Craziness.

That pretty much sums up what’s been going on here lately. Between working, general life stuff, and gardening (read: trying not to kill plants), I’ve spent very little time baking.

I haven’t even used a single stick of butter in the past 3 weeks. Tragic.

Another reason I haven’t been baking sweets could be due to the fact I have a bridesmaid dress fitting approaching rapidly. Yep, that might have something to do with it.

However, I needed a dessert to take to a dinner party so, I settled on toffee nut squares. They have the texture of a chocolate chip cookie bar, but with a toffee-nut flavor and they are a cinch to throw together. They were a hit at the party and disappeared quickly!

Toffee Nut Bars
adapted from Great Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm
2 cups lightly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons medium-fine chopped walnuts, divided
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10″x15″ jelly roll pan.

In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until lightened in color. Add the brown sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, then add the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in three additions. Mix just to incorporate.

Fold in 1 cup of walnuts and the chocolate chips using a rubber spatula. Spread the mixture in the pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts on top.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until the sides are lightly browned. Do not over-bake. Cool for 1 hour, then cut to desired size and shape.

Note: Because I love chewy cookie bars, I under-baked mine by about 3 minutes.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Cookies & Bars, Toffee, walnuts

I wouldn’t call myself a chocolate chip cookie expert, but I’ve tasted many a cookie in my day. And, I have to say, these are by far the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten or baked. They are everything a great chocolate chip cookie should be; slightly crisp on the outer edges with a soft, chewy center. The chocolate chip to cookie ratio is perfect. I hate nothing more than to taste a chocolate chip cookie with only 2 chocolate chips. Kinda defeats the purpose, don’t you think?

Although these cookies do require some planning ahead (they have to chill out in the fridge for 6 hours), they are well worth the wait. You can also refrigerate them for up to 5 days (in an airtight container) so you can bake a batch whenever the urge hits.

It was all I could do to get the cookie dough from the mixing bowl to the baking sheets. It was quite a struggle. While they were baking, the smell of brown sugar and chocolate was pleasantly wafting through the kitchen and into the rest of the house. Ahh, pure happiness!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups (16 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. The mixture will look light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 5 seconds.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips.

Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for 6 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop out dough in 2-tablespoon-size balls. Shape the dough into perfect balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans once during the cooking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown and the tops start to darken.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack; cool completely.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Tip: Once the cookie dough comes out of the fridge, and the cookies are formed, try to get them in the oven quickly so the dough doesn’t have time to soften. This could cause them to flatten out while baking.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cookies & Bars

Warning: If you are on any kind of diet, you may want to look away.

I first made these bars over the Christmas holidays last year with the intention of blogging about them. Well, let’s just say, they didn’t make it that far. They seemed to disappear before I could get pictures. So obviously I had to bake them again. For the sake of pictures, of course.

The bars look so sinful and taste incredible! They have a blondie type texture with chocolate chunks, carmel pieces, mini marshmallows and butterscotch chips mixed in. And it doesn’t stop there, oh no, right before you bake them, the batter is topped off with even more chocolate, carmel, marshmallows and butterscotch. Oh yeah!

I’m not sure why they are called Rocky Ledge bars but quite frankly, I don’t really care what they are called when they taste as wonderful as they do!

Rocky Ledge Bars
adapted from Martha Stewart

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups packed dark-brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
18 soft caramel-candy cubes, coarsely chopped
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semi-sweet chocolate chunks)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly butter a 9-13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, allowing an overhang on the longer sides. Lightly butter parchment with butter (not overhang).

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking powder; set aside.

Mix butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in flour mixture until just combined, being sure not to over-mix. Fold in half of each of the caramels, marshmallows, butterscotch chips and chocolate.

Pour batter in pan and spread evenly. Distribute the remaining caramels, marshmallows, butterscotch chips and chocolate on top. Bake until golden brown or a cake tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool. Lift out of pan and move to baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set.

Remove the parchment and cut into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temp for up to 1 week.

Note: the original recipe called for white chocolate but I omitted it. If you prefer, add 1 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped, in with the rest of the goodies (1/2 cup in batter, 1/2 cup on top).

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blondies, butterscotch, caramel, chocolate, cookie bars, Cookies & Bars, marshmallow

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was especially exciting as I had never made my own graham crackers before. Part of the challenge was to bake them using Gluten-Free flours. The graham crackers, to me, were much better than store bought!

The second part of the challenge was to make Nanaimo Bars using the graham crackers in the base. I had heard of Nanaimo Bars before, but I had no idea what they were exactly. Boy was I missing out. My goodness, these things are addictive. The bottom layer is made up of coconut, walnuts (or almonds), chocolate and of course, ground graham crackers. The middle layer is what surprised me the most. I was expecting a custard/pudding type filling, not a wonderful vanilla buttercream texture filling. Top it all off with melted chocolate and it just doesn’t get much better that that.

To say the dough was a little sticky would be an understatement. I had flour everywhere when I finished rolling the crackers out. Everywhere.

Now, you can cut out the crackers in any shape you desire, but I was boring and went with round. I tried for some cute fluted edged crackers but those didn’t quite make it. In other words, they were ugly. No worries though, I just made those into the crumbs for the base of the Nanaimo bars.

While I couldn’t find two of the three flours called for, I did find a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour. It seemed to work just as well as the other flours would have.

I’ve posted the recipe below with the adjustment for the flour mix I used. For the recipe using sweet rice flour, tapioca starch and sorghum flour, check out Lauren’s site.

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp All Purpose wheat flour (or GF AP Baking Flour Mix)
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.

2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.

4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.

7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.

8. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time.

9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Have I mentioned these bars can be addictive?!? They are super sweet and a 2″x2″ square was more than enough for me. Luckily they freeze really well and are utterly delicious when they are frozen.

Lauren allowed for any flavor variation but being that I had never tried one before, I opted to stay with the traditional version. After seeing some of the other Daring Bakers outstanding flavor combinations, I will be making these again soon! Take a look at these variations – cappuccino, hazelnut, coconut vanilla bean and cranberry.

Nanaimo Bars
adapted from City of Nanaimo

Bottom Layer:
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See recipe above)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Walnuts or Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer:
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Confectioners’ Sugar

Top Layer:
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:

1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and confectioners’ sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Daring Bakers, Gluten Free, graham crackers, Nanaimo Bars, wafers

Need to warm up? These chewy Dark Chocolate Chipotle Cookies will certainly help. The wonderful dark chocolate taste comes through first, followed closely by the kick of the chipotle. Such a great flavor combination!

The recipe originally comes from Nantucket Cookie Company via the Food Network and it is the January Cookie Carnival recipe. I halved the quanity mainly because I just couldn’t bring myself to use 4 sticks of butter. I tried, I just couldn’t do it. In the end, my hips thank me, I’m sure of it.

The recipe calls for crushed dried chipotle peppers but my grocery store was out (and has been for a while) so I substituted with ground chipotle powder. Being cautious because I didn’t want to make them too spicy, I started with 1/8 tsp and worked up from there, according to taste. The final amount I used was somewhere between 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp. Really accurate, I know. After tasting the cookies, I do think I could have added even more. The taste was very subtle but it added a lot to the overall flavor of the cookies. I plan on trying these again when my grocery store gets the crushed dried peppers in stock.

I recommend trying these warm, right out of the oven, with a glass of milk or some hot chocolate!!

Dark Chocolate Chipotle Cookies
adapted from Food Network (Courtesy of Nantucket Cookie Company)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1/4 for topping
1/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
1 teaspoon crushed, dried chipotle peppers (or Ground Chipotle Chili powder)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons water
4 oz (0.25 lb) high-quality bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup high-quality bittersweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth, scraping sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the sugars, sifted cocoa powder and chipotle peppers and mix at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 1 minute). Add eggs, vanilla and water. Beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the slightly cooled melted chocolate and mix again, scraping the bowl to evenly mix everything.

Add the flour mixture, and mix until well incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and mix briefly (about 5 seconds).

Refrigerate the dough in the bowl until cool and fudge-like, but not solid, for approximately 1 hour. You can use an ice cream scoop to create large, even sized cookies. These cookie-dough balls can also be frozen at this point, and baked right from the freezer whenever the need arises.

When ready to bake, press the tops of the cookie dough-balls into the sugar, and then top with 2 to 3 pieces of dark chocolate chips. Place onto parchment-lined baking sheets, allowing space for the cookies to spread (Note: I did about 4-6 cookies per sheet because they spread out quite a bit). Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven when they are still a little underdone. Slide the parchment paper with the cookies onto a cooling rack and allow to cool before removing from parchment.

Made about 2 dozen large cookies.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chipotle, chocolate, cookie carnival, Cookies & Bars

You know those days where you just need a cookie? Yeah, today was one of those days for me. Naturally the cookie had to include chocolate. I quickly decided on Chocolate and Vanilla Moonstones from Carole Walter’s Great Cookies. Chocolate and vanilla in one cookie? How could I pass it up?

The verdict? Yum. That pretty much sums it up.

I assumed they would be the texture of a sugar cookie, but was pleasantly surprised with a more of a soft, “cakey” cookie. The chocolate flavor wasn’t as sweet as it could be, so next time, in place of the unsweetened chocolate, I will try bittersweet to give it a bit more of a chocolate kick.

You could even tint the dough with vegetable coloring to make all sorts of pretty cookies for any occasion. Holidays, parties, Mondays, you name it!

Chocolate and Vanilla Moonstones
adapted from Great Cookies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm
1 cup superfine sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 teaspoons hot water, divided
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare the cookie sheets by moderately buttering.

In a small bowl, melt the chocolate over hot water. Keep warm.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Set aside.

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl, fitted with paddle attachment) and mix on medium-low speed until smooth. Add the superfine sugar and mix until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until just barely blended.

Reduce the mixer speed to low; add in half of the flour mixture with 2 teaspoons of the hot water. Stop and scrape bowl then add in the remaining flour mixture, mixing until just barely combined.

Measure out about one-third (about 1 cup) of the dough and place it in a separate bowl. With a fork, blend in the remaining 1 teaspoon of hot water. Add the warm melted chocolate and blend until it is fully incorporated with the dough. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes to thicken. The consistency should be similar to the vanilla batter.

Scoop 1/2 teaspoon of each batter and place one on top of the other on the cookie sheet.

Roll each mound of dough into a uniform ball shape and space about 2 inches apart. Just a note, I had to wipe my hands between rolling every couple of cookies because the chocolate residue on my hands was coloring the vanilla dough.

Place the 2 tablespoons of sugar in a flat dish. Dip the heel of your hand into the sugar and flatten the dough into 2 1/2-inch round disks.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the edges just start to brown. Let the cookies stand on the sheets for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 4 dozen 3-inch cookies.

They can be stored for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container, layered between strips of wax paper.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Cookies & Bars, great cookies, vanilla

This months Cookie Carnival recipe is Chocolate Citrus Biscotti (flavored with orange and lemon zest) from Giada De Laurentiis via the Food Network.

I love anything citrus. I can eat all the navel oranges you can put in front of me. In my opinion, Florida grows the best oranges. Of course, I may be a bit biased as I grew up in the middle of a county that is home to approximately 95,050 acres of commercial orange groves. In case you were wondering, that’s a ton of oranges!

Back to the biscotti… This is a recipe I plan on baking again and again. It was absolutely wonderful. I loved the cornmeal texture. It’s something I hadn’t tried before with biscotti. It got even better when dipped in hot coffee. Y-u-m-m-y.

I had my doubts that it would be citrus-y enough for my liking, but I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor. It was just right and they smelled absolutely wonderful as they baked!

A couple of notes:

I found the dough to be really soft when trying to form it into logs. It kept wanting to spread outward. In the end, I had more of a large rectangle rather than a well formed log. It still worked though, they were just a little wider than originally intended.

The recipe says it makes 3 dozen. Somehow, I only came out with about 1 dozen. Probably due to the aforementioned widening of the logs.

On the last round of baking I cut the baking time to 20 minutes instead of 25.

Also, there are a few reviews on Food Network’s site saying the biscotti was extremely hard. I didn’t find it to be that hard. Yes, it was a bit harder than some biscotti I have baked but it wasn’t break-your-teeth hard.

For an extra touch, I chopped some walnuts and sprinkled them on the chocolate before it set.

They are even delicious for breakfast. Not that I had any for breakfast. This is just hypothetically speaking of course….sort of….

Get the recipe: Chocolate Citrus Biscotti

Also, if you haven’t already, check out the Cookie Carnival!

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Biscotti, chocolate, citrus, cookie carnival, Cookies & Bars, lemon, orange

Bonfires always mean one thing to me… S’mores. Yeah, spending quality time with great friends is nice and all… but we’re talking about s’mores here people. Chocolate, graham crackers and toasty marshmallows.

I’m not sure what I enjoy most, toasting the marshmallows (and almost burning them), squishing them between the chocolate and graham cracker or enjoying the ooey-gooey goodness of the whole experience.

Thing is, bonfires don’t work so well indoors. So this is the next best option – S’mores Cupcakes. Toasted marshmallow and a Hershey’s bar section sandwiched between two layers of a graham cracker cupcake.

To make S’mores Cupcakes you’ll need:

Graham Cracker Cupcakes (see recipe link below)
2 huge Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars
16 oz bag of Marshmallows

The graham cracker cupcake recipe is really quite simple to make and the end result tastes so delicious. The recipe comes from Garrett at VanillaGarlic.

Instead of using cupcake liners, I buttered and lightly floured the cupcake pan to get nice even sides.

To assemble the s’mores, first slice the cupcake in half.

Wow, that was hard. Next….

Get your chocolate pieces ready to go by breaking the big Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars in to 8, 2-piece sections per bar. For some reason, I didn’t look at the wrapper to see how many ounces these bars were, but I found them in the candy aisle at the grocery store. They are a lot bigger and thicker than the normal ones that are 1.55 oz. The king size bars are the same thickness as the ones I used, so if you can’t find the big bars, those should work. Also, the cupcake recipe makes 12-14 cupcakes, so you might have a few chocolate squares left over.

To toast the marshmallow, I tried two different ways. For the first try, I cut a few marshmallows in half horizontally and placed them cut side down on a sheet of parchment and set the oven to broil. They took literately seconds to brown on top. A few problems with this method; They browned on the top only and there wasn’t enough marshmallow-to-chocolate ratio on the cupcake. The second try I placed a whole marshmallow on its side. This worked much better as it browned more evenly. You could also use a kitchen torch if you have one. If you toast them in the oven on broil, please be extremely careful. It doesn’t take long (30 seconds, max) for them to go from slightly brown to “OMG! The oven is on fire!!”. Trust me on this one.

Place the chocolate squares on the bottom half of the cupcakes before toasting the marshmallows. That way, the marshmallows are still warm and slightly melt the top of the chocolate. Squish the top half of the cupcake down on the marshmallow just until it starts oozing past the edge of the chocolate square.

Voilà!

Here’s the link to the cupcake recipe in case you missed it: Graham Cracker Cupcakes

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Cupcakes, graham cracker, hershey, hershey's chocolate, marshmallow, S'mores, s'mores cupcakes, Smore cupcakes

This is my first Cookie Carnival recipe! Yummy Black-Bottom Coconut Bars.

I stumbled upon the Cookie Carnival recently and I had to join immediately because as we all know, I love a good cookie. Well, any cookie really. Plus, I figured it would give me a good chance to broaden my cookie horizons and try recipes from different cookbooks/sources.

Lately I’ve kinda been stuck in a Martha Stewart rut. I have both her cookie and cupcake books, which are both completely fabulous, but I find myself turning to them over and over again. So, when I learned the recipe for this months Cookie Carnival, wouldn’t it just figure it’s a Martha recipe. That’s okay though. I’m not complaining one little bit. I think Martha is just super. I’m just not sure how she feels about me though. Or if she knows I exist… which I’m 99% sure she doesn’t. Okay, okay, moving on.

Out of my entire family, only one other person (besides myself) likes coconut. Isn’t that sad? So for this recipe, they’re just out of luck! Which means I get half of the yummy bars to myself. Yay for me, not so much for my waistline.

The bars were great!. They were really great! They made me realize that I don’t bake with coconut enough. I will have to fix that. Soon.

The recipe is relatively simple. No mixers or fancy gadgets, just bowls and a whisk.

Get the recipe here.

If you haven’t already, check out the Cookie Carnival.

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, coconut, cookie bars, cookie carnival, Cookies & Bars

My dear mom’s birthday was earlier this month. I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up a cake at our favorite local bakery or if she wanted something different this year. She gave me very specific instructions…

Cupcakes. Chocolate.

Since the bakery doesn’t have cupcakes (I know, weird isn’t it? They have every dessert, except cupcakes.) I offered to make her some. After some recipe hunting I decided on Devil’s Food Cupcakes. The recipe made somewhere around 32. Thats a lot of cupcakes for a small party so I decided rather than having a ton of cupcakes of the same flavor I would spice things up a bit. Two of her favorite things are coffee and raspberries, so I filled half of the cupcakes with raspberry jam and the other half with an espresso buttercream filling.

I first baked the cupcakes then let them cool completely. While they were cooling I made the espresso filling. The recipe I found was a bit too sweet for me but everyone seemed to love it. I found the recipe here. I had tried different methods of filling cupcakes before so this time I wanted to try to just pipe the filling in. For both fillings, I used a wilton #12 tip, just poked it in and squeezed gently as I pulled upward. I clearly overfilled the first one. It was oozing filling out the sides. That’s okay though, it still tasted good.

For the top of the mocha cupcakes, I made Chocolate Ganache Frosting and topped them with a Starbucks Mocha Truffle. Man those things are good! It was all I could do to put them on the cupcakes, not in my mouth. They can be a bit pricey if you have a lot of cupcakes but I found some on sale for about $3 dollars off. They have other yummy flavors also like espresso, vanilla bean and milk chocolate chai truffles. Update: I just heard that Hershey is no longer producing the Starbucks chocolates. This is very sad news indeed..

Mmmmm… the cupcakes were perfectly moist and the espresso filling with the ganache was to die for. Chocolate paradise!

I frosted the raspberry filled cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I had a minor change of plans with this frosting. I really wanted to use fresh raspberries to flavor it. I bought a container at the grocery store, got home only to realize the middle of the package was completely moldy. So plan B, I took the left over jam and added it by tablespoons until I had the right amount of raspberry flavor. I also dropped in a bit of red food coloring to make it pink because the jam wasn’t really adding much color; it was more of a murky reddish-grayish color.

I’m not sure which was my favorite. I really love mocha, but the raspberry tasted so fresh and summery. I think I will just call it a tie. But the most important part… Mom loved them! As did everyone else.

Recipe Links:

Devil’s Food Cupcakes
Espresso Buttercream Filling
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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© Stormie for BiteSizeBaker.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, Cupcakes, devils food, espresso, mocha, raspberry, starbucks