{Guest Baker} Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

 

I haven’t had much time for baking recently.  And even when I have made time for baking over the last several weeks, it’s been for a specific purpose and squeezed into a too-tight schedule, so taking pictures of the product (much less the process) has not been a top priority.

But my roommate, B, has been on a Christmas cookie baking spree this week, so I thought it would be fun to share one of my favorite recipes from the week.

Chocolate sandwich cookies filled with peppermint icing.

 

Oh. Yum. 

Seriously.  I have eaten WAY too many of these cookies, but they are SOOO good! 

And who ever said cookies didn’t make for a balanced and nutritious breakfast anyway…?

As much as I really do love to bake, I think I could get used to this way of baking…B mixes the dough, rolls out the cookies, watches the clock, and I just “assist” while sampling and taking photos.

Lest you think otherwise, though, I wasn’t a completely useless assistant.  I made the final decision regarding the appropriate shade of red for the icing…an important part of the process if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:

2 boxes Devil’s Food cake mix

4 eggs slightly beaten

2/3 cup oil

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Peppermint extract to taste

Red food coloring (optional)

 

Instructions:

1. Beat cake mixes, eggs, and oil. Batter will be stiff.
2. Roll dough into balls (or use a cookie dough scoop) and place on ungreased baking sheets (parchment paper on the cookie sheets is optional).
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes (do NOT over-bake).
4. Immediately after cookies are removed from oven, flatten lightly with spatula, and move to wire cooling rack.
5. In another bowl, beat cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and mix until smooth.  Add peppermint extract to desired minty-ness.  Feel free to add red food coloring to desired shade of red at this point as well.  Or not.
6. Spread icing onto bottom of one cookie and top with another cookie.

 

These cookies are soooo good (and even better when made by your roommate while you “assist” in the kitchen…just sayin’)!

Enjoy!

Macaroons (aka: The Missing Post)

Remember this letter from exactly two months ago?  The one where I promised five posts that would be coming “soon and very soon”?

Well, as some of you may have noticed (or not…which is totally understandable…it has been two months), I have delivered on four of those five posts to date.  But whatever happened to the coconut macaroons?  The ones that I labeled as the “easiest/fastest dessert ever”?

 

Epic fail.  That’s what happened.

Okay, I suppose “epic” may be a bit harsh.  But seriously, my recent batch of these ridiculously simple treats just didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped.  Oh, they tasted alright, but the texture was a little off, and the color was not the crisp-white-with-a-few-appropriate-spots-of-toasted-coconut that had resulted from my first successful batch a month earlier. 

But after a midnight brainstorming session with B (my roommate) in which we were both recounting our coconut recipe woes, I feel fairly confident that we uncovered a plausible explanation for the fail(s). 

The reason I attempted this recipe for macaroons in the first place was to use leftover coconut (from another recipe) that had been stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks.  But for this most recent attempt, I opened a brand new bag of coconut that had been stored in the pantry. 

So, it seems that the coconut stored in the fridge (which was probably significantly lacking in moisture compared to its fresh counterpart), may have worked a little better for this particular purpose. 

I intend to make the recipe again to test our theory, but for now, here’s the recipe that I have now used with a 50/50 success rate:

 

Coconut Macaroons

(as adapted from the Baker’s brand coconut bag)

Ingredients:

1 14oz pkg. coconut

2/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Instructions:

1. Mix first four ingredients, then stir in egg whites and vanilla extract until well blended.
2. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Cool completely on wire racks.

 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies

On Sunday evening, I had an intense craving for chocolate, but didn’t feel like making anything overly complicated.  I considered just making brownies, but didn’t have a box mix in the pantry.  (And yes, I actually prefer brownies from a box to any made-from-scratch recipe that I’ve tried.  I know; it doesn’t make sense…)

So my search for chocolate led me to this FABULOUS recipe for chocolate chocolate chip cake cookies on allrecipes.com!

 

 

I mean…YUM!  These cookies are rich and moist and wonderful!

 

 

 

Except for a couple of minor ingredient substitutions (regular salt instead of kosher salt and salted butter instead of unsalted) and one omission (no nuts – I’m allergic), I followed the recipe exactly.

Ingredients:

          1 cup butter

          1 ½ cups sugar

          2 eggs

          1 teaspoon vanilla extract

          2 cups all-purpose flour

          ½ teaspoon salt

          2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

          2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (for 8-10 minutes).  Add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in large plastic baggie.  Seal bag and combine until no separate ingredients are showing.

4. Add the flour mix to the butter/sugar.  Mix together until completely combined (about 3 mintues).  Add the chocolate chips.

5. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 11 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet for a minute or two, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

 

 

Enjoy!