Saint Cupcake’s Brownie Cookies

Saint Cupcake’s Chocolate Cookies

Why bother with any other recipe this Valentine’s Day? That’s what I realized. These cookies, which I baked last weekend, were so good that my husband devoured almost the entire batch. He did leave some for a couple of workmen who happened to be at our house making some repairs on the oven. But I am about to make another batch. Or two. So I know I will have some available.

I got the recipe from Sprinklefingers, a tumblr blog I follow. The woman who writes the Sprinklefingers blog is an energetic, interesting person who lives in Portland, Oregon, and has this fabulous bakery called Saint Cupcake (actually there are two bakeries now). I say fabulous because the photos and the menu of goodies looks fabulous. I’ve never been there or met the woman, Jami Curl, who owns it and writes the blog. The place and the woman are clear across the country from me.

But I do know that all the posts are interesting and the recipes wonderful.

So the other day I tried her recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies. All I can say is: these are not to be missed. The cookies are awesome. Perfect for Valentine’s Day. Or any other day actually.

I made one batch of the larger cookies, one batch of the smaller. I prefer the smaller (then you don’t feel so guilty eating two).

I changed the way Jami’s recipe is written to conform to the way I write recipes, so maybe I should say it is adapted. But the ingredients and instructions are exactly the same. Maybe I should have this blurb like they do on TV when they say a movie has been edited to be formatted for your TV screen.

Saint Cupcake’s Brownie Cookies

• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 large eggs plus one large egg yolk

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease the sheet lightly). Melt the butter and chocolate together in the top part of a double boiler. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to let ingredients cool. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. Beat the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed until well blended, about 5 minutes. Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture and vanilla and blend them in thoroughly. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes. Use a 2-ounce scoop to form a rounded mound and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Leave space between the cookies for expansion. Bake for 15-17 minutes. OR, use a smaller (one-ounce scoop) and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be cracked, with moist looking ingredients inside the cracks.

Cashew Sesame Seed Candy Bars

Candy for Chinese New Year?

When I think about Chinese food it’s usually Egg Rolls or Sichuan Beef with Orange Flavor or Kung Pao Gai Ding.

Not candy.

In fact, I don’t associate Chinese cuisine with anything sweet or dessert-like. Years ago I took Chinese cooking lessons at the China Institute and my teacher, the great Florence Lin, said that Chinese recipes often have a little sugar in them and so, one’s “sweet tooth” is satisfied by the end of a meal, with no need for any special dessert.

And yet — one of the recipes I learned was one for the kind of Sesame Seed-Nut Brittle I remember my parents buying whenever we visited New York’s Chinatown. It is sweet! And salty too, a nice balance. It’s also crunchy and gets into every tooth. 

It’s also easy to make and lasts a while. 

Happy New Year of the Snake.

Celebrate with candy.

Cashew Sesame Seed Candy Bars

• 1/2 cup sesame seeds

• 1-1/2 cups cashews, broken up

• 2 cups sugar

• 5 tablespoons white vinegar

• 1-1/2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the sesame seeds in a single layer in a jelly roll pan for about 10 minutes or until lightly toasted (shake the pan once or twice during the baking time). Lightly oil an 8-inch or 9-inch square cake pan. Place half the sesame seeds and all of the cashews in the prepared pan and set aside. Place the sugar, vinegar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir only until the ingredients are well mixed. Continue to cook until the mixture is turning golden and reaches the “hard crack” stage (a drop of the mixture in cold water will be hard and brittle), about 295 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour the hot syrup over the seeds and nuts. Sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds. Let cool for a few minutes, until the ingredients are “set.” Cut into bars with a knife. Let cool and harden completely. Recut where the initial cuts have been placed.

Makes 16 pieces

Frozen Dough Foldover Cookies

I don’t usually talk so much about desserts, at least not as a daily matter, but I looked back at my posts this week and noticed they were all sugar-loaded.

Is my body telling me something?

I did just call my dentist for an appointment …

Somehow it was dessert week at any rate, starting with Tangerine Tart and then Spice Cake. Yesterday I mentioned that it would have been my mom’s 100th birthday and I had a triumphant breakthrough with a cookie-cake recipe of hers (Nut Roll) I could never get right until now. And during the week, thinking I might not do the Nut Roll well enough to blog about it, I made some of my mom’s foldover frozen dough cookies. The ones I would have written about if not the Nut Roll.

I haven’t made these cookies in a while. All I can say is that the recipe yielded 84 cookies. I gave 4 away. There are 6 left.

So guess how many cookies Ed and I ate, just the two of us?

They are quite delicious is all I can say.

Frozen Dough Foldover Cookies

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound unsalted butter

1 cup dairy sour cream

1 large egg white

lekvar (prune and apricot), apple or pumpkin butter or jam

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix briefly to add the salt. Add the butter in chunks and mix on low-medium for a minute or so until the mixture is crumbly. Add the sour cream. Mix until a smooth dough has formed. It might be slightly sticky. If very sticky add a tablespoon more of flour. Knead the dough on a well-floured surface and shape into a cylinder. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using small chunks of dough at a time, roll the dough thin (about 1/16th-inch) and cut into 2-inch squares. Place some lekvar in the middle. Bring up opposite sides corner points of the dough to the middle and press to seal the dough. Place the cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Brush the tops of the cookies with some egg white. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes about 7 dozen

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

Are granola bars healthy?

When they first became popular, back in the 1980s when my kids were little kids, I thought so. And in my efforts to be a “good mother” who tried to give my children healthy food, I bought what was available then. Granola bars were frequent snacks in the house and for school.

I later learned that many of those so-called healthy snacks weren’t.

Just because something is called granola doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

Like if the bars are loaded with trans fats, hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, marshmallows, chocolate, artificial color and so on. 

Here’s a recipe for Honey-Oat Granola Bars. Yes, they have chocolate. And honey is a sweetener. And there’s a little brown sugar in there. Still, there’s oats and dried fruit and nuts. You can add some sunflower seeds if you wish.

And they taste good. These are rich, so you just eat a little and feel snack-full.

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

• 2 cups quick cooking oats

• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil 

• 3/4 cup honey

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

• 1 cup dried cranberries

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, letting a few inches hang over the side of pan (to help you lift the bars out of the pan). Brush the paper with vegetable oil. Place the oats on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-6 minutes, mixing them once during the baking process, to toast them slightly. Mix the vegetable oil, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until blended, smooth and hot. Combine the toasted oats, almonds, chocolate chips, cranberries, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Pour in the honey mixture and stir until well blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toasty brown. Let cool in the pan. Lift the square out of pan using the overhanging paper. Cut into squares or rectangles.

Makes about 2 dozen 

Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

I love when science and studies and experts say that some food item I love is healthy. Like in this article that speaks to the benefits of coffee. Apparently coffee can help prevent cognitive decline.

Wow! I am going to be cognitively okay then! 

Because I have been drinking coffee, and LOTS of it, since I was age 5 or so and my aunt Roz and Uncle Mac lived with us for a while. My Mom slept late and Aunt Roz took care of breakfast and got us off to school. But she was newly married and had no clue about kids so she served us coffee. Because that’s what everyone else had for breakfast.

Okay, there was lots of milk and sugar in that coffee.

Still.

Anyway, once you get that coffee habit in the morning it’s hard to break. I set up the coffee maker every night so all I have to do in the morning is turn the on button. On days when I know the exact time I am getting up I set it on automatic.

Cognitive benefits.

I wonder how I would do in Physics these days?

Anyway, when I was a kid there was nothing to go with that coffee. I like a little something with coffee. So, maybe these — not for breakfast. But they’re pretty delicious later in the day.

Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

1 pound butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick oats

1 tablespoon grated fresh lemon peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the flour, salt, oats, lemon peel and vanilla extract and mix to blend ingredients thoroughly. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Remove small portions of the dough and roll the pieces into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon a film of confectioner’s sugar onto a dish. Press the bottom of a drinking glass into the confectioner’s sugar. Press the balls flat with the sugar-coated bottom of the glass. Repeat until all the cookies are flat (keep coating the glass bottom as needed). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 100

Chocolate Yogurt Pound Cake

"This is just like room service!"

That, from my almost 6-year old grand daughter Lila (who apparently already knows about room service!?!) after I let her have her dinner in the family room and watch TV.

This is something I didn’t allow my own two daughters.

But honestly, after 35 years I was a little out of practice. And, like bike riding, you may not forget how, but you also may not race through the streets or peddle yourself up a steep hill quite as often or as easily either. 

So, when the kids came for a visit, sans parents, from Friday through Sunday, there were occasional, let’s say, concessions. If my daughter Gillian, their Mom, is reading this now, I say, don’t worry. These kids are terrific and 2 meals in front of the TV won’t harm them.

As you can see from the photos we did lots of stuff like draw, have a pedicure, blow bubbles outside, ride bikes, have a fashion show. We also frosted a birthday cake for their cousin Nina’s birthday party on Saturday (although the top decoration, an Ariel rice-paper scene, was store-bought).

The little one, Remy, age 21 months talks a blue streak although sometimes it’s difficult to understand his pronunciations. However, one of the new words he learned this weekend was “chocolate cake,” which he mentioned to his parents as soon as they walked in the door Sunday night.

"Tzockickcake!" he told them, with his tongue literally licking his lips.

When a kid is this young you can’t depend on “what happens at Grandma’s stays at grandma’s.”

I had baked the chocolate cake for a Hadassah Tea and was cutting it into slices. There were a few not-so-lovely pieces that I didn’t include on the platter I sent over for that event. Remy had a small sliver of the leftovers. He liked it, that’s for sure.

Can’t say I blame him. Smart kid!

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Yogurt Pound Cake

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces butter at room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending each one in. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the yogurt, until the flour mixture and yogurt have been used and the batter is well blended and smooth. Gradually add the boiling water, beating slowly, for 2-3 minutes or until the batter is smooth and well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes 12+ servings

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Can you eat just one piece of chocolate? My brother Jeff can. He eats one piece every day. He says it satisfies his craving, that he doesn’t need more than his little daily nibble.

This is quite a statement coming from someone who can’t hold back at all when it comes to bread. 

But I am sure Jeff will be thrilled to know about this article, which speaks to the benefits of chocolate, specifically dark, bittersweet chocolate. 

It sounds almost too good to be true. But, at least according to what I read here, there’s evidence that dark chocolate fights cancer, heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. It has antioxidants and flavanoids that fight free radicals and may protect us from aging too quickly and from Alzheimer’s disease. And it also may help improve your vision.

Holy cow! Get me some of this stuff now!

My mother always said my brother Jeff was smart.

Of course the article does say not to overdo the chocolate thing. Be more like Jeff. Just a small portion each day.

So maybe just one piece of these brownies every day? (Freeze the leftovers)

Btw, these would be nice for Valentine’s Day. Or anytime, really.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate

8 ounces unsalted butter

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts or semisweet chocolate chips, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish. Melt the chocolate and butter together in the top part of a double boiler set over barely simmering water. Stir, remove the top part of the pan from the heat and let cool. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a mixer at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is thick and pale. Add the chocolate mixture and vanilla extract and blend them in thoroughly. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, add to the batter and blend thoroughly. Fold in the nuts or chocolate chips, if used. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging. Let cool and cut.

Makes 16-20 pieces

Eggless Lemon-Blueberry Tea Bread

Eggless Lemon Blueberry Bread

Even the most experienced home cooks make mistakes.

Like the one I made yesterday. I decided to bake a Lemon-Blueberry Tea Bread and as soon as I put the pan in the oven I realized I had left the eggs out of the batter.

Wow! That’s a biggie.

I did that once before, many years ago and made the big mistake of retrieving the loaf pan, scooping the batter back into a bowl, mixing in the eggs and then baking the bread as if nothing had happened.

Unfortunately, after the bread baked and cooled down, biting into a slice was like chewing day-old used bubble gum.

This time I just let the bread bake with a “let’s see what happens” kind of attitude.

The results were astonishingly surprising. What a boon for people who can’t eat eggs! This Lemon-Blueberry Tea Bread is delicious. Firmer, denser than one made with eggs, but tasty and tender without them.

So, here’s the recipe, including the eggs, but for egg-free diets — just leave the eggs out.

Lemon-Blueberry Tea Bread

• 4 tablespoons butter

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 2 large eggs (optional)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and 3/4 cup sugar at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until well combined. (Add the eggs and beat them in). Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk. Beat to blend the ingredients to a smooth, even batter. Fold in the berries. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. While the bread is baking, combine the lemon juice and 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. When the bread comes out of the oven, pour the lemon juice mixture on top. Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one bread

Gingersnaps

Does Santa bring Hanukkah gifts?

A few years ago I was driving my granddaughter Lila home from preschool and I heard her tiny little voice say “you know grandma, I want Santa Claus to get me something for Hanukkah. He’s coming to town, don’tcha know?”

Wow, how do you keep yourself from chuckling at a statement like that?

And also, what do you say to a 2-1/2-year old kid from a Jewish family that doesn’t celebrate Christmas?

And also, I’m only the grandma. This is best left to the parents isn’t it? The old Jewish December Dilemma about what to tell your children about why we don’t have a tree or stockings or even Santa Claus.

But Lila’s question was a little different. She already knew that her family celebrates Hanukkah, not Christmas. She just placed Santa into the event. You know, the menorah, the latkes, the driedels and Santa.

I know all these issues get worked out in every family. Parents tell their children about Hanukkah/Christmas in the way that’s comfortable for them and at the age they feel it appropriate for their kids. I was just surprised it came up this way with Lila and at that age, because I suspected her parents hadn’t gotten to that yet.

When I asked Lila who told her that Santa comes on Hanukkah she said it was her nanny, who is Hindu.

Anyway, it’s 3 years later and all those issues are behind us. Lila and all my other grandchildren are thrilled with the 8-day Hanukkah celebration with its candles and chocolate coins and potato pancakes and gifts. And cookies too. We bake cookies at my house. Not to leave by the fireplace for Santa, but for us to all enjoy with a glass of milk.

Gingersnaps

• 1 cup vegetable shortening

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/4 cup molasses

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Combine the shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well combined. Add the egg and molasses and beat until well blended. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg and beat until the dough is well blended, smooth and uniform in color. Take off small pieces of dough and shape into small balls about one-inch in diameter. Roll the balls in the remaining sugar to coat the surface. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet, leaving an inch space between each ball. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and are flat and crispy, with lines on the surface. Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes about 6 dozen

Tagged: gingersnaps, cookies, Hanukkah

Peanut Butter Cookies

Trick-or-treating was different back in the day when I was a kid, so long ago, in a time when no one was afraid that someone would give us poison candy or fruit with shards of glass in it.

Most often we celebrated Hallowe’en at home by bobbing for apples and roasting marshmallows and playing games wih my mother and dad.

If we did go out, it was to our neighbors, who gave us homemade cookies, maybe some apples. If we got candy it was always either candy corn, licorice or lollypops. 

Sounds naive probably. Maybe even hokey. 

It’s what we knew. And the first year after I was married I made cookies for the trick-or-treaters who came to our door and saw the look on the horrified faces of the parents who were there with their children. Times had changed and I was completely clueless about it then.

I never did that again. Only packages now, from certified candy manufacturers. 

I suppose it’s good for the economy, including for the dentists.

But these cookies are the ones I made that October day. The recipe is from my mother’s trove of absolutely fabulous cookie recipes. So whether or not you do anything special on Halloween, make these. Anytime. They freeze well and they are just as good straight from the freezer and dunked into milk or hot chocolate.

Peanut Butter Cookies

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 cup peanut butter

• 1 cup shortening

• 2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the flour, baking soda, salt, white sugar and brown sugar. Mix at medium speed until the ingredients are well combined and evenly distributed. Add the peanut butter, shortening and eggs and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and thoroughly blended into a soft dough. Take off pieces of dough and shape them into balls about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Flatten the balls between you palms. Place the circles on the cookie sheet, leaving some space between the cookies for them to expand. Press each cookie 2 times with the back of the tines of a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until lightly browned and crispy.

Makes about 100