Mini Chocolate Chip Shortbread

What's Baking? 
This is the recipe for the heart-shaped cookies shown in my post from Feb. 8.  I made a double batch and was really testing the capacity of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with 10 cups of flour!  I rolled the dough a bit thinner than usual and ended up with at least 150 cookies.

Brussels Sprouts

My sister-in-law made delicious Brussels Sprouts for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and it was requested again for this past years feast so it has been added to our list of family favorites.  She followed Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots from Bon Appétit, November 2007.  

Little Thai Turkey Loaves

What's for dinner?

This recipe is adapted from Food Network: Little Thai Turkey Loaves, actually simplified based on what I already have in the kitchen.

 

These are delicious, fairly quick to put together and very forgiving in terms of ingredients

Chocolate Mocha Cookies

What's baking?

Unfortunately, I do not remember where the original recipe came from which is a shame because these are delicious and I would like to give the proper credit.  My original recipe is handwritten and barely legible on very brittle paper.

Chocolate Mocha Cookies

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

3 C semisweet chocolate chips, divided

½ C butter (cut small pieces)

½ C flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

4 eggs, room temp

1½ C sugar

1½ TBS espresso powder

2 tsp vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Melt unsweetened chocolate, 1½ C chocolate chips and butter over hot water or slowly in microwave, stir until smooth. 

Stir flour, BP and salt in small bowl.

Beat eggs and sugar until thick and pale.  Beat in espresso and vanilla.   Fold in chocolate.

Fold in flour.  Stir in remaining chips.

Let stand 15 minutes.

Drop heaping TBS onto parchment covered baking sheets.  Bake 8-10 minutes until puffy, shiny, crackled.  Cool.  Transfer to rack to cool.

This recipe double easily and the cookies freeze well.  I let batter sit longer, sometimes overnight, if convenient.  I use less sugar, less salt, a bit more vanilla and sometimes more chips at the end.  I try using different chocolates.  This last batch has a combination of Ghiradelli and Trader Joe’s.   What chocolates do you have the most success with in baked goods?  What are your favorites?

Why Blog?

Several New Year's resolutions have led me to this blog. One is to organize and record my favorite recipes so my children and my nieces and nephews will have them (if and when they want them) and so I can find and sort through them more easily and to be more efficient when a friend asks me for one. I have files and piles of papers with recipes, some handwritten, some typed, some from newspapers, in addition to shelves of cookbooks and magazines. Last week someone requested my chocolate mocha cookie recipe. I found it very quickly for I had baked them recently, hence the request, but the ink on the paper was so faded it was barely legible anymore, especially to someone who hasn't mixed that batter a hundred times already and the paper was a bit brittle (not that I am that old) so it was time to think about how to share my love of baking!