World Peace Cookies

And against all odds, I am back from Minnesota alive, in one piece, well rested and a better fisherwoman to boot.  Unknown to me at the beginning, Minnesota turned out to be exactly what a late summer vacation should be:

A cup of tea while watching boats bob by the dock in the morning.  Followed by a few hours fishing with some wonderful, funny conversationalists.  Stuffing myself silly every day at lunch on extremely fresh, fried fish and enough sides and goodies to be on par with Thanksgiving.  Napping or reading in the afternoon sun, in front of the lake, with a breeze.  Then of course, a few cold beers and late evening fishing.

It was a perfect enough vacation to make you actually believe that things like world peace, and cookies that could bring about its existence, actually could exist.  Or in the case of these chocolaty, crispy, melty wonders, that they actually do exist.

World Peace Cookies
Who else?  Via the Smitten Kitchen

I've made these twice now.  These are not the gooey chocolate chip cookie kind of cookies.  They are sandy, like shortbread, but with marvelous little pockets of melted dark chocolate.  They're addicting.  Just cut them a little thicker than you think and you're in business.  Also, doubling this recipe just to have a log or two of dough frozen in your freezer is a very, very wise idea.

1 1/4 c. flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
11 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temp.
2/3 c. light brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped in small chunks

In stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter on medium speed until pale and creamy.  With mixer running, add both sugars, salt and vanilla.  Beat until mixture is well incorporated and fluffy, a few minutes.

Sift together flour, cocoa and baking soda.  With mixer running on slow speed, gradually add flour to butter as fast as you can.  It will poof and make somewhat of a mess.  It's cool, you'll soon have cookies to keep you company as you clean.  Mix only until just incorporated.  Add chocolate chips and just stir them in.  Try at this point to work the dough as little as possible.

Turn out the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap.  Eye ball the dough into 2 equal pieces, each on their own sheet of plastic wrap.  Using your hands, roll dough into log, about 1.5 inches thick.  Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate them at least 3 hours, or freeze.  (Deb's note: you can freeze the dough up to 2 months).

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Once very chilled, using a "sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch think".  They're going to crumble apart like crazy on you.  Just do your best and squish them back into rounds.  Bake for 12 minutes at 325 degrees F (13 minutes if dough is frozen through).  "They won'y look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be".  Let cool on cooling rack, resist the urge to eat immediately.  One, it'll totally burn your tongue.  Learn from my mistakes kids!  Two, they sort of really do taste better just slightly warm or at room temperature.  Share! Enjoy! Go World Peace!

Chocolate Stout Brownies

Or the dark, chocolaty truffle dense-ness that has been smothered in a quarter inch of ganache made solely with beer, butter and chocolate.   AKA – the only chocolate you need to consume this whole week, AKA – I lost the stout but came out with HOLY SHIT CHOCOLATE. 

Or, in other words, I should warn you.  These brownies here?  They are chocolaty.  CHOC-O-LAT-TY.  I hope you read that as individual syllables, loud and harsh, because then you’ll get my seriousness of this matter.  Now, don’t mistake this seriousness to imply that these brownies aren’t good.  Because they are delicious.  They are quite honestly dark, chocolaty, truffle dense deliciousness.  But Guinness brownies they are not.

And to me, that was a disappointment.  See, I made these brownies to bring to my really cool friend who lives in Milwaukee.  My really cool friend who lives in Milwaukee and works at MillerCoors (like, you know, the beer company) and will soon be moving out to California to continue working at MillerCoors.  Now, I know as a beer company employee, he’ll still have plenty of beer, but this is a boy who really loves his stout, his IPA’s, his lagers.  Which, consequently, Milwaukee really loves too.  A little bit more so than, let’s say, Southern California.  And I know he’s going to miss it, so I wanted to give him beer.  In a brownie.  That’s not such a weird thing to want, right??

So, fail on that front.  However, on the front of I drank a little more than I should have, these are fantastic the morning after. Chocolate cures hangovers, right?

Chocolate Stout Brownies
Adapted from Bon Appetit's Feb. 2012

These did not earn a hallowed spot in the BGCB. Absolutely delicious, yes. But anything with this much chocolate and butter usually is, right? Plus, as mentioned above, I lost the stout. And if I'm going to put a recipe called chocolate stout brownies in my big green cookbook, I want it to shout stout.

1 c. stout (I used Guinness)
16 oz. bittersweet chocolate, divided
1 c. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. AP flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt, divided

For the brownies: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9 pan with foil, leaving an overhang. You are going to use the overhang to pull the brownies out later. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, bring stout to a boil. Keep at a gentle boil until reduce by half. Here's a trick. Dip a toothpick in the stout initially and mark how far the liquid comes up to. Use that as your measuring stick to find out when you've reduced by half. You need to end up with a 1/2 cup reduced stout. This will be divided equally between the brownies and the ganache.

Set up a double boiler (I used a glass bowl set over a simmering pot of water. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl!) In bowl, mix 1 cup butter (2 sticks) and 16 oz. of chocolate, coarsely chopped. Stirring occasionally, melt the chocolate butter until smooth. Try your best not to drink it.

In separate bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla. Slowly, whisk in chocolate and butter mixture, followed by 1/4 cup of reduced stout and 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Next, slowly fold in all purpose flour. Do not over mix. Pour brownies into prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Brownies are done when the top begins to crack and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan. A toothpick stuck in the middle will come out with a few moist crumbs clinging. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack 20-30 minutes will preparing ganache.

Again in double boiler, melt remaining 4 oz. of chocolate coarsely chopped and 2 tablespoons of butter until smooth. Remove from heat. Add remaining 1/4 cup of reduced stout. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of salt, whisk until blended. Pour ganache over cooled brownies, spreading and tilting pan as necessary to make sure it's even. Let sit until ganache firms, about 45 minutes. Use foil over hang to remove brownies from pan and slice. Enjoy your chocolate amazingness!

Chocolate Croissants

This afternoon I'm heading off to Chicago to visit Ben.  And being the good girlfriend that I am, I am bringing baked goods.  This time around, it was Chocolate Croissants, the basic recipe I gleaned from a lazy Saturday of watching Food Network all day.  The best chocolate croissants I ever had were in Germany (but maybe that's because I never had them in France...) and they were deliciously flaky with chocolate all the way through.  These were good, but they lacked that flaky action, which is basically key in a croissant.  So maybe a better title for what I made last night would be chocolate pastries; but that doesn't sound as good.   They did have chocolate all throughout, and when they are warm it's oozy and delicious.  I haven't tried them cold/room temperature yet, but I have high hopes.

I made these up Wednesday night, making some quick work of a frozen puff pastry sheet and some Belgian dark chocolate I bought from Trader Joe's (I feel like I'm almost running an advertising campaign for them.  What can I say?  They have some hidden, cheap treasures in that store)  My triangles were a little lopsided, giving the resulting croissants that rustic, homemade off-kilter sort of look.  I put them in the fridge until yesterday, when I threw them in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes.  There was an egg wash and light sprinkle of sugar somewhere in there too. 

They came out warm and gooey, as melted chocolate and puff pastry can be expected to do.  Make sure to learn from my mistake, a wait a little while before trying to eat one.  Also, don't skip the light dusting of sugar on the top.  About half I decided to try without, and they just didn't come out as pretty.  Again, these were good, but probably because I didn't have too high of expectations for them.  They did make me want to go back to Germany for the real deal, but what doesn't make me want to go back to Germany these days?  Just wait till I whip out my German potato salad recipe for the upcoming summer months!

Anyways, the recipe is below.  Sorry about the lack of pictures, I was busy packing and going to baseball games last night.  (The Drive won 12-6!  Woohoo!)

Chocolate Croissants

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

Flour, for dusting

1 bar of dark chocolate

1 large egg, beaten

Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Flour a clean working surface and lay out one sheet of thawed puff pastry dough.  Using a small, sharp knife, cut dough in half, widthwise.  For small croissants, divide each half into 6 equal sized triangles. 

Break chocolate bar up into small rectangular pieces.  Using one dough triangle, place a chocolate piece at the wide edge and roll up towards the tip to form a croissant.  Place seam side down on baking sheet.  Continue with remaining dough triangles.  When finished, cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge to firm up the dough (refrigerate up to one day).

When dough is firm, remove from fridge and brush croissants with the beaten egg.  Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar. 

Bake until croissants are golden brown, about 15 minutes.