Ultimate Fudgy Brownies

I wanted to make some basic, no-frills brownies, so I made these from a recipe out of the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. They came out very good, a bit cakey but still delicious. I followed the recipe for the most part except that I had to substitute cocoa powder and butter for unsweetened chocolate and I used half sugar and half Splenda. Next time, I'd try less sugar and more cocoa powder for less sweet, but more chocolaty flavor.

INGREDIENTS

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. Melt the chocolates, butter, and cocoa in the microwave at low, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly.
2. Whisk the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth. Stir in the flour until no streaks remain.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes.
4. Let cool completely on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, before removing the brownies and cut into squares.

I also used a 9-inch cake pan, not square pan. The cookbook advises against cutting the brownies until serving as they will dry out. Something to keep in mind. I ended up not taking any photos as they disappeared too quickly.

Maple Walnut Meringue Cookies

I decided I'd experiment more with meringue nut cookie recipe. Since I had some maple sugar laying around, I decided to use them with some walnuts. The outcome was pretty good, but I think I prefer the version with hazlenuts better. Still delicious though.

INGREDIENTS

3 large egg whites at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup maple sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Lightly butter and barely flour parchment paper and place it on baking sheets.
3. Beat egg whites until foamy.
4. Add salt and cream of tartar then beat until stiff.
5. Stir in sugars gradually while still beating.
6. Fold in nuts carefully.
7. Drop batter onto cookie sheets. These don't spread much, so it can be fairly close.
8. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until slightly browned.
9. Allow to cool then carefully peel them off.

Vanilla Crescents

This recipe also came from Country Desserts by Lee Bailey. These were very brittle and easily broken, so the handling was a bit difficult. Making them was a breeze though, other than the part where you attempt to shape them like crescents. The taste was pretty good, but nothing terribly special. Perhaps I should've used more vanilla. I bought expensive Madagascar vanilla beans, so I think I was a bit cheap with them.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup sugar plus 2 cups for coating
1 vanilla bean, crushed in chunks
1/2 cup shelled walnuts
2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/3 cups sifted flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place sugar and vanilla bean in a food processor. Pulse off and on a few times until the beans are chopped. Add walnuts and process until finely chopped.
3. Add butter and flour and process, scraping down if necessary, until the dough is pliable.
4. Pinch off walnut-sized dough and shape into balls. Shape balls into small crescents. You can place them close since these don't spread.
5. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 300 degrees. Bake for additional 10-15 minutes or until tan and dry. I ended up baking them about 30 minutes total as my oven's not exactly accurate.
6. Roll the hot cookies in sugar.

P.S My significant other's cousins loved these cookies.

Thick-and-gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thought I'd give chocolate chip cookies one more try. I liked this recipe a lot better than the previous one. My significant other is usually not a cookie dough fan, but he loved the dough so much that he volunteered to clean the mixer as well as the bowl. He did say he thought they would have been perfect if they had had nuts in them. This recipe is from New York Times Sunday Magazine.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups chopped bittersweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda and powder, and salt.
4. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.
6. Fold in chocolate then dump the flour mixture. Mix well.
7. Chill the dough.
8. Roll 1/4 cup lumps into balls and place on the sheets. Flatten to 1/2-inch thick discs spaced 2 inches apart. These will spread a lot, so give them plenty of space.
9. Bake until the edges turn golden, about 14-19 minutes.

Meringue Nut Cookies

I baked three different kinds of cookies to give to my significant other's cousin's children, and this is the first one and probably the best. These turned out to be a huge success. Both my significant other and I loved them. Not to mention it's a very simple process though it does take a bit of patience to whip the egg whites stiff. The recipe comes from Country Desserts by Lee Bailey. Hazelnuts are easily replacable by any other kind of nuts. I think I'm gonna experiment with dehydrated strawberries next time. It's safe to say I've been converted. Homemade meringues rule.

INGREDIENTS

3 large egg whites at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups hazelnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Lightly butter and barely flour parchment paper and place it on baking sheets.
3. Beat egg whites until foamy.
4. Add salt and cream of tartar then beat until stiff.
5. Stir in sugar gradually while still beating.
6. Fold in nuts carefully.
7. Drop batter onto cookie sheets. These don't spread much, so it can be fairly close.
8. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until slightly browned.
9. Allow to cool then carefully peel them off.

Big And Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wasn't a fan of these cookies, but I'm not a cookie person to begin with, while my significant other and his mother are. They both loved these cookies. The recipe comes from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I substituted chopped dark chocolate for semisweet chocolate because I had a bag laying around. Certainly any kind of chocolate could be substituted. I also used only one kind of sugar out of laziness.

INGREDIENTS

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Put the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the ovens to 325 degrees. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, 1 or 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chocolate chips until incorporated.
4. Working with 1/4 cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced about 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, 17 to 20 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking.
5. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Gingerbread Cookies

I made these cookies for a friend since she had posted on MySpace that she really wanted fully decorated gingerbread cookies. I think they turned out decently, but I probably won't make them again since I'm not hugely into gingerbread cookies and it was such a pain in the butt to handle sticky molasses. It was fun to decorate them though. This recipe is also from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

INGREDIENTS

Cookie:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened
3/4 cup light molasses
2 tablespoons whole milk
Frosting:
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Process the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, cloves, and salt in a food processor until combined, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and using short pulses, process to a very fine meal, about 15 pulses. With the machine running, slowly pour the molasses and milk through the feed tube and process until the dough forms a soft mass, about 10 seconds.
2. Scrape the dough onto a counter and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough out to a 1/8-inch thickness between 2 large sheets of parchment paper. Slide the rolled dough and parchment onto a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with oven racks at the upper- and lower-middle positions. Cut shapes out of the rolled dough using cookie cutters and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced about 3/4 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking.
4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
5. Whisk 2 tablespoons of the milk and the cream cheese together until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar and whisk until smooth, adding the remaining milk as needed until the glaze is thin enough to spread easily. Glaze and decorate the cookies when they are completely cooled.

Traditional Mexican Christmas Cookies

This was another recipe that I found on Smell and Stop the Rosemary. They were like cinnamony sugar cookies. Good, but nothing special.

INGREDIENTS

Cookie:
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
sugar
Topping:
1 cup sugar
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate, ground
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon until light and fluffy. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups flower and baking powder, beating at low speed until well blended. Stir in additional 1/4 cup flour until dough can be shaped. Roll dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 3 inches apart on ungreased parchment paper. Flatten each ball into 2-inch rounds with bottom of a glass which has been buttered and dipped in sugar. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
2. Combine sugar, chocolate, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Three or four minutes after removing cookies from oven, coat both sides of cookies with this mixture, one at a time. Cool on wire racks.