Chocolate almond spice cookies

One day I felt like baking, but didn't want to run to the store to buy any ingredients. I found this recipe for chocolate spice cookies, and I had just enough chocolate in the house to make a half batch.

The great thing about this recipe is that it's made entirely in the food processor, which means less dishes to wash. The dough is flavored with ground almonds, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate and allspice.

This is a slice and bake cookie, so the rolls of dough need to chill for a while before they're ready to bake. I added a sliced almond to the top of each cookie to make them more attractive.

I really liked the cookies - the cocoa and chocolate contribute a rich, complex flavor, and the allspice makes these unique. I put half of the dough in the freezer for another day, so I'll be baking these the next time I need another chocolate fix.

Holiday baking

I'll admit, I've been slacking a little bit this year in the holiday baking department. I decided to remedy the situation today by baking up some treats for our friends, family and coworkers.

First up were Dorie Greenspan's world peace cookies. People have been raving about these cookies for years, but for some reason I just never got around to trying them. I'm glad I finally made the recipe, because these really are outstanding cookies. The ingredients are fairly common, and the technique simple, but the addition of fleur de sel to the dough really takes these cookies to the next level. I only got to taste one cookie, but I think I'll be keeping a roll of this dough in the freezer from now on.


Once the cookies were out of the oven and cooling, I made a batch of red velvet cupcakes. I will be completely honest and tell you that I used a Sprinkles mix. I'm not usually a cake mix person; I prefer to cook from scratch. However, I received this mix as a gift, and I had a really excellent red velvet cupcake at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills a few months ago. The cupcakes are frosted with a cream cheese icing and decorated with one of Sprinkles' signature dots.

The cupcakes were quite good, but not as good as the one I had in the actual bakery. I'm sure the formula is slightly different. Nevertheless, they're delicious and festive, and that's really what matters during this time of the year!

Thanksgiving 2008 - dessert

This thanksgiving was a little bit different than other years. My grandmother recently turned 80, so we celebrated her birthday at the same time. I was in charge of the birthday cake. I almost never make layer cakes - for some reason, they intimidate me a little bit. I wanted a foolproof recipe that wasn't too complicated, since I had to split my time between the cake and other thanksgiving dishes. Who better to turn to than Dorie Greenspan? I pulled out her cookbook and settled on devil's food white-out cake, which looks beautiful on the front cover of the book. Here's a link to the recipe.

The recipe calls for baking the cake layers in 8"x2" rounds. I only had 9" rounds, so I went with that, and my layers came out a bit flat for obvious reasons. I wanted a tall, dramatic cake, so I went ahead and doubled the recipe, making a total of 4 layers and twice the frosting. Since my layers came out fairly thin (about 1") and flat, I decided not to slice them in half. The frosting is meringue based and pretty simple to make.

In the recipe, one of the cake layers is crumbled and used for decoration on the sides of the cake. I skipped this step, instead opting to use all 4 layers in the cake. I stuck a couple of skewers into the cake for some support, because I had to transport it later. I coated the outside of the cake with mini chocolate chips. I think this was a good move; the chocolate chips added a nice textural contrast.

Here's grandma with her cake:

She was thrilled, and I'm happy to say that the cake tasted as good as it looked. The meringue frosting kept it from being too heavy and rich. Everyone finished their piece after a huge thanksgiving meal, and a few people commented that it was the best cake they'd ever had.

We also had a pumpkin pie and some chocolate frosted pumpkin bars, but I didn't get a chance to get pictures of those.

Double chocolate and allspice crumb muffins

At my office, we take turns bringing in breakfast on Thursdays. This week it was my turn, and I decided to make these double chocolate and allspice crumb muffins from Dorie Greenspan's baking book.

First up was this recipe for double chocolate muffins. I only had milk chocolate on hand, so that's what I used. The muffins were quite good, but they would have been even better with the bittersweet chocolate that the recipe specified. I also increased the amount of chocolate chunks to get a muffin with a little more texture.

Next, I made these allspice crumb muffins. This is a fairly simple muffin, with a generous streusel topping. The allspice provides a background note of spice, but is not overpowering at all.

Both muffins were very well received. One of my coworkers commented that they had a great texture and weren't greasy at all, like store bought muffins can be. I don't have to bring breakfast again for a few months, but when I do, I may be turning to Dorie's book again! Everything I've made from from the book has been great.

Dimply plum cake

If you're the kind of person that prefers the doughy topping on a cobbler to the fruit itself, this recipe is for you. It's almost like a cobbler in cake form, with plenty of batter in relation to the fruit. This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's baking cookbook. Everything I've made from this book has been great; this cake was no exception. I used applesauce in place of the oil to lower the fat content, it seemed to work fine without any noticeable changes in texture. I served this cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. When the plums on my tree are ready to picking, I'll definitely be making this one again.

Mother's Day Dinner

This year, instead of going to a restaurant, I cooked dinner for my mom. For the main course, I made hawaiian snapper with an orange sauce. I served it over farro and black rice with pea shoots and green garlic. The recipe is from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. For most of the fish recipes in this book, the fish is seasoned with lemon/orange zest, thyme and parsley for at least 4 hours ahead of time. I think this technique adds a lot of flavor to the fish.

On the side, I served some baby artichokes that I caramelized in a little butter. For dessert, I made a pear and rhubarb cobbler. I used the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's baking cookbook. Her recipe calls for cherries and rhubarb. I originally planned to use cherries, but then we received a gift of pears from Harry and David, so I went with those instead. The biscuit topping is unique because it uses half whole wheat flour for a little bit different flavor and texture. I sprinkled coarse sugar over the top of the cobbler and served it with vanilla ice cream.

Cinnamon squares

This is another great recipe from Dorie Greenspan's baking cookbook. A mixture of chopped bittersweet chocolate, cinnamon and sugar is sandwiched between two layers of moist cinnamon cake. The original recipe calls for some instant espresso powder in the chocolate mixture, but I didn't have any, so I omitted it. I don't think the recipe suffered at all from this. The top layer is melted bittersweet chocolate with a little bit of butter. After the frosting hardens, the cake is cut into generous squares.

Sometimes, I feel like baking but I don't want to dirty up every dish in the kitchen. This cake has a minimal amount of prep, and doesn't use a ton of bowls. You don't even have to wait for your butter to soften since it gets melted anyway.

All in one holiday bundt cake

Yes, I realize that it has been too long since my last blog entry. You know what they always say, life just gets in the way sometimes. And, I do realize that it is strange that I made something called an all-in-one holiday bundt cake in February. However, I had a bag of cranberries in the freezer and a can of pumpkin, so I decided to go for it. This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. It's a pumpkin spice cake base with chopped cranberries, pecans and apple. I used walnuts instead of pecans. The cake is very moist, partly due to the bits of apple. I chose to use the suggested maple glaze to finish it off. I will definitely make this again, even if it's not the holidays.

Carrot spice muffins

My husband loves carrot cake. In fact, if he had his way, we would have had carrot cake at our wedding. I never make carrot cake because there's no way that the two us can polish off a whole cake. When I saw this recipe for carrot spice muffins in Baking From My Home to Yours, I thought that this might be a good way for my husband to get his carrot cake fix.

This is a chunky muffin with shredded carrots, coconut, raisins and nuts (I used pecans). It's not quite as sweet as a standard carrot cake. The only change I made to the recipe was to cut the fat by substituting applesauce for half of the oil. If you added a cream cheese frosting, these muffins could definitely be elevated to cupcake level. That being said, they're perfect as is for brunch or a snack.