Spicy Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

 

 

We already have a recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies...chocolate, cinnamon, chili powder.  I have to admit- these cookies are similar, but different.  So of course I deemed them worthy to post!  For starters, the recipe is easier:  no sifting, and no rolling the dough into individual balls.  Secondly, these cookies have chocolate chips.  Hooray for that! :)

 

 

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (if you don't have that, vanilla extract will work)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Specialty Dark Chocolate- dutch process would be great too)

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chocolate chips (I used mini)

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In an amazing Kitchenaid mixer that you love so much, cream together softened butter and brown sugar.



• Add eggs and vanilla bean paste, and mix until well combined.

•  Whisk together baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and flour. I like to put them on a big sheet of waxed paper and whisk them together like that.  Makes it easier to add to the mixer!

 (Not labeled: the flour.  I promise it's under there!)

 

• Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, with the mixer on the lowest speed.  Do you see how easy the waxed paper makes it to incorporate the dry ingredients?!

• Fold in the chocolate chips.  (yes- I know there's less than a cup of chips there.  I ate a small handful before starting to bake, and apparently there was not enough left!)

• Scoop dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Here's the scoop I used- I don't remember the size measurements, but this pic should help:

• Bake for 8-10 minutes, and cool on cookie racks. For one sheet of cookies, I flattened the ball.  The other sheet was cooked how you see the dough in the pic above- those created the puffy cookies.   I think I like the flat ones better.

Aww, pretty :)

 

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (if you don't have that, vanilla extract will work)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Specialty Dark Chocolate- dutch process would be great too)

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chocolate chips (I used mini)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together softened butter and brown sugar. 
3. Add eggs and vanilla bean paste, and mix until well combined. 
4. Whisk together baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and flour.
5. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, with the mixer on the lowest speed.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Scoop dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, and cool on cookie racks.

Recipe adapted from Baker Bettie

Chocolate and Cinnamon Babka

In the "Dinner Party" episode of Seinfeld, Jerry and Elaine missed out on the last chocolate babka, and were forced to purchase one that had cinnamon- a "lesser babka," if you will.  Well, what if we combined the two?  This chocolate AND cinnamon babka was a bit time consuming to make, but it was well worth the effort!  Dave and I can't stop eating it....

Ingredients:
for the dough
9.5 ounces bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I used just over this amount of active dry yeast- more on that later)
1.5 ounces granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces unsalted butter, softened

for the filling
1 egg, beaten
about 1 ounce cocoa powder (I used less)
about 2.5 ounces sugar
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used mini semi-sweet chocolate chips)
cinnamon

for the topping
3 ounces all-purpose flour
3 ounces powdered sugar (I didn't have any, so I used light brown sugar)
2 ounces softened butter

Directions:
for the dough

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low speed to combine.
2. Combine the wet ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk them together. NOTE:  I used active dry yeast, so I first microwaved half of the milk to about 110 degrees, and proofed the yeast before adding it to the other wet ingredients
3. With the machine running on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry. When everything is moistened switch to the dough hook and turn the machine up to medium. 
4. Knead until a dough comes together, then add the butter and continue kneading until it’s incorporated and the dough is smooth and sticky, about 5 minutes. (it was VERY sticky)
5. Remove the dough to a lightly greased bowl and allow it to rise for 1-2 hours until it has about doubled in size. 

 

 I know - I didn't whisk the wet ingredients together first. It was okay anyway...promise!!
 

 the tiny, sticky dough ball

Oooh...nice and fluffy! A note on why it's in the oven- as I assemble/mix the dough, I turn the oven to its lowest setting. 200F I believe.  Then when it is time to rise, I turn the oven off, throw it in, and shut the door.  It works perfectly every time!! 

Shaping

1. When the dough has doubled in size, roll it out into a square, about 1/8 inch thick. 
2. Brush with egg wash on three of the edges. 
3. Sift on the cocoa powder and sprinkle sugar everywhere, except for the egg-painted sides. 
4. Distribute the chocolate evenly, then dust the whole thing lightly with cinnamon. (I may have done a bit more than "lightly"...ha!)
5. Roll the dough sheet up starting from the edge that has no egg wash. Twist, then fold the roll in half
6. Give it two or three twists and lay it gently into a well-greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan 
7. Brush with egg wash and let it rise in a warm place (I did the same as I described above) until the dough comes up to the lip of the loaf pan, about another hour. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I went ahead and lined my pan with some parchment paper

 

 

 

 

 Do you know how hard it was to manipulate this dough AND take the pics at the same time?!  Tough, I tell ya.

 Don't make the same mistake I did. I ended up with a bulbous side (see above).  Fold the two ends towards the center, THEN twist.  The filling will be more evenly distributed, and you won't end up with a bursting tumor on one end.

 

 

Topping and Baking

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, then prepare the topping: mix the ingredients and work together by hand until crumbly.
2. Brush the dough once again with egg wash and sprinkle it all over with streusel.  (I had leftover topping. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't eat it straight from the bowl...)
3. Bake about an hour until it’s brown and springs back when tapped. 
4. Remove the pan from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes.
5. Lift parchment to remove babka and allow to cool completely (at least an hour)

DO NOT cut into it early.  Well, you can (I did), but it's going to be super melty and make your bread collapse a bit.  It will have more structural integrity once it has fully cooled! Enjoy!

Adapted from Joe Pastry

Chocolate Cookies with Salted Cinnamon Caramel

 They might not be the prettiest cookies on the block, but they definitely tasted awesome!  I know, because I brought them to work and they disappeared within an hour in the teachers' room.  (well, I guess it's possible that everyone tried them, but didn't like them.  I wasn't there to see reactions, but I assume they were positive! haha)

Lessons for next time:

1. Get a small scoop so that they could be a uniform size.  The only cookie scoop I had was too big, so I had to eyeball it
2. Get a round-ended spoon to make the indentations.  All I had was a squarish one, so I went with square cookies.  Circles would have looked a lot better
3. Roll the dough in your hands a bit to minimize the crackling. I thought they would even out while baking, but they looked exactly the same coming out as they did going in.
4. Make extra caramel- that stuff is amazing!!

For about 2 dozen cookies....

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup Dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted
½ tsp kosher salt
1 stick (8 tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
2 tbsp milk, at room temperature
4 oz soft caramel (I used the Werther's brand soft caramels)
2 tbsp whipping cream
Cinnamon, to taste (I'm not sure how much I used, but I used a lot! I love cinnamon)
Salt (I used Maldon Sea Salt Flakes)

Directions:

1. Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 325F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. 
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cocoa, and salt to combine. Set aside. 
3. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue mixing until light and well combined. 
4. Add the vanilla, then milk. 
5. Add the dry ingredients and mix on the low speed just until the dough forms.
6. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place them onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten very slightly with your hand. Using a handle of a wooden spoon, make an indentation in the center of each cookie; make it quite deep and about a penny in diameter. 
7. Chill the formed cookies for 20 minutes in the refrigerator, covered with parchment or plastic, before baking. 
8. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, until the cookies appear set. Transfer the cookies on the sheet on a cooling rack and, using the same spoon handle, deepen the indentations made earlier; don’t poke through though, be gentle. You do want this extra space for a delicious filling. Let them cool completely
9. Put the caramel and the cream into a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on “medium” for about a minute, pausing the microwave and stirring a couple of times, until the caramel is melted and mixture is smooth. 
10. Transfer into a small plastic bag, seal to close. Snip a corner of the bag and fill the cookies. 
11. Top with salt. The cookies can be stored for up to a week in an airtight container.

 

Recipe adapted from Baking Obsession

Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Cookies

I have been wanting to try at least one new recipe a week, so on a whim this past Thursday I whipped up a batch of cookies.  It's a good thing the recipe only calls for one egg- that's all I had!

These came out with a slight crispy outside, but a delightfully chewy inside.  I wish I had a picture of it, but when I make cookies and have some dough left over (yet not enough for a whole new pan), I make a "super cookie" for Dave and I to split.  Basically I put all of the dough together, flatten it out on the pan, and load it up with toppings.  For this one, I added mini chocolate chips and some flaked sea salt- it was an amazing variation on the recipe!

Ingredients:
2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
170 g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I only had salted, so I used that and reduced the amount of salt in the recipe to only a small pinch)
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside. 
3. Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. 
4. Add flour mixture and beat until well incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as you go. 
5. Use a cookie scoop to drop large tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. 
6. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until edges are browned. Cook on wire rack.

Recipe from A Spoonful of Sugar

Apple Cake (made with freshly picked apples!)...and apple picking

This past Saturday, Dave and I headed over to Parlee Farms for some apple picking.  Typically we go apple picking at the end of the season, and we always miss the early varieties.  I'm so happy that we remembered to go in September this year!  I made an amazing apple cake with some of the Ginger Gold apples we picked (we also grabbed some Jonomacs and MacIntosh.  (1/3 of the cake is missing in the photo above, because Dave and I were too impatient to wait for me to take a pic!  We scarfed a few pieces down when it was hot out of the oven)

Fist a few pics of our outing, followed by the recipe:

On the hayride

 

The fresh cider donuts- absolutely incredible, although they're no Lakeside donut :)

Above you'll see about half of the apples we picked- we only picked one peck (about 10 lbs).  I've been eating apples all week, but we still have a bunch left over- I hope to make some cinnamon apple ice cream this weekend!

note: Sorry there's a mix of US and metric measurements- I adapted an existing recipe, and have not gone back yet to figure everything out. I'm hoping that I can get everything in grams, because I much prefer to weigh than measure!

Ingredients
Cake:
140 grams unsalted butter, softened
150 grams firmly packed soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
225 grams self-raising flour (or make your own- 1 ¾ c flour, 2 ⅓ tsp baking powder, ⅝ tsp salt, then measure 225g)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoon milk
500 grams apples (about 2-3 apples), peeled, cored, diced.

Streusel Topping:
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
½ stick unsalted butter
½ tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Heat oven to 320 degrees, and line a 8 in square cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat until fully combined.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. 
4. Add the milk and apples, then fold everything together. The batter will be very thick!!
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth surface. 
6. Place the topping ingredients in a food processor and pulse until crumbly.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter. 
7. Bake for 1 hr 10 mins, until a skewer inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Oh my....super moist, not to sweet, and totally delicious.  I will be making it again soon!

Recipe adapted from Cakelets and Doilies