Feeling Festive: Cookie Cake

One of Johnny and my favorite, less than gourmet desserts, is cookie cake. We’ve been known to, more than once, indulge ourselves in entire personal sized Great American Cookies cake’s for special occasions, even if that occasion had already included a meal and even a previous dessert. So, when our 16 month anniversary and Valentine’s Day coincided, it seemed only natural to celebrate with a homemade cookie cake.

The cookie cake came out of the oven moist, perfectly cooked, soft and delicious looking.

Unfortunately, then I moved it in an effort to find the perfect decorating surface, then I moved it again, and then it broke. It broke on more than one side. The break might have ended up for the best, as it took any stress from trying to frost the cake perfectly away, making the process more fun, and making the cake that much easier to tear apart and dig in to…the evening before the occasion which was supposed to be celebrated.

It was gone in less than 24 hours. Alls well that ends well.

-Mel

Feeling Festive: Sugar Cookies and Peppermint Bark

Mel and I got together for a little holiday baking action last weekend, combining our sweet tooths together for one heck of a sugar rush! We started the day with a trip to central market to grab ingredients for sugar cookies, peppermint bark, truffles, and a seafood pasta dish for dinner. The truffles aren’t going to be featured because we made them with bitter-sweet chocolate (as per a recipe we plucked from the New York Times) and they turned out…well, bitter-sweet. Not good. In fact, the exact opposite of good. I can appreciate a good piece of dark chocolate, but not in ganache form. It just didn’t work out. So! Here’s some of the stuff we made:

Naked Sugar Cookies

The icing is homemade. (It was so sugar-tastic that it tasted exactly like cotton candy!)

The lack of finesse or beauty was of coarse my doing.

The peppermint bark was delicious!

Christmas is nearly here! Have you packed on your “holiday winter coat” yet? I’ve got another 2 lbs to go.

-Johnny

Feeling Festive: Halloween Nutella Smooches

Johnny reminded me of my lack of updating. I apologize, I’ve just been quite drained of energy recently.

These cookies quickly fixed that problem. I’ll be on a sugar high for at least a week due to overconsumption of these addicting little morsels.

I adapted this recipe from Giada De Laurentis’ Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches. The original recipe produces a thin, crunchy cookie, and I personally prefer those of the thick and chewy nature. So, by “adapted” I mean I cut the amount of baking soda in half, added an extra heaping spoonful of Nutella, and shaved a few minutes off the baking time.

This would be a fun recipe to let your rugrats help with, and even more fun to partake in.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches
adapted from Giada De Laurentis’ Everday Italian

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread + an extra tablespoon-ish
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange sprinkles, or orange sugar
1 (9-ounce) package of chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes. Add the
egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated. Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.

Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. Rolls the balls in the orange sprinkles or orange sugar, pressing to adhere. Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 2-3 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Happy Halloween!

-Mel

Feeling Festive: Caramel Apples

This is what happens when I try to embrace my inner Martha Stewert:

Maybe I should stick to insider trading! These look like they were made by a 6 year old girl. Caramel gets cold really fast apparently. Perhaps I wasn’t speedy enough.

Regardless, here they are!

Happy Ghetto Halloween!

-Johnny