Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

If you haven't guessed already, I kind of have a thing for blueberries. I love them in scones, muffins, pancakes, and in smoothies. When I came across the recipe for these cheesecake bars they immediately moved to the top of my To Bake list.

What sets these bars apart is the oatmeal cookie type base and crumb topping. The end result was something that tasted like cheesecake, oatmeal cookies and a blueberry crisp. Strange, true and delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was going to attempt to gift homemade hot pepper jelly for the holidays. The red and green would have been festive don't you think? After thinking about it for a while, I realized it probably wasn't a good idea to give my first attempt at a canned good. Because while most all food gifts rock people's socks off you know what would rock their socks off in a bad way? Botulism. Botulism is definitely not cool. So, until I make sure I thoroughly understand the sanitizing and canning process the homemade jellies will have to wait.

Instead, I decided to go with my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's the Jacques Torres cookie recipe that's been all around the internet, but I tweaked it to suit my tastes. This recipe is very forgiving. I've used all purpose flour instead of bread flour and I've also baked the cookies the same day instead of waiting 24 hours. Both turned out just as delicious.

I made these gift boxes (check out this video on how to make them) that fit 6 cookies perfectly. I think Martha Stewart would be proud of me.

I wish you a wonderful and food gifted filled holiday :)

The Loft House Cookie

Once upon a time, on the shelves in the bakery section of a Super Target, a frosted vanilla cupcake and a sugar cookie fell in love. After a brief, but scrumptiously sweet courtship, they married and had a baby. Their baby became known as the Loft House cookie. True story.

I very rarely say anything is my absolute favorite, but here it goes...Of all the cookies I've ever eaten, the Loft House cookie is my FAVORITE. There I said it and I'm OK with this :) Within minutes of finding this recipe (I have my Pinterest addiction to thank) I was in the kitchen making them. Within moments of putting sprinkles on the last cookie I had eaten a quarter of a dozen. True story.

A few comments about this recipe: The dough is supposed to be very soft and tender. It's what gives it that cakey cookie quality. So only add the extra flour if the dough is too sticky to work with. Also, do not over bake. When I pulled my cookies out of the oven after 8 minutes, the tops and edges were still pale while the underside of the cookie was only slightly golden. This is what you want. Again, it results in a moist cookie. Happy baking, friends!

Graham Crackers

What's the name of that one disorder...you know, the one that fills you with dread every time you think about having to go grocery shopping. There is such a thing right? I'm fairly certain I have it. I can shop for HOURS for clothing, books, and purses. For groceries, however, I need to get in and get out of the store as quickly as possible, because I fear that my rising blood pressure would cause spontaneous human combustion. Yes, that is something that would logically happen. Duh. On second thought, maybe I just have a fear of spontaneously combusting.

Anyway, the whole point of this was that I had no graham crackers in my pantry. And no graham crackers in the pantry means I couldn't satisfy my cravings for s'mores! Ever had a craving left unsatisfied? Ever lived to tell about it? Exactly.

So I had two choices: suck it up and haul ass to the nearest grocery store for graham crackers OR ....

The Baked Brownie

My weekend will consist of the following: attending two football games in two cities over two days. It's enough to make a girl re-evaluate her sanity. Luckily, I know of one thing that has the power to carry me through...chocolate. That's where these brownies come in to play.  Loaded with tons of chocolate and butter, these are definitely rich and fudgy. Make these now. You know you wanna :)

The Baked Brownie

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.

3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.

Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. 

Cut and share.

Shortbread Witch Finger Cookies

Happy October! I'm kicking off the start of my favorite month with a recipe that actually creeped me out a little while making them. A rich butter cookie, dyed Incredible Hulk green with a whole almond that resembles a decaying fingernail. It's then dipped in blood red white chocolate for added gory detail that is both creepy and delicious.

This is the second attempt at making these. The first time I used a sugar cookie recipe. The fingers came out looking like they belonged to a witch who ate too many bad little boys and girls if you know what I mean. They were tasty, but I wanted my witch fingers looking near death and skeletal. I needed a recipe that called for no leavening agents...shortbread cookies were perfect.  I can't say that I've ever tasted real witch's fingers, but I'm fairly certain they would not taste as good as these. 

Shortbread Witch Finger Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

A few drops of green food coloring

Whole almonds for decorating

1 cup of white chocolate chips

A few drops of red food coloring

Directions

 In a mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar. Add vanilla and food coloring. Gradually add flour; mix well.

 With lightly floured hands, shape a couple tablespoons of dough into 3-in. long "fingers".

Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Press a whole almond onto the tips of the cookie. Bake at 350 degrees F for 9-11 minutes or until edges and bottom are lightly browned. Cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to wire racks.

Blood Red White chocolate

Microwave white cholate chips until melted. Add food coloring. Dip cooled cookies into chocolate.

Someone needs a manicure.

Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

Today, I went lingerie shopping. (Lingerie, skivies, unmentionables...which I am now mentioning). Control your heart rate, it's not as R rated as it sounds. I was on a mission and searching for a decent bra. A beige colored one with extra padding. False advertising? You bet! I found one at that store. You know the one that packs your skivies in pink striped colored bags with unnecessary pink tissue paper saturated with fragrance. It seems to grab the attention of all the males in the mall who think you may have something naughty in there to transform you into a VS Angel. Wouldn't that be nice?

You know what else would be nice? You and me baking and eating chocolate covered chocolate mint cookies. Will I be doing it in my comfy boring bra? Heck yes! Care for some cookies? This is why we're friends :)

Chocolate-Covered Chocolate-Mint Cookies

From Desserts by the Yard

 By Sherry Yard

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tsp. peppermint oil
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 pounds bittersweet chocolate 

Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse a few times to combine the ingredients. Add the butter and pulse to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Add the egg yolks, peppermint oil, and vanilla and pulse until a dough forms on the blades of the food processor.

Remove the dough from the food processor and shape into a 2-inch-thick log. Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Place racks in the middle and lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick disks and arrange 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Switch the baking sheets from top to bottom and rotate from front to back and continue to bake for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the cookies are light brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on racks. Make sure to let the baking sheets cool between batches. Do not handle the cookies until they are cool, or they'll break; they're very delicate.

Melt and temper the bittersweet chocolate. Keep the chocolate warm while you dip the cookies. Place a sheet pan upside down on your work surface, next to the melted chocolate. Cover with parchment paper. Dip the cookies one by one in the chocolate, using a fork to turn them over and then lift them out of the chocolate. It helps to tilt the bowl forward by leaning it on a folded kitchen towel.

Set the dipped cookies on the parchment, beginning at the far end so you don't drip chocolate on other cookies when you set them down. 

 Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

I like to store mine in my belly.

Homemade Milano Cookies

If I told you something personal would you promise not to judge...too harshly? I'm a bit of a Gleek.

No, not the pet blue space monkey of the Super Friends, but a fan of the television show Glee.

I've seen every episode, I own the Season 1. Vol 1 dvd and bought Vol 2 on advance order. Wait, there's more and this maybe the worst of them. I also have Glee cds which I use to sing at Mr. Incredible. Not sing to him, but I sing at him with intensity. Ever have someone who was tone deaf sing at you? Frightening.

So, I've given this a lot of thought. If these Milano cookies were to represent characters from the super awesome show Glee, then the traditional milano would play Emma Pillsbury, the lovable guidance counselor who is crazy (she's a bit germophobic), sweet, prim and proper.

Prim and proper is how I would describe the traditional milanos. Two thin butter cookies flavored with warm vanilla are glued together with rich ganache.

The double choco milano would play Puck Puckerman, the bad boy Casanova who is a bit temperamental but caring. Puck has a reputation of being a bad-ass which is exactly what these double chocolate milanos are...bad ass. The cookie outsides are dense, almost brownie like with luscious ganache filling.

The ganache filling would play the character Mr. Shuester, the caring and sweet Glee director. His smooth, creamy voice is much like ganache. He is the glue that holds Glee together. Did you feel that? This post just got deep.

Now get deep into making these cookies!

Milan / Milano Cookies Recipe

(Courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website)

Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

6 egg whites

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Cookie filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested

Method

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies. 

*For Double Chocolate Milanos substitute 3/4 c. of dark chocolate cocoa powder for half of the flour in recipe and omit the lemon extract.

Super Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today, I packed up 4 years worth of stuff into 5 moving boxes. It's the end of the school year you see. Usually, I'd pack light (a few speech pathology books and some communication books I could work on over the summer), and wave a little goodbye to my work buddies knowing I would see them again in a couple months. But some won't be back in the Fall. One of them is me.
While everyone was celebrating surviving the school year, for me it was bittersweet. I'll be leaving the place that I've known since becoming a speech pathologist and starting brand new, not in one, but two schools of my own.

One thing you should know about me is that I'm no good at the mushy stuff. I'm awful at it. I'm equally as awful at saying goodbye. I get emotional, the waterworks start and I get the ugly cries. You know when your facial features contort and fluids spew from the eyes and nose simultaneously? Yeah. Not pretty. I managed to do that only 3 times today.



I came home this afternoon in need of some comforting. Two things immediately came to mind. One...The Peanuts cartoons. I don't know why, but watching them dance gives me the giggles.

Two...Chocolate chip cookies. It uses a combination of all purpose flour and bread flour making the cookies slightly crispy and chewy. These cookies soothe the soul and feel like a good hug. The genuine kind of hug that says, "Hey, you're family."