CARAMEL SANDWICH COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

Today I share three versions of Caramel Sandwich Cookies. The first recipe (top left) is my default (Chocolate Chipotle Cookies that you can find here). The second version (bottom right) was made using Sweetapolita Bakebook recipe for Dark Chocolate Cutout Cookies which I won’t share due to copyright issues. At any rate, as written the recipe is a bit too strong for my taste, I would advise using less dark cocoa powder particularly if you are baking for kids. The lighter cookie (bottom left) is Cinnamon Orange, and the recipe is below.

CINNAMON-ORANGE SUGAR COOKIE
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

1 cup butter (226 g), at room temperature
1 cup sugar (200g)
zest of half a large orange
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1 tsp orange bakery emulsion or orange extract of your choice
575 g all-purpose flour (about 4 cups)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment. Mix the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and set aside. Mix the sugar with the zest rubbing it well to release the oils. Cream the butter with the flavored sugar, just until smooth and combined. Add the agave nectar and continue mixing for a minute or so.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs and orange emulsion. Add to the butter-sugar mixture and mix at low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture on low-speed, until it forms a dough.

Remove the dough from the bowl, cut in two pieces and wrap them in plastic. Refrigerate for one hour, then roll, cut shapes and bake in 350 F oven until golden at the edges, depending on the size of the cookies, 10 to 15 minutes. For these cookies, I used a patterned rolling pin.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Rolling pin available at etsy (click here)

For both chocolate cookies, I used a stamp to create the design on the top portion of the cookie. One of them is available here, the other I could not find any longer, had it for many years.

I have tried two different recipes for caramel filling, but the second one was far better in terms of texture and flavor. You can find it here. I made half the recipe published in the site.

The caramel filling complements quite well both the chocolate and the orange cookies, very versatile, and it has the perfect texture to bite into. I think that embossed rolling pins and springerle-type stamps are a very nice way to embellish sandwich cookies.

ONE YEAR AGO: Miso-Caramel Cracker Cookies

TWO YEARS AGO: Mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival

THREE YEARS AGO: Almond-Raspberry Triangles and a Special Cookbook Review

FOUR YEARS AGO: Sweet and Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

FIVE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower Salad over Hummus

SIX YEARS AGO: Queen of Sheba

SEVEN YEAR AGO: Brunch Burger

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Mango Salsa with Verjus

NINE YEARS AGO: Raspberry Bittersweet Chocolate Chunk Brownies

TEN YEARS AGO: Scary Good Pork Burgers

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Review of exercise program Focus25

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Celebrate Wednesday with a Thai Seafood Curry

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Post-workout Breakfast

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Semolina Barbecue Buns

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Lavash Crackers

12Jul2024

RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES, THREE WAYS

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

This dough will work well for stamps or to roll out thin or thick. Delicious, nice texture, and a very small amount of baking powder to make sure your design will stay nicely imprinted. Embossed rolling pins will be another option, so keep that in mind.

RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES
(slightly modified from Fancy Flours)

1 cup butter at room temperature (226g)
1 + 1/2 cups powdered sugar (170g)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon Red Velvet Emulsion
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed)
1/4 cup melted chocolate chips
3 cups flour (360g)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon dry buttermilk powder
3/4 tsp salt

Mix flour, baking powder, buttermilk powder and salt in a large bowl. Reserve. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Add egg. Mix in red velvet emulsion, vanilla, cocoa, and melted chocolate.

Blend in the dry ingredients reserved. Mix until dough pulls away from the paddle and begins to form a ball. Dust the surface of your counter and rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough to a thickness of approximately 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch. (If your dough is too soft to work with, refrigerate it for an hour or so.

Dust the surface of your dough and your cookie mold with flour. Press the mold into the dough just far enough down to fill the mold cavity. Remove your mold and cut out the cookie. Brush off the excess flour on the top of your cookie. Excess flour will appear white on the surface if not removed.
Place your cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Freeze your cookies for 15 minutes, bake from frozen in a 350F oven until done, depending on the size, 10 to 13 minutes.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

STAMPED RED VELVET COOKIES

Very simple to make, just roll, press the stamp and bake. I bake most of my cookies over a perforated mat. After baking, I sprayed a little bit of PME pearl luster over the surface, but that is optional.

LEMON GANACHE SANDWICH COOKIES.

I rolled them a little thinner, cut circles from half the cookies, and used a bench scraper to create a design on the cookies with a hole in the center. The lemon ganache I used is from this macaron post.

MODERN DESIGN

Cookies were simple rounds. To decorate them, I used compound chocolate spread over chocolate transfer sheets, a method I use often for Chocolate-covered Oreos. Let the chocolate set, cut circles smaller than the diameter of your cookies. Glue the disc to a cooled cookie with a bit of Royal icing or melted chocolate. Below the cookies and a little Chocolate-covered Oreo with the same “outfit”.

I love the texture and flavor of these cookies, and intend to use them often in the future. And guess what? You can also use Royal icing to decorate them! Designs inspired by The Graceful Baker.

ONE YEAR AGO: Lemon Macarons

TWO YEARS AGO: Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

THREE YEARS AGO: Baharat Flower Sourdough

FOUR YEARS AGO: Biscoitinhos de Canela

FIVE YEARS AGO: Salmon Tacos

SIX YEARS AGO: The Chignon

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EIGHT YEARS AGO: Focaccia with Grapes, Roquefort and Truffled Honey

NINE YEARS AGO: Moroccan Carrot Dip over Cucumber Slices

TEN YEARS AGO: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Cilantro-Jalapeno “Hummus”

TWELVE YEARS AGO:A Moving Odyssey

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FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Ancho-Chile Marinade: Pleased to Meat you!

10Jun2024

CHOCOLATE-COVERED OREOS STRIKE AGAIN

Posted in Chocolate Bonbons, Cookies by sallybr

My last round up was back in February (check them out clicking here), so it is time to share the designs I’ve made since the last post. Without further ado, here they are…

One of my favorite ways to decorate is adding discs of chocolate decorated with transfer sheets. It is quite convenient because normally I have some leftover melted chocolate after filing the molds, so I use that to spread a thin layer over the transfer sheet, let it set in the fridge and then cut circles. Those last forever at room temperature, so normally I make them and save them to use the following week.

FLOWERS ON WHITE

FLOWERS ON PINK

STRIPES ON TURQUOISE

SWIRLS ON BROWN

This series had a new technique, I used textured parchment paper to spread the chocolate and after setting, cut circles. I need more practice, it was hard to avoid bubbles, but I got a few to work ok. The background used the tie-dye technique I shared in my previous post about Oreos (link in first paragraph).

TEXTURED CIRCLES ON TIE-DYE BACKGROUND

Moving on, some designs relied on Royal Icing…

GOLD BRUSH EMBROIDERY

MINIMALIST BLACK ON WHITE

LITTLE FONDANT FLOWER

As I always say, making Chocolate-Covered Oreos can be addictive. I am always thinking about the next batch, as I try to make them every single week… I hope you enjoyed this series, and stay tuned for more soon!

ONE YEAR AGO: Sesame-Miso Yakitori

TWO YEARS AGO: Marinated Chickpeas with Slow-Roasted Red Peppers

THREE YEARS AGO: Mini-Pullman Sourdough Bread

FOUR YEARS AGO: Gibassier

FIVE YEARS AGO: Sundried Tomato Twist Bread

SIX YEAR AGO: And now for something completely different….

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Parsnip, Coconut, and Lemongrass Soup

EIGHT YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2016

NINE YEARS AGO: Paleo Moussaka

TEN YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2014

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2013

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Crimson and Cream Turkey Chili

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Taking a break from the nano-kitchen

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Chocolate Chip Cookies

3May2024

A DUET OF SPRINGTIME MACARONS

Posted in macarons by sallybr

The recipe used for the shells is my default that you can find here. Simply divide the batter in three portions and use the colors of your choice. For the Ruby Red Ganache Macarons, I used yellow, green and plain batter. For the Neapolitan Version I used brown, pink and plain. I added a small amount of cocoa powder to the brown component. Decorations were all made with fondant and a silicone mold, later painted with luster powder and vodka.

RUBY RED GANACHE AND JAM MACARONS

220g ruby red chocolate
80g heavy cream
pinch of salt
mixed fruit jam (store bought is fine)

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until bubbles form around the edges. Pour over the chocolate, add a pinch of salt, cover and let sit for five minutes. Whisk gently at first, continue whisking until the chocolate is fully dissolved. If necessary, place in the microwave at 50% power for a minute. Reserve at room temperature for 1 hour or place in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

Fill the shells with a small dollop of jam and a circle of ganache around it. Proceed as normally, keeping macarons overnight in the fridge to mature.

The jam is a nice contrast with the sweetness of the ganache and the shells. We love this brand of jam, or I should say Phil loves it, I don’t eat jam that much, prefer to use it in recipes such as this one…

Moving on…

STRAWBERRY GANACHE MACARONS

230g white chocolate, finely chopped
80g heavy cream
1/4 tsp strawberry natural flavor (I used Olivenation)
a drop of pink food color
1 tbs strawberry jam (store bought is fine)

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until bubbles form around the edges. Pour over the chocolate, cover and let sit for five minutes. Whisk gently at first, continue whisking until the chocolate is fully dissolved, then add the jam. If necessary, place the bowl in the microwave at 50% power for a minute. Reserve at room temperature for 1 hour or place in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

Fill the shells with a small dollop of ganache and keep the macarons overnight in the fridge to mature.

ENJOY!

to print both recipes, click here

Adding a little drop of pink food gel is a good idea, otherwise the ganache tends to have a pale brownish color. Ganache fillings pair well with fruit, so both recipes today take this approach, and they are perfect for Springtime.

ONE YEAR AGO: Fiesta Bakes for Cinco de Mayo

TWO YEARS AGO: Thai-Meatballs Over Wilted Bok-Choy

THREE YEARS AGO: Asparagus with Gunpowder Masala

FOUR YEARS AGO: The Home Bakers Collective, April Project

FIVE YEARS AGO: Asian-Style Eggplant Meatballs

SIX YEAR AGO: Uzbek Flatbread

SEVEN YEARS AGO: First Monday Favorite – Black Sesame FOUR

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Chocolate Orange Mini-Cakes

NINE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, May 2015

TEN YEARS AGO: P90X3, a Review of Tony Horton’s Latest Fitness Program

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Pasta and Mussels in Saffron Broth

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Triple Chocolate Brownies

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Shanghai Soup Dumplings

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Bite-sized Chocolate Pleasure

14Apr2024

RAVIOLI COOKIE, THE SHORTEST PATH TO INSANITY

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

The path is not only short, but also pretty messy. You’ve been warned. For a very long time I’ve flirted with the idea of making a stuffed cookie in the shape of a ravioli, inspired by a gorgeous version from Helen Fletcher’s book Craving Cookies, the Quintessential American Cookie Book. She cuts hers by hand, after enclosing a square of chocolate between two sheets of dough. I decided I was going to impress her (cough, cough) with a different twist: using a ravioli press. What could possibly go wrong? I was so excited about my project that I had already a blog post shaping up in my mind. So, first things first, I took a nice picture of the weapons used in the crime.

I dreamed about my blog post going viral, even if in almost 15 years of blogging nothing has ever came close to it. In fact, viruses avoid me so much that even Covid stays safely away. Still a unicorn after all these pandemic years. Anyhow, I digress. Here is the full outcome of 420g flour, 340g butter, and a good amount of sugar to boot.

Six. Cookies. Six. Half a dozen.

The composite picture below shows the steps right before chaos. In theory, you roll the cookie dough, lay on the mold, add your filling, close with another cookie sheet, smooth everything with the cute rolling pin provided. For the square ravioli, I used Peppermint Bark, cut in four small pieces. They fit so nicely in the allotted space! But that was the last reason I would have to smile for a while…

From that point, all hell broke loose and broke loose with bangs of profanity. The cookie dough glued to the mold in perverse ways, I used every trick imaginable, including freezing the whole thing for increasing periods of time. The bond between dough and mold was likely approaching triple-covalent level. I also tried gently probing with a tiny spatula. I don’t recommend doing that. Ever.

All I could do was try again with the second mold, the round one, using a heavier hand with the flour. I opted for Nutella for the filling, which was another bad decision, as it squirted everywhere as I tried to roll the ravioli shut. Messy, sticky, horrific. I managed to get six severely abused cookies from the adventure, and thanks to the miracle of Royal icing and sprinkles they were able to make a public appearance. It is a good thing you cannot see their bottoms (enough said).

Sooooo, what did I learn from this fiasco? I firmly believe that this could be a PERFECT Technical Challenge for a certain tent… Here’s how to do it: give a list of ingredients to the poor contestants. The instructions should be kept simple:

Make a cookie dough.
Use the ravioli press to make filled cookies.

As to the filling, they can use their tears and frustration. They shall have plenty to take care of all 10 cookies in the mold. So, there you go, organizers of Great British and Great American Baking Show. Free advice to guarantee great entertainment for your audience…