The Daring Bakers Make Milan Cookies
The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
The Daring Bakers have made all sorts of challenging desserts, some before my time and some since I joined two years ago. I’ll never forget my first, the Strawberry Mirror Cake, which challenged both my skills and patience; or last year’s Filbert Gateau, which tasted fabulous but took me 15 hours to make; or the Opera Cake and the weeks I spent planning and practicing for it. Yes, we have done our share of difficult challenges. This month the challenge was easier though no less enjoyable, and actually it couldn’t have come at a better time as I need a little breathing room until summer vacation time is over and the kids are back in school. Read more
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars with Chocolate Chips
I first made these oatmeal peanut butter bars about six years ago, and they were an instant hit at home and at parties and picnics. The rich flavor belies their simplicity—an oatmeal peanut butter cookie crust with chocolate chips sprinkled on top then drizzled with peanut butter glaze—and they always garner “ohs” and “ahs” when served to peanut butter and chocolate lovers. Because I’m trying to switch over to whole grains in all our baking, I’ve swapped out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour, but you can use unbleached all-purpose flour if you cannot find whole wheat pastry flour in your area.
The dough is pretty sticky and will even cling to silicone spatulas, so I just wet my hands and press the dough into the pan with my fingers, and it doesn’t stick to me. Read more
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
After the cookie marathon in December, I begged off from making anything sweet for a while. Like many, we just needed a sugar break and I admit I didn’t even want to make my birthday cake. I’d had my fill of sweets and didn’t miss it. Usually I’ll make one sweet dessert a week that we enjoy on the weekend, but that’s it for us, so Michael was quite surprised when he came home from work and found these on the counter.
One of my life hacks for this year is to incorporate more whole grains into our desserts and I’ve been going through my cookbooks again looking for ideas on how to do that best. Due to the way whole wheat flour absorbs liquid, it’s not always a 1:1 swap for unbleached all-purpose flour, so I decided to start with some tested recipes and then go back to some of our favorites and hack them.
This recipe from King Arthur Flour is easy to make and doesn’t use any white flour at all. Because oatmeal cookies tend to be more hearty and substantial anyway, I think these are a good way to introduce whole grains in desserts if you aren’t used to it. The butter and sugar still keep these firmly in the occasional treats category, but they are more healthy than a white flour version. Other dried fruits will work well, too, and I look forward to trying them with dried cherries and apricots. Read more
Chocolate Pizzelles
When I made pizzelles for the first time last Christmas, Michael immediately suggested I come up with a chocolate version. We really liked the krumkake recipe we tried from Gourmet this year, so I decided to base my chocolate pizzelles on that recipe. The orange zest is optional and adds a nice hint of citrus with the chocolate.
The cookies are easy to make but do require a pizzelle maker. They can be served flat or rolled into a cone or tube shape, and both the rolled shapes just beg to be filled with some kind of cream or marscapone filling. Michael was delighted to come home and find these all ready for him to sample, and Top Gun couldn’t keep his fingers away. We think these crispy chocolate cookies are addictive.
I missed the deadline, but Susan of Food Blogga is celebrating her Christmas Cookies event. Susan has a big round-up of favorite Christmas cookies from around the world, so be sure to check it out.
More Cookies From This Blog
Moravian Christmas Trees – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 12, the final day of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I have had a ball making all of these. A few late nights, to be sure, but it’s been a wonderful experiment forcing myself to tackle a dozen new things for 12 days in a row. And it was even more fun because I had some great company along the way. Kelly, Courtney, Judy, Sandy, Claire, and Jerry, thanks for joining me and for keeping your spirits up even when we hit a few stumbling blocks with some of these cookies! To the folks at Gourmet, thanks for putting up your favorite cookies feature and inspiring us to tackle this project.
Now for the 12th and final cookie, thin Moravian Christmas Cookies (1946). They are supposed to be white but we decided to make Christmas trees out of them. I had chosen another cookie for the finale, but as my time for Drop In and Decorate neared, I decided to combine 12 Days of Cookies and give away the cookies to some families that would enjoy them. Our moms group adopted 17 families this season, and several of us decided to decorate cookies for Drop In & Decorate and share the cookies with the adopted families. We made the Moravians and our family ginger bread cookies. Several moms and our kids planned to get together at Chateau Meyers this afternoon and decorate as many cookies as we could in 90 minutes, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Even though some members of our crew were sick, we managed to decorate well over 100 cookies and then Michael and I finished the rest.
The children, ages 2 through 10, had a great time and enjoyed putting their own creative twist on the cookies.
Mocha Toffee Bars – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 11 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I had my eye on these mocha toffee bars because I adore chocolate and coffee together, and after making and enjoying them I’ve converted Michael as well. He even asked if we could add these to our annual Christmas cookie list along with the Cajun macaroons, so we have found a couple new favorites.
The cookies are straightforward and easy to make. The only trouble I ran into was baking time. My oven tends to run cool, plus my jelly roll pan doesn’t exactly heat evenly so the sides were done before the middle was even set. I ended up with crispy edges and chewy middle.
The coffee flavor is in the shortbread crust, and I simply use instant coffee and add a little extra coffee to the hot water. The original recipe calls for espresso powder, which isn’t always easy to find.. The chocolate topping is simply melted semi-sweet chocolate chips poured right onto the hot shortbread, though I mixed dark and semi-sweet chips. The chopped cashews are roasted and salted, a nice contrast to the slightly dark chocolate topping.
