Magic Bars

I don't really know where this name came from.  My mom as been making these bars for YEARS and has just always called them magic bars.  If I were to guess, I'd say that you can make these so darn quick it feels like magic :-)  Also, you just can't screw them up, you can't ... trust me.  The worst thing you could do here is keep the crust in the oven too long.  If that scares you, heck, just skip baking the crust first, it'll be just fine.

I like these for either an afternoon tea or as a 'secondary dessert', you know the kind of desserts that seem to come out after the main dessert ... wait, is that just my family that does that?!?  hmmm ... there's a reason that I have a sweet tooth.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 cup toasted pecans (roughly chopped)
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened)
1 cup chocolate chips

Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Take out a 9"x13" pan.

Step 1:
Put your crumbs and butter in your pan and mix them.  Then press them into the pan.  I use the base of a glass or the base of my measuring cups to press the mixture down as much as I can.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then take it out.

Step 2:
Pour the condensed milk on top of the crumbs

Step 3:
Sprinkle the pecans on top

Step 4:
Sprinkle the coconut and the chocolate chips on top

Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

And .... done!  just like magic.  Wait for the bars to cool before you cut them.  Now the real magic will be managing to keep your hands off these babies!  :-D

Flourless Chocolate Cake

If you have never made a flourless chocolate cake, you're missing out.  I made this cake for the first time two years ago on valentines day and it was a hit.   It's like a cake had a baby with a brownie ... it has the rich, moist quality of a brownie with the fluffiness and look of a cake.

This is also a great recipe if you have to make a desert for someone who has a gluten intolerance.  It has no flour what so ever so you don't have to worry about finding different kinds of flour at the last minute and worrying that it won't taste right.  

It is a very rich cake so it's nice to cut that with some ice cream .... and heck, if you have some caramel sauce kicking around, load 'er up!!  haha

I must confess that I was making this desert to take over to a friends place, so I made one 9" cake to take with me and then saved a little batter to make the little 4" cake pictured above so I could destroy it for your viewing pleasure :-)  This is what the full cake looked like:

Ingredients:

9 Eggs

1 Pound of good dark chocolate (I used 1 and a 1/2 of those big gold wrapped Lindt chocolate bars)

1/2 cup of butter

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

Original recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com

Directions:

Preheat you oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x3" circular spring form pan.

Step 1:

Separate your eggs,  put the whites in the clean and very dry bowl of your stand mixer.  Put the yolks in a side bowl

Step 2:

Set your mixer on medium and whip your egg whites to firm peaks (make sure everything you use is COMPLETELY dry or the egg whites won't whip up).  Once your egg whites are done, put them in bowl or side plate.

Stiff peak egg whites

Step 3:

While your egg whites are whipping up, chop up your chocolate into little pieces and put it in a bowl and put that bowl over simmering water.  Add the butter.  Keep stirring and let it melt.  Once it has melted, turn off the heat.

The melted chocolate with butter

Step 4:

Once your egg whites are in a side bowl, put your yolks in the bowl of the stand mixer with the sugar (no need to wash the bowl).  Whip your yolks and sugar together until pale yellow.

Step 5:

A little at a time, add the melted chocolate to your egg yolk mixture.  Don't put it all in at the same time because if your chocolate is too warm you'll scramble your egg yolks.

Egg yolk, sugar, and chocolate mixture

Step 6:

Gently fold in half your egg whites into your yolk/chocolate mixture. Once they have been incorporated, fold in the rest of your egg whites.

Step 7:

Pour your batter into the prepared spring form pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. When it's done you'll see the top start to crack along the sides and when you insert a toothpick it should come out with a little moist crumb stuck to it.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

Ready to go in the oven

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream ... everything is better with ice cream and caramel :-D

The 2 Minute Cookie

Cookie cravings beware! This single serve cookie can be made in less than 2 minutes.  I kind of wish I never came across this puppy, because it's dangerous ... really dangerous.  You have have a delicious warm cookie anytime you want ... ANYTIME.  On the plus side, it does save you from devouring a whole dozen cookies in a moment of weakness :-)  Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp pure vanilla
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
Recipe slightly adapted from No.2Pencil

Directions:

In a microwaveable mug (or small dish) melt the butter.  Once it's melted, add the sugars and give it a good mix.  Add your egg yolk and vanilla and give it a good stir again until it's all uniform.  Add the flour and salt and then stir until it looks like cookie dough.  Add about 1 Tbsp of the chocolate chips to the dough and stir.  Then sprinkle the rest of the chips on the top,  I like to press them into the dough a little bit.

Microwave on high for 40-60 seconds. Mine took exactly 50 seconds.  It will continue to cook after it's out of the microwave.  Let it sit until it has cooled down enough to not burn your tongue (this will be the hardest part! )

Enjoy your soft delicious cookie!

Sticky Toffee Cinnamon Rolls

On the heels of my sticky toffee pudding post I managed to rekindle my love of caramel.  Okay, let's face it, it was never really gone.  I love caramel on EVERYTHING!    In fact, there really are few things that I love more.  I started to think about what else I could do with it and then it hit me ... caramel cinnamon rolls!  Yup, genius.  Okay, I'm probably not the first one to think of this, but since it did feel like one of those 'ah-ha' moments that Oprah kept talking about (I'm almost sure she was talking about baking) I'm taking credit for this idea ... at least for the next few minutes.

I had tried to make regular old non-toffee cinnamon rolls about 2 weeks ago but it didn't go so well.  They were kind of dry and really uninspiring.  The good news, however, is that I figured out all the things I did wrong and now they're AWESOME!  I just ate two of them before writing this to double check their awesomeness ... and yup, still there.  I actually think these are even better the second day warmed up in the microwave .. go figure.

Ingredients:

For the rolls:
4 large egg yolks

1 large egg

1/4 cup white sugar

6 Tbsp butter, melted
6 oz buttermilk
2 tsp dry instant yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
adapted from foodnetwork.com

For the Filling:
1 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the Toffee Sauce:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the icing:
1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
3 Tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

1. Add the yolks, egg, buttermilk, and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer.  With the whisk attachment, beat for a few seconds.
2. Add the yeast and wait for 10 minutes.  Once the yeast has 'dissolve' give whisk again quickly.
3. Add the flour and salt.  Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed until it comes together.  It should be soft but not really sticky.  If it's really sticky, add some more flour.  Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
4. Take the dough ball out onto a clean surface and kneed with your hands for a minute.
5. Lightly oil the empty bowl of your stand mixer and put your dough ball back in.  Then lightly oil the top of the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap is touching the dough.
6. Let sit for 2-3 hours until the dough ball doubles in size

dough after mixing

the risen dough

While the dough is rising, make the toffee and mix the filling:

1. Roast your pecans (put chopped nuts into a dry frying pan on medium heat until roasted)
2. In a medium saucepan, add the 1/2 cup butter with the 1/2 cup brown sugar.  On medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil.
3. Remove from heat and add the 1/3 cup cream, salt, and vanilla.  Then add the nuts.
4. Pour mixture into a 9x13" pan
5. In a small bowl, mix together the cup of brown sugar with the cinnamon.

A bad picture of my toffee sauce :-)

Assemble:

1. Once your dough has doubled in size, roll the dough into a 12x18" rectangle
2. Brush with the 2 Tbsp of melted butter leaving about a 1/2 inch on one long end
3. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture onto the butter and press down
4. Roll up the dough tightly starting at the other long end
5. Using a serrated knife, cut the roll into 1" pieces.
6. Place the 1"pieces into the 9x13" pan.  Into the awaiting toffee sauce.
7. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight

Take the rolls out of the fridge about an hour before baking and let them come to room temperature.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake for about 30 minutes until the tops are lightly browned.

To make the icing, put the sour cream and butter into a small bowl and mix well with a spoon.  Add the icing sugar and mix well again.  Then add the heavy cream.  Put the icing into an icing bag or a plastic sandwich bag until ready to use.  Keep refrigerated between uses.

Serve the rolls warm (toffee side up), drizzle with icing by cutting a small hole in the icing bag or sandwich bag.  Tastes awesome when warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds and drizzled with icing.  YUM!

Enjoy!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ahhh .. I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted a recipe!  But believe me, it's not because I haven't been baking.  Actually, it's quite the opposite.  I've had to bake so much, and so frequently in the last couple of weeks that there just hasn't been enough time to take pictures of my creations.  Plus, it's hard to destroy my desserts the way I like to take pictures when I have to take it over to someones house :-D  If you are curious about what things I'm making in between posts, look me up on Instagram.  You can see all my 'inbetweeners' there, you can also see some shots of the stuff I'm making in my baking class at George Brown.

Time to tell you about my favourite recipe book ... Rose's Heavenly Cakes.  If you don't have it, go and get it.  It's written by Rose Levy Beranbaum who also wrote The Cake Bible.  While the cake bible is a wonderfully fantastic book, I prefer Heavenly Cakes just because it has pictures of all the recipes :-)  What can I say, I'm a visual person.

This recipe is one (of many wonderful ones) from this book.

Okay, I'll admit, this is something that would be perfect on a cold winter's night, but I so rarely have dates in the house that I got super excited and just had to make it.  And let me tell ya, it's DELICIOUS.  Moist spiced cake with a healthy dose of gooey caramel sauce and a dollop of whipped cream (or heck, go all the way and add ice cream!) ... I fell in love.  It also gave me a reason to finally bust open that jar of whole nutmeg spice that I bought from William Sonoma a month ago.

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup       Guinness (or any other stout beer)
1 tsp        Baking soda
170gm     large pitted dates (make sure to weigh this one, it was about 8 dates for me)
6 Tbsp     unsalted butter at room temperature
225 gm    sugar (1 cup plus 2 Tbsp)
2 tsp         pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste cause I love it)
3 large     eggs, at room temperature
228g        all-purpose flour (about 2 cups not packed down)
1 tsp         baking powder
1/2 tsp      salt
1 tsp         cinnamon
1/2 tsp      nutmeg (I used whole nutmeg and grated about 1/2 tsp into the bowl)

Toffee Sauce:

1 cup       dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp        vanilla extract
1 cup       unsalted butter
1/2 cup    heavy cream
1 Tbsp     lemon juice (optional)
pinch of salt

Directions:

Prepare the dates:

1. Put Guinness in a saucepan and bring it to a boil
2. Turn the the heat off and add the baking soda (it will bubble up a lot) then add the dates
3. Let the mixture sit until it comes to room temperature
4. When cool, put mixture into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth
5. Remove and put into a bowl - cover until you're ready to use it

Make the cake:

1.  Add the butter, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of your stand mixer.  Mix on medium speed (with the paddle attachment) until light and fluffy
2. Add the eggs one at a time, make sure you scrape down the bowl between each egg addition
3. In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Whisk together.
4. Add a 1/3 of the flour mixture to your butter/sugar and mix just until incorporated
5. Add half the date mixture and mix just until incorporated
6. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half the date mixture, and finish with the flour mixture.  Each time mixing just until incorporated and scraping the bowl down in between additions.
7. Scoop batter into a prepared 9x13" pan (I just lined mine with parchment paper, but you can also butter and flour the pan if you'd like)

Bake the cake:

1. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate the pan, and then bake for another 10-15 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted. The cake should spring back when pressed lightly in the centre.
2. While the cake is baking, you can make the toffee sauce
3. Let cool for 10 minutes once it's done.  This is best served warm, so either serve immediately or warm it up before serving.   

Make toffee sauce:

1. In a small saucepan, add the butter and the sugar.  Using medium heat, bring mixture to a boil and then turn off the heat (you don't want to burn the sugar, you just want it to be completely melted)
2. Stir in the heavy cream, salt, and lemon (if you're using it).  While the lemon did go well with the cake, I think I preferred the sauce without the lemon.  It is entirely up to you.

To assemble:

1. Cut pieces of cake
2. pour on toffee sauce
3. top with a dollop of whipped cream (or ice cream)
4. sprinkle with toasted nuts such as walnuts or pecans

Mini Pavolvas

Do you ever find yourself struggling with what to make for dessert when guests come over?  This is perfect.  It's made from things you're likely to have around the house, and it's so quick that you can whip it up right before you eat dinner, bake it while you eat and then just let it cool in the oven until you're ready to eat it.  Best of all they are individual size.  It always feels more personal and special when you can serve each person their own plate of dessert.

If you've never had pavlova before, the outside is nice and crispy, and the inside is like delicious marshmallow.  Then with the sweet soft cream and the tart berries you can't help but devour it!

Pavlova:

• 3 egg whites (preferably at room temperature)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1  cup whipping cream
• Something to top it with - fresh or frozen fruit especially raspberries (as in my picture), strawberries, blueberries, or a nice tart lemon or lime curd (recipe to follow)

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Step 1:
In a clean, very dry bowl of your stand mixer add your egg whites and beat until frothy.  I can't stress enough that the bowl and everything you use must be completely dry. Even the slightest bit of water and your egg whites won't whip up.

Step 2:
Once your egg whites are frothy add 3/4 cup sugar while continuing to beat the egg whites on medium speed.  Continue beating until the egg white mixture forms soft peaks.  It will look like fluffy whipped cream.

Step3:
Using your spatula (or even your hand) fold in the lemon juice.  Then in a small bowl mix the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch.  Then fold that into the egg whites as well.

Step 4:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Then use a round cookie cutter in the size you want to make to form your round shapes.  I used a 3" cookie cutter, and I got about 6 out of this recipe.  Just place your cookie cutter down on the parchment, fill with about 2-3 inches of your meringue mixture and then pull up.  Voila!  You can use a palette knife or a regular knife to smooth down the top edges if you want, but you don' have to.

Step 5:
Bake for 30 minutes then turn off the oven leaving the pavlovas inside until you're ready to eat it.

Step 6:
Prepare your toppings.  Whip the cream, defrost your berries and add some sugar if you want.  Then top and serve!

With the lemon curd it's almost like a lemon meringue pie.... but it does take longer to make. In case you want to, here's the lemon curd recipe I used:

Lemon curd: (makes enough for 3 pavlovas, you might want to double it if you're doing all lemon)

• 3 egg yolks
• zest of one lemon
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 6 Tablespoons sugar
• 4 Tablespoons soft butter

Recipe as found on marthastewart.com

In a saucepan add the butter, sugar, and yolks.  Give it a nice whisk to combine, I find this helps avoid clumps of egg.  Add the lemon zest and the juice and mix (it will look a little curdled).  Turn on the heat low and stir.  Keep stirring.  Stir until it's thick ... kind of like pudding.  Transfer it to another bowl, and let cool.  If you're leaving it overnight, cover it with plastic wrap making sure to put the plastic right up against the lemon curd, this will avoid that skin developing on the top. Then refrigerate until you're ready to use.

Nutella Biscotti

So after my last post (the cookie dough cupcakes with Nutella frosting) I had this half bottle of Nutella left in my house.  Just lying around ... looking delicious ... staring at me ... day ... after day.  I couldn't handle it anymore!  I have ZERO self control when it comes to Nutella.  I can eat the stuff with a spoon.

I knew I had to use the rest of the stuff before I grabbed said spoon and went at it.  This is what I came up with, and let me tell ya, it's delicious!  Sweet, crumbly goodness.  You could even push it over the edge with a drizzle of chocolate or even more Nutella.  The hazelnuts make it taste even more like Nutella. Love.

Nutella Biscotti:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

adapted from foodnetwork.com

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a side bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream together your butter, sugar, and Nutella on medium speed
4. Crack your eggs into a separate bowl or glass and add your eggs, salt, and vanilla.  Then add eggs one at a time to your butter/sugar mixture.  Make sure to scrape down the bowl between each egg
5. Add your flour and baking powder and mix on low until combined (about 30 seconds) don't over mix
6. Add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts and mix on low until combined
7. Take out a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat if you have one .  Put the dough on the baking sheet and shape it into a long log.  You're going to be cutting it into strips, so just make this log the size you want your biscotti to be.
8. Bake for about 30 minutes until the edges are browned and the middle doesn't feel too soft
9. Take it out and let it cool for about 20 minutes (don't turn off the oven)
10. Cut the loaf into 1-2 inch strips and place them (cut side down) back on the baking sheet
11. Bake again for about 15-18 minutes until lightly browned and no longer soft in the middle

Enjoy!!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Fluffy Nutella Frosting

Yup, you heard right ... cookie dough AND Nutella!!  This is a cupcake that I made for my sister's birthday.  I thought long and hard about the things she loved most and this is what I came up with.  Plain vanilla cake stuffed with cookie dough, topped with fluffy Nutella frosting, drizzled with even more Nutella and topped with a soft delicious cookie!  This is the stuff dreams are made of ... well, my dreams anyway.

I'm still on the hunt for a nice vanilla cake.  I gave this recipe a try for the first time and it worked really well.  I don't know if I'd want to just have the cake by itself, but it complimented the cookie dough beautifully.  With everything else going on in this cupcake, you really just want the cake itself to be nice and plain ... and that's what this one was.

I always thought that this kind of cupcake would take forever to make, but both the cookie and the cake  are one bowl recipes.  I made it over two days.  On day I did the cupcakes stuffed with the cookies, then I let them cool overnight and frosted them in the morning.  Mostly because I love fresh frosting!

Don't worry about the fact that the cookie recipe has eggs in it, the 'cookie dough' in the centre does cook with the rest of the cupcake so it's perfectly safe to eat :-D

First ... make the cookie dough.  These are the same cookies I used to make the cookie nests in my last post.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies: (this will make the cookie dough and the cookies to top the cupcake)

• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Adapted from Baking Illustrated

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the melted butter and both the sugars.  Cream these together on medium speed for about 30 seconds. 
2. In a glass or small bowl, crack your eggs and add the salt and vanilla.  This is a tip that I learned in my baking class at George Brown.  Doing this helps to make sure that no shells make it into your batter and it also helps dissolve the salt before adding it to your mixture.
3. Add the eggs one by one to your butter and sugar mixture.  TIP: Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each egg addition.
4. I take a bit of a shortcut here and it works for me.  Once the eggs are completely mixed in I add the flour and then the baking powder on top and give it a quick mix with my hand.  I then turn on my mixer on the lowest speed and mix until the flour has been incorporated fully (and no longer).  Really, you should take out another bowl and sift your flour with your baking powder ... but I wanted this to be as quick as possible and my way works :-)
5. Add your chocolate chips and turn your mixer on low until the chips have been mixed in.  Now you can dump this cookie dough into another bowl, or onto some wax paper, or even some plastic wrap.

Wash out the bowl and you're now ready to make your cake batter.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Quick Yellow Cake:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup sour cream  

Adapted from www.thekitchn.com

First let me say that this method is completely unconventional and nothing like I've ever made before, but it works.  The cake batter was almost the consistency of whipped cream and it didn't rise much when baked.  But stick with me on this one.

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and the sugar together in your stand mixer with your whisk attachment
2. Crack your eggs into a side bowl or glass and add your salt and your vanilla.  Add the eggs one by one to your butter/sugar mixture.  Scrape the bowl down between each egg ... and scrape it well.
3. Add the flour and the baking powder and mix on medium speed until incorporated, it will be thick.
4. Add the milk and the sour cream and mix on medium speed.  Stop and scrape down the bowl well ... very well.  Mix again, then stop and scrape down the bowl.

Your batter will now look like whipped cream.

Take out two cupcake pans and place a cupcake liner in each.  

Assemble and Bake:

Place a tablespoon of batter into each of the 24 cups.  Then put a tablespoon of cookie dough in each.  Finish by putting another tablespoon into each cupcake liner.  You may need to add a little more to cover the cookie dough.  Again, the cake won't rise much so only leave about half a centimeter of space at the top.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops spring back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool completely.

While the cupcakes are in the oven, bake the small cookies.  Take out a baking sheet and line it with some parchment paper or a silicone baking mat if you have one.  Place a tablespoons of cookie dough spaced apart on the baking sheet.  You should be able to fit at least 20.  Once the cupcakes come out, reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and put the cookies in for about 10 minutes.  You want the edges to be just a little bit browned, they will look under done but don't worry, they're perfect.

You'll have more cookie dough than you need, you can make some extra cookies as a snack or wrap it up and put it in the freezer for another time.

Now ... the frosting..

Nutella Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 cup bitter sweet chocolate melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream

adapted from sweetapolita.com

Directions:

1. Place softened butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy.
2. Add the icing sugar and beat on slow until incorporated and then turn up the speed to medium.  Don't forget to scrape down the bowl from time to time. Mix until light and fluffy
3. Add the bitter sweet chocolate and mix until uniform in colour, then add the Nutella and mix again on medium
4. Add the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time.  Scrape down the bowl in between additions

Warm up some Nutella in the microwave until smooth, you don't want it to be too hot, just smooth enough to drizzle.  Let it cool while you pipe the frosting onto the waiting cupcakes.  Place the Nutella into a piping bag, or a sandwich bag works just fine.  Cut a very small hole in one corner and drizzle away.  Add a small cookie to the top and you're done.  Enjoy!

Serve to friends for the "oooooooo ..... aaahhhhhh" effect.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Nests

I'm not someone with a complicated palate.  When it really comes down to it, all I really want is chocolate cake and cookies.  So this Easter I gave in to my inner child and went for it ... chocolate chip cookies in the shape of nests!  It combines my love of chocolate chip cookies with my obsession with mini eggs.

I slightly adapted a cookie recipe that I found in Baking Illustrated.  The one big thing that this recipe calls for is melted butter.  Most recipes I have seen call for room temperature butter but this will change your mind.  Not only does it work extremely well but it's also much faster to melt butter than it is to get it to room temperature.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies: (makes 24 nests)

• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 bag (188gm) Cadbury mini eggs

Slightly modified from Baking Illustrated

Directions

Step 1:  

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Take out your mini muffin tin.

Step 2:

Add your melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on medium speed with your paddle attachment.  Mix until combined.

Step 3:

In a small bowl, add your eggs, vanilla, and salt.  Pour one of the eggs into your butter/sugar bowl and mix on medium speed until combined. Give it a good mix with a spatula.  Then add the rest of your egg mixture. Mix on medium, and mix with the spatula again.

Step 4:

In a side bowl sift the flour with the baking powder.  Then add this to the rest of the mixture.  Mix on low until combined, you don't need to mix it too long, 10-15 seconds should do.

Step 5:

Pour in your chocolate chips.  You can use your judgement here, if you like lots of chocolate chips then 1 1/2 cups should be good, but you can add more if you like.  You could also add less if you don't like too many.

Step 6:

Grease your mini muffin tin.  I used Pam Baking because it simultaneously greases and flours your pan.  Now put about 1 Tbsp of the cookie dough in each of the mini muffin compartments and push down a little on the centre to make a little well.

Step 7:

Gently press 3 mini eggs into each of the cookies.  Bake for about 15-18 minutes until the tops are slightly browned.

When they're done, you can let them cool in the pan.  Ta-da!