More Strawberries! Strawberry Honey Cornmeal Cake

So last week I got another 2.5 quarts of strawberries at the CSA. I had seen a recipe come through the google reader for a blueberry cornmeal cake and I figured I could adapt it a bit and use up some of these strawberries. Per usual, I decided to try it without the refined sugar it called for and used honey instead. This made the batter a bit more liquidy and I think required a bit of extra cooking time (well I needed to bake it longer and I assume this was part of the reason). The honey also caused it to have a much darker color than its cousin the blueberry cornmeal cake. The results were terrific tasting though. The ricotta and yogurt in the recipe ensures such moistness and the flavor combination with the honey and berries is just wonderful. I think this would be the perfect breakfast cake or wonderful at a luncheon with just a tiny bit of extra cream on top for contrast. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Strawberry Honey Cornmeal Cake
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cuphoney
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 3 cups fresh strawberries, quartered

Special Equipment

• 10-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat 10-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with vegetable oil. Whisk flour and next 3 ingredients in medium bowl. Whisk oil, eggs, vanilla, and honey in another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl until creamy. With mixer running on medium speed, gradually add egg mixture; beat to blend. Beat in flour mixture just to blend. Add ricotta and yogurt; beat on low speed just to blend. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Scatter 1 1/2 cups strawberries over. Spoon remaining batter over in dollops, then spread to cover blueberries. Scatter remaining strawberries over.

Bake cake until top is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack.

Serves 12

Lemon Ricotta Maple Strawberry Biscake

Now that's a dessert name! (uh... maybe not). 

Strawberries are here in full effect. I have had a box in the fridge for a few weeks with no time to make anything. Last week the CSA opened and I got a quart more! Thank goodness those little guys can last a while if you don't wash or mess with them. Tonight I had my first opportunity to make something and decided to take a stab at a variation on a strawberry shortcake. I found the recipe below and made a few twists (replacing the sugar with maple crystals, jettisoning the almond extract and slivered almonds and baking them on a sheet like biscuits instead of in muffin tins). I am pretty sure the maple changed the chemistry a bit as they were smoother and had less rise, but they were really really good. A perfect base for the macerated strawberries (I added a tiny bit of crushed lavender and a little maple syrup) and whipped cream. 

Lemon Ricotta Biscake

Cook Time: 20 min

Yield:12 biscakes

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 1 teaspoon maple crystals or more as needed for sprinkling
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup maple crystals, butter, and lemon zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta. Beat in the egg and lemon juice,. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended (the batter will be thick and fluffy).

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining 1 teaspoon of maple crystals over the muffins. Bake until the muffins just become pale golden on top, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

MARCH DOTM POPS BY AMELIA

I told you guys Amelia's DOTM was gonna be worth the wait. You will be getting these in your mail box but if you are already crazy from the heat perhaps you'd like to make some now!!! Just click the images to see the luscious recipes for these weather appropriate treats!

Apple Rhubarb Galette

I can't resist buying the new fruits and veggies that are coming into their season even if I have no baking plans. Last night I remembered the rhubarb I bought on Saturday in my fridge and decided to see how quickly I could put something together with it. I went to my trusty Mark Bittman pie crust recipe (easy for me because it's basically one cup flour, one stick butter + ice water and a little seasoning, in this case some maple crystals and a pinch of salt), sautéed the rhubarb with some apples in a tablespoon of butter, added some more maple crystals and baked at 375 for about 35 minutes. Before I put it in I drizzled some olive oil over the edges because I just couldn't resist. What is wrong with me???  I might sauté the filling a little less or not at all next time and add a bit more sweetener, but I have to say, this was the perfect breakfast treat today. Serves 4 easy. 

St. Lucian Cocoa Tea

Cocoa tea is a rich breakfast drink (like European hot chocolate) from St. Lucia. I confirmed the recipe with a St. Lucian chef I met in my travels who added that small doughnut-like pieces called "hot bakes" are sometimes boiled in the cocoa tea, making the drink more of a porridge-style breakfast meal. This recipe is just for the tea.

Makes 2 servings
2 cups soy or light coconut milk (or your favorite kind of milk)
½ cup grated dark chocolate*
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon grated cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2-4 tablespoons turbinado sugar
1 scraped vanilla pod or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white flour or cornstarch (optional)

Note: Works best with a double boiler.

Directions

1. Bring the milk to a boil and quickly lower heat. If you are using a double boiler, make sure the milk is steamy hot. 
2. Add the grated cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon and bay leaf and let simmer gently for 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in vanilla and if you want a thicker drink, add flour (or cornstarch) stirring continuously.
4. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.

*The Grenada Chocolate Company makes amazing Caribbean dark chocolate. Any 70%+ dark chocolate will work well.

Moroccan Kaab El Ghzal

Almond-Mango Crescent Cookies
A rich, mild almond cookie from Morocco with a zesty tang from baked-in dried mango.
Some varieties have pastry dough wrapped around the almond/fruit filling, but this one combines all ingredients into a biscuit. To see how to make the dough-filled version, watch Moroccan blogger Alia make her version on youtube.

Makes 15 - 20 cookies
1 cup raw almonds, finely ground
½ cup Wholesome Sweeteners powdered sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 Ener-G egg replacer (or 1 egg)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup earth balance (or butter), at room temperature
½ cup sesame seed
½ cup of minced dried fruit like mango or pineapple

Directions

1. Take soy butter out of fridge & preheat oven to 350º
2. Knead almonds, sugar, flour, almond extract, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter in mixing bowl and mix well. A sticky dough will form. Add water a tablespoon at a time if a ball of the dough does not form, or add flour if dough is too sticky to pinch.
3. Pour sesame seeds onto a plate or pie pan.
4. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough (keep them small, the cookies are rich).
5. Flatten the dough in your palms and fold in 1 teaspoon of minced dried fruit. Form the dough into a cylinder and roll dough pieces in seeds to coat.
6. Sculpt the cylinder into a crescent, thicker in the middle, tapering at the ends and curved.
7. Place side by side onto lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

April DOTMC coming soon!

Friends,
April is almost May and I apologize for the late-coming recipe! I've been traveling for a few weeks.
Though my long-awaited (and saved-up-for) Moroccan adventure was diverted south but volcanic ash, I spent a while in the sun and underwater in the West Indies.
I'll be posting two recipes via US Post and blogger tomorrow, both in tribute to a place I visited, St. Lucian Cocoa Tea and where I hope to visit some day (soon!?), Moroccan Almond-Mango Crescent Cookies.
Talk to you soon!

CON TODO MI CORAZON CAKE

For my wonderful friend Molly's 'lady party' in honor of her getting married, I made a simple and gorgeous vanilla rum cake. I served it with a mango puree and whipped cream and it was fantastic.
I had had a Tonka bean that I was going to use in lieu of vanilla in it but LIKE A FOOL, I lost it! Can you believe it! I almost cried. What a bummer. Tonka is like a leathery,tobacco-esque vanilla like bean from South America and you cannot get it in the U.S. as it is not approved by the FDA.
For favors I made these shortbread jam filled hearts, that have their own story.
It was a lovely time!!!

Lavender Lace Cookies

Passover just passed and boxes of cookies and macaroons were flying around my office. In one of the boxes were some lace cookies and I realized that those are my favorite cookies since childhood but I forgot what they were called. I especially loved the ones with chocolate in the middle.  Well it turns out, these are probably among the easiest cookies to make and simply delicious. I happened to have some lavender handy so I ground it together with my sugar, added the other ingredients (including Lang's special vanilla!) and voila... my favorite cookies in my own hands.

Lavender Lace Cookies 

2/3 cup turbinado sugar

1/2 tsp dried lavender

1 egg

2 tsp melted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut

2/3 cup raw oats

Preheat the oven to 350. Blend the sugar and lavender in a mortar and pestle until the lavender is finely crushed throughout the sugar. Set aside (this can be done well in advance). In a medium mixing bowl, beat the egg. Add the lavender sugar and mix well. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat and drop the dough by half-teaspoons about an inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Allow to cool fully before removing from sheet. 

Chocolate Chile Coconut Truffles

I recently made a dessert that called for vegan chocolate ganache and being the freaker that I am, made double the recipe just to make sure I didn't run out. Well, that left me with a quart of delicious ganache and no where to go with it, except to these truffles! Man they were easy and satisfying to make! I had extra coconut too so I rolled them in that. Next time I might try cocoa powder with a bit more chile to have even more kick, or toasted coconut. The un toasted did give it a sort of nice chewiness contrast to the chocolate so maybe I'll make a few of each. This recipe does yield quite a few truffles so it's great for gift giving season or just cut it way down.

Chocolate Chile Coconut Truffles

8 ounces bittersweet dairy-free chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 ounces semisweet dairy-free chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 15-ounce can coconut milk
1/2 t. pure vanilla extract
1 t. Mexican chile powder
1 pint unsweetened dried coconut flakes

Preparation:

Make the ganache filling. Place the dairy-free dark chocolate in a heat safe bowl. Set aside. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the coconut milk until it just starts to boil, add chile and whisk well to combine. Pour the hot coconut milk over the chopped chocolate, and let sit for 5 minutes without stirring. After 5 minutes, add the vanilla extract and stir the mixture using a wooden spoon until smooth and glossy. (This will take about 1-2 minutes of continuous stirring.) Pour into a shallow container and refrigerate until semifirm, about an hour.

Put the mixture into a bowl of a stand mixer and whip until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Wearing  gloves, roll 1/2 teaspoons of chocolate into small balls, roll in coconut and drop on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 15 minutes.

yields about 70 truffles

OLYMPIC FEVER! NOW IN PIE FORM!

At first, I was not too excited about the winter Olympics truth be told.
It was Lindsey Vonn's triumph over her injury, and Shaun White's billion dollar smile and California demeanor that pulled me in. But then, of course, who can possibly resist the drama of the men's figure skating, with it's heros and villains.

So last night as I held my breath watching the ski jumping competition, I got to thinking of gold medals....in pie form!
I was inspired by the "Save Room For" recipe for Pear-Raspberry Heart Pies in the February issue of Martha Stewart Living, which appears to be a variation from last year's February issue for a whole pie.
Having no whole fruit on hand, and yearning for a golden medallion of my own, I went with orange-lemon marmalade and the results were...ahem, winning!

BLIZZARD PIE

On Wednesday it was all snowtastic around here and I only went to work for maybe 3 hours. Which was awesome and left me with oodles of hours to mess around in my kitchen while flakes fell outside my window which is ambience that you cannot beat.
So I made a pie and some Macaroni and Cheese.
Last weekend, on Superbowl Sunday, ( oh and by the way WHO DAT!!!!!!!!) my lovely friend Cathy brought me over Pecans from a relative's farm. They were so tasty and needed to be celebrated in pastry form.
When you are a dessert freak like myself, you usually have pie crust in the freezer.
It helps that the best pie crust recipe I have encountered, makes crusts aplenty:

1 lb butter
1 lb AP flour
1/2 lb cake flour ( i just increase the AP, if I don't have it)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 oz COLD water
Cut butter into pieces combine dry ingredients, rub in butter with hands or a paddle, leaving pea size pieces.
Add in water until dough holds together.
Shape into 2 discs, wrap in plastic and chill until firm

Aaaaaanyway, back to this

Blizzard pie.

6 ounces of pecans
6 ounces of walnuts
4 ounces of desiccated coconut
4 ounces of chocolate, melted
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup of Lyle's Golden Syrup
4 tablespoons butter
one unbaked 9 inch pie crust ( that's right, no blind baking here)

Layer nuts in pie shell, sprinkle coconut over them. This is a nut packed pie so don't get freaked if it looks like too much. Beat the 2 eggs, maybe throw some vanilla in there, set aside.
Put syrup and sugar over med heat, bring to a boil. Take off heat and add butter and chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. While whisking, add the syrup mixture to the eggs and when fully incorporated, pour over your pie. Smush the nuts down if you need to or feel free to mix it up a little as long as you are gentle.
Into the oven at 350-375 for 45 to 50 minutes, until set.

february: salted caramel chocolate lava cakes!

February is a terrible month. The fun of winter (lights, cookies, Santa, etc.) has long passed but spring still seems so far, far away. I have been lucky enough so far not to experience anything a news team might name "snowmageddon," but winter is still sucking pretty hard right about now.

That's why I, and you, need WARM GOOEY OOZY CHOCOLATEY CHOCOLATE CAKE to make it through. When the cold and dark are bringing you down and you're ready to murder some groundhogs hole up with a valentine and make this and feel better.

Chocolate lava cake is basically nothing more than an undercooked cake. You cook the batter over a water bath before baking so that you can take the cake out of the oven early, before the center is set. You can make the batter ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze it. It's so easy but trust me, people will go apeshit for that lava. Serve it warm out of the oven and VOILA, VALENTINES APLENTY.

If you're not into caramel (in which case you'll never be MY valentine, but that's ok) you can skip that step; you'll just have chocolate instead of caramel lava. Make sure to take them out of the oven when they start to look sunken for maximum goo.

This is the best dessert to eat in bed, according to the chef who demo'd this for our class. Take that as you will.



Chocolate lava cake with salted caramel
I'm not sure exactly how many cakes this yields; I halved the recipe so, approximately half a shit ton.

4 egg yolks
4 whole eggs
7 oz butter
150 g dark chocolate (I used 70%, cause that's how I like it, but anything above 55% will do)
3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

8 oz sugar
2 oz water
Heavy cream
Fleur de sel or other flaky sea salt


-Preheat your oven to 400.

-Make the caramel:
Have an ice bath ready. Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan. Don't stir it! When it reaches a dark blonde (as seen against a white plate...it will look darker in the pot), stick the pot in the ice bath to arrest the cooking. Add an equal amount of heavy cream and stir to combine. It will be a thick sauce-like consistency. Let cool slightly and firm up a bit.

-Spray some molds, flan cups, ramekins, etc. I used a muffin tin which was a bit of a pain to extract the cakes from but it worked OK.
-Melt the butter and chocolate over a water bath.
-Add the yolks and the whole eggs a little at a time, whisking constantly. The mixture will appear to separate and then will come back together. Cook to 170-180 degrees (this ensures the eggs are pasteurized but not overcooked).
-Add the sifted powdered sugar a little at a time.
-Add the sifted flour a little at a time.
-When the mixture is well-incorporated, pour into molds 3/4 full.

-Form the caramel into small truffle-sized balls and sprinkle with fleur de sel.

-Bake the cakes for a few minutes, just until they start to set up a bit and a crust begins to form. Drop a caramel ball into the middle of each one and bake for another few minutes. They will look slightly sunken and underdone-- this is good. All told they'll probably be in the oven for about 10-13 minutes.

-Pop them out of the molds (or fish them out of the muffin tin with a fork) and serve immediately.

JANUARY DOTM

Tara made a pie for National Pie Day in one of my personal favorite flavor combinations: Cherry Almond! My corner market has cherries right now.....ooooooooo.
And remember.."No exploding pies"!!
Thanks Tara!

Desserts Of The Mediterranean

I've never eaten this much dessert in my life, but I simply could not help it.

CURD IS THE WORD

Meyer Lemons are my favorite! Especially in the dark days of winter.
I saw them recently at Fairway and scooped some up, with the intention of trying the lemon souffles featured in the January issue of Martha Stewart. I had no occasion to make 6 ramekins full of darling lemon souffles (Damn my non trophy-wife-socialite existence!) however but I did have a bunch of recently liberated egg yolks...

Adapted from an old January issue of Martha...another lemon fiend

1 cup of sugar
6 egg yolks
one vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 Meyer lemons ( the juicier the better) and their zest
one stick of butter cut up into chunks

Zest lemons. Then juice all three lemons within the skin of their..uh.. skins? In a heavy bottomed sauce pot whisk together sugar and yolks until light in color and uniform. Add the juice, zest, vanilla scrapings and bean and cook over medium low heat until nice and thick, stirring with a spoon to avoid hot spots. When the mixture coats the back of your spoon, take off heat and add the chunks of butter. Stir until melted.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of your bean and any errant chunks of pulp or egg.
Pour into a sterilized canning jar and use within a few weeks.

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

BAD NEWS BUTTERSCOTCH AND BLOOD VISIONS

This week has been nothing but bad news.

The tragedy in Haiti is devastating and I am hoping we can offer those people some relief in these awful days and in what is sure to be an excruciating road ahead. Here is a list resources in case you are looking to give.
Haiti was not the only troubling news of yesterday.
We lost a handful of folks in the musical realm.

I felt in need of some comforting when I got home last night so I made some butterscotch pudding.
Marty and I watched the news and felt sad, but thankful for each other and for our loved ones.

Rayy Sweet Gingerbread Biscuits

Our beloved Kat I. hooked me up with a cookbook I've been wanting for ages, Silk Road Cooking, A Vegetarian Journey by Najmeih Batmanglij. I've slowed down on baking after the holiday blitz, but I've made amazing borscht and also tamarind coconut soup from Silk Road and they were both a-MAZ-ing. I've avoided the Bread, Pastries, Desserts, and Candies section of the book long enough! I plan on making the sweet, spicy and crunchy Rayy Sweet Gingerbread Biscuits this week. I'll send an update when I'm done, for now here's the recipe and a photo from the book. Thanks Kat!!

Rayy Sweet Gingerbread
(Nan-e Qandi, persian gingerbread biscotti)

makes 6 10x5x1/4" loaves

1 cup warm water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
3-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 hot red chili, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon chili paste)
4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 400 & line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine the water, oil, molases, honey, ginger, sugar, and chili. Mix well.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon onto a piece of wax paper and transfer to a mixing bowl. Gradually blend in the molasses mixture and knead until the dough forms into a ball (about 5 minutes).
Divide the dough into 6 equal balls, cover with a dish towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
Roll out one ball on a floured surface to form a 10"x5"x1/4" think oval loaf.
Immediately place the rolled out dough on the baking sheet and paint the dough with water. Then run a fork down the loaf with a fork and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat for the remaining dough. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until puffy.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

The author recommends dipping in a glass of sweet, hot tea. Cheers!

Update! Here's a photo from a batch I made to celebrate Chinese New Year:

Delicious!

HAPPY NEW YEAR DOTMC

I hope everyone received their homemade vanilla in the mail!
Please let me know if you did not!
The recipe was simple and you can do it in a larger bottle if you want or keep replenishing the one you have.
If you poke around the net there are oodles of places that sell very inexpensive vanilla beans. I had heard good things about the beans offered at Organic Vanilla Bean Company. So I got mine there. Plus they offered little beans which I knew would fit nicely into those bottles.
The 4oz bottles are from Specialty Bottle Company.

Happy New Year Homemade Vanilla Extract
4 oz Vodka (I used Gordon's but you can use Smirnoff or any such brand)
2-3 5 inch vanilla beans
amber glass bottle with cap

Make sure your bottle and cap are sterile. Run them through the dishwasher or wash in hot soapy water and dry thoroughly.
Place beans in bottles ( I used two beans per bottle) -squish down with a chopstick if necessary.
Pour in vodka leaving a half inch gap at the neck.
Cap tightly and give a nice shake now and then

DONE.
Experiment with more or less beans or maybe try Bourbon if you want to impart that flavor as well.
Let it develop for 2 months if you can help it.
I think I am going to get a big jug and put a mess of beans in it and just keep adding to it as needed.

I hope to see lots of activity on DOTMC in this new year!
I have brought back some inspiration to get me motivated after the holidays-
Behold the Spoils of The South!

Vanilla Elf

This is one of the most precious gifts ever!
Thank you for the homemade vanilla, Nicole.
Do you have any stories to tell about the making of?
Happy 2010, DOTMCers.

Chocolate and Red Chili Cookies

The cookies I made for Nicole and Molly's Cookie Party received a warm welcome... literally. There was a snow-typhoon outside, so what better to bring the heat than some spicy hot double chocolate cookies?

I searched all over for a good recipe... I had some red chilis at home, and knew I wanted them in the cookie somehow. Some recipes called for jalapenos, some for ground/dried ancho chilis... so It ended up taking Martha's recipe for Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, but making some adjustments along the way.
I also substituted her call for chocolate chips and instead used a Lindt Dark Chocolate Chili bar, broken into pieces (I also melted another one of those chocolate bars into the batter).

I used 2 whole red chilis, but de-seeded them. If you want to tweak the heat, you can keep some cayenne pepper on hand to add in as well. This recipe is really great- the heat hits you after you've started chewing...a slow rise of warmth, then boom!

Recipe below the pics...-1 cup of flour
-1/2 cup of unsweetened dutch cocoa powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-7 ounces of good-quality chocolate ( I used 2 Lindt Chili Chocolate bars total. Each bar is 3.5 oz...so 3.5 oz. for melting & 3.5 oz. broken into chip-size bits)
-1/2 cup of butter
-1 & 1/2 cups of sugar
-2 large eggs
-3 Tablespoons (for medium spicy) of red chilis, finely chopped, de-seeded. (Or Cayenne pepper to taste)
-2 teaspoons of vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 325'F degrees. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt; set aside. Melt 1 chocolate chili bar (coarsely chopped) with the butter in a small heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, throw in the chopped chilis and incorporate well. Let cool slightly. I kept tasting this melted mix to get an idea of the heat level... it's the best way to gauge how hot a cookie (heh) you're gonna end up with.

2. Put the melted chocolate/chili mixture and the sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a big bowl and blend well. Gradually mix in the flour mixture. Fold in the other (broken into chip-size bits) chocolate chili bar.

3. Drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, (the dough is super sticky) spacing two inches apart. Decorative sugar is optional (I used some red sugar sprinkles). Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 12-15 minutes (cookies will be soft).

Cinnamon or Red Hots would work well in this recipe too.

COOKIE BLIZZARD

While outside the 'Blizzard of 2009' raged, inside a storm of another kind waged a war against our will power and my waistline.
COOKIE BLIZZARD.
I have been baking every single night, ignoring my husbands pleas for dinner and missing my favorite shows damn it! I have been chained to the stove, oven mitts permanently on.
All in the name of sugar and flour and ....glory?
Luckily I have finally been able to get WFMU to come in on the kitchen radio- so it's not all bad.



I made three cookies for the 7th Annual Cookie Party

Lemon Wreaths
Honeyed Almond and Cherry Shortbread
and Cream Cheese Walnut coins!





All of the recipes are from Martha Stewart Living.
Though I could not find the first two on the site as of yet.
I made some adjustments to the first two cookie recipes. I used vanilla bean in the wreaths as everyone knows vanilla and lemon are true love BFFs.
Instead of macerating the cherries in Sherry,for the shortbread cookies, I used Rum and OJ and also replaced the sliced almonds (which I have an aversion to- they seem so unnatural) with roughly chopped almonds, which worked beautifully and added to the texture.

I think I decreased the amount of sugar in the walnut coins too, because seriously how much sugar can we consume in one month??!

These cookies were simple (and actually really fun for a dork like me) to make but honestly they were just back up singers for the showstoppers brought over by our very own Kat and Amelia. Rosemary Caramel?!? Red Chile Chocolate?!?! Whaaaaaaaaaa I am telling you those gals really BROUGHT IT.
Ladies! Would you share your recipes with the DOTMC gang???