So while looking for a a good shortbread recipe, I stumbled across these, a variation on the chocolate butter cookies featured in the holiday baking issue of Cook's Illustrated.

I used to feel sort of BLEH about Cook's Illustrated-- I like gigantic food-porn photos to go with my recipes-- but I have come around. This is a GREAT. MAGAZINE. Their recipes are so well tested and they tell you exactly why you're doing what, and how to sub ingredients, and everything I've made from their recipes so far has come out great.

Anyway. These cookies were given the thumbs-up by everyone in my family, even my dad (who's not a fan of chocolate) and my uncle (who's suspicious of anything I make on the basis that it might contain weird organic hippie ingredients). So if it can please them, you know it's DANG GOOD.

I couldn't really taste the cayenne though, so you might want to experiment with adding more if that's your thang.

I decorated them with some dark chocolate glaze, slivered almonds, and the somewhat dubious "white candy melts" I found in the cupboard-- but they are quite good on their own if you're not feeling motivated to make them look fancy.

Mexican Chocolate Butter Cookies
from Cook's Illustrated magazine

20 T unsalted butter (2.5 sticks), slightly softened (about 65 degrees)
1/2 c Dutch-processed cocoa powder (you can sub regular cocoa powder here and they will still turn out fine)
1 t espresso powder (or instant coffee)
1 c sugar
1/2 t salt
2 large egg yolks
1 T vanilla extract
2.25 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c sliced almonds
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 In a skillet toast the almonds, cinnamon and cayenne until fragrant. Set aside to cool.
2 Melt 4 T of butter. Add the cocoa and espresso and whisk to a paste. Let cool.
3 In a food processor grind the almond mixture until fine. Combine with the flour.
4 Cream remaining butter, sugar, salt and cooled cocoa mixture til well combined and fluffy (about a minute). Add yolks and vanilla and mix until combined. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping bowl after each. When dough forms cohesive ball, divide into 3 disks and refrigerate for about an hour.
5 Roll out chilled dough between 2 sheets of parchment until an even 3/16" thick. Cut into shapes and bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes (if the dough starts to get sticky and hard to work with, just re-chill it for a bit). The cookies are done when they offer slight resistance when gently pressed. If they start to darken at the edges they're overdone. Let them cool completely before decorating.

Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze
from Cook's Illustrated magazine

4 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 72% dark chocolate)
4 T unsalted butter
2 T corn syrup
1 t vanilla extract

1 Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler. Whisk in corn syrup and vanilla until smooth. (The corn syrup is there to give it a thinner texture and nice shine. I used brown rice syrup instead which worked fine.)
2 Spread glaze on cookies and allow them to dry for at least 20 minutes. You can marble the icing by topping the glazed cookie with a few drops of white chocolate and dragging a toothpick through while the glaze is still wet.

I looooove sweet + salty. Chocolate covered pretzels, salted caramels, you name it-- and no, I am not above salting my fruit, either.

My lovely friend Katie shares my obsession, so when one day she was waxing poetic about salty chocolate shortbread with cocoa nibs, I knew I had to steal try out her idea.

And then somewhere along the way I stumbled across this, so it became regular shortbread with butterscotch.

Unfortunately the actual shortbread recipe I used turned out cookies that tasted kind of bland and wheaty (ever eaten one of those cookies from the dog bakery? yeah), but I'm going to try again and hopefully have a good recipe to share with you guys. In the meantime, please make this butterscotch sauce from smitten kitchen and put it on everything. Seriously. Just do it.

Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch Sauce
from the smitten kitchen

Yield: About 2/3 to 3/4 cup sauce

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark or light brown sugar (I used dark)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or 1/4 teaspoon regular salt), plus more to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, plus more to taste

Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt and whisk until well blended. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally.

Taste it and add more salt or vanilla as needed. I added a little whiskey. Goddamn that's good.

Footnote: You know what that sauce would be freaking amazing on? Buttermilk ice cream. Which, incidentally, she has an amazing recipe for as well.

Footnote sidenote: The midwest is a BUTTERMILK WASTELAND. Not only do I have to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get it, but half my class had never even tried it before enrolling in school. BLESS THEIR HEARTS.

Friday was "cookie day," our first real chance at actual baking (unless you count meringues). After a lecture on the purposes of various ingredients in a basic recipe like chocolate chip cookies, we were sent into the kitchen to make four batches: one normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, one normal peanut butter cookie recipe, and two jacked up batches with one ingredient substitution each.

And then we tasted them. All of them. I don't care how much you love cookies, that shit was a test of spirit. You haven't lived until you've eaten so many bites of cookie in one sitting that you are actually high. I ate cookies made with bread flour, cake flour, hi-gluten flour, whole wheat flour; cookies with baking powder instead of baking soda; cookies with all brown sugar, with corn syrup added, with confectioner's sugar, with molasses; cookies with all shortening vs. all butter, all egg yolks... Holy God.

Internet, this is what I've been up to for the past two months:



My "Christmas card" for this year... little boxes full of tasty stuff. It was tough to find a recipe that would taste good, look cute AND ship well, but I think I finally did. They're even vegan.

Vegan Peppermint Brownies
(adapted from Vivacious Vegan)

1/2 cup canola or grapeseed oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch square glass pan.
2 In a large bowl whisk together the oil, maple syrup, soy milk, vanilla and peppermint.
3 Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
4 Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix until just blended.
5 Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Vegan Ginger Bars

3/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg replacer or 2 tbsp mashed silken tofu
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
pinch of cardamom
pinch of nutmeg
zest of 1/4 orange
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup molasses
3 tbsp water

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch glass pan.
2 Cream margarine with sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer and citrus zest.
3 Combine flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a small bowl. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture and mix until just blended. Mix in molasses and water.
4 Spread in prepared pan. Bake 28-30 minutes or until batter begins to pull away from edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Decorating the Bars

I wanted these to look special, so before decorating I cut them into circles with a small biscuit cutter. This also means you get to eat the scraps. Now you know how unbelievably smart I am.

For the peppermint brownies, I spread a little melted chocolate on the top of each one and then covered it in crushed candy canes.

For the ginger bars, I first made candied orange peel (Giada de Laurentiis has a great recipe for it), and glued each piece on with a little dot of (store-bought! shh, don't tell) icing.

See? Easy. and FANCY.

butter heaven from 101 cookbooks.

that damn DQ commercial has been running during my scrubs episodes, and it's got me craving thin mints. BAD.

Heidi Swanson to the rescue! She has a wonderful + delicious all-natural thin mint recipe in her cookbook Super Natural Cooking as well as on her blog, 101 cookbooks.

make them. put them in the freezer. eat them with ice cream. now.