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Equal Pay For Equal Work Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

chocolate crinkle cookies

I know that over the years there has been much talk on the internets regarding the lack of accuracy in Martha Stewart’s recipes. I always figured there was some truth to it but that some portion could be attributed to personal tastes, preferences, and perceptions and it was no biggie. I rarely follow a recipe and so I’ve never had an issue with it. But a few months ago I checked out Martha Stewart’s Cookies book from the library and I loved it, so much that I returned it overdue and had to pay a fine. Last week I bought a copy for myself thinking I would use it as I always do, a reference to guide me.

Typically I choose an item to bake and then I pull 3 or 4 recipes from my bookshelf, the internets, and the library. I compare and contrast the components of each, make adjustments, and add my own something-something that screams Vanessa. I scribble it down in my notebook, bake it up, and move on. However, that’s a time consuming practice fraught with the perils of distraction wherein I lose hours browsing my way through books and the internets on subjects far from my intended topic.

As I’ve been kind of busy lately I just decided to throw caution to the wind and follow the recipe exactly. Wouldn’t you know the damn thing confounded me with two descriptions that just seemed totally inappropriate and I ended up making adjustments and noting them in the margins. Honestly, that will be the last time I ditch my method and follow a recipe blindly. Despite all that I still love Martha, mostly because she’s a kick-ass, alpha female… smart, tough, and talented. But since I reworked the recipe I decided to rename it too…my prerogative.

I love Martha’s technique for rolling the cookies in granulated sugar before rolling them in the powdered sugar. It makes the powdered sugar really cling to the cookies. I don’t understand why except that perhaps it provides more texture? Any ideas out there? The overnight stay in the refrigerator helps make the insides chewy and dense. Beating the eggs, butter, and sugar until fluffy and light gives them that high dome and lightness. This cookie has it all, deep rich chocolate flavor, a chewy middle and crispy outside surfaces, powdered sugar to get all over your face, plus they politely remind us about the wage disparity issue…all good things.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
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8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup powdered sugar for rolling
1 cup granulated sugar for rolling

Note: Once the cookie dough is mixed it will need to chill for at least a few hours… I recommend an overnight stay in Chez Refrigerator.

Put the chocolate in a glass bowl and put it in the microwave. Cook for 2 minutes on temperature level 7. Set it aside.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until they are well combines. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and mix to combine well. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined.

The dough should be pretty thick and heavy now. Leave it in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for its overnight stay or at least until really very firm (see note above).

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the dough when it is properly chilled and using either a tablespoon cookie scoop or just a normal tablespoon shovel up heaping tablespoons of dough and then roll them in your hands to create a ball (about ¾ the size of a ping pong ball). Drop it into a bowl of granulated sugar and roll it around to cover it then transfer it to a bowl of powdered sugar and roll it around again. Place it on a parchment or a silpat lined baking sheet, spacing each cookie about 1.5 inches apart. Bake for about 11-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them rest for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

November 20, 2008 | Filed Under baking, chocolate, cookbook, cookie, food, recipe | 22 Comments 

Hermit cookies

hermit cookies

I think we’re about two weeks out from Thanksgiving, about 5 weeks from the Christmas season, and about 31 business days from the end of the year. All of which indicates that it’s time to bake cookies. I’m going to bake cookies this year and I’m going to bake cookies I’ve never baked before.

I’m starting off with the hermit cookie because as I read through the recipe it was obvious that they would offer an incredible spicy flavor and a chewy texture; the combination of the two promises a comforting sweet treat that is perfect for these dark, late fall days.

Naturally I substituted dried cranberries for the traditional raisins and I tossed in some pecans because it seemed like the right thing to do. The finished product is deeply and intensely spicy with a texture that is addictive. I especially like the brown sugar frosting that gives away with a bit of crunch an instant before your teeth sink into the dense ginger interior. If you like ginger then these easy-peasy bar cookies are for you.

Hermit Cookies
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4 ounces unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pecans, rough chopped

Brown Sugar Icing
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar, plus more if needed

Preheat oven to 350º. Line the bottom of a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and butter the sides.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and cloves and set aside.

Fit your mixer with the paddle attachment and cream the butter and sugar together until well combined. Add the eggs and mix until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix just long enough to combine thoroughly. Dump in the cranberries and pecans and whirl about for 30 seconds or so…juest enough to get good distribution.

Now comes the hard part…this recipe is much more suited to a drop cookie because of its denseness…but it excels as a bar cookie …so dump the cookie dough into 4 piles on the baking sheet and slowly and methodically spread it out until it cover the entire sheet. Patience will pay off here. Bake for about 15 minutes and then cool on a rack.

For the icing you’ll cook the brown sugar, milk, and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; whisk in vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. If icing is too thick to drizzle, stir in more milk, a teaspoon at a time. If icing is too thin, stir in more confectioners’ sugar, a teaspoon at a time. Let cool slightly.

Drizzle bars with icing. Let them sit for at least 15 minutes before cutting into bars.

November 16, 2008 | Filed Under baking, cookie, food, ginger, quick and easy, recipe | 11 Comments 

Chicken n Biscuits

chicken and a biscuit

This beautiful meal is absolute bowl-licking deliciousness. Chicken and veggies enrobed in a winey, chickeny veloute with light, buttery biscuits proudly perched on top. After a good day at work, coming home and putting this together for the guys was a real pleasure. It would be easy to think of biscuits as off limits for dinner, but that’s not the way I think my good peeps…nope, a perfect biscuit is just as much at home on the dinner table as it is on the breakfast plate. Of course I used the cylinder technique to make the biscuits and I urge you to do so too. Surely I can’t be the first person to think of the cylinder technique but I will tell you that my sweet genius husband is very proud of me for it…that and my other totally original invention, the vacuum sleeve.

Chicken n Biscuits
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1 medium onion diced
6 tablespoons butter
2 chicken breasts, diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons flour
pinch of dried rosemary

Preheat the oven to 425°. Sauté the onions and chicken over medium heat. Set aside. Put the potatoes and carrots in a pan and cover shallowly with water…toss in some salt and cook until tender. If you use purple potatoes cook them separately from the carrots because the colors will mix. Drain and set aside. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a pan and mix in the flour. Cook over a medium low heat and then add the wine and chicken stock, whisking to form a sauce. Cook gently for a few minutes, taste for salt and then adjust. Add the rosemary, the potatoes, carrots, chicken/onions, and the frozen peas.

Vanessa’s Better Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons of butter, very cold, diced
¾ cup of milk (more or less)
Put the flour, salt, and baking powder into the workbowl of your food processor fitted with the blade. Pulse this to mix it and then add the diced butter. Pulse until it is coarsely combined. Add the milk through the opening in the top as you pulse it to mix it together. Add it very slowly and only add enough to bring the dough together. It’ll be different every time you make them.
Turn the dough out onto the counter (here comes the cylinder technique) and roll it into a cylinder with a circumference that is the size of the biscuit you want to make. Cut the cylinder into equally sized pieces…again depending on the size of biscuit you want.

Butter a baking dish and pour the chicken mixture into it. Place the biscuits on top. Into the oven it goes for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.

Eat it up and feel good about yourself…a meal like this, you deserve it.

November 12, 2008 | Filed Under Local, baking, beef, fish, poultry, pork, food, quick and easy, recipe | 12 Comments 

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