Oops! Cookies

You guys. I screwed up this recipe. BUT! It turned out better than the original. Yes!!

My son is eating egg yolks for breakfast. He loooooves egg yolks. Babies aren't supposed to have egg whites until 12 months, so I separate his eggs and have all these whites. I figured I'll make coconut macaroons or something, but then I realized I have very little unsweetened coconut, and there's really only one store around here that sells it, and I had *just* been there the day before and had forgotten to get some. Oops! So I had to hunt for another recipe.

A couple Christmases ago I made a chocolate cookie using only egg whites, very meringuey and tasty. I don't know where the recipe is, I don't think I blogged about it (but also, it was too much of an effort to search for it). I consulted the Google and it was helpful. So I set out, but baking these cookies was a race against time because there was a babyman who was starting to get hungry. Rush rush rush, I'm almost done with the batter. The recipe noted: "the dough will be very stiff". I wish I'd taken a picture, because my dough was runny like cake batter. Possibly runnier. What did I do?!?

"1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips, divided"

Oh, I missed that "divided" part. 1/2 cup was supposed to be left alone, to just fold in and make these chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

I pondered. These definitely weren't going to be rolled in balls and dipped in sugar. But oh wait, this recipe is very similar to my new favorite brownie recipe. Hmmmmmmmm. So I added some flour, got them to a more-or-less cookie dough consistency, and popped 'em in the oven.

Cue angel singing: delicious!! Best mistake I've ever made in the kitchen.

Oops! cookies, or Brownie Cookies

1.5 cups chocolate chips
3 egg whites
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1T cornstarch
1/2 cup flour
pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate (microwave or stove top), set aside.

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks in your mixer, then add 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat til it's marshmallow fluff consistency (not quite hard peak- medium peak? Nice and glossy). Whisk together the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch and salt, and fold into the whites mixture. Fold in the chocolate.

Drop tablespoonfuls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes at 400F. They're delicious if still a little soft in the middle, nice and fudgy like brownies! I'm adding chopped walnuts or maybe sliced almonds next time.

Enjoy! And you're welcome.

What's Baking? December: Brownies!

December is National Brownie Month, so it seemed like a perfect choice for Nicole's theme. And what a great excuse to bake up a great batch!

Chocolate and I have a love/hate relationship. It's kind of weird. I get all "omg seriously?!" when someone says they don't like chocolate, but.... to be honest, I don't always like chocolate. I'd prefer to avoid chocolate cake. I can't stand chocolate ice cream (ugh, gross), and I'll only eat chocolate cookies if I have a cup of coffee in the other hand. But give me a chocolate bar and I'm all over it- I require my chocolate in its late-20th-century-American pure form. Or as a lovely hot drink.

But brownies are one of the few chocolatey baked goods I'll get that glazed look in my eyes for. They have to be nice, fudgy, gooey brownies. And nuts, please.

I've been late in baking my theme item for the past few months, so this month I started early early early. My choir performed a staged Boar's Head Festival on December 10th, and we always work together to put on a nice reception after the concert. Of course, I'm the first to sign up to bring food for the reception! So of course with that, and this month's theme, I just had to bring brownies. But not just any brownie: when we're talking reception, I aim to impress. So I took to tastespotting for inspiration.

I found a recipe for peppermint brownies. I've done the kind where you stick peppermint patties in the middle of the batter- they were good, but I unfortunately used splenda for the brownies- I say unfortunately because I despise splenda. If you like splenda, go ahead, sub it in. But I'd rather have no sugar than fake sugar in a baked good. This peppermint brownie concept was different, though- it had a layer of peppermint icing on top of the brownies, and then some chocolate ganache. Sounds good! But, wouldn't you know.... I used up all my peppermint extract last year on the millions of batches of peppermint bark I made, and forgot to buy more. So I bring you...

Cinnamon Brownies
based on tea for six's recipe

Brownies
12T (1.5 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4t salt
1t vanilla

Melt the butter and stir in the sugar- I did this all in the medium saucepan I used for melting the butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients and mix them in.

Important: line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray. Don't skip the parchment paper- it'll make it so much easier to ice the brownies later. Bake at 350F for 40-45 min, until they're set. Let cool in the pan.

Cinnamon icing

2 cups powdered sugar
1T water
3-4 drops of cinnamon oil (or go ahead and use your peppermint extract, 1t)
a few drops of red food coloring, for festiveness

Whisk all that together. Pour over the cooled but still in the pan brownies, and spread around with a spatula. It doesn't have to be perfect. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours (I chilled overnight)

Chocolate ganache
250g chocolate (chopped bittersweet, or semisweet chocolate chips, whatever you have)
1/2 cup cream (I used light cream)

Put chocolate in medium bowl. Heat cream over medium heat until it just starts to boil, then pour over chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes, then start to stir. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. Then pour over the iced brownies and spread around. Pop back in the fridge for a few hours to set the chocolate.

Then cut the brownies!

These were fab. Honestly I had some doubts about using cinnamon oil along with chocolate, but have you ever had those after dinner minty things that are a stick of flavored hard candy dipped in chocolate? They have them at some fancy restaurants. The red ones are cinnamon, and were always my favorite. These brownies taste like that.

Now I've fallen in love with the cinnamon oil and have started using it more- cinnamon sugar cookies, anyone?

One note about these brownies, however: they're a little messy! I was nervous about eating them in my fancy renaissance costume at the reception, although they were gone in an instant so I only ended up with the lopsided ones as I cut and plated them. The brownies themselves are a solid little fudgy cake, very nice for topping. I highly recommend these.

What's Baking? February: Baked with Love

Dunne is hosting our February What's Baking? challenge, and she chose a theme of "baked with love": bake something appropriate to serve on Valentine's Day.

Well, in our house, Valentine's Day coincided with both of us jump-starting our workouts and trying to eat a little healthier. Fortunately, I had recently seen a gluten-free, low-fat chocolate cookie on the Martha Stewart Show (warning: this link takes you to the video, which will start playing automatically), and I just had to try it!

I omitted the chocolate chunks. The cookies are chocolatey enough, and with the goal of a healthy/er cookie, there's no need for extra chocolate (and ok, yes, I know there's fat in the nuts, but that's healthy fat, and you can use fewer nuts. No comment on the amount of sugar, it's still a cookie, after all). Any nut you have on hand would be great in these. I also had a kind of funny mishap- the second time I made these, I made them from memory and accidentally used one less egg white. You know what? The cookies were totally fine (Clint said better). So don't sweat it if you only have 3 egg whites, go for it.
Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart

3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa (or you can use regular baking cocoa, but these really are chocolatey-er and better with Dutch process)
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups hazelnuts (or nuts of your choice)
4 (or 3) egg whites (3 makes a crisper cookie, 4 makes them nice and chewy. I prefer 4, Clint prefers 3)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes. Cool them slightly, then chop roughly.

Sift together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. (I rarely sift, but I recommend it with cocoa, which tends to stay in chunks (like the movie Dune is in your chocolately drink.), although once baked, you won't notice them very much). Stir in the egg whites and chopped nuts.

Drop by tablespoonful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 20-25 minutes, until the cookie tops look dry and are cracked.