chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies

Last weekend was spent doing practically nothing but baking. I made some new things, and I made some favorite things. I also made something that was probably the most fun, if not a bit time-consuming that you'll see later, sort of a flashback to the past. So the next few posts will be the recipes I made.

One of my favorite cookies to make during cooler weather is anything spicy, anything with warm flavors. You can't get much warmer or spicier than the combination of ginger and chocolate together. These cookies have a great ginger flavor thanks to both ground ginger and fresh ginger, as well as a few other spices to subtly boost the flavor. Molasses and brown sugar make the cookie chewy, and the chunks of chocolate are a great contrasting texture and flavor.

As good as these were, though, and call me crazy if you must, I wonder what they would be like with a bit of espresso powder mixed in. Or, better yet, finely ground coffee beans added to the sugar you roll the cookies in. How awesome is that!

If you can't tell already, I highly recommend everyone making these cookies. Super simple, the dough can be made ahead of time, and you'll be rewarded with pretty, crackly, sugar-topped cookies.

Recipe after the jump.

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chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart

makes about 2 dozen cookies

ingredients ~

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

directions ~

1. 1. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.


2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.


3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.


4. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

coconut chocolate biscotti, or Mounds Bar biscotti

Hope everyone's enjoying the final week before Christmas! I haven't been able to bake all that I wanted, so don't be surprised to see Christmas cookies on here after Christmas.

I had an idea yesterday to bake coconut biscotti that reminded me of the classic Mounds Bar, a chewy coconut center encased in an envelope of chocolate coating. However, instead of a chocolate coating I added chocolate chips, for two reasons: The chocolate chips wouldn't overpower the coconut, and it wouldn't be as sweet. I enjoy eating biscotti for breakfast with coffee, and a sweeter biscotto would be too much.

I followed the same recipe outline I used for the gingerbread biscotti, which was adapted from the Once Upon A Tart method for biscotti. The egg yolks are whipped with sugar until pale and thick, then the egg whites are whipped into a meringue (I like that I get to work on my meringue skills whenever I make biscotti) with more sugar before being folded into the egg yolk mixture. Melted butter is then blended in, followed by the flour and any add-ins. I like this method because the biscotti come out a bit dense, yet not heavy, and the dough is incredibly easy to work with. These Tart guys really know what they're doing.

Instead of leaving the coconut raw, I toasted the coconut to release the oils and enhance the flavors. Coconut toasts much quicker than nuts, so don't walk away from the oven once you begin toasting.

I added flavors I felt would compliment the coconut without being detected on their own, and those were grated lemon zest and cardamom. Coconut extract also went into the mix to further heighten the coconut flavor. I chopped up regular chocolate chips so the texture was more like shavings. If you have mini chips, use those.

I like miniature biscotti the best. Unfortunately, the dough spread more than I thought and I ended up with regular biscotti, so next time I'd divide the dough into fourths.

These ended up baking a bit too long the second time, but overall I was pleased with them. The sanding sugar on top lends a sparkly, crunchy coating that looks pretty, and there's just enough chocolate without it overwhelming the coconut. The coconut flavor came out pretty much how I hoped! These aren't too sweet at all, either, even with using sweetened coconut.

As always, I like to eat biscotti with tea or coffee because it, I feel, somehow brings the flavors out a bit more, and because all good cookies deserve to be treated like they're special.

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Mounds Bar Biscotti aka Coconut Chocolate Biscotti (to prevent a lawsuit)
Recipe by Christina

ingredients ~

1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and set aside
3 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon coconut or vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, or standard chip chopped up a bit
White sanding sugar

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheet (you may need sheets, plural) with parchment paper). Place 1 1/2 cups coconut on another baking sheet and toast for 8 minutes, or until thoroughly dry and crispy and there's lovely golden-brown color on much of the coconut. Remove from oven and let cool slightly; place coconut on cutting board and carefully run a knife over it a few times to break up the strands.


2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together toasted coconut, flour, baking powder, salt, lemon rind, and cardamom; set aside. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup granulated sugar on medium until yolks become pale yellow and thick, about 2-3 minutes.


3. In another bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. With the mixer still on high, beat in the remaining sugar until incorporated. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the yolk mixture. When lightened, fold in remaining meringue. Gently fold in butter and coconut extract.


4. Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet, until dough forms a ball. With the last of the flour, stir in the chocolate chips.


5. Get a small bowl with some water. With lightly moistened fingers, divide dough into thirds and shape into 2 1/2x11-inch logs on the baking sheet (moisten your fingers with water as needed). Sprinkle each log with about 1 1/2 teaspoons sanding sugar. Freeze the dough logs for 15 minutes before baking so they don't spread out so much. Bake until the tops of the logs are golden brown and firm when pressed with your fingertips, about 25-30 minutes.


6. After baking, remove parchment sheet with logs still on it to a wire rack to cool for 15-20 minutes. Slice diagonally into 1/2-inch slices and place, sliced side down, back on baking sheet, no parchment necessary. Tops and bottoms can be touching since they're already cooked. Bake for 15 minutes; flip biscotti over and continue baking for 10 minutes. You're looking for a thoroughly golden color, nothing too dark since it'll detract from the flavor. Place biscotti on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Hostess Giant Orange Cupcake Birthday Cake

My mom's request for her birthday this year (earlier in November; yes, I'm behind; Happy Thanksgiving!) was for a giant Hostess Orange Cupcake cake.

I settled on a yellow cake recipe from Nick Malgieri, a vanilla pastry cream buttercream, and orange marshmallow fondant to cover the cake. This butter is for the frosting; the butter gets whipped, the pastry cream is slowly added. I liked the frosting, but at room temperature it wasn't as sturdy as a Swiss meringue buttercream, or even a regular buttercream. It did have more of the texture and taste of the vanilla filling the regular snack cakes have, though there's room for improvement.

If you don't like fondant, I urge you to try marshmallow fondant. In fact, I will pester you until you do. Not only is it incredibly simple, but so tasty that you'll want to pinch pieces off and eat it. The bad part is that I broke my hand held mixer because I continued to use it instead of using a giant wooden spoon once I realized it might be too thick. But now you know that it's possible to mix it by hand! At a certain point I began kneading the fondant and it was all really easy. I added the flavoring (orange oil) and food color (orange, obviously) after the marshmallows were melted.

Easy to roll out with a bit of confectioners' sugar to keep the fondant from sticking to the surface. I quickly realized that I should have halved the recipe; even now, a few weeks layer, half of the fondant remains.

And here we are, a giant Hostess Orange Cupcake, complete with the squiggly line across the top.

The cake was a hit, and Mom was very pleased! We decided the coating should probably be an orange white chocolate ganache next time, but none of us picked the marshmallow fondant off the cake.

Happy Birthday!

lime wreaths, aka ciambelle

Whilst normally I refrain from any sort of Christmas baking, carol-listening, decoration setting things until immediately after Thanksgiving, that didn't keep me from perusing the Christmas Martha Stewart magazine.

I saw a recipe for "lemon wreaths", basically a traditional Italian cookie called ciambelle. Shaped into a circle, dipped in icing, then sprinkled, these don't have to be a Christmas cookie depending on the type of sprinkles you use. I also didn't have any lemons, so I subbed lime zest and juice. The sugar gets pulverized a bit with the rind before mixing it with the butter. It smelled awesome.

The process of shaping is pretty simple, just scoop the appropriate portion of dough, roll it into a rope, attach the two ends together. My brother and I realized too late that we were rolling the ropes out too much and the cookies ended up being larger as a result, but good and pretty nonetheless.

After being banked and cooled, the cookies are dipped in a lime glaze and sprinkled with nonpareils. Rather simple, yet very elegant in its simplicity.

I admit to being wary about making this recipe in the first place. Last time I tried a recipe like this (from a different source, and shaped into knots instead of wreaths), the end result was rather doughy and very meh. Either the recipe was quite unlike this, or my baking skills just weren't as developed then. Whichever it was, they just weren't worth the time. This, however, made me feel bad about cutting the recipe in half.

Not here. Because here, the cookies were soft and somewhat crispy like a shortbread, thought the texture wasn't as "fine". The lime glaze added a tangy-sweet element that complimented the cookie, and I loved the crunch from the sprinkles.

Also great about these, you can change the flavor up to whatever you please. Lemon, orange, even grapefruit. Don't want a citrus flavor? No problem, leave it out, add some coconut or strawberry extract. I bet that rum flavored extract would actually lend an intriguing flavor. Add a spice if you want.

One thing I noticed is that the dough was quite sticky, and I realized this after mixing in all the flour and didn't want to add more afterwards to keep from handling the dough too much. Chilling the dough for a while worked, though it was still on the sticky side and the board needed to be kept lightly floured, but not too much so that the dough didn't stick to itself when attached. Despite that, these came together quickly.

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Christine's Lemon Wreaths
From Martha Stewart Living, December 2009

Make 6 dozen

ingredient ~

For the cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For the glaze
3 cups confectioners' sugar
7 to 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons white nonpareils, for sprinkling

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Make the cookies: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Pulse the sugar and zest in a food processor until combined, about 2 minutes.


2. Beat sugar-zest mixture and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until combined. (After this I chilled the dough for about an hour or so.)


3. Scoop 1 tablespoon dough (or use a 1 1/8-inch ice cream scoop), and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart, as you work. Bake until pale golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.


4. Make the glaze: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the top side of each cookie into glaze, letting the excess drip off. Return cookies to wire racks, glaze sides up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely. (Decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

gingerbread biscotti

Sometimes I forget I have a blog, a place where I saved what I did and can reference later on in the future if I have questions. Like when I couldn't remember if I split the dough in half, or in thirds because I like small biscotti.

I wanted to try some gingerbread biscotti. Though it's more of a winter flavor than fall, it has ginger and that is fallish. I needed some for a package I sent out and some simply to nosh on.

I Googled quite a few recipes as my starting point. From there, I set out to adapt my biscotti to emulate Once Upon A Tart's biscotti. I don't always follow their methods, but thanks to how they prepare their biscotti you have the option of eating it plain (without dipping it in a beverage) and not worrying you'll break a tooth. Though the texture is thoroughly crunchy, it's still perfectly bite-through-able.

So about the recipe. I read through the reviews for various recipes I looked up. Some thought it was perfect as is, while some had a few complaints about it. Many felt the spices needed to be increased to achieve a stronger gingerbread flavor, but some thought it was fine as is. In my recipe, I added about a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger, but I forgot to add 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper to enhance the spiciness. I increased the flour in my modified version, but forgot to increase the spices to compensate. Everything thought it had a good balance as it was. The white chocolate drizzles contrasted nicely, too.

Overall, the flavor and texture was close to how I envisioned a gingerbread biscotto to taste like. It was spicy and had depth of flavor. The flavors also pair perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea and would make a perfect gift for the holidays.

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gingerbread biscotti with white chocolate drizzles
Recipe by Christina Provo

ingredients ~

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground ginger
3/4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz. white chocolate melted in a double boiler with 1 tablespoon shortening

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. line baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt with the spices in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.


2. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until yolks become pale yellow and thick, about 2-3 minutes. Blend in fresh ginger, then molasses.


3. In another bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. With the mixer still on high, beat in the remaining sugar. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. gently stir in the butter and orange extract. Gradually stir in dry ingredients into wet, until the dough forms a ball.


4. Divide dough in thirds and pat out to 2 inches in diameter and about 10 inches long. Bake until the top of the log is golden brown and firm when pressed with your fingers, about 25-35 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and transfer parchment with the logs onto wire racks to cool completely.


5. With a serrated knife, slice each log, on the diagonal, into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices, depending on your preference. Place, cut side down, back on an unlined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes on either side. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.


6. Drizzle white chocolate over cooled biscotti; alternatively, dip the biscotti in the white chocolate (you may need to melt more if you do this) and place on sheets of wax paper to harden.

chocolate chip cookie taste test

The whole reason for this taste test was because I messed up. Sure, I could blame it on watching a baseball game, or browsing the internet (I often bring my laptop into the kitchen), but when it takes you 40 minutes to prep ingredients you're probably bound to make mistakes.

Fortunately, I think it was that type of revolutionary breakthrough mistake! Ha. So, I set out to make the chocolate chip cookies in the Once Upon A Tart cookbook. The difference between this recipe and the Nestle version is all brown sugar instead of part white (it actually asks for light brown sugar, but I only had dark), half a stick more butter, more flour, and an increase in the baking soda and salt due to the obvious flour increase. They weren't setting out to reinvent the timeless chocolate chip cookie, but create a simple version of a classic.

My mistake started back when I let myself be sidetracked. You see, I meant to halve the recipe, which I did except for the chocolate chips, the baking soda, and the salt. Well, I didn't realize this until after I had eaten one and remarked on the amazing caramel-esque flavor, the fact that the cookies, made with dough that had not been chilled, didn't spread to the thinness of a dime, and that they had a special taste that you don't often taste in typical recipes.

These are some of the first batch after having refrigerated for 2 days. They still came out the same as the first day. While they didn't spread as much and as a result were thicker, they weren't cakey but still chewy.

The cookies were loaded with chocolate chips, which I thought would upset the dough-to-chip balance. Thankfully, it didn't.

Let's talk about salt: You definitely could taste that there was more salt, yet it was not salty. In fact, I feel (and so do two others) that the extra salt brought out the flavor of the cookie more and gave it some depth otherwise not present.

You can see how this batch, made with the correct amount of all ingredients, spread more, even after having chilled for a day. Since it had been chilled, however, they didn't spread out too much. In the dough, you could taste more of the vanilla extract. Not in the finished cookie, though, and the taste was standard.

The general consensus was that the cookies with extra salt and baking soda contributed a "how can I replicate this at home/why don't my cookies taste like this?" that I thought were even better than the cookies where I didn't mess up.

So. I don't know what to tell you. You could try out my wacky version to see if I'm cracked, or you could follow the recipe as stated to create regular chocolate chip cookies. I hope you appreciate that I made two batches to test the difference just for you, although you didn't get to eat any of them!

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Best Big Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Once Upon A Tart

Makes 18 big cookies or 54 smaller cookies

ingredients ~
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (my addition)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (or 3 teaspoons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or 3 teaspoons)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips; or 12 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces (or doubled the amount)

directions ~

1. Position your oven racks so that one is in the center, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a big bowl, using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer on high speed (or a sturdy wire whisk), until they are fluffy and light lemon-yellow in color, about 5 minutes. Mix in espresso powder. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.


3. In a separate, medium-size bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Gradually add this to wet ingredients, using the paddle attachment of your mixer on low speed )or stirring with a wooden spoon) until no flour is visible. Then stir in the chocolate chips.


4. To make big cookies, use a 1/3-cup measuring cup or your hand (eyeballing for size) to scoop out the dough. Roll the dough for each cookie between your hands into a ball. Have some flour handy to dust your hands in case the dough is too stick to work with. Place the balls on your baking sheet (greased or lined with parchment), leaving 2 inches between them, and flatten each with the heel of your hand until it is about 4 inches in diameter. To make smaller cookies, use a poon to scoop up the dough and your finger to scrape it onto the baking sheet. Drop the cookies 1 1/2 inches apart -- no flattening necessary.


5. Place the baking sheet on the center rack in the oven, and bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes (10-12 minutes for smaller cookies), or until the cookie centers no longer have the shiny look of raw dough.


6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Lift the baking sheet off the rack, and use a metal spatula to lift the cookies off the sheet and onto the rack to cool completely. If you're using parchment paper, there's no need to let the cookies cool on the rack. Slight the paper with the hot cookies off the baking sheet and onto a flat surface to cool.

Once Upon A Tart and their Pumpkin Scones

Every single fall I say I'm going to make pumpkin scones, and every single fall passes without it. Until now, when I finally decided to just make the scones and be done with it!

The recipe comes from the Once Upon A Tart cookbook and is one of my absolute favorite cookbooks. I fell in love with the twists they placed on typical recipes and the delicious pictures, the writing style, and the little tidbits of info strewn about the book.

What happens when I'm hungry and find myself at SBUX is that I stare at the glass case of baked goods that I know won't taste good. I stared at the pumpkin scones for the longest of time, but I said no. In the back of my mind I could taste the pumpkin scones I knew I needed to make and I couldn't ruin that with anything not up to snuff. I've also seen a recipe for SBUX pumpkin scones, but I didn't think I'd like them much compared to this.

So, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I made pumpkin scones. Filled with fresh cranberries, dried cranberries (both of which remind me of a pig snout), and toasted walnuts. Using more then half a pound of butter. Producing scones nearly the size of my face. I could have halved the scones, but I wanted to make the real deal. I could have halved the size of the scones I froze, but I wasn't thinking.

And I was happy. Light, moist, and fluffy. Crisp and crunchy. Pumpkiny with subtle spicing to enhance the pumpkin flavor. Just sweet enough to leave you satisfied for a treat and perfect for breakfast. Filling the kitchen with the scent of fall, though you might die from the aroma before you get around to actually tasting them.

Once again, Once Upon A Tart fails me not.

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spiced pumpkin scones with fresh cranberries
From Once Upon A Tart with minor changes by me

Makes 12 giant scones

ingredients ~
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 large eggs
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, or 1/2 cup cold yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup cold milk
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins, plumped and patted dry (I used sweetened dried cranberries, unplumped)
extra sugar for coating

directions ~

1. Position your oven racks so that one is in the center, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or just grease the damn thing).


2. Dump dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, and pulse to mix. Add the butter to the bowl all at once, and pulse until there are no chunks of butter left and mixture looks like moist crumbs. Be careful not to overwork the flour and butter. Remove the blade from the food processor, and dump the crumbs into a big bowl. (I found I had to mix half the butter with half the flour mixture at a time since my food processor wasn't big enough to hold it all.) Mix in the cranberries, walnuts, and raisins.


3. In another, small bowl, whisk the eggs to break up the yolks. Whisk in the buttermilk, butter puree, and vanilla.


4. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture just comes together, then stop. You don't want to work the dough a moment longer than necessary.


5. Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup or your hand (eyeballing for size) to scoop the batter out and plop it onto the baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between scones. Sprinkle tops with additional sugar to create a decently thick coating.


6. Place baking sheet on the center rack in the oven, and bake the scones for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.


7. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place it on a wire rack to let scones cool for a few minutes. Lift the baking sheet off the rack, and use a metal spatula to transfer the scones to the rack, or directly to the dish on which you're serving the scones. Serve fresh out of the oven or at room temperature.

These scones are huge. Either cut the recipe in half, to make six large or 12 small scones (using a 1/4 cup measuring cup and reducing the baking time by half), or make the full recipe and freeze the scones after shaping for later (wrap frozen scones individually in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer bag), adding additional baking time.

fallish things

Here's a mini round-up of a few fallish things I've made so far, starting with mini chocolate cupcakes with a dollop of cuteness.

No, those aren't bugs in my hot spiced cider, those are extra cloves which probably didn't add to the flavor much. I just love spiced cider, and it's probably my favorite part of fall!

Making spiced cider is really simple, even for one cup:

1 cup apple cider
3 orange slices
2 lemon slices
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 cinnamon stick
3-5 cloves in a tea ball

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat on medium, covered, for ten minutes or until heated thoroughly and tastes as spicy as you like (the longer it steeps, the spicier it will get). You can also make this with apple juice, or part apple-whatever and part cranberry juice.

Also, I will be entering this to Sperly's 100 post giveaway over at RunRoamRecycle.

Not butter tarts, because I used chopped dried cranberries instead of currants. I was told I failed a family recipe, though it was admitted that these looked delicious nonetheless. =D

chocolate cupcakes

When I have a hankering for cupcakes, it's usually spur-of-the-moment and I want them rather quickly. I'm looking for a moist, tender crumb that can stand alone if I don't feel like icing it with anything, something flavorful and not requiring epic steps to produce.

My go-to recipe is the Baisc (Vegan) Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Chow.com. Making just a dozen and mixing up in only two bowls and no beaters, it doesn't get any simpler than this and is just as fast as using a mix. I did adapt this to be a non-vegan recipe, replacing the soy milk-vinegar mixture with buttermilk, adding an egg, then I used half butter in the frosting recipe. Besides the almond extract, I added two teaspoons of instant coffee to the dry ingredients and you should, too.

The frosting whips up into an airy and incredibly smooth mixture -- don't even think about not using the entire amount of milk called for as it's the reason the texture is so light. Using all the frosting divvied up gives you a generous mountain o' frosting for each cupcake, and brightened with some sprinkles it's impossible to resist. Simply impossible.

End of post.

cookies of the week

In an attempt to regain control of baking habits, and also so I won't end up with fifty dozen cookies at a pop, I've decided to loosely have a "cookie of the week". While not set in stone, it gives me a guideline so I can better determine the butter usage.

These sparkly treats came from Smitten Kitchen's post about peanut butter cookies. My addition was to finely chop around a half cup of peanuts and mix in after you cream the butter and sugar. I thought of this because I wondered if a peanut butter cookie I had once might have had finely chopped pieces strewn in. Whatever you do, these are incredible, and as per her instructions, don't overbake them.

Giant ginger cookies must be made every fall, though it doesn't particularly matter what recipe you use, anything spicy is a fall cookie. These are given a kick thanks to the pepper, which I decreased to an 1/8 of a teaspoon. Plenty of spicy after-bite remained, even more so the following days. My cookies didn't come out as thick as the ones in the picture, even with refrigerating the dough; oh well. By the bye, these were made a few weeks ago.

Do you guys have a baking routine you follow, even if it's more a loose guideline?

End of post.