reading all your comments and all your stories about cookie memories.  I wish I had a set of these wonderful measuring cups and measuring spoons for all of you, but I only have one.  And, we have a winner:

Jocelyn is the winner!  I love and adore my set of spoons and measuring cups and I know she will as well.   I am so excited to give her package of goodies.  I am including a batch of one of my FAVORITE cookie along with the white, porcelain set.  I have been making Oatmeal Cookies since I was 10 years old ( a very long time ).  Originally I only made Oatmeal - Raisin ( recipe from the back of the Quaker oats box ).  Over the years, I have created other combos and recently I have experimented with alternative flours, sugars and have added really good bittersweet chocolate to the dough.  I feel, I have come up with a winning combo.  

I love these cookies and so do my kids.  They have no idea that they are made with alternative ingredients. 

Jury is still out!  Let's see how Jocelyn feels about them!

ENJOY!!!

Red, White + Blue Cookies

The kids have been begging to do a lemonade stand.  We had planned on doing one last weekend, but when the weekend rolled around, each of my kids were off with friends and out of the house.  Which, actually, was lovely for me!

This Sunday is the 4th of July and what better day to organize a lemonade stand than on a national holiday?  We have also decided to make it a for charity.  All of the money that we make will be going to Share our Strength.  This is a wonderful organization that works really, really hard to make sure that no child in America grows up hungry. The kids are working hard on posters to "promote" our little endeavor and I have sent emails to all of our neighbors and friends.  The response has been overwhelming so I have already started baking!

I have started with a simple butter cookie, but added a theme.  The kids and some of their friends sampled the broken ones and I have been given the thumbs up!

Colored butter cookie sandwiches
yield: 65 sandwich cookies

ingredients:
cookies
1 lb. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
splash of vanilla
5 cups all-purpose flour

filling
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
dash of vanilla
1-2 Tbls. milk

instructions:
cookie
• beat sugar until creamy.  add sugar and beat on medium high heat until smooth. add the salt and a dash of vanilla. scrape down sides of the bowl.
• I didn't do this, but if you are going to color your batter, divide the dough in half ( weigh it to get equal amounts) and add your food coloring here.  mix thoroughly.  then add the additional color to the other half of the dough.  this was an after thought for me.  I added the food coloring after I added all my flour.  big mistake.  I feel your colors will be much more consistent and true if you do it this way.
• add the flour, a little at a time until all is Incorporated and your dough starts to come together.
• drop your mixture onto a floured surface and form into a disc.  refrigerate for about 15 minutes.  don't let your dough get too firm, otherwise it will be crumbly when you roll it.
• roll your dough to 1/8" thickness on a floured surface.  cut out 1 1/2" circles.  I got around 130 circles.
• bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 12-14 minutes. rotate pans, front to back and top to bottom, half through the baking time.
• let cool on baking sheet and then once cooled remove to a wire rack.
filling
• beat butter until smooth.  add sugar and mix until creamy.  add vanilla, mix.  add milk until you get the consistency you desire.  set aside

if you are filling the cookies, these are best eaten within hours.  however, the actual cookie themselves can be stored in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for up to a month.

Triple Chocolate Triangels

If you want to a crowd, a huge crowd, these are the cookies for you!  I stumbled upon this recipe last week as I was reading some of my older issues of Donna Hay Magazines.  There was a whole series of holiday cookies, that I remember reading about, but neglected to experiment with.  What I loved most about this recipe, aside from the taste, was that it had so few ingredients.  I have a feeling that this batter can be made into a plethora of combinations!

Triple Chocolate Triangles
adapted from Donna Hay Magazine
yield approximately 48 triangles

ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, room temp
2 1/2 cups (440g) brown sugar
1 Tbls. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups (450g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
125g dark chocolate, chopped
125g white chocolate, chopped
125g milk chocolate, chopped
(I used more chocolate than the original recipe and I used callebaut )

instructions:
• preheat oven to 355*.  place butter, sugar + vanilla in a the bowl of an electric mixer and beat 8-10 minutes, until pale and creamy. gradually add eggs, beating until combined.  add flour and baking powder until a smooth dough forms.
• add the chocolate and mix to combine.  press the dough into a lightly greased 12" x 16" jelly roll pan, lined with parchment.
• bake 25-30 minutes until golden.  allow to cool completely and then cut into 24 squares, then cut each square into triangles.

Orange Macaroons w/White Chocolate Ganache

I have an over abundance of egg whites at this very moment.  I made a bunch of ice box doughs and the recipes called for yolks, thus left over egg whites.

Earlier this week I used a few to make Eli a Spanish omelet for breakfast.  I had some left over potatoes + onions from the previous nights roasted chicken.  The chicken was infused with a whole lemon, sage leaves, rosemary leaves and garlic.  Plus, the onions/potatoes were covered with the left over fat from the pan.  The smell was intoxicating.  I quickly sauteed the veggies then added  3 egg whites to one whole egg, scrambled it up and poured it over the veggies.  I made this before my 7:30 a.m. yoga class so I didn't taste it.  Yet I knew it would be delicious.

I aged a few of these egg whites to make macaroons.  I wasn't really sure what flavor I was going to make until I realized I had a bunch of citrus zest in the freezer.  I settled on an orange flavored macaroon with a white chocolate ganache.

I used  Helene's original macaroon recipe from our macaroon cooking class ( recipe here).  That was a fun night.  I added about a teaspoon of grated orange zest to the sugar mixture.  I rubbed it together with my fingers and after about 30 seconds the smell of the zest was oh-so fragrant.

I know that orange and bittersweet chocolate is the obvious combo, but I went for the white chocolate ganache.  This is a very delicious filling and I use it quite a bit as a cream filling for cookie sandwiches.  The longer it stays in the fridge, the better it is.

These were delicious and well received.  I am going to prep some more egg whites for some hazelnut/espresso macaroons with espresso butter cream!

White Chocolate Ganache
adapted from Gourmet Magazine 

ingredients:
1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 Tbls. light corn syrup
6 oz good white chocolate
1 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temp
1 tsp. vanilla

instructions:
• put heavy cream and corn syrup in a small sauce pan.  warm to just before the boiling point
• add white chocolate, stir to blend
• add butter and vanilla, mix completely
• cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge for at least an hour
• remove from fridge and mix with a hand mixer until fluffy and thick.

to assemble: put 1 tsp. of ganache in the center of one macaroon.  place second mac on top and press gently.  let macaroons rest in the fridge over night.

packed a bunch up for teachers and friends...

Sables - 2 flavors, 1 dough

These are my new faves.  Sables are as abundant in France as the chocolate chip cookie is in the good 'ole US of A.  Sables are a glamorous shortbread.  And boy do I love a good shortbread.

This dough is so versatile.  The main dough can be altered to create many different flavors and tastes.  Today I made a simple hazelnut dough and a lemon - almond dough.  These cookies are so light, but don't break when you bite into them.  They hold their shape and bake easily.  And...the dough can be shaped, rolled and frozen.  My kind of dough.

Sables
Baking From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

ingredients:
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large egg yolks
2 cups all purpose flour
sanding sugar for rolling


instructions:
• working with a standing mixer and a paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium speed.  add the sugars, & salt and beat until blended, this mixture should be smooth and velvety.
• reduce mixer speed to low and add the egg yolks until well blended
• add flour and pulse a few times until you don't see any flour left in the bowl.  if it feels like play-doh it is done.
• scrape dough out on to a slightly floured work surface and shape into a ball.  divide the ball in half.
• shape each ball into a 9" log.  wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
to bake
• preheat oven to 350*.  line baking sheet with silpat mats.
• unwrap one of the logs (keep the others in the fridge). brush the log with one egg yolk that has been whisked.  immediately roll the log in sugar.
• slice the log into 1/3" thick cookies, place on prepared cookie sheet, leaving some space between each cookie.
• bake for 17-20 minutes, rotating the pans, front to back and top to bottom at the half way point.  they should be golden around the edges and pale on top.
• let cookies cool on racks.


variations:
• replace 1/2 cup of your flour with a nut of your choice.
• add the zest of a lemon to your sugar mixture before adding to the creamed butter.

the G's got a box of both the lemon and the 

hazelnut along with a bag of "crack" cookies!

Macaroon Testing

With Passover a week away, I wanted to try a few new macaroon recipes.  I had come across this recipe from Michael's restaurant (Santa Monica) and since I have always loved the food at the restaurant, I felt the cookies would be almost fool proof (recipe here).

These macaroons are the the Christian Louboutin's of macaroons.  These are so good that everyone I made them for all told me the same thing... "I, generally, don't like macaroons, much less coconut, however these are the best  I have ever eaten".  I may have to agree.  These cookies elicit only one response - eyes rolling in the back of your head, ultimately shutting, chewing slowly and savoring every morsel!

The first batch I made, they spread so much and didn't keep their shape.  Although they tasted fabulous, I was really bummed out.  I made a second batch and refrigerated the dough overnight.  I really think this helped.  Along with the coconut and the sugar, the recipe calls for melted butter, honey and apricot preserves (pureed).  By putting the batter in the fridge, the melted butter has an opportunity to come back to a solid.  Just an assumption, however, I think it is necessary.

Whether you like coconut or not, make these.  I also made a batch with mini bittersweet chips.  Mmm Good!

Oreo-ettes

I had about 2 cups of buttercream left over from Eli's birthday cupcakes.  Each time I opened the fridge door (which is probably about 50 times per day) the buttercream stared me in the face.  I couldn't waste it.  I thought about making more cupcakes as I still had extra sour cream.  But who was I going to give 2 dozen cupcakes to?  I am sure many of my friends would have volunteered to take them off my hands.  Yet, I just made them and wasn't in the mood to do it again.  Also, it is not like I could make  and freeze them.  Cupcakes are not meant to be frozen.  They are meant to be eaten almost immediately when taken out of the oven.  So that wasn't going to work.

Oreos. My kids love oreos but I won't buy them.  Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on a package of oreos?  No thanks.  I flipped through a few books and then did a little internet search.  I found a chocolate wafer cookie on the Smitten Kitten website.  She's a fellow blogger and happens to do it really well, way better than me.  I used her recipe (here) for the cookie base, but then used my buttercream for the centers.

These are pretty good.  Still not what I am looking for.  I want something a little less crispy and something a little cakier?  I may have to create my very own take on the perfect oreo.

In a pinch, these are good.  I know they will go over well for both the Purim basket as well as their bake sale.

Oatmeal cookies with a twist

I am on a mission to create really good cookie doughs that can be preshaped and frozen.   I want to fill up my freezer with lots and lots of different flavors of cookie dough.  This way, whenever I need dessert in a pinch, I don't have to stress.


I have also been recruited to make cookies each week for both religious school and the hebrew school.  Rather than making cookies each week, I want to have these doughs prepared and ready to bake (this way I don't have to be responsible for actually baking them each week).  Having the pre-made doughs, perfectly shaped with instructions on the packaging makes this simple enough that anyone could bake off the cookies.


I found this recipe on a website I don't really use that often, About.com (recipe here).  I have an oatmeal base that I think is kind of perfect.  I should have just used my favorite recipe.  This was not a great one for me.  My kids really liked them, but I wasn't crazy about it.  

Next time, I will make my favorite base and then add the toffee, maybe some coconut and some sort of dried fruit.  

Black & Orange - Happy Halloween!!!

We love Halloween! Every year we do our annual neighborhood "thing" and this year I hosted. Some years it's lasagna, other years it has been chili, but this year we went with a baked ziti, Caesar salad, garlic bread pizza and veggies. It's fun to have everyone over. It is fun to get out the decorations and it is fun to see all the kids in costume.

The vibe was definitely different this year. All of the adults were sitting at one table and the kids were all sitting at another table. I was amazed and surprised at how "calm" all the kids were behaving. In the past, it was a sea of children - all shapes and sizes - screaming and running, acting all crazy and out of control. This year, they were sitting there, eating their food and actually having conversations, laughing and listening to one another. It was quite remarkable. Sadly, they are growing up. Regardless of their age, they still got into the spirit of the holiday.

I had been wanting to make black and white cookies, again, after my disastrous attempt in late June. I had found some recipes on the Internet that looked decent and was already to try them when I stumbled upon a recipe in Desserts by the Yard (Sherry Yard). After reading the recipe, I was sold. After tasting the end result I felt complete. This is the PERFECT cookie recipe with the PERFECT (alas!) glaze. When I was frosting the cookies I knew these were the one. It was love at first sight (and bite) and for me, there is no turning back.

I made this ultimate classic recipe "black & orange" in the spirit of Halloween.

ingredients:

cookie

1 cup cake flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

6 oz. unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg, room temp

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

vanilla/chocolate icing

2 1/2 cups plus 1 tsp confectioner's sugar

1 Tbls. light corn syrup

2 Tbls. hot water

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line baking sheets with parchment

2. Sift together flour, cake flour, & baking powder

3. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar at med speed until fluffy. Scrape sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and mix.

4. In 2-3 additions, beating on low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Incorporate.

5. I made small cookies and used a small ice cream scooper. Leave a few inches between each cookies.

6. Bake for 8 minutes, rotate pan and bake for another 4-6 minutes until the edges are slightly brown. Cool cookies and then transfer to a wire rack.

7. When cool, ice cookies. Mix conf. sugar, corn syrup, water and vanilla until smooth. I used a little more of each ingredient to get the right consistency. In a separate bowl, melt chocolate over a pan of simmering water. When melted add half of the white frosting to the chocolate and mix.

These would also be cute at the holidays. Blue and white or green and red. These are super yummy!

Lots of left over egg whites!

I have wasted way too many left over egg whites in the past few months and I wasn't about to do it again.

After my ice cream bonanza last week, I found myself left with 6 egg whites. I have been wanting to make meringues and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home To Yours seemed to have a few good recipes. I ended up choosing the Cocoa Almond Meringues. As you all know, I love chocolate, so this was the obvious choice. Plus, it was something super easy and I could whip them up before starting dinner. These are really the lazy mans cookie. After baking at a certain temperature, you pop the oven down 100 or so degrees and they sit in there for 1 hour. The perfect end of the day task for someone as obsessed with baking as myself.

Everyone loved them except Isaac. He is somewhat hard to please. He sometimes prefers a bag of Doritos to a cookie. Too bad, I don't keep that crap in the house, because if I did, it would be all he would eat.

Snickerdoodles

I was perusing through a few of my favorite blogs and I came across Tartelette's blog entry for snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches.

What intrigued me about the cookie recipe is that once the dough is made and chilled it gets rolled similar to a sugar cookie. I had always made snickerdoodles as a drop cookie. I was curious as to how this one would play out. As I was the official snack mom for Isaac's basketball game on Saturday, the snickerdoodle seemed like a perfect snack for a group of 9 & 10 year old boys.

I had woken up early on Saturday morning and one of my first thoughts was to do them as a drop cookie. However, when it came down to it, I wanted to honor the recipe. I liked this cookie taste ( I think the cream of tartar helped in the flavor department), but I was somewhat disappointed with the outcome. I like my snickerdoodle (when fully baked) to have those cracks and crevices all over the top. These did not have that. I like to see where the cinnamon and sugar are hiding out. These weren't as chewy as I normally would have liked, but neither my kids, Isaac's teammates, his coach or the kids friends complained.

Guess I did something right! Plus - lots of our friends benefited from doubling the recipe.

Beach Camp & Mexican Wedding Cookies

Tomorrow, Friday 7/10 is "Mexican Fiesta" day at the kids camp. Eli thought it would be a fabulous idea to make Mexican Wedding Cookies for the ENTIRE camp.

I am a sucker and couldn't say no. However, the deal is, I make the batter and he has to roll them out prior to baking! We will see if he lives up to his end of the bargain.

My favorite Mexican wedding cookie recipe is from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas cookie Book.

Enjoy!

BAKING WITH AMANDA

Today I had the luxury of spending the day with Amanda. Amanda was Isaac's T.A. in his kindergarten class (2006-2007). Our entire family adopted her and she remains a big part of our family. Amanda is now living in Memphis, getting her teaching credentials, so when she does come into town, we scoop her up.

Amanda loves my treats. However, today I had nothing to offer. We decided to bake together (so fun!). After picking Levi up from pre-school and the boys from beach camp, we didn't have tons of time. We picked something we could whip up quickly. After sifting through a few books, we decided on marble cookies from Elinor Klivans The Big Fat Cookie Book.

Looking at the photos in the book, this cookie looked more like a crispy cookie. However, when baked, ours were flatter and more cake like. I was hoping for a crispy cookie. Hence, neither Amanda nor the kids complained. My kids were just happy to have cookies in the cookie jar!

Molasses Ginger Cookies

I was surfing through Tastespotting and found a really sweet blog by what appears to be a very sweet 17 year old.  I mostly like to peruse Tastespotting for the photography, however sometimes I do get inspired by the recipes.

This cookie recipe inspired me.  She called them "Gingersnaps".  However, all the critics in my home called them "Molasses Goodness".

I loved the use of canola oil rather than butter in these cookies.  I rolled the dough in Turbinado sugar, which is a raw, brown sugar (it's delicious).  The dough is not like a normal cookie dough; dry and dense.  This dough is very wet and slippery.  Hence, easy to work with.  These were yummy right out of the oven.

Myself and another mom of a 5th grader had been working tirelessly on the "5th grade memory book". We were nearing the end of our journey and we both agreed that we needed someone to proof the book. We called another mom whom we knew would step up to the challenge.  Well, not only did she step up, but her 17 year old, high school graduate did as well.  They were our life savers!  They could not go unnoticed. What better way to thank them than with a freshly baked box of molasses, chewy cookies!

I will be making these cookies over and over again!

Macaroon Mania

I lied.  I said in my last entry that I wasn't going to bake anything else for Passover.  Well, I did.  I made these Raspberry Chocolate French Macaroons.  

I have been wanting to make these little pillows of heaven for sometime now, but have been somewhat intimidated.  I decided to go for it.  I read several blogs and websites which were a wealth of information and each had lots and lots of very good advice.  One of the best tidbits of info was to pre-draw the 1" circles directly onto the parchment.  I did just that.  I made an 11" template and traced the circles and then flipped over the parchment before piping my batter into little mounds.

However, I did have some difficulty with this process. First of all I used too big of a tip.  Too much batter oozed out, enabling me from making perfect "type A" mounds.  I had to let it go and just hope for the best.

Secondly, only one of the three cookie sheets that I had baked came out perfectly.  This particular tray of cookies didn't crack.  The other trays cracked and caved in, they were a disaster (sort of).

Also, I couldn't find raspberry extract.  I substituted orange flavoring and instead of making the cookies "pinkish" I made them more of a light orange.  Lastly, I really didn't like the ganache filling.  It was way too heavy and wasn't what I had imagined in my head.

All in all, I was not crazy about this recipe.  I am going to peruse other blogs as well as the Internet and see what turns up.  I am going to attempt these again.  They are way more easy than they appear and the upside to this whole experience is that  all three kids got involved.  

Both Eli and Isaac wanted to pipe their own designs and they had lots of fun with the not so perfect macaroons as well as the left over ganache.

Eli made a big crepe like shape and Isaac made "Sponge Bob" as he so adoringly called him.  Eli got super creative with his masterpiece and ate every last morsel.  Isaac, on the other hand, went for the simplest of treats, a chocolate covered strawberry.  It was a fun evening shared with two of my favorite people. 

HOLY MACAROON

Each year, for Passover, I make macaroons.  For the past few years I have been making the same 

macaroon ( Martha Stewart Living Magazine) recipe, but this year I wanted to try something different.  Not that I don't like the old favorite,  I wanted to experiment.

I was reading some food blogs on Tastespotting and I read this fabulous blog ( I didn't bookmark and now can't find it-sorry)  that inspired me to take out my very, very old Joy of Cooking cookbook.  After I found the recipe that I was hunting for, I starting recipe surfing.  I stumbled upon some coconut macaroons that were oh so easy.  I whipped up a batch.  

They were DELICIOUS on their own, however I wanted to mix it up a bit.  I made a simple chocolate glaze with some bittersweet chocolate, diluted espresso and some butter.  

I made such a big batch of glaze that the remainder was used to make vanilla bean ice cream sundaes for the kids that evening.  They didn't complain!