Category Archives: cookies

Caramel Chocolate Shortbread

I’m pretty much obsessed with caramel. I wanted to create a new way to eat it. When I made this I over cooked the caramel and it turned out to be super thick. If this happens to you, add some more cream to the mixture before it is cooled to keep it from becoming a tooth breaking toffee.

Shortbread:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, using a fork, mix all ingredients until the butter is fully incorporated. Press into the bottom of a 8-inch square pan. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until it turns light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
½ teaspoon salt

Heat the sugar, in a heavy bottom saucepan on medium heat. As the sugar starts to liquefy, swirl the pan to mix in the un-melted sugar. Once the sugar is a golden brown, add the cream. The mixture may boil and pop so be careful. Add the salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the caramel gets a tad bit thicker. Pour caramel over the shortbread and cool.

Chocolate:
½ lb dark chocolate

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and put into a metal bowl. Heat a saucepan filled half way with water on medium heat. Place the metal bowl over the pan and mix the chocolate with a rubber spatula until it is just melted. Pour over the cooled caramel layer and refrigerate the cookies until they are cooled. Cut into squares and serve.

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Sugar Trade

I really enjoy hanging out at the bar around the corner. The guys that work Sunday and Monday nights are so much fun. In addition, I get to see the crazy characters the come through the ‘hood. Every once in a while I bake them treats to reward them for all of their entertainment.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

4 egg whites
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
5 cups sweetened flake coconut
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Line two large sheet pans with Silpat mats.

In a large box beat the egg whites with a fork. Stir in the sugar, vanilla and salt. Add in the coconut and chips. Toss with the fork and switch to your hands to evenly distribute the egg throughout the coconut and chocolate. Fill the palm of your hand with coconut, about 2 teaspoons full. Squeeze the cookie dough, so that the coconut is tightly packed. Place on the cookie on the cookie sheet. The dough should be tall, not a flat cookie.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack with a spatula. Finish cooling on the wire rack.

Cookies

Cookies

Yesterday I had to write a venture idea for my Social Entrepreneurship class. Of course I wrote about a bakery. And to cement that, I baked a batch of cookies, cherry chocolate chip. I discovered that if I slightly modified the base for Nestle Toll House Cookies, that it could be made into anything. The key is to use organic butter and a tiny but more salt and baking soda. So I’ve done this with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, or white chocolate and lemon… I think that the sky’s the limit. The cookies where really well received, the professor alone had 5. I love it when people enjoy the things I make.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.