Chocolate Fudge Chip Cookies

I am one lucky girl. Every summer, with two exceptions, I have been coming to northern Manitoba with my family. We have a cottage on Clearwater Lake, about 20 minutes out from the town of The Pas.

It is so beautiful here, in more ways than one. Firstly, the natural beauty is stunning. The waters of the lake are breath taking in their clarity -- you can see the bottom of the lake from the middle of the bay! At night, you can catch a glimpse of the northern lights or track the fiery journey of a shooting star against the black, black sky. It's quiet and peaceful and once a friend from London commented on the amazing (to her) fact that you could see an uninterrupted horizon in a 360 direction, without the smear of a jet stream across the sky's even surface.

Yesterday, my brother, his girlfriend, and I arrived in Winnipeg from Toronto then met my dad and drove up to The Pas. There was an interesting "landmark" that we encountered on our drive up: the giant Prairie Chicken next to the gas station in Ashern. I bet you don't see those too often!


Also, it was our annual 'four cottages' August long weekend dinner and we arrived just in time for the food. The Gemmil's spent the afternoon roasting an entire half pig on a spit! And there was a wonderful array of salads, potatoes, homemade applesauce, and meatballs.

And if that wasn't enough, my grandma and mum made both pumpkin and lemon meringue pie and Sally Gemmil brought the too-cute brownie bites topped with cool whip and fruit.

The baking medic also water skiis. How about that?

It certainly feels good to be back at the cottage. Summer just wouldn't be summer without a visit to Clearwater.



Anyways, this post is also about cookies. Chocolate fudge chip cookies to be exact. I mentioned a few days ago that my attempt at making chocolate fudge was only semi-successful. So, I pulled out Alton Brown's recipe for "the Puffy" chocolate chip cookie (one of my favourites) and decided that it would taste fantastic with the added richness of the fudge crumbs.



I will admit that these cookies did not turn out how I had imagined them. My visions included puffy, cakes cookies dotted with pieces of warm fudge. I had not antipitated that the fudge crumbs would melt. As a result, my cookies flattened out almost completely! Still, they have a slightly crispy edge and a nice chewy centre. Not to mention a lovely chocolate, fudgy taste. They were an accidental hit! Unfortunately, as I don't know when I'll next be making fudge, I don't know when I'll next get a chance to make these cookies.

Still, if you've got some fudge crumbs kicking around, give these puppies a try; you won't be disappointed!

Chocolate Fudge Chip Cookies

adapted from Alton Brown's "The Puffy"

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cups milk chocolate chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate fudge crumbs
  

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the mixer's work bowl, and cream until light and fluffy. In the meantime, sift together the cake flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside.

Add the eggs 1 at a time to the creamed mixture. Then add vanilla. Increase the speed until thoroughly incorporated.

With the mixer set to low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine well. Stir in the fudge crumbs and milk chocolate chips. Chill the dough. Scoop rounded tablespoons of batter onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool and store in an airtight-container. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack, or you risk disemboweling you cookies! (Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, becuase you'll of course have to eat the "dead" ones.;) )

Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies -- No Swine Flu!

Yes, although these are "Mexican" Chocolate Chip cookies, there is nothing remotely swine flu-esque about them. (Perhaps that joke was a bit in poor taste, but when you work in a lab that deals with swine flu samples daily, the words "Does not contain swine flu extract" might be a little more appropriate. ;) )

In fact, these cookies were delicious. I baked a batch yesterday and brought at least two dozen cookies in with me this morning. When I went to see how many were left, only two lonely cookies remained. Even they found their way into my coworkers' tummies soon after.

So, a huge resounding success. I found the original recipe whilst browsing the blog, Cookie Madness, a blog with absolutely dozens of decadent, mouthwatering cookie recipes. There is a reason the blog is called cookie madness!



What caught my eye about this recipe was that not only was in listed in the "Top 5 cookies of all time" section, it wasn't just your plain, old chocolate chip cookie. Don't get me wrong though, I looooove chocolate chip cookies -- but lately I've been in very much of a cinnamon mood. And this recipe spiced up it's traditional counterpart by including not only cinnamon, but a wee bit of cayenne pepper as well. But truly the star of this cookie is the chopped up chunks of (in my case), Abuelita.

Abuelita is a brand of Mexican hot chocolate, and does not come as a powder. Instead, it is packaged as a series of disks which can be broken into pieces and dissolved into hot milk. The chocolate itself contains spices, most prominently cinnamon, and is made with granulated sugar. I speak from experience when I say that it makes some delicious hot chocolate, and would be an awesome complement to these cookies.

I think Abuelita can be found at most grocery stores, although I have to confess I'm not sure. We had some on hand in the pantry, but I do not know if it was a stowaway from my parents trip to Mexico a few months back or if we managed to find it in Canada.

Hopefully you will be able to find some Abuelita or other bricked Mexican hot chocolate, for drinking or for these cookies.

As for the cookies themselves, they surprised me a bit by flattening out as they baked. I suppose I was lulled into thinking I'd get nice round, puff ball cookies since the last two batches of cookies I've made have been Alton Brown's The Puffy and the Chocolate Covered Raisin Oatmeal cookies.

Still, they stayed soft and chewy -- even after they'd cooled to room temperature. The warm cinnamon flavours, mixed with dark chunks really stole the show. However, I found that the yield of this recipe was way too low. It was estimated to give about 32 cookies; I know I baked about 42 and I was not being stingy on cookies size. Still, I guess it depends if you want bakery-style giant cookies, or cookies that you won't feel guilty about going for seconds.

Lastly, if anyone has any experience in regards to metal baking sheets vs stone where, I'd be interested to hear your opinions! I found that the stonewear sheets gave me a flatter, more spread out cookie. The metal sheet cookies seemed to remain a wee bit puffier.

Any ideas?

Anyways, without further ado...

Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Cookie Madness

Mexican Chocolate Chunk Cookies Made With Ibarra

MAKES 32 COOKIES (more like 42)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 slightly rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper or black pepper (I used cayenne pepper)
8 oz unsalted butter — room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla (regular is okay)
8 oz dark chocolate — cut into chunks
4 oz Ibarra chocolate — chopped by hand

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl using high speed of an electric mixer; Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until absorbed, then mix in chocolate chunks and chopped Mexican chocolate. Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden brown and set - 10-12 minutes. Let stand on sheets 3 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

Oh! Perhaps just a little further ado. My dog was barking at me as I was taking the photos of the food. I think she wanted a cookie too! ;)

Oh, Sugar (cookies)!

So, I’ve officially started my summer job! That’s exciting. ☺ Yesterday was full of safety videos, but today was definitely interesting. I’m learning how to do all sorts of testing for bacteria and other infectious diseases from samples from patients that are sent into the lab. Tomorrow, I’ll get to try one myself! (Under the watchful eye of my supervisor of course. :) )

But don’t worry, these weren’t made anywhere close to the lab. In fact, I made them on Monday for a BBQ that I was going to and also to practice my piping again. The recipe is originally from The Repressed Pasty Chef, a great blog that you should definitely check out. I made a few changes: I forgot to add the salt to the cookies (oops!), but I used salted butter, so they still taste all right. I also just used butter and not butter and shortening in the icing. They turned out great, and they’re definitely a crowd pleaser. You can be as fun and creative as you like with the icing, especially if you’ve got a piping bag. Some I topped with designs, others with zigzagging icing trails and sprinkles, while some were cut in two and slathered with icing.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I’m going to take them in to work tomorrow. I’ll let you know how they’re enjoyed!

PS. Sorry for the lighting, I iced these at night and just couldn't find a bright enough room to get a decent picture. Trust me, they taste lovely though.

Sugar Cookie Bars
Adapted from The Repressed Pastry Chef

1 cup butter; room temp.
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt (I forgot this, but used salted butter. Turned out fine.)
1/2 tsp soda

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add vanilla & mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt & soda & stir with a whisk to combine. Add to wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread on a greased baking sheet (use a 13 x 18 pan). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and frost.

Frosting
1 cup butter; room temp
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
food colouring (if desired)

For frosting combine butter and shortening until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and salt. Add powdered sugar in 1-2 cup increments until combined, then add milk & mix until smooth and spreading consistency. Cut up your cookies and ice as desired. Eg with piping bag or spread on top.



Cheers and enjoy!

Home at last!

So I'm finally back home in Canada. I was supposed to be back last Saturday, but I arrived on Monday. There's a story in that. The long and the short of it is that the airline overbooked my flight twice so I volunteered to kick about Glasgow for a few days. Now I've $900 in travel vouchers, which is basically me home for Christmas paid for! Yay!

Look how green and summery it looks!

Anyways, it's been about a week since my last post... Not a lot of opportunity to bake when you're packing and sitting around in an airport. So I finally got around to making some cookies. These are one of my favourites and just screams childhood to me. I think the recipe must be from the back of an old, old packet of chocolate covered raisins. I've made it countless times and it always turns out great.

The cookies don't spread out much, are best when loaded with chocolate covered raisins, and stay chewy. The recipe also has a fairly small yield, so you won't be loaded down with a 100 cookies, nor will you be waiting around the oven for ages as each batch has to get cooked.

So, without further ado, my favourite oatmeal cookies recipe:

Chocolate Covered Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate covered raisins

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a medium sized bowl, beat together the sugar, butter and vanilla until they're creamy. Add the egg and beat. Then, slowly in portions, add the flour mixture. Stir in the rolled oats. Stir in the chocolate covered raisins.

Scoop out rounded table spoons of batter onto and ungreased baking sheet. (Note: I used stonewear baking sheets, but metal ones would work fine too) Bake for about 10 minutes until the tops are just browning. They should still be slightly squishy if you want your cookies to remain chewy.

Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them onto a rack to cool fully.

Enjoy!

Makes around 30 cookies.

Internet addictions and leftovers...

Are we a people addicted to information? Ask yourself a few questions: how often do you compulsively check your email? When a disagreement arises, does Google have the final say? What about your mobile? If it runs out of battery or gets lost, do you go through mobile withdrawal?

I suppose we should start off by defining what an addiction is. Addiction, according to Princeton, is being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (thanks Google). So let's see. Am I dependent on the Internet? Check. Do I habitually check my emails? Yup. Browse around? Who doesn't? I guess the key word in that definition is abnormally. Now, ten years ago, I'd say checking your email at least 5 times a day might beconsidered excessive and abnormal. So the question is, are we addicted? Or has society's view point shifted so that what might have been considered an addiction is now "normal".

Tell me, dear Internet, what say you?

And now for the food part of this post. As you saw, I baked that wonderfully, oozy, gooey chocolate cake on the weekend. Well, I had tons of icing left over! And trust me, I'm all for grabbing a spoon and rotting my teeth, but I had a few committee meetings to go to and I thought that it would be a great way to use up my extra icing. So, I wandered off to Tescos and picked up some 25p Tesco Value Rich Tea Biscuits. The result? A gloriously rich and sweet sandwich cookie with a crunchy biscuit that is just plain (is that the right word?) enough to take the edge off the richness of the icing.


Mmmmm. A leaning tower of cookies!