Lovin' From the Oven

Day 1: Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

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Well, I finally did it! I bought my own domain name last night!! My website URL is now officially: https://www.lovintheoven.com and I cannot be any more excited. (I’m such a kid at heart, I know.. but little things like this make me so happy!) Thanks to everyone for following along with my blog and for all the feedback. :]

We’ve now entered the month of December, which means it’s officially holiday season. Actually, the holiday season started the moment Thanksgiving ended and the Christmas lights & trees went up. Since everyone (FoodNetwork, Betty Crocker, etc.) does the twelve days of cookies for the holidays, I thought I’d join in and make my own list. These twelve cookies that I’ll be baking throughout December will be ideal for holiday gift baskets, just in case you need ideas for what to add in yours.

Day 1 of my twelve days of cookies: I introduce to you.. outrageous chocolate cookies by Martha Stewart! I have such mixed feelings on her.. Actually, it’s more of a love/hate relationship. I find that with her recipes, you either love it or hate it, there’s no in between. Although, with her scrapbooking line, it’s all LOVE LOVE LOVE. The only thing I hate about her scrapbooking line is how ridiculously overpriced everything is. Anyways, back to the topic.. these cookies turned out great! They have a chewy center and a crackly top, similar to that of a brownie. The batter may turn out a bit more liquidy than normal cookie batter, but don’t fret! It’s supposed to be like that. The only thing that I would change about this recipe is replacing semi-sweet chocolate with milk chocolate because the cookies turned out a bit too bitter and not sweet enough for my taste. Either that, or add more sugar. They are also VERY chocolatey, so if you aren’t a fan of chocolate, I’d recommend finding a different recipe.

Ingredients

Makes 2 dozen

  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
  3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Everytime I say that, people respond with, “…. what? …” Yes, I said it, whoopie pie. What are whoopie pies anyway? Well, it’s a two-layer filled cake, a cake/cookie consisting of two layers with a moist filling sandwiched in between. In this case, its a pumpkin cake cookie with a maple cream cheese frosting. The cookie was okay, very cake-like. But the filling? A-MAZ-ING! The best cream cheese frosting that I’ve ever had. Actually, it was probably because of the authentic Canadian maple syrup that I used from the leaf shaped bottle with a red cap. Hooray for Canadian syrup!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! (Trust me, I’ve baked a ridiculous amount of goods for Turkey day, so expect more posts to come)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin Whoopie Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup canola oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble:
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoppie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Giant Chocolate Toffee Cookies

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I normally don’t even like chocolate cookies, but I’ll take one of these any day. The only problem I had with this cookie was that it wouldn’t stay together because it was so chewy/fragile, almost brownie or fudge like. It was probably because I didn’t chill them long enough. I never have patience when it comes to chilling the dough. I mean.. really? Wait 45 minutes? Why can’t I just throw them into the oven already? I’m not very patient at all, actually, when it comes to baking. Hence the reason that I hate dealing with yeast dough and rarely deal with it.

Anyways, who knew that walnuts, toffee, and chocolate go so well together? I loved that this recipe used actual chocolate instead of cocoa powder to make the cookie (that’s probably why this recipe is a winner for me).

From epicurious:

  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pound (2 cups) semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath), coarsely chopped (I used about 3/4 a bag of Heath’s toffee bits)
  • 1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 15 minutes. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

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