Category: Cookies

Slutty Brownies: Sure to Please Any Man

CarrieLeave a comment

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This weekend I had my beau come to visit me for the first time since we have been dating. I decided I needed to impress him not only with a clean house, but with a great menu. I made sure to make breakfast and dinner for him at least once to make sure he realizes that I have well-rounded skills in the kitchen. I also whipped up a batch of these slutty brownies and had them on display when he arrived to give his tastebuds a jump start. I know they were a hit because he kept going back for more throughout the weekend. Here’s the recipe so you can make them for your special someone as well.

Slutty Brownies
1. Follow the recipe for your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I used the recipe on the back of the bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips. Add a tablespoon of water to the batter at the end. Spread the dough evenly in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish.
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2. Place Oreo cookies in a single layer on top of the cookie layer. Do not overlap the cookies. If they happen to break, it is ok. You are going to cut this creation into bars for serving anyway.
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3. Follow the recipe for your favorite boxed brownie recipe. You can make your own brownie batter but I think the boxed brownie mix is perfectly fine. No need to go through all the extra fuss. Pour the batter evenly over the cookie dough and Oreo layers.
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4. Place the baking dish into a 350 oven. Cooking time will vary so keep checking your creation every five to ten minutes after the 45 minute mark to see if they are cooked through. Take a tester and poke it in the middle to see if it comes out clean. When the tester comes out without cookie or brownie batter on it, you know that your slutty brownies are ready to come out of the oven. Cut them into squares and enjoy!

Chocolate Biscotti

SadieLeave a comment

I love a good biscotti!  Remember how I was making a few cookie trays for that “coffee break” at school a couple weeks ago?  Well I thought a good way to add chocolate to the tray would be in the way of a biscotti.  I looked around at a few of my favorite recipe sites and found a good double chocolate walnut biscotti that fit the bill on Epicurious.com.  I’ve found good biscotti recipes there in the past.

Since I was trying a new recipe I was a little worried.  Especially because the dough was a little more crumbly than I was expecting.  Even though the dough was crumbly, I was able to form it into logs and it baked quite well.  So it was a testament to keeping the faith and following through.

These biscotti were a great chocolate flavor with a nice walnut crunch.  The next time I make them I might add a little instant coffee or espresso powder (I didn’t have any in my cupboard at the time).  Coffee always intensifies the chocolate flavor a little bit.cookie tray

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Make about 30 small biscotti, adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 stick (6 Tbs) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped
  • 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
  3. In a different bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
  4. Gradually add the flour mixture into the wet mixture.  This is when the dough might be kind of dry and crumbly. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
  5. Form the dough into two logs on a parchment lined cookie sheet. The logs should be kind of flattened on top and about two inches wide. Bake for 35 minutes until logs are pretty solid.logs
  6. Allow the biscotti to cool for about five minutes, then slice on a diagonal about 3/4 of an inch thick. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet cut side up. Bake for 10 more minutes.  Allow to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies

Sadie1 Comment

The first time I made this recipe was a baking revelation for me.  It was a few years ago and I was looking for a few unique cookie recipes to try in the Thanksgiving/Christmas time period because we expecting a considerable amount of visitors at my parents house.  I was relatively green in the baking realm at this point and I remember poking around some websites and trying to come up with some good recipes to try. I ended up pulling a few from Martha of course, because she has always been a go-to of mine (with a grain of salt).

This recipe came from Martha, and it caught my eye because it was a make ahead dough and the flavors added a good diversity to the recipes I had already picked to make.  I was intriuged by the addition of cream cheese to the batter.  At this point I only really knew how cream cheese worked in cheesecakes or cream cheese brownies.  I was definitely pleasently surprised.

The cookies, which I reently made for the “coffee break” a few weeks ago, are great with a hot beverage because they are kind of plain and crumbly.  They function similarly to shortbread but the cream cheese gives them a little bit more moisture than typical shortbread. And I love the addition of the walnuts to add some flavor and crunch.  Like I said above, they are a great make ahead dough.  You make the dough days or weeks in advance, and form it into logs.  When you’re ready to bake them you just slice the logs and bake them off. It’s basically the equvilant of when you buy sugar cookie dough logs from the store to slice and bake, except the dough is home made.  So frankly, not only the ingredients, but the method was a revelation for me.Cookie tray

Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies

Yeilds about 50 cookies depending on size (it’s a big batch, feel free to cut it in half), adapted from Martha

Ingredients

  • 4 cups AP flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
  • 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 6 ounces cream cheese (not whipped), room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 2 Tbs plus 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups walnut halves (1 1/2 cups toasted and coarsely chopped and 1 cup finely chopped)

Method

  1. Combine flour with salt and set aside.
  2. Cream together cream cheese and butter to a uniform whipped consistency with an electric mixer.  Add sugar and mix until combined. Then add vanilla.
  3. Gradually add in flour then fold in the first 1 1/2 cups of chopped walnuts.
  4. Divide the dough into logs that are as thick as the desired diameter of your cookies.  Then wrap them in parchment and plastic and chill overnight.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350.
  6. Roll the chilled logs of dough in the remaining finely chopped walnuts and slice into cookies.slice it up
  7. Bake 18-20 minutes until slightly golden brown.  Allow to cool and enjoy!ta da!