The Best Chocolate Cake

As I told my friend a few weeks ago, after apologizing for not being in touch for so long, I feel like I’ve been running for, if not the entire year, the past five months. 

Outrageous Brownies

Last weekend I was looking for a recipe to make for my friend's party. I wanted to something chocolate but I didn't want to make a cake, cookies or cupcakes. Then it hit me.

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

This might seem silly, but if I'm being really honest, one of the main things that's kept me from posting more often this past year is photos. Let me explain.

Cookie Dough Dip

The Superbowl. What is it all about to Americans? Obviously, eating. You thought I was going to say football, right? Well it’s not. At least not for this American. I’ve never been a huge fan of football but thanks to my good friend Kyle, I at least now know the logistics and can understand the game. But the food remains the most important part.

The 50th Post! (Chocolate Mudslide Cookies)

Report: first chocolate craving of the day
time: 9:58 am.
Solution: 3 chocolate chip cookies
resolved: 10:01am

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I’ve gotten into something of a routine since coming here to Chile and as you can see from this post, it’s not always the healthiest.

Saturdays are my day to go to the market.  There I buy all the ingredients I need to cook for the week and a few extra things to do some baking for my friends.  This particular weekend was special, however.  My friend Chris had just returned from a trip to the States and aside from bringing me all the things I’d asked my mom to mail to his house, he brought me a couple surprises.

Cupcookies

Not cupcakes, not cookies, yes you read that right, cupcookies.

Almond Lovers Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another of the cookies that my sister and I made on our marathon day of cookie making were these Almond Lovers Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had wanted to try them for some time and even tried to make them for my co-op but unfortunately, we couldn't get any almond paste.  My guess is they don't sell it in bulk.  Fortunately, my sister found it at the grocery store and were able to make these tasty cookies, plus a batch of them for her to freeze.  In any case, I wanted to try them because I love almond flavored things, especially marzipan, which is essentially what the almond paste tastes like.  Tearing the almond paste into chunks, we added it to these cookies. They were very good, but perhaps not as almondy as I had hoped.  But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try them.  I would still make them again, just with a few alterations to make them have a stronger almond flavor.  However, if you're alright with a very subtle almond flavor, make them as is without my following corrections.  Maybe next time I'll add more almond paste, or almond extract instead of vanilla extract.  I will also probably get some raw almonds and cut them into chunks to add to the cookies instead of the almond slices we had.

Almond Lovers Chocolate Chip Cookies (lightly adapted from Picky Palate) 

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients 
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 oz Odense Pure Almond Paste (package is 6 oz, can just be cut in half)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 oz bag chocolate chips
3/4 cup roughly chopped almonds

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until well combined, light and fluffy. Add the almond paste in pieces until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
3) In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips. Mix until just combined.
4) Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until just golden crisp on the outside. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the days I was visiting my sister in Georgia for Spring Break, we had a marathon cookie day. We made two different kinds of cookies and contemplated a third. The reason we decided to make so many was so my sister could freeze some dough for later. She's nine months pregnant now and due any day so likely, after her baby is born, she won't have much time for cookie making. But, with the frozen dough we made, she can just unfreeze and bake. In fact, cookie dough for just about any type of cookie (except madelines) can be frozen for between three to six months. What we ended up doing was separating the dough into equal portions, then we flattened it and wrapped it once in wax paper (so it wouldn't stick) and then wrapped it twice in plastic wrap. We then labeled the cookies with the name, date made, date good until, and baking instructions to make it super easy to just pull out a disk and bake up some cookies.

I thought her idea to do this was a pretty good one and I had some cookies in mind which I had been dying to bake. First on the list were Olive Oil Chocolate Chip cookies. While searching through food blogs some time ago, I somehow ran across this recipe and was really curious to try it. I was especially interested in these because they replace butter with olive oil, sounds healthier to me. As curious as I was though, I admit I was a bit wary about how these cookies would taste, especially when I was tasting the dough before baking. It had a slightly grassy flavor like the olive oil which my sister enjoys so much. At that point I sort of wished we had just used some plainer olive oil, like that “light in flavor” olive oil that I don't know why anyone would buy. However, I was pleasantly surprised when these cookies came out of the oven tasting nothing like olive oil. They were just like regular chocolate chip cookies, maybe even better. They were slightly puffy yet crunchy on the outside and pleasantly chewy on the inside. Perfect. I'll definitely be making these again. I say try them, besides, they're healthy for you!

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies (Lightly adapted from Culinary Couture)

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2) In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda.
3) In a larger mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add olive oil and beat until completely mixed with eggs.
4) Add sugars, vanilla and mix until combined. Beat in dry ingredients slowly. Fold in chocolate chips, if using.
5) Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets using a tablespoon. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes until bottom of cookies are golden brown and the tops are pale blonde. Let stand for 2 minutes, then place on wire racks to cool.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Making dinner for forty people is always an ordeal and this first cook of the quarter, was no exception. It took some time but I think the result was pretty darn good based on the reviews we received afterwards. We ended up with reviews like “this was my favorite meal of the quarter so far” and “dinner tonight was awesome!” and “Your food is always so good!” I even got demands for this recipe. But it was a close one, dinner could have gone either way, especially after a couple of emails telling us we wouldn't be able to get all the ingredients we wanted (no asparagus, no zucchini, pine nuts were outrageously expensive, no tahini etc) So a change of plans was called for. The risotto recipe had to change, we added in caramelized butternut squash (I will never do that for forty people again, peeling and cutting butternut squash, not fun) and these cookies. I'd say we ended up with a pretty delicious meal which consisted of barley risotto with broccoli and hazelnuts, caramelized butternut squash, hummus, salad, and these chocolate chip shortbread cookies.

I learned how to make them from my godmother a while back and they've been my go to cookie every since. They are literally the easiest cookies you could ever make (okay, almost). You don't need a mixer, you only need a few ingredients, and they're pretty difficult to mess up. I made them in Spain with less than ideal ingredients (try a bar of 1 dollar grocery store chocolate) for my co-workers at my internship, and lets just say the reviews were awesome. My co-worker raving about them was enough to send over a co-worker from the office next door saying he and all his office mates were drooling over the description. With that and the simplicity of the cookies, I knew that I would be making these for my co-op sometime this year. So after the difficulty of getting ingredients for the cookies we wanted to make, I turned to this simple recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies (credit to my godmother, Monica, for this recipe)

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened (226 gr de mantequilla)*
1 cup of confectioner's sugar (125 gr de azúcar glas)
1 teaspoon of vanilla (1 cucharadita de vainilla)
½ teaspoon of salt (½ cucharadita de sal)
2 ¼ cups of flour (225+ gr de harina)
1 cup of chocolate chips (175 gr de gotas de chocolate)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375°F/190ºC.
2) Simply using a wooden spoon, cream together butter, confectioner's sugar, vanilla and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3) Mix in flour then add chocolate chips. Note that you may need to use your hands to thoroughly combine this dough since it tends to be crumbly
4) Roll dough into 1 inch balls, place on a cookie sheet, and press down about halfway with a fork. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are just barely golden

*Note: This recipe comes with ingredient conversions from when I was baking in Spain.

World Peace Cookies (And the run to the finish in the summer cookie spree)

A couple of Sundays ago, I returned home to my friend's house to find them all playing video games (surprise!) and joined them in sitting on the couch. Then suddenly the video games became a truly awful movie which sadly featured James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey de Chanel, among others. Not wanting to watch it, and instead wanting to take advantage of all the ingredients we had to use up in my friends' summer house before they move out, I was relieved when Micah asked if I would want to make something. “You don't want to watch this?” I asked laughingly, to which I received a look which clearly said, no. Heck no. So we left the showing of the dreadful movie and go to work on these World Peace Cookies.

After making these cookies, I'm really unsure as to why we were not constantly stocked with parchment paper this summer. For the first time all summer, the bottoms of our cookies were not burned, even with our not so good baking sheets. It was amazing! All thanks to Simon who had the impulse to make toffee and ended up purchasing not just parchment paper but a candy thermometer. Now maybe we can make the delicious Brown Sugar buttercream frosting my sister told me about or even tempered chocolate for these amazing looking chocolate cups we've been wanting to make! Anyway, back to these cookies. So while I don't quite think they'll bring world peace with their deliciousness, they were pretty good and as Micah said, it was just what he wanted.

A note: Though it says you should refrigerate these for 3 hours before slicing and baking, in our eagerness to eat these cookies we skipped this step and simply made the cookies of flattened down balls of dough. (Lets be real, Micah wanted his chocolateness and he wanted it now so he put these cookies in the freezer to cool them down faster).  Despite our shortcut methods, they still tasted delicious to me and I liked the fact that they didn't have the store-bought slice and bake look of the cookies when I made them last summer. Plus we got to eat them sooner. Win on all fronts.

World Peace Cookies (found in many locations on the web but we found it here)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (this is essential)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips (we used regular chocolate chips and it worked fine though I suppose if you're slicing these it might be better if they're smaller...)

Directions
1) Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. (I'm always too lazy to sift so I skipped the sifting and just mixed these dry ingredients together before adding them in step 3)
2) Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
3)Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
4) Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.) (As previously mentioned, we were too lazy to do this)

Baking preparations
1) Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2) Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
3) Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature. (or put them in the freezer if you're impatient...)

Picnic Morsels

So these tiny picnic morsels which I found on Cakespy have been on my list to make since last summer and they didn't disappoint once I finally got together all the ingredients to make them. I thought they would be rather ordinary cookies just piled with different ingredients but they were pretty good to me because of the brown sugar. This recipe uses only brown sugar and maybe it's our terrible pans but I found the brown sugar somewhat caramelized on the bottoms of these cookies adding yet another dimension of flavor to these simple little things. I also liked that they were small and bite sized but, that could be a dangerous thing too...

Picnic Morsels

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups regular flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup melted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2/3 cup white chocolate chips

2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped almonds

3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, stir in the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until well blended, then add the chips, almonds, and apricots.
3. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an unprepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

4. Enjoy, preferably at a picnic.