Brownie Cookies

The last 3 recipes I've posted, have been from the Brown Eyed Baker blog and I would love to meet this lady. She has some good stuff there.

These cookies are called what they're called for obvious reasons. They're cookies that taste and feel like brownies, with chocolate chips to melt in your mouth with every bite. SO GOOD! I've only made them this one time, and I made the dough dollops about 1-1/2 tbsps. Next time I want to refrigerate the dough before spooning it onto the baking sheets in hopes the cookies will be thicker. The consistency of the dough more batter-like as brownie batter is, which produced thinner, larger cookies. In refrigerating the dough first, I think it will make for thicker, smaller cookies. We shall see. Until then, these are friggin' awesome!




Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Makes about 24 larger cookies (you can adjust for size and amount as you please)

2-2/3 cups bittersweet chocolate (about 16 oz.), chopped
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temp.
4 eggs
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper, or use a silicone baking mat, which I've never done but I bet it's cool.




Put the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl (or top of a double boiler) and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water (or bottom of a double boiler), stirring occasionally until completely melted and smooth.






In the mean time, stir together the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside.





In a small bowl, sift together the flour and the baking powder. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine well. Slowly add the dry ingredients, folding them into the batter. Once all the flour in incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips.


Scoop 1-1/2 tbsps. of dough (a mediums sized cookie worth) onto prepared baking sheets.











Bake 10-12 minutes, or until they are firm on the outside. Like brownies, don't over-bake! Leave them on baking sheets till they cool completely.

Samoa Bars AKA Caramel Delite Bars

I would like to thank My Baking Addiction, and also Baking Bites, because that is where I found this most excellent of glorious recipes. I can taste back to the days of Girl Scouts. I never was a Girl Scout, the politics of it all got to me. But I was a brownie, and I think that sounds much more appetizing. Remember Samoas? Remember how friggin' GREAT they were? I had never once (for some crazy reason) thought about trying to make these cookies on my own. They BELONGED to the Girl Scouts of America and it almost seemed unpatriotic to make them on my own without giving to the cause.

See? Politics.

Now, however, things are a little different. I threw all that way of thinking out the door and embraced what I now see to be patriotism and I followed this recipe that I came across on My Baking Addiction (which led to Baking Bites) and I flew with it! Cause this Shit is good.





Make the shortbread crust first. Here are the ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13" baking dish (i used glass and it went well), or line it with parchment paper.



In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter until fluffy.

Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Blending at low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is kind of damp yet crumbly.



Pour crumbly damp dough into the prepared dish and press into an even layer.






























Bake for 20-25 minutes, till base is set and edges are slightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.


Topping Ingredients:

3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12 oz. good quality, chewy caramels
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
10 oz. dark or semi-sweet chocolate (chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Toast til coconut is golden, about 20 minutes, making sure to stir every five minutes. Set aside to cool.










Unwrap the caramels and put in a double boiler (or a large bowl over a pot of boiling water). Add milk and salt and heat till caramels are melted.













When smooth, fold in the toasted coconut.






















Put dollops of the coconut-caramel mix all over the shortbread base. Using a spatula (or clean hands) spread the topping evenly over the shortbread and let it set till cooled.




































When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a knife (or apparently a pizza cutter works too but I didn't try it). A bigger knife than this one would probably be easier.







Once all the bars are cut, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, or in a small bowl over a pot of boiling water.






Dip the bottom shortbread part of each bar into the melted chocolate. Place on a clean piece of parchment, or wax paper to cool.





Spoon all the remaining chocolate (and melt more if necessary) into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off works too) and drizzle, or pipe, the chocolate onto the bars.


I did not have the patience to drizzle the chocolate on. Also, it was kind of hard to get the chocolate through the small hole for the piping. So I just blobbed it on and then spread it with a spoon. Still scrumptious!

Bite. Enjoy.

Family Circle's Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

I made a few batches of these peanut butter cookies for 5 guys when 3 of Joe's best friends plus one more all came to visit (these were not small men). We ate, drank, toked, played cards, ate more and were very very merry. And it was good. And then there were none.

I found this scrumptulescent recipe in a shoebox of cut-out recipes from various reading materials that my mom had put together. It was just waiting for me to scour through it on one of the visits back to the east coast. This was a few years ago shortly after my appetite for baking and cooking set in. The appetite has settled and practice has proved to make perfect.

Family Circle's Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup creamy peanut butter (salted or unsalted-your choice)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine at room temp.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet or two.




Mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder.




Beat together the peanut butter, butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl till light and fluffy. Beat in the egg until all smooth. Stir in the flour mixture till blended.

Make doughballs the size of walnuts and place them 2" apart on cookie sheets.



















Flatten doughballs with fork into a criss-cross pattern.
Sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the cookies. I did it after criss-crossing them with the fork, but I think it would be better to sugar sprinkle before the criss-crossing so the sugar can stick.






Sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the cookies. I did it after criss-crossing them with the fork, but I think it would be better to sugar sprinkle before the criss-crossing so the sugar can stick.




Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown. Let stand on baking sheets for 5 minutes.