Christmas Cookies: Toblerone Shortbread Cookies

I met Andrea of Family & Food & Other Things on Twitter thanks to Di's Virtual Cookie Exchange. We were tweeting about the cookies we were baking when she mentioned that she baked Toblerone Shortbread Cookies. Of course I was completely enamored with the thought of using one of my favorite chocolate bars in a cookie. Andrea was kind enough to send me the link to the recipe and I happily baked up some cookies. These were a huge hit and will most definitely be on my cookie platter next year too!

Toblerone Shortbread Cookies

Makes 28 cookies

adapted from salt and serenity

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup + 2 tablespoons icing sugar

¼ cup cornstarch or rice flour

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 ounces of toblerone chocolate bar, chopped into ¼ inch chunks

Preheat oven to 350 º F.

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Sift in icing sugar and beat again until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl often. Sift in cornstarch or rice flour and blend in. Sift in all-purpose flour and salt

and mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be soft. Mix in vanilla

extract. Gently mix in toblerone chunks.

Using a small ice cream scoop (about 1 ½ inches across) scoop cookies

onto parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. You

should be able to fit 12 cookies on a 12 x 18 inch cookie sheet.

Bake on the middle rack for 9 minutes. Rotate sheet and bake another 9

minutes, until bottom of cookies are lightly browned. Remove from cookie

sheet to cool on a rack.

TWD: No Chewy, Chunky Blondies - instead: Lots of Ways Banana (Cup) Cakes

Frustration sums up my experience with the Chewy, Chunky Blondies that Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie..... I tried Nicole, I really did: I baked the blondies twice, unfortunately both times I ended up with undercooked blondies when they did test done!! Frustrated by wasting two batches of great ingredients (my add-ins were pecan, chocolate and coconut) and the tropical heat in my kitchen I finally gave up. Please check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the Chewy, Chunky Blondies here, the recipe is posted at Nicole's blog!

Last week Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities picked the Lots of Ways Banana Cake. It's called that way because you can basically put whatever you feel like into this cake and it will still turn out amazing.

I actually baked these on time but totally forgot to blog about them because I was too busy planning my upcoming trip to Paris with my mom. I only had 2 bananas, so I made half the recipes and turned the cake into cupcakes. I used coconut milk instead of sour cream and my add-ins were shredded coconut and mini-chocolate chips. The cupcakes went into the oven for 20 minutes on 350 degrees Fahrenheit, half the recipe yielded 18 cupcakes. I simply dusted the tops of the cupcakes with confectioners sugar and added a little bit of cocoa for contrast.

Two cupcakes were devoured by my parents, two I ate myself, six I gave away to my parents neighbours and four of them found their way to Amsterdam where my dad and brother finished them of. Everyone really liked them and noticed how crumbly, yet moist these were. Both the banana and the coconut flavour were quite subtle. I will be baking these again, in fact: there are six ripe bananas waiting for me in the kitchen right now!!! Go here to check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the Banana Cake, the recipe can be found at Kimberly's blog.

P.S. Check out my $70 CSN gift card giveaway: deadline is Thursday July 29th, midnight CET!

TWD: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

This week Dorie taught us how to dress up a simple chocolate loaf cake to turn it into something quite fancy. And we owe it all to Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes as she picked the Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake for this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie.

This cake was so easy to make. I started by baking the cake and then because I was in a rush I tried to take it out of the tin too early: big mistake!! I accidentally dropped half of it on the floor and unfortunately had to throw it out...

After I finally got over this tragic loss, I continued on to make the cherry syrup by combining the cherry marmalade with some water and cooking it. The cake was then cut into three pieces and each piece got smothered with the cherry syrup before it was topped with another layer of cake.

To frost the cake Dorie had us make a gorgeous chocolate sour cream frosting and I added my own touch by drizzling some miniature chocolate chips on top that I had leftover from last years trip to Canada.

The cake travelled with me to a BBQ with lots of hungry secretaries where it ended up being served up as dessert. They all enjoyed their piece. The cake was quite moist, partly due to the cherry syrup, and very dense: a small piece went a long way! I loved this cake, it reminded me of a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte I ate years ago in Germany. I will definitely be making this again, in fact I'm thinking of serving it at my birthday party!

Go here to check out the problems and questions that were discussed over at Tuesdays with Dorie. The recipe can be found over at Amy Ruth Bakes and be sure to check out the LYL to see if my fellow TWD-ers loved this cake as much as I did!

P.S. Don't forget to enter one or both of my giveaways:

- to win a surprise foodie package go here to Guess this Food, deadline is Friday 25th, midnight CET.

- to win a $70 CSN gift card go here, deadline is Saturday 26th, midnight CET.

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

Chockablock Cookies: Cookies filled with loads of goodies, such as nuts, dried fruits and coconut. These cookies were picked by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet for this weeks Tuesday with Dorie.

For nuts I used pecans and my dried fruit of choice was fat golden raisins. These tasted really good, but I think I would have loved them more without the oats! Go here to check out the recipe and here to see what my fellow TWD-ers thought of these cookies.

TWD: Coconut Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

This weeks pick for Tuesdays with Dorie made my mom really happy. I was on the lookout for a recipe I could turn into cupcakes for her birthday and because my mother loves coconut this was perfect!! Carmen of Carmen Cooks singled out Coconut Tea Cake, which can be found here on Carmens blog or on pages 194 and 195 of Baking From my Home to Yours.

The entire recipe made 36 mini cupcakes that needed 14 minutes in the oven and 18 regular-sized cupcakes that needed to bake for 20 minutes. I topped the coconut cupcakes with white chocolate icing that I found at Technicolor, then dipped them in toasted coconut. They looked pretty and tasted absolutel divine!

White chocolate icing

adapted from Technicolor Kitchen in English

500g white chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

140g unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups flaked coconut

Place the chocolate, cream and butter in a small saucepan over low heat

Stir until melted and smooth.

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

Once cool, beat with a hand-held electric mixer until thick and fluffy.

Ice the cool cupcakes and top them with the flaked coconut

No TWD - instead: Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream

No TWD for me this week, I was pooped from my cupcake bake-a-thon. This weeks recipe for TWD was picked by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, he chose Thumbprints for Us Big Guys. The recipe can be found on page 164 of Baking: From My Home to Yours or over at Mike's blog. Check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the thumbprints here.

As I mentioned in my last post my mom asked me to bake her cupcakes for her to take to work for her birthday. Because my mom works at a call center she has lots of colleagues, which meant that I had to bake loads of cupcakes. I gave my mom several options for the miniature cupcakes and she picked three of them: Strawberry Cupcakes, Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing and these Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream that I found over at Le Petit Pierogi.

This recipe made 36 miniatures (that needed 12 minutes in the oven) and 18 regular-sized (requiring 17 minutes in the oven) for me.

Ingredients

adapted from Le Petit Pierogi

For the Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

1 cup Guinness

2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

For the Baileys Irish Buttercream

3 to 4 cups confectioners sugar (I used about 3 1/2 cup)

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 to 4 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream (I used 4 tbsp)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cupcake bakingtray with liners. In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter and add Guinness, bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat eggs and sour cream until thoroughly combined. On low speed drizzle in Guinness-cocoa mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix briefly on low speed until the mixture comes together. Using a rubber spatula fold the batter until completely combined. Divide batter over cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, the mini's needed 12 minutes and the regular-sized needed 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

To make the buttercream, whip the butter in a bowl until the butter is very light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If this makes the frosting too thin, beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, I know I got my schedule screwed up: I should have posted about the Honey-Wheat Cookies that Michelle of Flourchild picked as this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie. I guess I should really start writing down what recipe I have to finish when in my agenda! I am going to bake the Honey-Wheat Cookies on my day off tomorrow and post about them Thursday :)

On to My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies: now these cookies were picked for February 16th by Kait of Kait's Place, the recipe can be found here. What can I tell you about these cookies? To be honest: not much.... Since my pain attack and loss of appetite (that lasted for over a monht) around Christmas I haven't been eating a lot of sweets: they have just lost their appeal. I can taste that they are good (or bad), but I simply don't crave them anymore. I will be seduced by the lovely smell and have a bite or two and then somehow there's an aversion to eating the rest... I must admit that this is not necessarily a bad thing as I do have to loss quite a bit of weight: by now I have lost 10,5 kilos without even dieting!!

However I can tell you that these cookies were a huge hit at work, as well as with my mom, dad an SIL. One of my colleagues actually told me that they reminded him of the Chocolate Chip Cookies he had when he was in the United States this summer: crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. You see, the CCC's that are sold here in The Netherlands are mostly chrunchy allover.... I did have my two bites of the cookie and could taste that they were really nice, but they were too sweet for me -->> see, I told you my tastebuds have changed? Cookies and such were never too sweet for me: the sweeter, the better was my motto....

Tomorrow I will tell you about my two adoptees for Adopt-a-Blogger. I'm so excited about finally participating in this event!! I'll also be posting my entry for this month's Taste & Create. And Thurday I will post my Honey-Wheat Cookies for TWD, I promiss!!

TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread

"Cake. Mmmmm. I want one more piece. Just. One. More. Fucking. Piece."
This is a quote from Sleep Talkin' Man, a blog about an English man that talks in his sleep and says really odd stuff. I recently stumbled on this blog and it's hilarious, it sure makes me smile :) Anyways, this quote expresses exactly what I though of this weeks challenge for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Steph of Obsessed with Baking picked the Cocoa-Nana Bread for us to bake this week. I love Steph's blog and wasn't very surprised to find out that she picked this recipe simply because I have seen loads of different Banana Bread recipes pop up on her blog, like this one, one with blueberries (that's light too!), one by Cook's Illustrated, one from the Silver Palate Cookbook and most recently the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. In fact I think Steph should change the name of here blog to Obsessed with Baking Banana Bread!!!

This Cocoa-Nana Bread is amazing, my sucky pictures don't do it any justice!!! I only had a tiny bit: about 1/4 of a slice, simply because my colleagues loved this so much that they devoured it in absolutely no time! In fact when my mom told that she wanted to bake something last Saturday I persuaded her to bake this bread, so I could have another slice! Some people in the P&Q-section where concerned about the banana's. In my opinion the taste of the bananas was more of an afterthought: but I liked how moist they made the bread. This is another keeper: I will be making it again soon, if not tomorrow! So thanks Steph, for picking this scrumptious Cocoa-Nana Bread!!

The recipe can be found at Steph's blog, go here to find out what the other TWD-ers thought of this recipe. Here are the TWD-recipes for February, it's gonna be a great month:

• February 2, 2010: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes, pages 188 and 189.
• February 9, 2010: Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia, page 91.
• February 16, 2010: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 68.
• February 23, 2010: Honey-Wheat Cookies, page 81.

Chocolate Covered Cornflakes: Day 8 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

World Peace Cookies: Day 5 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

So, now on to my favourite chocolate cookie ever!!! For the fifth day of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies I decided to make World Peace Cookies. We made these for Tuesdays with Dorie in february 2009 and this is another cookie that my coworkers keep requesting me to bake again!

Not only are these cookies delicious, but I also think the name is soooo good and appropriate: I mean, doesn't everybody wish for World Peace around Christmas?

The reason why Dorie Greenspan decided to rename these cookies (originally these cookies were called Pierre Hermé's Korova Cookies) after a neighbour claimed that 'a daily dose of Pierre's cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness'.

This recipe made 48 cookies and it can be found here.

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops: Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

So today is the second day of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. For today I picked Dorie Greenspans Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. We made these a while ago for Tuesdays with Dorie and the friends I shared them with loved them so much that they kept requesting me to make them again.

Photo's are from the last time I made these because I totally forgot to take pictures while baking them. One recipe made 32 cookies for me.

The recipe can be found at Confessions of a Tangerine Tart as she was the one who picked this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie. This time I got 30 cookies out of the recipe.

M&M Cookies: Day 1 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

On my search for 12 delicious cookies for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies to give away for Christmas I found a recipe for M&M Cookies over at Blisstree that sounded really appealing to me.



These were supereasy to put together, one batch made 49 cookies. I baked them for 12 minutes and they turned out perfect: the edges were crunchy whereas the middle stayed nice and chewy: yum!!



Don't you just love my new nail polish? This is 'Smitten with Mittens' by OPI, it's part of the Holiday 2009 collection and it's a gorgeous shimmery red with red/golden glitters in it!
(Sorry guys, I know this is offtopic, but I'm really loving this colour right now!!)



The bottom of these M&M cookies are sooooo cool, the colour of the M&M's sort of rubbed off on the cookies a bit, aren't they 'groovy'?


Here's the recipe, adapted from Blisstree:

M&M Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown suger
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 12 oz package M&M's baking bits (I used a 260 gram bag regular size M&M's)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I skipped these)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in M&M's and walnuts it you are using them
• Drop by heaping tablespoons about two inches apart apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-13 minutes (12 minutes wa perfect for me) or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft. Cool on cookie sheet for one minute, then transfer to wire racks.
• Makes about 3 dozen cookies (I got 49 cookies out of this recipe)
• Enjoy!!
  

Taste & Create XXIII: Chocolate Peanutbutter Bars

This month I was paired with Chaya of Sweet and Savoury Says it All for Taste and Create.
Chaya's blog is filled with delicious recipes. I wanted to surprise my coworkers with something sweet and was torn between the Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars, the Apple Streusel Topped Muffin and the Chocolate Butterscotch Bars.



Since it was that time of the month the choice was quickly made and Chocolate Butterscotch Bars it was. But then I found out that I hadn't brought home butterscotch chips from my trip to Canada but peanutbutter chips, so I subbed them. The other thing I changed was using butter instead of margarine and I left out the mocha extract. Yummy! This was gone in no time!!


Chocolate Peanutbutter Bars

1 1/8 cup all-purpouse flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanutbutter chips (I used 3/4 cup peanutbutter chips and 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips because I ran out of peanutbutter chips...)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
• Grease a 9-inch square baking pan
• Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
• In another bowl beat the sugar, butter and vanilla until creamy
• Beat in egg
• Gradually beat in the flour mixture
• Stir in 1 1/4 cups of chocolate chips and all of the nuts
• Spread into prepared pan
• Bake 20 - 23 minutes
• Remove pan to wire rack
• Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips
• Let stand for 5 minutes or until morsels are shiny; spread evenly
• Cool in pan on wire rack
• Refrigerate 5 - 10 minutes or until chocolate is set.

A very late MSC: Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes

I was supposed to blog about these great mini-cupcakes on the 15th of August, but somehow life got in the way: I was worried about my dog, going from one vet-appointment to another, swamped at work and the last couple of days battling a cold an fatigue.

But, finally here they are: Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes for MS: Cupcake Club. As I had just started my diet I didn't try the whole finished product, I sampled a tiny bit of the cake, the frosting and the salted caramel. Everything tasted great on its own and my coworkers assured me that the complete cupcake was amazing too!

I only made half the recipe, which resulted into 32 mini-cupcakes. It's probably time to start saving up money for a candy thermometer, as I keep making recipes where I need one. This time I decided to wing it and try to make the caramel using a very simple tool: my eyes....

Check out here what everyone else thought of these cupcakes!