The Best Passover Cookies Ever

So remember back in my previous post when I said I wasn't really planning to make any new desserts this year?  Well, I just can't help myself...and you shouldn't either.  These are, hands down, the best Passover cookies I have ever tasted (and they rank up there with non-Passover cookies too).  A friend brought these to our seder and everyone devoured them in an instant.  It is great to have a recipe where people eat it on Passover and say how great it is, not just great for Passover.  Be sure to use really good chocolate, since that is the primary flavor of the cookies.  I also used matzah cake meal instead of matzah meal, since it is ground a little finer, but I think either would work.  The good news is that there are four more days of Passover, so you can make these!  You can find them on Martha Stewart's website.

Ethnic Flavor: When you go to the store to buy a cookie...

Happy Purim, everyone! I know that in the post below, Rebecca said there would be no post about hamentaschen this year. She was misinformed, and I just sent her an angry all-caps text message to correct her mistake. So, that's taken care of.

Right, Purim, Judaism's most genocide-/alcoholism-friendly holiday! This year, Purim is extra-special for a number of reasons:
1) It's on a Sunday, which is extra-good for Saturday night partying
2) It's absurdly early, just like everything on the Jewish calendar this year
3) It's also Rebecca's birthday! So if you see her, be sure to wish her a happy birthday.
4) It's apparently the only day in the month of February that the Baking Sisters are going to blog, so savor it
Purim is alway really fun, not least because I get to dress up and sing my favorite song of all time (referenced in the title of this post: you can find the full lyrics here). The cookie of Purim is, of course, the hamentaschen. Yesterday at children's services, I had the following exchange with a three-year-old:

Sarah: What is the name of the cookie that we eat on Purim?
Child: Hamentaschen!
Sarah: And why do we eat hamentaschen?
Child: Because it's Purim.
Sarah: That's kind of tautological.

No, the real reason we eat Haman's hat/pockets/ears is to commemorate our victory over the wicked wicked man. Plus, they taste good. But I've never found a recipe I've been truly happy with. This year, I tried an oil-based dough (not for any ideological reason so much as that I was making the dough while watching "Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids" with Rachel and oil-based dough can be mixed while sitting in front of the TV). While I was looking on the Internet for recipes, I found a lot of folks who passionately believe that poppyseeds are the only proper filling for hamentaschen. To them I say: get a life, it's just a cookie. I filled mine with raspberry jam and mini chocolate chips. They came out a lot better than they usually do, which I attribute to two things. One, courtesy of my sisters, was that I rolled the dough out very thin. It's a little counterintuitive that thin walls of dough would hold the filling better than thick ones, but on Purim, everything is upside down! Two, I folded the corners instead of just pinching them. This probably seems blindingly obvious to most of you, but for whatever reason it never occurred to me until this year. 

Taste-wise, they were pretty good. I'm guessing that it's the oil in the dough, but they were a little tough. I happen to think that crunchy hamentaschen are better than doughy ones, so I didn't mind, but that's a matter of opinion. These were simple to make and satisfying to eat, but I'm going to keep searching for the perfect recipe, so check back in next year! The recipe is here. (Note: the recipe calls for four eggs but is not at all clear that only three are supposed to go in the dough; one is for egg wash. I put all four in the dough and I don't think it affected them negatively.)

Double Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bread: A Thanksgiving Morning Treat

One of the reasons that the baking sisters started this blog was to stay connected when I moved across the country.  However far I get away from NYC, my heart is always there and I am heart broken to watch what is going on in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross, Bend the Arc or the Educational Alliance (they do lots of fabulous work on the lower east side, both to address immediate needs and find long term solutions to poverty). 

One of the best things about New York City is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and one of our family Thanksgiving traditions is to go to the parade (outside, not watching on TV or in someone's apartment like wimps) and then go home, frozen, and eat hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.  As we got older, we were less interested in going to the parade, but the hot chocolate and cookie tradition remained.  This year, we are taking my son to the parade for the first time, and we will undoubtably need that hot chocolate and cookies afterwards.

However, if you are not as wedded to this particular tradition, this cake would make an excellent Thanksgiving morning treat.  The tart cranberries are seasonally appropriate, and they offset the sweetness of the cake nicely.  You can make it ahead and it freezes nicely, so you don't have to add it to your list of things to make on Thanksgiving day.  Also, this is technically called "bread" so you can eat it for breakfast.  You can find the recipe here on the Baking Bites blog.

Baked Sunday Mornings: I'm Back!

Life is slowly returning to the new normal -- life with two kids and a traveling husband -- so I have finally been able to return to Baked Sunday Mornings.  The group is actually now baking from two books: Baked Explorations and the new book, Baked Elements.  These are from the latter book.  I have been following along, but the last few recipes have been more complicated than I could do at the time.  However, when I saw these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip scones, I thought they would be the perfect thing to mark my return.

These were a snap to put together and full of delicious ingredients.  Sometimes, scones can be dry, but I think the addition of the peanut butter and the chewiness of the oats keep them nice and moist.  I actually thought mine were a little underdone when I looked at them, but it turns out that that is just how they look.  I really enjoyed this combination.  The peanut butter is not overwhelming and you can really taste each of the ingredients.  The only thing I would change is that the scones were huge!  I would cut them into smaller pieces, because I'm not sure anyone can finish one in one sitting.  You can find the recipe here and be sure to check back to see what other bakers have done.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cake with Backyard Oranges

Living in Southern California, you get very in-tune with what fruit is in season.  You can walk into any one of the hundreds of farmer's markets and see the yummy fruits and veggies all lined up waiting for you.  However, good luck if you want something not in season, since you will be stuck with the grocery store.  After 2 years of fresh farmer's market quality, buying produce at the grocery store can feel like a real let down.

That's all a lead up to say that this is a delicious orange cake, which might have to wait for winter to be made again.  My son has a friend (probably lots of friends) with an orange tree in his backyard.  They came over a few times to play and brought a huge bag of oranges every time they came over.  I had to find something to do with them!

Luckily our ECC director had a birthday and asked for a chocolate orange cake. After the very scientific process of googling chocolate orange cake recipe, I came across this one from Smitten Kitchen.  I am not usually a fan of the chocolate/orange combination, but this cake was truly amazing.  It was super moist, even after a few days, and you could clearly taste both the chocolate and the orange without one overpowering the other.  I think using fresh oranges really helped, because they had amazing orange flavor.  A number of people said this was one of the best cakes they had ever had, so it is certainly a keeper.  If you find yourself wondering what to do with an abundance of oranges, you should try this.  Or, make this an excuse to go out and buy some delicious citrus next time winter rolls around.

The Sweetest Goodbye (with Chocolate Chips)

For the past four years, I have been intensely lucky to study full time at an amazing place called The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Drisha is an institute for advanced Jewish learning for women of all backgrounds, from the most basic beginners to advanced Talmud scholars. I have loved my time here, and when I look back on how much I have learned, grown and matured, I am truly awed to realize how much has been done for me. However, my time here is coming to a close-- on Thursday, I am graduating their three year Scholars Circle program and will be moving on to start a PhD. I am incredibly sad to be leaving, but will always be grateful for my time here.

As you have likely learned by now, us sisters often bake to express our emotions. So this time, I made something very simple-- chocolate chip cookies-- for my classmates and teachers as a small way of saying thank you. At Drisha, we have a long tradition of what we call celebratory baked goods to share the good things that have happened in our lives with each other. So these are my contribution.

To the cookies-- as you know, I am loyal to the Nestle chocolate chip recipe, but I'm moving in a week and realized I have no butter left, but did not want to bother buying more. So I went looking for a recipe that used oil (because I have a margarine phobia) and found this one, from the kosher caterer Levana's. Although I had some mishaps (think spilling a cup of oil all over the counter), I was really happy with how they turned out. The one thing I changed from the recipe was I ended up baking them longer than was called for. Despite the warning about them getting too hard, they were still very raw after 10 minutes, so I left them in for about 13. And they were delicious.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have been getting really into my iphone camera lately, especially all the cool things you can do with effects.  This photo was taken with the Vintage Camera app, which I love.  It is just fun to change your photos a little bit and I wanted to see how it would do with food.  I really like the way these muffins came out. I think you can see all the parts of the topping, cranberries and chocolate chips.  What are some other cool iphone camera apps that you would recommend?

Anyway, on to the important part...the muffins.  I have had these marked in my reader for a while and I never got around to making them.  However, since Passover has been over, I really wanted muffins and these seemed like a good choice.  And they were!  They had a fantastic combination of a delicious batter, tart cranberry, crunchy topping and sweet chocolate.  These are good special occasion muffins, but since they are pretty easy, you could whip up a batch any time.  I have been sitting with a bag of cranberries in my freezer since Thanksgiving, so these were a great way to use some of them up.

The only difficult part about them was that the strussel topping made the muffins stick to the pan around the edges, so they were a challenge to get out, especially when hot.  I would recommend being really careful not to overfill these so that you get maximum topping without messing up your muffins.  Although the recipe says it makes 15 muffins, I got more like 19 and I think I filled them too full, so you could probably get more.  The recipe is here, on the Baking Bites website.

Ethnic Flavor: Hamentashen with 3 3-year-olds

Purim, the Jewish holiday that starts Wednesday night, is really a celebration holiday.  Everyone wears costumes, has parties and eats delicious cookies called Hamentashen, all in celebration of the Jewish victory over the evil Haman.  Hamentashen are shaped like a triangle, like either Haman's hat or Haman's ear, depending on who you ask.

Hamentashen should be relatively easy to make.  You make dough, roll it out, cut circles, put in a drop of filling and then pinch them into a triangle shape.  However, I have yet to make hamentashen where the sides of the cookies don't open up.  If you have made yummy cookies and used good quality filling, this isn't a big problem, because they are still delicious, but it can be annoying to do all that work and still have them open.  When you are making them with 3 3-year-olds, this is even more likely to happen.

Some important things I have learned:

1.  You want to make the dough really, really thin.  Thinner than you would think.

2.  You should only put in a very, very small amount of filling

3.  Use some beaten egg around the edges of the circle before you pinch it to act as glue

If all these things happen, generally they won't open up, but if one of them is off, it won't work.  Most important is to use a cookie that is tasty and filling that you like (there are no rules -- you can use anything), so that even if they open, they will still be good to eat.

I used this recipe, from Kosher By Design.  Overall, they were a hit with the 3 year olds and their parents.

Blondies Have More Fun

Okay, so the title of this post is almost groaningly inevitable. But when I brought these in to the office on Friday, a surprising number of people asked, "What's a blondie?" I explained to them that it's basically a brownie but without the cocoa powder and with brown sugar. How sad that we live in a world where more people don't know about blondies. Anyway, last weekend I knew I had a busy week ahead and that I probably wouldn't have time to bake on Thursday night, so I made these confections from the Amy's Bread cookbook and put them in the freezer. They were quite simple to make, and the batter was absolutely the most gorgeous ochre color (and yes, I went on Wikipedia to find the exact correct shade of Brown that the batter was. That's how beautiful.) The color didn't quite hold throughout the baking, but it's okay, because these blondies were off-the-charts good. Chewy, super-rich (make sure you have a glass of milk or water on hand), but not too buttery or greasy. These were the most popular thing I've brought to the office since I started Baked Goods Friday six months ago - they were gone by noon, so I guess that speaks for itself! You can find the recipe here - I, of course, left out the walnuts - and be sure to spread the gospel of blondies.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bundt Cake

This cake is so awesome because it tastes just like a chocolate chip cookie but in an elegant cake form.  And it is parve (no dairy) so you can serve it after a meat meal.  Of course, the orignal recipe calls for butter and milk, but I substituted margarine and soy milk and it was still delicious.

The base of this cake is actually Dorie Greenspan's Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, which has nuts and fruit mixed in.  However, the brown sugar base is a lot like a chocolate chip cookie batter in cake form, so it made sense just to replace the nuts and fruit with chocolate chips (although you could probably keep the nuts if you like that kind of thing).

Here is the recipe, with my changes:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bundt Cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
225 g / 8 oz unsalted margarine, at room temperature
2 cups lightly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup soy milk, at room temperature
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9- to 10-inch Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately - add the flour in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix only until the ingredients are incorporated and scrape down the bowl as needed. Turn off the mixer, and with a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake in the center of the oven for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. If at any point the cake is browning too fast, cover the top loosely with a piece of foil. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding, then cool to room temperature on the rack. Finish the top of the cake with a dusting of powdered sugar. 

Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies, or, The Return of the Rachel

I know. I am a delinquent. Sarah. feel free to berate me now. Between school, work, and figuring out what exactly I want to do with my life, I have had little time for baking and even less time for blogging. But I apologize for my neglectful ways and will try to do better in the future.

ANYWAY. I actually made these Mexican chocolate chip cookies almost two months ago, for the holiday Sukkot. Sukkot is always one of my favorite holidays-- I love eating outside in the sukkah and even the odd waving the large stick in the air ritual has found a fond place in my heart. This year I moved from sukkah to sukkah (or, since it rained almost the whole time, from house to house) and my job was often to bring dessert. Since I was off from school, I had a little more time than usual and decided to try making some new things (which will hopefully be posted about soon.)

I was excited about these Mexican chocolate chip cookies because I really like the combination of sweet and spicy-- think the old school hard candy fireballs-- and so I was excited to see how these would turn out. While I really liked the flavor, I found that they were a bit dry and crumbly, and became more and more so as the days passed. I think I would make them again, but would add more butter or milk next time to increase moisture. You can find the recipe here.

National Bundt Day: Chocolate Chip Marble Cake

Today is National Bundt Day!  Do you know how I know that?  Mary, of the blog The Food Librarian, is obsessed with bundts (in the best way, of course) and, for the third time, has decided to make 30 bundts in 30 days, leading up to today -- National Bundt Day.  Mary's blog is a really great read.  She is smart and funny and she always has lots of fantastic recipes (especially if you are a fan of jello, check this out).  I am always glad to see her pop up in my blog reader.


Mary has encouraged her blog readers to make a bundt to celebrate this momentous day and since all I have to do is make one cake, it seemed the least I could do.  This was the first cake that Mary made in her countdown this year, and it caught my eye right away.  I mean, what could be bad about chocolate and vanilla batter with chocolate chips, swirled together in a big, delicious bundt? 


This recipe is actually based on the marble cake from Buttercake Bakery here in LA.  I've never had their bundt cake (only their cupcakes) but now I am eager to try it.  You can find the recipe here, on Mary's blog.  The recipe calls for dusting with powdered sugar, but I added some ganache as a glaze, since I had some left over from making something else.  I figure, what isn't better with a big spoonful of chocolate over it?  Happy National Bundt Cake!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

This week's choice for Baked Sunday Mornings, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, used one of the strangest methods I have ever encountered.  First, you essentially make oatmeal with boiling water and butter and then you fold it into a cake batter.  It may be strange, but it works because this is definitely one of my favorite recipes that we have made so far.  The cake had a nice chewy texture, the chocolate chips added a nice layer of flavor and the cream cheese frosting was divine.  It might be a little intense for a regular morning breakfast, but it makes a nice morning treat or a yummy dessert.


Today is the day after Yom Kippur, a fast day in the Jewish calendar.  It is a really busy time of year for me and not a great time to be baking but this was really easy to put together and made a good break fast last night.  I will be making this again.

Trying a New Chocolate Chip Cookie

Sometimes it is fun to bake fancy things (cakes in the shape of Churches, Sarah?), but sometimes the fun comes in baking something simple and quick, that you know will be tasty, like a chocolate chip cookie.  Yes, there are many bad chocolate chip cookies out there, but most of the ones you bake yourself will be good no matter what.

These chocolate chip cookies come from David Lebovitz (you know him as our ice cream guru) in his newest book, Ready for Dessert.  Unlike most chocolate chip cookies that I have baked, these are slice and bake cookies, not drop cookies.  You form the dough into a log, let it rest in the fridge for 24 hours and then slice and bake.  I actually sliced the dough and then froze the slices, which worked really well, since this recipe made a lot of cookies and there are just two of us in the house right now.

I enjoyed this recipe, although I thought the dough needed more salt, so I will add that next time.  I used a combination of chocolate chips and chopped chocolate, since that is what I had in the house, and I omitted the nuts, since you know how we feel about nuts in baked goods.  It is really important to use good chocolate in these (chocolate that you like) because there is a lot of chocolate in here.  Overall, I enjoyed these cookies.  They are not my favorite, but I think with the addition of more salt, they could be a contender.

The recipe is after the jump.

Ethnic Flavor: Trying My Hand at Challah

None of the Baking Sisters can say we grew up with memories of coming home from school on cold Friday afternoons and helping our mom knead challah dough, or smelling its sweet, yeasty odor wafting through the house. Of course, coming home and expecting our mom to be baking anything would be misguided to say the least, because she a) works very hard and b) has no aptitude for baking. The stronger memories I have are of scrambling through the bread bins at Fairway, searching for that elusive Zomick's braided egg challah just hours before Shabbat began and being shoved this way and that by a horde of equally frantic and aggressive Jewesses. Fresh challah, when we were lucky enough to have it, had always been Rachel's thing, and while I had fond recollections of making challah at camp, it wasn't really something I had ever considered doing at home. Still, my roommate Wendy had expressed a desire to try making it, and one Friday when I had off from work, we got to it.

The first task was to pick a recipe. Although it is delicious, I didn't want to make Rachel's recipe because it felt too proprietary, like I was stepping on her toes, so I just looked around the Internet for one that looked good. Smitten Kitchen is always a good bet, as is Joan Nathan (it's an adapted recipe), plus Deb included lots of tips for a novice bread-baker like me, and relatively easy instructions on how to achieve the famous six-strand challah braid.

The recipe was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Even my well-documented issues with yeast seemed to disappear for the morning! I had no trouble kneading by hand. There was rather a lot of flour but oh well, that's a risk one runs when making bread. There were also some irregular rising times because of various doctors' appointments et al but it didn't seem to harm the dough. Very unfussy. The hardest part was definitely making the braid - be sure you keep very good track of all the strands or else you might have to undo the whole thing and start again! I kneaded chocolate chips into half the dough, because everyone likes chocolate chips.

I was so pleased with how they came out! The chocolate chip one came apart a little bit at the end, but they looked really professional otherwise. And oh my God were they tasty. The crust was crusty, the inside was sweet and moist and springy - perfect. For some reason, the chocolate chip one came out less cooked than the plain one, but that didn't bother anyone in my house, since both challahs were gone by Saturday morning!


Best Challah (Egg Bread)
From Smitten Kitchen, Adapted from Joan Nathan
The secrets to good challah are simple: Use two coats of egg wash to get that laquer-like crust and don’t overbake it. Joan Nathan, who this recipe is adapted from, adds that three risings always makes for the tastiest loaves, even better if one of them is slowed down in the fridge.
Time: about 1 hour, plus 2 1/2 hours’ rising
Yield: 2 loaves
1 1/2 packages active dry yeast (1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon salt
8 to 8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raisins per challah, if using, plumped in hot water and drained
Poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling.
1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.
2. Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. (You can also use a mixer with a dough hook for both mixing and kneading, but be careful if using a standard size KitchenAid–it’s a bit much for it, though it can be done.)
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. Dough may also rise in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees then turned off. Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.
4. At this point, you can knead the raisins into the challah, if you’re using them, before forming the loaves. To make a 6-braid challah, either straight or circular, take half the dough and form it into 6 balls. With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the 6 in a row, parallel to one another. Pinch the tops of the strands together. Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided. For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together. Make a second loaf the same way. Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.
5. Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Either freeze breads or let rise another hour.
6. If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again. Sprinkle bread with seeds, if using. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking.
7. Bake in middle of oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden. (If you have an instant read thermometer, you can take it out when it hits an internal temperature of 190 degrees.) Cool loaves on a rack.
Note: Any of the three risings can be done in the fridge for a few hours, for more deeply-developed flavor. When you’re ready to work with it again, bring it back to room temperature before moving onto the next step.

MSC: Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (My Pick!)

Yay!  This month Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club pick is mine!  I am super excited about this (in case you couldn't tell) because, while I have enjoyed making all the different cupcakes, sometimes it is fun to make something I choose myself.  And obviously, if I was going to choose something, it was going to be chocolate.  

Anyway, enough about that.  Welcome to the Baking Sisters if you are visiting us for the first time.  We hope you'll stay, look around and read some posts by Sarah, who is really the funniest of the Baking Sisters.  I also hope that, if you baked along with me, you enjoyed these cupcakes.  I tried to pick something that would be delicious, but not to difficult to make.  These cupcakes really fit the bill.  They were light and fluffy (from the addition of whipped egg whites) and had little bursts of chocolate from the chips.

The only thing I didn't love about these was the frosting.  Even though I reduced the butter, I still thought it was too buttery and heavy in comparison to the lightness of the cupcakes.  I think I would either do these with a chocolate glaze or a lighter chocolate frosting.

You can find the recipe here, with chocolate chip frosting.  Maybe I'll have to try that next time.

Thanks so much for baking along with me!  I have had a fantastic time being part of this group and getting to see everyone's blogs and I look forward to making more yummy treats with all of you in the coming months.

A Cookie Medley To Help Pass the Bar: Part 2

You may remember my friend Brooke, who is studying for the bar, from this post.  Well, the bar is coming ever closer, so I decided it was time for another package of goodies.  Brooke is a major chocolate chip cookie lover (who isn't, really?) and she made a special request for chocolate chip cookies. 

However, I could not just send her one kind of cookie, so this package is about 50% Dorie's chocolate chip cookies (which I already made and blogged about here) and 50% other stuff.  The cookie on the left of the picture is the Baked Peanut Butter Cookie with Milk Chocolate Chunks.  The recipe specifically says not to substitute semi-sweet, but I didn't have anything else on hand, so I did it anyway.  I thought they still turned out delicious, but I can't wait to try them with milk chocolate.  These are not your typical peanut butter cookies.  They are much thinner than I expected (which might be because I didn't chill the dough long enough) but they are soft and chewy, so I give them a thumbs up.  You can find the recipe here.

The other cookies I made (on the right of the photo) were Dorie's Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops.  I had some Whoppers in my cabinet and I just decided to go for it, even though I don't know how Brooke feels about Whoppers.  When I ate one of these cookies right out of the oven, I didn't like it that much, but once they cooled to room temperature, I really liked them.  It gave the flavors a chance to meld and mellow and you were not overwhelmed with malt flavor.  They were also good frozen.  You can find the recipe here.

I ran out of tupperwear when packing the cookies to ship them to Brooke, so I packed some of the cookies in plastic bags.  I assume that means she will get some tasty cookie crumbs, instead of whole cookies, but I think they will be good anyway.  Brooke, let us know what you thought of the cookies.  Others, wish Brooke good luck on the bar!

Happy Birthday Cookies: Peppermint Oreo Chocolate Chip

Over winter break, two people in my office had birthdays.  One of the nice things about my office is that we celebrate everyone's birthdays with some kind of treat.  It is both an excuse to celebrate one another and an excuse to eat cake during the work day.

Kirstin, one of the awesome women who works in my office, had her birthday over the break and so we needed to do something for her.  We know that she likes peppermint, so we tried to figure out what to make.  I had a box of Candy Cane JoJos (Trader Joe's version of oreos) going stale in the pantry, so I decided to try and crush them into chocolate chip cookies and see how it went.  They were a snap to put together and, even though it looks like it won't make many cookies, it made over 2 dozen.

It went well.  Very well.  Kirstin enjoyed them, as Candy Cane JoJos are her favorite and my officemate Eve called them the best cookies she's ever had.  2 dozen cookies disappeared from the office very quickly.

With those rave reviews, how could you not make these cookies?  You can find the recipe here and use whatever kind of JoJos/oreos you like! 

Guest Blogger: More on the Wedding

As the Baking Sisters’ dad, I obviously wasn’t invited to the Shabbos Kallah (see the Shabbos Kallah post). I did get to participate in – and bake for – another wonderful Jewish wedding custom: sheva brachot (seven blessings). These blessings are first recited as part of the wedding ceremony and then are repeated as part of grace after meals at celebrations in honor of the bride and groom for the following seven days. We hosted two dozen guests one evening in honor of Miriam and Dave. I won’t go into the full menu, just the desserts.

Four desserts seemed to offer enough variety, so I went with two chocolate and two non-chocolate recipes. Since the meal was a stand-up reception, everything was finger food, including the desserts: two kinds of cookies and two bar-type desserts (which I cut in half to make bite-size servings and served in mini-cupcake wrappers). All the recipes came from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. And if I don’t say so myself, everything was delicious!

I chose two classic cookie recipes. My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies are exactly what the name says. They’re Toll House cookies, but turbocharged. Buy a block of the best bittersweet chocolate you can find (or afford) and chop it into chunks, chips, slivers, whatever. I even included the shavings that the chopping produced; they made for great color in the finished product. You’ll find the recipe below.

The other classic cookies were Linzer Sablés, a wonderful sandwich cookie with an almond-based dough and a raspberry jam filling. Dusted with powdered sugar, they are both elegant and delicious, and not too sweet. The recipe is below.

The Bittersweet Brownies were almost like eating fudge – only better. They, too, call for the best chocolate you can get. Here is a link to the recipe.

I wanted something fruit-based for the fourth dessert, so I chose Applesauce Spice Bars. They have a wonderful combination of flavors and textures – spices and rum, applesauce and chopped apple, raisins and nuts – and are topped with a creamy glaze. Here is a link to the recipe.

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks and chips
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking
sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in
a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth.
Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in
the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing
only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber
spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts.

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving
about 2 inches between spoonfuls (the cookies really spread as they bake!).

Bake the cookies – one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point –
for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center
(they may still be a little soft in the middle). Pull the sheet from the oven and allow
the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer
them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Linzer Sablés
1-1/2 cups finely ground almonds
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Scant 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 large egg
2 tsp water
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup raspberry jam plus 1 tsp water
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Whisk together the ground nuts, flour, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Using a fork, stir

the egg and water together in a small bowl.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer
in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed until smooth,
about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the egg mixture and beat
for 1 minute more. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing
only until they disappear into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour
is incorporated. If the dough comes together but some dry crumbs remain in the
bottom of the bowl, stop the mixer and finish blending the ingredients with a rubber
spatula or your hands.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, put the dough between
a sheet of waxed paper and plastic wrap. Using your hands, flatten the dough into
a disk, then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
Leave the dough between the waxed paper and plastic wrap and repeat with the
second piece of dough. Transfer the wrapped dough to a baking sheet or cutting
board (to keep it flat) and refrigerate or freeze until it is very firm (about 2 hours in
the refrigerator or about 45 minutes in the freezer). The rolled-out dough can be
wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer
for up to 2 months –thaw just enough to cut out the cookies.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking
sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Peel off the plastic wrap from one piece of dough and, using a 2-inch round or
scalloped cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can. If you want a peek-a-
boo cutout to see the jam filling, using the end of a piping tip to cut a small circle
from the centers of half the cookies. Transfer the cookies to the baking sheets,
leaving a little space between the cookies. Set the scraps aside.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 11 to 13 minutes, or until the cookies
are lightly golden, dry and just firm to the touch. NOTE: If the cookies are not of
uniform thickness, the thinner ones will bake much faster, so keep a close eye on
them.

Repeat with the second disk of dough, making sure to cool the baking sheets
between batches. Gather the scraps of dough from both batches, press them into
a disk, roll them between a sheetsof waxed paper and plastic wrap and refrigerate
them as before, then cut and bake.

Place the jam in a small saucepan or in a microwaveable bowl and stir in 1 tsp of
water. Bring to a boil over low heat or in the microwave. Let the jam cool slightly,
then turn the cookies without the cutout flat side up and place about 1/2 tsp of the

jam in the center of each cookie; sandwich with the remaining cookies.

Just before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar. Store at room temperature, or
freeze without the sugar dusting (dust the cookies before serving).

Two Desserts in One: Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmm, pudding. Who doesn't like pudding? I love pudding on its own, for its cool and smooth flavor. But I also think pudding is often a great addition to other desserts because it adds a nice layer of moisture and flavor to whatever you're cooking. The White Chocolate Cheesecake I make has pudding, which I think it part of the reason I like it so much. So when I found a chocolate chip cookie recipe with pudding as a main ingredient, I had to try it.

When I went to the store, all they had was sugar free white chocolate pudding mix, which I would not have chosen if I had had another option. I felt like the cookies tasted a little artificial, but my friend who ate them with me said she thought they tasted great. Other than that, these cookies are pretty good. I liked the consistency of the cookies-- they were very moist and didn't get all flat when I baked them. They weren't so so exciting, but if you like chocolate chip cookies, you would probably like these. I think one day I'll try them again, but with chocolate pudding and white chocolate chips.

You can find the recipe after the jump.