Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cayenne Pepper Cookies

I've been really slow updating my cookie blog this year, for this I have to apologize.
My turn for Cookie night came around tonight, so here's my latest being effort: Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cayenne Pepper Cookies.
The recipe follows my regular Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, however to make them Cocoa-Cayenne I add two tbsp of cocoa powder, 1 tsp of Cayenne pepper, and one extra tbsp of milk. The baking process is the same. In the photos you can see the dark cocoa-cayenne cookies next to their vanilla cousins.

The cayenne doesn't really alter the flavour of the cookies, however they do leave a lasting heat. You'll definitely want to have a glass of milk on hand after having a few cookies ;)

Egg free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm back after a brief hiatus. Tonight was my turn to host my cookie club's cookie night. I decided to try my hand at an egg free interpretation of my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.
To replace the original recipe's egg content I used one banana, a half cup of apple sauce, and 1/8 of a tsp of baking soda. Removing the eggs meant that the baking time had to be adjusted to twenty minutes instead of the usual twelve. These cookies are a little more chewy, and less cake like, however they retain much of their usual look and scent. If you need to make an egg free chocolate chip cookie I can recommend using the approach I took above.

The hand made chocolates in the middle of the platter are my take on peanut butter cups -- all of them start with a dark chocolate base, followed by either peanut butter or cognac cranberry filling, then covered in milk chocolate. They melt in your hand so you have to eat them quickly :)

I hope to get back to regular posts soon, after all my holiday baking I needed a break. Hoping everyone is doing well in this new year - and enjoy the above recipe!

Cake Lollipops with Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies!

The Cake Pops I posted last time were so successful that I had to try them again, this time adding Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies and new flavours of candied chocolate coatings :)

Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies added to the chocolate cake and fudge frosting.

Rolled into Tim Bit sized balls.

Milk Chocolate structural support on a stick.

A proper sized serving :)

Chocolate covered sprinkles - had to sneak a little more chocolate in there some how.

Orange flavoured Chocolate coating.

And Grape Flavour too!

Slow melting the candied chocolate over a steam bath is the best way to ensure a smooth surface on the cake pop.

Cake Lollipops

Cake lollipops are treats made from balls of cake dipped in candied chocolate, and are becoming trendy at the moment. Their construction is quiet simple so I've put together a photo essay on how to make them.

The cake base is made from an off the shelf cake mix.

Bake as per directions.

Now that the cake is ready, we execute it in the blender.

Grab a tub of pre-made frosting (any flavour you prefer)

And blend the cake and frosting together.

This produces a very sweet dough.

Roll the dough into 2 inch diameter balls (the size of a timbit).

ProTip: melt some milk chocolate and dip your lollipop sticks into the chocolate, then push them into the cake balls.  When the chocolate hardens it will provide support for the cake treat.

One cake with frosting makes almost three dozen pops. It's best to freeze these pops over night before starting the next step.

Melt in a sauce pan candied modeling chocolate and butter. Once the chocolate is all melted and runny,  dip the frozen pops into the chocolate. Be sure to twist the pops to remove excess chocolate. While the chocolate is still moist dip the pop in sprinkles or other finishing toppings.

To help keep things neat I use a block of styro foam board to hold up pops. 

Some sample Cake Pops.

As the Cake Pops cool the chocolate will crack, so I suggest keeping the pops in a fridge.

The modeling chocolate really make these pops pop.

Chocolate Gingerbread Men

Inside Joke Alert: These cookies were inspired by a stag party in which we took the groom out for a round of paintball... the yellow & orange cookies represents the groom having fun, the blue & purple cookies represent the aftermath of bruises. The bride wasn't too pleased with us... so these cookies commemorate the day we took our friend out in the woods and shot him. Repeatedly. That's how he knows we all care :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 pound butter
1 tbsp grated ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsp boiling water
7 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup sugar

In a bowl mix together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. In a mixer blend butter, grated ginger, brown sugar, almond extract, and molasses. Dissolve in boiling water the baking soda, then add to the butter mixture. Combine the flour and butter mixtures slowly (half at a time). What makes this recipe a little different here is that instead of chopping the semi-sweet chocolate into the batter, I melt it then mix it in. This produces a more consistent chocolate flavor. Once combined chill dough in a fridge for several hours or over night.

Once the dough has set, roll it into balls, and flatten with a roller pin. Use a cutter to produce the Gingerbread Men.

Preheat the oven to 325F, and bake for 10 minutes. Decorate the Gingerbread Men with melted chocolate.

I hope you all enjoyed this recipe as much as we enjoyed paintball :)

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

This week I tried to make Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies following the recipe from a nice looking book I received over the holiday. The pictures looked so good, and the recipe so easy... unfortunately the it turned out horrible, so I fixed cookie.

Original Ingredients:
1 cup butter
6 tbsp icing sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (for the dip)

The collection of ingredients when combined turned out to make something akin to cement. It couldn't be made extrude through a pipet, it could barely be rolled out into sheets :S Something needed to be corrected so that it would be more viscous.

Corrected Ingredients:

1 cup butter

6 tbsp icing sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp maple syrup

6 oz Vodka

For the Dip:

1 cup butter

6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate

8 oz of dark chocolate

6 oz Vodka

With the cookie dough recipe corrected I could now extrude the dough through a star shaped pipet. This still required a fare amount of effort, so I rolled the dough out and cut the shortbread into domino shaped bars. These were baked for 12 minutes at 350F.

Once the cookies were golden brown I let them cool, then started preparing the doctored dip. First I melted the butter, then added the various chocolates and let it slowly melt. Once melted to a velvety consistency I poured in the Vodka. Why did I do this? Because the recipe had vexed me and needed to be taught a lesson... a tasty lesson.

After taking their improved chocolate bath I tossed sweet toppings on to the cookies so they'd have some nice color to show off. Now the cookies were finally fit to be presented to my cookie club.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, my alterations seemed to make them passible as decent members of my cookie collection.

Birthday Cake, and CupCakes.

Just wanted to share a photo of the boat cake as it was presented.

I also have a few pics to share of some Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate dipped, with hand made Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cups on top Cup Cakes:

These were made for my friend Martina's birthday - I think she enjoyed them :)

Cookies from Christmas past.

To start the new year I thought I'd share some photos of the Christmas cookies I made for 2010. Their based upon my simple chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the slight modification of using Terry's Chocolate Orange pieces instead of chips :)

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and got a chance to bake & eat a few dozen batches of cookies :)