Yeasted Almond and Sea Salt Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

Inside our flat there is a seven-foot tree held in position by the ceiling. This year we chose a sparing selection of fancy shmancy £4-a-pop John Lewis decorations instead of 100 glittery baubles from the Pound Land.  The tree is leaning slightly to the left, but I suppose that’s what happens when you invest in something real. 

Baking cookies in a cake tin won’t add a touch of all spice to a Christmas baking repertoire, but it does add a barely cooked doughy middle to the modest sized batch this recipe yields. I think that adding some ground cloves or cinnamon, or a warming combination of both elevated with some fresh nutmeg, could work beautifully, especially if you’re finally in the festive spirit (festive spirit = continuous spice trip in the month of December). Let’s not forget that cookies are a bribe the kids might use on Santa so he doesn’t disappoint them with a lump of coal.  Not to be ageist, but the heaps of sea salt, whole nuts and bitter chocolate in this cookie tray bake are all adultly ingredients too.

My favourite recipe for chocolate chip cookies is the New York Times adaptation of Jacques Torres’ recipe, which is made with bread flour. Since discovering it, all of my cookies have had bread flour in them because it gives a chew, and a slight sturdiness on the outside that is difficult to forget. 

To amplify the bread-like flavour I used yeast as the raising agent and chilled the tray overnight, maturing the fermentation like this created a surprisingly subtle yeastiness. Bicarbonate of soda is fine to use as a replacement, but I’m sick of accidentally adding too much bicarbonate and ending up with a batch of soapy baked goods. Using fast acting yeast eliminates all possibilities of that, and it creates a crispy and crackly top layer caused from the swollen air pockets that rise to the top of the cookie overnight. Yeast and bicarbonate of soda both produce carbon dioxide that helps the cookie rise in the oven, but I much prefer the characteristics of bread in my cookies instead of, say, Imperial Leather.

Yeasted Almond and Sea Salt Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

Makes 8 large pieces or 16 slithers.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g light brown sugar
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 1 tsp coffee extract or brewed coffee
• 1 egg
• 200g strong bread flour
• ½ tsp fast action yeast
• 100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 50g almonds, roughly chopped

Method

1. In a small saucepan brown the butter on medium heat. Let the butter sizzle in the pan for a few minutes, keep an eye on it as it burns really quickly, you’ll know it’s browned when it starts to smell nutty. Pour the butter in a large bowl and leave to cool slightly. Add the sugar, salt and coffee extract to the butter and stir to combine then crack in the egg and briefly whisk.
2. In a separate bowl stir together the flour and yeast and add to the butter mixture. The mixture will be a little wet. Fold through the chocolate and almonds. Dump the dough into an 8-inch round cake tin and use the back of a spoon to gently press into the tin. Tightly wrap the tin in cling film and leave in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. Once you're ready to serve the cookie, preheat the oven to 200˚C/fan 180˚C/gas 6 and bake for 18 minutes, or 14 minutes for a gooey middle. Cookie lasts for 3 days if covered.

Waitrose might have nailed gingerbread this Christmas, but they also have a lovely collection of chocolate cake recipes on their website. I made their ganache covered red-velvet-like layer cake and filled it with tangy freeze-dried strawberries, which was dense and hit all the right choco-spots. You can find the recipe here, along with lots more chocolatey goodness.

Love Em xx

Gold Dust White and Dark Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

There might be a white and dark chocolate chip coconut cookie beneath that thick sheen of radiant gold. There might also be a fat free black-eyed pea chip variation, and that stuff on top could be made of 24-carrot edible gold. Let’s be serious though. It’s Christmas very soon and your friends and family wont mind shitting out indigestible lustre dust. When there are homemade cookies blurring their vision, the people will eat.

Wrap them up in real girth-y ribbon and give these out as naked gifts, or, arrange them neatly on your super sweet Christmas town plate and share them with whoever walks through the front door. You should probably call the entire neighbourhood over because this recipe will make 18 extra large cookies. Scale them down from 75g portion sizes to 35g and you could easily feed 40.   

I’ve only tested this recipe once, but I can already vouch for it being one of my favourite cookies of all time. The high quantity of brown sugar means they get softer with age. The coconut flakes also lend a chewiness you’d find in a macaroon, pair that with the crunchy exterior of any good chocolate chip cookie and you have yourself a recipe that defeats the object of my Perfectly Rounded Chocolate Chip Cookie Post. You might not believe it but, yes, you can have chewiness without a tablespoon of corn flour.

Graham Cracker Sandwiches with Dulce De Leche Truffle Filling

How To Make A Perfectly Round & Thick Brown Butter Chocolate ChipCookie + Recipe

We’re nearing the end of autumn and I’ve yet to post edible shades of orange on here.  You should know that I purchased a mini pumpkin today. I am probably going to place it on my windowsill and stare at it for a week or so, occasionally wondering whether it’s worth sacrificing the plump beauty of a good old pumpkin.

I am basically just sitting here all year round, baking the wrong things at the wrong time.

This disorder stretches across my entire culinary life e.g. lentil soup in the summer was a staple for mama and me. But when is the right time to bake chocolate chip cookies? They seem to somehow stumble into my diet every other day so yeah…NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME.

Sure, the internet doesn’t need yet another cookie recipe to add to its vast collection. So I thought I’d carry out a few geeky ‘measurement tests’ (is that a thing?) to try and give back to the internet what I think its missing: exact cookie dough measurements for perfectly rounded, thick and nonetheless; chewy chocolate chip cookies.

After three attempts and a whole batch of oval cookies, this is what eventually worked:

Mould raw cookie dough into cylinders that are 2.7 / 3 cm wide and 3 cm long. The cylinders should weigh 34 grams, this will give you a cookie that is at least 3 mouthfuls before it disappears. Of course, you can repeat this process 28 times because this is how many cookies the recipe yields.

Speaking of the recipe, the lovely Nora from Buttercream Fanatic has a foolproof recipe (cookie queen cookie queen) that I have used as the base for this recipe. To give the cookies an extra depth of flavour/nuttiness I browned (burned) the butter, if you think I’m going crazy, you can read about the process here. You would think that this would eliminate the ‘thickness’ of said cookies, but if you pop the dough in the fridge for long enough, the butter re-solidifies, leaving you with a cookie that is none other than effing delicious, 28 times ;).

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies

1 cup (215g) light brown sugar

1 cup (225g) unsalted butter, melted and browned
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 1/4 (280g) cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp cornflour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup (150g) dark chocolate chips

Makes 28 small cookies

Method

Add the brown sugar to a large bowl and pour over the melted butter. Mix to combine. Lightly beat the eggs in a small cup and pour into sugar mixture. Mix until just combined. Toss in the flour, cornflour and baking soda and stir until a thick dough forms. The mixture will be warm from the melted butter so cover and set aside for 15 minutes. Fold in the chocolate chips once the dough is cooled. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 3 hours/overnight.

Preheat oven to 180 C. Weigh out 34g of dough and shape into a cylinder. The cylinder should be roughly 3 cm long and 3 cm wide. Repeat the process, placing each cylinder of dough in the fridge whilst you make the rest. Place on cookie sheets 3 inches apart and bake for 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies last for 3 days.

How do you shape your cookies before they hit the oven? Love Em xx

Maple Black and White Cookies

If I had to choose between a mango fresh from the Caribbean and an authentic dessert from somewhere around the world, I’d have to go with the latter.

Kurabiye Crescents {Almond Shortbread}

This is such a wedding biscuit. Look at it! All covered and tossed in icing sugar when it’s still warm, making the first layer of sugar go this warm yellowy colour that kind of tastes like almond buttercream.

This is the best traditional biscuit ever ever ever, ever.

Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Sablés

If I could control the way the wind blows, you’d probably be feasting your eyeballs on a hazelnut almond dacquoise. 

Apparently though, there is some crazy machinery that can control the wind, and it in turn, control the weather. If I could just get my hands on that piece of machinery, things would be a whole lot different. I could have used said machinery (god knows if its even a machine) and be like: “Wind, how about you blow that way today, and not on that gigantic piece of wood hovering over my pretty little rectangular torte which was JUST enrobed in the silkiest and most delicious ganache?”

After a laughing fit mixed with tears, I was so close to just leaving the thing to lye there forever. 

Deflated.

The dacquoise inventor, Joanne Chang from Flour Bakery suggested I made parfaits with the crushed remains, I took her advice, obviously, the woman has knack. 

It was like throwing my aching heart into a glass and drinking it as if it were a glass of red.

RE ganache, 150g  37% (Green & Blacks), 150g 33.6% milk (any brand, just to soothe the taste a little), 100g 70% dark chocolate  (Green & Blacks) and 480g double cream = go there.

Cue rebound sables. Egg whites play a key role in giving these biscuits the crumbliest texture. We like things that melt in our mouths, yes? A small amount of icing sugar provides just a smidge of sweetness, and the corn flour content within the icing sugar also lifts the texture to a feeling in my gob I’ve never quite experienced before.

We won’t need much cocoa – a little goes a long way here. But it has to be dutch processed because its not as sweet, has a deeper colour (which darkens the cookies better than natural cocoa when baking, to make them look even more delicate) and smoother taste. Smooth is good when its coupled with crumbly. Crumbly, smooth, short sables right outta Pierre Herm’s kitchen.

As I had a bunch of nuts lying around from the previous disaster, I’ve made these sables go four humble ways.

Feeling a little…. 

Patriotic?

Or maybe you’re just feeling downright crazy?

Toasty?

Like you could dip yourself into a pool of chopped hazelnuts?

Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Sablés

The Recipe:

Sables:
30g dutch process cocoa powder
3 tbsp egg whites
100g icing sugar
260g plain flour
250g unsalted butter, very soft
Pinch sea salt

Decoration:
100g Green & Blacks milk or white chocolate, melted
chopped nuts or sprinkles
1m (open star) nozzle & disposable piping bag

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line to baking sheets with parchment paper.

This bit is important. Sift the cocoa, flour and salt and set aside.

Make sure the butter is very soft. Place in a bowl and whisk until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar and whisk until paler in colour. Add the egg white, mix until blended.

Stop the mixer. Pour in the flour mixture. Whisk on medium speed until just incorporated.

Fit a piping bag with a 1M nozzle and spoon the mixture inside, make sure there are no air bubbles. Pipe W's onto the baking sheets, spaced a couple centimetres apart.

Bake for 11 minutes - no longer. The cookies will be delicate - leave to cool on the sheets and then transfer to a sealed jar.

To decorate, dip in melted chocolate, then dip in sprinkles or nuts. Leave to dry on parchment paper.

Biscuits will last up to one week.

When my torte died, I thought to myself – how the hell did you scrape the short list when you’re this much of a careless clutz? Then I remembered that some of you nominated, then I made this ingenious recipe. Then I shared the recipe. Now I feel better.

Voting for the Cosmopolitan Awards ends this month; if you fancy giving me your vote, please click here and go to the “Best Food Blogger’ category. 

Thank you! Love and peace, Em xx

Almond and chocolate chip sandies

Is it possible to live without an obsession with institutionalized American desserts? 

Think about it. What the hell was you craving before you first caught your tongue on that first bite of red velvet layer cake?  Don’t even get me started on pie. All pie. Pumpkin. Pecan. Apple. Bar pork, but that’s not even from the states and who likes jellied meat encased in hot water crust pastry anyway?

I’m not an American. But as I discover edible American staples, I wonder why I haven’t packed my bags and jetted off to Boston to formerly beg Joanne Chang for that job at Flour.

Pecan Sandies are an old American tradition that lives on to this day, piled high in most American supermarkets. They are shortbread-like biscuits with crunchy chopped pecans added to the mix, and then heavily dusted with sugar before and after baking.  You really can’t go wrong. 

I don’t know when sandies came about, or what maid accidently fell onto a cake pan and flattened it out to reveal a cookie pan and suddenly someone in the 1800’s invented the pecan sandie.

I wanted to take this oil-based biscuit and make a strictly ‘no pecan’ meal out of it (change is good), sooooo seeing as I (women) cant live without chocolate, I threw in an overflowing handful of it for good measure. 

Shortbread and chocolate have always worked well together and as my sandies are not bearing pecans, it goes without saying that the almond/chocolate/buttery biscuit combo is indescribable.

This is a little out of the blue but on Sunday I will Race For Life in Blackheath with my cousins! It is such a worthy cause, please take a look at our page to read why we’re doing it :) 

I will update in my next post as to whether my sugar addiction overcame my ability to cross the finish line....

On a slightly more boring slash kinda important note: 

Some of you might be aware of Google’s latest assassination. Google Reader has been shoved through the front, back and side door. I have been using Feedly and Bloglovin’ to stay up to date with the latest in the blogosphere. If you want to keep reading mbakes, you can easily subscribe via Email, Feedly (subscribe by clicking Add Content in top left hand corner) or Bloglovin’. 

I am also on Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest! So there really is no getting away from me.

Almond Chocolate Chip Sandies

Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar + extra for sprinkling on top
125ml sunflower oil
1 egg, large
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
340g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp sea salt 

100g sliced almonds + extra for topping

A handful of milk chocolate chips / 100g

Makes 20 large biscuits

The Method

In a mixer, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the sunflower oil and beat until foamy, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla until incorporated.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tarter and beat on low until a dough forms. Add sliced almonds and chocolate and mix through with a spatula.

Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour, or over night.

Preheat the oven to 170 C and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

Roll 20 walnut sized balls and place on baking trays, the cookies will not spread so do not worry about spacing them too far apart. Sprinkle a load of caster sugar over each ball.

Take 2 to 3 sliced almonds and press them into each ball to flatten the cookie slightly. Sprinkle with more sugar.

Bake for 12 minutes, until the cookies have only slightly browned and are still largely pale. Leave to cool completely on the baking trays to continue the baking process without browning the biscuits. Biscuits will keep for 3 days in an airtight container.

Love Em xx

{3 Ingredient} Nutella Stuffed Nutella Cookies

Here’s a thought: do we sacrifice the taste of something when using less ingredients?

Are we as bakers, chefs, domestic gods/goddesses attracted to the recipe calling for just three ingredients because it tastes better, takes up less of our time or to savour our wallets? 

So I was waddling through the supermarket up until this point, convinced that if a recipe was dead easy, the end result was gonna be dead tasty. Though this is sometimes the case, it’s not worth denying that the more care and cash involved, the better the cake. Or cookie. Or fish pie, which by the way, Nigella does best.

But what savvy, “No Bake, No Ingredient” recipes have done is shed light to Nutella’s versatility! You can make a cookie out of Nutella, flour and 1 lonely egg. It will be chewy and nutty. You wont be amazed, but pleasantly pleased. 

AND THEN. You can stuff it with everyone’s favourite (literelly everyone) Nutella, again!!!! Its like a fast track ticket to cloud nine, only its not a cloud, it’s a floating mass of Nutella. 

Have you ever heard of bread pudding with Nutella spread on to the bread prior to baking? You have?! Please, please share it with me!

Turn it down a notch. 

What about Nutella spread on home-baked crusty bread? What about all the other ruddy delicious chocolate spreads out there? Like this. 

Want a single serving portion? No problem. Find it in Turkish sweets aisles, in cute little aluminium tubes with a lid disguised as a playful red hat. Not joking.

The Recipe: Nutella Stuffed Nutella Cookies 

Only slightly adapted from Butter Baking's Nutella Stuffed Easy Nutella Cookies

280g Nutella
150g plain flour
1 large egg
100g Nutella, for the cookie centers

Makes 12 large cookies or 18 small cookies 

The Method

Add the Nutella and egg to a mixing bowl and combine.

Add the flour all in one go and beat until you can no longer see white streaks. The dough will be thick.

Line a baking tray. Take a small amount of dough and roll into a ball, then flatten with your palm and place on baking tray. Next, add a scant teaspoon of Nutella to the middle of the cookie. Take another piece of dough, roll and flatten then place on top of the Nutella and seel the cookie with your fingers.

Repeat until you no longer have any dough.

Bake for 8-16 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. I baked mine for 18 minutes!

Make un-stuffed Nutella cookies with leftover dough by rolling into a ball and squishing with your palm.

Nutella stuffed Nutella stuffed Nutella Nutella Nutella 

I've heard that peanut butter pairs well with an egg and some flour, too. Love Em xx

4 Ingredient No Bake Nutella Cookies

Can we all just agree on one thing? We all have those days, sorry, WEEKS where baking just…doesn’t go the way we planned.

The inspiration is all there, right in front of our screen as we scroll endlessly through Pintrest and Foodgawker.

A few days of drooling fly away and BAM - we know exactly what it is we want to bake, or create. But the final execution? Not so golden.

Like the lavender shortbread bars I made earlier on in the week, with this pin in mind. Final outcome? If it were extracted and left to ferment, it would have made the ultimate perfume. That’s it. No melt in the mouth shortbread bars to share, sorry world L

Oh well. All in the past, right? Next time, there’s no doubt in my mind that whatever I bake will be worth it. So much so that when loved ones take that one bite (because that’s all it takes) they will puke rainbows. And enjoy it.

Nutella No Bake Cookies nearly didn’t make it on the blog. Back to the cookie board I go…  

Then a day passed. Flavours and textures did their godly ‘thang’ and chewy chocolatey disks were born. After the third bite, the taste of Ferrero Roche’s suddenly crept up, just without the crunch from the wafer and hazelnut. The secret addition of cornflakes, totally made up for the sad fact that this isn’t a Ferrero. Sorry guys. But trust me, it works.

So I guess the moral of the story is never give up. Keep going. Seriously. Don’t stop until you’re happy. 

No Bake Nutella Cookies

Ingredients

Makes 30 Cookies

• 1 jar Nutella (200g)
• 600g cornflakes
• 180g dark chocolate, melted
• 60ml coconut milk
• Rainbow sprinkles (optional)

Method

1. Spoon the Nutella, cornflakes and coconut milk into a food processor. Pulse until the Nutella has coated the cornflakes and there are still some pieces of cornflakes intact. Add the melted chocolate to the processor and pulse until completely blended.
2. Remove mixture from the food processor, place in a bowl and chill for 20 minutes.
3. Take a golf ball sized amount of the mixture and form into a ball and then flatten (at this point you can dip the cookies in sprinkles if using), place on to a lined tray and put back in the fridge to set, or serve immediately. Cookies last 3 days, covered in the fridge. 

Love Em xx