Christmas Cookies-Part 2

Before I get to the Hong Kong posts, for completion's sake, here is the second post on the Christmas cookie boxes I gave out this year; the first post is here.


So, let's just get straight into it, starting with the espresso chocolate shortbreads! Shortbreads are one of my favorite kinds of cookie, because they are so easily adaptable. They are also really great for making ahead; I sometimes make rolls of shortbread dough in a couple of different flavors and stick them in the freezer for those days when I need something quick (in fact, I think I will go do that after I finish writing this. Lots of birthdays coming up.) This is, of course, a Dorie Greenspan recipe, although I doubled the amount of espresso that I added to the dough, and next time, I might add even more. I really like coffee, what can I say? The shaping on this is ingenious, really--you put the dough into a gallon ziploc bag, roll it out inside the bag, and refrigerate. Then you cut the bag off of your slab of dough and slice into rectangles or squares. For someone like me, who can't be bothered to use a ruler, this results in cookies of all different sizes....so, maybe next time I'll just make it into a log :)

Next, brownies! I did not take a photo of the individual brownie pieces, but please believe me: these brownies are much better than the ones you make out of the box. And as an avowed boxed-mix-brownie-lover, that's saying a lot. Please try these, just make sure you use a good, dark cocoa powder.


And finally, linzer cookies. I think these have been included in my cookie boxes every since I've been doing them, and for good reason! They are nutty, sweet with vanilla (but tempered by the tart jam), and are a nice compromise between crisp and crumbly. They are one of my favorite cookies of all time, and I actually have a cutter set that makes a little decorative cutout in the center so you can see the jam. Unfortunately, I was not able to find them until after the cookie season (why did I put them in the coat closet? I have no idea.). But hey, the important thing is that they TASTE good, right?

Recipe for the brownies below! (If you are interested in either of the other two recipes, email me--I'm too lazy to type them up right now.) And thus concludes my posts from 2009. Hong Kong posts are up next!

My Favorite Brownies
2/3 cup cocoa (I use double dutch cocoa from King Arthur)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon espresso powder
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter or line with parchment an 8 inch square pan (or 9 inch; sometimes I also use a mini muffin pan if I want to make individual portions). Whisk dry ingredients together until combined. Add the eggs, vegetable oil, and water and stir until well combined. This comes together very easily and makes a thick, dropping batter. (I love brownies--so easy. No beating, just stirring.) If you like nuts and chips in your brownies, add them now; about a cup should do. Pour and spread into your prepared pan. For the square pan, bake for about 40 minutes, and then start checking. You don't want to overbake these! Test with a skewer, and when it comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs, they're ready. The mini muffins take about 20 minutes. Cool before cutting into small bars; they are VERY rich! Eat with milk!

More birthday baking: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes & Brownies, Oh My!

Man, this is a seriously backdated post. I started drafting this sometime in September, right when the weather was just beginning to cool off....well, it's officially COLD now, and I've been remiss in blogging, but it's been a really busy month! We've been travelling pretty much every weekend in October (2 weddings in a row) and it's going to be busy probably through the end of the month. But, there are some good food-related trips coming up so I anticipate some good blogging opportunities.


A couple of my coworkers had birthdays in the end of August and beginning of September, so I decided on two different items, even if there were actually three birthdays--hey, a cupcake is a cupcake! The two As got pink lemonade cupcakes, and Hurricane, who is a devotee of the cupcake truck, got brownies baked into cupcakes. (As much as he loves the cupcake truck, I hear him complain all the time about how they never have just plain vanilla or plain chocolate.) As an aside, I bought some of these parchment baking cups by If You Care and they are soooo nonstick that the brownies just kind of slid out of the cups.

I used the brownie recipe from the Martha Stewart baking handbook, because I had a couple of bars of chocolate I wanted to use, but it's definitely not the best recipe I personally have tried. Those honors still go to the King Arthur recipe that's printed on the back of their cocoa packages. Still, a brownie is a brownie!


I couldn't resist making these pink lemonade cupcakes when I saw them while I was googling away one day--I mean, they're lemonade flavored and they're pink! I was already in love with the idea. I used the recipe from Cast Sugar. I have to be honest; I wasn't that crazy about the texture of the cupcake. When baked, it almost felt like a Chinese steamed cake, which is not the texture I want from a cupcake! But hey, it uses no butter and no egg yolks, so at least it's (sort of) healthier than a normal cupcake. And the frosting made up for what the cupcake lacked. And did I mention how pink and cute they were? I almost felt bad for bestowing such a girly cupcake upon the birthday boy. Almost.

Anyway, hopefully I will have time to blog more regularly soon. This weekend we are going to the Sheep & Wool Festival, where I will attempt to stop myself from kidnapping an alpaca...

Tintin and the Giant Brownie

In the Tintin story, "The Shooting Star," Tintin ends up on meteorite island which makes everything grow super large....giant mushrooms, giant spiders, EEK. Well if he had had giant brownies, maybe he would have tried to set up camp. Especially if he also had a giant bottle of milk. (Snowy is probably wondering where his giant bone and giant whiskey are.)

Noooo I'm just kidding. It's just that chocolate baked items are hard to photograph in an interesting way (I mean, they're just BROWN), so I figured I would recruit some of the toys we have sitting around the place. Actually, the brownies were baked in mini-muffin pans, and that milk bottle is a mini milk bottle that a pudding I got at a Japanese market came in...it's about 3 inches tall, to give you some perspective!


This is my current favorite brownie recipe, and it's pretty standard except that you melt your butter and then cook it with the sugar before blending it with other ingredients. This is supposed to help give your brownies a shiny crust, although I've never managed to get that sort of crackly crust on the top. I bake them in mini muffin pans because I really like the edges of brownies the best...and I also can't find my square one. Oh well!

Fudge brownies
from King Arthur Flour
8 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
5/8 cup unsweetened cocoa, dutch-process
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso
1.5 tablespoons vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour, sifted

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8x8" pan, or a mini muffin tin (this recipe makes 24). Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the sugar. Return the pan to the heat and stir until hot and shiny, but not bubbling or boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside. Combine the eggs, cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso, and vanilla in a medium bowl and stir until combined and smooth. Stir in the butter and sugar mixture until smooth, then stir the flour in. You will have a fairly thick batter, but it should be of a dropping consistency. Pour into your pan or scoop into muffin tins. Bake for about 30 minutes for the pan, and about 15 for the muffin tins, until set, and a skewer inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let cool on a rack, then enjoy with a glass of milk...or tea...or coffee......or just by itself.