Just Love-ly Heart Brownies

Chocolate+Butter=Love

 My favorite decadent, fudgy brownies had made a few appearances as footballs. Now it was time to take them a more girly direction, and time to break my inadvertent post-holiday baking fast.

Don't forget Feb. 15, a.k.a. post-Valentine's chocolate sale day.

The next most exciting day on my food calendar? Whenever I can have my natural light for photos back in the evenings!

Recipe: Outrageous Brownies

Previous Valentine's Week Posts:
Chocolate Cake Balls
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Molten Chocolate Cakes

Carrot Souffle

I am thankful to the Lord for sides dishes that are better than turkey.

I am thankful for friends who tried the funky orange dish — is it sweet potatoes? is it carrots? — at PreThanksgiving Thanksgiving and  got word of the discovery of its tastiness to me down the 28-person table. --> -->

I am thankful for friends down the street who open their home, and for the gloriousness of blue sky and autumn leaves and sunshine I got to joyously embrace as I walked to and from said home. 

I am thankful that crunchy, dense carrots can be cooked and then rid of their pungent carrot-i-ness and fluffed up into a dessert-like souffle.

I am thankful to have the gift of solitary time to think as I washed, peeled, chopped and boiled two pounds of carrots.

And on a slightly unrelated note, I am thankful for roommate humor in my kitchen.

Flag Fruit Tart for the Fourth

The Fourth of July started with a flurry of butter, sugar, butter, cream and butter: a White Texas Sheet Cake; a vanilla custard base for ice cream; and most festively, a shortbread cookie topped with thick, vanilla pastry cream and carefully placed blueberries and strawberries.

And then I had to take advantage of the greenery around me on the lake and play with my brother's fish eye lens. It makes everything a little funky.

Easter M&M Cookie Bars

The latest in my chocolate chip cookie obsession: Add a heaping cup of dark chocolate M&Ms to a cup of semi-sweet chips in Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

 

You might just have to bake another batch to replicate that perfect gooey texture in each square that you can't get with round spoons full of dough, no matter how much chocolate you add. Then you can pack them in a pretty tin, carry them onto a plane and share with friends in a far off land like Texas for  sugar power to survive, quite joyfully, hours of bridal shopping.

 

But first, take food photos in your backyard, even if their beauty might prevent you from being able to face a kitchen table shoot again.

Happy Easter week! May yours be filled with the darkness of the crucifixion and the hope and power of the Resurrection.

More Easter treats:
Friday Brownie Bites, Sunday Blondie Bites 
Easter Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Double-Doozie Cookies

Presenting this week's iteration of the [homemade] chocolate chip cookie: the kind filled with icing a la the Great American Cookie Company "double doozie."

Like last year, the sea of St. Patty's Day green in the bakery at the grocery store sang the siren song of festive baking. And what temptresses of sinful sugary delight it inspired!

When you combine the best of the simple-from-scratch sweets, Tollhouse cookies and buttercream icing, how can you create a treat that lasts longer than 24 hours? It's quite impossible if you share at all.

Update: I took these to a family who had a recently had a baby and got a report that they were eaten for breakfast, minutes after they got dropped off with dinner for that night. This is also the dessert that one of my interns has most often referred back to as being "really good." 

Holiday Tamale Party

When I saw tamales, the real deal and not the generic Mexican restaurant version, for sale at Christmastime in Birmingham thanks to HICA (The Hispanic Interest Organization of Alabama), I thought one thing: tamale party.

Thanks to my friend Brianne, a tamale dinner party we had!

And thanks to gathering two Cooking Light editors, one Cooking with Paul Deen Magazine test kitchen professional, and two former Southern Living/MyRecipes.com editors, our spread was quite festively colorful and delicious. We might not all work together anymore, but fortunately, some of our original Southern Progress potluck crew can still reunite, over a meal of course.

Tamales, Citrus and Jicama Salad, Cranberry Christmas Salsa

Menu:

Margaritas

Tortilla Chips

Guacamole
(Traditional) Salsa

Cranberry Christmas Salsa (from Renee)

Pork Tamales, Poblano Pepper Tamales (from HICA)

Citrus and Jicama Salad

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie (from Cooking Light)

Merry Christmas Eating Season!

Christmas Gifts: Chocolate-y Brownies and Buttery Cookies

I baked for Christmas.

I baked buttery, nutty Wedding Cookies and my favorite fudge-like brownies from scratch, two recipes each, meaning ridiculous amounts of butter and sugar.

I baked for the wonderful people who put up with my crazy editing habits every single day, that means at work and in everyday life for those poor people who know me well enough.

I put my baked goods in the freezer.

I bought tins, treat boxes and mini cupcake liners from Hobby Lobby.

Then I put it all together all pretty-like each day that I saw a person I felt needed a sugary "Merry Christmas," Madoline-style.

Oh, and I also stuffed mini Oreos in chocolate chip cookies to gift and cookie-exchange, but they weren't quite as ridiculously good as the ones I stuffed with full-sized Oreos.

What are you making to give this season?

Friday Brownie Bites, Sunday Blondie Bites

Those who know me well know I think far too much. So when my church small group decided to make cookies to help people stay awake for six hours of Bible teaching Friday night at a Secret Church simulcast, my mind went crazy thinking of ways to let Easter symbolism, along with butter and sugar, be the inspiration of my confections.

I couldn’t quite fit the full symbolic explanation onto the note card that labeled my baked goods at Secret Church, but the ever-gifted expositor David Platt’s teaching on the complexity and mystery of crucifixion and salvation took to all 50,00 of us listening to spiritual depths even my over-thinking mind had never been.

Friday Brownie Bites
I put my mini muffin tins to work by making uber-chocolatey brownie bites (no mint icing this time). They’re dark and heavy, just as was the sorrow of the mocking and brutality Christ humbly took on Friday. But chocolate is also really good, you know, like Good Friday—the beauty of the love God so showed by putting all the sins anyone ever does or thinks on his son and by sacrificing him for crazy humans like me that will never ever, ever even begin to measure up to his goodness and grace.

Sunday Blondie Bites
Likewise, I made light and bright-colored blondies to contrast the beauty and hope of Sunday with the dark despair of Friday.

Over the past few months I’ve been contemplating just what hope and power there is in a God who raises a very dead, very buried man to life again and what hope I can take in knowing he is shaping my life and whatever crazy things are going in the world. It’s that hope that pastel-colored peanut butter eggs stuffed into buttery cookie dough represent.

As I’ve walked with friends through periods of waiting and waiting and waiting for a job (thanks, economy), a move, life direction, healing—just as people were waiting and waiting for the first Easter Sunday—God has so revealed “Sunday” moments with direction in unexpected ways, gifts that point so obviously to their giver. In dark times, I always like to think on: “It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming.”

Truthfully, these were a case of desperation leads to innovation. I simply wanted to make “Sunday” cookies with pastel Easter M&Ms, but they were nowhere to be found. Reese’s Pieces eggs were the next best thing on the Easter candy aisle, and even without chocolate, they were quite delectable like the Blondies with Reese I based them off of.

Mint-Iced Brownie Bites

Don't go into the grocery store a few days before St. Patrick's Day. The bakery section will grab hold of you and force you to adjust your productive plans for the day to make something green and sugary.

I skipped the clover art and went for a green that had a culinary purpose beyond green dye. Okay, the frosting had food dye in it, but it felt more legit with peppermint flavor.

I had feared these guys wouldn't match up to the Brownie Bites with cream cheese frosting sold at fine natural grocery stores. I was doubtful when cutting a super hot brownie out of the tin led to a crumbly yet deliciously chocolatey mess. Then, once I remembered this thing  called patience and let them cool slightly, a perfect shape popped out and tasted even better because it wasn't burning my tongue. They've got crispy edges for you strange outer brownie eaters, and gooey insides for we enlightened inside brownie eaters.

Chocolate Florentine Cookies

A photo of these cookies stared at me whilst I waited in the checkout line at the grocery store. "We elegant chocolate-filled lace cookies," it said, "look like a Pepperidge Farm Brusels, but our crisp, buttery, homemade taste trumps them. Bake us so you can find how great we are for yourself. PLEASE!!"

Luckily, I had just enough wait time to flip through the book and find the name of the recipe. Then I could be cheap and google the recipe instead of buy the Nestle baking book whose cover it graced (sorry, Nestle, but I did give you page views to find the recipe). Nestle says use milk chocolate chips, but I say semi-sweet is better, based on my bias against milk chocolate.

What better New Year's resolution could there be than learning to make fancy-looking cookies that everyone will so enjoy? Maybe my photo will stare at you and say, "Do it!"? (It's not too hard; you just have to have the time and patience to make sandwiches.)

6 Cookies for Christmas

Christmas time is cookie time, and these are my favorites. Take out a couple of sticks of butter, bake you some cookies, eat a few while they're in their most perfect state (hot out of the oven), and share with special people in your life.

Wedding Cookies
For: People Who Put Butter on Everything
What: Buttery, powder sugar-coated shortbread with pecans

Peppermint Bonbon Cookies
For: Ones Who Start Celebrating Christmas in September
What: Soft, chocolate-intense cookie filled with peppermint pieces

Pecan Squares
For: Pecan Pie Aficionados
What: Shortbread crust topped with a slightly gooey toffee-pecan mixture (Ok, they're not really cookies. But bars are the next closest thing.)

Malted Chocolate Cookies
For: Those Who Can't Eat Just One Cookie
What: Colossal cookies packed with three kinds of chocolate and a secret ingredient

Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

For: Crazies Who Prefer Something Other Than Chocolate
What: Chewy cookies with crisp edges, filled with not raisins but toffee pieces

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
For: Chocoholics
What: Rich brownie-like cookies that make a festive presentation

Monday Sweets: Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies

You know those super-soft sugar cookies with gobs of icing from the grocery store that everyone loves? Yeah, they are one grocery store cookie I can get seriously addicted to. After racking my brain for a new festive Fourth of July after-lunch dessert idea, I thought of them, or a homemade version of them, and Google found me a recipe that looked delectable.

The cookies puffed up while they baked to a nice cake-like consistency. They're just barely sweet, which provides excuse to load them up with icing and sprinkles.

Warning: These are way more work than your standard drop cookies. The dough has to sit overnight. And then you have to roll them out and cut them into shape, and after baking, there's icing and decorating. But they are worth it for taste and presentation if you have the time.

Also, the four dozen or so it yielded was enough for a huge crowd, and at the end of a late-night baking session, I only had the energy to ice half of them with my buttercream frosting (a.k.a. best icing ever). I suggest halving the recipe.

I like to use a jar as a cookie cutter because it has a built-in handle. I didn't have a star-shaped cutter (only the whole alphabet and any Christmas shape imaginable), which would have stepped up the festive element.

World Cup Party

Like any significant sporting event, the World Cup calls for festive eating, and my friend Ellie, whom I was visiting in Baltimore last weekend, planned a perfect party meal for the U.S. vs. England game. Being the cooking enthusiasts that we are, we visiting friends jumped in to help prep the food.

We grilled burgers and dogs for 'Merica.

And we embarked on what was some of ours first deep frying experience for fish...

...and chips for our archenemy across the pond. Note the seething cauldron of oil...ewww.

Now, we also wanted to commemorate being in the great city of BalDimore (as I learned you say it) with our party food, so we added some authentic native beer to the fish batter. Natural Bohemian Beer "Natty Bo" has price and taste  similar to its nickname brother, "Natty Light."

My friend Lindsey got so into the Natty Bo experience that she added a bit to her wonderful guacamole. I  couldn't taste the beer, but Lindsey's taste must be more acute than mine because she could. (At this point we got off our U.S./England theme and made what sounded good—and just so happened to follow a world theme, like guacamole for Mexico.)

I was in charge of the sangria, our Spanish representation, and tragically, didn't think to pour the remainder of the beer into the mixture of red wine, lemonade mix, club soda, oranges, and strawberries. Fortunately, it was still unbelievably refreshing and fruity.

Just to be sure we had more than enough food for the crowd and because our faithful potato chopper was willing, we baked some sweet potato fries, too. At the suggestion of Lindsey and her fiance, rosemary and pepper made for the perfect complementary seasoning with a kick; no need for any honey mustard like I usually like. Sweet potatoes are of Latin American origin, but we Americans were probably the ones that decided to fry them, because that's how we roll.

Recap: Amazing fellowship over food with good friends. And we tied England.

Have you made or eaten anything special for World Cup viewing?

Memorial Day Weekend Menu

My fellow fellow (full-time intern) Lisa blogged about the Memorial Day feast we made at the lake last weekend over at You've Got to Taste This on MyRecipes.com. Check it out for a full run-down of our gouda-and-pear paninis, chocolate strawberry cupcakes, sangria, feta spread, grilled veggie pasta (pictured below), kiwi sorbet, and our attempt to burn off a few of those calories. The only thing Lisa left out in her vegetarianness was that the rest of the party put chicken on our pasta and prosciutto on our paninis —   and the peach pancakes we had already polished off when she arrived.

I will blog about these recipes eventually. I tend to cook a bunch and then strew writing and producing posts them out over several weeks (and sometimes months). 

Recipe: Bourbon Balls

Just when I thought butter+sugar+chocolate couldn't get more sinful, I discovered Bourbon Balls, which add a little whiskey to the mix. The bourbon buttercream-and-pecan-filled chocolate ball is way rich, like a truffle. You definitely taste the bourbon, but there was enough sugar involved that I truly enjoyed for the taste of whiskey for the first time...ever.

I might not be watching the Derby today (shameful me, for some reason crawfish+concerts+rain won out), but this taste of Kentucky was quite satisfactory. After promoting Derby recipes all week like it was my job (because it is my job), I couldn't help but make something from Southern Living's collection.

(Pre-chocolate dunking balls are on the left.)

Easter Cupcakes

Happy Easter! I celebrated in part by baking, of course-- Devil's food cupcakes topped with different shades of buttercream frosting and Whoppers robin eggs.

I decided to get color happy with the cupcakes because they simply feel so cheery and Easter-y. But now that I think about it, Easter's bright colors and the new life symbolism of eggs are representative of Christ's Resurrection. So there, cupcakes can be a religious experience beyond the decadent sugary taste.

Recipe: Tiramisu Toffee Trifle Pie

This festive layered dessert looks and tastes super fancy but was pretty simple to make. It was so photogenic for the pros that it made the  2000 Southern Living holiday dessert spread. 

Layer 1: slices of pound cake drizzled with coffee (I made decaf in my coffee pot so I could be a good old lady and get to sleep at night.)

Layer 2: a mix of chocolate syrup, cream cheese and Cool Whip that tastes like a light chocolate cheesecake

Layer 3: chopped toffee bars (or chopped whatever-chocolate-you-have-in-your-pantry, which was dark chocolate, milk chocolate-almond bar and toffee bits for me)

Bonus: The way these three layers enhance each other's flavors is a sum even better than its parts.

Tiramisu Toffee Trifle Pie

1 1/2  tablespoons  instant coffee granules

3/4  cup  warm water

1  (10.75-ounce) frozen pound cake, thawed

1  (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2  cup  powdered sugar

1/2  cup  chocolate syrup

1  (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed and divided

2  (1.4-ounce) English toffee candy bars, coarsely chopped

Stir together coffee and 3/4 cup warm water until coffee is dissolved. Cool.

Cut cake into 14 slices. Cut each slice in half diagonally. Place triangles in bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pieplate. Drizzle coffee mixture over cake.

Beat mascarpone cheese, sugar, and chocolate syrup at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add 2 1/2 cups whipped topping, and beat until light and fluffy.

Spread cheese mixture evenly over cake. Dollop remaining whipped topping around edges of pie. Sprinkle with candy. Chill 8 hours.

Books and Bites: Peppermint Bonbon Cookies

The dark color of this chocolate-peppermint bite beat out the darkness of the stories in David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice for book club this month.

The chocolate-intense cookie is soft, but the crushed peppermint adds a nice crunch and stronger mint flavor that brings out the mint in the chocolate dough. They look and taste like Christmas to me. The recipe requires that you allow the dough to get firm in the fridge, and rolling the balls of dough and then pressing in peppermint pieces turned out to be quite time- consuming. But masterpieces take time, right? 

If you make small dough balls like me, you'll end up with a large plate full of cookies. I brought mine to serve at an awards reception (where they garnered several compliments and a recipe request) and still had more than enough to stuff my face back home and freeze a bunch for visitors later. The recipe came from one of member's cousins, who got it Oxmoor House (who has a nifty how-to video for the recipe online).

Peppermint Bonbon Cookies

8  ounces  bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used chocolate chips)

1/2  cup  unsalted butter

1 1/2  ounces  unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2  cup  finely crushed hard peppermint candies (or candy canes)

6  tablespoons  granulated sugar

3  large eggs

1  teaspoon  vanilla extract

1  teaspoon  peppermint extract

1 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour

3/4  teaspoon  baking powder

1/4  teaspoon  salt

1/2  cup  semisweet chocolate morsels

Additional coarsely crushed hard peppermint candies, divided

1/2  cup  powdered sugar (optional)

2 1/2  teaspoons  milk (optional)

1/2  cup  semisweet chocolate morsels, melted (optional)

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; cook over low heat until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and stir in 1/2 cup crushed peppermint and 6 Tbsp. sugar. Let cool 30 minutes.

Add eggs to melted chocolate, 1 at a time, stirring well. Stir in extracts.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to chocolate mixture, stirring until combined. Stir in chocolate morsels. Cover and chill dough 2 hours or until firm enough to shape.

Shape dough into 1 1/2" balls; place on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake at 325° for 12 to 13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and cracked on top. Sprinkle coarsely crushed peppermints onto cookies; press candy lightly into cookies. Let cookies cool 5 minutes on baking sheets. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Whisk together powdered sugar and milk; drizzle over cooled cookies, if desired. Drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired. Sprinkle cookies again with chopped peppermint, if desired. Let cookies stand until glaze and chocolate are firm.

Recipe: Oatmeal 4th of July Cookies

I decided to break from my Tollhouse cookie obsession and try a more festive oatmeal cookie that met my requirement for sufficient amounts of chocolate by tweaking this Cook's Illustrated recipe on Who Wants Seconds?. These turned out more crispy than chewy, and even though I personally prefer chewy, they were still quite buttery-chocolatey tasty. 

One word of caution: take these off the cookie sheet immediately. Otherwise you might have to hack at them with a spatula with great force like I did after waiting a little more than 5 minutes. Then again, there's always the possibility that I screwed up something to create this special glue-like bond with the cookie sheet. 

Also, Mars really should consider more widely distributing red, white and blue m&m's in late June. I was dedicated enough to this baking cause to sort one cup of red and blue candies from a large bag of regular ones, but this could end in an unpatriotic disaster if put in the hands of a less anal-retentive baker.

Crispy Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and M&M Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

3 cups oats

1 cup m&ms

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preaheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, by hand or by mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugars and beat the mixture until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time.

4. Stir dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture with a wooden spoon or a large rubber spatula. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

5. Place dough cookie sheets by large spoonfuls (about 2 tablespoons each), leaving at least 2 inches between.

6. Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Slide cookies onto cooling rack. Let cool, and store in airtight container.

(Madoline's lazy version: Skip step 2. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder in step 3 without mixing together beforehand.)