Chocolate Covered Gingerbread Madeleines

I do this thing every year where I decide to vacation during the month of November.  It's awesome because I get to to escape the city and the mundanes of daily life and sneak away for one last sun kissed tan in before the sun goes away for four months.  It's awful because I come home, catch a cold, have to wear pants because it's dropped 20* and oh look it's December!  I have no idea where November went this year... one minute I was on a boat in the Bahamas, the next I was back in the states, downing Gingerbread lattes, shopping for Christmas mugs at Target and planning fancy holiday outfits.

When it came time to decide what to bring to my friend Rachelle's cookie exchange -- while wearing my favorite hot pink fleece gingerbread pajamas and sipping gingerbread tea out of my gingerbread man mug mind you  --it was no surprise that I went with something gingerbread.  My first thought was my gingerbread chocolate chip cookies.  They're easy to make.  I've made them before.  But that seemed too boring for a cookie exchange.  Then I thought about how easy madeleines are to make and contemplated making some of those instead -they just look fancy.  While debating the hard question of which cookie to bake, I came to the realization that instead of choosing between the two, I could combine the two.  Hashtag Cookie Genius.

Taking a page from the chocolate dipped orange madeleines I made last year, I finished these gingerbread madeleines with a dark chocolate drizzle.    Gingerbread plus dark chocolate is one of my favorite holiday flavor combinations afterall.  Remember the Gingerbread S'mores Cupcakes?  

Gingerbread Madeleines
Adaptation Source.
Makes 34. Bake at 375* for 7-8 minutes.

4 room temp eggs
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp molasses
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
(Optional:  1 cup mini chocolate chips)

Directions:
1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat eggs on high for about three minutes.
3. Add salt to the eggs, and then the sugar.  Sugar should be added slowly over the course of five minutes by the spoonful.  Eggs will become white and frothy.
4. Add in vanilla and molasses and beat on high speed until fully incorporated.
5. Stop the stand mixer and fold in flour and butter in additions, starting and ending with the flour.  Mix until smooth.
6. Scoop batter into butter and floured madeleine pan and bake for about 7 minutes.
7.  Melt chocolate in microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between.  Scoop melted chocolate into a piping bag and decorate cookies once they are cooled.

Tip:  Madeleines taste best 1-3 days after baking.  This allows the butter flavor to really set in.

Do you know what taste's good with these?  Gingerbread tea.  In a gingerbread mug... lol.  I'm totally that girl.

I apologize for my Gingebread Cheer.  No not really.

Do you know what else you can do to these bad boys?  Add in mini chocolate chips to the batter (about 1 cup) for EXTRA chocolately goodness.  See?

How was the cookie exchange you may ask?  Awesome.  Who doesn't love a giant plate of cookies?

Or 10 plates of them.  Don't worry we did more than just eat our weight in butter and sugar.  We mixed up some royal icing and decorated some sugar cookies too. That counts as activity, right?

I have to bake again this weekend ('tis the season to get fat afterall).  I'll try not to wear my penguin pajamas as I think of a cookie/cupcake because I don't want to find out what penguins taste like.  =/

xoxo,
Anna

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

By the time I post this, I will have made these cookies three, maybe four times.  They're that good.  They're really just like my regular oatmeal raisin cookies but instead of raisins they have cranberries and white chocolate chips.  So that obviously means they are delicious.  Let's be honest though, what cookie is not delicious?

I don't understand people who don't like oatmeal raisin cookies. So naturally, I won't understand anyone who does not like this cookie, either.  Dried fruit DOES have a place in sweet treats.  It's no fatty ice cream cookie sandwich, but it is something important with a rightful place in my internet cook book.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies 
Makes 36, Bake at 350* for around 9 minutes

1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 c unsalted butter, room temp
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c oats
2/3 c dried craisins
1 c white chocolate chips

Directions:
1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. Cream butter and sugar together in a stand mixer.
3. Add in vanilla extract and egg and beat until fully incorporated.
4. Add in flour mixture to batter.
5. Fold in oats, then craisins, then the white chocolate chips
5. Scoop out dough balls onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake until edges are brown.  DO NOT OVER BAKE!
6. Let set on cookie sheet for 1-3 minutes and then place on cooling rack.

I made these for a pool party, for a park BBQ and just a few weekends ago I baked some batches as part of a fundraiser/bake sale for the upcoming San Francisco Aids Walk on July 21, 2013.  There's been stacks and stacks of cookies at my house lately.

I've been baking for a few weeks now; a dozen cookies as a thank you to anyone who donates online to a good cause.   If you'd like to donate please feel free to support me by clicking here.  You never know, you may get a delivery of cookies at your door step yourself.   ;)

xoxo,
Anna

Salted Dark Chocolate and Caramel Shortbread Cookies

One of my bestest friends in the world just bought his first home!  I am so happy and excited for him.  When I turn into a real grown up (that day has to come eventually right?) I want him to decorate my house because his own home decor is amazing.  Amazing.  I think he could have had a successful career in design if the world of numbers and revenue accounting hadn't pulled him in so deeply.  So when his response to "What do you want for your housewarming gift?" was "sweets", I knew that I had to make something pretty.  Only pretty would do.

And pretty I did!  I found key and house shaped cookie cutters at Sur La Table and was still craving the shortbread cookies I had made a few weeks prior.

But this time around I knew that I wanted to do salted caramel and chocolate on top.  I had been planning on making this exact cookie, but with pretty circles and scallops, a long time ago but never got around to it.  But I knew that this is what the housewarming party needed.  Delicate buttery cookies melting in your mouth alongside dark chocolate,  sweet caramel and the sharp contrast of sea salt to balance it all out.

Since home is where the heart is though, I busted out a teeny tiny little cookie cutter and made some of the houses with heart cut outs.  And although I prefer the houses to the keys, the keys aren't bad at all!  They're especially cute since I used a heart instead of a circle to cut out the middle of the key.  What?  I like hearts. :)

Shortbread Cookie Recipe
See my earlier blog post, or go to original recipe from Sprinkle Bakes.

Caramel Glaze
10 oz. unwrapped caramels
1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:
1. Use the double broiler method to melt caramels and half the heavy cream.  (See THIS post for details.)
2. Once melted, add in the remaining heavy cream adn whisk until smooth.  Pour into a squeeze bottle or thick ziplock bag with the end snipped off.
3. Pipe caramel onto cookies, outlining your cookie shape first.  Fill in the rest of the cookie completely, or just with close squiggles. Let harden for a few minutes.
(Work quickly, if the caramel starts to harden simply put in microwave again for 15 seconds.)

Chocolate Glaze
10 oz dark chocolate chips
1 tblsp melted butter

Directions:
1. Melt chips in microwave oven in 30 second intervals, whisking in between.  Should take approximately 2-3 minutes.
2. Add melted butter to chocolate chips and whisk.
3. Pour chocolate into a squeeze bottle or into a thick ziplock bag with the end snipped off and pipe squiggly lines on top of the the caramel.


Garnish:
Course Sea Salt

Finish cookies by sprinkling sea salt over cookies.

Ugh.  Sweet and salty are amazing together.  I want to sprinkle sea salt on everything now!

I am sure that you notice that there are a bunch of little hearts everywhere.  No surprise, huh? When I saw all the scraps from cutting out the houses and keys I knew that I could not waste them.   Who could resist popping one or two of these little suckers in their mouths? Not me!

The housewarming party was, of course, lovely. He is lovely.  I wish him such amazing things (joy, friendship, laughter and love -always, always love) and I know that his new home will be blessed with all of them.  I meant to take a nice little picture of him and me together that afternoon for this post.  I drank all the wine instead which resulted in my distraction with eating my weight in cheese sticks, catching up with good friends and force feeding these cookies to them. We ate a whole neighborhood of houses that day.

These were great for him and these would be perfect to make for someone in your life who is celebrating a similar milestone. Get to baking.

xoxo,
Anna

Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's officially Christmas season.  You may now put antlers and red noses on the outside of your cars.  It's acceptable now, promise.  Are you getting ready for any cookie exchanges?  Cuz if so, I've got some easy peasy, super yummy  must haves for you. It combines two of the best things in this world. Gingerbread and chocolate.  In case you are not aware of this yet, I am definitely off the pumpkin band wagon and riding inside the gingerbread wagon.  This wagon is better because it's made out of freshly baked cookies you can eat on your way.  Obviously.

I made these a few days ago to test out the recipe before I make them for this year's batch of Holiday cookies.  I say they're a winner because I will definitely be remaking them.  Last year I did white chocolate but I wanted to try regular chocolate this time around.  Good decision, self, good decision.

Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 30, bake for 8-10 minutes at 325*

3/4 c butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 c white sugar
1 beaten egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz chocolate chips


Directions:
1. Beat egg separately and set aside.
2. In a new bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
3. In stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Stir in molasses and beaten egg to the sugar mixture.
5. Add in dry flour mixture by the 1/2 cupful until fully combined.
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Scoop out dough onto cookie sheet to bake.
8. Bake for 4 minutes.  Turn cookies sheets around in oven to ensure even baking.  Bake for another 4-6 minutes - until edges of cookies start to brown.
9. Remove from oven, let cool on rack.

I loved these cookies.  Real talk.  I usually give away a lot of what I bake, but I totally kept a good amount of these for me.  I like cookies, okay?  I wrapped them up all pretty and shared them, scouts honor.

This will not be the last time you see gingerbread and chocolate here on the blog.  That is my promise to you kiddies.  As in, expect to see it very very soon.

xoxo,
Anna

Cream Cheese Stuffed Cinnamon Blueberry Cookies

Do people give each other, or themselves, Labor Day presents?  Cuz I am, right now.  My present to myself  is to not wake up at the crack of dawn to go on a run.  Instead I'm eating brekkie in bed, watching one of my top favorite movies and blogging.  Because waking up at 7AM to sweat sounds laborious and that'd be the wrong thing to do on this holiday.

Do you know what else is wrong?  Summer ending.  The days are shorter, the mornings colder, there are pumpkins at the grocery store and only mismatched, heavily clearanced bikinis remain at the department stores. And worst of all, society expects me to wear pants again!  I hate pants.  But I am still clinging on to what remains of the sunshine and warm days, baking with berries while they are still readily available.  While wearing pretty summer dresses.

I made these cookies based off of  this recipe I found last month.  I pinned it but when I looked at the ingredients and saw the lemon, they screamed Summer so bad that I knew I couldn't find it in me to make them exactly.  So I used lots of vanilla and cinnamon/nutmeg instead.  I'll ease into fall slowly.

Nothing like busting out the sugar, eggs and butter.  And if easing in means getting to play with brown sugar, then let's have it.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Cinnamon Blueberry Cookies
Makes around 15, Bake at 350* for 12-14 minutes


1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1.5 tbsp vanilla
1 egg, at room temp
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1.5 cup flour
1/2 cup blueberries
1/3 package of cream cheese

For dusting:  cinnamon/sugar mixture at a 1:3 teaspoon ratio. 

Directions:
1. In mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.
2. Add in vanilla and egg.
3. In a new bowl whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour.
4. Hand mix it into the wet ingredients.
5. Fold in blueberries carefully, trying not to break them.

6. The dough is really sticky.  Refrigerate or put in freezer until stiff. 
7. Scoop out 1 big tablespoon of dough into your hand slightly flatten.  
8. Place 1 small piece of cream cheese  (I used 1/4 of a package for 12) into center and fold edges over the cream cheese, making one cookie dough ball.

9. Repeat for the rest of the dough and place on cookie sheet to bake.
10. Immediately out of the oven and while still warm, transfer to a cooling rack and lightly sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.
11. Let cool completely before storing if not consumed immediately. These are really packed with moisture because of the blue berries, and will get mushy if you don't let them cool.  

At first, you can't even tell that inside there lurks cream cheesey goodness.  You just see some cookies with blueberries poking out.   They are sneaky, deceiving cookies.

With a closer look, you can see the sparkling cinnamon sugar.  Since you sprinkled the topping on while still hot, the cinnamon sugar will adhere to the tops in the most lovely way.  And if you look closely... that cream cheese starts poking out.  

But once you rip them open... well it's a different story then. 

Then you can see the cheesey goodness.  Then you can see the blueberries that burst open in the oven.

Remember that sharing is caring people.  And if that doesn't encourage your generosity, remember that gluttony makes you fat -- hand some of these bad boys out if you can.  I sent half of these away while they were still warm, it's that serious.

xoxo
Anna