Delicious and easy to make recipes: January 2014

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Raspberry-Filled Molten Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature

4 large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

Pinch of salt

11 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted (2 1/2 cups chopped)

18 raspberries (36 if they are small)

Confectioners' sugar, for serving

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 cup standard muffin tin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl with a mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low, beat in flour and salt. Beat in chocolate until just combined.

Divide half the batter among cups, add two raspberries to each, and top with remaining batter. Bake until tops are just set and no longer shiny, 10 to 11 minutes, let cool in pan on a wire rack, 10 minutes. Remove from pans, dust with confectioners' sugar, and top with ice cream, if desired.

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 and 1/4 cup (160g)all-purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup (190g) yellow or vanilla boxed cake mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (180g) chocolate chips
1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles

Directions

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed. Mix in the egg and vanilla until creamy.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not OVER MIX the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles.

Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 days. This step is mandatory. The dough is fairly sticky, so chilling the dough is required in order to avoid the cookie from spreading too much.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. Shape your cookie dough balls to be "taller" than they are wide, as pictured above. Press a few chocolate chips on top for looks, if desired. Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned. (Mine took 10 minutes exactly). The centers will still appear very soft, but the cookies will set as they cool. You may also press a few more chips into the tops of the cookies at this point (the chips will melt down and stick from the warm cookies).

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

2 and 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar, loosely packed

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Directions

Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed among the dough. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. Put 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies stay soft and fresh for 7 whole days at room temperature. Cookies may be frozen up to 3 months. Rolled cookie dough may be frozen up to three months and baked in their frozen state for 12 minutes.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup loosely packed brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1¼ cup bread flour (All-Purpose will also work)

¾ cup oats

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

1½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup chocolate chunks

Directions

First, brown the butter: heat the butter in a small saucepan, whisking constantly. When the butter is browned it will smell nutty. If it smells bitter that means it’s been overcooked! When it takes on a tan color, take it off the heat and whisk for an additional 30 seconds, as the butter will continue to cook in the pan. Set aside and let cool.

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients EXCEPT the sugar (1¼ c flour, ¾ c oats, ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking powder, 1½ tsp cinnamon).

Mix completely cooled butter with sugars. Then incorporate the egg and vanilla.

Knead in the flour mixture with hands or a spatula.

Add in chocolate chunks, stir to combine.

Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degreesForm dough into 1-2 inch balls and bake 8-10 minutes, until edges and bottoms are browned.

After the first day, these cookies are best when microwaved for 5-10 seconds so the chocolate chunks get all soft and gooey and amazing again.

Almond Joy hot chocolate

Ingredients

1 egg white
½ teaspoon almond extract
about 20 almonds
¼ cup finely shredded coconut
1 can light coconut milk
¾ cup milk (or water)
2 oz semisweet chocolate
2 Tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make the meringue by beating an egg white with a Tablespoon of sugar until glossy stiff peaks form, then folding in the coconut. Place spoonfuls of the meringue mixture on a lined baking sheet and top each with three almonds, then bake until hardened.
Heat the coconut milk, milk, and extracts with the chocolate pieces in a saucepan, stirring until the chocolate is melted.
Add the salt and one Tablespoon of the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer until ready to serve.
Serve the hot chocolate in mugs each topped with a floating meringue.

French Macaroon

Ingredients

1/4 cup white sugar

1 cup finely ground almonds

3 egg whites

1 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

Beat egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until whites are foamy; beat in white sugar and continue beating until egg whites are glossy, fluffy, and hold soft peaks. Sift confectioners' sugar and ground almonds in a separate bowl and quickly fold the almond mixture into the egg whites, about 30 strokes.

Spoon a small amount of batter into a plastic bag with a small corner cut off and pipe a test disk of batter, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, onto prepared baking sheet. If the disk of batter holds a peak instead of flattening immediately, gently fold the batter a few more times and retest.

When batter is mixed enough to flatten immediately into an even disk, spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheet in rounds, leaving space between the disks. Let the piped cookies stand out at room temperature until they form a hard skin on top, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 285 degrees F (140 degrees C).

Bake cookies until set but not browned, about 10 minutes; let cookies cool completely before filling.

The best chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients

(yields about 1 1/2 dozen)

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
14 tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 walnuts, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda in a medium bowl.

Melt 10 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat (I used a stainless steel skillet to easily see when the butter had begun to brown). Continue cooking and swirl pan until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma (about 1 to 3 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl and add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until completely melted. Browning the butter is a key element of this recipe! It gives the cookies a great depth of flavor.

Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla to melted butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk, and whisk for about another 30 seconds until no sugar lumps remain. Here comes another key step! Let the mixture rest for 3 minutes, then whisk again for 30 seconds. Repeat the rest/whisk cycle two more times (totaling 10.5 minutes from the beginning of the first rest period). Doing this helps the sugar to better dissolve in the butter, helping the cookies to retain moisture during baking yielding soft, chewy cookies. The mixture should be thick, smooth, and shiny at this point.

Stir in flour with rubber spatula, mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Using 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and place 2 inches apart. I know the dough balls seem huge, but the bigger cookies also help to keep the cookies soft and chewy rather than crispy and dry. Bake one cookie sheet at a time, for 10 to 14 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking. My cookies averaged a baking time of about 12 minutes.

Nutella Mint Chocolate Chip cookies

Ingredients
1 1/3 c flour 2 Tbsp cocoa (I use dark chocolate)
1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt (I use 1/4 tsp when making a double batch)
7 Tbsp butter, softened
2/3 c white sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c Nutella
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 c mint chocolate chips (I use the whole bag when making a double batch)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix in the Nutella and vanilla. Add in the egg. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Stir in peanut butter chips. Bake about 11 minutes or until edges look set. Allow cookies to cool on pan for roughly 2-3 minutes before setting on a cooling rack.

I typically make the recipe with peanut butter chips, but for Christmas, I used mint chocolate chips. I double this batch when baking, and that yields roughly 40-42 cookies consistently. I use an ice cream scoop to measure out the cookies. I also use parchment paper on my cookie sheet to avoid sticking or having to grease the sheet. Lastly, these cookies will continue to bake when pulled out of the oven, so if they seem slightly under done, that is ok.

Different kind of hot chocolate

Ingredients

6 ounces chocolate
1/2 ounces coffee
2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 package instant pudding
1/2 cup milk
Cinnamon

Directions

For the cups

Melt the chocolate and butter over hot water (double pot) while adding the coffee. once the mix is nice and even, remove and let chill for a while.

Like in the image, dip balloons into the chocolate mix and let dry on a baking paper. Refrigerate.

For the fillings

In a bowl, beat the whipping cream, milk and instant pudding until getting a firm texture. Fill the previously made cups with the filling. Top with cinnamon.