Brownies Diabolique

From the kitchen of Auntie Bucksnort.  

Cream:

¾ cup butter

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tbl. vanilla

Sift & fold in:

1 cup flour

¼ cup cocoa

½ tsp. salt

Fold in:

2 ½ cups chocolate chips

Bake 350 for 40 minutes

Almond Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Mix together with paddle attachment in stand mixer. Whip at high speed for five minutes.

Add:
1 cup almond butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Continue whipping for another two to three minutes.

Sift together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt

Add sifted ingredients to the first mixture. Stir just until completely blended.

Chill dough for at least an hour. Don't skip this step.

Drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets, 1/4 cup for each cookie. Cookies should be four inches apart.

Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes. Let cool on the parchment paper. Store in freezer bags. Makes abou 21 large cookies.

Chocolate Pecan Pie Cookies

I found this recipe on the A Dash of Sanity Blog here. It immediately became a family favorite, so I want it here for easy access.

This chocolate cookie is chewy and quite delicious, with or without the pecan pie filling topping.

1. Prepare the filling:

2 Tbl. melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix all together in saucepan and cook over medium heat until just thickened to the consistency of pudding. Set aside to cool.

2. Preheat oven to 375 F and line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

3. Mix dough for cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten

2 - 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt

Sift dry ingredients together. Mix butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs well. Stir in the dry ingredients.

4. Bake

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets, 12 per sheet. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes, remove from oven and drop one tablespoonful of pecan filling on each. Return cookies to oven and bake for another 4 minutes.

Let cool on baking sheets. If freezing, to keep them from sticking together, place cookies in a single layer and freeze solid before placing in freezer bags.

Al Sicherman's Extreme Brownies

EXTREME BROWNIES

Makes 24.

Al Sicherman said: This is my favorite brownie recipe. I make it almost nonstop. I always top the brownies with chocolate ganache (see recipe) - half of it poured on and the other half chilled, whipped and pooted out into rosettes. Between the brownies, which are very chocolatey, and the ganache, this is one intensely chocolate experience.

1 c. chopped pecans

2/3 c. (10 2/3 tbsp.) butter or margarine

2 (12-oz.) bags semisweet chocolate chips, divided

1 c. minus 2 tbsp. sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. plus 2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9- by 13-inch pan.

Toast the pecans in a heavy frying pan over low-medium heat, about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they become fragrant and begin to color. Set aside.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt together the butter and 1 bag (2 cups) of the chocolate chips, stirring constantly. Pour the mixture into the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat in the sugar, then the eggs (two at a time), and the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and briefly beat into the batter. Stir in the pecans and the remaining bag (2 cups) of chips. Bake about 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center (try several places — you might hit a chocolate chip) comes out clean.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Enough to glaze and make rosettes for 1 pan of brownies.This is wonderful stuff; save the recipe even if you don't want it for brownies. When warm, it's a wonderful glaze; chilled and whipped it's terrific cake frosting — and excellent truffles. If you're using it for brownies and you don't have a pastry bag to make rosettes, make only half of this recipe and just pour it over the brownies.

1½ c. heavy cream

4 tbsp. (½ stick) butter

1 (12-oz.) bag semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Combine the cream and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and bring just to the boil, stirring occasionally to melt the butter.

Pour into the small bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips, stirring until they are largely melted. Beat on low speed until the mixture is smooth and uniform. Pour about half of the ganache over the pan of brownies. Cool completely, then cut and chill.

Chill the rest of the ganache in the mixer bowl with the beaters 30 minutes or more, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is cool and resembles thick cream.

Whip the chilled ganache until it is as stiff as whipped cream and pipe rosettes onto the chilled brownies. Wow. (You might have some left over; you'll figure out what to do with it.)

AL SICHERMAN

Obituary: Food writer, author and humorist Al Sicherman

Nutrition information per serving (using half the ganache to glaze):

Calories: 340

Fat: 23 g

Sodium: 130 mg

Carbohydrates: 35 g

Saturated fat: 12 g

Calcium: 38 mg

Protein: 4 g

Cholesterol: 60 mg

Dietary fiber: 3 g

Diabetic exchanges per serving: 1 bread/starch, 1½ other carb, 4½ fat.

Shetland-Style Flapjacks

Shetland Islands Coast not far from Lerwick
By Mænsard Vokser - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36251924

When I read about about flapjacks for tea in the books by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Island Mysteries), I had to look for a recipe to find out what they were. As far as I've ever known, flapjacks are cowboy-style pancakes cooked over an open fire.

These are something very different.

They are delicious! The recipe I found on Shetland Tea Recipes was measured out in grams. Luckily I had both an online metric converter for grams to ounces, and a little cooking scale. The effort to translate it all was well worth it.

Sadly, I didn't have the "jumbo-rolled oats" or golden syrup that were called for. However, regular quick oats and some vanilla syrup I had on hand made for a delicious flapjack. Authentic? I guess not, but still delicious.

Last issue: The recipe called for a Swiss roll tin; I had to look that up, too. Didn't have one, used a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper is a must, this is a sticky mixture.

*****

The recipe, in my words:

Mix together in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until well mixed and the butter is melted:

115 g. dark brown sugar (1/2 cup, packed)
115 g. butter (1 stick)
1 generous tbl. golden syrup (American cooks, use your imagination. Golden syrup is available in our stores, but other syrups will do nicely)

Stir in 175 g jumbo-rolled oats (2 1/3 cups). Again, regular quick rolled oats seemed to do the trick.

Press onto a parchment-lined Swiss roll tin (or a cookie sheet if your international cooking equipment supply is limited). I spread out the mixture to about 8 x 8 inches square.

Bake at 190 C/375 F for 10-15 minutes. Cut into squares very soon after removing from the oven or they'll be difficult to deal with later.

Serve with a big brown pot of tea. In a fog, with fog horns. On an island.

Auntie's Lemon Bars

In her own words:

Oven at 325 degrees.

1 c. butter

2 c. flour

1/2 c. powdered sugar

Press into a greased 12" x 8" pan; bake 20 min.

4 eggs

2 c. sugar

4 T. flour

1/4 c. lemon juice (I use more)

2 T. grated lemon peel (I use more)

Beat until very foamy, pour on top, bake 20 more min. (I go a little longer to make sure it's doesn't end up too goopy), sprinkle w/ powdered sugar, cut while still hot (especially loosening edge). it makes that nice crispy surface all by itself!

Barb's Biscochitos

This recipe comes from the novel, Pie Town, by Lynne Hinton (Morrow, 2011).

3 cups sugar
2 cups shortening* 
4 eggs
dash of salt
2 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. cream of tartar
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tbl. anise seed
cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix first four ingredients together until blended. Sift baking soda and cream of tartar with the flour, and stir into sugar mixture. Mix in the anise seed. 

Shape dough into balls and roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350 F. for 12 to 16 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Be sure to take these cookies out of the oven before they are brown. They get crunchy when cooled, so if you like them soft, eat some a couple of minutes after they come out of the oven. 

Lynn Hinton's note: [Recipe comes] from Barb Hively, owner of Cravin' Cookies and More Bakery, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

*My note: Lard is traditionally used in New Mexico for these cookies.

Italian Pignoli Amaretti - Pine Nut Cookies

These holiday cookies are a legend in Beez's family. They are expensive to make, so will only be making another appearance at our house next Christmas. 

Thank you, DonnaSue, for this recipe. 

2 (8-ounce) cans almond paste (not marzipan), coarsely crumbled*
1 1/2 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoons mild honey
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) pine nuts 

* It is important to use canned almond paste only (the type sold in tubes is too crumbly and will not give the cookies the right consistency).

Preheat oven to 350°F. Either line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. 

In a food processor, pulse almond paste until broken up into small bits, then add powdered sugar and salt; continue to pulse until finely ground, about 1 minute. Add egg whites and and honey; process until well combined. 

NOTE: Have a bowl of water near to dip your fingers in before rolling each cookie. This will keep the dough from sticking to your fingers. 

Using a rounded teaspoon for each cookie, roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cooking sheets. Lightly flatten each cookie and press some pine nuts into each cookie to cover. 

Bake cookies in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, approximately 12 to 15 minutes until lightly golden brown and soft and springy. Remove from oven and and transfer to wire racks to cool completely before serving.

The cookies can by prepared up to 3 weeks ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

*****

Here are a couple more notes for you: Auntie Bucksnort and I found that the dough could be mixed in a KitchenAid stand mixer. Use care with whatever machine you use; the dough is heavy and Cousin DonnaSue broke her food processor mixing it, making the cookies even more expensive this year. 

We sprayed the cookie sheets with Pam, rather than using a Silpat, because we had no idea what that even was. Of course, we now know that it is a no-stick silicone baking mat, but we didn't know then. They are expensive, too.

Let the cookies cool just a minute--no longer--before removing them from the pan or they will stick. 

Frosted Orange Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 whole orange (peel and all) finely ground up

1/4 cup buttermilk

4 - 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. Add the ground orange and buttermilk; mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; gradually add it to the orange mixture, stirring well.

Drop by teaspoonsful onto a greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350〫for 10 to 12 minutes until the bottoms are just brown. Cool a bit on paper towels. While still slightly warm, frost with Orange Buttercream Frosting, below. Makes about 4 dozen.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup ground orange (peel and all)

3 tbl. butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar, or amount needed to make the frosting a spreadable consistency

Beat all together until creamy.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These cookies are soft and taste a lot like brownies.

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 - 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Powdered sugar

Mix together butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla, and cooled chocolate. Beat well.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and stir until blended.

Chill the dough for easier handling. Form into small balls the size of a walnut. Roll each in powdered sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350〫for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on pan for another couple of minutes, then place on paper towels to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen.

Auntie Bucksnort's Decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Bucksnort is famous for not following directions, so when she asked for my peanut butter cookie recipe, I just sat back and waited for the unexpected. The cookies she made were the best I've ever had, and I have to say, I know my cookies!

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup peanut butter

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 43 gram Hershey milk chocolate bar, coarsely chopped

1 100 gram Toblerone chocolate/honey/nougat candy bar, coarsely chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips

Cream together butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter. Sift dry ingredients and stir them into the peanut butter mixture. Add the chopped chocolate and the chips and stir well.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Press each down slightly with the back of the spoon.

Bake at 375〫for about 10 minutes. Makes 3-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you make them.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies

This is a nice project to do with a little kid, provided you have other things to do while the dough is chilling. It makes a very impressive and snazzy cookie and Ben remembers, after all these years, making them with me when he was little.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 tbl. milk

1 - 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1-ounce square unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 tbl. milk

Hot milk as needed

Directions:

Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla; add egg yolk and the 1 tbl. milk. Sift together the dry ingredients; stir into the creamed mixture.

Divide dough in half. To one part, add the melted chocolate and 1 tbl. milk; mix.

Chill both doughs, covered, for 1 - 1/2 hours.

On waxed paper, roll each half of the dough into a 10" x 12" rectangle. Brush the chocolate layer with hot milk; place the plain layer atop so its far edge extends beyond the chocolate edge. Roll as for jelly roll, starting with the long side.

Wrap rolled dough in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. Slice thin.

Bake on greased cookie sheets at 375° for 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes 4 to 6 dozen cookies.

Dried Cranberry Biscotti

I used to make these with a little melted white chocolate drizzled across the top. This version comes from The Heart of New England. 

2 1/2 c. flour 

1 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 1/2 c. sugar 

1/2 c. butter at room temp. 

2 large eggs 

1/2 tsp. almond extract 

1 1/2 c. dried cranberries 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; stir well to blend. With electric mixer beat sugar eggs, butter and extract. Add and mix in flour mixture. Mix in cranberries. 

Divide dough in half. Using floured hands shape into 2 logs about 10 inches long and 3/4 inch thick. Bake 30-35 minutes. Cool completely. Slice logs into 1/2 inch pieces with serrated knife and bake slices 10 minutes without parchment. Turn over and bake additional 5 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen.

Jenn's Sugar and Cinnamon Cookies

My coworker Jenn emailed me another of her cookie recipes. I'm a fan of using cream cheese in anything, so this intrigues me. Once, I wrote a 5 page essay on my appreciation of cheese. In it, I marveled at the many wonderful varieties of cheese from around the world, but the inspiration to begin can be traced to the bagel with cream cheese in my mouth. Other inspirations for writing a 5-page essay on cheese: I hated my job and didn't have enough work to do.

--1 cup Unsalted Butter (2 sticks)
-- 8 oz Cream Cheese
--2 ½ cups Flour
--2 tsp Cinnamon, plus some
--1 tbsp Vanilla
--½ tsp Salt (use only if you're using unsalted butter)
--2/3 cup Sugar, plus some

Mix butter, cream cheese and sugar together. Add in flour, cinnamon and salt. Add vanilla. Knead dough together and refrigerate for about an hour or so (Jenn recommends dividing the dough into two balls because it will cool quicker). Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll dough out to about quarter inch thick and spread addition sugar and cinnamon on top. Roll up into a log, then refrigerate for another hour. Cut into 1/4-inch thick cookies and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Jenn's Variation: Lemon Sugar Cookies! Instead of vanilla, use lemon extract. Instead of cinnamon, use lemon zest.

Florence Huntley's Forgotten Cookies

Several decades ago, I had a cookie like this at one of those potlucks where people bring their most treasured dishes. It melted in my mouth and was so delicious that I never forgot it. I remember asking the cookie maker how they were made and that she said something about them being in the oven overnight--but then we were interrupted and never finished the conversation.

I never thought it would be so hard to track down a recipe. I was hampered, of course, by having no idea what to call them--meringue? cookies? overnight somethings?--plus, I was searching back in the dark ages before the Internet. Many years later in more enlightened times, I scoured the Internet for the recipe, still with no luck.

And then, just the other day, I was paging through one of our family's favorite old cookbooks--The Nine Seasons Cookbook, by Pat Haley (published in 1986 by Yankee Books), and there it was! Who knew that I had it right there on the bookshelf all these years? Who knew, indeed, to look for "Florence Huntley's Forgotten Cookies?" Obviously, they were never forgotten by me.

Sadly, the Nine Seasons Cookbook is out of print. That won't stop you--you can just track down a copy online and buy it. You won't be sorry.

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup black walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually and continue until the whites hold a stiff peak.

Fold in the vanilla and nuts. Drop by the teaspoon onto an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet. Place in the preheated oven. Shut the oven door and turn off the heat. Do not peek. Leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Store in an airtight container.

Note: You can substitute ordinary walnuts for the black walnuts or replace the nuts with a 6-oz. package of chocolate chips. A southern version of Forgotten Cookies calls for 1 cup of chopped pecans and the chocolate chips.

Anna's Crumblecake Preserve Bars

Another one of my accounting cohorts, Anna, decided to try her hand at baking for us. She said that this was a cake recipe, but when she brought it into work, she had cut the pieces up into wonderful little bars. Here's her recipe, taken from her grandmother's recipe (I think):

--2 Eggs
--1 cup Sugar
--1 cup Butter, softened (2 sticks)
--Flour
--Jam or Preserves
(or Raisins, Nuts, Lemon -- Anna used Apricot Jam)

Beat together eggs and sugar. Add butter. Add enough flour to make into a dough. Separate dough in half. Chill half the dough. Spread the other half into the bottom of a pyrex dish. Spread a layer of preserves over the top. Crumble the chilled half of the dough on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Coconut Macaroons

These macaroons, from Cooks.com, are just like the ones that Ben remembers me making when he was little.

1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
1/3 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Combine coconut, sugar, flour, and salt in bowl. Stir in unbeaten egg whites and almond extract. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until edges are brown. Remove from sheets at once.

Makes 1 to 1 1/2 dozen macaroons.

My Grandmother Ella's "Dropped" Cookies

I am lucky enough to have my mother's handwritten cookbook, started when she was a young wife in the 1930s. She hand-numbered the pages and wrote in favorite recipes from friends and relatives. To add to the specialness, it was written out in my mother's handwriting years before I came along.

Now Ben can enjoy his part in this connection with the past and figure out how to make these cookies using the sketchy directions given in those days. I guess everyone back then knew how to make cookies, so they didn't need the pages and pages of exacting directions that we so often find these days in cooking magazines and online.

Granola Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup homemade granola

Cream butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mix well. Add the granola.

Drop by rounded teaspoonsful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375˚ for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on paper towels. Freeze in a sealed plastic bag so that you won't eat them all at once.

Note: These proportions make a thin, almost lacey cookie. If you want a more substantial one, add a bit more flour.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Pucci's Italian Cookies

The Mary and Pucci stories are legion in our family, but this is probably not the place to start telling them. Here is what I will say: Mary and Pucci are my husband's aunties. They were born in Italy and came over to America on a boat in the early 1930s. Their Pappa had built a house for the family in southern Connecticut and these two unmarried ladies lived in that house all of their lives. 

Pucci is gone now, but I can still picture her making these cookies in her kitchen on a wonderful old metal table, rolling out the dough with what looked like a sawed-off broomstick. Apparently there are versions of this cookie made all over Italy--called, variously, cenci (rags), chiacchere (gossips), lattughe (lettuce leaves), nastrini (ribbons), or lover's knots. We'll just go on calling them Pucci's Italian cookies. 

1 - 3/4 cups flour

2 tbl. olive oil

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbl. anisette liqueur

a pinch of salt

Pucci used to pile the flour on her table, make a well in the middle, add the remaining ingredients, and mix the dough with her hands. I suppose you could mix the dough in a bowl. Knead the dough slightly and roll out thinly to about 1/8 inch thick.

Using a pasta cutter (serrated rolling wheel), cut the dough into strips about an inch wide and about the length of your hand. Fold each into a bow-knot and fry carefully in hot olive oil. 

Pile the finished cookies on a plate to drain. 

Since Pucci never wrote this stuff down, I found some of my information about these cookies on About.com: Italian Food.