The Browniest Cookies

                                    the browniest cookies

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Baking along with a talented group of bakers that are a part of ABC (Avid Baker's Challenge), this month is the 'Browniest Cookies' from Smitten Kitten. 

Like all brownies it's easy to put together, chocolate is melted with butter and sugars whisked in.

White sugar to creates the brownie crust and brown sugar to keep the cookies soft. 

Eggs, vanilla, baking soda and salt are whisked in next, followed by sifted cocoa powder. 

Flour is stirred in followed by chocolate chunks. I divided mixture in half and added half cup of fresh raspberries to the batter.  Both batters were then refrigerated. 

The recipe calls for the batter to be scooped, I rolled in smaller 25 gram balls and slid the trays into the freezer for 15 minutes to insure they would keep their shape. 

Resulting cookies are fudgy, with a thin crisp crust, definetly chocolately but did polarise the testers with the flavour.  They aren't overly sweet tasting cookies, but it was the touch of bitterness they bring with so much cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate that some weren't keen on.  

I drizzled melted chocolate on the raspberry ones and added love heart sprinkles for Valentines Day.  

Tiny cookies won't crinkle as much due to chilling and the short bake time... about 6-7 seven minutes.

The recipe today is similar to Martha Stewart's 'Chocolate Crackle' type cookies that we have made every Christmas for over a decade. The other Martha Stewart cookies that are brownie/crinkle like are the 'Outrageous Chocolate Cookie' we also make for holidays. 

my step son made these brownie cookies for high school food tech in 2009   

Today's cookies are good, but won't replace the Martha Stewart cookies in our Christmas repertoire. 

Like a full cocoa flavoured cookie? get the full recipe for today's bake from Smitten Kitten 'The Browniest Cookies' 

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested in making Eric the Valentines Emu

Perfect Christmas Stollen - ABC

Carrots for the reindeer, a shot of rum and "Perfect Christmas" Stollen for Santa. 

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Baking along with a talented group of bakers that are a part of ABC (Avid Baker's Challenge), this month 'Perfect Christmas' Stollen. 

This is gorgeous, the stollen that is... moist, light and aromatic, a far cry from the one you pop in your trolley at the supermarket each year.

Starting with making the "sweetener" a mixture of sugar, lemon and orange zest that along with homemade marzipan can be made many weeks ahead if desired. 

The marizpan is simply ground white almonds, sugar and lemon zest mixed with water.

Dried fruit is soaked, then drained. I used hot water with a splash of rum to soak mine.

The dough starts by making almost a sponge, an enriched starter of half the flour, yeast, egg yolk and warm milk. *Link to full recipe and the end of post.

After 30 minutes, the other half of the flour, salt, prepared sweetener and softened butter are added. The KitchenAid does it's thing now and kneads the dough for 5-7 minutes (or 10 to 15 by hand) until you have a soft and supple dough. 

The lovely Hanaâ from Hanaâ's Kitchen recommended the following you tube video on how to easily incorporate the fruit into your dough. The video is in Dutch, fast forward to the 1.15 point to watch the fruit being rolled in... and it works!!

Starting to fold and roll the fruit into the dough. 

Sprinkling the last of the fruit to be rolled into the dough. 

The the dough is rolled into a ball and allowed to rest, covered and in a warm spot for 20 minutes. 

After that the ball is shaped into a loaf and you guessed it, loosely covered, put in a warm spot and rests for 20 minutes.

Now you add some egg (and butter if you wish) to your marzipan, your marzipan is then rolled into a sausage shape.

Your loaf shape is now rolled and the sausage of marzipan lain down the center, fold, press to seal and bake.

Once out of the oven you can brush the baked stollen with melted butter and sift over some icing sugar. I used snow sugar which is great for when you are shipping sugared baked goods or just need the presentation sugar to last without having to go into sweet over kill sugaring the top again.

The Avid Bakers Group (ABC) is using the recipes from Weekend Bakery... here is the *link to the full stollen recipe.

Happy Baking :)

Want to know more about snow sugar and white sugars? I write about them here.

Or feeling more like gingerbread custard ice-cream?

Pumpkin buns with salted maple butter -ABC

pumpkin buns with salted maple butter

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I was invited this month to bake along with a talented group of bakers that are a part of ABC (Avid Baker's Challenge) and how could I resist when I saw it was pumpkin dinner rolls shaped as pumpkins!! 

almost as magical as turning a pumpkin into a carriage, these pumpkin buns today are adorable.

You could be thinking Halloween or Thanksgiving for these cuties but my first thought was "fairytales"...more than a little Bippity Boppity Boo.  Imagine these as part of a fairy tale wedding or a princess party for the little ones. 

The buns are a little sweet, but not too sweet to be considered savoury or sweeten them further by sprinkling with sugar before baking.

Ainse or aniseed flavours the buns or there is an option to use pumpkin pie spice with it's pronounced cinnamon overtone. 

grinding the aniseed

We don't have tinned pumpkin puree in Australia so I had to cook my pumpkin and puree, I used a traditional Queensland variety though I suspect butternut pumpkin (squash) would have sufficed. 

Then bread flour, instant yeast, salt, water, pumpkin puree, egg, honey and spice are combined with a little extra water added if needed... I didn't need any, wet pumpkin I guess.  Softened butter is now beaten in. *Full recipe link at end of page*

The resulting dough is soft, smooth and easy to work with... a tiny bit sticky but not in a troublesome way the dough goes away to rest and rise.

Shaped into 12 round rolls (you could bake them just like this if mini pumpkins aren't your thing), and eight cuts are made around the rolls not going all the way to the center. The centre you make a hole all the way through so there is place for your "stem" at the end. Off for another rise now. 

I didn't add the extra sugar topping, nor the egg wash, I prefer breads a little less sweet.  Pecan halves are cut length ways to create the stems and are inserted after baking.

Baking time is relatively short and then you have the most light, fluffy yet moist buns.  

I loved these buns, you don't pick up much in the way of pumpkin flavour but the aniseed lends a sweetish note reminiscent of childhood aniseed lollies more than the night you downed all those black Sambuca shots.

Salted maple butter: there is salted maple butter to serve with buns, ok a bit too delicious this mixture of salted butter and maple syrup. 

The full recipe from the ABC bake can be found on Weekend Bakery .com 

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested an original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella and make yourself a "fondant toe" cupcake. 

Or how about four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.